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Post by Aerie on Jan 10, 2003 11:25:27 GMT -5
UncleGordo is terrific and an inspiration to all of us.
He has one good idea after another and never gives up.
Give our great reporter, mjwillia, a raise. She keeps the informant-net alive.
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Post by mjwillia on Jan 10, 2003 14:38:48 GMT -5
Here is UncleGordo's Letter that Appeared on Showdown!
It is long so I will have to send it in three parts:
The "Save Dark Angel" effort continues 01-10-2003
Back on 11/12/02 you published an letter from one of our members of our campaign Save The Dark Angel, we have now entered a new phase in our efforts to get a conclusion to the numerous outstanding storylines that were left dangling at the end the episode The Freak Nation. We are now targeting the corporate parent Newscorp and the Independent Affiliates for a campaign of letters and emails to voice are continuing objection as well as boycotting the Fox Network. Here is our latest sample of our letters using the ratings as the strategy to target the affiliates.
January 2, 2003
SINCLAIR BROADCAST GROUP INC. 10706 BEAVER DAM ROAD HUNT VALLEY, MARYLAND 21030 U.S.A.
ATTN. MR. M. WILLIAM BUTLER VICE PRESIDENT/GROUP PROGRAMMING AND PROMOTIONS
DEAR SIR
Welcome to the "ABYSS" known as the "FOX TELEVISION NETWORK", as the corporate owner/operator of a number of the AFFILIATES of the Fox Network your company has been summoned to "center stage" as the target of the next phase of our campaign to achieve our goal for the resurrection of our favorite series in some form whether it is feature movies, a mini series or hopefully a 3rd season and beyond to give the disgruntled loyal and devoted fans closure to the numerous storylines that were left dangling at the end of the episode titled The Freak Nation which was supposed to be the finale episode of the 2nd season, and certainly not the final episode of the series.
For the past seven months our group known as "SAVE THE DARK ANGEL CAMPAIGN" has made phone calls, sent countless letters, and numerous emails to protest the totally unbelievable and unjustified cancellation of the Fox Network's series "Dark Angel", which we believe was orchestrated by Gail Berman the President of Fox Broadcasting Entertainment and the co-called intelligentsia of the programming department. The Fox Network which has totally ignored our efforts to open a dialogue as to their reasoning behind this cancellation, supposately on the premise that the production costs were to high, well we beg to differ, this series was produced in Vancouver B.C. Canada which allowed much of the production costs to be paid in Canadian dollars which when converted to U.S. funds was worth 62-64 cents, which provided savings of 35 to 40% if those same costs were paid in U.S. funds this totally discredits Berman's statement. If the series lost money in the second year than the total responsibility of those losses must be attributed to the actions of Berman and Echevarria in moving the series to the demographic graveyard of Friday night and convincing Cameron to introduce the trans-humans and freaks which required substantial make-up etc. But one thing is sure that the Dark Angel certainly attracted much better ratings/market share and viewing audience than Berman's anointed series Firefly. I think that the numbers that I state later in this letter will more than speak volumes as to the competence of Berman and the rest of the Programming department at the Fox Network.
Our campaign has now moved on from sending protest letters and emails to the Fox Network and we are now targeting the corporate parent of Fox namely Newscorp Limited and the Independent Affiliates of the Fox Network., and we will also be blitzing the major newspapers of the country to get our campaign into the public domain and to cause the Fox Network and their executives as much embarrassment as we can possibly inflict on what is already a dubious public image. The public relation disaster they created by totally ignoring the millions of fans of Dark Angel will ultimately affect the Fox Network and their independent affiliates' bottom lines.
