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?

[Robotech_Master]

There are several reasons given, depending on who you ask and when. Among the big ones are:

Too expensive: The show costs an awful lot to produce, as SF shows tend to, and apparently Sci-Fi's in a bit of a money crunch. The high production cost wouldn't be so bad, except...

They don't own the show; Henson does, as part of the production agreement (though they each finance half the show's cost). Which means SFC doesn't get the back-end income from syndication and DVD/video and such to recoup their costs. Adding to the problem is the fact that...

The show's fandom isn't expanding: Farscape is keeping the fans it has, but it's not causing more people to come to watch the show. See, that's the problem with shows that build up a lot of backstory...if you haven't watched the first four seasons, you have no idea what's going on. (This problem has been noted in other mega-arc-based shows, such as Andromeda.) SFC wants shows that suck more people in (and get them watching SFC). And finally, it's been said that...

SFC is supposedly moving away from "space-based" shows and heading more toward the "paranormal," in keeping with the latest fads/trends in the TV people are watching. Which makes you wonder why they even bother calling themselves "sci-fi," but there you go.

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: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:Why was the show canceled?

[spectecjr]

There are several reasons given, depending on who you ask and when. Among the big ones are

These are all the reasons given by SciFi.

They also have all been - to greater or lesser extents - debunked.

For example - too expensive? SG1's budget was increased for their 7th season, and is way more than that of Farscape.

($2.5MM for SG1 vs. $750K for Farscape, per episode)

Simon

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?

Re:This has been done before

[Minna Kirai]

Now I feel really old. Kids today... no attention to history.

Heard of Star Trek? The campaign that ressurected the cancelled original series is what inspires all of these latter-day fan-intervention imitators.

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.

Re:Yikes!

[kingkade]

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...

Have that new smell-o-vision, huh?

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?

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.

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.

FarStoned

[Ehsan]

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..

.. a bummer

A show?

[jonr]

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...

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

Money, and all things like it

[Thenomain]

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.

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.

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]

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?

Has this not been address?

[McFly69]

Here William Shatner's reponse to "Do It Yourself Media."MBR>
William Shatner: "Get a life ... will ya, people? I mean, for cryin' out loud, it's just a TV show."

Aired on Saturday Nigth live, late 1990's.