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Author Topic: Snail mail prepped and ready  (Read 1086 times)
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jasonlevine

Bending Unit
***
« on: 02-13-2002 23:38 »

Just spent the past few hours typing up the snail mail letter I intend to send.  Here it is as a guide for any other letter writers:


Dear Ms. Berman:

I was shocked and saddened the morning of February 12th when I came upon news that Futurama wasn’t going to be renewed.  Ever since Futurama first premiered, I’ve enjoyed every single episode.  I consider it one of the best shows on television and would hate to see it cut short.  I understand that you have a backlog of episodes.  My fear is that once this backlog is aired, the writers and artists will have moved on to other projects.  If that happens you’ll either have to pay top dollar to get them back, or (more likely) Futurama will be cancelled outright.

I don’t believe that Futurama was given a fighting chance this season.  First, it was stuck in a 7 PM time slot when few people watch television.  Then the season premiere was delayed.  When the season did begin, new episodes didn’t air regularly.  In fact, as of this writing, only four new episodes have been shown with a fifth airing this weekend.  A sixth new episode was bumped at the last minute to make room for The Chamber.  Finally, even when Futurama was airing a repeat, football would preempt it most days.  All these factors, combined with a lack of promotion, made it difficult for even the die-hard fans to know when to tune in.

Futurama is a witty, hilarious and sometimes deeply touching show.  It’s as funny as The Simpsons was in its prime.  Not only is it a quality show, but also it has the potential to make a lot of money from sources other than advertiser dollars.  Futurama has already spun off a few toy lines and the DVD sets have been well received in Europe.  Personally, I’ve been looking through the various toy offerings to see which items would look nice displayed in my office and I anxiously await the Region 1 DVDs.

As for solving the backlog problem, I respectfully suggest that Futurama be moved to a new timeslot where it will not be preempted by football.  In addition, mini-marathons could be aired with two new episodes back to back.  This could help drum up more publicity and draw in more viewers.  In this manner, the existing episodes can be aired, the backlog can be reduced, and Futurama can continue to air for many more seasons.

I hope that you will reconsider your decision.  Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Jason Levine
[-mArc-]

Administrator
Liquid Emperor
**
« Reply #1 on: 02-14-2002 00:09 »
« Last Edit on: 04-25-2010 17:15 »

    I'll publish mine too:

    Dear Mr. Sandy Grushow ,


    as it came to my attention you are planning to put Futurama on a hold due to the extensive backlog of already produced but not shown episodes. I will spare you the reasons why I like the show and go straight to why I think it is a mistake.
    • Rough Draft and The Curiosity Company are telling their writers and animators to get a new job due to your hiatus announcement. The show will never be able to continue where it was stopped. As you are probably aware, artists have seasonal contracts to get over the production off-season but aren’t able to wait a year. They will need to find new places to work at. A renewed Futurama will never be able to get the currently great staff back, nor is Rough Draft likely to hold its assets without proper funding.
    • Your channel seems to drift towards bulk watched, cheaply produced shows like all the „When ...“ series. While this does generate great NN ratings for little money, I’m pretty sure your advertising clients will soon notice that the demographics of these people are of hardly any use to them. These aren’t the people who choose advertised brand products over generic ones at Wal-Mart. To the contrary, Futurama‘s target market offers quite some qualities regarding this issue.
    • Furthermore the decline of programming quality will probably soon hit the credibility of your ongoing success „FOX News“.
    • It never got a fair chance. Your programming department put it in a limbo time slot which allowed exactly 3 airings within the whole season which furthermore got pre-empted by football around the east coast. People aren’t going to grow a habit without a predictable time slot. First reactions by other fans to your cancellation often included „that’s on air still? Never seen it lately.“.
    So, regarding your backlog forbidding you to order more episodes: Start airing the show. This backlog didn’t appear over night. Season pre-emption by 3 months and then show pre-emption for the rest of the time made that inevitable. Think about airing it at a different time. Later the day. Germany had big successes with airing Futurama as late as 9:45pm on Mondays. Also, consider a season overrun or double episode features like you do for The Simpsons and Family Guy.


    Thanks for your time,

    Marc W.
Sarge

Professor
*
« Reply #2 on: 02-14-2002 02:10 »
« Last Edit on: 04-25-2010 17:15 by [-mArc-] »

..........W.??.......and I thought 'Sarge' was strange.   :laff: J/K!

