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Farscape Fans Produce Commercial
angst writes "Farscape fans have come together and produced a commercial called 'I am Farscape'. In the hopes of bringing more media and consumer awareness that the fans of this show are not happy that it is being cancelled. So far it will be aired in 24 cities nation wide. Look for it the week of Nov. 24th if you are in the list."
I've seen this commercial, and if anything, it will convince Sci-Fi that Farscape fans are a bunch of untalented fan-boys (and girls) that smell bad, and don't know how to make a commercial. It's... bad.
::blinks innocently::
On the other hand, Farscape is so great that it's taking up 13 gigs of my hard drive...
with these many people willing to strongly support it, it makes one wonder why the show is in danger of being cancelled in the first place.
Farscape is/was a great show.
I mean think about it, Enterprise gets funding and Farscape is a far better show (I know, I know, Farscape doesn't have detox gel)
Information doesn't want to be anthropomorphized anymore.
I'd like to see this -- what, no link? -- and have to wonder how Star Trek TOS would have done if it had had *this* kind of rabid support.
But then, how much does Sci Fi care what its hardcore geeks think? There was an interesting article in the Times on how terribly inaccurate the advertising world's obsession with the 25 to 34 demographic is. And it is what the advertisers want, or think they want, that drives commercial programming. (Maybe Farscape should move to HBO -- might even get me to subscribe.)
I've seen and read so much from so many fans of this show all over the net, that I keep asking myself - if they have this large and loyal a following, why was this show canceled? What were the ratings like? What was Sci-Fi's reasoning? I don't exactly see a plethora of good original programming on that channel, so why kill off one of the few successes?
with mixed sucess... i know freaks and geeks fans tried to get it back on but they werent successful... does anyone know of any shows that did comeback this way?
unzip; strip; touch; finger; mount; fsck; more; yes; unmount; sleep
In many of those cities, the ad may air only once, and it may be in the middle of the night on an undisclosed channel.
would it take that much extra work for them to specify which channel, or at least which network it's an affiliate of? i'm a little skeptical of the claim that "it doesn't matter what channel", since the mainstream media isn't exactly going to rush out headline stories about this unless people see it.
I walk around in leather and say I'm a Peacekeeper and try and drum up interest in the show. It doesn't work that well though..people just smack my ass, so I'm all for the new TV commercial to succeed in getting people interested.
,
faeryman
Apparently, the only way Farscape will be saved is if UPN picks it up for season five. This will only happen if the remaining season four episodes get high ratings, which doesn't seem likely without publicity. So write to UPN and encourage non-geek friends (or those who happen to have Nielson boxes in their homes) to watch the show.
Have you been stalked by Seth today?
Julie is no Ellen.
"...all the labours of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness..." yada yada
Farscape:
Because botox on vulcans is illogical.
/^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
that the first "grassroots" (as opposed to "astroturf" ;) ) protest commercial I've ever heard of involves Farscape. I've heard a lot of good things about this show-- but still, where are the "the environment is going to pot and the politicians don't care" protest commercials.. or the "drug companies are keeping patents to life-saving AIDS and cancer drugs under lock and key, while millions die" protest commercials?
I'd love to hear about (I'll never see it unless someone puts it online, since I don't own a TV, nor do I want one) MORE protest work on TV. It's about time that the "little guys/gals" claimed their piece of the television pie. Nowadays, it seems that 90% of the content on TV is dictated by the Fortune 500 companies...
Does anyone know of any other efforts to produce true 'grassroots' commercials like this?
Personally, I would love to see a grassroots commercial that advocates re-opening the Federal case against MS. But hey, that's 'cuz I'm one of those evil Unix lovers your mom warned you about.
Is there a 'grassroots marketing forum' anywhere?
Honey, I shrunk the Cygwin
Comment removed based on user account deletion
...pays no attention to commercials.
Unfortunately for the FS fans, more than likely their efforts won't work and if anything cause a lot of snide and humorous jokes about their commercials on SNL, Jay leno and such. Even if simply because the lack of quality.
It's nice that they are willing to try and make a point about their dedication but it probably will just reach the average TV viewers and NOT anyone in control of FS's life-span.
Fuzdout
..My sig ran away. Has anyone seen my sig?
A-ha, they do in fact have a link to the commercial itself -- hosted at mac.com, I note with pride. (Yeah, I dropped my account like most people when they started to charge, but still.)
Gee, I'm glad these people are all Farscape, but what does this prove? Also, I suspect they didn't write their own lines other than the [insert name here].
I repeat my earlier "insightful +5" assertion that Farscape rocks. It is a professional, cool, well-written alternative to the ST rut and the Star Wars commercial nightmare. And is has real characters people care about. Don't we all want to see the Scarrans whupped?
People will talk about what sheep we used to be, sitting in front of the television and waiting for whatever crap the networks chose to shovel in our direction. And then came cable; the internet; Tivo; grass roots fan sites; leeching our favorite episodes from usenet, IRC and p2p...
The day of the networks and the suits is over. Soon, very soon we the consumers will be in control.
If electricity is produced by electrons is morality produced by morons?
Seriously, has *any* series ever gotten this kind of rabid support? Even Babylon 5 didn't inspire loyalty on the same level.
