Every now and again a show with a cult following will be on the verge of getting the axe and you'll hear a story about fans banding together to try and save it. There are petitions, mass mailings, websites, and all sorts of projects involved. Unfortunately, more often than not, those campaigns are full of sound and fury, signifying nothing, and the shows disappear anyway. So, it's nice to hear a story about fans that actually pulled it off. American fans of the BBC soap EastEnders sprang into action when WETA, the Washington D.C. PBS, threatened to cancel the show because of acquisition costs. After being told that two years of air time would ring up at $50,000, the group presented the station with 143 checks that added up to $52,504. That's putting your money where your nutty TV obsession is.
The TV Squad Podcast: Vik Sahay of Chuck, Oprah talk, brutal timeslots, and more!
TV Squad Ten: Top Ten ESPN shows from worst to first
Andy Richter: The TV Squad Interview
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-27-2007 @ 6:12PM
michael said...
No, the headline is "PBS shakesdown its customers. Tony Soprano proud"
WETA could have threatened to, um, what is the word, oh, yeah, cancel wink, wink another show. Why did WETA choose East Enders? Becuase WETA knew its fans would actually shell out $50,000.
Fans of Painting Made Easy would have shrugged at the $50,000 shakedown offer, and asked for more pudding.
Yum. Pudding.
Those fans who poined up $52,000 and change, your new name is bitch.
Reply