If you're a regular viewer of the BBC sci-fi series Torchwood, you're more than aware of the recent dust up between fans and writers over a major character death in this past season's finale. Angry fans immediately ran to message boards to express their displeasure with the direction the show has taken, but now, that angry fan reaction seems to have taken a sudden and serious turn for the worse.
Before we get too far into this, I'm putting a spoiler warning on this post, even though the episode in question has already aired in the U.S. For anyone still saving it on their DVR, beware. It's a biggie.
Gleek isn't an alien language or the newest cast member of The Real World. (Though it was the monkey sidekick on Super Friends). It's a geeky fan of Glee, FOX's musical dramedy series. Glee + geek = Gleek.
This works with other shows, too. If you're a geek about Lost, you're a Glost. If you're a geek about Chuck, then you're a Ghuck. If you're a geek about Greek, then you're a...Grreek? OK, so it doesn't always work.
Ya gotta give Drew Carey a lot of credit. Going into his third season on The Price is Right, he's been able to step in the shoes of an icon, Bob Barker, and do a good job. He's also his part to drag the 38-year-old show into the 21st century, whether it wants to be here or not.
No, they're not sending nuts, bolts or robot arms to Fox executive's doors. Instead, fans of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles are joining a creative campaign called "Sarah Connor Made Me Do It" to help save the show.
Here's the idea, thought up by our friends at io9.com: TSCC fans are being asked to take photos of themselves posing with products that sponsor the show and posting them on a Flickr group. io9 says they'll make sure Fox and Warner Bros. see the photos and feel the buying power of TSCC fans.
So if you drive a Dodge Ram or love stuffing your face with Whoppers and want to see a third season of TSCC, take a picture and upload it to the group.
Something amazing has happened recently in the TV media: the critics have discovered CBS's stealth ratings champ, NCIS, and it's now cool to come out of the closet and declare your fandom. Articles in USA Today, the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times have reported the fact that not only is NCIS consistently in the top five of the weekly Nielsen ratings, but it's also a smart, well-acted and compelling TV show.
There are reasons to admire NCIS, and if you haven't been watching, here's five really good reasons to check out the show. I know that before I got coerced into giving NCIS a try, I didn't think I'd like it, but boy, was I wrong.
Punches were thrown, names were called, hearts were broken, but the TV Squad team has made its decision. Not only did Moonlight win the Readers Choice, but we decided that the fans of the show are the most scarily hardcore out of the five nominees.
This was a tough decision, with both the fans of Jericho and members of the Colbert Nation putting up a fair fight. All three groups have done considerable work for charity and have made their dedication well-known through various bizarre acts of fan-love. However, the overwhelming excitement for Moonlight has been compared to the likes of the the Beatlemania era. For a show that has lasted only one season, that's pretty darn impressive.
I experienced some of this manic fanaticism first-hand. As I have mentioned before, I attended the Moonlight panel at this year's New York Comic-Con. I spent the majority of the session in the secluded balcony seating, as I was genuinely a little freaked out by the shrieking horde below. Luckily, I had made it up there before the stars of the show, Alex O'Loughlin and Jason Dohring, appeared onstage. My eardrums would have burst otherwise, I swear. However, even that couldn't compare to the intensity of the crowd's reactions during the clips from the show itself. Words cannot describe the shrill, absolute glee that filled the room, especially when Shannyn Sossamon got a chair leg through the chest. It's stuff like this that drives the Moonlight fans crazy:
Fans have also teamed up with Red Cross in organizing dozens of blood drives across the country. Over 3,000 fans promised to donate a pint each in an effort to show their support for a possible Season Two. Even show star O'Loughlin joined in, serving as the official spokesman for the effort, as the drive followed him through various promotional appearances.
What is it about vampire-themed things that make fans extra nutty? Anne Rice's work has had incredible followings, the mediocre Twilight series has an unusually large fanbase and Sesame Street's Count has groupies lined up 'round the block. I guess ladies can't resist broody, pale men and their sharpened canines. If you need some convincing, check out some full episodes at CBS.com and reviews right here on TV Squad.
