United We Fan (2018) - full transcript

[Sci-fi Ambience]

[Inspirational Strings]

- Hi, how are you?
- Oh, come on.

[background noise
drowns out speaker]

Sir?

Hi, John, how's it going, guys?

Group hug.

[slow orchestral music]

The Trimbles?

The Trimbles, you mean the
tribbles?

It's those little furry things



from the original series,
I think.

Yeah, Trouble With Tribbles,
classic Star Trek.

- I love the tribbles.
- The tribbles?

Oh, I don't.

Tribbles, not Trimbles.

Trimbles, no, unfortunately,
I don't.

Yes, like Bjo, yeah.

She started a writing campaign
years ago go

to save the show.

Bjo Trimble, the lady
who saved Star Trek.

The reason that Bjo is better
known than me is every Tom,

Dick, and Harry's name is John,
Bjo,

how often do you come across
that name?

So it stuck in everybody's mind.



It works to make up a name.

It bothers me more than it
bothers John

that he didn't,
doesn't get credit.

And what bothers me is
that it bothers her. [Laughs]

The Trimbles, they were
great fans of the show,

you'd think they owned part of
the show.

I'm not sure they didn't.

[slow music]

You know, they weren't going
to have Star Trek off the air,

without them, I don't know
where Trek would have gone.

Bjo Trimble did lead,

and her husband John, a
letter writing campaign,

and that was,
if not the only reason,

the reason that the show wasn't
canceled.

It's still a thrill to
have fans come up to us,

adults now, and say, "I
wrote a save Star Trekletter"

"when I was a kid."

[John] Star Trek's been really
good to us in that respect,

we didn't make any
money off of it,

but we've been all over the
world, really,

and it's all because of Star
Trek.

[Bjo] We've been a couple for,

in another couple of
weeks, it's for 56 years.

Actually, a little longer
than that, 'cause we were.

Yeah, well.

Sort of, biblically,

we knew each other before we got
married.

I'm not, I don't think you're
supposed to say that on film.

[John laughs]

So, hey.

[upbeat music]

Even though a lot of fan
campaigns haven't worked,

you always go in with the
hope that it's going to work,

the only thingy have
available to you is hope.

No show is truly dead, another
network could pick it up,

you could be saved at the last
moment.

I didn't think it was a problem,

at the time, I didn't think it
was crazy

that I loved the show so much

that I made it my personal
life's mission to bring it back.

We had CNN calling, we had
the New York Times calling.

You know, I had a day job, but
having

to step away from my job
to go do an interview

with the New York Times.

I have made friends,
sincerely, good,

deeply best friends from this
effort.

When you feel there's
a movement out there

that's backing your
show, you feel validated,

and you feel like, hey,
we're doing something good.

It was a sort of fan

that I actually just wasn't
really aware existed,

just how invested they were
in not only watching the show,

but being part of a community.

The fact that a group
of people comes together

over this shared love, and then
fights

so hard to hold on to what
connects them,

it's a remarkable, it's
a remarkable force.

[upbeat music]

[upbeat orchestral music]

These are my Cagney & Lacey
books,

I probably haven't looked
at these since I moved

to Florida, 16 years ago,

in '83, I guess it was.

As I started to watch
Cagney & Lacey,

I was living a very traditional
life,

marriage, kids, up until
that time, you didn't have

a drama show starring two
women who were friends

and partners at work.

I am a good police officer.

[Dorothy] They were real women.

I know you are.

[Dorothy] They didn't
have to be perfect.

Don't ever talk to me like
that again.

When I wrote my first letter

to Cagney & Lacey,
I chose Steve Brown,

a writer, and he wrote back.

This is the letter from
Steve Brown, where he said

that they are borderline
for renewal next season,

and this is from Barney, "Thanks
for your terrific letter",

"we are in some trouble."

Dorothy was, as I remember it,

was a school teacher, and
was obsessed with the show.

I was all for that, you know,
I mean,

in my own way, I was certainly
obsessed with the show.

Barney, to Cagney & Lacey,

was the executive producer,
the protector,

he believed in that show,
and he was always trying

to bring more attention to it.

[Barney] Dorothy wanted to know
what else she could do,

and I talked to her about
writing letters,

getting others to write letters,

write to your local newspaper,

on the theory that CBS
executives may not read their mail,

but they do read their
newspaper.

I was learning a lot from him,

and I was just the person
that he should be teaching,

because I was ready, I was
really ready.

So I sort of ran my own campaign
from Hillsdale, Michigan,

and wrote lots of letters
myself,

and got my friends to do the
same.

In early May, the networks would
decide,

and he said he would be going to
New York

for the rollout of the new
season,

and that he would call me, and
he did.

I was in New York,
waiting word, it was iffy,

we were on the cusp, and
Harvey called me personally,

he said, "I love the show, my
wife's never gonna forgive me"

"for canceling it," he says,
"but I'm in a business,

"and I have to move on."

And he said, "I don't
have good news for you",

"I'm sorry to tell you that
we're not on the schedule."

And I said, "It's not over yet."

So that became a summer of
really putting the pressure on.

Myself, personally, you know,
I can't,

probably 500 myself, but I had,

I had other people

sign their names, and mail them.

It was over the top, you know,
it was...

way over the top.

I think that was very, very
important,

showing those reruns of Cagney &
Lacey,

because as people would
read about all the fuss,

they'd tune in to see
what the fuss was about,

and they liked what they saw.

I'd cut out those ratings,
and I just put them

in a scrapbook, and watched
it climb to number one,

just little by little.

We were the number one
rated show in the country,

because all the people who
didn't watch us h us

in the spring now had
nothing left to watch,

they're watching us, they're
not gonna watch baseball.

And I thought, "well, that's it,

they've got to bring
it back now."

So I get this phone call,
like at 4:10 in the afternoon,

basically saying, "we have made
a mistake,

can you put this back together
again?"

One of the treasures of my life,
you know, now,

"we have made a mistake,"
says the monolith CBS.

In another victory
for women in television,

Cagney & Lacey, the CBS series

about two women cops,
is back in production

by popular demand, on the
first day back on the set,

the show stars were happy and
grateful.

I think it's a statement
about democracy at work,

it was the American public
that brought us back,

in their letters, and thank you.

[Dorothy] I remember the night,
I was in my living room,

and I just flat fell down.

I was just so sure it was going

to happen, the force of
will, it had to happen,

it couldn't not happen, and

it was amazing, it was
phenomenal.

I started the petition 'cause
other shows

in the past have gotten
canceled,

and people have started
petitions for it, it,

and I thought it couldn't hurt
to try.

When it first got put up,
a lot of people were like,

"Oh, you're not gonna even
make it to 10,000 signatures,"

and then, once we got it there,

I was like, okay, this
is actually happening,

and then it got to 15,000,
and it just kept going

from there,
it's become a lot bigger

than I thought it would, yeah.

So there's a couple of core
people

that I've worked on a lot
of the campaigns with,

you know, we've become such
a tight-knit group that,

you know, if you're
having a really bad day,

they're there to cheer you up.

Even if Person of Interest
didn't get picked up,

I'd probably stay
friends with these people

for the rest of my life.

For the amount of time I
spend trying to do this,

I don't know if I should
congratulate myself

on how much time, or be
embarrassed

with how much time
I'm spending online.

I did get caught by my boss on
my phone,

she's like, "That's absolutely
not okay,"

and I'm like, slyly put
it back in my pocket,

and she walks away, I get
back on it again. [Laughs]

Well, hopefully she never
watches this.

I try to keep people
interactive,

I try and ask them questions,
like,

why do you want Person
of Interestto get saved,

why do you like it?

One lady said she was
watching Person of Interest

with her husband, and then
her husband passed away,

and she didn't want Person of
Interest

to get taken away from her, too.

That lady saying that, I was
like, wow,

I'm, like, really, you
know, doing something big.

I'm also making people aware
that past fans have done stuff,

too, like even Star Trek,
you know, telling them,

hey, you know what,
they've saved shows just

by writing in letters.

[woman] The internet allows us
to see the level

of fandom in a way that we
may not have ever been able

to see before, and I think
it makes it easy enough

to participate actively
in fan communities,

and I just think it reflects
that increasing obviousness

of the relationship between
storytelling

and our desire for social
connection and community.

[man] Probably about the time
Roswellstarted,

we actually got our first
internet chat, you know,

this was in '98, '99, so the
internet really had only been

around four or five years.

The notion of meeting people
that liked a common show,

having friends that
were in a different part

of the country, that
was really attractive.

The 4400 was the
only message board

for a television show that
I had ever been involved in,

I think maybe even since, I
sought out the message board

because I wanted to
discuss it with other fans

of the show, and the
community was so great,

and I could be crazy with other
people,

they got it,
they wouldn't judge me.

One of the things we've seen
in recent years is the use

of social media, especially
Twitter,

while a show is on the air.

