An idea by rklenseth

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

An idea

POSTED BY: RKLENSETH
UPDATED: Tuesday, January 27, 2004 09:19
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VIEWED: 4539
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Friday, January 23, 2004 5:44 PM

I was thinking that a good way to show the support that Firefly has is to begin a boycott. We could boycott televisions for a week or something to that effect. Not only will the tv networks see the results of such a thing but it would also put Firefly out into the public because I'm sure some newspaper somewhere would pick up on it. People will read about (social currency!) and then will research and find out the fanbase is only getting larger after the show was cancelled over a year ago and perhaps pick up the series or rent it. Most people that I have made to watch Firefly fall in love with it. I noticed the ones that don't are usually those people that don't a like truly good story but would rather have more sex or violence with no real plot. Plus, if we get even a 1000 people to do this then we have gone the distant. Maybe then we can have more boycott's. For too long networks have been butchering and axing great shows for more reality tv or evening soaps. If you have something you really, really need to watch then just tape it. But can be better than watching Firefly? If you need the news or weather then listen to the radio or some other venue. I think this could also show Universal the true fanbase around Firefly.

If this does get accepted then we can set a date for the boycott. After that we can write or e-mail to newspapers, put up posters, etc.... Mainly we can use the internet to get the word out.

I am predicting a great come back for Firefly. Never have I seen such a great story. Never. And it is only a testament of that great story that the fan base continues to grow everday even a year after it was cancelled. People who have never seen the series but heard it from someone that it was great are picking up the series on DVD and are falling in love with it. Since the announcement that there might be a Firefly movie, you can go to a search engine and get 80,000 hits on Firefly the Movie. The movie hasn't even been greenlighted yet but movie sites that track upcoming movies like comingingsoon.com have it already listed. Firefly has even gotten the attention of the media including the New York Times. The DVD sales are currently ranked in the top 20 for all DVDs nationally. It is the only tv series on DVD in the top 20. Oh, and I went to Target the other day. I asked about Firefly and where they had it and the person in electronic department said that they are completely sold out and that they have already made more orders but everytime they put them on the shelf within a day or two they are sold out again and people are still asking for them. The guy himself never heard of Firefly until he put it on the shelf in December and he said after talking with people who were buying the series and seeing the popularity, he bought a copy himself and as fallen in love with the series. Isn't that great.

Anyways, Firefly will fly again! For those that don't belief, you will see.

Oh, and try out this great online, free game.
www.cantr.net

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Friday, January 23, 2004 6:08 PM

SAINT JAYNE

I'm already sort of boycotting TV. It's actually "ignoring". But I can certainly try to get my friends to do things other than watch the tube!

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Friday, January 23, 2004 9:43 PM

STEVE580

You have to have a - what's that chip called? - installed in your tube, 'least the networks won't know what channels your watching. Is it a Nielson chip?

Good thought, though.
-Steve

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Friday, January 23, 2004 9:49 PM

HUMBLE

I'm already boycotting Fox network. Most of the people I know don't even watch Fox. Everyone's got cable,directtv,etc.

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Saturday, January 24, 2004 12:21 AM

STEVE580

lol...boycott Fox -- that's like boycotting disease.
-Steve

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Saturday, January 24, 2004 3:52 AM

TEELABROWN

Only one problem for me on bycotting Fox (Though I'd love to): I love the Simpsons.

............................................................................................
"Freedom is the Freedom to say that 2+2 makes 4. If that is granted, all else follws"-Winston, 1984
Keep flyin', and remember, THEY can't take the sky from US!

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Saturday, January 24, 2004 11:20 AM

JAGGEDSEVEN

This is a great idea. I'm in.

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Saturday, January 24, 2004 11:37 AM

EBONEZER

set the date and im right there doing it! unfortuanatly for the cause untill then, I'm watching fox. Don't have cable and what's on Fox is usually better then abc or nbc. Sometimes. But yeah, I'm totaly in if you tell me when.

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Sunday, January 25, 2004 6:31 AM

KALATHENA

Quote:
Originally posted by TeelaBrown:
Only one problem for me on bycotting Fox (Though I'd love to): I love the Simpsons.