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Post by mjwillia on Jan 10, 2003 14:40:33 GMT -5
Part two of UncleGordo's letter:
The Fox Network are without a shadow of a doubt one of the worse media corporations when it comes to projecting a positive public image, they simply did not and do not have a clue as to merits of the series Dark Angel and the numerous socially charged issues that it dealt with, such as the controversies of illegal diversion of government revenues to fund scientific experimentation on humans, corrupt politicians, and a police department that was open to bribery, and extortion, secret cults that had infiltrated and hi-jacked various government agencies, as well as many social injustices which our society is dealing with today, however James Cameron and Charles Eglee have managed to incorporate the many storylines in the context of a very entertaining and enlightened series without preaching from a soap box. The Dark Angel gave us an altruistic heroine who was struggling to discover her own humanity, family values, and who with her brothers and sisters were created genetically in a covert government laboratory and indoctrinated and trained as children to be the ultimate soldiers at the beckon and call of a evil and corrupt government. However much to the chagrin of the government these kids escaped and became the enemies of their creators who wanted to either recapture or dispose of them by any means, to protect their own illegal and corrupt operations.
One of our members recently opened their letter with the following phrase "I am confused by the unjustified cancellation of my favorite series "Dark Angel", well we are no longer confused we have thoroughly researched the events that led to this cancellation, and we are more than prepared to prove our point that this cancellation was the result a personal vendetta and extremely faulty decision making by the powers in charge at the Fox Network. Gail Berman was appointed President of Fox Broadcasting Entertainment in May of 2000, prior to this appointment she was the Co-Executive Producer of the WB network series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel along with her former associate Joss Whedon, please note this fact will become a very important factor later.
On October 3rd 2000 our favorite series "DARK ANGEL" whose concept our group considers to be truly original and unique. The premiere episode appeared on the network in the 9:00-10:00PM time slot Tuesday night and was seen by 17.4 million viewers and was considered by Time Magazine to be the 10th best program of the year, the series went on to attract an national average weekly audience of 10.24 million viewers and an average weekly ratings/market share of 6.56/10.07 for the complete 2000-2001 season. This series according to web site Thefutoncritic.com was rated the 9th valued series of the aforementioned season. However even though the time slot was demographically ideal for the series to succeed on a ongoing basis and it was deemed to be a rating success by most experts. However at some point of time during the 1st season the actions of Gail Berman and the Co-Executive Producer Rene Echevarria served to sabotage the series by convincing the Co-Creators James Cameron and Charles H Eglee to move the Dark Angel at the beginning of the 2nd season to the demographic graveyard of Friday night at 8:00-9:00PM and then eventually to the 9:00-10:00PM time slot that was even worse demographically, but even so it was still able to attract an national average weekly viewing audience of 6.02 million and an national ratings/market share of 3.83/6.86.
In addition to moving the series they convinced Cameron and Eglee to change the concept of the series by introducing a host of new, genetically altered characters called "trans-humans", which entirely changed the dynamics of the series which had the age demographics of what we believe to be 18 to 49 and beyond, to a series that was targeted to an audience of under the age of 20. Most young people in their late teens or early twenties are out on the town on Friday night, but that fact was all part of the pre-conceived plan by Gail Berman and her former associate Joss Whedon who has been rumored to have said he hated the Dark Angel which he claimed that Cameron named his series to steal the audience of his series called Angel, which is a laughable joke, to compare Angel in any way to the Dark Angel is totally ridiculous.
