Rant Along with CathyB: much of my vexation could be spelled F-O-X
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| Title: | Rant Along with CathyB: much of my vexation could be spelled F-O-X |
| Creator: | CathyB |
| Date(s): | January 2000 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | The X-Files |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | OBSSE Newsletter: January 2000 News for the OBSSEsed, Archived version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Rant Along with CathyB: much of my vexation could be spelled F-O-X is a 2000 essay by CathyB.
The essay was part of a series of columns the author did for the X-files newsletter, News for the OBSSEsed, this one for issue #31.
NOTE: none of CathyB's columns had titles; the titles used here on Fanlore were created from a prominent, descriptive phrase in the essay.
Essay Topic
FOX's rotten decisions regarding scheduling, marketing, their website, and suing their fans.
Essays in the Same Series
- Rant along with CathyB: Closure
- Rant Along With CathyB: Era of the Celebrity Guest Star
- Rant Along with CathyB: John Doggett
- Rant Along with CathyB: much of my vexation could be spelled F-O-X
- Rant Along with CathyB: Season 8: Maybe No One Will Notice
Excerpts
Season 7 of The X-Files has, thus far, provided me with almost zero complaints. Okay, "Hungry" was a little boring. CSM's "I will be your father figure, put your tiny hand in mine" routine in the premiere was slightly eye-roll-inducing. And then there was Mulder's old man shirt <shudder>. Still, for the most part I've been extremely pleased, and there just hasn't been anything that's really raised my hackles. Ah, for the sweet days of "Travelers," "The Beginning," and "Schizogeny."
Yet as I pondered the little things that had been bugging me over the past several weeks, I began to see a common thread weaving through all of them. Yes, the answers were there, I just had to know where to look -- and when I did, I found that much of my vexation could be spelled F-O-X.
No, I'm not talking about Mulder. (Or even Mulder's hair.)
Let's start with the X-Files Official Web Site. They've finally started updating it again, which is terrific. We can now get all sorts of nifty information on the show, even shooting schedules, and when someone says, "Why don't you check the official site?" we don't have to clap our hands over our mouths as we choke down the derisive laughter. When I heard about the new site, I fired up my browser and ran over to look along with everyone else. I wasn't too impressed, though -- with my Netscape 3.0 on a Macintosh, this is what Fox's state-of-the-art X-Files site looked like to me:
That's it. That's what I got. Oh, there was also a grey background. Par-tay. Now, I know Netscape 3.0 is not the most cutting-edge browser. But, come on, most of the time I at least get the courtesy of a giant puzzle piece or something. The old site may have been laughably out of date, but at least it existed. (By now I assume they've gotten reams of complaints from outraged Netscape 3 users, as they appear to have toned down the "every Web feature known to mankind, plus a couple that David E. Kelley invented" approach enough that it seems to be working for me more or less the way it's supposed to.)
- <!--// if (window.name != "fox_com_content") {location.href="http://www.fox.com/frameset.html? content="+location.pathname; } //-->
Now, it's been said before, but if The X-Files premiered today it would be pulled before Tooms had even snagged his first liver. Two mousy, somber FBI agents stumbling around in the rain with their flashlights looking for aliens, which they never find? Can it, and replace it with this self-aware MTV-style concoction about the ups and downs of life and love among twenty-somethings working at a magazine in the city.
Speaking of web sites, they may not be all that swift at putting up their own, but they sure know how to shut them down. Yeah, they're fully within their rights, all right -- but other gigantic media conglomerates in their position have, by all accounts, managed to turn the other cheek, without either being sent shivering to the poorhouse because of lost revenues or being beat up on the playground by other gigantic media conglomerates for not being hard-assed enough. Really, the crowning indignity came last month when they shut down Tiny Dancer's marvelous transcript site. Come on, do you know anybody who reads X-Files episode transcripts INSTEAD of watching the show? In fact, do you know anybody who reads them at all who isn't already a diehard fan who'd never dream of missing an episode? Most people I know who frequently read episode transcripts use them to get accurate quotes to put in fanfic or in their sig files, to support an opinion when they're discussing the show, or to (ahem) confirm quotes for a review when they're too lazy to go back and rewatch for the fourth time at 3 in the morning -- not as a substitute for the show itself. In the meantime, other sites have been told not to put up MPEGs of the episode trailers. Excuse me for my limited knowledge of the sparkling world of advertising, but aren't those trailers COMMERCIALS? Commercials for which precious airtime is purchased with hard-earned Fox money? Commercials which they hope will reach the largest possible number of viewers, so that they may entice those viewers into tuning into the advertised episode, thus increasing their ratings, thus enabling them to raise ad rates, yadda yadda yadda? So what, pray tell, is the problem with having someone else do the work to make their commercial available to millions of eager, slavering viewers, without Fox's having to pay a cent for it? And again, how many people do you know who've watched an episode trailer and then said, "Well, now that I've caught a blurry, blue-tinted glimpse of next week's special effect, I certainly don't need to watch the whole EPISODE." Nothing like pissing off legions of fans to help your show be all that it can be.
But most significant, and frustrating, to my mind is the way Fox is making a concerted effort to treat The X-Files like the last Holstein in a cereal factory -- milking it for all its worth. I will be very disappointed if, as they're beginning to insinuate, Fox goads TXF into lurching along for another season or more. It's one thing to retool a program and carry on bravely. It's quite another to lose both main characters, plus the creator, and still pretend you're making the show just because you happen to own the rights to the title graphic. I love the show dearly (I probably wouldn't belong to a fictional Abbey dedicated to one of its characters if I didn't) and will be very sad when it's over, but come on, can't they let it go out with a few scraps of dignity remaining? David Duchovny is suing; Gillian Anderson has said she doesn't want to come back for "private reasons." Chris Carter is winding down the mythology with a graceful (I'll believe it when I see it) denouement planned for the end of this year. The tide of trendiness in the land of television is, sadly in my opinion, turning from serious, high-quality dramas (otherworldly air optional) to ultra-hip teen soap operas, "women's" programming, and, the best indication of the final decline of our civilization, wrestling. TXF's ratings are just beginning to slide and the strain of coming up with all those wonderful stories is starting to show. All in all, it seems like an ideal time to gracefully hang up the flashlights and slip into a movie franchise. Yet if Fox has anything to say about it, the show will continue indefinitely, floating on the inertia of its brand name until nobody cares anymore.