CAN VIEWERS REVERSE CANCELLATION OF 'ANOTHER WORLD'? NOT LIKELY
By Gail Pennington
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
April 20, 1999
Your favorite show has been canceled. Can you save it?
What if you wrote to the network, started a petition drive or organized a protest rally? That's worked before, hasn't it?
In fact, in the not-so-distant past, DESIGNING WOMEN and CAGNEY & LACEY were indeed saved from cancellation by viewer campaigns. Both went on to moderately long runs.
And just last summer, an intensive letter-writing drive by a Chicago-area fan of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN persuaded CBS to bring the Western series back. (The bad news: On its second go-round, "MAG 7" still didn't score in the Nielsens and got canceled again.)
But most save-our-show campaigns, no matter how passionate, simply don't have a chance.
Fans of DR. QUINN, MEDICINE WOMAN did everything short of taking CBS executive hostage and still couldn't earn the good doctor a reprieve. And who says cable is nicer than the networks? Followers of the classy AMC drama REMEMBER WENN campaigned strenuously to rescue that show, which ended with a cliffhanger that will forever remain unresolved, but AMC said nothing doing.
Most recently, an odd letter-writing campaign in support of VENGEANCE UNLIMITED, canceled by ABC, has targeted TV critics across the nation who hated the show when they first reviewed it. Mail has arrived on my desk from all over the country, urging me to take a second look at the series. Unfortunately, all those stamps were wasted, since the show's final episode aired in February.
(Memo to VENGEANCE buffs who might see this and think of sending me a tape: I saw that final episode and still hated the show.)
The short answer to "Can fans save a show?" is: probably not. But there's something to be said for venting.
Right now, fans of ANOTHER WORLD have taken poison pens in hand to protest NBC's cancellation of the 35-year-old soap opera, which will leave longtime stars like Victoria Wyndham and Linda Dano out of work.
Spurring one another on in on-line discussion groups, the fans are writing not just to NBC executives (urging them to reconsider) but also to bosses of other networks, begging them to pick the show up. Other letters are going to Procter & Gamble, which owns ANOTHER WORLD, asking the company to shop the soap around to other venues. A persistent but improbable scenario has it that ABC will acquire "AW" to use as the cornerstone of its newly announced all-soap cable network, which will also feature same-day reruns of ABC soap operas.
Some ANOTHER WORLD fans, vowing never to watch PASSIONS (and even to give up NBC favorites like FRIENDS and "ER"), are planning a rally for 7 a.m. (New York time) on Saturday outside the TODAY show window at NBC's studios in Rockefeller Center.
Meanwhile, NBC contends that viewer response to the cancellation has been minimal. Fans contend that's because the network's "viewer comment" line is always busy, or the mailbox is full. If you want to try, the number is (212) 664-4444.
ANOTHER WORLD draws many viewers in St. Louis, but even Channel 5 says reaction to the cancellation has been mild. "It takes awhile for word to get out," program director Rebecca Rahm speculated. "As the final air date, June 25, gets closer, people may get more concerned."
ANOTHER WORLD will be replaced in the NBC lineup by PASSIONS, a new show from James Reilly, who brought demonic possession and other unearthly story lines to daytime via DAYS OF OUR LIVES. PASSIONS is intended to attract younger viewers than AW, but its real strength is that the network will own it and can make extra revenue from selling it in foreign markets.
Channel 5 is non-committal about whether the station will air PASSIONS. "Our schedule hasn't been finalized yet," Rahm said. It's a good bet, however, that the show will get at least a trial run here.
ANOTHER WORLD fans: Say goodbye to the show by contributing to a special tribute that will appear in the Post-Dispatch in June. Send your memories of the show to ANOTHER WORLD, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 200 South Bemiston Avenue, Clayton, Mo. 63105; fax them to 721-1305; or e-mail them to me at [email protected].
In May, the broadcast networks will announce their schedules for fall 1999. In my Thursday column, look for a list of which shows may be in danger, plus addresses to use in lobbying to save them - or simply venting.
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