Have fan campaigns ever had a serious influence on TV executive decisions apart from the original Star Trek and helping get The Peacekeeper Wars made?

I'm willing to lend a little more credence to influencing TV producers' casting and storyline decisions. I'm fairly certain the re-hiring of Michael Shanks, for example, was decided upon when producers realized how much of an already slender niche audience was up in arms.

Personally, I find it a bit creepy that tivo is tracking *when* I watch a show, how often I repeat it, whether or not I ff commercials, etc. That's a LOT of data to mine.

I seem to recall they announced that Janet Jackson's boobular containment issues at the Super Bowl halftime was the most re-watched clip, maybe ever (at that time).

I've often wondered how the Pam/Jim kiss at the end the s2 finale of The Office ranked.

By the way Denise, I'd still dispute the idea that people worrying about Drive a few days after air are crazy. I'd say in this case they're smart. History shows that networks will dump a show as fast they possibly can if it's well below their expectations -- Drive is, as I'm sure many here are aware not an exception to that rule. That said the only power those people have is to casually say to their friends 'Have you seen Drive? It's great!'. Or start a human rights petition.

Of course it's crazy. If a show is in that much trouble before it's a week old (and although the ratings were disappointing, I'm not saying Drive is, I'm just saying "if"), no campaign is going to "save" it. And why? Because -- history shows that networks will dump a show as soon as possible if its ratings are well below their expectations. It's a business.

Yes, but that's a different reason for being crazy to what I was disputing, Cindy (unless I'm mistaken as to what Denise was saying). I don't disagree that if Drive sinks it'll be impossible to save it.

Have fan campaigns ever had a serious influence on TV executive decisions apart from the original Star Trek and helping get The Peacekeeper Wars made?

Cagney and Lacey was supposedly saved by a letter-writing campaign, at least according to my dad's girlfriend. I don't really know if it made a difference, but it seems plausible to me that it tipped things so that they got an extra season. I'm sure there were a lot of other factors, but still.

Tamara, it was helpful in getting the DVD's released, yes. There was someone advocating for it, and I think he was able to say, "here's an assload of people who want to see it."

I would like to think that a petition helped a little bit in getting the Wonderfalls DVDs. Am I wrong?

There was also the flood of phone calls. That was a fun time. Didn't people send flowers to the lady who answered us all day?

Kevin, I'm not sure what it is that you think I'm saying, but I completely agree with Cindy.

That said the only power those people have is to casually say to their friends 'Have you seen Drive? It's great!'. Or start a human rights petition.

That's not power. It's craziness. A "human rights" petition? You cannot be seriously arguing that that is a sane thing to do. You said yourself earlier that the power these people think that they have is a delusion.

Sorry, I was joking about the human rights petition. (The Drive petition which is floating around is filed under Human Rights for some reason - I'm hoping a mistake). I had misunderstood you, by the looks of it.

I'm baffled by the degree of outrage the existence of a petition is generating. So what if some people are pushing the only way they know how to keep something they like? Is it better for them to sit there and do nothing and be apathetic or for them to throw themselves into a passionate if ill-starred venture?

Right now, people should be running around and waving their arms about Drive if they want it to stay on the air. Well, maybe tell friends, anyway. I'm down on petitions as they honestly don't tend to do much of use, that's all. However: Drive is not only under threat, at the minute there's not even going to be a great many episodes. I don't think it's a great secret that Drive isn't filming any more, since people on IMDB and other production sites are talkin' about it already (I've come across quite a few mentions about the show today across the inetrweb in that vain).

FOX are still airing the episodes right now, and the cast are still under contract so there's nothing to stop them going into full production again if the ratings justified it. Personally, I don't see the ratings working as the launch didn't work, but am I pissed off we seemingly won't even get 13 episodes? Yea. I've no problem with people showin' a little passion for Drive, and that starts with the understanding that after a few days of initial airing, this thing has been handed it's notice. It's a very business thing to do, and being a corporate whore I understand that fully, but do I think Drive's legacy should be one of nobody doing anything when it's canceled? No. The show rocks.