Open letter to entertainment writers

[on:]

in light of the news posting today about the dismal ratings scores for Futuramas season premire i have composed my first draft of a letter to explain what is behind these low ratings so here it is and i welcome any comments recommendations and critisims (the formatting may be a little screwy being pasted in to this post):


The Slow Death of a TV Series


   I am going to go straight to the point I am trying to put out.
Despite being the 2002 Emmy Award winner for Best Animated Series, the
TV series Futurama is slowly and systematically being buried alive.  One
might say that the show is being cancelled because of bad ratings and
everyone knows that if the show isn't getting enough viewers then it is
sure to be removed from the lineup.  Why does Futurama get such low
ratings?  Well there are two things I can think of that has caused it:
The time slot it is shown in and the lack of advertising.

   Futurama currently holds the 7:00 Sunday time slot as it has
since shortly in to the second season. The problem with this time slot
is that when there is a football game on Fox that starts at 4:00 it is
more than likely to not going to end before or exactly at 7:00 and when
that happens Futurama is either show in progress (this rarely happens)
or it goes straight into whatever is scheduled in the 7:30 time slot.
This has made the number of unaired episodes stack up, so much in fact
that all of the episodes to air this season were made with the intention
to be shown last year (exception is one episode that has been sitting on
the shelf for a good two years unaired with no scheduled air date so
far.) For almost 3 years now Futurama has been rarely shown in the
Eastern, Central, or Mountain Time zones and most all of the potential
viewers never got to see this show, so how could bad ratings not be
expected?  A push to the 7:30 time slot or even the 9:30 slot could do
wonders for this series, instead Fox has decided to show re-runs of
other shows such as The Simpsons or King of the Hill.  Why would a
broadcasting company that has paid close to $500,000 to produce each
episode of Futurama choose to bury it under football when there is ample
room in its schedule to show it?

   In the past two years I can barely remember one full
advertisement for Futurama and most of the ads shown for it now appear
seconds before Futurama airs itself.  For the season premier episode Fox
did not show but a two second flash of text to advertise its Emmy
winning show and even then it didn't mention that it had won such an
award, apparently this acknowledgement only came in a three second text
flash during the season opener which most people did not see.  This
paired with Fox not showing it in most of the US time zones because of
football makes it so I cant even spread the word about this show by word
of mouth, if I tell someone to check it out at 7pm est. and they attempt
to tune in they will see no indication that Futurama actually exists.
The show has a large underground following that reaches all over the
globe, with a large number in the European countries.  Within hours of
the news that Fox was not ordering another production season for
Futurama 20,000 people had already signed a petition to help save
Futurama and the number now stands at over 150,000.  According to Amazon
in the UK, the Futurama season 1 DVD set was ranked 3rd out of all DVDs
sold on Amazon in the UK its first week on sale.  The Futurama season 2
DVD is now ranked as the 32nd highest on the sales chart for DVDs on the
Amazon UK website and that's pretty good for a show that has the same
trouble being aired in the UK as it does in the US.  This is reason I
wrote this letter, I know if given a fair chance and promotion Futurama
could be up there with Fox's hit shows.

[Reply #1 on:]

Nice! That must have taken quite a lot of effort, and its well argued too.

However, maybe you could mention Season 1 DVD sales.

"The DVD sales for the first season boxset were also high, with ___statistic___ copies having been sold already. You must have picked up on this success as you commissioned a second series release, which is now ranked as the 32nd.."
 
Also maybe mention the fact these sales are all Region Two sales, therefore eliminating American buyers etc (the biggest consumers (is that the word?) in the world). Pretend to be oblivious to the fact that there are multi region hacks. 

Just rough there, feel free to change that/ not use it.

[Reply #2 on:]

Great letter, blahness. 

However, a note of advice - if this letter is going to FOX themselves DON'T mention illegal downloads, unless you want to be on the receiving end of a hefty lawsuit.

In addition, you may want to trim it a little.  If it takes up more than one sheet of A4 it's probably too long.

[Reply #3 on:]

Good letter. 

You should also try and seek out some online/offline Sci-fi/animation magazine which accepts freelance writing, and see if you can get it published.

[Reply #4 on:]

Nice letter, Blahness. However be carefull with the Kazaa talk, FOX are pretty zealous these days. You're completely right about this issue, of course, but as Fred said lawsuits come easy for FOX.

Another factiod to throw in is that the Season 1 DVD set landed a 3rd place on the overall Amazon DVD chart during it's first week.