I love hearing the fan reaction,

on nights when my shows
air, I will sit there

on Twitter, and see if things
worked.

You go to a movie theater,
and everyone's sitting there,

and they're all gonna gasp, or
scream,

or laugh together, watching
TV usually is not like that,

but it's kind of this
group thing on Twitter,

you know, someone can
say something in reaction

to a big death, or a big kiss.

Watching an episode live
of Person of Interest,

I'll tweet or post on
Tumblr as it's happening,

like, "Oh, my god, did
you just see that happen?"

A lot of the people
online like you for you,

you have this bond, and you
just understand each other.

[man] When I first heard about
Chuck,

I knew immediately that he
was gonna be a guy like me,

I'm a nerd, by nature.

Please, not the computer.

[Zachary Levi] He was a nerd,
he loved video games,

and comic books, and movies like
Tron,

and loved them all
authentically,

which was nice for me, because
I had to act very little,

I love all those things, too,
and I think we're all looking

for a lead character that we
can relate to on some level.

You know, Chuckwas
always able to kind of just,

we kept our heads above water,

but we weren't ever
like a ratings bonanza.

You know, we weren't
blowing up, it wasn't,

you know, so you kind of
feel like you're failing,

but then you get buoyed when
you would run into someone,

and it's just
their infectious passion.

[Gray] I was in Toronto at the
time,

working downtown, and I've
commuted a lot, lot,

and so I got into podcasts,
and so when Chuckcame along,

I went looking for a podcast for
Chuck,

and I couldn't find one,
and I thought,

why don't I start one?

[Gray] This is Gray.

[Mel] This is Mel.

[Liz] And I'm Liz.

[Gray] And you're listening to
episode one

of Chuck versus the Podcast.

My co-hosts on the podcasts were
Mel Lowry

which was the largest
fan website for Chuck,

and they had a very large
forum on the website, people,

early on, were posting,
"Is Chuck gonna be renewed,"

"do you know anything,
do you know anything?"

I think we all felt
creatively really good

with where season two ended,

and then things happened after
season two behind the scenes

that we didn't really know
about,

so we probably had a better
sense

of comfort than we should have
had.

Fans were scrambling,
they wanted to do something,

as we were talking about what
could do,

there was somebody who
had a marketing background

who came up with the
idea of, Subway was one

of their major advertisers.

Chuck had had this sort
of product placement,

you know, moment on the show
with Subway,

which wasn't one of their
finest moments on a story level.

What can I do for you, son?

Well, I had an extra
chicken teriyaki foot long

that I thought someone
would be interested in.

Do tell.

I was very resigned to it,

'cause not only this product
placement exists all the time,

anyway, but we always
knew Chuckwas a show

that was struggling, so okay,

let them have their
gratuitous Subway moment.

[Gray] She thought,
why don't we tie in

buying a foot long sub
for the finale of Chuck,

finale and a foot long,
that was Wendy Farrington,

and she asked us to help promote
this campaign, so we did.

[Wendy] Join us in the finale
and a foot long activity,

to participate, simply
go to your local Subway,

and purchase any of their
$5.00 foot long sandwiches,

and enjoy during the finale.

[Zachary] I happen to find
myself in England,

doing a convention, and
somebody had mentioned to me,

one of the fans, they said,
you know,

"What are you doing for the
foot long finale campaign?"

I was like, "I don't
know, I'm in England."

And they said, "Well, you know",

"there is a Subway right around
the corner

"from the convention center,"
and so I got to my panel,

everybody was there, and.

[upbeat music]

I just "Pied Pipered" however
many people came with me,

and we just walked to Subway.

So these are my 600 friends,

and we're all gonna get
sandwiches.

We got there, and I think I
ordered the first sandwich.

He just asked me if it's all on
one bill.

I think we'll do separate.

Then, I said, "Hey, would
you mind if I came back"

"behind the counter," 'cause
there was so many people,

"I'll help you make sandwiches."

And they're like, "Yeah, go for
it, love",

"there's so many people," so I
just jump behind the counter,

and started making sandwiches.

No more green peppers, I'm
sorry.

[crowd groans]

[Woman] It's okay.

Those involved in the show,
you know,

obviously, we want to offer
whatever services we can,

and this just felt like a really
fun,

organic way to, again,
engage in the campaign,

but engage with fans.

And all of that kind of
stuff I think showed people

that there was an appetite
for the show, I said it.

[Zachary] I think more than
anything, we all learned,

and not just us at Chuck,
and not just the Chuck fans,

but the industry, the business,
you know, ow,

there was nothing negative about
it,

there wasn't an annoyance about
it,

it was patronizing a sponsor
for a network television show,

and to this day, I've not
seen a smarter fan campaign,

I haven't, I haven't.

The picture over my
shoulder is actually part

of my two week visit to
LA, when they invited me

to come down to thank me for the
campaign.

This is the guy right
here, so thank him.

Yeah.

And then we collectively
thank you...

And then thank yourself.

Exactly, followed by your
parents,

and then the government.

From there you can just...
For your freedom.

[Bjo] Cleveland won the bid

for the World Science Fiction
Convention, on,

which, in their case, they
called Tricon.

[John] We were running the art
shows,

we've been doing them for
about six years at that point.

Our friend was going to handle
a futuristic fashion show.

[John] She weaseled out of it

by having acute appendicitis,

and said, "Here, you get to do
it."

So I get there, and some
officious little twit said,

"We have a big Hollywood
producer who wants"

"to put three of his
costumes in your show."

And I said, "Who is this," and
they said,

"Well, it's Gene Roddenberry,"
and I said,

"I never heard of him," and
I never heard of his show,

and I said, "Absolutely not."

So Gene Roddenberry showed up,

and took me for coffee,
and we talked,

and that silver-tongued devil
talked his three costumes

into the fashion show.

[upbeat music]

So it actually went off
very well, and Gene says,

"Next time you're in Hollywood,"

"give me a call,
we'll do lunch."

[John] The next time
we were in Hollywood,

we called, and Gene picked up
his phone,

and said, "Come on over."

So we went over, and
enjoyed ourselves thoroughly,

it's always fun to be on a set.

We saw quite a few episodes
being filmed.

On one occasion, we were down,

and they were filming a
scene from The Deadly Years.

The whole feeling on the set was
different

than it had been before,

it had been very upbeat group
before,

and now it kind of felt down,

and just the whole tenor was
different,

and we couldn't get any
straight answers out

of any of the crew, so
we did the thing you do

when you want to find
out what's really going

on on a set, we asked craft
services.

And so he said, "Oh, yeah,
well, word has come down"

"that the show is going to be
canceled"

"at the end of this season."

We were living in Oakland at
the time,

so we had to leave to go back,

and we're driving up the Central
Valley,

somewhere over the hill in the
valley,

I said to her,
"You know something,

"we shouldn't let this happen,"

"there's gotta be something
we can do about this."

Now, I should know better
than to say that to her.

We spent the rest of the
trip formulating a campaign.

[Dorothy] Kitty, kitty, kitties!

[slow music]

After the Cagney & Lacey
campaign,

I noticed, in Mike Duffy's
column,

in the Detroit Free Press,
he printed a letter

from a woman named Donna
Deen, who was trying to,

in her own way, increase
viewership

for her favorite show,
St. Elsewhere.

[man] The first season of
St. Elsewhere,

there were only 100 television
series

on television, all in,
three networks, 100 series.

We were the 99th rated show,

the lowest rated show was
Cheers.

Donna was the leader of
the St. Elsewherecampaign,

trying to [laughs]
make it a hit,

but we always knew it
was never gonna be a hit.

And I thought, well,
I'm gonna drop her a note,

as one television advocate to
another,

and we just got to sharing
our thoughts on television.

We came up with this
idea, what if we were able

to band together the viewers
of all the quality shows

that we were worried might
be canceled by the networks.

I don't really remember which of
us said,

"Let's call it Viewers
for Quality Television,"

you know, we just discussed it
and agreed,

that, hey, that clicks.

Enter, again, Barney Rosenzweig.

I don't believe it's
overly stating the case

to say I'm the father of VQT.
I wrote him about our idea,

and in his annual Christmas
messages

to television journalists,
he mentioned Donna and me,

and the idea that we had.

Now, we weren't ready

to announce this,

nothing was formed, but we both
started

to get mail about people
who were interested in this,

and before we realized it,

we had a grassroots idea
that was taking shape.

Because I had been a Star Trek
fan,

and I had read the books about,
you know, ow,

"save Star Trek," and all that
stuff,

so I knew the idea of
a save-a-show campaign.

I had never seen a group

that was organized around the
notion of quality television,

as opposed to organized
around one specific show.

Dorothy Swanson got in contact
with us,

as the organization was
getting more organized.

I was impressed by the fact
that people who didn't live

in LA were making noise.