That's my problem, too. If this was five years ago, I might consider it, but after the Evita parody this year, I just can't *not* watch it. I swear by my autographed copy of MY LIFE AS A TEN-YEAR-OLD-BOY that I won in a trivia contest, I'm far too attached to Springfield to give it up.

I have an extreme amount of respect for those who have, however. You're much stronger than I am.

--Kala

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Sunday, January 25, 2004 7:25 AM

RKLENSETH

Have a VCR and a blank tape?

Oh, and play Cantr II at www.cantr.net.

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Monday, January 26, 2004 4:42 AM

KINGOFKOINS

Quote:
Originally posted by kalathena:
Quote:
Originally posted by TeelaBrown:
Only one problem for me on bycotting Fox (Though I'd love to): I love the Simpsons.

That's my problem, too. If this was five years ago, I might consider it, but after the Evita parody this year, I just can't *not* watch it. I swear by my autographed copy of MY LIFE AS A TEN-YEAR-OLD-BOY that I won in a trivia contest, I'm far too attached to Springfield to give it up.

I have an extreme amount of respect for those who have, however. You're much stronger than I am.

--Kala

Bah, I don't think leaving the Simpsons at this point is any really big loss. I love the Simpsons, and I can go toe to toe with the best of them in trivia, but I think they jumped the shark around "Behind the laughter". Let it go.

--------------------------------
It's sickening how comforting the privacy of the mind can be.

http://stripe.filetap.com

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Monday, January 26, 2004 4:54 AM

MADMAX

Hey not A bad idea, and with the fact that I have the Nelsion junk hooked to my TVs they will see that I am not watching fox.

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Monday, January 26, 2004 5:01 AM

BROWNCOAT1

May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one.

I already boycott Fox, so I have no problem signing up for a general boycott of it or any network.

If this goes down, just post a date and how long the boycott should run and I am in. I will even send emails or make calls to local TV news stations and newspapers to tell them.

"May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one."

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Monday, January 26, 2004 5:18 AM

PUMAMANREDUX

well ... dunno if a protest will work on a small scale .. Fox can just say "We have millions of viewers world wide that watch our network affiliates no matter what we do to our shows ... so whats a few thousand ticked off Firefly fans going to do to our network ... possibly bring us new viewers who see that fox is being protested against, find the protest goofy and then they'll check out our current line-up ... cool "

I hope the media response, if any, isn't to ridicule the fanbase ... it seems that it could happen ...

okay .. playing sorta a Devil's Advocate here

*Gets off the soapbox and trips*

Drama is life with the dull bits cut out. (Alfred Hitchcock)

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Monday, January 26, 2004 5:46 AM

DUG

OK, I have something of an inside view on how ratings work. I ran radio stations for 15 years, which is a similar ratings based cesspool.

There is one critical thing to understand about the mind of a media exec: Unless you are a rated household you have less significance than a dust mote. Since the ad dollars are based on ratings ONLY rated households matter. If no one other than rated househoulds watch a show the numbers will stil say that it has a huge following. If EVERY one OTHER than rated households watches, it looks like the show is dead. All parties involved know that it is a mythical number and may not truly represent how things are, but they are the ONLY numbers to base multi million dollar decisions on, and therefore to defend jobs with.

If you watch but are unrated, you are invisible and unsellable. If you boycott but are unrated, you are irrelevant. Like shouting into a well; no one hears you.

Boycotts will do little unless you organize the prople with rated households. And they matter a FRIGHTENING amount. Direct appeal to advertisers may have more effect, since they control the purse strings that drive the whole business.

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Monday, January 26, 2004 2:15 PM

RKLENSETH

Well, it would have to be some months from so that people can be contacted and the word sent out.

We should also make sure that it doesn't fall onto a date when something major is happening (ie. Superbowl).

Anyhow, no matter what publicity we get it will help. People will read in the newspaper or see on tv or hear on the radio about Firefly and then if even 1/3rd of them decide to pick it up then that is another couple of thousand of people that might join the Browncoat ranks which is already swelling due to the social currency. As I said, most people who I have shown the series to have fallen in love with it after the first episode. If this keeps up then soon enough no network will be able to ignore us or movie studio for that matter.

