Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 8, 1995 TAG: 9506080030
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ANITA GATES N.Y. TIMES NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Her series, which critics fell all over themselves praising when it premiered last fall, died three weeks ago at the age of 19 episodes. The cause of death was low ratings - recently estimated at 10 million viewers - followed by a two-month hiatus.
Valiant efforts were made to save it, including those of Operation Life Support, a group of fans on America Online who raised money to place ads in Hollywood trade publications begging ABC not to let the show die. But when the network announced its fall schedule on May 17, ``My So-Called Life'' wasn't on the list.
Clearly, grass roots aren't what they used to be. In the Internet age, fans of a troubled series can get their message across faster and farther than ever, but making a big noise no longer guarantees results.
Times have changed considerably since 1984, when a few thousand viewer letters and some sympathetic publicity persuaded CBS to put ``Cagney and Lacey'' back on the air after having canceled it the previous spring. The show, with Tyne Daly and Sharon Gless as police officer buddies, went on to four more seasons and multiple Emmys.
``I think grass-roots campaigns do have impact, but one thing working against them is how they're being run today,'' says Jack Curry, managing editor of TV Guide, which sponsors a Save Our Shows campaign each spring.
Several worthy but endangered series are named by the editors, then readers are invited to vote - by fax, mail, E-mail or a 900 telephone line - for the show they most want to see saved.
``The networks don't really know who the cyberspace people are, what they buy,'' Curry adds, referring to the proliferation of on-line campaigns on the Internet. ``It was very different when letters arrived on stationery with little pussycats and flowers, because network television still sells a lot of shampoo and cereal - to that 35-year-old housewife from Iowa.''
And maybe it has been different since the networks realized that 50,000 letters may be a big bag of mail but they still represent roughly 1/19 of a rating point (one rating point represents 954,000 homes).
Dorothy Swanson, who practically invented the grass-roots movement, disagrees with the significance of those numbers. ``Every letter represents 10,000 viewers who think it and don't say it,'' says Ms. Swanson, who founded Viewers for Quality Television in 1984 and still operates the organization out of her Fairfax Station, Va., home.
Ms. Swanson can now point with pride to ``Party of Five,'' a low-rated but highly praised Fox drama about five siblings trying to carry on after their parents are killed.
Fox announced on May 23 that the show will return next season. ``Party of Five'' also won TV Guide's Save Our Shows balloting this year, with 34 percent of the roughly 82,000 reader votes cast.
Fans of ``Star Trek,'' the original 1960s science fiction series, claim they started the grass-roots movement to save television shows. Their effort, made during the series' first season (1966-67), reportedly brought in 100,000 letters to NBC and saved the show, but only until 1969.
by CNB