[Dorothy] Hillsdale, Michigan,
this was a small town,

my husband's friends there,
I'd ask questions, like,

to people, "Well, what
should I do with this",

"should I incorporate,"
they'd, "Oh, no, no,

"don't bother to incorporate,"
they saw it as a hobby,

and I was beginning to
see it as a business.

I heard about VQT through a
column

in the Washington Post
by Judy Mann,

and she named Dorothy Swanson,

I think she had a TV appearance
in the Washington area,

and I met her for lunch with
a couple of other people.

And in talking to these people,

it was kind of a different
vision,

it was a, well, of course,

of course you need to
incorporate.

It was like a coven
of people here

that loved TV, and we
just kind of got together,

and talked, and wrote,
and started a movement.

I moved from Michigan to
the Fairfax, Virginia area.

There were just enough reasons

to make the change,

that it became easy
to make the change.

It just, the marriage just,

well, you know,
it was already kind of

stale,

and there were problems, he
knew things were changing.

[slow guitar music]

[Kaily] High school was when I
really started

to question my sexuality,
I had told a popular girl

that I was in love with her,

and it didn't really turn out
very well.

My mom wasn't very supportive,

she said I shouldn't have done
that,

and it was, it's just a phase.

You know, I ended up
getting bullied about it,

and I started going to
school less and less.

After high school, you know,
that stigma

of being teased in high school,

and it lowering your self-esteem
kind of sticks with you,

and so I kind of also got
bullied at work, like,

in my first year of working
there, people were like,

"Oh, you're not gay,
you just think you are."

And I got used to
people telling me

what I could and couldn't
do, and who I am.

I think I got into Glee, like,

in the middle of the third
season.

I don't really remember how I
got

into the whole Gleefandom
online, but I just started seeing

that relationship between
Rachel Berry and Quinn Fabray,

dubbed "faberry," and, I don't
know,

there was something just about
it that,

maybe it was their love-hate
relationship, hip,

they start out as enemies,
and then became friends.

There was a convention I
went to called Faberry Con,

people came from Canada,
from England, Australia,

a lot of people knew me
because I had written a letter

to Dianna Agron, thanking
her for helping me

with my depression, and
somebody had even told me

that my writing that inspired
them

to deal with their own
depression.

I went back home after,
I think it was, like,

four days, and I was
like, I don't think I want

to stay working at Walmart for
the rest

of my life, in a tiny little
town,

where nothing happens, 'cause
it feels like a prison.

[Acoustic guitar]

Any big news?

- Nothing important.
- Oh.

Definitely for the last year,

you've been doing it for
quite some time, huh?

[Kaily] A year.

A year, oh, okay.

Oh, do you remember it?

The name of the show?

It's something like, you know,

something interesting about
people,

or Person of Interest, or
something like that, right?

No, I knew the name of the
show, I actually, you know,

knew you guys were coming
over last week or so,

and I wanted to make sure
that I at least knew that.

You know, I think she
said in the thousands.

[Kaily] It's like 42,000...

42,000, oh, I was
thinking somewhere close

to 10,000, 42,000 people, so
there's a lot

of people that are really
interested

in making sure that this
stays around, right?

A year ago, when I got
into Person of Interest,

it was because of an
episode called If-Then-Else

that I saw on Tumblr, people
make animated gif sets.

There was one done of
the kiss between Root

and Shaw from that episode.

Seeing that, I got really
intrigued,

and I was like, okay, there's
two attractive women kissing,

you don't get to see
that very often on CBS.

We've been known to
take a peek at the Tumblr,

there's definitely a...

You can be a little
careful with the Tumbler.

- Yeah.
- That's the rabbit hole.

I might have broke the
Tumblr with that one,

but it was pretty
overwhelming, when it happened.

There became like this sort of
newfound,

it was, like, a different
audience had found the show,

and people were really invested

in the Root-Shaw relationship,

that I don't feel like
had necessarily been fans

of the show from season one.

People seem to attach
deeply to the stories

that they find on television

when they see their own
identities reflected

in those stories.

Representation is a
hugely important issue,

there are a lot of people who
grew up

in America at a time
when you didn't see a lot

of African American
characters on television,

or you didn't see a lot of
Latino characters on television,

or you saw no gay
characters on television,

and I think when you see that,

you really attach to that,
it's very meaningful to you.

This was never, like, in the
plan

of what this character was
gonna be, it just happened

that I think Sarah and I had
that scene with the iron.

One of the things I left out
of my file,

I kind of enjoy this sort of
thing.

Jonah was directing, and
Amanda Seagal,

who's one of the writers
was there, and she was like,

"This is the sexiest thing
we've ever had on the show,"

and then all of a
sudden, it started, like,

they would make innuendos,
and we just had so much fun.

But it was never, like, they
didn't think,

like, we're casting this Shaw
character

to be Root's love interest,

and they definitely
didn't cast me thinking,

like, this was what was gonna
happen.

We approached that relationship

from a very straightforward
place, and if you're looking

for people on your set who
have chemistry with each other,

it doesn't make any difference
what gender they are,

or what the, you know, you're
just looking for that heat.

And wherever you find it,

you're gonna write into
that space.

Queerbaiting is used
as a term for

when they make it seem like a
same sex couple will happen,

but they're just putting those
hints out there to get people

to watch it, and they aren't
intending to actually do it.

It becomes a problem

when it feels like it's being
used just to draw attention,

and just to create interest in
watching,

without any genuine follow
through

on the emotional connection
between those two characters.

A lot of people are a little,
like,

scared to get into another show,

for fear of being queerbaited,

so we've been trying to tell
people,

watch Person of Interest,
it's a genuine relationship,

the writers, they're
not gonna queerbait you,

come watch it.

[Richie] It was just a spur of
the moment thing,

she was sick of here living
situation,

and sick of her job, and
probably sick

of the people that she was
surrounding herself with,

and she said, "I'm out of here."

And then he was like,
"Come move back

"to Sonoma and live with us,"
and I'm like, "Are you sure?"

'Cause I'm like, I just
put six and a half years

into Walmart, they're
willing to take me back.

I said, "Well, don't
go back to the same job"

"and the same people," I said,

"We have a spare room here,
I'll start cleaning it out."

Kaily just needed to progress,
well beyond

where she was at then, I said,

"Just stay as long as you want,"
you know? Now?

So she's been here ever since.

[man] It's a very interesting
dichotomy between the fact

that the shows with the biggest
audiences,

with the most viewership,
are not the shows

that have the most probably
engaged, passionate fans,

the ones who would do
anything to save that show.

Those types of shows
don't necessarily suck us

in all the way, they don't
require as much energy

to get into, and out of them.

It's exactly why the network
likes it, t,

is the fact that, I don't
have to see every episode,

I can come in and out, so
it's the smaller shows,

you know, that can have that
really passionate fan base.

The more immersive the show,
the better,

the more we can go fully
into that show's world,

that seems to be particularly
fertile ground for fandom.

[woman] I've never been a big TV
watcher,

and I certainly had never been a
fan

of any TV show,
I would never use

that word associated
with myself, "fandom,"

a concept that I don't get,

it's a foreign concept
to me, until Longmire.

The feel, the spirituality of
place,

of content, of character, it
was so instantly mesmerizing,

is the only word to describe it.

[man] As we started to do the
show with A&E, E,

the numbers would start
trickling in,

and people started coming,
and we started realizing

that we had ourselves a good
hit.

I set up a fan page for the
first time,

people started sending me
messages,

and they weren't just messages,
like, "love your show,"

it was messages like, "My son,
my husband, and",

"my daughter, we get together
now, and we sit down,"

"and we watch Longmire
together as a family."

But in season two, there
was a dip in the ratings,

and I was concerned,
and I knew what to do,

and that was to utilize
social media,

and in the effort to
promote season three is

when I started the
Longmire Posse.

Longmire Posse,
actually, is my Aunt Pam,

who is my dad's sister.

[Pam] We always had
been close, Adam and I,

I always watched his career,
and he always told me

what was going on with his
auditions,

so it was such a joy and a
reward

to see his efforts come to
fruition.

I kept it private for awhile,

and then it started to be pretty
cool,

and then other castmates
were like,

"This Longmire Posse
is pretty cool,"

and, "What's this whole
Longmire Posse thing?"

"Somebody's reached out
to me with Longmire Posse,"

"somebody, there's
a whole posse now."

And then, I think, at
one point I was like,

"Yeah, that's my,
that's my Aunt Pam."

[Pam] When Adam called me to
tell me

that the show had been canceled,

I was not at all surprised,
I knew

that Longmirewasn't
delivering the 18 to 35s,

which is the most idyllic for
advertisers,

having worked in advertising
all of my career.

I, of course,
was devastated for him,

but I also knew instantly

that this was gonna work out.

My Aunt Pam was like,

"If we can show another
prospective network

"that the fans are
demanding that this stay,"

"then they're gonna hear it."

[Pam] That very evening,
I created the hashtag

for the whole effort,
called LongLiveLongmire.

