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Farscape Fans Reinventing Television
JoeCotellese writes "With the recent cancellation of Farscape, this Salon story discusses the creative ways fans are trying to save the show.
Specifically it talks about how grassroots organization through the internet has helped them to the point where they are discussing fan funded production of the show."
that doesn't like farscape?
The Twiligh Zone(old), Sliders, The Outer Limits(new), and better shows fell from the waves. Why is everyone so concerned with farscape?
In all fairness I haven't seen more than five episodes of the show, but I have never been attached to it. Why are so many people obsessed with it?
This is a serious question, not a flame.
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
Could be an interesting way of doing things however I can't see it really working as shows need a guaranteed, regular income stream.
I would personally love Farscape to be continued, especially having seen the cliff-hanger of a final episode last Monday on BBC 2..........
I wonder if you could do things like give people who donate over $xxx amount a walk-on part or something? Guided tours of the sets (yeah I know they need to be rebuilt)? Signed anythings. I guess you could try a fund raising event like the US PBS shows do - or the lartge charity fundraisers we have in the UK. Would work if we found some big starts who would support the thing for free......
Hmm
Troc
Troc's dubious podcast and blog: http://www.trocnet.net
So, anyways, let me ask some questions. Is the big deal that Sci-Fi bitched out on the final season that it promised or that the fans just want the show to go on forever? Or just the fact that the series ended with a cliffhanger and you need resolution? Moreover, what makes the Farscape fans so persistent and loud about what they want? And will scraping together enough money for an episode (which I thought was a plan at one time) really do anything?
Kind of sucks that one can't read the whole article.
Can we moderate a user down if they give a really crappy link?
The Farscape producers were under the assumption they were going into a fifth season. After all, SciFi bought it for a fourth and fifth season. Thus, they left season four on a huge cliff-hanger and were going to wrap it all up in season five, much like Babylon 5. However, the end result is a cliff-hanger that may never be resolved.
So, to answer your question, the fans want a fifth season, they want resolution of the series and they want more Farscape.
TV is an odd bird, and more so in the last 15 years as cable networks have exploded onto the scene.
:-/
Listening to people like JMS (who you mentioned, but did you know he's written an excellent screenwriter's guide for TV and movies that goes into a lot of the politics and how to deal with them?), Joss Whedon, Aaron Sorkin and others who have managed to sneak quality television in, I'm convinced that there's a formula for getting good television on the air.
Woefully for us, you're right: it has nothing to do with the fans per se, and once it stops going our way, we have little hope of changing it. It has to do with good writers (writers in TV are like directors in movies, they have a lot of power if they use it right) who have the organization skills and drive to produce (in name or function) their own shows, and a massive focus on good timing. You really have to pick a network thats brand new or established but on the ropes (even if just in one particular time-slot) or re-inventing themselves (e.g. Showtime and Sci-Fi in recent years).
Crusade was a great counter-example to this. Straczynski ran into an established network (TNT) that didn't have any major problems to solve. That meant that internally, there were too many little drones running around trying to find ways to be useful and justify their jobs. The way he describes it, the folks in Hollywood were practically fans of his (some actually were) and they let him do his thing, but he was constantly assaulted by the folks back at the home office in Atlanta who wanted to expand the demographic of the show, and make it match their existing audience (WWF fans as you point out).
No fan can tell those execs in Atlanta to piss off, because they're convinced that there's more gold inside the goose than the few paltry eggs it lays each season. They want to cut it open, re-structure it and sell it out for condos! That's the mentality you're dealing with, and it's only broken when there's change... you have to seek out that change. To many, JMS seemed pig-headed around Crusade, and I felt that way at first, but I realized after a while that I'd rather have the show go away than have 7 seasons of B5 meets VIP
They are talking about doing season 5 as an anime series. Which, if done correctly, could be really great.
I loved farscape because it tried to stay away from the star trek cliche, and pretty much succeeded. Also because it was actually very well written, acted, and full of really great one liners that really threw you for a loop.
Watch the last episodes of season 4, and you'll probably see the best sci-fi tv in a lonnnng time.
I do understand how some don't like it, as it is very serial. But on the flip side, I know quite a few people who watched the between-season intro episode where they tried to introduce new people to the series, and absolutely were hooked. I mean, even my sister and her husband, who are not sci-fi nerds started watching it.
"Computer games don't affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms,
I have little sympathy for fans of cancelled TV shows. The typical response I hear from Farscape fans is to say that everyone else's show is "written to the 13 year old level". Ironically the writer of that remark illustrates his comment by attacking of all shows CSI as "95% star-trek style technobabble around a loose and predicable crime scene". Maybe if fans would show a little more respect for the tastes of others I would have more sympathy. But to be honest, if their attitude is that everyone else is inferior for not watching their show, then I am happy that their show is cancelled.
Why can't Farscape or other SF fans find a way to praise their own show without questioning the intelligence of fans of other shows?
I don't know why people have to feel that the only way to advocate their tastes is to tear down the choices of others. Do these people go around saying that everyone else's cuisine sucks because they really like one of their own particular dishes? Maybe the shows would have more fans if their advocates weren't always acting like a bunch of juveniles.
Figure $1-2M per episode for typical TV. Yes, that's Million.
... but not fandom at large.
But a LOT of that is waste.
Realworld Example: back when an ordinary one-hour drama (average cast, not big names; no SFX, no remote locations) cost around $500,000 to make, Robert Blake managed to produce Hell Town on $80,000 per episode, without shaving the crew/extras budget either (in fact, it was a great show to work, so long as you stayed out of Blake's way).
How'd it manage this? Because the money came out of Blake's own pocket and every penny was accounted for; it wasn't paid for out of some nebulous studio slush fund that doesn't demand strict accounting. (The deal was if Blake would finally stop pestering NBC 50 times a day, they'd let him do a trial run for his dream show -- provided HE paid for making it.)
And Hell Town wasn't any worse (from a production quality standpoint) than similar dramas with more-typical budgets. The scripts weren't bad as such stuff goes. It died mainly because the premise wasn't very interesting (to anyone but Blake) and even with a good timeslot, didn't draw much audience.
But notice it was *one* guy's vision, budget, and drive that made it possible. I just can't see the fractionalism of fandom accomplishing this. Maybe with a crew like the makers of "Troops" (theforce.net)
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?