Since I don't have cable, I never saw FarScape, but any marketing department in their right mind would kill to have fans so willing to spend their money on a given product that they'd pay for their own ads to be aired.
If SciFi was concerned about profitability, they should have started cranking out the merchandise, because this is a bunch of people who are obviously willing to put their money where their mouths are.
"...always new atoms but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman
Strange Horizons had a great write-up on the corporate shuffling that has killed Farscape.
Personally I think Vivendi-Universal/Sci-Fi Channel has sorely miscalculated the resolve of the highly technical and intelligent Farscape fanbase. Despite the explosion of tech industry careers at all levels and the susequent rise in demand for genre programming no one has really provided quality television for them. The watchable genre shows can be counted on one hand. Of them Farscape was the most consistently daring and well written, appealing to wide (by sci-fi standards) demographic. I don't think Vivendi and company realized exactly how attached this fairly ignored market segment felt to that show. The longer they hold out, the more foolish they look.
Once more unto the breach dear friends...
We have laws in this country which allow prior restraint of publication for materials which a company claims it has a copyright for. The government is building a database of information about you, run by a convicted felon, in order to protect your "safety". The FBI confiscates the computers of your neighbors when the cable company accuses them of service theft. Habeas Corpus is suspended for U.S. citizens who are accused of 'terrorism', while the C.I.A. uses unmanned drones firing missiles to assassinate 'terrorists' that have been tried in no court of law. The country is run by a man who was elected purely by fraud, and the news media doesn't bother to report that in the 2002 elections (this month!) more than 100,000 legal ballots weren't counted in Florida (again!).
So, erm, yah. Farscape Rocks! It shouldn't be canceled. I love the cute girls in tight outfits and funny muppets. And Crichton is so funny when he quotes pop culture while talking to the imaginary gimp in his head. LETS MARCH THROUGH THE STREETS! We need Farscape back on air more than anything else. It is the most important thing ever.
Does anyone happen to know whether or not digital cable customers get factored in when they measure ratings these days? I mean, I know they watch what the customers are watching. Why wouldn't it be?
Information doesn't want to be anthropomorphized anymore.
I mean, seriously. The govt. is spying on us now more than ever. The 4th Ammendment is being shredded. John Poindexter, a convicted felon, is now in charge of a major govt. spy project. Pigs are flying, Microsoft's off without even a slap on the wrist, we're about to go to war with Iraq and nerds are spending money to try to get Farscape back on the air. Am I missing something about the importance of Farscape? Clearly I must be, because I can think of... oh.... a million things more important.
I was like.. watching a show.. on the tv... and it was like boom.. and then like.. the show was gone.. and I was like hmm? it devoured devoured.. my show.. and it was a really good show and I had to watch another show and it wasn't as good..
it's kind of..
An excerpt from the pilot:
Crais is the captain of a command carrier ship belonging to a military empire known as Peacekeepers. Peacekeepers are an oppressive, human-like species known for keeping "peace" and "stability" with the use of brutality and military cunning. One of their jobs is the assassination and imprisonment of political dissidents and trouble makers.
Hmm... haven't I seen this somewhere else recently...
GEEKIEST COMMERCIAL EVER
Seriously, I've watched maybe 1 episode of Farscape. Its a fine show, but (1)It's not the last time that a good scifi series will air (2) There are MANY other causes (insert ANY anti-war/hunger/etc... effort here) that are far more worthy of the kind of attention that this TV SHOW is garnering. Fence-sitting junk like this is why I cant stand slashdot sometimes.
"Dancing is the vertical expression of a horizontal desire" --Robert Frost
Another show which boasts rabidly loyal fan support bites the dust. Just yesterday, Comics2Film reported rumors that the Batman-inspired "Birds Of Prey" won't be renewed by the WB network.
These networks need some perspective. They're never going to be NBC, and they're never going to produce "Friends." The absolute best they can hope for is to attract a couple of million die-hard fans, who tune in week after week -- guaranteeing a specific demographic to sell to advertisers.
So, "FarScape" only attracted a bunch of geeks and nerds. That's what's called a "high-saturation demographic." Sure, it's not very appealing to advertisers trying to sell basketball shoes; but for the company selling video games, or computer software, or pocket protectors...advertising on "FarScape" is money well-spent. You're pitching to an audience which might be 90% favorable to your product -- as opposed to betting on the more mixed demographics watching, say, "Trading Spaces" or "Emeril Live."
Old marketing adage: Figure out your strength, and play it. As long as these cable channels keep trying to compete with The Big Three, they're going to keep tripping over themselves.
crib
Please don't read my journal
It's mostly centered around the predicament of John Crichton, who goes from a confused good guy lost in space, to a good guy wanting to get home, to a good guy pushed to the brink of insanity by enemies he never wanted to make, to a man pushed too far that'll do just about anything to get home, to a sort of apathetic guy who lost his way and doesn't care what happens, and finally the cynical hero type trying to get the job done.
That's my synopsis anyway, and what I really think makes the show great. Then again, I just eat that kinda stuff up. To me it's Dirty harry, John McClain......Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon 1.
Did someone else get the feeling of an AA meeting when you watched the I Am Farscape commercial?
Did anyone else interpret that headline as announcing a Farscape-sponsored commercial for fruits and veggies?
"Farscape oranges. They're out of this world."