Okay, maybe that's not the best way to put it. According to White, he has been a hardcore Who fan for most of his life, going as far as spending years and years building a K-9, cyberman and Tardis in addition to collecting figurines. After a lot of troubles with bipolar disorder and alcoholism in his adult years, he found God and ceased his self-destructive ways. Despite claiming that his fandom was the only thing holding him together in his rough times, White is now dumping his Who love and toys, calling it a symbol of the "greatest lie that Satan ever told." He'll be selling his entire collection of goodies, worth an estimated £7000, in magazines and on eBay.
Hey football fans, how about games streamed directly to your computer?
Yeah, well, don't get too excited yet, cause it'll cost you. The streaming is part of DirecTV's NFL Sunday Ticket Package, so unless you already have that, you're out of luck. And, if you do have the $269 Sunday Ticket package, upgrading to the SuperFan package that includes the online streaming will cost an additional $99. Also, it only works with Windows XP and Vista and Internet Explorer.
Angry fans have quite a bit of power over CBS these days. The network tried a little experiment last week with Craig Ferguson's talk show, and it ended up failing miserably. Fans probably noticed that at about 3 minutes into the show, Craig and Co. broke for a commercial. The commercial break forced Ferguson to pause in the middle of his monologue for a word from sponsors and then resume his routine afterwards.
I want to know who on earth thought this was a good idea in the first place? It sounds like some money-grubbing accountant's idea... not someone who actually watches late night television. Amazingly, Craig agreed to the experiment. Fans got pissed off and inundated his show with angry e-mails, forcing an end to the I-coulda-told-you-it-was-a-bad-idea experiment. Now that it's kapput, Ferguson says "I will never do it again. It is over."
What a difference 24 hours make. Yesterday, it looked like fans of Jerichomight have been successful in their campaign to resurrect the canceled show. Today, it looks like they really are successful. Both Variety and the LA Times are reporting that CBS is in hurried negotiations with producers, writers and actors to resuscitate the show for an eight episode run, to return mid-season.
"The idea would not be to bring it back for eight and out, but to bring it back for eight with the hope that it would keep going," executive producer Carol Barbee told the LA Times. Barbee also said that when the fans initially responded to the cancellation, CBS suggested a two-hour movie to wrap up the series. But Barbee said 'no', because that wouldn't do justice to the series.
Barbee also makes an excellent point about the way networks are going to have to start looking at ratings. She says, they're going to need to consider online fan communities and online viewings and, "I think they have to understand that the Nielsens are not telling the story anymore." The networks need to find the coveted 18-49 demographic by going online. I thought they had figured that out by putting so many shows online, but apparently CBS wasn't taking that online community seriously. **UPDATE: CBS officially announcesJericho is back... for seven episodes. The full letter is in comments (Thanks, Mark!)
Jericho fans aren't just sending sternly-worded e-mails and signing petitions to save the show, they've also launched a 'Send NUTS' campaign that is really picking up steam. This fan website concocted the campaign after CBS announced Jericho's cancellation at last week's Upfronts presentation. The reason for the nuts is based on something a Jericho character, Jake, said when New Bern's commander asked him to surrender. He said "Nuts!" That also happens to be a famous response given by WWII Gen. MacAuliffe when asked to surrender at the Battle of the Bulge.
Fans have enlisted the help of a family-owned New Jersey nut company called NutsOnline, whose employees are working overtime to handle the sudden increase in demand for nuts. The business is taking orders and sending bulk shipments to CBS. As of Tuesday, nearly 5,000 pounds of nuts have been ordered and/or shipped. You can order here if you, too, think CBS is NUTS for canceling Jericho.
*Update: NutsOnline is donating $.10 on each pound of nuts shipped to rebuild Greensburg, Kansas, which was destroyed by a tornado earlier this month.
Fans can go to this page on The Tonight Show Web site and create their own montage using clips and audio from the last fifteen years. I've been scouring the site and have not found an option that allows you to insert Carson back into every episode that has aired since his retirement, which is what myself and many others would like to do.
