Please give your input, suggestions, any typos I made, incorrect information, and maybe even appropriates cites to back it up.
Hello,
I am e-mailing to ask a few simple questions. They are quite reasonable and direct, beacause I do hope the answers are detailed and understandable.
Why was “Family Guy” cancelled? Not only was this show shockingly funny, it was smart clever and had impressive ratings for its time slot. This show was undoubtedly popular as you can now see the 2 DVD box sets flying off the selves and of course the stir in rumors of a full feature length film. Why make such a career killing decision? Now the show will never continue and I will die a very empty man. Thousands maybe over a million people would love to have a peek at the antics in creator, Seth Macfarlenes mind. But it won’t happen anytime soon on Fox, will it?
Why was “Futurama” cancelled? Another one of my favorite shows gone forever. Much better than its sister show “The Simpsons” Which, well… is horrible. Many would agree that this show has run its course and is done, but you continue to make them belch out new episodes. (Belch: being, regurgitated writing.) Would it not be ideal to have let the writers of “The Simpsons” work solely on “Futurama”? But hey, i’m just the customer, what do I know? But instead you move “Futurama” around, giving it horrible time slots on a sunday afternoon, after golf so half the show disappears, give few or no advertisements, take the show off, bring it back, and of course tell no-one. You cancel the show for bad ratings, when it is clearly bad programming errors to blame. What gives?
Why was “Andy Richter Controls the Universe” cancelled? When Andy left Conan, I cried. When I heard he was getting his own show on Fox, I leapt for joy, because another comedic genious is getting his own spotlight to shine in. I watched the show every week, and it was funny. It was very funny. It wasn’t obscene, and it never made cheap shots at Fox like “Family Guy” did. It did how ever get taken off, and brought back one last time, and then was gone forever. Another great show bites the dust. Why? I don’t know. There is talent in Andy Richters mind, and you decided not to exploit it.
Why was “Firefly” cancelled? Personally, I had never seen the show until its few episodes were re-aired on the “Space” network. I saw the 2 hour pilot and was truly blown away. Well acted, it looked fantastic, and the story was great. It had things I had never seen in a Sci-Fi show before in my life, for example the method of having all ‘Space activities’ completely silent was so unusual, yet so damn perfect. And it made sence. I heard that since the pilot was 2 hours long, the decision was made to not show it, but show the second episode in the series to act as a pilot, which… well, worked better for programming, but not for the viewers who had little idea of what was going on. You may argue, that this decision was made in regards to the extra hour that would take up the time slot of shows normally in its place, but your argument it flawed. I blame hasty, blatent, ignorant last minute programming decisions. But, nonetheless the show still did very well, and courteous Fox decided to air the pilot episode a few weeks later so the fans could see what they missed. But did it matter? No. Another show which I looked forward to, is gone. Perhaps you heard about the “Firefly Movie”? What impression does this give you?
All of these shows had great potential for improving ratings and of course making Fox more and more money. It makes me sick that instead of pleasing your audience with talent, you smack them in the face with Temptation Island 3 and Joe Millionare. I have a strong feeling that myself, an amateur in the television busniess could make better money making decisions than the whole company put together. The funny thing is, I would be more interested in providing quality programming, than making money. It seems that Fox wants neither.
Let me say I agree with your opinions about these shows.
I don’t think FOX will pay much mind to it. But they are far more likely to pay attention to it if it’s in actual letter form instead of an e-mail. It shows that you made a greater effort of actually mailing something out.
If they do respond, it’ll probably be some PR-factory created answer. Something about ratings and how they value your opinion and thanks for watching and writing, blah blah.
The same thing Fox always does with new, good shows. It FOXes them. Here’s the way it happens: FOX creates this new show that draws a small, yet loyal, audience. This audience watches the show for a few episodes. Word of mouth begins to spread. Fox then decides to jerk it all over the schedule and show it in weird time slots. Fox has also only made 3 episodes (Ok, slight stretch) of this show, so on the rare occasions you can catch it, it’s a rerun, but this loyal audience staggers on. Fox finally doesn’t air it for 3 or 4 weeks because of sports or whatever. People start drifting away. Fox cancels it, complaining about lack of ratings.
See also: The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., Space: Above and Beyond.
I loved Greg the Bunny (despite what anyone says to the contrary). Titus also was brilliant. Shit, the more I think about it, the more I realize the majority of my favorite shows were on Fox…and ironically lasted no more than 3 seasons. I hope they keep Wanda at Large for a while.
As someone who answers letters and email for a entertainment industry company, I’ve got a few cents to offer. Of course, YMMV…
First of all, Teelo, it is somewhat unrealistic to expect “detailed” answers to your questions. Even if the person whose job is to slog through all the correspondence knows exactly why the shows were taken off the air, he or she is probably not at liberty to tell you. Most likely, Fox’s PR or Corporate Communications department has formulated a cut-and-paste response for these types of inquiries.
I would advise removing the sarcastic comments and insults. If Fox employs actual people to write letters (or at least customize those form letters as necessary), you’re more likely to get helpful or interesting information by not making snide remarks. If you write to Fox and say, “Hey, you jerks! Who were the morons who cancelled Firefly, and can I have their home phone numbers?”, there isn’t much they can tell you that will be satisfactory. If you express genuine admiration for the show and sincere disappointment over its cancellation (without veering into sarcasm), the Fox rep will think of you as a reasonable person who is worthy of any information he or she is able to share, assuming such information exists.
Finally, a few housekeeping matters: Make sure to include your full name and address (and not just on the envelope). Do some research or call their main office to ask for an address where viewers may send correspondence–if you can get a specific name or building number to put on that envelope, that increases the chances that your letter will actually be read. Be sure your letter is free of grammatical and spelling errors; when you read letters and email for a living, you tend to give far less credence (and exert far less effort in replying) to letters that are poorly written or difficult to understand.
Good luck! It’ll be interesting to see if Fox responds.
The answer to all these questions is that they didn’t make enough money for Fox. Fox is not an arts institute, its a money-making device for Rupert Murdoch and the shareholders of his company.
Err… I don’t believe network television shows directly produce revenue. It’s all advertising dollars, and those shows showed the same commercials as everything else. Now if you argued that they weren’t pulling enough ratings then you might have a better point.