Moonlight Renewal Tips: Don't Send Gimicky Items To The Powers That Be
April/01/2008 14:56 Filed in: Renewal
Every time a show is deemed to be "in trouble" fans
band together, as they should, to try and let TPTB
know how much they love their favorite series. I have
always believed that a well placed snail mail letter
or postcard is the best thing that can be sent to
make your feelings known.
TV Writer, journalist, and blogger Denis McGrath has put together a great list of suggestions that fans should heed, and #1 on the list is DON'T SEND CRAP!
Here's an except (and go here for the complete list):
"1) Don't Send Crap.
It seems like a good idea, and kind of hooky -- find something that's associated with the show and send it on in in droves to "show your support." Jericho fans sent nuts, and yup, every news story about the show mentioned the damn nuts. But the nuts are beside the point. It's a bauble.
The problem is that now everybody wants to send some tchochke. And man, that's a big mistake.
So, Blood Ties fans, please, don't send pints of blood or fake fangs or anything. What you say in a letter is way more important and powerful than any hunk of junk you push through the postal system.
I have less of an opinion on other "organizing cries" like raising money for a charity or an ad or something -- though really, my humanist side says that it's always better to give to charity than try to buy an ad in Variety -- but when it comes to the crap through the mail stuff, I'm firm. It's a bad idea.
Because I've seen who it goes to.
The people who have the power to greenlight or un-cancel a show are never the people that have to deal with the cases of nuts or steel rods or Mars bars or fake vomit or whatever else gets sent by the skidload. It never gets anywhere near them. Instead, the likely outcome is that you're going to make some personal assistant or mailroom person's day absolute hell. For weeks. They get paid crap, and now they have to deal with your crap. It's not fair. They can't do anything about the show. And they're the ones who suffer.
But there's also an extra-special reason not to send crap. See, those powerless people? Even though they're powerless, they have something you don't. In whatever, small way -- they have access. The personal assistant to Susanne Daniels, President of Lifetime Networks, talks to her all day, every day. The mail gets delivered in the company each and every day.
Now when I worked at a network, occasionally, very impulsively -- someone very big would ask the "little people" what they thought of something. You know, to be populist.
What do you think they're going to say if they've spent weeks dealing with your crap?
That's right. It's only natural. It's only human. They are going to HATE YOUR SHOW. And they are going to be GLAD IT WAS CANCELED. They will not defend the show, because you have MADE THEIR LIVES HELL.
I have seen this happen with my own eyes. It's even happened to me."
So, please, if you really enjoy Moonlight and would like to see another season. Send them a nice snail mail letter or postcard. The little people will thank you for it.
...and if common sense weren't enough, take a moment to look at the outcome of the Jericho campaign. CBS received 50,000 lbs of nuts, reversed their cancelation decision and produced a second season that people quickly tuned out. I don't think CBS is going to be swayed by food items, again, any time soon.
TV Writer, journalist, and blogger Denis McGrath has put together a great list of suggestions that fans should heed, and #1 on the list is DON'T SEND CRAP!
Here's an except (and go here for the complete list):
"1) Don't Send Crap.
It seems like a good idea, and kind of hooky -- find something that's associated with the show and send it on in in droves to "show your support." Jericho fans sent nuts, and yup, every news story about the show mentioned the damn nuts. But the nuts are beside the point. It's a bauble.
The problem is that now everybody wants to send some tchochke. And man, that's a big mistake.
So, Blood Ties fans, please, don't send pints of blood or fake fangs or anything. What you say in a letter is way more important and powerful than any hunk of junk you push through the postal system.
I have less of an opinion on other "organizing cries" like raising money for a charity or an ad or something -- though really, my humanist side says that it's always better to give to charity than try to buy an ad in Variety -- but when it comes to the crap through the mail stuff, I'm firm. It's a bad idea.
Because I've seen who it goes to.
The people who have the power to greenlight or un-cancel a show are never the people that have to deal with the cases of nuts or steel rods or Mars bars or fake vomit or whatever else gets sent by the skidload. It never gets anywhere near them. Instead, the likely outcome is that you're going to make some personal assistant or mailroom person's day absolute hell. For weeks. They get paid crap, and now they have to deal with your crap. It's not fair. They can't do anything about the show. And they're the ones who suffer.
But there's also an extra-special reason not to send crap. See, those powerless people? Even though they're powerless, they have something you don't. In whatever, small way -- they have access. The personal assistant to Susanne Daniels, President of Lifetime Networks, talks to her all day, every day. The mail gets delivered in the company each and every day.
Now when I worked at a network, occasionally, very impulsively -- someone very big would ask the "little people" what they thought of something. You know, to be populist.
What do you think they're going to say if they've spent weeks dealing with your crap?
That's right. It's only natural. It's only human. They are going to HATE YOUR SHOW. And they are going to be GLAD IT WAS CANCELED. They will not defend the show, because you have MADE THEIR LIVES HELL.
I have seen this happen with my own eyes. It's even happened to me."
So, please, if you really enjoy Moonlight and would like to see another season. Send them a nice snail mail letter or postcard. The little people will thank you for it.
...and if common sense weren't enough, take a moment to look at the outcome of the Jericho campaign. CBS received 50,000 lbs of nuts, reversed their cancelation decision and produced a second season that people quickly tuned out. I don't think CBS is going to be swayed by food items, again, any time soon.