Help Save Farscape!

[gothzane]

*CNN BROADCAST http://www.eden.rutgers.edu/~arrghman/cnn-scape.rm *

Okay so im showing my true techie nerd scifi lover colors here...

http://www.farscapeworld.com/helpfarscape.shtml

If you're in the New York area, Scapers(Farscape fans) are planning to meet on Monday, 16th September, starting at 8:00am outside SciFi's offices at 1230 Avenue of the Americas

Ill be there from 630pm - ?

Here is a webcam of the area

http://nyctmc.org/Xview_still.asp?cam_id=10&server=RS1&address=6+Ave+%40+49+Street

Farscape is an epic science-fiction television program on SCIFI

most recelently cancelled. This program I find to be most intresting above all. The show constantly redifines my perspective and expands the boundries of my imagination with every episode.

I dont have much time for television...but when I do...I choose this show above all others.

If youve eveer come across it and liked it even a little drop by the site and sign a petition to keep on on air.

Thanks..I appreiate it.

Scapers, Gather Outside SciFi's NYC Offices for Monday's Meeting!

by Mary Wood - Sunday, September 15 2002

If you're in the New York area, Scapers are planning to meet on Monday, 16th September, starting at 8:00am outside SciFi's offices at 1230 Avenue of the Americas. This is to correspond with the aforementioned meeting of the suits between SciFi and Henson. Make a t-shirt, bring flyers, or just draw "Save Farscape" on some visible part of your body like I did at work today (no, not that part of your body). Show up for the whole day, before or after work, during your lunch break, whatever amount of time you can spend. Tell the boss a personal emergency came up. Tell him/her that your mother is gravely ill (Moya is sort of our mother, right?), and try to be there.

If work or living in some other part of the world prevents you from being there in body, be there in spirit. Channel whatever deity or cosmic power suits you best and send the suits your good vibes; we want Season 5 and beyond!

And while you're channeling your deity/cosmic power, keep up the battle here in the material world with phone calls (I'm going to hate my phone bill next month), emails, faxes, and letters. I can not emphasize enough that the true test is not the initial burst, but that the "big push" can be sustained until we get our Season 5.

Come on out show your support...or just loiter around and make noise...something...anything....ill give you as cookie!

[gothzane]

Okay...so im going a tad overboard with this...emailing the threating letters to the sponsers of scifi.....hey ive never been into anything like this before...might as well run with it.

Heres what I emailed to Dell...75% truth...25% bs...heh.

Salutations,

I am currently considering purchasing a good deal of workstations for my lawfirm when we move early next year... and yet considering your companys finacial support to Scifi and the poor enconomic decisions they seem to be making in regards to their cancelation of the television program Farscape. I wonder if this has any substancial affect in business dealing with your company and your products.

A large portion of my co-workers are fanatic fans of Farscape and Dell

and are upset by the actions by the middle managing Scifi network.

Please clear these unfortunate happenings to the best of your ability so that we may continue to do buisness.

Sincerely,

John Chambers

Firm Manager, Dell fan, Farscape Fanatic.

[gothzane]

okay so me the "has nothing better to do then hand out 'Save Farscape!' flyers all night" tool...will be at 1230 6th avenue putzing about...if your in the neighborhood stop on by and mock me or something *shrug*

[gothzane]

http://farscape.wdsection.com/news/releases.php

Fans Rally in Support of Hit Original Show.

New York City, NY- September 12, 2002 _ Fans of the critically acclaimed, award winning hit Sci-Fi original series "Farscape" plan to take their campaign to save the show to the offices of the Sci-Fi channel in Rockefeller Center on Thursday morning, in a rally scheduled to begin at 8am. The rally, timed to coincide with the arrival of parent company Vivendi Universal CEO Jean-Rene Fourtou , is hoped to draw additional attention to the campaign to save the popular series. This show of support is in addition to their other activities, which include an e-mail rally of fans beginning at 12:00pm EST Thursday supporting their compatriots in New York and a move to send flowers to receptionists at Sci-Fi. As one Farscape fan put it, "Why not? We've made their lives a living hell." Through their letter and email barrage of Sci-Fi executives, advertisers, and rivals, fans are hoping to either reverse Sci-Fi's initial decision or encourage another network to pick up this valuable asset.

