On Saturday morning a friend of mine sent me the information that the Sci-Fi series Farscape had been cancelled. This came as a complete shock since the show was just recently picked up by Sci-Fi for a 4th and 5th season.

They just wrapped shooting on the 4th season when this announcement came. Farscape has consistently been the among the top rated shows for the Sci-Fi channel as well as one of its cornerstone pieces of programming. It has several Emmy and Saturn nominations. It is considered among many to be one of the best shows on the air, and certainly the best sci-fi show on the air. The ratings grew 20%-40% annually. The last episode, the mid season 4 cliff hanger achieved a 1.5 rating, excellent for a basic cable show. I went out in search of information. What I found was amazing. I was basically at ground zero in a grass roots movement to save a TV show. The cast, crew, producers, Brian Henson and even many people at the Sci-Fi channel were shocked, hurt and angry at the sudden cancellation of a show they had just received a green light on.

For the past three days I have stayed logged into the IRC channel #farscape on the Sci-Fi channel’s IRC server. This channel usually has between 30-40 people in it at any given time. Sine Saturday morning the numbers have been between 300-450, around the clock. In the morning when I check in, the Aussies are saying goodnight. The story of the cancellation has been unfolding quickly as members of the cast and producers join in the chat with information that they have. Apparently the series is paid for from several sources. The Sci-Fi channel pays for about 50% of it, and is owned by or is a part of USA networks, which is owned by Vivendi Universal. EM TV, who owns Jim Henson Productions, pays for a piece as well as Hallmark Televison (that surprised me). Vivendi and EM TV are both multi national media giants on the verge of bankruptcy. Sci-Fi wanted to decrease the cost of the show, rumored at $1.4 million per episode. EM TV said, no. Sci-Fi then decided to exercise an opt out clause in the renewal contract for the 5th season.

The fanbase has started a huge campaign to try and save the show (please visit http://farscape.wdsection.com). By Saturday afternoon the fax machines and voice mail boxes at the Sci-Fi channel and USA Networks were both offline. Parts of Sci-Fi’s website were inaccessible from the load on it. An online petition was started and grew rapidly. A huge letter writing campaign was started and protests at the headquarters of the Sci-Fi channel were organized. By Monday afternoon the petition had 16,000 signatures (the USA TV show ‘La Femme Nikita’ was saved with an online petition of only 7000 signatures) and is still growing as I write this. The scope of valid targets had expanded to include not only the Sci-Fi channel, USA Networks, Vivendi Unversal and EM TV, but all advertising sponsers of the Sci-Fi channel and any media that will listen and print the story. At the urging of several people involved in the series production the campaign was expanded to include UPN, TNT and Showtime as possible networks to pick up the series.

As I have watched this I have been amazed at the motivation and energy and organization that people can tap when they feel the need to. By Saturday afternoon there were numerous websites online with contact information for the letter writing, email address of people at the networks, posts of the chat logs where the cancellation was made public as well as letter templates, post cards to print out and other resources. By Monday afternoon a ‘Save Farscape’ web ring was not only in existence, but was ranked 13th in most hits on webring.com. People have tapped personal contacts, putting Showtime’s new content person in touch with the creators of Farscape. Information has leaked out from within the Sci-Fi channel on who is to blame and who is just as shocked as everyone else. The snail mail letter campaign is expected to be bigger than the campaign that saved Star Trek (the first time around) in the 1960’s.

I can’t help but imagine what we could accomplish as a people if we could tap this type of devotion in everyday events. I am in no way insulting people’s efforts nor do I intend to trivialize the efforts being put forth to save a TV show. Farsacpe is my favorite show. I’m doing what I can as well. But, I still think it would be incredible if we could get people to respond like this to other things in daily life. Elections? Projects at work? Social issues? The list is endless. A study of why people are so energized and eager to do anything they can to save Farscape and yet apathetic when it comes to the governing of their own country or even the project they are on at work would be extremely interesting and revealing. Maybe it is an issue of what people feel they can and cannot change? Or maybe it is even more simple; simply what hits close to the heart and what does not. Little effort is made these days in government or politics to make it personal or endearing. A persons job has been so abstracted there is no longer any connection between what they do and the success or failure of the company, a feeling no doubt re-enforced when they are let go in a lay-off so the company can improve thier stock position. What better way to erode someone’s feelings about their own contributions to a company than a layoff? What they were doing mattered so little that the company was better off without them.

I hope Farscape survives in some form, either on Sci-Fi or another network. What is most depressing is that the creators, producers and cast were given no warning, so there is no closure for the series. It ends with the cliff hanger of the last episode of season 4. The producer has a stated that if Farscape cannot be saved, he will make sure that the story line for season 5 gets out in some form. That is most welcome but hardly the same as actually seeing it.

There is so much more to say, like how short sighted corporate America has become when killing off your top product is a good idea, that I could go on for ever. But, I know this is getting long so I’ll let it go now.

Not bad for my first ‘serious’ blog.