She was so clear right
up front, and said,

"Well, the goal is to make
us as loud as possible,"

"and to keep the volume
turned up."

I felt a real responsibility,
having started this,

and knowing what needed
to be done,

it required momentum,
I had to teach,

literally teach hundreds of
people how to use Twitter.

Well, guess what, these
bunch of old fogies rallied

on social media, probably more
than their own kids ever had.

It was insane, I'd get on
Twitter,

and the feed, you know, would
just, go, go, go, go, go.

We had 23 consecutive weeks

trending on Twitter.

[Adam] We, the actors, knew that
the producers were pitching

to Netflix, so I knew the
phone call was coming in,

and I saw that it was my
executive producer, Grier,

calling me, and I knew,
at that moment,

I was either going to have
to get back to the grind,

and say goodbye to this family
that has touched my life

in ways I can barely even
talk about, or we get

to keep telling stories, and
we get to keep doing this.

And I took a deep
breath, and I said, "Hi."

And she said, "Netflix is
picking us up."

I called my aunt right away,
and I think we just screamed

for, like, 30 seconds,
just started screaming.

And of course, there
was a lot of hooting

and hollering going
on, a lot of yahoo-ing.

I don't know how she threw it
together,

I don't know what research she
did,

I don't know how she knew
how to do all of this,

but it worked, and everyone
will forever be thankful

to her for that, and I'm so
proud of her.

I don't want it all to
be viewed as only nepotism,

the thing was about Longmire,
and loving the show,

and celebrating the show, even
though I created it for Adam.

[Bjo] You'd have to
be in the deepest mine

on the planet to not
know at least something

about Star Trek nowadays.

[John] "Beam me up, Scotty,"
is a term

that anybody in our
culture can understand.

Star Trek has become so
ubiquitous

that it's, I mean, it's
there, and it's a part

of our culture enough that
people kind

of have to pay some attention.

Well...

We liked Star Trek
because it was as true

to genuine science fiction
as anything

on TV or film could be,
we were a whole group

of geeky people that regular
society didn't understand,

they regarded us as freaks,
almost,

and we were used to that.
I liked it specifically

because it was promising us a
future

in a world that did not
seem to have a future.

This was the era of hands over
red buttons tons

that could decimate the
earth in nothing flat,

and then all of a
sudden, here comes a show

that people are trying to like
each other, her,

and are trying to get along.

We're human beings,
with the blood

of a million savage years on
our hands, but we can stop it.

[man] I take it incredibly
personally,

and obviously, a lot of that is
just

because of who I am,
and who my father was,

but I genuinely,
with all of my heart,

believe in its message,
in that future.

I'll use what a fan said,
"At last,"

"there's something that's
on the TV that I want."

I always try to be
an optimistic person...

And the show was optimistic.

- Yeah.
- It really was.

[Dorothy] The earliest goal of
VQT was communication,

keeping in touch with these
people who had taken the time

to contact us, so that's how
the newsletter came to be.

Okay, so these are a
variety of the newsletters,

you could see, she's
used all kinds of paper.

The newsletter
came out once a month,

they would interview
people from the industry,

and then there would be the
comments.

You would go through the
newsletter,

and read people's
comments about the shows,

and why they were supporting
shows,

and they were often times,
you know, thoughtful,

they were fans, yes, but it
didn't come off as fan-ish.

Yes, I got the newsletter,
I read,

I'm not a voracious
reader, but I do read stuff

where, you know, I'm mentioned.

Every season, and a
couple times through a year,

we would vote on the endorse
list, and the tentative list.

[Man] So there was the
endorsed list,

which was, like, okay, these
are shows we really get behind,

and then there was sort
of the second tier list,

which was maybe these are shows
we like,

but we're not 100% sure about.

Being on the list, being up,
you know,

in the upper echelon of
that world was a good thing,

you needed and wanted that
endorsement from them.

Dorothy cared about the shows,

and she cared about the
shows that the members voted

onto the list, you know,
if NBC came and said,

"Hey, VQT, what do you
think about this show?"

I think her response was
probably,

"Well, we'll see
what the member say,"

"and then we'll tell you."

[Dorothy] In the first two
years, there was no campaign,

we were kind of getting
ourselves prepared

for when it might happen,
we figured it would.

Julia, I didn't pick
him, it just happened.

And it will happen again,
Suzanne,

if sex were fast food, there'd
be an arch over your bed.

[Dorothy] This was a new kind of
sitcom,

it was all in the writing, and
it wasn't in the situation.

The funny things that
these four women would say

to each other, it was just so
unexpected

that we'd look at each other,
and then go,

"What was that, what did we just
see?"

You know, Designing Women
was a different kind of show,

because it was one of the first
shows

that actually addressed in
the comedy itself issues,

and besides addressing
issues, the show was funny,

'cause my wife's a great writer,

but sometime between
Thanksgiving and Christmas,

they tell us we're not
gonna film any more episodes

after the 13th, and I remember a
letter r

that I'd gotten from a
person named Dorothy Swanson,

and so in our desperation, I
called Dorothy, and we talked.

I thought, well, this
is, this is different,

this is a producer asking me
what to do,

whereas before the producer
had told me what I should do,

and that was easy.

And she said, "Well, listen,
this is the best trick",

"and the first trick you
should learn," and it was,

it was one of the greatest
tricks ever,

don't have people address
letters to CBS,

have 'em address letters
to the president of CBS,

Bud Grant, and it clicked
in my mind, absolutely,

that's what you have to
do, because otherwise,

all those letters were
going to some warehouse,

and were never really be even
looked at.

We said, everybody get on the
phone,

get your friends to write
letters,

and Dorothy Swanson got
Viewers for Quality Television,

she started them
to do the same thing.

I knew that we could really
get a movement going here

by what I was reading in the
papers.

And so the mail truck pulls up
to CBS,

and they take this giant bag of
mail up

to Bud Grant's office,
and he said,

"What the hell is this,"
you know,

and he starts looking at 'em,
and his secretaries are trying

to sort 'em out, he
called me, and he said,

"I'm tired of this, I can't
figure out who's writing me,

"who's talking to me,
because I'm saturated,

"we have over 20,000 letters
already"

"from people wanting to save the
show."

And I said, "Well, Bud,
then save the show."

He said, "I can't do it."

The next week, the post office
had to put

on extra mail trucks just to
deliver the mail to his office.

[Dorothy] Designing Womenwas,
for us, an opportunity

to do what we had formed to do.

This was the first real argument
that Donna Deen and I had,

because she did not
think we should campaign

for Designing Women,

because it had only
reached tentative support,

instead of full endorsement,
I disagreed, and one thing

continued to lead to another,

and eventually, Donna,
Donna resigned.

[Pat] After Donna left,
I assumed more

of a vice president type,
Dorothy was president of VQT,

I was more the vice president.

I like being second-in-command,
every interview we had,

Dorothy was the front
person, I was back there,

whispering, "Say that."

And that was very helpful.

The Designing Women
campaign launched VQT,

it was massively successful,
50,000 letters went to CBS.

[Harry] Working with Viewers for
Quality Television really was

what saved Designing Women,
I mean,

there's no doubt about it,
they'll always be our friends,

because they did us a big favor.

[Dorothy] Now, it was like we
were established,

and then things just
happened very, very quickly.

It's.

It's just a TV show, but yes,

it actually became much more
than that.

I have two children now,
based on the TV show,

you know, I met my wife
working on these campaigns.

It's not just a TV show,
it's a story,

it's being involved,
you, I don't want to say

that you feel like you're in it,

like you're a part of it,
but in a way,

you do feel like you're a part
of it.

TV has a profound,
long-lasting effect

on people who are watching it,

possibly because I come
into your living room,

I'm in the comfort
of your own home.

You didn't have to go
anywhere, I'm coming to you.

There is actually
psychological research arch

that talks about the way our
experience

of fiction isn't just a
proxy social experience,

but that it is like actual
social experience, in terms

of the way our brains are
processing that information, yes,

you can consciously know it's a
story,

and you can consciously know
that this is television,

but in terms of the actual
feelings

that you're getting when you're
hooked into that character,

they're real, they're very real
for you.

Certain programs I really
get emotionally attached to,

and it's like inviting my
friends

into the house once a week,

I would feel very upset
if they didn't come in.

Now, what happens if I
never see Mark again?

You got canceled, that's
it, I don't see you anymore,

it's just the same thing with
these shows.

I think when people are
fighting to save a show,

I mean, ultimately
it is still about,

you know, the love of the show,

and especially the love of the
characters,

and wanting to see their stories
continue.

I think underneath it,
it can also be losing

that sense of community,

because even though the
fandom will still be there,

it's never gonna be the same.

[Kaily] So after the season
finale from season four,

we heard that the episodes
had been reduced to 13,

and that's when I started my
petition.

I thought it sucked, you know,

just, I mean, when you
put all of this energy

and time into something, and
it's working, ing,

if it wasn't working,
that would be one thing,

but when it's working.

