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shadowkatYes, a continuation of the monster essay, or treatise that I wrote in 2003. Sigh, some people write fanfic on tv shows, I write essays on tv shows.
[> Part VI . Fans: Breaking the Fourth Wall Part A: Media Critics -- s'kat, 10:19:20 08/23/03 Sat
VI . The Effect of Fans: Breaking the Fourth Wall (72)
"Audience: Do you read or routinely scour the websites, because we've talked about stuff and then like 4-weeks later it'd be on screen?
Joss: "Obviously I've gotten most of my ideas from you. When we go to websites what we're looking for is a general feeling of; what's not playing, what are people really passionate about and what are they debating and where are we getting it right and where are we getting it wrong? If you see something 4-weeks after it comes out on your website that means we've been working on it about 8-weeks before that, at least." Comic-Con Writer's Panel, www.cityofangel.com (73)
The main purpose of a television show is to bring as large an audience as possible to the advertisers. To do this, a tv show must hold the viewers attention span past a commercial, it must tempt the viewer with that dramatic act break/cliff-hanger before the scene switched to commercial so that the viewer does not flip channels between acts for fear of missing a second of the next act, thus ensuring that the viewer watches the commercial. (Tivo and RealPlay devices sort of counter-act this, but that's a whole other essay.) Television is nothing without viewers. TV shows from the moment the first crossed over from Radio are nothing without fans. And the creators of the TV shows from the network exec's to the actors who play the parts know this by heart.
At the conventions where actors are paid anywhere from $30,000 to $200,000 to appear in front of busloads of fans, they know who is behind their fame and fortune. (74) James C. Leary and Charisma Carpenter have been known to publicly ask their fans to send post-cards regarding their characters to ME, Fox, WB and UPN in order to keep them on board. James Marsters has personally thanked his fans for Spike's continued presence on the show, recognizing the fact that he would not have a job if it weren't for their interest. (75) The Writers of Angel The Series informed the audience at Comic-Con that if it weren't for the fans - they would not have jobs. (76) Angel was only renewed because of the fans support.
But how does a network or a television production company know that a TV show is taking off? That it has fans? Market analysts make their living analyzing Neilsen Ratings, scanning newspaper and magazine articles for reviews, and the internet for responses. Did you know that the Neilsen Company now has a software package that tracks which sites people visit on the internet? Now they can collect data on the top internet sites just as they currently collect data on television shows. The system is similar - they choose a random sampling of viewers/users and on a weekly basis download which sites or shows the person visits or watches. (77) The data is compiled and analyzed. If you're interested you can check out www.futonmediacritic.com for the Neilsen ratings for TV shows. The numbers are in the millions and represent the analyst's approximation on how many viewers each show received based on the available data. The box compiling the data is pretty sophisticated, it can tell you for instance exactly when a viewer tuned into a television show, if they taped it, and how long they watched, when and if they switched it off or turned to another channel. The data is then broken down into age demographics and in some instances race and gender demographics, this information is collected from the selected viewers prior to the distribution of the software. How many men watch BTVS/ATS? How many women? What race? What age? How often? When do they tune in? And all pulled out of the Neilsen data, which has been downloaded from a random selection of viewers in counties across the United States. That's just one method and all it tells the advertising and/or the network/studio exec is how many people in each category are watching a specific television show. It does not tell them why people are watching the show or what it is about the show that appeals to them. It just tells them people are watching it and how they are watching it. (78)
Why do you watch a specific TV show? Or even turn on the set for that matter? I asked this question once last year on a fanboard and without exception the responses fell into one of three categories: 1) To be entertained. 2) To escape. 3) To be informed or enriched in some way. Most shows just meet one of the three requirements, but sometimes a show will come along that meets all three requirements. BTVS fit all three requirements for me. But my "individual" reasons/tastes aren't really that important. What is important is figuring out why the "majority" of fans watched - what attracted the "majority" to the show - is what matters most to the television executives, producers, and advertisers.
