The ^Bitter  Network Administrator

                                                A Website Dedicated to Computer Professional...and some not so Professional

    Interview with the Save Farscape Crew
    Julie Rayhanabad and Nina Lumpp from SaveFarscape.com  

1. Q. Well, the reports should all be in by now. How did the 5th of Farscape go? What were you looking for and was it a success?

A. We only had peripheral involvement in the 5th of Farscape rallies, but we were very pleased by the international scope of them, particularly the Bagram, Afghanistan rally. The rally consisted of 12-15 U.S. Soldiers based in Bagram that watched the Farscape pilot and Crackers Don’t Matter, made signs, and sent out letters in their free time at the Camp Cajun MWR tent. Their article and the pictures of their rally are posted on the http://www.savefarscape.com website. 
(On a side note, a care package is being put together for the American military troops in Afghanistan. Details can be found here.)

2. Q. So the first part of the plan to save Farscape is to make sure the ratings are through the roof for the Christmas Chain Reaction and the rest of season 4 beginning in January. Things seem to be off to a good start. The Save Farscape campaign has done more to raise awareness of the show beyond its core fan base than anything the Sci-Fi Channel has done in the entire time the show has been on. Can you give us any insight as to what you have planned for December?

A. December will probably be the busiest month of this campaign, a highlight of which will be the Two Towers/Make-A-Wish Charity Raffle. The plan is to have Save Farscape volunteers organize local fundraising raffles nationwide at theaters showing The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers during the first weekend of its release. Volunteers will hand out information on Make-A-Wish and Farscape and monies collected will be donated to the local Make-A-Wish chapters in the name of Save Farscape. Our second plan is participating in numerous national science fiction conventions and sending to selected conventions the traveling Farscape Art Show, which contains a collection of professionally made Farscape art. Thirdly, it’s going to be the time when the biggest push for publicizing Farscape to viewers will come, as the last half of season 4 begins on January 10th, 2003. We’re working on other strategies that will be implemented during that time as well, but nothing is firm yet. We’ll post more information on the newer plans as we get closer to December. (Another side note, in addition to the Christmas Eve Chain Reaction there is also going to be a Farscape Recap on January 3rd from 6pm to 9pm. They will be showing the last three episodes of season 4, A Perfect Murder, Coup by Clam, and Unrealized Reality. Then the rest of season 4 will kick off on January 10th at Farscapes new timeslot, 8pm.)

3. Q. Speaking of ratings. There was a time when Sci-Fi Friday, with original series such as Invisible Man, Farscape, and Lexx, made Friday night their big ratings night. Now it looks a lot like the Sci Fi channel is moving away from original science fiction series programming in favor of low cost options including original series’ that deal with talking to the dead and analyzing people’s dreams along with purchasing shows from other networks such as Stargate SG1 and the X-Files. Do you have any information on what has happened to their ratings since the new programming direction and the canceling of Farscape?

A. Unfortunately, we don’t have any information on what their ratings will become due to this programming decision because the Sci-Fi Channel is currently airing mostly reruns (other than Farscape), which it commonly does during the beginning of the new fall television season. We can’t accurately forecast what the effects will be until December, when Sci-Fi begins airing the original mini-series "Taken", but what we can say is that currently, their ratings are lower - which we believe is a result of the reruns that are being shown at this time. According to Nielsen, during the week of October 7th, 2002 Sci-Fi’s weekly rating for the 25-54 year old demographic in the primetime hours was 0.5.

4. Q. Now that we have a Sci-Fi Channel that doesn’t like space shows, the second part of the save Farscape plan is to find a channel that does want shows like Farscape. UPN, TNT, and Showtime have all been mentioned. The big question seems to be Sci-Fi’s rights to the first 4 seasons. In David Kemper's second visit to Interstellar Radio’s Interstellar Transmissions on September 27, 2002 he stated:

"It’s just a matter of who is going to run the show. And the problem is that the SciFi Channel has re-run rights to the first four years for a little bit of time, so it doesn’t make it economical. If you are a network and you want to pick up Farscape"

Do we have any idea how long a little bit of time is?

A. At this point, we have no information that tells us what that little bit of time is and Sci-Fi isn’t talking. In fact, the only times they have commented during this campaign have been to announce that Farscape had been cancelled and through their recently released Farscape Cancellation FAQ. Sci-Fi has been approached numerous times by many other media outlets, including CNN Headline News, to get comments about the campaign and the cancellation and they have refused comment.

5. Q. A lot has been made about the demographics of the Farscape fans. We are professional, educated, and have a good bit of disposable income. The readers of TheNetworkAdministrator.com certainly fit into that category. Network Administrators don’t just spend their own money; they are responsible for all of the technology spending for their entire company. This is the group that the Dells, Gateways, and CDWs want to reach. (We certainly get enough of their catalogs) How can our readers use their powers for good and help save Farscape?

A. There are many different ways in which the readers of TheNetworkAdministrator.com can to use their powers for good. First of all, pass on their love of Farscape to the people around them, friends, family, etc. Share with people why they are passionate about Farscape and introduce other people to the show. That can take the form of word of mouth, or Farscape Friday parties, where episodes of the show are aired at home through the available VHS/DVDs, which have been released by ADV Films (The Farscape Season 1 Box Set comes out on October 29th). Your readers can also take the time to email or write the corporations they do business with who are advertisers for the show. For example, Dell is one of the big Farscape advertisers on the Sci-Fi Channel. Network administrators could write letters to Dell, listing the products they buy, how much that costs per year, and the fact that due to Farscape’s cancellation they no longer have anything else they watch on the Sci-Fi Channel and Dell’s advertising on Sci-Fi won’t reach them anymore. Readers can then encourage Dell to continue their company’s support of Farscape by passing these concerns along to Sci-Fi and also by committing to advertise with Farscape should it find a new home on another network - specifically UPN. Make sure to include with any letters, demographics, as those are very important. Those demographics should include: gender, age, occupation, the city they live in, and income. In addition to the above, your readers specifically should mention the size of the companies they work for and their position within the companies, as those can be very effective tools as well. And of course, if they’d like to advertise the campaign on their websites, we certainly wouldn’t object. (If you would like to fly a banner on your site, you can get one here.)

Interview by Ellen Chick
ellenchick@thenetworkadministrator.com