We were a little bit
freaked out,

just because we had decided

to move our family across the
country,

and put our kids in school in
New York,

thinking this show is a good
show, it has a good following,

so when we found out it was
13 episodes, then it was kind

of like, oh, man, that really
would have changed things.

There's a game they
want you to play there,

where you're sort of
auditioning for, "okay, well",

"if we come in, and we're
good little soldiers,

"and we play ball creatively,

"and we just pump out some
fucking pap for half a season,

"then maybe we can squeeze
out another half a season,

and maybe we can become a,
you know, utility player."

And I was like, "you know what,
fuck being a utility player."

But then we didn't
get an air date,

and we thought,
oh, well, when one

of these fall shows gets
canceled, they'll put us on,

and they still didn't put
us on, and then it was,

like, mid-season
replacements were announced,

and we still didn't have a date.

[Kaily] Fans were getting
agitated, they really wanted

to know the release date
for Person of Interest.

It got to the point in the
spring

where Greg and I spoke,
and decided

that we wanted to approach
the network and say,

"Look, you've got your own
way of handling these things,

"but at this point, it is
a little borderline cruel

"to the fans, we need to
be straight with them,"

"and we keep pushing it
further down the schedule."

Because the concern at that
point becomes,

will they air the episodes?

[Kaily] When I got the news
that it was coming back,

I was on my way to school,
and then when I heard

that it was getting canceled,
I was on my way to class.

It was probably upsetting, I
know, as dorky as it sounds,

kind of cried a little in my
car,

'cause I didn't feel
like I tried hard enough.

Normally, I would come up the
elevator,

but our key passes have been
locked out

of the office, so I'm actually
coming down

through a back door from
Westworld,

down this stairwell, which
I've actually never been on,

to get into my old office.

We had the whole floor
here, the second floor,

we have assistants in these
cubicles,

many who'd been with us
from the very beginning

of the show, it's, as you can
see,

it's pretty barren at this
point.

But it was great here,
what we had on this wall,

it was all pictures of babies,

because there was all the babies

that were born while the people
worked

on the show, and there was a lot
of them,

we had particularly fertile
writing staff.

We had, this was the wall of the
dead,

everyone that we killed
on the show,

a photo of every person,
and this, of course,

was our bar, which every
time we would air an episode,

we'd break out the bar,
and live tweet,

and that was a lot of fun.

And I don't know what
we're gonna do this year,

because all the air dates will
happen

when there's nobody here.

Yeah, this place feels eerie
right now,

it's kind of, it's, like, I
don't want

to be here now, you know, 'cause
it's,

it definitely drudges up a lot

of hard feelings
about how it ended.

[slow music]

[John] We're science fiction
fans, we'd produced fanzines.

[Bjo] We were used to mailing
lists.

So it was a very natural thing
for us

to consider a mailing campaign.

[slow music]

I interviewed secretaries,

what kind of mail do you throw
away,

you answer yourself, or you
put across your boss' desk?

And I wrote this set of
rules, based on that.

[slow music]

We had somebody who worked
for NBC,

a big Star Trek fan, and we
said, "We need all of the people"

"in the upper stratosphere to
write to,"

and he gave us the names.

And we asked the Tricon
convention

for their mailing list,
and they gave it to us,

which they weren't
supposed to do.

Then we said to Gene at one
point,

"Do you guys have fan mail

or something we could get
addresses off?"

So we contacted the mail
department at Paramount,

and they said, "Yeah, well,
you come take these 12"

"or 14 bags off our hands."

And then we'd gather up
fans from LA, we'd start,

Friday after work, people would
bring their sleeping bags,

then it would be an all day
Saturday,

and then as much Sunday as
they could, before having

to return home and get some
rest for going to work.

That's where the fans became
fans.

The way they wrote in, how
they expressed themselves

about the show, and what
the show meant to them,

they wanted the studio to know
how important that show was.

[John] A campaign
lasted about two months.

There was a big feeling
on the part of the fans,

when we were doing this, how can
I help? p?

We would get a whole stack
of stamps in an envelope,

people would just send
us one or two stamps,

kids would send us, you know,
whatever...

People would send, you know,

"Here, I can give you 20 bucks."

Yeah, and that's how
we got it done.

A great deal of conversation
between us and Gene.

Yeah, we called Gene to see

if a letter writing campaign
would be worthwhile to do,

or if he'd thrown in the towel.

Really, he just wanted so
badly to help,

and of course, NBC has
always, has still thought

that, you know, he was
the one who instigated it.

No, it was entirely us, and
we were not paid by Gene,

nor were we paid by the studio.

We've got pictures of them
dumping bags.

Yeah, I've seen
pictures, but I don't know

that there's a number that I've
ever...

I have no idea, do you know?

Nobody knows.

Yeah, we have no idea how
many letters that they got.

Enough to make executives
think twice.

It worked.

Yeah, it doesn't matter, it
worked,

that's the important thing,

the actual results are
the important thing.

[Bjo] I mean, that was such
an unlikely thing to happen.

[Trevor] You have to wonder,

if there hadn't been
the Star Trek campaign,

would there have been other
things that have happened?

But I definitely think
that Star Trek'sentree

into bringing this sort
of political activism,

or this movement to an
entertainment field was the first

of its kind, and very novel.

[Bjo] Star Trekkept me sane in
a way

that I've not told many people.

We had just spent several months
trying g

to get our oldest daughter
diagnosed with whatever,

that something was not
working right, we knew that.

For every single person who
has a handicapped child,

they've gone through this,
at one point or another.

So I had just kind of

reached a point

where I was going a little bit
crazy,

and John, bless his heart,
is not a big communicator,

so, you know, he was carrying
his sorrow inside him.

Star Trek, the whole campaign,
everything,

was something that kept me busy,

my thoughts could be elsewhere.

It made a huge difference for
me, not many people know that.

[Dorothy] After Designing Women,
we did campaigns,

it seemed like, one after the
other.

It almost seemed like every
single show

that we fell in love with
immediately got in trouble.

[Dorothy] Quantum Leap
was a show

that was moved around a bit.

We were airing on Wednesdays,

and that was our audience,
18 to 35.

Warren Littlefield moved
it to Friday night,

Friday night our audience
was out,

they were at a bar drinking,
or they were at the movies,

they weren't watching
television.

[Dorothy] And our
campaigning for that was

to let it settle down in one
time slot.

VQT snuck in very early on,
and was,

you know, leading the charge
with that.

The fan letters came in, and
I used to take these letters

into Warren, dump them on his
desk,

say, "You've got to move
us back to Wednesday."

Love you, babe,
let's do lunch, jerk.

Recently, I've received a few
letters

from fans ofQuantum Leap,
demanding that I move it back

to its original Wednesday night time slot.

Listen, I run this network,
nobody tells me what to do!

You know what I have to say
to the fans of Quantum Leap?

You win.

[Announcer] By popular demand,

Quantum Leap leaps back
home to Wednesday on NBC.

There's a great sense
of community and pride,

I think, that comes
through the efforts of VQT,

and I know that they had
a lot of joy doing it,

I don't think that it was, you
know,

drudgery, because they kept
going at it. t.

[man] The fact that they were
perceived as successful gave them,

sort of, a push that kept them
going,

and made it so that, oh, well,
these guys saved that show,

so let's see what they're gonna
save next. Ext.

Well, I thought, I guess
they had to call it something,

I don't know what I would
have called it instead,

but I liked the part about,
"networks can't ignore,"

I like that, I mean, what
would they have called me,

the teacher?

"The woman" would have been
nice.

[Pat] That Parade article was a
boost to us in numerous ways,

and an influx of funds
was one way.

After we realized there was
money in the bank account,

and that Dorothy could
have her first paycheck,

it was lovely to write
the check, I became, now,

I had a new title, I
was now the treasurer.

Yes, this was my job now.

The deserving ones, yes.

Because it was from the
grassroots,

it kept getting notoriety
in the different press,

and Dorothy was being
interviewed,

and she was very articulate
in what people needed

to do to have their voice heard.

That was, that was a trip,
that was,

that was where I went, wow,

really?

That was one of my rare "wow"
moments,

to be associated with the word
"powerful,"

well, yeah,
I wish, you know, it was.

I was always bemused by
Dorothy's quote "power"

in the business, I put air
quotes on it,

but it wasn't illusory, the
networks were inordinately,

disproportionately interested in
what she

and her group had to say, but
everybody was buying into it,

it seemed,
and it was okay with me.

It was okay with me
until it wasn't.

[upbeat music]

We don't report on a ton of
specific,

on its own fan campaigns because
there are

so many these days, and they
kind of become commonplace.

I'm trying to, I can't
think of the last time I wrote

about a save-a-show campaign,

the last big one I really
remember is Jericho.

[Child] Woody, what are you
looking at?