Great letter, though.  ;) It sticks it to them where they Know. Good Fox News jab.
[-mArc-]

Administrator
Liquid Emperor
**
« Reply #3 on: 02-14-2002 03:02 »

Hey, you may only laugh about it if you can pronounce it :P

Anyway, they already responded to the "new timeslot" thing before they got my letter  :D Thursday nights at 9:30pm. AFAIK Fox likes to put in specials and movies on thursdays though to counter NBC's Friends.
jasonlevine

Bending Unit
***
« Reply #4 on: 02-14-2002 08:57 »

 
Quote
Originally posted by [-mArc-]:
Hey, you may only laugh about it if you can pronounce it :P

Anyway, they already responded to the "new timeslot" thing before they got my letter   :D Thursday nights at 9:30pm. AFAIK Fox likes to put in specials and movies on thursdays though to counter NBC's Friends.

9:30 PM Thursdays?  That's perfect!  :D
It's after Friends.  (Yes, I watch Friends, but I'd tape it and watch Futurama instead if they were head-to-head.)  It's up against Just Shoot Me on NBC and the second half of Millionaire on ABC.  (Two shows I care nothing about.)

Bender and crew should be able to make quick work of the competition if this is promoted properly.  The Feb 28th show is apparently a repeat of Put Your Head on My Shoulders, but maybe they're showing a repeat in that timeslot first as a "get it's feet wet" move.  (Meaning that if the fans forget about the new timeslot, it won't make too much of a difference.)

BTW, King of the Hill is a repeat just before it with two eps of Family Guy.  Are they moving KotH too?  A FG/FG/KotH/Futurama animation Thursday night could be nice.  (And could get me back into watching King of the Hill.)

:Keeps fingers crossed... but still on the trigger of the bicycle gun:
Kryten

Space Pope
****
« Reply #5 on: 02-14-2002 12:49 »

9:30 Thursdays? S'pluh? Is this true?

WOO-HOO!
[-mArc-]

Administrator
Liquid Emperor
**
« Reply #6 on: 02-14-2002 12:55 »
« Last Edit on: 02-14-2002 12:55 »

Could be that it's only used for additional reruns. First thing will be "Put your head..." I think.

Maybe they'll change that if it gets better ratings that night.
VelourFog

Space Pope
****
« Reply #7 on: 02-14-2002 13:35 »

and isn't that tonight? so thats a valentiney episode.  So is this going to be a one time thing, or for a few weeks?
FishyJoe

Honorary German
Urban Legend
***
« Reply #8 on: 02-14-2002 13:41 »

Nope, it's the 28th.

Still not a great timeslot, but whatcha gonna do. At least it won't be pre-empted.
Shiny_McShine

Poppler
*
« Reply #9 on: 02-14-2002 20:07 »
« Last Edit on: 02-15-2002 00:00 »

Here's a copy of the letter I will be sending out tomorrow:

Ms. Gail Berman
President
Building 100 Room 4450
10201 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90035
United States of America

Dear Ms. Berman,

As a fan of the animated comedy “Futurama”, I was dismayed to hear the news that Fox has not ordered a fifth season of the show, hence placing it on indefinite hiatus.  I am sure you realize that this action makes the resumption of episode production sometime in the future extremely unlikely, as the production companies (Rough Draft and The Curiosity Company) will be forced to lay-off the writers and animators that make Futurama such a wonderful show.  I believe this move is unwarranted, and a financial error in the long run.

Unfortunately, this is not the first problem I have observed in Fox’s handling of Futurama; it is, in fact, just the latest in a series of slights and bad decisions that seem aimed at torpedoing one of the wittiest, most endearing, and incredibly addictive shows on television today.  Witness the lackluster marketing provided by Fox, Futurama’s inconvenient timeslot, and the constant pre-empting caused by Baseball and Football overruns...  Considering all of these factors, it seems apparent that Futurama has not been given an opportunity to reach even a fraction of its potential audience ... and yet, it still manages to win its timeslot amongst key demographics that happen to be flush with disposable income.

I happen to be sitting right in the middle of Futurama’s targeted demographic.  A 26-year old technology worker, I currently spend a significant amount of money on licensed merchandise (including DVDs, tee-shirts, and action figures), as well as products advertised on your networks and affiliated channels. This move on Fox’s part is forcing me to make some difficult decisions that I would not have otherwise considered.  Namely, I have decided to stop watching your networks (including Fox news and sports), stop buying and seeing movies produced by Fox, and I will no longer be purchasing products or supporting companies advertised on your networks (This includes, but is not limited to, Nyquil, Schick, Valvoline, Gold Bond, Subway Sandwiches, Buick Motor Vehicles, Alka-Seltzer, Monistat 7, Diflucan, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), Heartguard, Frontline, any product on TimeLife.com, Ranger Bass Boats, The Xtractor, any product made by MGM, 1-800-COLLECT, Hunt’s Manwich, any product made by Reeses’, any product made by Walt Disney, and Gevalia coffee and coffee makers.)  I will be sending copies of this letter to all of the companies listed in my previous parenthetical aside, and I will be recruiting as many people as I can to join this boycott.

