Save Farscape
| Fan Campaign | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Save Farscape |
| Type of Campaign: | Renewal Campaign |
| Aims: | To secure a fifth season of Farscape |
| Participants: | Scapers |
| Date Started: | September 6, 2002 |
| Fandom: | Farscape |
| Campaign Website: | http://savefarscape.com |
 | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Save Farscape campaign arose following the cancellation of the series Farscape.
Originally picked up for a fourth and fifth season, the offer of a fifth season was rescinded by the SciFi network, with only days left in the show's Season 4 production. As rumors spread, show producers announced the cancellation to fans in an IRC channel. Campaign efforts began almost immediately as fans who were in the IRC channel spread the word to fannish boards and lists. Fan sites were also updated with the announcement. There were multiple fan sites created and updated to support the campaign to save Farscape, but the campaign organized around SaveFarscape.com and its associated forum, Frell Me Dead.
One SaveFarscape.com staff member recalls:
We were just a very small genre TV site and I had extra space on the server, so I put up a page of information for our users. It was up by 4 AM. And then--I'm really not sure how--sometime between 4 AM Saturday morning and 3:30 PM Sunday when I checked again, we got huge.[1]
The Save Farscape campaign was a grass roots fan campaign. After the cancellation was announced, fans immediately began to send protest letters to the network - telegrams and overnight letters began arriving as soon as the office opened on the Monday morning following the announcement. On September 12th, picketers gathered outside the SCI FI Channel corporate headquarters in New York. The Save Farcape campaign also became more organized with time, and began fundraising to support their media campaign efforts.
The Save Farscape campaign was partially successful - Farscape returned in a four-hour mini series Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars which resolved season 4's cliffhanger ending and several other open storylines.
Campaign Strategies
- Targeted letter writing
- The Crackers DO Matter Campaign
- Fundraising efforts - there were multiple funds, including the Beyond Hope fund. It was reported by SaveFarscape.com that over $80,000 was raised by fans.[2]
- Campaign Rallies
- DVD Rental Campaign
- Print Ad Campaign
- TV Commercials
This article or section needs expansion. |
Print Advertisements
The first fan funded print ad appeared in the Sydney Telegraph on September 13th. This first ad was a message of support to the cast and crew in Australia. "Farscape is more than a heroes' journey...It is an experience of wonder, a quest for family, a renewal of hope...You imagine a universe and invite us to believe. We do. We believe in you." [1]
TV Commercials
What began as a simple idea posted by KimRB in the “Do It Yourself Media” thread, then morphed into a proof-of-concept video posted by Beowulf at http://homepage.mac.com/beowulf/farswitch/iMovieTheater30.html, is now a “Realized Reality” through the efforts of the entire Scaper community.
The “I Am Farscape” television commercial, http://homepage.mac.com/~beowulf/iamfarscape/, was completed by Beowulf in late October and duped onto beta sp tapes (a standard format in the TV industry), in early November by KimRB. Many of the tapes are already in the hands of cable TV companies across American, with the rest arriving soon.
Originally targeted at 15 US cities, the "Do It Yourself Media" team found that, after funding was approved by the FWA, they could afford 16 cities. Then Scapers Loco2, Akimbo, and Kithylara stepped up to sponsor airing the commercial in their respective cities, Lexington (KY), Cleveland (OH), and San Diego (CA), bringing the target city total to 19. Everyone was floored when Dominar of Action volunteered to add five more cities (Tampa, FL; Salt Lake City, UT; Detroit, MI; Pittsburgh, PA; Minneapolis, MN), upping the ante to 24 cities! The commercial will air in the following 24 cities the week of November 24[3]
Links
- SaveFarscape Campaign First Ad by Beowulf
- SaveFarscape Campaign Second Ad
- SaveFarscape Campaign Third Ad
Fan Comments
it was noteworthy because this particular campaign actually Did something, which was change the sci-fi channel's direction from "demolish the farscape sets" to "pack them away in boxes" and paved the way for the [The Peacekeeper Wars].
I think that that particular campaign was successful not merely because of the number of people that were involved, but the kinds of people that were involved. There was a story up somewhere of how VIP members to a sci-fi press conference hammered the president of sci-fi at the time (bonnie something or other) when she tried to divert the conference away from farscape's cancellation by focusing on the series that was to take its place, "Tremors: The Series". Collectively and publicly they said, "we don't care about tremors, we want to know what's happening with farscape!" and the vehemence in the sentiment forced bonnie to backtrack. [4]
Websites & Communities
- SaveFarscape.com (archived link)
- WatchFarscape.com (archived link)
- FarWhat.com (archived link)
- SaveFarscapeCentral.com (archived link)
- FarscapeRescue.com (archived link)
- SaveFarscape.net (archived link)
Further Reading
- September 6, 2002 Sci-Fi Chat with David Kemper, Richard Manning, and Ben Browder (archived link)
- “Crackers Matter!:” Online Fan Activism in the “Save Farscape” Campaign, an Academic Paper presented at the PCA/ACA conference in San Antonio, TX 2004
References
- ^ a b The Campaign Begins: A History of the Save Farscape Campaign, archived August 3 2004. Accessed August 9 2023.
- ^ Save Farscape: Campaign Information, archived July 30 2004. Accessed August 9 2023.
- ^ Save Farscape News: I am Farscape TV commercial, page archived Dec 03 2002. Accessed August 9 2023
- ^ power to the people?... a LJ post by lifeofmendel, 2008. Accessed 8 Aug 2023