Damage Control at TPTB Central
KalElFan
in the last attempt. Here is (hopefully) the full text:
In article <Dnuqo...@abs.net>, Len Leshin <lle...@davlin.net> writes:
>kale...@aol.com (KalElFan) wrote::
>>
>>TPTB1: This is a disaster.
>>TPTB2: So what do we do?
>>TPTB3: Won't the real wedding solve it?
>>TPTB1: Nah, they're too p----- off.
>>TPTB2: What if we apologized?
>>TPTB1: Wouldn't be good enough.
>>TPTB3: What if we had a big media blitz, and promised
>> never to do anything like that again?
>>TPTB1: They wouldn't believe it. Not sincere enough.
>>TPTB4: What if we had a big media blitz, got down on
>> our knees and apologized, promised never,
>> ever, ever to do it again, and swore an oath
>> that we'll be giving them everything they want
>> to see?
>>TPTB1: That might work...
>>
>I find it hard to believe that, first, 30 or so people posting on an
>internet bulletin board that they didn't like a story arc constitutes a
>"disaster" to the Powers That Be, especially when L&C keeps winning the
>best demographics for advertisers in its time slot; and second, a TRUE
>disaster would be if the show was so boring that no one cared enough to
>post anything about this show at all.
>
>On to the next season!!
First of all, I was about to temporarily suspend my 100-word max.
pledge anyway, in a post to follow shortly on proposed rules for
the newsgroup. So I guess I may as well temporarily suspend it now.
All my e-mail has encouraged me to continue, so what the heck.
Len, I'm on your side! I agree with you. My long-winded posts
go on and on about how great I think this series has become and
how much I'd like to see it continue for at least three or four more
years. But that's only my personal opinion. We also have to call
it like we see it. I was busy researching spoilers and episode guides,
and I only recently stepped back to look at one of the bigger pictures:
the effect on the fans. I hadn't really seen it before, and it's
pervasive.
The 30 or so posts, as you characterize them, are symptomatic of many,
many more people out there who feel the same way. I've seen posts from
fans talking about their friends who've completely tuned out emotionally.
I've received e-mail, one telling me the same thing's going on in the
fan clubs. One of the beefs is that Clark *and* Superman are completely
wimping out. But the major beef is the soap opera feel to this arc,
which was apparently written by ex-soap opera writers. People put up
with it, maybe even enjoyed it, through the Lex Luthor stuff in season 1
and the Scardino stuff in season 2. But for a lot of people, a full-blown
wedding that turned out to be a fraud was messing with their emotions
too much. They'd had too much emotionally invested in it watching the
series for three years. I hope they come back, but I'm not so sure they
will. Even a real wedding or elopement may not make up for how
they feel they've been jerked around. The ceremony itself was a big
deal, especially for a lot of the female fans. They feel cheated that it
turned out to be phony.
You mention the ratings. Yes, they've been good and increasing so all
year, but that's primarily *because* of the anticipation of the wedding.
If you look carefully at the ratings numbers for "Seconds", there's
still a lot of cause for concern because although total numbers were
up, the share was down and it didn't win its time slot the way it had
the previous two weeks. And that was *before* the real downer of the
amnesia, without any "to be continued" trailer which I think was a
huge mistake. They could even have said "to be continued in two
weeks," and at least that might have held some of the really
disillusioned people. Forget Me (K)not this Sunday will be a critical
episode in terms of seeing whether they can hold their base and
build on it. I read one comment that this episode had been at least
partially re-shot, which is why they fell behind and had to show
a repeat last week. Perhaps the re-shoot reflects some concern
on the part of TPTB. And what would be a bigger disaster than if
the show was so boring that no one cared enough to post anything?
How about if the fans got so ticked off at being jerked around that
they all left? I think what we're seeing is that the soap opera approach
may work to some extent with Superman, but there's a limit and we've
definitely reached it, at least in terms of the marriage arc. Hopefully,
we haven't gone over the cliff. They're going to have to let the
relationship progress at a smoother rate, and rely more on other story
and plot devices to keep the interest up.
My little mini-scene involving TPTB was intended to be insightful
and a little humorous, but I also wanted to make what I think is
a key point: no one can do anything about what's already
happened, but TPTB can do something about future episodes
and they can communicate better with the fans. As long as
the fans are confident that "everything will be okay," as one
person asked executive producer Robert Singer in an AOL
online interview a few weeks back, then we can enjoy watching.
But if all we have to look forward to is backtracking or continuous
sucking and blowing ad infinitum, then you can't expect the
fans to stick around. Singer's answer in the interview was more
than a little cryptic, saying and I quote: "Without giving away
exactly what our plans are, I can assure you that the Lois &
Clark relationship that we've worked very hard to bring to this
point, is not going to be altered significantly in any long term
way. We know your concerns, we hear them and we respect them."
Now, most FoLC will assume that means it's full steam ahead
with the wedding, eventually. But if you take him literally, then
not "altering" their relationship from what it is now, especially
in any long-term way, could mean the status quo and no
wedding. Knowing, hearing and respecting concerns doesn't
mean they're going to follow them, and he could even be
referring to the concerns of the very small minority who may
*not* want them to get married for whatever reason, concern
about future story lines and so on. Any idiot would have to
know that 99% of the fans expect the relationship to progress,
but Singer's answer just doesn't give fans that WAFF that they
may need after feeling so betrayed by the current arc. My
little mini-scene reflected, at least figuratively, what I think
TPTB need to do to stop the bleeding: give fans a long-term,
warm and fuzzy, unequivocal assurance that it's all going
to be okay. Then we can *all* enjoy the long ride, not just
you, me and a few other folks.
All of which of course is IMHO, but I've noticed it's also that
of some of the other hard-core, but increasingly worried
optimists.