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Carlos has been calling me every two hours from Burbank.
It's the weekend before Thanksgiving, and Iím on the phone with
Linda. We're talking strategy for the next few weeks, as we
approach the holiday movie season and our proposed publicity
blitz. This time, the plan has come from the Watch Farscape Web
site, whoíve organized a national campaign in conjunction with the
Make-A-Wish Foundation. Their plan is to secure donations and
raffle off items to theatergoers waiting to see the second installment
in Peter Jacksonís Lord of the Rings films, The Two Towers. As of
this writing, the Chicago Scapers are the only group in the nation to
have successfully gotten permission from a theater chain.
Jeff's new Web site for the group has turned out to be quite
impressive. We still have about 1500 pens to give away with the
old Web site's address, but as the former URL redirects browsers to our
new dot-com site, this does not bother us.
These
pens, as well as more of the character buttons, are to be distributed
during the continuing convention season. So far, the Chicago
Scapers have planned to attend the Chicago TARDIS Doctor Who convention
at the end of November, send a detachment to the ConFusion in Detroit
in late January, and hold another room party at CapriCon in the Chicago
area the first weekend of February.
The
parties are now becoming a central function of our group. As
Linda relates it to me, Carlos has been besieged by admirers in
Burbank, where he is attending the official Farscape fan-club
convention. It seems that fans around the country have heard of
the now-legendary WindyCon party, and are expressing their esteem for
the Chicago Scapers by pelting our representatives with praise.
Carlos accepts it all with dignity and goes on to tell Linda about how
Number 96, the Aussie rock band featuring Farscape actors Anthony
Simcoe and Wayne Pygram, totally rocks! He has also managed to
get one of our pens into the hands of David Kemper, who he hopes will
visit the site and see the effort we're putting forth on his behalf.
A very heartening bit of news has also come from the Watch Farscape
site. It seems that the organizers have established a non-profit
organization called the Viewer Consortium. Its stated purpose is
to give viewing audiences a voice and more control over their viewing
choices; a major focus is, naturally, on rescuing popular shows
threatened with cancellation. (Right now, of course, these
resources are being directed almost exclusively to help return Farscape
to the airwaves, but the government doesnít need to know that.)
Finally, the dream to get our message across the airwaves is at last
coming true. The national movement, San Francisco chapter, has
crafted a homemade TV ad for the cause. The thirty-second spot is
called I Am Farscape, a riff on Sci Fiís own I Am Sci Fi celebrity-plug
campaign. The movementís commercial features fans of various
walks of life declaring their love for the show; it was produced using
some of the campaignís pledged money, and is slated to run on cable
outlets in 24 cities across the nation.
In
short, things are going well. Morale is at an all-time high, in
both Chicago and the rest of the country. I personally am so
giddy that I don't even mind completely compromising any journalistic
objectivity I might have had. Like the rest of the members of our
group, I'm proud to be part of an organization with such clear ideas
for achieving its goal.
We have not succeeded yet. But we have hope. And for the moment, that's good enough.
******************************
As of press time, there had been no further statements from
the Sci Fi Channel, the Jim Henson Company, Hallmark Entertainment, USA/Vivendi,
or EM.TV regarding any change in the status of Farscape. The series' fourth season is still slated to
be its last.
The final eleven episodes of Farscape's fourth season are
scheduled to run on cable on the Sci Fi Channel, beginning Friday, January 10,
2003, at 8:00 PM EST (7:00 PM CST).
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