The angel in the oatmeal.
Personally, I wish these people could have saved the money in advertising costs to bribe a UPN exec. From looking at the commercials, it'd have to be a lower exec, maybe a kid in the mail room, but I think the money could have been better spent.
This now concludes our broadcast day.
I'm sitting here wondering why we Slashdotters aren't raising money to air our own awareness ads regarding DMCA, SSSCA, and other Bad Things. We need a geek lobby. Now.
Bored with karma, be a fan/freak
All i could think of (and was hoping to see) was Xenia Seeberg from Lexx - when she does that commercail "This is Sci-Fi"
Jeebus this girl is hot.
this commercial has already converted one person to tune in to farscape. how?
all i gotta say is that if that graphic designer chix0r is farscape, then _i_ wanna be farscape too!
I've seen commercials for Farscape made by people who _MADE_ the show and I wasn't interested. Some fan effort is going to lack funds, and therefore lack the effects and quality of the actual commercial(s).
I hope that people find more innovative ways of trying to revive their old shows that quickly become cancelled because of the niche audience's problem with weekly viewing.
I personally think the old spider man needs some new episodes, but is that going to happen? NO. If i made a commercial would anyone care? No.
Maybe slashdot, but i think anything that goes away that was once nerdy and "unique"(same as the rest of those nerdy shows) is front line head page just to rally even more support to a lost cause.
My advice, save the time, farscape didnt cut it. wait for the next show you like to come out and watch it get cancelled.
Babylon 5 showed me that it doesn't matter how insanely popular a show is, it won't last.
[cxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Surely the TV companies know what's making them money and what's not? If the show was as good as all these fanatics claim it was then it wouldn't be getting canned in the first place.
he was making a crack at the current bush administration... not at the show.
Large print giveth, and the small print taketh away
it's called the eff...
Large print giveth, and the small print taketh away
WTF. We can't do the same for the politicians we support or in opposition to those bills we know will create a totalitarian state in the U.S. A.?
WTF again. Where are our FUCKING PRIORITIES? Farscape is just a little bit less important than preserving civil liberties of American citizens, and for that matter, the peace of the rest of the world. If for no other reason than to preserve the freedom of our (possible) children, we should be exerting these efforts in favor of STOPPING NIXON-ERA FORIEGN POLICY TACTICS and electing officials who will make this planet habitable for the next two centuries at the very least.
Thank you for your time, I'm going to bed.
sig-free as of 28 July 02!
Farscape was a great show and I hope it will be brought back. Maybe some of the techniques used by the 'scapers will be interesting for us geeks on other themes like the above. Think of it, an ad showing someone being arrested for using a VCR!!!
See my journal, I write things there
It's dreadful! I can only assume the target audience are junkies. Thank God it was cancelled.
use constant PERL_IS_BROKEN => $] >= 5.006;
The PK thread in Farscape is definitely reminiscent of the behaviour of various colonial powers up to and including the Bush government. Regrettably, entertainment may be the only way of campaigning against it. Michael Moore certainly didn't get very far did he?
See my journal, I write things there
you know, I *never* get tired of reading this...
"grassroots" / "astroturf"?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Actually, you've made a very good point about the environment/AIDS'n'cancer drugs and now I feel slightly ashamed for scoffing at your weak pun.
Very funny.
Maybe people should protect their freedom by making a commercial "I am free" or better said "I want to be free".
The commercial could try (atleast) to warn other people of their freedom-at-stake
Everything around DMCA, uncappers-delight, Microsoft holding your systems hostage, all claims go to terrorism,
I had a conversation with two Americans in the bar where I play music at and it seems they where really disgusted by the way the US is currently pushing the country on the television as if nothing is happening. All the news goes about "how good and free the US really is" and seems to be a very small time dedicated to the news of the rest of the world. When is this keep-everybody-dumb-mentality going to stop? Another thing for example is the discrimination at television. The society has all different kind of people, including gay people. Why are all gay presentators being pushed off television and prides being cancelled since the "new president" is "on the power" ? (I call it power because if you see what's getting pushed on lately
Sorry for any grammar errors because I am European myself and I do not like the way the world is going to. I am very scared of my future and also for the children next to me.
Are you really free ?
Are you sure ?
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
Here's one they need:
I was watching a sci-fi show...
and it was like...beep beep beep beep beep...
and then...like...the entire show was gone...
i was like..uh?
sci-fi channel devoured it...it was a good show
It's kind of...(long silence...) a bummer.
I'm Ellen Feiss and I am a farscape fan!
Join the TWIT army now!
it's a campy remake of the Buck a Day computer song. Either that or reminiscent of a balding 37 year old at a nightclub.
An excerpt from the pilot: Crais is the captain of a command carrier ship belonging to a military empire known as Peacekeepers. Peacekeepers are an oppressive, human-like species known for keeping "peace" and "stability" with the use of brutality and military cunning. One of their jobs is the assassination and imprisonment of political dissidents and trouble makers.
Hmm... haven't I seen this somewhere else recently...
No, you're thinking of the plot where the crazed billionaire loser convinces a bunch of young poor religious fanatic losers to be suicidal mass murderers, while he hides in the far reaches of the galaxy ....
Easy mistake to make though.
Where else can the resistance broadcast their messages in code??