Insiders have reported that in an attempt to provide possible damage control for any press the rally may garner the network will have a Public Relations representative on hand.

The efforts of the determined Farscape fans have been energized by numerous media accounts of their efforts, most recently by two segments Wednesday night on CNN Headline News Hotwired detailing their crusade.

For information: http://farscape.wdsection.com

Contact: sfmedia@wdsection.com

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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sept. 10, 2002

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CONTACT:

Save Farscape

sfmedia@wdsection.com

http://farscape.wdsection.com

SCI-FI Double Talk Angers Fans

Los Angeles, CA - September 9, 2002 - In a move that has shocked and angered fans of Farscape even further, the Sci Fi channel released an expected official statement concerning the cancellation of the award winning and critically acclaimed show. However, unexpectedly, they placed the blame squarely on the popularity of the show. In a release found today on www.scifi.com, the cable channel stated that, "It was one of SCI FI's first original series and quickly became a critical and fan favorite. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts to reach a broader audience, Farscape has been unable to grow beyond its core fan base. That, coupled with the extreme and growing cost of production, has led to the difficult decision to end the series at the conclusion of season four."

This is in direct contrast to a statement made by that very cable channel in June 2002. In their very own Sci Fi Magazine Thomas Vitale, Senior Vice President of Acquisitions, Scheduling, and Program Planning, wrote that "SCI FI has been able to continue ordering seasons of Farscape because the show performs strongly in the ratings. This is very satisfying to us at the network, as well as to Farscape's producers, since it clearly shows that the series has struck a chord with viewers. Happily, because enough viewers keep watching this terrific series, we can afford to keep making it."

It seems odd that the Sci Fi channel would complain about the size of the fan base of a show that is their most popular original series. Until this season, Farscape held a key primetime spot, the eight o'clock hour. As Juliet Blake, President of Jim Henson TV has said, moving the time to the ten o'clock hour cost Farscape some of its younger viewers. Farscape had been the number one show on the cable channel until the recent addition of Stargate: SG-1 and even then only fell to a close number two. Additionally, inside sources at Sci-Fi are reporting that the holdover audience from SG-1 has actually increased the base audience of Farscape, not decreased it, a fact that would make erroneous the information in Sci-Fi Channel's recent press release. Fans now question if the popularity of SG-1 came from placing it in the time slot formerly held by Farscape.

This new information appears to support fans' claims that Sci Fi did not give their "best effort" to broaden the fan base. With no reruns of the show airing to allow new viewers to get caught up, and no promotion of this critically acclaimed show, fans are left to wonder what exactly the channel did do to promote it. One can only speculate Sci Fi assumed that, due to its critical acclaim and number of prestigious awards, Farscape would promote itself and find its own audience without their help. Instead, fans took it upon themselves to promote the show. Farscape Fan sites proliferate across the Internet, numbering in the hundreds. The virtually unadvertised DVD, video game, books, t-shirts, soundtrack and trading cards continue to fly off the shelves, all with little or no promotional impetus from the Sci Fi Channel.

Critics are baffled and saddened by the cancellation as well. Matt Roush of TV Guide likened it to the short-sighted cancellation of Star Trek by NBC in 1969. (Which was saved from cancellation in 1968 by a massive write in campaign to the network.) He has also said "For Sci Fi to cite economic reasons for denying fans a final year of Farscape would seem to be at odds with the network's mission as an entertainment brand." Robert Bianco of USA Today states his disappointment with the decision as well. "for a network to back off from a commitment and dump the best original series it has ever had - well, that isn't the kind of thing that inspires a lot of confidence in either the Hollywood or the critical communities."

Apparently, the fans concur with that assessment. A massive campaign is underway to reverse the decision with telegrams, faxes, phone calls and emails pounding the Sci Fi Channel and it's sister company, USA Networks. However fans aren't willing to stop there, they are also taking the campaign to other networks. TNT, UPN and Showtime have been targeted as possible homes for Farscape.