I truly believe it would be in Fox’s best interest to cultivate shows such as Futurama, to encourage thoughtful, genuinely funny programming by giving it the chance to find its audience and allowing it to succeed.  Perhaps the best move you could make in regards to Futurama is to order a fifth season immediately and step up advertising.  For the remainder of this current season, move Futurama to a slot on a weeknight, sometime between 8 and 9:30.  Then, when the current season of new Simpsons episodes finishes its run, I would like to see Futurama moved into its Sunday, 8pm timeslot, where you can run the backlog of un-aired episodes during the off-season (with episodes of the Simpsons airing at 9 and 9:30, in place of the cancelled X-Files).   Offering fresh episodes against your competitors’ reruns, you’ll be able to acquire the audience Futurama so richly deserves.

Please reconsider your decision, and save a great television show (along with a large number of your faithful viewers).

Respectfully yours,
XXXXXXXXXXX
Chump

Urban Legend
***
« Reply #10 on: 02-14-2002 21:15 »

One for each:
Ms. Gail Berman,

This letter is in reference to Fox Broadcasting’s decision to discontinue the television series “Futurama”. I, like many people were shocked and appalled by this decision. Futurama is one of (if not the best) animated show aired by Fox.

It has been said that Futurama has not attracted fan attention and support and that ratings are low. This is largely due to the fact that the show has an unsatisfactory time-slot, is rarely promoted (either by ads, or by re-runs inserted into gaps in airtime), and is often pre-empted by major and minor sporting event such as football and baseball.

Futurama is one of the wittiest and most intensely entertaining television shows I have ever had the fortune of seeing. Every new episode the animators and voice talents outdo themselves, and it is a treat for every viewer. No such show has awarded the audience with such great combinations of stunning graphics and hilarious comedy.

Without a doubt, Futurama is one of the greatest animated shows of all time. Cancellation of the show would be a terrible shame, and it would be sorely missed by fans of North America and abroad. Please reconsider your decision.


Many Thanks,

Kevin T. M*****
Ontario, Canada

I sent that today.
Nixorbo

UberMod
DOOP Secretary
*
« Reply #11 on: 02-14-2002 23:31 »

 
Quote
Originally posted by Shiny_McShine:
Nyquil, Schick, Valvoline, Gold Bond, Subway Sandwiches, Buick Motor Vehicles, Alka-Seltzer, Monistat 7, Diflucan, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), Heartguard, Frontline, any product on TimeLife.com, Ranger Bass Boats, The Xtractor, any product made by MGM, 1-800-COLLECT, Hunt’s Manwich, any product made by Reeses’, any product made by Walt Disney, and Gevalia coffee and coffee makers

Good lord, what do you have left?
VelourFog

Space Pope
****
« Reply #12 on: 02-14-2002 23:40 »

you're a big fan of the monistat 7 huh?  here's hoping you're a female at least.
Shiny_McShine

Poppler
*
« Reply #13 on: 02-15-2002 00:41 »

 
Quote
Originally posted by Nixorbo:
 Good lord, what do you have left?


Hey, no one said this was gonna be easy!

Although, really, the only tough one for me is gonna be Subway (and maybe KFC)...  I truly doubt I'll be hit with a sudden jonesing for Monistat 7.

  :)
rach_the_tall

Space Pope
****
« Reply #14 on: 02-16-2002 00:52 »

I think I can safely boycott all of those products, especially as the vast majority of them aren't in australia.
Ben

Space Pope
****
« Reply #15 on: 02-16-2002 08:20 »

Rach is going to boycott Futurama on TV for at least a month.  :D
Mark

Bending Unit
***
« Reply #16 on: 02-16-2002 09:34 »

Great.

I wont be sending any letters but its funny to read yours   :p

They are very mature
transgender nerd under canada

DOOP Ubersecretary
**
« Reply #17 on: 02-16-2002 15:08 »

 
Quote
Originally posted by VelourFog:
you're a big fan of the monistat 7 huh?  here's hoping you're a female at least.

What's a Monistat 7? Never heard of one, presumably they are only for Americans, and only the Female in America
I nearly posted that as "female women"!
Nurdbot

DOOP Secretary
*
« Reply #18 on: 02-16-2002 16:48 »

May those letters have god's speed!!!
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