...and he grinned, like a fox eating shit out of a wire brush.
But money wasted on that comercial would be .. and they will send you a big Fu"#$ you!! .. "Space is the ultimate frontier.. made in hollywood basement"
..
.. i'm not a unhappy and sorrow person .. .. i like SciFi .. but this farscape subject has gone to the limit ..
...
more well spent in sending food to Ethiopia!!
Go and show that commercial there
It's like Red Hot say
Stop living in fiction
And no
but realistic
Flame me at will i don't care, i hope the post opens someones eyes
-1 Flamebait
I fuse with Mercer every single day...
If these producers where trying to be serious of these commercials. Shouldn't they have chosen more random backdrops to capture that impromptu in terview feel?
Come on how many Farscape fans wander alongside of you white siding of your home?
At least the plaza that was way overused looked neat.
Gator/Claria is Spyware.
Dudes, they tore up the sets after the announcement to use the space for other things. They disassembled the animatronic pilot. There's nothing left to make a show with!
They're going to show this commercial in the south and great confusion will ensue...
"I am fire escape?? Wha??"
To understand this joke it helps if you've spent time in the south...
I didn't think it was the great, and appearently Neilson families feel the same. Show's not making its rating targets, which means it costs more then it makes and nobody's doing this for art.
"Gee mister advertiser, my show getting terrible rating, but all these nerds on the net promise they like it. Please pay me as if I was pulling real numbers, cause kinda weak SF shows don't pay for themselves ya know."
Besides, I'm much more depressed about Futurama.
...so this is what happens when a Beowulf cluster of Farscape fans get together. Then I read the article...
The person who headed the effort and put the commercial together is nicked "Beowulf". I guess that's like those "Army of One" commercials...a "Beowulf of One" is trying to save Farscape.
A crew of mentally crippled misfits that run around having sex with anything that appears to be a lifeform.
It's dead Jim!
There are actually multiple lobbies for tech related issues. Some are just starting out, though most have some efforts occuring right now.
The first that has to be mentioned -- even if some moderator is hostile to it -- is the grandaddy Free Software Foundation, though there are others if that one is somehow not to your liking;
Bruce Perens has 3 efforts at the Global Technology Policy Institute.
The folks at The Linux Show often promote two efforts; GeekPac and American Open Technology Consortium
...and I'm sure that is not a complete list. If you can't support one, support one of the others.
A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
Channel Nine Australia is really bad when it comes to non-prime time. (Which on channel nine is essentially sports, news, 60 minutes type programs).
They constantly decide to not play episodes for one week for apparantly no reason (the infamous back in two weeks time groaner). the shows are sometimes taken off for weeks at a time, with no advertising for when it returns. To top that off the shows rarely screen at their listed times. So if you tune in early you think it's not on this week, or if you tune in on time it started 10 minutes early. I don't think I've seen the first 5 mins of all but a handful of voyager episodes. Not just this show either. This applies equally to Enterprise, Voyager, DS9 (They are rotated seasonally), Smallville, Roswell, Farscape, etc.
It has got to the point when I dread when a new show is advertised. The show had better bloddy be worth the hassle. I don't want to know how many roswell episodes I've missed.
miffed.
Forgot to mention that all of these shows (except smallville) screen in the 10pm - 1:30am timeslot.
1st series of Farscape was shown in prime time on a saturday (First season typically being the worst in a sci-fi show), then canned for ages. The only reason I knew it was back on, was that I just happened to be on the channel when it came on at 10:30pm.
I could have sworn that I saw a commercial for a new season of farscape. I thought to myself when I saw it "it ought to calm those fanboys/fangirls down". I guess that didn't happen either.
I think it shows the current fanbase is very solid. I agree with posts below that it probably is due to non expansion of the fanbase, costs, ect.
.sig supplying intersteller warnings since stardate 10.10
I feel while the commercial is a good idea, this one will not give any non fan a warm fuzzy feeling to do ANYTHING.
What needs to be done, is make a commercial targeted two ways, one to get the current fans who have not written in to do so, and to get others who have not seen the show interested enough to say "what was farscape about?"
whatever
In a world with starving children, people suffering the ravages of war, and so much intolerance and hatred over race, creed, gender, etc. - I find it hard to believe that this thing was so important to anyone. Granted, it's a free country and you have a right to spend your time and money how you like, but did anyone think about how much good that effort and money could have done if applied differently?
I understand the sentiment - I would be bummed if Rowling decided to never publish another Potter book again, or if for some unexplicable reason the next two LotR movies were never released. I would hope that I could take that energy and turn it into something productive. Spend some time volunteering at the local hospital, teach some neighborhood kids the joy of reading. Send that money to the Leukemia foundation or even the EFF. Trade some of that short-term joy for a lasting legacy.
Anyway, I guess whatever brings you joy.
This pisses me off. How much time spent creating this, organizing it, paying for it? And how many people out there starving, freezing in the cold, desperate for help.
These people are obviously highly motivated - it's a shame they're motivation is so self-serving and oriented on an absolutely trivial purpose.
It's quicktime. I'm not going to pay a fortune for a Mac, just to view this.
What I originally liked about it no longer seems to be there -- it's turned into a pointless puppet show, dragging along huge amounts of baggage from previous episodes and stringing it together with bad jokes and storylines which completely fail to advance the overall plot or fill out the increasingly two dimensional characters.