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Post by mjwillia on Jan 10, 2003 14:43:44 GMT -5
Part three of UncleGordo's letter:
We would now like to deal with the ratings/market share and viewing audiences as they relate to three series which are all part of what appears to be a conspiracy against our favorite series, Dark Angel. In the season 2000-2001 Dark Angel which occupied the time slot of 9:00-10:00PM Tuesday night and attracted a national weekly viewing audience of 10.24 million and an average weekly ratings/market share of 6.56/10.07, we might add that this was accomplished with what we understand was a very meager advertising and promotion campaign. Now lets compare those ratings to Berman's new pet series Twenty-four which occupied the 9:00-!0:00PM time slot in the 2001-2002 season and enjoyed a very aggressive advertising campaign but even so the series could only attract an national average weekly viewing audience of 8.62 million and the average weekly ratings/market of 5.42/8.17, now if we just take a minute to digest those numbers, if our mathematics are correct that is a weekly loss in your viewing audience of 1.62 million but don't we have to project that loss over the 21 seasonal episodes of the two series which amounts to a potential loss of 34.02 million consumers for your advertisers' products or services. Just in case you think our mathematics are incorrect, the total viewing audience of Dark Angel's 21 episodes for 2000-2001 was 229.6 millions for an actual weekly average of 10.9 million and compare that to the total viewing audience of Twenty-four's 24 episodes for 2001-2002 was 206.8 million for an actual weekly average of 8.62 million
The second part of this equation relates to the comparison of Dark Angel to the series Firefly which was created for the Fox Network by Berman's former Co-Executive Producer on Buffy and Angel namely Joss Whedon, I might also add that Gail Berman was also listed as the Co-Executive Producer of Firefly, now this practice might be very normal when it comes to the entertainment business but is it acceptable corporate governance, it most definitely does not meet the criteria for an arm's-length transaction. Now lets deal with the comparison of the two series as it relates to the ratings, during the 2001-2002 season Dark Angel was slotted in the demographic graveyard of 8:00-9:00PM and then eventually moved to the much inferior time slot of 9:00-10:00PM Friday night but still managed to attract an national average viewing audience of 6.02 million and the ratings/market share of 3.83/6.86 and then it was dealt the final indignity of a pre-conceived
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Post by mjwillia on Jan 10, 2003 14:44:59 GMT -5
Part four of UncleGordo's letter:
cancellation in favor of Firefly which in its' ten episodes could only attract an national weekly viewing audience of 4.48 million and average ratings/market share of 2.88/5.20 again a substantial weekly reduction of 1.54 million and a projected loss of 32.34 million potential consumers for your advertisers' products or services over the 21 seasonal episodes. To the credit of the Fox Network these numbers relating to Firefly are now final, and they have finally come to their senses and canceled this ill fated and poorly conceived series. I might also add that many of the disgruntled fans of the Dark Angel have been boycotting the Fox Network since the Dark Angel's cancellation and have vowed to continue until we get a resolution to the lack of closure to the series..
In light of these facts and figures relating to these three series we would suggest a comprehensive review is in order as to all of the programming provided to your corporations by the Fox Network, just look at the numbers that the series Twenty-four is attracting this season, namely an national weekly average audience of 10.57 million and the average ratings/market share of 6.36/9.62 and these numbers are the results of a very aggressive advertising and promotion campaign, but compare those numbers to the numbers that Dark Angel got in the 2000-2001 season with substantially less advertising and promotion. I might also add that according to reports that Berman and Fox are glowing over the ratings for Twenty-four, which they claim makes that the series a rating success, but Newscorp did the same on their web site in their Business Description of June 2001 with the Dark Angel, and look what happen to that series at the end of its' second season.
I hope that you assess this letter in the manner in which it was written, this letter is not a personal protest, but was written as a representative of the millions of disgruntled fans who devoted countless hours to the series Dark Angel over a two year period only to be cheated and betrayed by the Fox Network with the cancellation which left the series with many outstanding storylines and without closure. All of the facts, figures and information stated in this letter have been thoroughly researched and are all related to the U.S. television viewing market, and whether I reside in Canada or Timbuktu is immaterial.
In closing this letter might be your first introduction to our campaign to resurrect the Dark Angel in some form but I can assure you that it will not be the last, our efforts have been ongoing for the past seven months and we have no intentions of quitting now, we are going to do everything in our power to entice the Fox Network into being a responsive corporation and to clean up their public image and start treating their viewers properly, that is if they want to have viewers in the future.
Signed
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Post by sebkg on Jan 10, 2003 22:16:07 GMT -5
UncleGordo's letter is extremely intelligent, well written and motivating. It should be posted and sent to as many related sources as possible.
Well done UncleGordo!!!
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Post by Star on Jan 10, 2003 23:23:12 GMT -5
Time for a new thread - I'll open one to continue the discussion. The website updates should be up next week including new postcards and Uncle Gordo's letters.
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