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Here’s a question. Have you ever written a station when your favorite show has been cancelled or taken out of rotation? If so, did you get a response?
When I was a lad, I was absolutely psycho-nuts about “Battle of the Planets,” the toned-down, American redub of a Japanese anime series (the title of which translates as “Science Ninja Team Gatchaman,” I think). I loved it! I drew all of the characters and the vehicles and ran all over the place shouting, “Trans-mute!” (Yeah, I was a dorky kid. I make no apologies.) It kicked off my lifelong quest to find out just what the deal is with Japan.
Anyway, my local ABC-TV station showed it every weekday after school, and I watch religiously. Then it was gone. Yanked. Replaced by “Small Wonde”… no wait, that dreadful show wasn’t invented yet… but it was something similarly awful. I was crushed. And this was back before VCRs were common (kids, ask your parents), so I had nothing but memories and really bad drawings. I was a shy, soft-spoken kid, but I decided it was time to be heard. I wrote the station manager and explained how he had ruined my life (I had my dramatic moments back then).
Despite my begging, the show didn’t magically come back, but I did get a long, sincere letter from the station manager. He explained how the ratings system worked, how and why syndicated shows were rotated and all manner of info about the joys and sorrows of network television. He wasn’t patronizing at all, and the explanations were translated such that a ten-year-old geek like me could understand. I was still wounded, but it give me some perspective. He did let me know that the show was going to run briefly the next summer as a filler and provided me with a schedule, so that was pretty cool.
I know I’m getting all nostalgic, but it was touching to get a letter like that, that someone took the time. The PR smoke machines hadn’t fully revved up back then. Just for contrast’s sake, did anyone get a personalized letter when “Farscape” was cancelled? Or “Babylon 5?” Or (my favorite) “Mystery Science Theater 3000” (either of the two times it was cancelled)? I doubt it. TV is out of control. Sometimes I look back to that time when my TV world consisted of five channels, when there were no Tony Little infomercials, no Shannon Doherty shows and no annoying network bugs all over the screen, and it makes me smile. So I’d like to thank you, Mr. Station Manager, for taking the time to write a kid who otherwise would’ve turned bitter towards TV years before “reality” shows rose out of the murk to suck the joy out of television.
So there’s my little story. Anyone else inspired to share?
Frostgeezer
The only cancelled program to my knowledge (edit: In recent history) that viewers successfully lobbied to get returned was “Roswell”.
They sent tabasco sauce to the network or some such.
The I-Man fans were sending glitter to get their point across until Sci-Fi USA informed them that it was now illegal to send suspicious substances through the mail and asked them kindly to stop, heh.
Never underestimate fan creativity.
Anyway, no, never done it. But I have written letters of support to writers/directors even programmers.
When Fred Ford and Paul Reich were pushed out of the Star Control series, I sent them a short letter, and recieved a 4-page response. Quite surprising.
When I was graduating High School, as a goof I sent an invitation to Bill Clinton (President at the time) and I actually recieved a form letter response. I was stunned to be honest. Although it was a form letter it came on expensive paper along with a card (probably worth a buck) with fancy lettering and a congratulations from the President (all copy, not real).
There’s been a dozen cases here and there where I just wrote up a short (sorry you guys got hosed!) or (Congratulations!) and received a personal response.
I’ve always been surprised at how people are willing to respond.
This isn’t really sci-fi related, but back when I was a little kid, long, long time ago, my parents encouraged me to write the TV station when my favorite show, Adam 12, was taken off the air.
I remember actually getting a reply that the show would be put back on. And it was. Encouraging!
Now, I was so young, I didn’t even know how to mail the letter. My parents mailed it. I don’t know whether my letter got sent to a network or a local station, and I don’t remember where the reply came from either. I don’t even know if this was during Adam 12’s original run, or if it was being rerun, and the series had already been completed by then.
But I do remember getting the reply, and even though I probably didn’t really make any actual personal difference, it was a good feeling at the time.
There actually is a history of borderline shows which have been temporarily saved or brought back by fan movements.
Star Trek is the most famous example, where Roddenberry was able to use the shows fans to wangle a third season. Didn’t save him from cancellation, but that fan base was critical to getting and keeping the show in long term syndication, which got it the franchise it is now.
Beauty and the Beast was saved by fans from cancellation. But the producers decided to retool the series dramatically, seeking a new audience, and ironically alienated the fans.
Cagney and Lacey and My So Called Life, I believe were non genre examples.
LEXX is certainly a classic example.
Alien Nation was cancelled, but the fan support managed to inspire a follow up ‘series’ of TV movies.
Fan support probably kept Doctor Who going a little longer.
So, I think even in this age of form letters, people really do manage to count. Not as much as we would like to, but we do.