In it's current state, I won't miss it. I just hope they'll be able to properly close the story arc and not just leave everything dangling for a new series that'll never come.
Here William Shatner's reponse to "Do It Yourself Media."MBR> ... will ya, people? I mean, for cryin' out loud, it's just a TV show."
William Shatner: "Get a life
Aired on Saturday Nigth live, late 1990's.
NO! NO! Please don't mod me, I'm too young to die a troll. *click* Oh the pain, the pain...
Yes there is one season left. They found out after finishing up filming this coming season that they were dropping the show.
I really didn't care for some of the later stuff on earth, but I really liked the earlier shows.
Many of you seem to be missing the point as to why the uproar about it being cancelled. I as well as most of you realize that all good things come to an end. But, the problem here is that Farscape was signed up for 5 seasons and got cancelled at the end of season 4 with no warning. So there will be no closure at the end of season 4. We will all be left wandering, just like at the end of every season finally. This is was pisses me off, not the it was cancelled, but there will be no closure to the long developed story line.
It's rare that a write-in campaign (essentially, that's what this is) to have impact, since ratings=dollars, and that's what this comes down to. There are a few cases where the network allowing a show to "simmer" have helped. "Cheers," for one, had horrible ratings the first few years and eventually picked up popularity, with little change in cast or writing.
Showing support for one's favorite show (not mine, Farscape hurts my eyes) serves mearly to make a stand.
/.ers salary for 4 months) and you make a solid presentation of the facts. The facts don't mean jack shit to most americans because they identify with being "Democrat" or "Republican" and will simply dismiss anything that doesn't appeal to them as "pinko hippy nonsense".
Showing support or opposition to political issues requires advocacy. A bunch of geeks saying "I am not a terrorist." doesn't help. Noone becomes aware of the issues involved.
Look at Political Ads, they never tell you wtf the issues are, aside from showing support for the top 5 focus-tested party lines. In order to raise awareness and enlighten the nearly comatose masses you would need alot more than 30 seconds.
Now let's say you ran a 3 min nationwide spot on Survivor (the total cost of which would probably require every
I wish there was a way to stop this, but there isn't. Every day we sink deeper. I just hope I can get a job over seas before they build the wall.
Will they quit being so dumb? Farscape sucks and it rates just as bad as Earth: Boring Conflict.
Yes, it has. The show "Parker Lewis Can't Lose" (a good show loosely based on "Ferris Bueller's Day Off") was cancelled until a fan uprising caused the show to return for one more season.
Then there's always the example of the show "Dallas" which was cancelled. They killed off most of the cast and ended most of the storylines. When the show had record rating the last few episodes, it was renewed. How'd they solve the issues? Why, it was all just a dream....
It really throws me for a loop how so very few people determine what TV statins think people are watching.
Nationwide for 2001-2002 they estimate 100+ million homes with televisions.
For nationwide stats they electronically monitor 5000 homes.
For local stats (55 markets) they monitor 20,000+ homes in each market. (approx 1.1 million people)
During sweeps, they ask approx. 1 million people to fill out "diaries" for a week.
IMHO, this does not seem like a remotely accurate system.
Screw Farscape, what we *need* is a grassroots movement to bring back Miss Cleo commercials. We'll start by taking up a collection to pay off her legal troubles...Clinton-style!
I'd love to hear about (I'll never see it unless someone puts it online, since I don't own a TV, nor do I want one) MORE protest work on TV. It's about time that the "little guys/gals" claimed their piece of the television pie.
They already have.
From their website:
"Free Speech TV uses television to cultivate an informed and active citizenry in order to advance progressive social change. FSTV airs primarily social, political, cultural, and environmental documentaries acquired from independent producers, and we are beginning to produce and commission original content."
http://members.freespeech.org/fstv/
I call it the Protest Channel, because every show calls for political/social/economic revolution. If you have DISH satelitte, you can get them, and it looks like they're starting to get on some cable systems around the country.
I don't support their politics, but I'm very glad to know they're on the air.
Since the SF channel doesn't own it... why not petition the owners to keep making the show, post them online and charge an access fee? If it works for porn why can't it work for this? The tools are in place, the fan base is rabidly techno-literate, and the show is caught between a rock and a hard place. What would it hurt to give online distribution a shot? While you're at it, do Futurama and the animated version of "The Tick" too.
Adbusters is what you want. They have professionally produced -- i.e. really good directors/writers, even some from the ad industry -- uncommercials. They'll send you a broadcast quality tape if you buy the air time.
FinalCommercial.mov (934 KB).
RudeDude
Perl/Linux/PHP hacker
>There's a poster in this topic who says he has 13G
>of FarScape on his HD, that's how much he loves it.
>Umm, no, if he loved it he would have bought the
>DVDs. People like him in fact killed the show.
Well, if you are obeying the letter of the law with
regards to region codes on DVDs then it's only possible
to purchase seasons 1 and 2 on DVD in the US. It seems
entirely reasonable to me to store seasons 3 and 4 on your
hard drive for personal use. Although your little
gripe is also kinda moot since it's not currently
airing on SciFi anyway. I second the opinion that
you must be some sort of entertainment industry hardliner.
