What Was Lost, Part I : Mourning
Mr. Michael Jackson
The SciFi Channel
1230 Avenue of the Americas, F115
New York, NY 10020-1513
September 7, 2002
Dear Mr. Jackson,
I’m very angry.
And hurt and confused and a multitude of other emotions that are all trying to filter their way through the denial I am experiencing upon hearing this morning that Farscape has been cancelled. How do we go from “SCI FI has been able to continue ordering seasons of Farscape because the show performs strongly in the ratings (June 2002)” to cancellation ten weeks later? It does not compute.
But since time is of the essence, let me move on to the third stage of grieving, and bargain with you. What if I personally recruit five more people to watch the show, in addition to the five I have hooked in the last three months? Would a ten-fold return be enough to meet your ratings requirements? Without exception, all of my Farscape “friends” are busy spreading the good word, making tapes to send to total strangers...generally, being your marketing staff, not because we are getting paid, but because we LOVE this show. I am (we are) within your coveted demographic of 18-34, educated and articulate, and a fair portion of our disposable income goes to this franchise. What more could we be doing to support this show? Just tell us, and we will gladly oblige.
It won’t take long for me to slide into the depression. I want to cry now, as I try to shake the image of someone taking a chainsaw to Moya next week. As I think of all of the people who have devoted their time and talents and souls to this story (something that is often lacking in the jaded industry of entertainment) who have now lost, not only their jobs, but their family. As a part of that extended family, I will have no trouble being sad, and shattered, and sorry.
But I will not readily accept this loss. Farscape is the best show on television - genre or no genre - the best show ever produced for television (and you will have to take my word, I have watched enough of it to know). Please do not discard the most amazing assemblage of actors, writers, producers and staff that any one television show has ever seen. It is rare, and precious, and undervalued. Don’t contribute to the dumbing-down of the masses, but instead have the integrity to support the best this medium has to offer: complex characters, story with subtext, a paradox of ambiguity and vision. As a culture, we are in desperate need of the self-examination and catharsis that can only be filled by the arts. I do not think it an overstatement to say that Television is the Art of our generation, a necessary expression of who we are in this place and time. When I look back years from now, I want to remember Farscape, and not some so-called reality show.
I have long thought that the most prophetic line of this series was given to us in the Premiere, “You can be more.” Farscape has met that challenge each season, and still has more story to tell. I challenge you to renew the radical thinking that led the network to pick up the show in the first place. Please reconsider the path you have chosen, or at the least, allow the show to find a new one.
With regret,
The SciFi Channel
1230 Avenue of the Americas, F115
New York, NY 10020-1513
September 7, 2002
Dear Mr. Jackson,
I’m very angry.
And hurt and confused and a multitude of other emotions that are all trying to filter their way through the denial I am experiencing upon hearing this morning that Farscape has been cancelled. How do we go from “SCI FI has been able to continue ordering seasons of Farscape because the show performs strongly in the ratings (June 2002)” to cancellation ten weeks later? It does not compute.
But since time is of the essence, let me move on to the third stage of grieving, and bargain with you. What if I personally recruit five more people to watch the show, in addition to the five I have hooked in the last three months? Would a ten-fold return be enough to meet your ratings requirements? Without exception, all of my Farscape “friends” are busy spreading the good word, making tapes to send to total strangers...generally, being your marketing staff, not because we are getting paid, but because we LOVE this show. I am (we are) within your coveted demographic of 18-34, educated and articulate, and a fair portion of our disposable income goes to this franchise. What more could we be doing to support this show? Just tell us, and we will gladly oblige.
It won’t take long for me to slide into the depression. I want to cry now, as I try to shake the image of someone taking a chainsaw to Moya next week. As I think of all of the people who have devoted their time and talents and souls to this story (something that is often lacking in the jaded industry of entertainment) who have now lost, not only their jobs, but their family. As a part of that extended family, I will have no trouble being sad, and shattered, and sorry.
But I will not readily accept this loss. Farscape is the best show on television - genre or no genre - the best show ever produced for television (and you will have to take my word, I have watched enough of it to know). Please do not discard the most amazing assemblage of actors, writers, producers and staff that any one television show has ever seen. It is rare, and precious, and undervalued. Don’t contribute to the dumbing-down of the masses, but instead have the integrity to support the best this medium has to offer: complex characters, story with subtext, a paradox of ambiguity and vision. As a culture, we are in desperate need of the self-examination and catharsis that can only be filled by the arts. I do not think it an overstatement to say that Television is the Art of our generation, a necessary expression of who we are in this place and time. When I look back years from now, I want to remember Farscape, and not some so-called reality show.
I have long thought that the most prophetic line of this series was given to us in the Premiere, “You can be more.” Farscape has met that challenge each season, and still has more story to tell. I challenge you to renew the radical thinking that led the network to pick up the show in the first place. Please reconsider the path you have chosen, or at the least, allow the show to find a new one.
With regret,