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Just though I'd let you all know about a story done here in Lansing. Our local newspaper entertainment guy (Mike Hughes) ran a short clip asking people to write in and gripe about which cancellations really peeved them, so of course I wrote in :-) and they finally got around to doing the story in the Sunday paper on the front page of the entertainment section. Mr. Hughes does seem to get about 4 articles/day in the paper so I can see why it took awhile. I think they claim a circulation of 150,000 on Sundays.

There was a ranking of how many letters they got for various shows and the list was as follows:

Christy 14
Due South 10
Northern Exposure 9
Amazing Grace 5
The Commish 5
Matlock 4
Earth2 3
Under Suspicion 3
My So-Called Life 2
VR-5 2
Thunder Alley 1
The Critic 1
Burke's Law 1
Blossom 1

In the article he discusses a bit about the first few shows and usually has one sentence from someones letter. He then mentions that CBS is such a strong market here locally that even bad shows do faily well around here (he wasn't judging, just making a general statement since the top three are all CBS shows). Then he discusses VR-5 and MSCL and said that the network execs really wanted the shows to suceed but viewers just didn't seem to be watching. Then he quotes someone who wrote in about MSCL and they said (I'll now just go straight from the article - names have been changed...except of course for mine)

"I think the problem is not only the networks' system, but the number of discerning viewers," Jones said.

"If there were more people who appreciated truly good shows, and not as many who were satisfied with low-IQ programs, there would be a much better balance between the two."

What do you do? "It would be good to write anyone that might listen," said Jane Doe of Perry.

Raman Pfaff of Haslett took that to a high-tech level.

Pfaff, a scientist, has a strong favorite: " 'Earth 2' has strong male and female characters, who operate on equal footing, exhibiting strenghts and weaknesses..."

"The show presented science fiction in a more realistic manner than the large variety of sci-fi shows. Problems were not solved every week with some gee-whiz technological gizmo..."

Others have agreed. A group called Earth 2 Foundations includes Canadians, Australians, and Americans, Pfaff said.

"We have written, telephoned, faxed and E-mailed NBC, the other networks and Earth 2's commercial sponsors, with no discernable effect."

The E2 stuff in the article made up about 1/9 th of the entire article and was the final concluding section. No E2 pictures were included in the article. So that was our Sunday paper - now if I could only look forward to E2 tonight :(

THE STATE NEWSPAPER (6/18/95)
On The Tube, Commentary, by Doug Nye
Earth2 Fans Unite.

When NBC announced last month that the sci-fi series "Earth2" was cancelled after only one season, the show's fans were stunned. But they haven't spent the past few weeks sitting around moaning. They have rocketed into action and launched a letter-writing campaign to save the series, which aired Sundays at 7pm on NBC.

They've founded a fan club, "Earth2 Foundations," dedicated to renewing "E2." All members and fans of the series are urged to write Jane Lodato, Universal Television and Marketing, 100 Universal City Plaza Bldg., 500-9, Universal City, Calif. 91608-1085. Earth2 Foundations, includes more than 700 fans on the Internet and offline. There are no fees or dues. If you're interested, contact ChristyL21@aol.com (KissAMuse@aol.com) with any "E2" questions or suggestions.

It's not the first time fans of a certain show have undertaken such a task. "Cagney & Lacey" was axed then revived by CBS because of the avalanche of fan mail. The main reason the original "Star Trek" survived on NBC for three seasons, was the vocal fan support. The network had planned to cancel it after one season.

And it was a letter-writing campaign that convinced Fox to produce an "Alien Nation" two-hour movie long after the series was cancelled.

(Reprinted by kind permission from the author.)