The shows where fans seemed able to make a critical difference, seemed to be shows which were on the knife edge, borderline productions in terms of ratings or politics. The networks look at ratings, but those ratings are only snapshots, they don’t tell the network if something has long term potential, if the ratings may go up, if the audience is hard and dedicated or soft and indifferent. So a noisy group of fans, or even a dedicated kid, can sometimes make a difference by persuading the network executives that there’s just a little more to the story than the ratings might tell.
I still believe the “rating” system is bunk. It seems to me that it can only lead to universally bland and boring vanilla shows that cater to the lowest common denominator. Oh, wait. It’s already like that now…
🙄Previously I would just lament losing “another good show”. Two shows I actually sent in letters (and money) to try to save. Farscape and Firefly.
I received NO response from Fox on Firefly emails, but I did receive a nice response from one of the advertiser’s of the show that I emailed stating they were glad they liked the show and my support of them advertising on it.
Unfortunately, the “ratings” system is still run by Nielsen. Because I was once a “Nielsen” family (albeit briefly) I know how the procedure USED to work. I was sent a “diary” and had to note every single program I watched for more than 15 minutes. With today’s attention span I don’t think 15 minute blocks were small enough! LOL And it was really hard to remember to record EVERYTHING you were surfing. Not to mention I knew of someone else that actually MADE UP stuff they watched to make themselves “sound more impressive”. Egads.
Anyway – I pulled the following from their website. As you can see – 1.6 million are STILL done by diaries! Unbelievable. Only 5000 by electronic metering system.
nowadays Nielsen Nielsen Media Research uses People Meters, set-tuning meters, paper diaries, and telephone interviews (called telephone coincidentals).
People Meter
The People Meter is an electronic metering system placed in randomly selected households – 5,000 households for nationwide audience measurement. The meter measures three things – the tuning station of the TV set (on, off, time), what channel/station is being tuned, and who is watching. The People Meter is used to produce household and persons audience estimates for broadcast and cable networks and nationally distributed barter-syndicated programs.
Who is watching television is measured by the “People” part of the meter. A fixed box is placed on or near the television, and each member of the household is assigned a personal viewing button (often, a remote clicker is also personalized). These personal buttons, allow Nielsen Media Research to determine “who” is watching which program.
Set-Tuning Meter
In 49 of the nation’s largest markets, an electronic metering system is used by Nielsen Media Research to provide set-tuning information on a daily basis. The TV-set-tuning information is collected from a sample of homes in these 49 markets (separate than the People Meter), and overnight household tuning ratings are reported on a daily basis for these local areas. This meter is placed onto the back of each television set in the home and monitors the tuning status of each TV set in the household.
Diary
Diary measurement is used to collect viewing information from sample homes in every television market in the United States. Each year we process approximately 1.6 million paper diaries from households across the country for the “sweeps” ratings periods. The standard report months – the “sweep” months – include November, February, May and July of each year.
The paper-viewing diaries are mailed out to randomly selected households in all 210 local markets in the U.S. Each household’s member in the diary sample is asked to write down what programs and channels they watch over the course of that one week.
This is exactly why I stopped watching TV. They can’t cancel DVD’s.
I wish I knew where I read this. It was a link from a rant about Firefly or Farscape. But anyway, from what I understand, Neilsen’s “random households” only includes the households of people who have lived at the same residence for over 3 years, which rules out college and graduate students, young professionals, urban areas with a high rental turnover, rural areas being accosted by corporate farms, etc. etc. etc.
Someone did the math on another board and it was the realisation that one of the F’s (think it was Farscape) was cancelled because 5 or 7 people out of 300 million didn’t watch it (don’t remember exactly, less than ten, though), combined with the general attitude of advertisers who pressure producers into changing Sci-Fi shows that are appealing to the “wrong” audience (Stargate is supposed to appeal to 18-24 year old men, not 24-35 year old women, or whatever, remember Tok’ra Barbie?) that pushed me completely over the edge. That and those GD promos that ruin the bottom of the screen during the shows.
Neilsen and the advertisers have made it perfectly clear that my opinion doesn’t matter. It’s very easy to ignore someone who is ignoring me, so bye-bye TV. Be Seeing You… not!
I still fail to see how threatening to murder migrant workers and temps on Scare Tactics could in any way more entertaining than Farscape. I haven’t seen it, so I can only judge by what I hear, and what I hear is a bunch of producers are taking advantage of people with low incomes. How exactly is this better than paying homeless people to fight on tape? Because it’s on a Network?
Anyhoo, I doubt I’ll ever be writing again to save another show, as I don’t plan on seeing any of them until they are over. I’ve had enough.
Rant over. Going to bed.
Pet;D
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