[dramatic music]

[man] I'm a Municipal Councilor
in my municipality here

in Oakville, Ontario, Canada,
I'm involved

in basically constantly thinking

about emergency management
as a Municipal Councilor,

we think about those things.

That's probably one of
the reasons why I like

that post-apocalyptic
genre, when I was getting

into the show, I used the
internet

to find out more about,
you know, who wrote it,

and learn about the actors,
and some

of the backstory issues,
and where it came from,

and even, for that matter,
to find out

whether Jericho, Kansas
was a real place or not,

and discovered the forums.

The season was doing really
well,

they aired the first 11
episodes,

then they took us off
the air for three months,

but that three month hiatus
just kind

of really took its toll,
where the fans didn't know,

is the show done, where is it?

Those of us who were following

the ratings were getting really
concerned

as it was getting later in the
season.

The show that started
out as a ratings winner,

through placement mismanagement,

actually became a ratings
turkey,

and CBS, you know,
pulled the plug.

You hear, "You're canceled," you get
all the phone calls you're supposed to get

from your agent, from the
network,

and everybody has all the
conversations you're supposed

to have, and that's
supposed to be it.

The online groups started
organizing almost immediately.

The rally point was around
the blog talk radio show

by Shaun Daily.

[Shaun] And welcome back to
the Wednesday night edition

of Talking Jericho, a little
off kilter a little bit,

the program was officially
canceled by CBS today.

Shaun Daily was this
just uber fan,

he just loved the show, and
would constantly have people

on his radio station
talking about Jericho.

We talked about the final
episode in great detail,

in terms of, you know, how it
was left,

and how we were all left
dangling,

and we would never have
resolution,

and poor Skeet Ulrich
would always be sitting

on that hill with his Walkie-talkie
for generations to come.

Jake, I need an answer,
what's it gonna be?

Nuts.

Which is probably the most
difficult line anyone's ever

had to say with sincerity,
"Nuts," but yeah.

I guess I did it all right.

[Shaun] We gotta keep
putting the pressure

on CBS, sign the petitions,
send your feedback in,

send snail mail letters...

[Jeff] I'd say we should
start sending little packets

of peanuts, we could send those
to CBS.

Yeah, the fans sending stuff
in thing,

I mean, it, sometimes it
just feels ridiculous,

but it can work, I mean, it
certainly has gotten press

in the past, and sometimes
it can just be fun.

[slow bass music]

The initial campaign
lasted about three months,

and we sent in 6,000 bottles of
Tabasco.

The second time we did
it, we sent in 14,000

in the first two weeks.

It was funny, and sort
of beautiful what they did,

you know, and effective,
usually effective.

[slow bass music]

I sent a fair share of
sunflower seeds,

I started out sending a few
bags,

and then maybe onto
about four or five cases,

and this is in addition to,

I literally mailed them
a letter every day.

[slow bass music]

[man] Mars bars are mostly a
British candy,

so I had to go to British
stores,

and I go up to the shopkeeper,
and I say, ay,

"I want to buy all your Mars
bars,"

and she says, "Well, I need
some for my customers."

Yeah, we mailed chocolate bars,

which, I hope they didn't melt
on the way. Way.

[Shaun] I tell you what,

I've never had this many
live listeners before,

until I did these last two
shows about Jericho, I mean,

there's a lot of interest,
because the listenership

for my little program has
gone through the roof.

Area code 905, you're on the
air, hello?

Hi, Sean, Jeff Knoll here.

So I speculated, and suggested,

everybody go to the dollar
stores,

in their communities, everybody
go to the dollar store,

and buy a cheap pack of nuts,
stick them

in a padded envelope,
and write it

to CBS studios, stick the
nuts in the bag and say,

you know, "We think that
canceling Jericho is nuts."

I think there was an
intent to do it as a gag,

and then they met a nut
distributor,

and then everything just went
crazy.

[Jeff] My name is Jeff
Braverman,

We started getting a few orders

that looked really weird,
I just quickly looked

on the internet, Googled
what was going on,

and quickly realized
there was something going

on about a TV show called
Jericho.

I posted somewhere, maybe
it was on some forum

or message board, saying, "Hey,"
you know, now,

"We got great nuts," and, you
know,

"We could ship them to
CBS" type of a thing.

Let's a build a page where
people contribute money

where we can then send out
cases.

Then I did, and then after
that, things kind of went nuts.

We shipped two tons on
Tuesday, two tons yesterday,

and it looks like we have
another two tons to go out today.

We started getting
hundreds and thousands

of dollars contributed towards
nuts,

and the pounds of nuts were
just going up and up and up.

We've got 9, 18, 20,
so it's probably close

to the equivalent of all,
everything you're seeing here.

- What?
- Get out, really?

50,000 pounds, so 25 tons,
that's crazy.

[Shaun] Hello?

[Carole] Hello?

[Shaun] Hi, Carole Barbee.

[Carole] Hey, guys, I'm so
amazed at

what this group of fans,
and particularly you,

have pulled off, it started
right here

with the whole nuts
thing, and it's amazing.

I think I expected something
to happen,

but I wasn't fully expecting
that,

like, I assumed that at some
point,

they would find a way out of it,
short of,

you know, full capitulation.

It's such a, you know, badge
of honor r

that a story you're
telling will affect people

in such a way that they
will go to those lengths.

We managed to convince
a Fortune 500 company,

a massive corporation, CBS,
to actually change a decision,

this was thrilling,
fascinating, exhilarating,

and, frankly, a miracle.
[laughs]

[Kaily] When the fifth season of
Person of Intereststarted,

it was very, like, exciting
time,

you know, everybody of all parts

of the fandom were just excited

that this show was
just finally back.

When Root and Shaw finally
reunited.

[Shaw] Root?

Shaw.

Even though it was just one part

of the Person of Interest
fandom,

people, they were a lot more
enthusiastic tic

about jumping on board, and
trying to help save the show.

As gratified and excited
as we are

that that relationship speaks to
people,

we have to maintain a
bit of a distance on it,

in terms of continuing to
be able to write it the way

that always felt it should be
written,

so that it doesn't feel like
we're trying

to be manipulative, or
exploitative,

or any of those sorts of things,

you just write in the
direction we always wrote,

which, sadly, this season is
gonna piss a lot of people off.

[man] On The 100, they had
this character, Lexa,

who was introduced in the second
season,

they started to build up
a relationship between her

and the main character on the
show,

which this is very significant,
because the main female hero

on the CW sci-fi action show,
they reveal is bisexual,

there was a lot to admire

about the way they were doing
this,

and then she was killed off.

[gun fires]

[Clarke] Lexa.

She was killed off in a
way that a lot of people,

myself included, didn't feel
was satisfying dramatically

for the character, but also
it spoke to larger issues,

there was a lot of people who
were very upset about this,

saying that it was a sort of
prime example

of the dead lesbian trope.

The dead lesbian trope
has to do with the frequency

with which LGBTQ characters are
killed off

in proportion to straight
characters.

When you look,

it's just the sheer numbers
who end up being killed,

you see this disproportionate
killing off of gay characters.

Despite the pain, and the anger,

and the resentment over
the last few months

of characters being killed
off, the one good thing is

that we're having this
conversation now,

and we didn't have it before.

Now there are billboards up in
this town,

saying LGBT characters and
the community deserve better.

[slow ambient rhythm]

- No!
- [gun fires]

[gun fires]

[slow ambient rhythm]

[Kaily] I know a show is more
than one character,

but for me, 'cause I got into
the show

for these two female characters,

when half of the reason you're
watching the show goes away,

you know, so does the
enthusiasm for watching it.

[man] With Person of Interest,
there was so much hope

that especially after The 100,

and all those other shows,
they said,

"oh, maybe, maybe Root and
Shaw make it to the end,

maybe this will be the
couple that we can say they,

were this kick ass action show
couple,

and they both made it to the
end,

and they can have a happy
ending",

and then when it didn't happen,

I think there was just a lot of
people

that were sad about that.

I think when your representation
is still pretty slim

to begin with, that's what
makes it very notable.

[Kaily] I wasn't eating very
well after it happened,

I wasn't sleeping very
well after it happened,

you know, I probably cried for a
week,

it was like an actual friend
dying.

[Jonathan] When it comes to the
relationship

with Root and Shaw, where you
have to be very careful there,

is that you wind up
second guessing yourself,

because you're trying to be
sensitive

to the, to, you know, to
the particular community

that is connecting with those
characters.

Where that's tricky for us this
season is we have long planned for one

of those characters to be
killed off of the show,

and we've stuck to our guns
with that story decision.

[Kaily] I know that it's their
story to tell,

but the characters Root and
Shaw weren't ever supposed

to be a couple, but they saw
that,

and they made it happen, and
the characters have evolved

so much that with their
character growth,

why couldn't the writers
have grown with that,

and changed their idea from
their original idea of,

you know, killing off this
character

that had so much growth.