[Reply #5 on:]

thanks all for the help so far, im going to scrap the download talk, i put it in there to explain how the only way for a lot of people to actually see the show is through the internet.  and Teral thanks for the figures on the S1 dvd i was wondering how far it got up there... ill probably post my next draft of the letter tomorrow.   any suggestions on where i should send it? i already have a small list started of entertainment writers like ones from various newspapers, ap, ent weekly, etc.. and suggestions on this front would be appreciated also

thanks all again for the help

[Reply #6 on:]

I would suggest sending it to your local or other newspaper as well. I'm going to 'copy/paste' all the info in this thread together and send it to my local paper, maybe even a T.V. news station...

[Reply #7 on:]

 

Originally posted by Erdrik:
I would suggest sending it to your local or other newspaper as well. I'm going to 'copy/paste' all the info in this thread together and send it to my local paper, maybe even a T.V. news station...

im planning on sending it to as many newspapers i can find... my local one i guess would be the washington post... and anyone who wants to take this letter and malform it to fit thier situation and send it off to your local newspaper and/or station has my blessings 

[Reply #8 on:]

i edited my original post with my next draft: shortend it a little bit (will fit on one standard size piece of paper) and rewrote some parts

need more feed back on it still

[Reply #9 on:]

Looks good.  Getting rid of the d******ds bit was a good decision.

[Reply #10 on:]

Impressive. 

But if you send it to Fox, wouldn't you get a similar "standard" response like the other people who sent a letter? I can only hope they read it. 

[Reply #11 on:]

Sah-weet, now i dont have to do it!

And yours does not have little stick figures being be-headed and swearwords starting with the letter: poop.
I also hope they read it and actually take it seriously!

[Reply #12 on:]

 

Originally posted by ZombieJesus:
Impressive.   

But if you send it to Fox, wouldn't you get a similar "standard" response like the other people who sent a letter? I can only hope they read it. 

ive been debating about whether to send it to fox, rather i do have a phone number to their main offices and im sure i can talk to some kind of customer relations deptartment or something of that matter *shrugs*

[Reply #13 on:]

just got an email from Entertainment Weekly telling me that they are considering publishing my letter to the editor in the next issue   

[Reply #14 on:]

My brother gets Entertainment Weekly, I could steal his.  Make sure you let us know if your letter gets published!

[Reply #15 on:]

 

Originally posted by bankrupt:
My brother gets Entertainment Weekly, I could steal his.  Make sure you let us know if your letter gets published!

will do!

[Reply #16 on:]

You've already sent the letter, but the Season 2 DVD set was number 1 in the Amazon.co.uk chart for the first few days it was available for pre-order.

[Reply #17 on:]

Yea, both DVD sets reached #1 in sales through pre-orders alone, and stayed on that spot for a while.

[Reply #18 on:]

That's a very well written and thought-out letter. It sticks to the point, mentions the key facts and doesn't descend into "FOX SUX!!!! REKNEW FuTU RAMA!!!" hype (and that's a deliberate spelling mistake, BTW  ).

[Reply #19 on:]

Great letter. I have to say, very great stuff. I'd buy a copy of EW if it's in there.

[Reply #20 on:]

I subscribe to EW, so I'll tell you if it's in there.

[Reply #21 on:]

That letter is great!

You should mail it to all the addressas for Fox listed at CGEF!!

Also include that it has also not been shown in Australia and when shown here it is also unadvertised and on at 10:25 at night!

[Reply #22 on:]

Or at the addresses I listed at http://www.peelified.com/cgi-bin/Futurama/1-001592-1/#t33

[Reply #23 on:]

If your name is Eric Clark, your letter was printed. Congratulations!

[Reply #24 on:]

That's a reaction to a CGEF writing thing. I got a mail by Eric a few minutes ago. Here is more on it: http://www.gotfuturama.com/Futurama/News/1044652460,34482,/

[Reply #25 on:]

Well done Eric!

[Reply #26 on:]

BON VOYAGE!!!!

[Reply #27 on:]

well my letter wasnt printed but im glad someones got in 

[Reply #28 on:]

I sent your letter to 'The Better Business Bureau'. I don't know if that was stupid, or futile, or what, but I felt like I had to do something, since I can't do anything physically(no money to take a trip to the FOX HQ, other wise known as hell).

If anyone else would like to contact the BBB, here are two emails I got(and used).

bbbinfo@iserv.net
contactdr@cbbb.bbb.org