For information: http://farscape.wdsection.com

Contact: sfmedia@wdsection.com

###

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sept. 9, 2002

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CONTACT:

Save Farscape

sfmedia@wdsection.com

http://farscape.wdsection.com

Internet Campaigns Ignite After Sci-Fi Cancels Farscape

Los Angeles, CA - September 9, 2002 - On Friday evening fans of the Sci-Fi original series Farscape were outraged to discover that the network had walked out on its contract with Jim Henson Co and Hallmark Entertainment, effectively canceling the show after its fourth season. The news was broken to fans by David Kemper, Executive Producer of Farscape, during a live chat on SciFi.com. Apparently, the stunning news was delivered only 24 hours before to the cast and crew, which were wrapping up the show's fourth season in Australia. Insiders say that an outclause was engaged by Sci-Fi when Jim Henson Co. and parent company EM.TV would not lower the fee Sci-Fi pays for the rights to air Farscape, which the network had renewed for two seasons (44 episodes) only one year ago.

Outraged fans, upon hearing the news, immediately began campaigning to save the show. E-mails, letters, telegrams, faxes, and phone calls voicing their outrage and disappointment have clogged the fax lines and voice mail boxes of the executives at the Sci-Fi Channel. Some fans have taken to sending in boxes of crackers or empty cracker boxes as part of a campaign strategy with the slogan "Crackers DO Matter" (a play on the title of an episode of the show entitled "Crackers Don't Matter"). The strategy is reminiscent of recent Roswell and La Femme Nikita campaigns that saw fans sending in bottles of Tabasco and sunglasses, respectively. Within minutes of the announcement that the show would not see its fifth season, Save Farscape websites began to pop up all over the internet. Two of the websites collecting and disseminating information to the campaigning fans are http://farscape.wdsection.com and

http://farscapeweekly.com.

A critically acclaimed and award winning show, Farscape was recognized by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films' Saturn Awards as the Best Syndicated/Cable Television Series in 2001 and 2002, and series star Ben Browder received the Saturn Award for Best Actor on Television in 2002. In addition, Farscape is currently nominated for an Emmy in the Creative Arts category of Outstanding Costumes for a Series for work in the season 3 episode Into the Lion's Den pt 1: Lambs to the Slaughter.

Farscape is one of the highest rated series on the Sci-Fi Channel, bringing in, on average 958,000 households, a Nielsen rating of 1.2, but of that number 913,000 are adults in the all important 18 - 49 age range. Furthermore, Farscape's new episodes, part of the Sci-Fi Friday night line up has been credited with helping the network earn its best-ever summer, up 13 percent over last year, helping the cable net break the 1.0 ratings average barrier for the first time in its history. Farscape is one of the last remaining hour long series that made up Sci-Fi's original programming arsenal. This cancellation may have significant effects upon the two other shows in their Friday night line up - Stargate SG-1 and The Dead Zone - dropping those viewer numbers as many viewers report watching Stargate SG-1 while waiting for Farscape to begin. Furthermore, Stargate SG-1 is currently scheduled to cease new productions after the current season.

Farscape is the tale of a contemporary American astronaut (Ben Browder) who finds himself on the other side of the universe, befriended by some aliens and ruthlessly hunted by others.

For information: http://farscape.wdsection.com

Contact: sfmedia@wdsection.com

[gothzane]

SCAPERS ARE SUPERIOR!

Last Geek Standing

Story by Chris Vance

Scapers and the SCI FI Channel can agree on one thing these days: Farscape fans are crackers. Since the cancellation of the SCI FI series' fifth season, the Farscape's fans have responded with vehemence and speed that surprised even the protest organizers. "I don't sleep anymore. If I sleep I miss something," protest site operator Nina Lumpp said.

Lumpp was working at home late Sept. 6 when a friend broke the news of the show's cancellation. After reading up on a message board, Lumpp said she had a Save Farscape website up by 2 a.m. the next morning.

