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."

Comments

Why was the show canceled?

[joshua404]

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?

Re:Why was the show canceled?

[DarkZero]

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?

Simple economics. The show was expensive to produce, so it needed a large audience in order to justify its existence. Its audience began to decrease, so it started bleeding huge amounts of money every week, and with a budget that high, it probably wouldn't have taken very long for the show to hit the point where it would have to do extremely well on a consistent basis for one or two full seasons just to become profitable again.

But even though that's their reason for doing it, it's still a very stupid reason. As Matt Roush from TV Guide pointed out, Farscape was the only thing that ever got the Sci-Fi Channel any national exposure in the entire history of the channel, and it got it quite a bit of national exposure too. Farscape was the only reason that the Sci-Fi Channel was ever mentioned in TV Guide, Entertainment Weekly, and all of the other national entertainment magazines, and it also got them exposure for their other shows because they from "the channel that brought us Farscape".

It's just a simple, familiar matter of someone basing a decision on nothing but raw statistics and not thinking about all of the other elements involved.

Re:Yikes!

[Robotech_Master]

I dunno...I'd characterize the commercial as "quirky," but not necessarily bad. And in the end, it really doesn't matter how good or bad the commercial is; the important thing is that it's getting aired and getting publicity for the campaign. These people aren't giving up, and if it gets me more episodes of the show, I have to say more power to them. This thing has gone farther than any save-our-show campaign I can recall...it's going to be interesting to see where it ends.

Only fools would pass on picking up this show

[blincoln]

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.

Their Eyes Are Bigger Than Their Airwaves...

[cribcage]

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

Different applications of the same concept

[shivianzealot]

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.

Nobody else sees this but me?

[The Rolling Blackout]

A gang of geeks obsessed with their favorite TV show put out a broadcast-ready promo in order to keep it on the air.

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.

Re:This has to be said...

[spectecjr]

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.

Yet you're wasting your time posting on slashdot instead of supporting those far more worthy causes.

Don't you think that's a bit hypocritical?