Holly — Sun, 6/3/07 4:30am

Reading a few of these comments, I'm struck by how ridiculously naive these fans sound. Each person is so certain that (1) the network's numbers must just be WRONG, because if I love the show, then how come everyone doesn't? and (2) there's never been a campaign like this to save a show before!

Fans (at least scif fi fans, to whom I pay attention) always seem to sound this way when they're trying to save a show. Duh, you say, but this interests me because it suggests that these save-the-show campaigns aren't motivated by the same core group of obsessive TV fans every time – even when we're talking about science fiction shows specifically. The folks who attended the Save Enterprise rallies probably had almost no overlap with the folks attending the Save Firefly rallies; sci fi fans often get lumped together as freaks who have a costume for every convention, but this suggests their diversity. For that matter, I'd bet that the core fandom of each show contains a number of people who wouldn't necessarily consider themselves "sci fi fans" at all, but who are condescending to dip into the genre just because they fell in love with that particular show.

Anyway, each show seems to generate its own unique core group, who then rise up and rally 'round and (having never done this before) can't imagine that anyone else has ever matched their dedication.

But other people have. This comment jumped out at me: "let the rights to the show be picked up by the Sci-Fi Channel or TNT, channels that are supportive of their shows and don’t have the dreaded ratings sword to worry about." Seriously, kid, I'm a jaded veteran of the great Farscape wars of 2002, and I'm telling you, SCI FI's reputation in this department is not, shall we say, as untarnished you tenderfoot rookies think. For that matter, the great Stargate SG-1 wars have been underway for a while now (to no avail), and yet somehow through it all SCI FI has remained defiantly interested in ratings. Call them crazy! And yet they keep caring about those pesky numbers.

I believe, of course, that networks should calm down about ratings (which can't be that accurate these days anyway), and I believe, of course, that quality shows should be made for niche markets (or just for the sake of having a quality show on the air; for Pride and Honor and Artistic Glory). But it's still sad to see fans being this naive about the massive business juggernaut that they're sweetly attempting to influence.

Here's my plan. Every fan who's ever participated, however insignificantly, in a save-the-show campaign should be required – like people who've left the military but can be activated again – to serve on future campaigns. Even for shows they don't care about. (There can be moral exceptions so that conscientious objectors don't have to support shows they hate; I would not have to support Jericho, for example.) There should be this fantastic huge database of Veterans of TV Show Campaigns (the V of TVSC), and whenever a show needs to be saved, its particular core group of fans just logs onto the database and activates the reservists. Then fans could make a legitimate case that either (1) the ratings were wrong all along, or (2) the fan campaign has been so successful that they've doubled the audience all on their own: "Funny, the show was averaging 5.4 million viewers, but we're getting 12.7 different people writing in."

Of course, we'd have to keep the V of TVSC secret from all the networks, which could be tricky. But I say it'd be worth it. Who's with me??