- Television activist
A television activist is someone who fights for the continuation of a television series. In some cases, a group of television activists have succeeded in keeping a show on the air, even if the network has stated an intention to cancel. A show may have a cult following of very loyal viewers, and may not show up as a "success" in the initial
Nielsen ratings , but a group of committed fans can convince the network to give it one more chance, allowing it to eventually become a success.Examples of Television Activism
Star Trek
Probably, the most famous example of successful television activism is the case of . The show's ratings were lackluster, and NBC threatened the show with cancellation during the second season. However, a huge letter-writing campaign by the devoted fans led to the continuation of the show for another year. Although the show was cancelled after the third season, by then enough episodes had been produced to allow for syndication.
Star Trek , along with its spin-off shows, is currently one of the most successful TV franchises of all time.Star Trek: Enterprise
During the first two seasons of what was then called , ratings steadily declined to less than half of their initial numbers. For the series' third season, rather drastic measures were taken to increase popularity: the name was changed to "Star Trek: Enterprise," the theme music's tempo was changed, and, most importantly, the episodic format was abandoned in exchange for a season-long
story arc that paralleled current events. A darker tone ensued. When the ratings still did not improve, the show was threatened with cancellation but was instead moved to the deadly Friday night lineup. Midway through the critically-acclaimed fourth season, in early 2005, cancellation was announced. A massive effort was undertaken to keep the show on the air, ranging from protests, letter-writing campaigns, and even fundraising, to have fans finance the production of a fifth season. The efforts were unsuccessful.Arrested Development
Another example of television activism is the case of Arrested Development. This show was critically acclaimed, but suffered from poor ratings. FOX threatened the show with cancellation early in the third season, in the Fall of 2005. However, then-law student
Jay Surdukowski led a group of his fellow law students at theUniversity of Michigan in a crusade to save the show. This led to some national press attention. [http://www-personal.umich.edu/~darko/Arrested.html] However, FOX ended up cancelling the show, and, especially in light of the decision by the show's creatorMitch Hurwitz to quit making the show, it looks like the show has indeed come to an end.Farscape
Another example of television activism was that of
Farscape . Many fans were displeased at how the ending given by Farscape was a simple 'kill off' of the main characters followed by a 'To be Continued?'. Many fans then began to mount a massive letter, phone, e-mail, and advertisement campaign which hoped to pressure Sci-Fi into restoring the show or to ask for another, more financially solvent, network to take over. This eventually culminated into a two hour miniseries known as .
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