-milo
(I just buy the uk DVDs, region codes are for suckers)
I just don't get it. There are fights that are a lot more meaningful and worthy of this kind of attention than Farscape being cancelled. Instead of making a commercial, why not help the community? I suppose that is asking too much, eh?
Actually, it's half of a season left. The last 11 episodes of the fourth season start airing on Sci Fi in January. And, thanks to Sci Fi not informing them about the cancellation until the last day of filming, they end on a "To be continued.."
Yeah the targeting aspect should be a selling point. BUT the more intelligent and/or cynical people are, the less susceptible they are to television commercials. Geeks tend to be higher on the intelligence and/or cynical side so even well targeted advertising will probably still have a low success rate. With few exceptions, the industry (television advertising) is based on mild brainwashing. Ads that offer something I'm interested in, minus the lies and fluff, just presenting the facts are about the only ones that get me to actually consider buying. So for the targetting to work, the commercials would need to be completely different too--for an industry that is very creative in so many ways, they're just not willing to abandon the assumptions they've been working on for years.
Vote Quimby.
Last year, SciFi signed a contract to pick up two more seasons of FarScape. This contract had an option to drop the 5th season. The show was wildly popular at the time and was SciFi's premier show.
Then SciFi picked up Startgate SG-1, FarScape started jumping around in its time slot. No one had a clue as to when it would be on. It started losing viewer.
SciFi announced to the FarScape crew they were not going to pick up the final season around the time they filmed the season finale for Season 4. Thus leaving the story on a cliffhanger.
Now for total speculation. It has been said that FarScape cannot be picked up by another channel due to SciFi's option on the 5th season. Basically SciFi has the rights to a season they are not willing to pay to produce. To further hinder a move, SciFi owns the broadcast rights to the first 4 seasons. What channel would want to pick up a show in its 5th season, if they cant run reruns of the first 4 as well.
In all it sucks. But you can help get the word out.
Str8Dog
using System.Darkside; public
You can ready it here. Chat contains David Kemper, Ben Browder and the guy that played D'Argo (cant think of his name) talking to the fans in #farscape irc.scifi.com.
Str8Dog
using System.Darkside; public
http://www.servability.com/music/pink-farscape.wmv
they should learn to light their subjects better. Some of them look like they must be in the witness protection program. My videos have the same problem.
Well, here is an example. I wrote a security camera program for a company once. They had a camera hooked up to a computer, and wanted it to save a GIF every time the picture changed (They had it pointed at a safe, they wanted to record every time someone accessed the safe)
:)
We were taking pictures at 640x480 which is 288000 pixels. If I sampled as few as 50 pixels, and compared them to what the pixel was in the last frame, I got the same results as if I sampled 10,000 pixels, and the same as if I sampled every pixel.
It was very important that I pick my sample randomly, because obviously if I picked the first 50 pixels every time, and the motion was in the bottom of the frame, I would never see it.
Simmilarly, if 1/10 people in the US watches friends on Thursday nights, it doesn't matter if I pick 100 people, 1000 people, 10,000 people, or 100,000,000 people. 1/10 is 1/10.
Because the population is so large, and can be highly "pocketed" (people who live near eachother tend to watch the same stuff, because their friends tell them about it, or the local paper writes about it, or because someone local stars in it, or whatever) they need a VERY random, and very large (by statiscal measuring) sample.
Also, there is a wide variety of programming available, so if you only ask 100 people, you might get 1 person for each show so you ask 100000 people and then you notice that "Bob's Accordion World" only gets 1 viewer, and friends gets 10000.
In any case it works.
Here is a test you can do at home.
Take 2 dice. Roll them a few hundred times , and keep track of what you got each roll.
At the end, count how many ones you got, how many twos, how many threes etc.
You should end up with a nice bell curve, peaking around 6.
Now pick a random 50 rolls, and do the counts again. The bell curve should look almost identical, even though you only sampled a small percentage.
In this case, 50 is a large % of a few hundred rolls. But the graph would look the same if you rolled the dice 10,000,000 times. I just didn't think you would want to roll that many times
"Cheers," for one, had horrible ratings
Yeah, and look at Moesha.
No, better not.
...for one of the spots. Because "cute, bouncy, dingy, stoner chicks" seem to be real popular these days. Heck, free international publicity for Farscape on Letterman or Leno would have saved the Farscapers a lot of money and hassle.
They could even offer Ellen a guest appearance on Farscape. She could play a dingy, one red-eyed, bouncy, purple people eater.
If ignorance is Bliss, why aren't there more happy people?
"It is essential that justice be done
No matter how many times you roll those two dice, if they are truely random dice (perfectly equal probability of each side landing up) you will NEVER get a Bell curve out of them. Furthermore, the probability graph peaks at the value of 7 for two 6-sided dice (labeled 1-6, as such dice typically are), not at 6!
:-)
There are 36 ways for two 6-sided dice to turn up (6*6). There is one way each to roll a 2 or a 12, which is either double 1's or 6's. There are two ways to get either 3 (roll a 1 and a 2, roll a 2 and a 1) or 11 (roll a 5 and a 6, roll a 6 and a 5). There are three ways to get either a 4 or a 10, four ways to get 5 or 9 as the result, five ways to get 6 or 8, and six ways to roll a perfect 7. If you do the math, the probabilities from 2 to 12 (in order) are: 1/36, 2/36, 3/36, 4/36, 5/36, 6/36, 5/36, 4/36, 3/36, 2/36, 1/36. This is a straight line up, peaking at the probability for rolling 7, followed by a straight line down, which is obviously not a curve.