Then, the e-mails started.

Less than a week later, Lumpp boasted a staff of 12, a new webmaster, a planned site redesign, and hundreds of e-mails flooding her accounts. "We have people practically shoving money down our throats," she said. Lumpp planned to use the money to take out protest advertising in mainstream publications like Rolling Stone or Entertainment Weekly. One thing is for sure -- Farscape fans have SCI FI's attention.

"Please do not put me up on the website," a SCI FI Channel spokeswoman said this week. "We're getting enough mail as it is. We're already having...issues." A galaxy of mail, fax, telephone, e-mail and telegram campaigns to SCI FI sprang up after the cancellation. One campaign, "Crackers DO Matter," encourages fans to mail crackers and postcard-sized pieces of cracker boxes referencing the episode "Crackers don't matter." The size and fury of the campaigns garnered a flurry of mainstream media coverage as well, Lumpp said. "I mean, CNN. Wow. Saddam Hussein saw. Saddam Hussein and the Pope," she said.

Lumpp participated in protest campaigns when Witchblade and Roswell were cancelled. Unlike Farscape, she said life on the message boards actually went on then. The difference? Lumpp attributed it to Farscape's longer lifespan -- and to the way the network, in the words of some fans, "frelled" the show. "I think it was more the way SCI FI did it to the cast and crew," she said.

Executive producer David Kemper broke the news during a Sept. 6 chat along with actor Ben Browder and Richard Manning. "We are sad, and we are shattered, and we wanted to come online to talk to you," Kemper wrote. The trio encouraged fans to wage "angry, but civil and controlled" campaigns to save the show. "Do it before they take the chainsaws to Moya," Browder wrote.

The Friday chat turned official Monday when SCI FI released a statement confirming the cancellation. Lumpp said the Kemper's shanghaied announcement of the cancellation gave fans time to prepare their reaction -- and then some. "We laughed evilly and did a little dance," she said.

In the prepared statement, SCI FI said a combination of rising production costs and sinking ratings led to the show's cancellation. "There are no bigger fans of Farscape than we here at SCI FI Channel," the statement said. A number of fans questioned the network's reasoning, referencing earlier press releases that bragged of a growing fan base. But SCI FI doesn't plan to elaborate on its statement -- not now or ever -- a network spokeswoman said this week. "We have an official statement from the channel," she said. "There's nothing more to say really."

The Jim Henson Company, which produced Farscape in association with Hallmark Entertainment, released a statement saying there are plans to explore a Farscape film or anime series. A Henson company spokeswoman this week said there are no more details on the future of Farscape but the company will release more information as it becomes available.

Meanwhile, fans have tried to interest other networks in the show. Lumpp's website has encouraged fans to contact Showtime, TNT and UPN. Whatever happens, Lumpp said the cast and crew of Farscape will know the fans care. "I don't want to be greedy, but at the same time I want them to be able to tell their story," she said.

The remainder of Farscape's new episodes from season four will air in January 2003.

[Xpander]

Dedication...damn...

[gothzane]

Crap

Found this on the Ultimate website. I hope it is wrong.

09/16/2002

Agence France-Presse

SYDNEY, Sept 16 (AFP) - Australian-produced "Farscape", one

of the world's most successful science-fiction television

shows, was axed here Monday despite a battle to save it by

millions of fans in many countries.

A barrage of protest by e-mail, widespread publicity and

newspaper advertisements paid for by fans forced the

American Sci- Fi Channel cable network last week to review

its original decision to cancel it.

It was produced by the US-based Jim Henson Co. for Sci-Fi

which blamed sagging ratings for cancelling the

four-year-old series about the intergalactic wanderings of

an astronaut marooned in a hostile territory.

But after a week of negotiations, Farscape producers said

Monday they believed the multi-award winning show had

became a victim of its own high quality and they were

pulling down the sets here.

Its international ratings over four years made Farscape one

of the most successful television shows ever produced in

Australia although it was never successful in Australia.