I think you need to
be sensitive to things

that, playing on certain
stereotypes,

or playing on tropes that are
out there,

but if you try to design a show

you would have no fucking show.

Like, you know, it's, you know,

you want to avoid cliche, you
want to write something fresh

and original, and frankly,
when you're writing TV,

there's no time to watch TV,
so sometimes you miss some

of the things that are
happening out there.

None of these shows,
there was no collusion,

you know, there was
no, like, grand scheme,

but by them all happening
so close together,

I think it kind of put a light

on something that, you know,
no one was maliciously trying

to do, but they all ended up
feeding into,

and I think now, of course,
there's,

no one's gonna go forward
not thinking about this.

At this point, I'm like, I
don't care

what any of you think, I
watch it for Root and Shaw,

and if they're not both in it,
I don't care about saving it.

So.

Anyway, these are just, I
realize,

there's just all of these
pictures,

and I, at one point, I had
them in the order by year.

I went to the very first VQT
convention,

it was in Fairfax, Virginia, it
was held

in a hotel suite, that's how
small it was.

So that was the first
convention,

there were probably about 40 of
us there,

and then we decide, okay, we
know what we're doing now,

so we can go to the West Coast.

That was quite an
undertaking, it was a risk,

it was expensive, but it
was the right way to do it.

The first night, we would
hold a meet and greet,

which was quite informal.

You know, cheese and crackers,
and soda,

I think we might have
paid for a bartender,

and the celebrities just
came, talking to everybody,

taking pictures, having cheese.

Linda Thomason said,
"Why wouldn't we come?"

"Everybody walks around telling
us how wonderful we are."

We wanted, of course, part
of it to be educational,

so Saturday, it was panel
discussions.

I would invite writers,
producers,

actors, and even sometimes
network executives.

Dorothy, let's talk about,

and I know it's maybe a
dirty word to this group,

but money, let's talk
about dollars and cents.

[Dorothy] We do understand that.

I know, but, you know,
you've given me a lot of grief,

and I can say this, over
easy streets, you have.

I did, I spoke, I was keynote
speaker at many of them.

Here's when quality
television panels were intimate,

that's what made it great,
and I'm sure it's what made

Viewers for Quality Television
grow so quickly, too.

And then the culmination
was Saturday night,

and that would be the awards
banquet.

[Pam] The awards ceremony that
we had was the highlight

of the weekend, it was an
amazing event,

because almost every award
winner came.

This was the era before you had

to go through publicists,
before you had to do lots of,

it was a more innocent time.

I think the Q awards, where
they did get celebrities

to come in and accept these
awards,

there wasn't really anything
like it before that,

I'm sure that the celebrities,
at first, were like, "What?"

[Scott Bakula] It was a
celebration of television,

and good things in television,
and pushing for more,

that was a nice thing
to be associated with,

and a great stamp for
the show to have on it,

and it really carried a
lot of weight back then.

Dorothy was a school teacher,

so the celebrities
had to line up,

and I remember standing
next to Julia Louis-Dreyfus,

and she was doubled
over laughing, she said,

"I haven't had to stand

"in line like this since
kindergarten.""

I said, "Dorothy's a teacher,"

she said, "Okay, I'll get in
line."

They played along, they
came to have a good time,

and they came to be a person
again.

[man] If you've never seen

a Viewers for Quality Television
award, we have two here,

one was for best series for
Homicide,

and one was the founder's award,

which I think was the award
they gave when Dorothy decided

you deserved an award, but
you didn't get enough votes.

They're lovely, very proud to
have them.

The people who received our
awards,

a lot of them say that
these mean more to them

because they're given by the
viewers.

One, on a personal note,
last year,

I didn't attend, because I
was at the Betty Ford Center,

and a week after this
event, Peter Casey came

to visit me, and brought me
this,

and it meant a world to me,

that you had shown me, still,
such affection and kindness,

and it helped me through
a very difficult time,

and I thank you for that deeply.

It was pure, and that's a
rarity, it was a rarity then,

and it certainly would be a
rarity now.

It was, we were filled with
terror,

like sheep being led to the
slaughter, we just couldn't,

we couldn't believe we
were doing this again.

Oh, yeah, oh, yeah,

it was a responsibility, too.

It was a lot of fun
when it was over,

we would have a staff
party, and just laugh,

and laugh, and laugh,
everybody had a story to tell,

that was the fun part, when it
was over,

and we survived another
one, that was fun. [Laughs]

[gulls cry]

This is the ticket for the
red carpet Hollywood premiere

of the Veronica Marsmovie.

[man] We were probably halfway
into our third season

when the network executives
suggested

that I move toward a conclusion

that season that wrapped things
up tidily.

I made a decision that I was
not going to wrap it up tidily,

I didn't want our fans to be
satisfied

with an ending, I wanted
them working on our behalf.

You know, within a couple
years, we were thinking,

could we make a movie, is there
any world

where that could happen,
and I developed a pitch.

Rob had been exploring the idea

of doing something with
Veronica Mars,

making a movie, and he
had been going around

to folks that he knew at Warner
Brothers,

but the studio did not have
the financial incentive

to make this movie, ever.

Because Warner Brothers owned
it,

it wasn't like I could
go sell a version

of it to some small indie
studio who might make it.

It took a few years, and then
Kickstarter came into being.

The first I'd ever heard
about Kickstarter was

when one of the musicians
who I knew

and was friendly with
launched a Kickstarter drive,

and he kind of showed me how it
worked.

I did start doing cocktail
napkin math,

and I kept thinking, well,
what is the minimum we need

to make a decent Veronica Mars
movie?

The biggest hurdle was
convincing Warner Brothers

to let us do that.

Many of the folks across
the studio didn't really

understand Kickstarter,
or what that meant.

Kristen Bell, and Jason Dohring,

and Enrico Colantoni, Ryan
Hansen,

we all got together and
shot the intro movie

for a potential Kickstarter
project.

Okay, boys, we all
want to make the movie,

the question is, how?

I think we should ask Rob.

I don't know, he's been
pretty useless on this front.

No, I think Ryan's right,

we should,
Rob'll know what to do.

Fine, any suggestions, Rob?

Well, actually, I do have a
few ideas,

I say we have the fans
fund the movie.

The one place where that
video went viral was

within the halls of Warner
Brothers.

Having that video kind

of bounce around the studio
actually really helped

with some of the senior
executives.

It put them in the
shoes of the fans,

right, and I think they
even started to feel excited

about it, and could see
how this could work.

One morning, I get an email

from a fellow Veronica Mars fan,
and said,

"Did you see the Kickstarter
campaign?"

All right, here, I'm hitting
launch,

we are live, we are live.

Certainly,
there was plenty of fear

that we would launch
and no one would care.

I was the skeptic,
man, I'm the old guy who,

you know, who barely
knows about the internet,

I didn't know what the
fuck Kickstarter was.

And I wasn't alone in my
skepticism, I was like,

"We're asking for two million
dollars," I was like, what?

We were basing it, or Rob
certainly was basing it

on the rumor that people
wanted to see the movie.

I was reasonable confident,
it was still terrifying

when we launched,
and yet, I never

in my wildest dreams thought
it would take off like it did.

Kristen, the next update is
gonna take us over one million...

[Kristen] Oh, my gosh!

One million, one thousand
dollars

[Kristen] Oh, my gosh,
that's so,

I'm so happy right now.

By midday,

it was becoming clear that we
might hit our goal in one day.

But this is the biggie,
this is, you know,

a million was nice, but
two million was our goal,

so when this clicks over,
we are a green lit movie,

we are making this movie.

Oh, look at that, yes!

Two million, we are green lit.

I was just like, yeah,

this thing is actually gonna
happen now.

I do take a lot of personal
pride

in sort of the initiative,
we made the cover

of Entertainment Weekly,
not because the size

of our movie warranted it,

but because it was a newfangled
way of getting a movie made.

I decided to contribute
at the $750.00 level,

I got a ticket for the
screening,

and I actually got a selfie
with Kristen on the red carpet.

That was probably, you
know, one of the best nights

of my life, that was
definitely really up there.

[Peaceful strings]

[Bjo] We're members of the
Society for Creative Anachronism,

known as the SCA.

We are re-enacting the
early medieval times,

it's something we enjoy very
much,

it's existed almost as long as
Star Trek...

Actually longer than Star Trek.

Yeah, actually, yeah, by
several weeks.

A lot of people feel very
dispossessed

of their immediate family,
and actually feel much closer,

in fact, to some of the
people they have met

and have learned to love,

in both Star Trek fandom,
and the SCA.

Okay,

time for tea.

You know, Star Trek wasn't
the only campaign we did,

a couple of people somewhere

on the East Coast wanted
to start a campaign

to get the first space
shuttle named Enterprise,

but they had no idea
how to do it,

so they contacted us, and
said, "Here, you do it."

[Bjo] And just dumped all
this stuff on us and left.

