Pipeline Interview with Ray Faiola: Letters... and the Eye of the Beholder

Interviews by Fans
Title:	Pipeline Interview with Ray Faiola: Letters... and the Eye of the Beholder
Interviewer:	Stephanie Wiltse of Pipeline
Interviewee:	Ray Faiola
Date(s):	February 1989
Medium:	print
Fandom(s):	Beauty and the Beast (TV)
External Links:
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Pipeline Interview with Ray Faiola: Letters... and the Eye of the Beholder is an interview with Ray Faiola (Director of Audience Services at CBS for Beauty and the Beast (TV)). It was conducted by Stephanie Wiltse and was printed in Pipeline v.2 n.2.

"Does anyone read our letters to the network? Do they even get through? Do they do any good? In hopes of answering your questions here's a "Pipeline" interview with Ray Faiola, the new Director of Audience Services at CBS."

A Later Similar Statement

Faiola also wrote a "Dear Viewer" Letter (July 1989) which was reprinted in Vicki Burke and Janet Dunadee in A Collection of Memories: The Beauty and the Beast Phenomenon, Whispering Gallery Press (1990).

Some Topics Discussed

• organized fan letter campaigns are generally useless
• TPTB recognizes fan letters in an instant and disregards them
• shows' success or failures depends on ratings, and this is an inexact science
• Beauty and the Beast fans have nothing to worry about; Faiola uses the word "honestly" twice, which means the exact opposite

From the Essay

Q: Pipeline readers have been asking whether sending mail to you does any good. Could you tell me what effect the volume of mail you receive has?

A: It has many effects as far as our being able to get an impression of individual letter-writers' reactions. However, organized letter-campaigns do not have an effect because usually they identify themselves very easily and they really cancel themselves out as far as according a certain weight to the volume of mail. We pay more attention to individual reactions.

Q: So the content of the letter really does make a difference?

A: Absolutely. And that's not just a matter of your newsletter advocating a certain turn in the storylines or something. If you were to send out a newsletter that said, "Look folks, write to CBS and tell them we'd like to see more personal involvement between the two main characters, but be sure to phrase your letters individually." Even when people do that, what you have 2,000 or 3,000 or 20,000 people all writing in with the same request, the phrasing may be individual, but it's really identified very quickly as a letter writing campaign.

Q: I think my readers are more interested in a 3rd season.

A: I don't think you have anything to worry about there, quite honesty. It is doing very well and we're very pleased with it. We recognize very strongly that there is not only a following, there's a devoted section of the public out there that is interested in every aspect of the program, much like your readers I'm sure. But also the program does have a lot of support from the general viewership. From people perhaps more casual viewers are more casually devoted, but they are regular viewers nonetheless. So the show is being supported very well at this point and I really don't think there's too much worry about doing a third season. Our job at this point is to support the shows that aren't doing well and gamer support for the new programs that we also have faith in.

So, I would say as far as your readers are concerned, we are always interested in their reactions when they watch the program — things thy notice, things they pick up on, things they'd like to tell us; we are always interested in what they have to say. My office publishes various reports to our senior executives so that they do get to know, not only the amount of mail that we get, but die quality and the content of the comments.

The most important thing is that individual comments, individual thoughts, individual ideas are always welcome and appreciated. As far as letter writing campaigns, I think they probably do less good than the campaign organizers imagine. Unless there is a situation where there is a program that through press reports or whatever is publicly in danger of being canceled — not just marginal speculation

Q: My readers have been really worried about press reports of low ratings lately, it seemed better to suggest that they write letters rather than just wring their hands.

A: I'll tell you something quite honestly. Our program decisions really are based for the most part on the ratings services. We don't make decisions based on letter writing campaigns. For one thing there is always lag time with letters and decision-making.

Also, there really is no agreed upon scientific formula that can be assigned to a correspondence letter. In other words, no one has come with the actual determination that 1 letter represents 5,000 viewers, or 1,000 viewers, or 10,000 viewers. Until the networks and all of the research services come up with a proper determination it's difficult to make programming decisions based on letter-writing. Especially when the letter-writing is organized, because what that does is just highlight a group of viewers. Let's say you have 20,000 people write-in. That's

20,000 letters that are instantly recognized as organized. You have to bear in mind that there are, conservatively, a potential 30 million viewers out there that might be watching that time period. So the letter-writing campaign really doesn't respond to the actual situation.

Q: So what are you more interested in seeing?

A: What we're more interested in is genuinely constructive feedback. Interesting comments that we then pass along to our executives, also to the producers of the program. People who watch the show reacting to what they see, not necessarily reacting to what they'd like to see, but reacting to what we do with the program.

Q: Can you give some assurance that when people write in it does do some good?

A: As far as general correspondence, if people want to write to us regarding the program, or any program, for whatever reason, we read every letter that comes in here. Either by actual comments or statistics we convey all that information to various people in the company. And it definitely does serve a purpose and it does do good in that way.

But there is definitely a broad distinction between people writing in individually and in organized campaigns. What doesn't carry a lot of weight is organized campaigns. They call attention to themselves immediately, as cleverly disguised as they may often be (laughter) — we've been in this business too long. Unfortunately, the enthusiasm of the relative few seldom outweighs the inevitability of the majority (of the many) out that we then pass along to our there in Neilsen land [sic].

Fan Comments

With thanks to Mr. Faiola for the information, that was the end of a very illuminating interview. OK, so our letters gig received, read, tallied, digested, and processed — then passed along for the network brass and B&B's producers to make a meal of. Hnmmm. It is also obvious that our aim is not served if the letters we write are dismissed as the product of "the relative few."

So, here are a few rules of thumb:

1) Always write to the same address everybody else does, simply:

CBS

51 West 52nd. St.

New York, NY 10019.

2) Do not write Beauty and the Beast on the envelope or it will simply be forwarded to the production office. If you would like to write to someone directly connected with the show, write to the address below. It's quicker, though mail to the show's stars is usually routed from there to the actors' managers or personal secretaries (&s is not the stage set address).

Beauty and the Beast Production Office

956 North Seward Hollywood, CA 90038

3) Never write to anyone specifically at the network — unless you can mention that you saw that person's name in the general press. Using 'Attention: Mr. So & So' from any address list or fan publication is a dead give-away.

4) Never mention any affiliation with fandom. You and I both know that you don't need to be prompted to write a letter about B&B. Campaign, what campaign?

5) Always take an expert's advice, in this case Mr. Faiola's. Do not write because there has been a 'call to arms' for you to do so, write only when you have something to say ... and be specific: About last week's episode, A scene, Vincent's hairstyle, or Don Davis' music. Anything about which you have an actual, honest-to-God constructive opinion. If you absolutely must make mention of the fact that you are loyal, just remember that they will not be as interested in hearing that you are a fan, as how you became one.

These guidelines can also he applied to writing to the press or sponsors.