But it was translated into dozens of languages, had an

audience of around 1.5 million in the United States and a

much bigger audience in Latin America, Europe and Britain

where it was screened by the BBC.

"The Sci-Fi Channel just didn't want it," executive

producer David Kemper told AFP.

"The efforts of the fans to save it didn't go for nought

because they brought everybody together to talk about it

again, but the Sci- Fi Channel never made an offer than

made it viable for a fifth season.

"We tried to look at other options to save the show and the

production team were very highly motivated to keep it on

the air."

But it could not be produced for what Sci-Fi finally

offered -- which was well short of the 1.5 million US

dollars an episode it reputedly cost to produce.

"I know that shows made in Australia don't generally play

in the States at all, but this did and it played almost

everywhere else except for Australia.

"But it was truly an Australian show with a few Yanks, a

few Brits, some French and some Germans and it was

translated into dozens of other languages. I've even seen

it translated into Romanian.

"It is very popular worldwide and I believe we had the best

demographics for Sci-Fi Channel which makes their decision

a little more baffling. Yet we were in the wrong time slot

and we were not promoted properly.

"We were their critically acclaimed show and we brought

them great kudos because we had a very high quality show.

But they may have made a decision that we needed a bigger

audience and it didn't need to be that good."

[gothzane]

'Ask Matt' Covers Cancellation

Ask Matt

Matt Roush

What a week to launch a question-and-answer column. One of my favorite shows — and clearly a favorite of TV Guide Online users — was prematurely canceled when the Sci Fi Channel confirmed it was passing on a previously announced fifth season of its flagship original series Farscape. I received scores of outraged responses, including many thanking me for my immediate Dispatch reaction (a variation of which will appear in the magazine soon as a Roush Rant).

Many of the questions were like the one from W. Leigh, who asks: "Can you tell us the reason Sci Fi decided to cancel Farscape after they promised two more full seasons? Do promises mean nothing anymore?"

My answer to that is that the reasons, as is usual in the high-stakes world of TV (even cable), boiled down largely to ratings and money. By basic cable's standards, Farscape is an expensive show, even with international co-producers and a production that's based in Australia to keep costs under control. The ratings never seemed to be that dire an issue, though, until Sci Fi acquired the long-running Stargate SG-1, which apparently outdrew Farscape by a sizable margin. (Don't ask me why; I gave up watching that show years ago when it was on Showtime. But don't attack me. I have a pretty full viewing plate.)

As for keeping promises, I agree that this is a very bad show of faith by the Sci Fi executives, who had previously announced a pickup of a fifth season. Of all cable entities, you would think Sci Fi would understand the value of nurturing a cult series, especially one as fabulously produced, written and acted as Farscape. The triumph of the bean counters has produced a public relations disaster for the network. It may take a while for them to climb out of this hole.

Tom asks, "Was this late cancellation deliberate? So other networks would have a harder time grabbing it?"

I think that's reading a bit much into the situation. I don't imagine this was an easy decision for Sci Fi to make, and I don't want to think it was done vindictively. The advertising and economic climate do not make it easy for anyone in the TV business, but I don't want to make excuses here. I can't believe some concessions couldn't have been made to allow the show to reach its natural end with a fifth season.

Many respondents have asked me to forward links to sites dedicated to saving Farscape. I can't get personally involved in such campaigns, but I would never discourage fans from writing Sci Fi or other networks. There's no guarantee that a dedicated campaign will pay off, but I'm sure that an apathetic response to the cancellation would ensure Farscape's extinction. Look what happened to Babylon 5, which was able to eke out several TV movies and who knows what else. Farscape may have a future beyond Sci Fi — on another network, in another format (big screen, anime, TV movies) — but the way to see that happen is not to lose faith in the show or in its creative personnel.

[phuturephunk]

. . . Dude, I watched the first and second season, but I kinda trailed after that . . I always love catching it when I'm watching the tube though . . .

[gothzane]

So I get to scifi's headquarters around 7.....the place was more empty then a church in hell....even the pigions went home...just my dumb ass and 500 stupid flyers *sigh*

Ill get em thursday morning =P