So we started a little
letter writing campaign,

the same way we done the
original one,

and told people to write to
Gerald Ford.

So they got a bunch
of letters in,

and apparently, when NASA went
to Ford,

and said they were
gonna be doing a rollout

of the space shuttle
Constitution, Gerald Ford said,

"Well, you know, I rather
fancy the name Enterprise,"

"let's name her that."

[slow music]

[Bjo] Now, the rollout

of the Enterprise shuttle
was a press event,

so they invited Gene, and all
the actors.

Absolutely incredible,
we got to go on, on,

you know, I went straight to my
station,

what I wanted to be my station.
[laughs]

It was a thrill for us,
and for the producer,

creator, Gene Roddenberry.

When that space shuttle rolled
out, his chest just swelled.

People kept saying, "Well, you
know",

"why did you do this," you
know, the Star Trek thing.

I said, "You know what, it
wasn't Star Trek at all."

"What it was was to get people
excited"

"about the space program."

Oh, my.

I don't know if I can.

[slow piano music]

♪ Living in time ♪

♪ And feeling every moment ♪

The show was mine, I
say mine in the fullest sense

of the term, there was no
other financial backer,

I put up the money myself,
I mortgaged my house,

and I had nobody to answer to.

Sharon and I were the
darlings of the press,

it was a romantic story, we
fell in love on the show,

we announced our engagement to
the crew,

it was all kind of a Cinderella
story.

In the middle of this, of
course,

there's Dorothy Swanson,
shows up,

always can count on Dorothy,
you know, my Pinocchio.

Okay, start over,

there were times when producers
who had,

who had just really, we had
become close with, I mean,

their first show just
really was super quality,

and had our highest
endorsement, and

we didn't realize that
the expectation existed

that we would also
love the next one.

I think the expectation
became, as the years went on,

that every Barney Rosenzweig
show

and Sharon Gless show would
be ours, because we were fans.

There was fallout when we
didn't just put fan letters in,

we printed some letters
that were,

they were more critical than
normal,

and I'm not just picking on
Rosie O'Neill, ill,

there were other shows,
we were so connected

to the Thomasons, I mean, they
put us

on the map with Designing Women,

but when we didn't like
Hearts of Fire,

not that we didn't say nice
things,

it was like a critique from
members of,

"We wish it could be better,
because."

And Designing Women, yeah.

Yeah.

See, I had a choice,

I could, I, editorially, chose

to print those negative
comments,

'cause I thought it might help.

And maybe I was wrong, 'cause
that's not

what they wanted to
hear, but probably today,

all these years later, maybe
they don't even remember.

I don't.

I'm sure one does.

Yeah, yes.

I put loyalty up real
high on certain lists,

not everybody has to
be loyal to me forever,

you know, but Dorothy Swanson
does,

you know, I made her what
she was.

You never, ever again can do
anything

but say nice things
about me and mine,

that's just the way it is, if
you don't have something nice

to say, don't say it, anything.

Well, I must tell you,
also, you have to understand

that when we were doing
Designing Women

and other shows right in
that era, we had three

on the air at one time,
that we were very young,

and what we thought was
criticism then,

after we got involved in
politics

with our friend, Bill Clinton,

we now understand, that
was no criticism at all.

It was painful, we had
grown up with those people,

and we respected them,
and cared about them,

but we had to keep true
to what VQT's vision was.

Viewers for Quality Television,

and Dorothy in particular,
was concerned

with keeping the integrity of
VQT intact.

So, you know, I understand how

that became less fun over time,

but I think if she hadn't done
that,

then I think it would have
become less fun

in a whole lot of other ways.

Journalists would have stopped
calling,

TV critics wouldn't
have written about them,

wouldn't have taken them as
seriously

if they hadn't had that
integrity.

Yeah, this was hard, because,

you know, Sharon's right
here in Florida, I mean,

I let that go.

I'm sure that Dorothy
Swanson regrets ever

saying anything negative
about me, or Sharon Gless,

or our work, there's no doubt in
my mind,

because it didn't do
well for her to do so.

We both just said, "Okay,
see you later," you know?

You know, I can't tell you
what I thought at the time,

but now, as an adult, looking
back on it,

yeah, she should have
printed the criticisms,

and if we didn't take it well,

we should have taken it better.

I hadn't thought about it in,
what,

what has it been, 25, 30 years?

Surprised to hear she's
alive, and living in Florida,

I hope our paths do not cross,

I just think it was stupid, I
can forgive a lot of things,

stupidity is hard to forgive.

I know that it was worth it,

because...

of the respect the organization
still seems to have today.

Sure, there are some things I
might have done differently,

more diplomatically, more
tactfully,

with less arrogance,

but yes, it was worth it.

[slow piano music]

[Pam] After the disconnect with
Barney and with the Thomasons,

VQT was also reaching a point
where,

first of all, that was hard, and
secondly,

times were changing very, very
quickly.

People started doing internet
campaigns,

and emailing, posting things
online

to get support, and our
membership was dwindling.

When Dorothy couldn't
get through to anybody,

she had to go through the
publicist.

We knew that our time of
being the "aw, shucks",

"this is great, we're gonna
have everybody come to dinner,"

was over, we had had our day in
the sun,

and we weren't going to just
continue

to pretend that we were
making a difference.

So,

that was,

that was it. 15 years, 16?
It was,

it was long enough.

It was enjoyable, I am
glad I belonged to the group,

and it gave me a voice,
and I knew

that the bigwigs were
reading what I wrote,

so this little peon in
Philadelphia had the ears

of the network presidents.

TV viewing can be a really,

really dangerously isolating
experience,

and VQT helped me avoid that
whole thing.

It's really lovely to reminisce,

it's just like a high school
reunion,

going back, and saying, wow,
we were pretty cool back then.

[slow orchestral music]

[Scott Bakula] I do give them
tremendous credit

for being a solid voice in the
wilderness,

saying, if it's better,
we're gonna say we like it,

it's better, it's smarter,
think about what TV takes

on now regularly, on a regular
basis,

and that's incorporated into the
fabric

and the tapestry of television.

It started back then, and VQT
was definitely a part of that.

[Dorothy] It was a road less
taken, nobody really walked

that particular road
before, and somebody wrote,

"If you're going to take
the road less taken,"

"just leave footprints,"

and I believe I did leave
footprints.

[slow music]

[Kaily] I graduated high
school in 2006,

then January, I enrolled in the
college.

You know, I guess I'm a late
bloomer.

On a film shoot,

the only people who are
working all the time.

[Kaily] My brother
giving me the opportunity

to come back here, and you
know, just clean slate,

starting over, not many people
get that.

I'm definitely grateful for it.

[slow music]

With all the campaigns we've
done,

some people were like,
"Well, you shouldn't give up,"

"'cause, you know, so many
people put their time into it."

And one of my co-workers,
she knew how much Root

and Shaw meant to me,
but she's like,

"You know, I still think
you should keep going"

"with trying to save the show."

So she kind of helped motivate
me, too,

to keep still trying, if I
stay persistent and positive,

I'm hoping definitely that
we'll succeed in something.

Three years ago, if I had, like,

ran into the show, I would
probably have not even tried

to do this, 'cause I gave
up on a lot of things.

[slow music]

My trying to save
Person of Interest

and fighting so hard is kind of,

in a way, also trying to prove

to myself that I can do a lot
more than I thought I could.

The fact that it's
gotten so far,

it's kind of actually
boosted my self-esteem,

people are like, you know,
"You're the voice for us."

It's been a long journey
going from somebody

that didn't believe in
themselves,

and gave up all the time,
you know,

even almost, you know, on
life, to somebody that wants

to live life to the fullest,
and not have any regrets.

Oh, my goodness, this is the
original,

early letter, my gosh, oh, come
on, you.

What?

It hasn't, it's gone very
large now, there we go.

- That, come on.
- Stay.

Sit, stay, all right, ready?

"Action now is of the essence,"

"I just got a call from Gene
Roddenberry."

"It is highly likely
that Star Trek will die"

"if something isn't done, we
don't have much time to work."

"Martin Werner, head of
programming for NBC TV,

"Rockefeller Center, New York,
is one

"of the main people
who will decide whether"

"or not Star Trek lives."

"Letters should be personally
addressed

"to him, we want to combat the
good old traditional American"

"attitude of, well, my one
vote doesn't count much."

"Because your one tiny
letter may be the letter

"that topples the scales
in the right directions."

"If thousands of fans."

"Just sat around, moaning
about the death of Star Trek,"

"they will get exactly what
they deserve, Gomer Pyle, yuck."

"But if thousands of
fans get off their big,"

"fat pipers and write letters,
and do it soon, like now."

"It could happen that the man
in charge

"of this sort of thing
will be more impressed"

"with our letters than with
the damn Nielsen ratings."

"So pass the word,
and write some letters,"

"people, it's up to us fans
to keep Star Trek on TV."

"Our own inaction will assure"

"that it never sees a third
season."