I submit to you that Gaijin's Introduction to Statistics may need some reworking.
Something I find odd about the FS business is that I was on a trans-Pacific flight on United a couple weeks ago and they showed the Farscape episode that is an homage to Chuck Jones/Road Runner. I kept thinking to myself, "Why would the network bother to let (or pay for, I have no idea how airtime on jetliners is financed) United show a show that has been cancelled?" Wouldn't one think that any episode of a show shown on an airplane would essentially be a big ad for the series?
I am borg
Wait, you don't have reality programs in Australia? Jesus Christ, no wonder you're so far behind. Get on the stick! Let's see Bruce & Sheila Get Pissed: An Aussie Dating Odyssey! Or something! World domination awaits!
I want to express my profound thanks to this fanbase. Their efforts will surely contribute towards changing newtorks and advertisers, short-sightedness towards the love and compassion of which viewership is capable. Too many quality shows have been laid to rest because networks are blinded by neilsen numbers, statistics which do not tell the whole truth. It's time to shake the foundation, and this group seems to have the strength in numbers and $$ to do it. I say more power to them. Speak loud Farscape fans!!
It sounds to me like Mr. Shatner is just upset that there was no campaign to bring back T.J. Hooker. It is people like us that watch the stuff people like him do that earns people like him the money he makes, so that he can afford to go around tellings people like us to get a life. I would suggest to him that he keep quiet and just enjoy the ride!
A lot of slashdotters have pointed out reasons why SciFi would kill the show. A few posts mentioned how Henson has the rights to the show and makes all the $$$ on merchandising and syndication. If you were SciFi... would you put up with that? No, just like many artists and shows, once something makes it, it is time to renegotiate for the sake of equality.
Did any of you ever think that this is a ploy to renegotiate? Did you ever think that you are giving Henson a firmer grip if you get other networks in the bid for the show? Has anyone wondered why cancellation news has not been deliberatly declared by SciFi? Sure, mail in fan letters and protests to SciFi... heck, write Henson Productions and gripe to them. If the show is worth its salt (and I think that it is). Let the networks and the owners work this out. But don't sabotage a possible SciFi re-negotiation by involving other networks.
Competition for the show only strengthens Henson's grip. Simply show continued support for SciFi's show. Don't forget, not everyone has SciFi Channel. When smaller cable network stations have to fight for audience to support big budget shows... the viewer is almost always the loser. Just look at how Monk and Deadzone are scrambling for viewers. A great first-run show is not always affordable for smaller cable-only networks... especially a scifi show with a niche audience. Maybe I am wrong, but if I am right... Besides the viewer, who has the most to lose if SciFi cancels the show?... Henson, that's who... follow the money.
"Perhaps most amazingly, votaries of 'diversity' insist on absolute conformity." -- Tony Snow
The problem with farscape is that it lacked appeal. Like the now dead ST Voyager it was primarly a one story show per episode. Plus no techno babble and lots of lame muppet type aliens.
SO long u lame ass piece of sci-fi. Next on the cutting block Andromeda and Firefly.
"Perhaps most amazingly, votaries of 'diversity' insist on absolute conformity." -- Tony Snow
"But if 1/10 of people who like book C like B, and D like B and E like B (etc) AND I like C,D, and E, then you have a 4/10 chance that I will like B. And that starts to be usefull."
... C11 such that 10% of the people who like book Ci also like book B. If one person liked all C books and you were to sum the probabilities as you did, then you would end up with that person being 110% likely to enjoy book B. And this is impossible as 0<=P<=1
Which is mostly false.
Imagine a scenario with more than 11 books C1, C2,
The only time that you can add probabilities like that is when there is zero intersection between the groups - independence.
A Usenet Troll Triumphs on Slashdot
>Does anyone know of any other efforts to produce true 'grassroots' commercials like this?
Commercials like you mention get made all the time, but what is most often the case is that the networks don't want to run the ads regardless of how much money you offer them. Usually issues like pro-legalization are dismissed instantly because a network doesn't want to be associated with the message. A television network has no requirement to play what you offer them, even if it is over our airwaves. If they want to pander to the usual right and not upset middle-america with alternative viewpoints then they will and there's little you can do about it other than get published in more independant outlets.
>Personally, I would love to see a grassroots commercial that advocates re-opening the Federal case against MS.
Okay so they run it, then MS never advertised with them again. They'll tell you to keep your $5,000 because MS's advertising is worth much more. Or better yet they'll call MS and see what kind of deal they can cut now that they have someone willing to pay to air a commercial like that. Corporate media is only good x amount of things and freedom of speech and diverse viewpoints ain't one of them.
Check out http://www.linuxgames.com people! They re-modeled their site! And what is sad, it looks like the http://www.watchfarscape.com website! Someone get in contact with AlKini and Judecca to stop the pain!
My pussy, Bitter Old Man
When Buffy's 5 year contract with WB expired, UPN and WB had a bidding war where UPN eventually emerged as winner by paying $2.3M per episode, up from the $1M that WB had been paying.
