Beauty and the Beast's Maelstorm of Mail
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| Title: | Beauty and the Beast's Maelstorm of Mail |
| Creator: | Stephanie Wiltse |
| Date(s): | September 1989 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Beauty and the Beast |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Beauty and the Beast's Maelstorm of Mail is a September 1989 Beauty and the Beast essay.
It was printed in Pipeline v.2 n.9 in September 1989.
The essay is by Stephanie Wiltse, the newsletter's editor, and it concludes with extensive comments by Ron Koslow, one of the show's showrunners.
Some Topics Discussed
- fans' unhappiness with the "re-tooling" of the show
- fans' pressure on advertisers to put pressure on the show
- fans' exasperation of being talked down to and used for monetary gain
- Koslow's plea for fans' good will, knowing full well that many original fans hated the third season due to its tone and content; changes that were made to attract a more male audience (less romance, more action)
- Koslow's references to "hysterical" letters by female fans, a phrase the Wiltse uses as well
Excerpts
Since late June, CBS has been sending out a form letter that originated in Beth Bressan's (the President's) office, but finally wound up over Ray Faiola's (Director, Audience Services] signature for nation-wide distribution. As opposed to the network's aggressive press persona, the letter is conciliatory almost to the point of being condescending:
- "...BEAUTY AND THE BEAST has not been cancelled. CBS is deeply committed to this very special property and wishes nothing more than for it to succeed and flourish as a part of our primetime schedule. However, during this past season the program lost a sufficient number of viewers for CBS and the program's advertisers to be concerned over its content and production..."
Advertisers and sponsors, meanwhile, have been taking a 'you-r-us' stance with the audience. In fact no sponsor has {at least publicly) stated concern over B&B's numbers — as if advertisers were ever let in on network deliberations.
The Bressan/Faiola letter also made mention of the infamous 're-tooling:
- "...At this point, we have no plans to make drastic changes in the format or in those aspects of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST which have won it high praise from viewers and critics alike. We merely need to attract more viewers and retrieve those who went astray last season..."
Continuing 'Net Exec' protestations to the press that CBS remains unaffected by viewer response — far from making the network unassailable — merely promotes an image of the corporation's "only being in it for the money." Hardly 'attractive' to any of those millions of viewers (letter-writers or not) who '"went astray" from most network programming last season.
As to the 're-tooling, open network opposition to those "too narrow'(?] "Catherine and Vincent stories" didn't seem to bode well for the romantics among us. Just as earlier statements from Kim LeMasters promising "more action and adventure" caused many to despair of ever seeing further development in the tunnel world's supporting characters.
Kowlow's Comments Were Quoted
Enter Executive Consultant Ron Koslow (braver than I am) into the fray. This latest media muddle generated an instant, agonized response that Ron wanted to respond to:
- "Some of the letters we are getting contain what of paranoia. Some of the letters were very upset, hysterical. I can't go into specifics, but I just have to tell you that if there is any way you can, impart to your readers that they should not worry. There will be some changes (in the show) that will have to be assimilated, but part of that is also what we're dealing with in the episodes themselves. I know our characters are going to be dealing with change. I just wanted people to know that we haven't completely lost our minds."
- "The network is not really pulling any kind of pressure on us other than to do something more in the lines of the balance of above-ground and below-ground, action and romance, that we had in the 1st year. People should not believe what they are reading, a lot of it is PR. There's just been some insane stuff. It's really kind of silly."
Ron also mentioned that "ratings watchers" nervous over recent drop-offs should renumbers are never expected for reruns.
At any rate, to give some idea of just how hysterical some became (not a majority by any means, but still too many in this editor's opinion) callers at the Workshop even accused the producers of having somehow "sold out" the show's ideals (and/or its fans) to the network, presumably for some son of monetary game. To this Koslow answered:
- "To do these 12 shows actually becomes very expensive for us because it means we have to amortize what should have been a season of 22 episodes, over 12, which makes each of these shows enormously costly to us. And CBS isn't really helping us with that. The only reason we are doing this is because we honestly believe that it's something worthwhile and exciting for television. I think we are going to be doing some things that have never been done on TV before. None of us have to do it, there's no reason for us to 'sell-out.' We all have all kinds of other opportunities. None of us would be doing this if we didn't believe in it and if it wasn't in the spirit of the show. The dailies from the 2-hour movie are just extraordinary, I think it's the best show we've ever done, amazing stuff."
Koslow continued:
- "At least reserve judgment. Don't come in to this thing with all kinds of prejudices. At least wait, at least let us take you the first mile. Then see if you want to continue. That's what's really upsetting me. I really perceive an hysteria and a real paranoia that isn't justified, at least not yet. People are going to have to have a little courage and a little faith. That's what we've been exploring these past 2 years and that's specifically what these 12 episodes are very much about. Facing the unknown and finding truth. Facing your fears and marshaling your strengths. I really want people to approach it with open eyes though, that's the important thing to me."
- "If it were possible to speak to each of our supporters personally, this is what I'd like to say: You may not agree with everything we're going to be doing, but I promise you it will be exciting and challenging ...for all of us, the ones who are doing it and the ones who are watching it. We do feel a responsibility —the show now belongs to everybody. It really does. We are not creating in a vacuum. We're very much aware of what people are feeling. What's worrying them. But it's impossible to keep everybody happy. I promise that you will not either be disillusioned ...or bored. Proceed with us in the spirit of adventure, I don't think you'll be disappointed There's going to be rich rewards in store."