Open Letter to Beauty and the Beast Fans

Open Letter
Title:	Open Letter to Beauty and the Beast Fans
From:	Kathy Cox
Addressed To:
Date(s):	January 9, 1990
Medium:	print
Fandom:	Beauty and the Beast (TV)
Topic:	cancellation of the show, fan loyalty, fan campaigns
External Links:
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

An open letter to Beauty and the Beast fans was included in Destiny #3. It is unknown if it was printed elsewhere as well.

The subject of the letter was the recent cancellation of the show, demographics, the power and perceived power of fans, fan loyalty, fan campaigns, suspicions that TPTB manipulated fandom, negativity, and the contentiousness that the third season generated.

For more context, see The Beauty and the Beast Wars.

Excerpts

At a time I thought would be one of my happiest — the debut of D-lll — instead I am stunned and wounded, as surely all fans are. Irregardless of whether one was in favor of or against the third season developments, so long as the show was on the air there could be hope that ways could be found for nearly every fan to feel satisfied with the presentation of the story. Who is to say that we might not have "time-looped" in such a way as to bring back the Classic; who is to say that the new direction couldn't have been handled in such a way that it eventually became more acceptable to those who disliked it at first? In fantasy, anything could have been possible: It's the very nature of Magic that it can take an infinite number of forms. But with the cancellation of B&B on January 4th, that's a moot point now, isn't it? Or is it?

[The show's] main strength from the network's point of view was the fierce loyalty of its core audience, a clearly defined and targetable group to present to advertisers — "Here is your demographic, here you can reach who you want." Never mind railing about the "mentality of the bottom line". The cold, hard and plain common sense fact of the business world — any business, networks included — is that there must be a market for a product or one is a damn fool to produce it and the network's saleable products are series. Any new one is done in the hopes that a market will form for it and this is always a gamble. Always. CBS chanced that B&B, unique and unprecedented, would do this and for a while that gamble paid off. An audience, small in number but perceived as unshakably loyal, embraced this show and that simple fact was enough to justify keeping it on the air—Interrupted at one point, yet In great part because of us and our unqualified support, returned to Its fans. Returned... to hisses and boos and rejection, for the most part. Told by many before it even aired that It would be hated and rejected, it's a wonder CBS aired anything; afterward, In the press and probably in many letters and phone calls, they continued to perceive the loss of that core, the loyal audience. Whether this was statistically provable or not — and in the mail I've received since announcing D-lll, the frankly surprising ratio of approval/rejection of S#3 was running nearly 60% in favor— I think they felt too great an erosion of the core audience and in the Neilsons, not enough of a gain in new audience to replace it. Fandom, splintered and shattered by the controversial storyline, couldn't pull itself back together quickly enough to present a united and determined front of support. As that was lost, so was lost the network's justification, thin to begin with and now infinitesimal,to keep the show going. It was dropped. From CBS, anyway. (Back to that later.)

Some are saying that CBS, by leaking sensationalized details of the "retooling", deliberately manipulated our Fandom Into what has been very nearly a civil war, we too busy duking it out with each other over the controversial changes to pull together and support the series. That l don't know. But whether or not this was by design or just taken advantage of, the fact remains that the splitting of a group which had been before so united in support of B&B cost us dearly. It has cost us our show and therefore ANY possibility of either redirecting it back closer to Its original premise or designing ways to compromise on its new story flow.

So what does this all mean now? Well, I honestly believe that to continue to fight CBS is futile. I have however heard in the past few days some very encouraging reports that Fox Network is interested. With even the slightest chance that's true, I'm listing at the end of this letter two addresses to which you can write in support of this. However also, PLEASE consider the following: The place of Fans is to support a series and to help reach those in whose hands the life or death of this show may lie with a positive message of a strong, loyal audience. That is, in the world of networks, the key factor; simply demonstrate there is an audience for Beauty and the Beast. Because what is NOT the place of Fandom is creative control. I would beg of you all not to attempt to actually dictate what you will or won't support, Classic or S#3 or something entirely new. Please! But then we chance what we'll be given, you say? Yes. You do chance it, that's true. BUT— What is the perception already as to what has the broadest base of support in Fandom??? Think about that.

As a writer, I have to point out that one thing all but unbearable to those who create is pre-censorship. The attempt by anyone, individual or group, to impose creative decision is anathema. Obviously this worked neither on an impersonal network nor to much extent on the creators and series writers of B&B. Would we again make the error with Fox or any other media (made-for-television movies, feature films, publishing houses, etc.) of pre-quaiifying our support? Should we leave this meddling impression on them and so risk becoming a headache to them? Who would want to take THAT on? I can almost promise you such an attitude will do tar more damage than good. Why risk alienating what may be our last chance? At this point, we are drowning; shall we bitch about the shape of the lifeboat?

Even as I try to keep my hopes intact, at the same time I have to realize that no matter what effort is made it's possible that something extraordinarily beautiful may be irretrievably gone. Please believe that nothing I've said here in analyzing the situation seeks to place the blame on any one single factor; a combination of many things, some of which may never be entirely known, surely affected it. I only try to point out, in a common sense and level-headed way at a highly emotional and volatile time for us all, what might have happened, what might now happen, and what might help or hurt. It may or may not be over, no one yet knows. But there is this thought: Perhaps, in the end, it could simply be that things of wonder and magic are too fragile to survive in the real world. Maybe we won't change that. Maybe, after all, it will end. Or will it? From the very first moment I ever sat down at a typewriter (and nowadays at a computer, thank goodness} to write B&B, I've known that I was working in a borrowed world. These characters, their lives, their world, were not of my creation and it was only by the grace of their creators that I was allowed to borrow them. Always uppermost to me was the thought that what I did with them should be to enhance their story, to add to it with love and respect for it. How keenly I have felt that responsibility! And now that what I and the other zine editors do may be the only way the stories go on, it is all but overwhelming, an awesome task which I and all fan fiction editors and writers and artists face: To keep the Light alive.