Thought of the Day for TPTB
"It's Just A Television Show" by Elfin
I know people who are an inch away from "going postal" if they hear this phrase just One. More. Time. Is Star Wars just a movie? Were the Beatles just a pop band? Was Elvis Presley just a singer? Something that moves people to express themselves in a creative or vocal manner is not "just" anything.
Human beings have feelings. We are stimulated by everything around us. Including television.
We have the unique ability to care about fictional characters. Soap operas these days make headline news. Not the actors, but the characters. Who shot J.R.? Who tried to murder Phil Mitchell? Whatever happened to Dirty Den?
The country mourned when Colin Dexter killed off Inspector Morse.
In January 2002, MGM and Gekko Productions subjected Stargate SG1's Daniel Jackson to a lethal does of radiation and had him eventually leave the set in a place of bright SFX. They did this on UK television, and in twenty-four hours, over 1000 people called MGM in the US and complained.
For those who knew it was coming, there was still the grief and the heartbreak.
The internet campaign was launched in 2001, a campaign that is still running hard and strong after over eight months. We for I am honoured to be among their numbers are organised and focused.
But if this took anyone by surprise, then I'd be amazed. For this has been a long time coming, and Daniel Jackson's fate was the last in a long line of straws.
After three years, Sci-Fi Channel's Forever Knight was cancelled. The ending was changed while it was being filmed. Daddy vampire LaCroix, it was obviously and thankfully decided, wouldn't necessarily stake his beloved son Nicholas after chasing him around the world for 800 years.
One of the most unique and original series ever to come out from the US, Brimstone, was cancelled as they filmed their thirteenth episode, an episode that fans to this day want filmed and broadcast.
It all started, of course, in the UK in 1981. Blakes 7 ended with only one member of its eclectic crew left standing. Surrounded by armed guards, the screen went blank and all we heard was gunfire. Did Avon survive or was he gunned down? Since that night, fanfiction writers have formed their own theories and explored their own endings.
Forever Knight was allowed to end with the same uncertain ending, thus initiating an eternal debate between the fandom's separate factions. The campaign to `Save The Knight' still battles on.
What the executives of television production companies don't seem to be able to wrap their brains around (and that's odd, being as this is their business) is that audiences have it within them to get passionate over shows and characters. They push a show for years, encouraging the audience to get involved, to read all about their favourite characters on the internet and in magazines, in some cases to attend conventions. And then they wonder, why they axe a character or series, why the fans complain.
These days, with the power of the internet, fans, who are fed up of being told what they want to watch, what story lines they enjoy, what kind of character should interest them, have a way of voicing their views and opinions.
The demographic of sci-fi viewers, for example, has altered since Star Trek, The Original Series. But for some reason, television executives don't seem to have noticed. We're all still geeky guys with no permanent job, married to their computer. If there are any female viewers, we all size 10s, wear mini-skirts and faint whenever we see a good-looking hunk of a man in control.
I'm twenty-nine years old. I'm a team leader at one of the UK's leading telecomms companies, with a background in software development and a degree. I live with my boyfriend of six years in a house we jointly own, I drive a very fast car and have no kids, therefore I also have a great deal of disposable income.
I do not faint at the site of a gorgeous hunk carrying a large gun. I would like to define `gorgeous' in fact. Because it takes more than a handsome face saying `I'll save you, baby' in a deep sexy voice to get me to swoon. I need sensitivity, vulnerability, good hair, a great sense of humour, big blue eyes and a cute butt. An archaeologist. Or a Jedi.
Okay, so I'm referring to MGM's ingenious idea to replace the beloved Daniel Jackson with the man partially responsible for his death and completely responsible for grinning too much. If anyone from MG is listening we don't hate him because he isn't Michael Shanks. We hate him because he's a grinning idiot. No offence.
But other shows have made the same mistake. The X-Files replacing Mulder with Dogget when they should have just pulled the plug. Forever Knight wiping out half its fan base by deciding that Scanke was too old and the show needed some new blood.
Fans are starting to fight back because that's who they are fans. We know what we like and we don't like being patronised.
The Save Daniel Jackson campaign has made a lot of noise. They've made a lot of phone calls. So many in fact that MGM have had to employ a PR agency to deal with them all. A word to the dumb? Don't call your fans `annoying'. We're your customers. And we are always right.
Whatever happens next, the campaign has made its point. Fans will no longer put up with being spoon fed what middle-aged guys in suits sitting in Californian and New York high-rises think they want to watch.
SDJ has proved that it you make enough noise and you know your facts, you can get noticed.
And it's done something else too. It has turned a group of strangers from all over the globe into a community.
That has to be worth something.
By Elfin
8th June 2002
Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of Stargate (II) Productions, SCI FI Channel, Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. All blog entries represent the opinion of the poster. All editorials represent the opinion of the author. All linked content represents the opinion of the linked site's webmaster. Copyright on all articles/editorials/blog entries belongs to the original author. Offer void where prohibited. Please remain seated while the aircraft is in motion. Warning: Coffee will be hot. A moose once bit my sister.