It was also announced about three years ago that Leno would be stepping down as host in 2009 and that Late Night host Conan O'Brien would take over as the new host. Given the mercurial nature of television, it will be interesting to see if that remains the case in two years.
Trekkies aren't the only group who gather together to celebrate their favorite show: this year in Nashville fans of The Dukes of Hazzard, often described as "The Star Trek of the American South*," will come together along with the entire surviving cast of the popular CBS series which ran from 1979 to 1985.
Ben "Cooter" Jones, who started the event back in 2001 will be in attendance at CMT Dukesfest 2007 along with cast members John Schneider (Bo Duke), Tom Wopat (Luke Duke), Catherine Bach (Daisy Duke), James Best (Rosco P. Coltrane), Sonny Shroyer (Deputy Enos) and Rick Hurst (Deputy Cletus).
That's why, in honor of his well-known pleas to help control the pet population, I'll be uploading footage of myself castrating a dachshund.
Anyway, on May 16 at 8:00 p.m., folks can tune in to a special nighttime showing of The Price is Right in which the winner will walk away with one million dollars. The following night, May 17, fans can catch the hour-long retrospective Bob Barker: A Celebration of 50 Years on Television. Some user-submitted videos will be featured during the special, and others will air during the final week of Bob's stint as host of the long-running program (no date has been given yet for Barker's departure).
Recently I decided to see what all this Battlestar Galactica noise was about and Netflixed the first couple seasons. As of this writing I'm about midway through the second season and I have to say that yes, it is as good as people say. I don't mean it's good by the sometimes lower standards of other sci-fi fare, I mean it's just a good television program period. Consider me frakking converted.
If you're a regular viewer of the BBC sci-fi series Torchwood, you're more than aware of the recent dust up between fans and writers over a major character death in this past season's finale. Angry fans immediately ran to message boards to express their displeasure with the direction the show has taken, but now, that angry fan reaction seems to have taken a sudden and serious turn for the worse.
Ya gotta give Drew Carey a lot of credit. Going into his third season on The Price is Right, he's been able to step in the shoes of an icon, Bob Barker, and do a good job. He's also his part to drag the 38-year-old show into the 21st century, whether it wants to be here or not.
No, they're not sending nuts, bolts or robot arms to Fox executive's doors. Instead, fans of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles are joining a creative campaign called "Sarah Connor Made Me Do It" to help save the show. 
Something amazing has happened recently in the TV media: the critics have discovered CBS's stealth ratings champ, 
Ladies and gentlemen and vampires, the winner of the TV Squad 
A fellow named Simon White is 
Hey football fans, how about games streamed directly to your computer?
Angry fans have quite a bit of power over CBS these days. The network tried a little experiment last week with Craig Ferguson's talk show, and it ended up failing miserably. Fans probably noticed that at about 3 minutes into the show, Craig and Co. broke for a commercial. The commercial break forced Ferguson to pause in the middle of his monologue for a word from sponsors and then resume his routine afterwards.
What a difference 24 hours make. 
Jericho fans aren't just sending sternly-worded e-mails and signing petitions to save the show, they've also launched a 
Can you believe 
Trekkies aren't the only group who gather together to celebrate their favorite show: this year in Nashville fans of The Dukes of Hazzard, often described as "The Star Trek of the American South*," will come together along with the entire surviving cast of the popular CBS series which ran from 1979 to 1985.
CBS is not only broadcasting a send-off to game show legend Bob Barker, they're asking fans to 
Recently I decided to see what all this Battlestar Galactica noise was about and Netflixed the first couple seasons. As of this writing I'm about midway through the second season and I have to say that yes, it is as good as people say. I don't mean it's good by the sometimes lower standards of other sci-fi fare, I mean it's just a good television program period. Consider me frakking converted.
The TV Squad Podcast: Linda Purl talks about The Office, we talk spoilers, and more
Ask TV Squad: Ghost Whisperer and more!
The TV Squad Podcast: Bill Scheft of The Late Show, Cake Boss, Mad Men and more
