I have to admit, this made me chuckle.
You know how you latch on to a show that gets so-so ratings (Arrested Development, Jericho, Moonlight, etc.) and then the show is canceled and you're forced to scramble fans together to send nuts or whatever to the network to demonstrate how much you want the show to stick around? Well, why wait until the show is canceled to do that? In fact, why wait until the show even premieres?
Fans of the new FOX/Joss Whedon show Dollhouse (can you be a "fan" if the show hasn't debuted yet?) have already started a "Save Our Show" campaign, because they fear that FOX will cancel the show quickly, like they did another Whedon show, Firefly.
This could be the next big thing on the web: savvy TV fans who know that a show is doomed before it airs so they start a campaign to save it. This could actually have some impact. It's probably something that TV fans should have done years ago. Of course, intense fan support for a show won't mean much if the ratings aren't there when the show premieres. Dollhouse, by the way, doesn't premiere until January of 2009.
[via TV Tattle]
Seven greatest hand cannons in TV history
TV Squad previews NBC's new shows (part 1)
TV 101: How ESPN controls the world and what the other networks can learn from it
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-27-2008 @ 6:03PM
eugene said...
It's Whedon's own damn fault for continuing to do business with Fox.
Reply
5-27-2008 @ 6:15PM
Naf said...
Bob, I thought you were supposed to be all up with TV and all that stuff. Fans actually did this with Lost before it aired, after the Pilot leaked online. People who downloaded the pilot saw that it was likely to be something a network would cancel pretty quickly, so there was quite an active "SAVE LOST" campaign during the summer. It's a good thing the show had such a big audience when it first aired, there's no way the show would have gotten the respect it gets now if it had premiered with its current ratings.
5-27-2008 @ 8:48PM
Oreo said...
I was just about to say that Naf. LOST had the same thing and after they asked a creator what they thought of that and he made fun of 7th Heaven. Good interview.
5-28-2008 @ 5:27PM
Jennifer said...
Well, it's not like there are so many other television megacorps out there that want to work with him either. Options are limited.
5-27-2008 @ 6:17PM
Midnight13 said...
Its silly but its also not silly. Its good to put the word out. "Dollhouse" has cult series written all over it. The problem is "cult" shows rarely survive anymore. Shows needs to be a breakout hit from episode one. Networks are too quick to cancel shows after only two or three episodes if the show isn't a top twenty show. And when you read what some of the people who post on here who criticize the show because it sounds like "X-men/Dark Angel/etc." fill in the blank with your own sci-fi title. Is it any more strange to want to hype up the positive aspects of the series, then it is to trash it before it airs?
Reply
5-27-2008 @ 7:35PM
willmore2000 said...
Publicity stunt?
Reply
5-27-2008 @ 8:28PM
Brian said...
Gosh, I have to wonder why no one thought to try to get people to actually WATCH THE SHOW. Want to save Dollhouse? Make sure it gets excellent ratings!
No, no... that just makes too much sense. What was I thinking?
Reply
5-27-2008 @ 8:44PM
oddsphere said...
they should cancel this Dark Angel rip off.
Reply
5-27-2008 @ 9:58PM
ProgGrrl said...
I thought this was more of a "watch the show in droves so that the ratings will be made of awesome" type of fan campaign?
Isn't that a good thing?
*confused*
Reply
5-27-2008 @ 11:33PM
LW said...
Somewhere here lies a Bush Admin., planning ahead, exit strategy joke...
Reply
5-28-2008 @ 12:01AM
Matthew said...
Even as a Whedon fan... sometimes Whedon fans annoy me. We get it, "Firefly" was mishandled. That was 6 years ago. Who in the hell is still even there from 6 years ago? You've got a completely different executive in place, and the President of Entertainment is the guy who stood by "Friday Night Lights" and "The Office" when others would have canceled them in a second. He's also clearly a genre fan, as evidenced by being the guy who put "Surface" "Heroes", "Journeyman", "Chuck" and now "Fringe" and "Dollhouse" on the air. It's really time to stop beating that dead horse. Let the poor thing rest in peace. "Dollhouse" will get a fair shake, as evidenced by half a decade of Kevin Reilly's work as a TV executive. If it doesn't work out this time around, it's just as likely that the show itself didn't work.
Reply
5-28-2008 @ 6:30AM
Argus said...
I agree. I can see how Whedon would be touched by this, but at the same time, while I would like people to be excited by my work, I think I would be a little annoyed if they automatically assumed that it would be amazing, as it could signal that when they did see the work they wouldn't appreciate it for what it really is. (Which is why die-hard fans of things often enjoy things everyone else agrees is crap.)
The annoying rock band in the next room won't stop playing pachebel's canon.
6-13-2008 @ 9:28PM
Hank Tree said...
This isn't new. They was a Save Lost site open before Lost aired.
Reply