If you want to call it "winning" that UPN pays much more for the show than they hope to earn from it. Apparently they see it as an investment in the image of the network to have such a prestigious show, that it is worth the money.
I know this surprises a lot of people, but it is a prestigious show in the sense that it is a big favorite with the critics and has a not too big but passionately fanatic fan base.
For all you retards who think any thought or expression isn't pining over "important" issues and weighty matters, go soak up face time on the mother ship with Sally Struthers. Marxist jaggoffs.
This is about the death of the imagination. Imagination, that thing which the television otherwise sucks straight out of you while you watch it, slowing letting you grow into a soulless mass of apathy and feckless consumer of inexpensive combinations of grease and salt, fat and sugar. Farscape reaks of imagination, like a vivid, freaked out, bizarre dream that reminds you that the mind is bigger than your day job or the daily news.
Also, I really liked it.
And Erin. Erin Sune destroys Buffy.
The show was put out to pasture to give it an excuse to be cancelled. They moved it's start time back 1 hour to 10pm, and plugged the HELL out of Stargate which they ran right before it. Farscape received little to no promotion, not even during Stargate (which you think is why they would have put Stargate first).
So Farscape survived it's start time adjustment with only a negligable decrease in ratings from it's previous prime-time spot.
The brass at Sci-Fi used this as a primary excuse to cut the show. But the REAL reason was that they could make a weaker show for much less money that appealed to a mass market that would get only slightly weaker ratings.
So in my opinion it was a calculated move to kill off the expensive (but still profitable) show.
It's well known that the new head-honcho of sci-fi doesn't like space shows and prefers paranormal ones. But the reason why is paranormal shows are CHEAP.
[snip] Nine thought enough of Farscape to help bankroll it with the Jim Henson Company in 1999. Knowing Australia's bleak history with science fiction, Nine waited until May 2000 to broadcast the first half-dozen episodes. The show didn't do well, so Nine decided to put the show up against the 2000 Olympics. No wonder Farscape hasn't done well in Australian ratings. [snip] Last December/January, when Nine finally broadcast the show's second season, my Farscape site got more hits from Australia than from any other country. My point is that Aussie Scapers may be few in number, but they do have excellent taste in television programming. And in most states, the season aired at 2pm every weekday (in some states it was 1am). We don't get SciFi network here - they were running repeats on FoxKids for a while. I think channel 9 got disillusioned - they saw Henson and thought they were getting a kids show (rude shock for them LOL). I'm an Aussie fan and watched religiously - I'm proud that something so good was being created right here in my country (and it wasn't about cops, or a hospital, or the trials and tribulations of a bunch of high schoolers....). They had some of the best in the industry working on Farscape - Henson for one, and Animal Logic. Animal Logic - name sound familiar? Think "The Matrix". AL was the effects house responsible for the Agents-and-hallway-in-code sequence, and exploding Agent Smith toward the end of the film. ;)
Dudes, they tore up the sets after the announcement to use the space for other things. They disassembled the animatronic pilot. There's nothing left to make a show with!
Actually, the sets were struck then stored at Fox Studios. Same with Pilot, he's in a box (poor bugger). After 4 years of use some bits of the set needed replacing anyway LOL Everything is just in storage for now, ready to be broken out and given new life.
The cast and crew are optimistic about getting another season.
We all knew the show wouldn't last forever, all we want is a conclusion - can't leave poor Crichton out there forever :(
Save Farscape - give 500 Australian cast and crew their jobs back.
Thank you for your time, I'm going to bed.
It seems funny to me that despite your rant, you haven't organized a group that we can donate money to to put anti-DMCA/anti-SSSCA/anti-what-have-you ads on the air.
The essential difference between those real issues and Farscape is, one geek actually decided to start such an initiative, and got others involved. I fervently believe that all it will take is one geek dedicated enough to start and run such an effort to get roughly the entire slashdot population to collectively sponsor anti-totalitarian ads.
"I don't care about the Constitution!" --Bill O'Reilly, November 17, 2009
Take Ellen Feiss or "All Your Base" for example.
Can I ask how this rumor got started in the first place? I'm not talking about the first post here about it... I'm talking about where the first poster heard it and why. Could just be that the person in question saw Elvis and *thought* it was Stephen King... :)
..the figure I've heard is $1.7 million USD per episode. Comparable to "Star Trek" I believe.
Paranormal shows are cheap -- but where are the merchandising possibilities??? Seriously, if they manage to make a good movie, and I think they can, the TV series will skyrocket in value. I don't see much potential in John Edward reruns. Or John Edward, who will be demanding more money for his act and leave SciFi.
But what do I know. I think you have to be a Conehead to be a network exec.
Why don't you put together a commercial for a more worthwhile cause then? I'm sure this has been said before, but the Farscape fans didn't have all that much cash, and your PC will edit stuff just as well as theirs.
Exactly - that's the point.
So why is this Offtopic?
The pilot (tv movie) was quite good, and showed a lot of promise.
The actual series is a pale shadow of the pilot.
But hey its a _Viper_ with 4WD off-road mode (see movie)
Real software engineers work from 9 to 5, because that is the way the job is
described in the formal spec. Working late would feel like using an
undocumented external procedure.
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