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

I hope it works

[Russellkhan]

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)

This has been done before

[packeteer]

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?

how it will be saved

[Drunken Coward]

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.

It's very ironic

[JessLeah]

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?

The Story So Far...

[Soulslayer]

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.

Didn't follow the link, eh?

[Russellkhan]

1. The commercial didn't remotely resemble your description.
2. The only pretension here is yours. There was no namedropping in the commercial, but your first paragraph sure seemed full of it (pun intended).
3. Just because you don't understand something (because you haven't bothered to try) doesn't mean it's an attempt at individuality.
4. These people putting their time and money into supporting something they like. Is that too superior for you? Would the world be a better place if everyone took your attitude and just sat back and criticized everyone else if they tried to do something that challenged their tiny little worldview?
5. Did it ever enter your mind that there are people out there who do things for reasons other than conformity or rebellion? No? Don't worry, in about 10 years, when you hit 25 or so you'll grow out of that attitude.
6. Not even going to address the Windows/Linux part of your post - it's clear enough that it's nothing but a troll that refutation is unnecessary.

Commercials..

[[cx]]

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]

Re:Commercials..

[hplasm]

Babylon 5 showed me that it doesn't matter how insanely popular a show is, it won't last.

True, but at least B5 was allowed to play to a logical ending point. (well, sort of logical...)

Re:Why was the show canceled?

[NetGyver]

Damn, that was best most well thought out post I have ever seen on slashdot. Seriously, this is no joke. I saw bits and pieces of farscape after Stargate SG-1 was over, and it seemed a bit weird to me and I never got into it enough to keep current with the show.

And your right-on about the kind of shows that build up so much back story in their early seasons. Again, Stargate does a shitload of this as well. Which is something I just can't understand since it recently moved to the Sci-Fi channel at the start of its 6th season. (As a side note, Season 7 is also underway)

So perhaps your idea of too-much-backstory-loses viewers-who-watch-later-seasons idea isn't really much of a factor.

Another good point you made is that the sci-fi channel is turning to a paranormal-horror flick channel. I got my overdose of that from watching the x-files and it gets very wornout after a while. (by no means am i knocking the x-files, it's just...well...it really drug out)

It's sad, really sad to see that happen. Remember Sliders?

Granted it never was quite the same after the professor left, when Wade got replaced by a Rambo-babe, and and Quinn dropped out. The only guy left standing is Rembrandt. I really dug that show, but it should have died, considering 3/4's of their orginial cast was gone.

VR-5, Babylon 5, TNG, Viper(hey, i liked it), Earth: Final Conflict, Adromida, (and other great shows that i'm missing) should all be reborn via re-runs and put into a mega-block spot on one channel.

Since i'm going hidiously off-topic with my idealist rants, I may as well add my thoughts on the "network-no-one-thought-could-be-so-good"....

TNN certinally turned my head, airing old TNG episodes at least once a day, and 4 back to back episodes on sunday nights. Did any of you see that HILAROUS (and pretty outragious TNN commercial they'd air during the show?

The one with the klingon woman and the exec asking the other if he'd do her. That one really cought my attention, I can't remember when i laughhed that hard at a commerical. In any case, need to get back on topic:

The level of outcry for Farscape's return is inspring to hear about. Alot of people here on slashdot sneer about it, but hey, they're putting hard-earned fan money towards a show that they loved, and their entitled to doing it. There's a certian respect in that, and I'd be the first one to sign a patition and donate some money if my favorite sci-fi show was dying too.

Re:Expletive Deleted

[spectecjr]

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!).


If you care so much about those things, start a campaign. Maybe take a few pages from the Save Farscape campaigns books and follow their lead.

Meanwhile, don't diss other people for putting their passion to good use. Is this as important as those other things? No. Does that give you the right to complain that people are wasting their time on it? No - it's their time, not yours.

That's the whole point of America. It's meant to be a free country -- which means We choose what We want to do.

Farscape is already gone

[Anonymous Coward]

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!

Re:Only fools would pass on picking up this show

[ajs]

Babylon 5's fan base was quite active and vocal, but there was no need for the sort of attention-getting that one has to go through to get a show put back on the air. For the most part, with Babylon 5 the largest problem fans had was getting syndicators to show it in a stable time-slot, and that was done market-by-market.

So, I think you're comparing apples-to-oranges when you say, "Even Babylon 5 didn't inspire loyalty on the same level".

Speaking of which, I just got my B5 DVDs in the mail for season 1. I'm going to see if I can get some decent video-editing software and create that 3-hour "all you need to know about season 1" tape that I've been threatening. It's basically:

Midnight on the Firing Line -- Large chunks
Soul Hunter -- A bit, mostly intro
Born to the Purple, Infection, The Parliament of Dreams -- A few scenes
Mind War -- Intro of bester
The War Prayer -- Bits
And The Sky Full Of Stars -- Some of the war
Deathwalker -- Ending
Believers -- Bits
Survivors -- Bits
By Any Means Necessary -- None, I think
Signs and Portents -- 30 min or so
TKO, Grail, Eyes, Legacies -- None, I think
A Voice in the Wilderness part 1 & 2 -- Bits
Babylon Squared -- Bits about B4
The Quality of Mercy -- Bits
Chrysalis -- 30 min or so

I can edit that down to 5 hours easily, 3 hours if I'm very, very harsh about cutting out stuff that is amazingly cool and interesting, but not part of the B5 story arc.

When I do, I'm going to get all of my friends who keep saying "I'd love to watch, but I don't have time" and strap them to chairs for 3 hours :)

Adbusters [Re:It's very ironic]

[Seanasy]

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.