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Otis P Jivefunk
DOOP Secretary
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The hardest part is knowing that we will probably have to wait a year to find out if our letters and petitions did anything to change FOX's minds and renew next year. Either that or a different network will get it.
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Nixorbo
UberMod
DOOP Secretary
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Hey, Guffman, if I said I was Corky St. Clair, would you understand what I was talking about?
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Guffman
Crustacean
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Corky St. Clair... rings a bell, but I'm not sure why
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Sarge
Professor
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Guffman...can't...breathe!...
Hey, I asked if you were Rodney & I'm waiting for an answer.
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chinaski
Crustacean
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In keeping with the Waiting for Guffman references, I hate Fox's ass face and if Futurama is cancelled, I'm gonna go home and... bit my pillow!
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Guffman
Crustacean
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Nope, no Rodney here.
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Guffman
Crustacean
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I know who Rodney is. What is the problem?
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Sarge
Professor
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No problem. Just wondering.
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Nixorbo
UberMod
DOOP Secretary
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Originally posted by chinaski: In keeping with the Waiting for Guffman references, I hate Fox's ass face and if Futurama is cancelled, I'm gonna go home and... bit my pillow! FOX is full of bastard people
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Werner Peeters
Crustacean
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« Reply #353 on: 02-17-2002 06:31 »
« Last Edit on: 02-17-2002 06:31 by Nixorbo »
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Sorry to post this twice, but I think I've put it in the wrong thread the first time.
I know this is a long shot, but I'm not going to die after having fought. Here's the letter that I'm going to write to the FOX representatives, being a non-US resident, to ask them to reconsider their decision. Of course, everybody is free to copy/paste portions of this text (or the text entirely) to use in similar letters to Fox. ----------------------------------------
Probably you receive desperate letters like this by dozens every day, in which viewers ask you not to cancel their favorite show. I would really appreciate it however if you could spare a few minutes of your time to read this one. I have never written to the production company of a TV series before in my entire life, and certainly not for a programme made in the US, while I'm living in Europe myself. The point of you getting a letter from a viewer from Belgium must seem strange to you, but as you might know, many of your programmes are bought by e.g. European local networks and broadcast here, although mostly with a year or more delay.
I am writing you after the distressing message that your network, 20th Century Fox, is planning to put the cartoon show "Futurama" on hiatus. I am being told that there were problems with the timeslot in which Futurama is broadcast in the USA, which makes that the show has to be pre-empted for sports manifestations etc. more often than would be good for the ratings for any show. With the broadcast season half-way and only a handful of episodes of the fourth season shown, your network has decided not to commission a 5th series yet.
While I can understand the commercial motivation to this decision, I must ask you to carefully reconsider your decision. Putting the show on hiatus for a year or more would mean its effective early demise, since the original crew working on the show, who are the sole reason that the show is of such a high quality, will probably leave because your decision will make them de facto unemployed.
While I understand that for every show, there comes a time to "end things in beauty", a decision your network recently had to take too concerning the end of your popular SF-series "The X-Files", we, the vast league of die-hard fans of the show, feel that "Futurama"'s popularity is still growing by the minute, and that the show has not reached its full potential yet, and even then it's one of the most refreshing programmes currently on TV. Its ratings would boost if you only could give it a decent time slot and broadcast it on a more regular basis as is the case now.
Living in Europe, I can only assert that the reason that your network's name is known even though you don't own a TV station here and only sell individual shows to your European partners, is because of the major popularity of three of your most important programmes, being "The X-Files", "The Simpsons" and "Futurama". One simple fact to prove this assertion are the massive sale figures of the DVD sets of all three shows. Even though DVD's are in Europe lost more expensive than in the US, which is certainly true for box sets, we, the fans, are happy to pay with a big smile on our faces the necessary price to own these gems in our collections. To give you an idea: the Futurama DVD boxset reached #3 in the UK sales charts only one week after its release, even though it was not available everywhere yet. Also, the critical acclaims in the various DVD magazines have been almost unanimously praising, which means that you have the rights to a rare piece of true quality, becoming scarcer every day, in your control. You may be underestimating its huge amount of "true followers", who rarely miss an episode, try to catch all the re-runs and even try and persuade friends and relatives in a very extreme way to watch the show because it's so excellent.
While we can understand and respect Chris Carter's decision to end his popular sci-fi series after nine seasons, we think that Futurama on the other hand, given the possibilities, has the potential to even outgrow the massive hype that currently exists about "The Simpsons". You should consider yourselves quite lucky that you have contracted Mr. Matt Groening, whom generations to come will look back upon as one of the most innovative and refreshing comedy writers of this era.
Cancelling "Futurama" at this moment would turn out to be the biggest commercial mistakes of your life. There are various examples of TV shows that are now considered culturally important as well as commercially interesting, which were initially slagged off by a TV production network. It is tough to reconsider or alter a decision once it has been made, but it would show both your courage and wisdom if you would admit your mistake and revoke the cancellation of "Futurama".
I expect that, by now, you will have got hundreds of letters with a similar message as this one. I also see that various Internet fanclubs are still left in shock after the announcement of cancellation of "Futurama". As I stated in the opening of my letter, I've never found a programme on TV which was worth writing to the network for; I hope this illustrates the point of how important the show is for us, loyal fans, and I sincerely hope that this small addition to the bandwith of protest, however small and insignificant, will ultimately help you understand the distress of us, "Futurama" lovers. If however, you would not find it possible to achieve the continuation of the series, I beg you to at least sell the rights of "Futurama" to another network - since you won't be needing them anymore anyway - and to permit Mr. Matt Groening and his funny creations to provide us with many more hours of top class entertainment.
Sincerly yours,
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^Raven^
Crustacean
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Thats really really well written Werner.
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chinaski
Crustacean
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I'm not sure if this has been pointed out, but the Futurama petition has surpassed the Family Guy's. That's pretty awesome. And while I'm sort of on the topic, according to a poll at frinky.com, Futurama is funnier than the Simpsons.
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