On the online game forum that I play and am a staff member for (see link below) I have been trying to convert fellow players. I think some of them might have been converted when I started posting Firefly's famous one liners and quotes. Some are still skeptical of a sci-fi western (which in my opinion is a little bit more than that) but I'll keep working on them.

Well, lets keep the word out anyway possible.

How about sometime in March or April?

Oh, and play Cantr II at www.cantr.net.

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Monday, January 26, 2004 3:04 PM

HERO

I'm not Boycotting TV for a week. Sunday is the superbowl and not much is in repeats so if your gonna boycott do it at a better time, like when there's nothing on.

H

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Monday, January 26, 2004 6:05 PM

RKLENSETH

I just said that in my last post....

Oh, and play Cantr II at www.cantr.net.

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Monday, January 26, 2004 6:56 PM

MOMAW

Quote:
Originally posted by Hero:
I'm not Boycotting TV for a week. Sunday is the superbowl and not much is in repeats so if your gonna boycott do it at a better time, like when there's nothing on.

H

The whole point of a boycott is that you give up something you want, to make a statement. If the thing you give up had no value to you anyway, the only statement you're making is one of hypocrisy.

Personally I've seen maybe a dozen hours of broadcast/live television in the past... what year is this. 8 solid years at least. Mostly when we go visiting or some such, they'll have the boob tube tuned in. So I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and call it my decade-long marathon boycott of the Fox network

Get lots of reading done, if ye don't watch the tube. Fantasy fantasy fans, check out the Sevenwaters trilogy, Juliet Marillier.

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Tuesday, January 27, 2004 3:49 AM

ZEKE023

Nobody would notice this effort.

The main reason firefly was cancled was due to poor Nielson ratings. Clearly those who like and watch the show are not "Nielson Families" - and therefore no one cares what they watch or don't watch.

Unless you have a Nielson box - you have absolutely no power unless you want to write letters - and then tape bricks to their replies and "return to sender - pay on delivery". That's power, baby!

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Tuesday, January 27, 2004 7:14 AM

STEVE580

Quote:
Originally posted by zeke023:
Unless you have a Nielson box - you have absolutely no power unless you want to write letters - and then tape bricks to their replies and "return to sender - pay on delivery". That's power, baby!

LOL!!

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Tuesday, January 27, 2004 7:37 AM

BROWNCOAT1

May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one.

Quote:
Originally posted by dug:
OK, I have something of an inside view on how ratings work. I ran radio stations for 15 years, which is a similar ratings based cesspool.

There is one critical thing to understand about the mind of a media exec: Unless you are a rated household you have less significance than a dust mote. Since the ad dollars are based on ratings ONLY rated households matter. If no one other than rated househoulds watch a show the numbers will stil say that it has a huge following. If EVERY one OTHER than rated households watches, it looks like the show is dead. All parties involved know that it is a mythical number and may not truly represent how things are, but they are the ONLY numbers to base multi million dollar decisions on, and therefore to defend jobs with.

If you watch but are unrated, you are invisible and unsellable. If you boycott but are unrated, you are irrelevant. Like shouting into a well; no one hears you.

Boycotts will do little unless you organize the prople with rated households. And they matter a FRIGHTENING amount. Direct appeal to advertisers may have more effect, since they control the purse strings that drive the whole business.

Unfortunately, Dug is 100% correct.

If we do not have Nielson boxes and are one of that magical few that select the fate of all, then we, our viewing selections, our money, and out opinions do not count at all.

I have never understood how these people at networks can assume that the small percentage of homes that are rated are somehow an accurate accounting of the poplularity of a show. I have never understood how sponsors are trusting their business to networks that use such a faulty system.

"May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one."

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Tuesday, January 27, 2004 9:19 AM

HATEHATEHATEFOX

Quote:
Originally posted by Steve580:
lol...boycott Fox -- that's like boycotting disease.
-Steve

LMAO! Sorry but I just had to say how funny I found that! Personally - I cancelled our cable after they cancelled FF and never regretted it for a minute.

~~~~~~~~
Nothing is ever so profoundly regretted as a kind act.
Robertson Davies

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