The Campaign Timeline
(AKA What You Should Read Before Assuming Nothing's Been Done To Save This Show)Okay, folks. After months of people driving me nuts by asking if anything's been done to try to save N&A or even acting like nothing's been done and berating us over it (you know who you are), I'm putting up this timeline of sorts to enlighten people about the campaign. Below you will find a more or less accurate timeline of our efforts to save the show (and also why I did/didn't put in effort at certain times). It's not entirely comprehensive, mainly because it took me forever to go through list archives to figure out what happened when. So it tapers off after June 15, 2000. Hey, I should be doing homework.
May 17, 2000: The REAL 2000-2001 lineup comes out. "Now and Again" is NOT on it. Anywhere. The entire N&A mailing list at Egroups, myself included, freaks. The CBS offices - both in NYC and LA - get a large number of irate phone calls, but pretty much blow us off. Some responses are fairly rude, to the tune of "The show's cancelled, lady. Get over it." We mobilize and start collecting money to put in an ad. The listmoms of the N&A mailing list get in contact with the production company to find out who to target. We all apologize profusely to Mel.
May 18, 2000: We are informed that CBS - since they own part of the show - is our main target, and that our best hope is to get them to pick it up as a mid-season replacement. We are also informed that e-mails will not work (networks could care less about e-mail traffic) and that it's going to have to be snail mail. Our secondary targets are Fox - in the hopes that they will be desperate enough to pick it up - and the sponsors of the show.
May 19, 2000: To keep the volume of letters in, the listmoms organize a letter auction; fans use the number of letters sent to "bid" on N&A-related items. They set up an address to keep a tally of all letters sent. Around this time, we decide to send plastic eggs instead of real ones to CBS with our messages inside. (Real ones might annoy executives.)
May 21, 2000: Several members of the lists write to their local media outlets to try to get their attention, with varying degrees of success.
May 25, 2000: A member of the lists hands out "Save Now and Again" fliers at the MediaWest convention. (Bless you, Susan.) Enough money for the ad has been raised, and the listmoms place a quarter-page ad in the Hollywood Reporter. Monique's Save Now and Again site goes up.
May 26, 2000: "The Great Now and Again Write Out" takes place; since May 26 is when we were SUPPOSED to get an N&A repeat (CBS shows "Candid Camera" and "Kids Say the Darndest Things" instead), we flood CBS with as many letters and postcards as we can in one day.
May 30, 2000: The ad comes out in the Hollywood Reporter.
May 31, 2000: We get news that while Paramount is still keeping the sets up in hopes of saving the show, the production company can only keep their office open til June 15th. We start mobilizing for a major mail blitz on June 6th - the day the Saturn Awards are presented.
June 1, 2000: Now and Again is nominated for several Saturn Awards, something we make sure to note in our letters.
June 6, 2000: We flood CBS. I mean flood CBS. Yours truly managed to get 100 postcards signed thanks to my mother's efforts. The Saturn Awards come out, and N&A sweeps them across the board, winning Best Supporting Actor (Dennis Haysbert), Best Actress (Margaret Colin), and Best Network TV Show - beating "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" for that award. GGC gives a heartening interview (to the effect that he's not giving up). We decide to do a major egg drop. We also start collecting to make a donation to Reading Is Fundamental's Direct Impact Fund in the name of the show - paying tribute to "There Are No Words."
June 8, 2000: We decide to blitz the media on June 14th prior to the June 17th egg drop.
June 9, 2000: TV Guide Insider does a short article on the campaign.
June 15, 2000: Major bad news hits. The listmoms receive word that in a meeting between GGC and CBS executives, the execs said that regardless of the production company and the fans, the show would not return to their network. The execs also tell Paramount to strike the sets. Most members continue to mail CBS, although petitioning Sci-Fi for reruns is brought up.
June 16, 2000: We set June 30th as a postcard dump date - this time to Sci-Fi. I write an incredibly nasty letter to Les Moonves.
June 23, 2000: Bonnie Hammer, the VP of the Sci-Fi channel, mentions in an online chat that they might consider picking up N&A (albeit probably in reruns). We go nuts.
July 7, 2000: I go to Shore Leave 22, a fan-run SF convention where Gerrit Graham is one of the guests, and pass out postcards and addresses. My account of that venture can be found here.
July 20, 2000: Now and Again gets an Emmy nomination for... Main Title Design. That's about it. Squirrel bastards.
July 31, 2000: "We're Still Here, CBS!" mail drop commences.
August 1, 2000: An online petition to save N&A is set up.
August 15, 2000: Now and Again premieres in Australia. (As I've been told, the show was properly promoted and never pre-empted there, and ended up being a big hit.)
August 18, 2000: Another mail drop to CBS, Sci-Fi, et cetera.
August 28, 2000: N&A loses out on the Emmy. Squirrel bastards.
September 4, 2000: I manage to update the campaign site for Monique. Then senior year mania hits, leaving me with a lot less free time.
September 7, 2000: Margaret Colin lands a recurring role on ABC's "Madigan Men."
September 11, 2000: News comes that Glenn Gordon Caron will be developing a new series for Fox.
September 22, 2000: "Anniversary Campaign" drop. We send anniversary cards to CBS - since this SHOULD have been the Friday that season 2 of N&A should have started.
October 8, 2000: News breaks that Eric Close signed on for a film called Liberty, Maine, co-starring Laurel Holloman. (I know nothing about this movie. Do not ask.)
No, that's not ALL that's been done to save "Now and Again." But that's a timeline of the most active bulk of the campaign. The N&A mailing list at egroups is still active and still mailing certain outlets to save the show. But, please, before you decide to complain because "nothing's" been done, take a moment read over this and revise your opinion.