To determine why people watch and what it is about the show that attracts them, studio and advertising/marketing executives rely on two things: 1) television and media critics, specifically the ones being paid to write criticism about television and are established in the field. 2) online fans who post to internet posting boards, chat-rooms, set up websites, and write fanfiction. Prior to the internet, they relied on fan-clubs and fan mail. Also on conventions. You honestly don't believe that Star Trek movie was financed on faith alone? Please - the executives knew about the Trek Conventions and how many fans out there the series had - the movies were tailor-made for those fans. Same with Star Wars - Lucas knew about his fans through the internet and the conventions. Also ancillary product purchases.
A. Television and Media Critics
Television and media critics are more often than not the voice for what works and what doesn't work in television. They provide the studios with insight on what the audience considers quality. Not a perfect gauge by any means, since five times out of ten - the mainstream audience's taste and the critics don't exactly jive. But what can you do? Short of telephoning every television watcher in the country, there really is no precise way of figuring out what is working in a TV show. So network execs to a small extent follow what critics say about their television shows.
In his interview with IGFN, Anthony Stewart Head stated: " the critics were always with [BTVS]. I remember the first tour that we did, the first sort of media tour, we all camped out at a hotel and you sort of field questions from various newspaper critics and TV critics, and right across the board it was unanimous that we had a hit. When I went back for the second season, the critics were actually really excited to see us, and ask us what was going to go on, and I remember vividly one critic saying, "I knew the line was crossed when Principal Flutie was eaten..."" (79) Often critical approval of a show will keep it alive even if the Neilsen ratings are low. If the show is critically panned and the ratings are down, the show is dead in the water. If the ratings are high but the critics hate it? It may last two or three seasons depending on ratings. Examples: Party of Five, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel The Series, The Practice, Once and Again, My So Called Life - all had low ratings when they started but the critics loved them so they stayed longer than expected. (80) In the case of Party of Five, Angel The Series and My So Called Life - the critics helped save the shows. Critics and fans started mail-in campaigns. Often a combination of positive critical response and fans can keep a show from being cancelled even if the ratings are below the coveted mark, which is what happened to Angel The Series. But if the show does not have a positive critical response or ratings, such as Firefly, than it is dead. You need both to keep yourself alive. Firefly oddly enough had higher ratings than BTVS and ATS (81), but it did not have the devoted fan following (it just started) nor the positive critical response. Most critics either panned it or were largely ambivalent. Without the Neilsen ratings to counter this response - Firefly did not have a chance. It did not help that the "majority" of internet fans were largely lukewarm towards the show. (82)Note, I said "majority". I personally liked Firefly, a lot better I might add than the current hit O.C., but I'm in the "minority" and in the wonderful world of television - the "majority" rules.
_______________________________________________________
72 Meaning of the Fourth Wall, http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_wall: "The term signifies the suspension of disbelief used by the audience, who are looking in on the action through the invisible wall. The audience thus pretends that the characters in the story are real "living" beings in their own world, and not merely actors performing on a stage or studio set, or written words on the pages of a book. In order for the fourth wall to remain intact, the actors must also, in effect, pretend that the audience does not exist, by staying in character at all times and by not addressing the audience members directly. Most such productions rely on the fourth wall." By Fourth Wall - I mean the invisible wall between the audience and the show - the audience does not dictate plot, casting choices, anything regarding the show - they suspend disbelief and treat the show as operating in a reality they cannot affect or change, as real as their own. When they break through that wall - they change the plot, the characters and the cast - the audience affects it and the story suddenly becomes an "interactive work" between the audience and the performers, writers, etc.
73 See also Joss Whedon's Interview with IGFN for his thoughts on the internet fanbase: "IGNFF: What are your thoughts on the Internet's role in television production? WHEDON: The Internet, you know... The bitch goddess that I love and worship and hate. You know, we found out we have a fan base on the Internet. They came together as a family on the Internet, a huge goddamn deal. It's so important to everything the show has been and everything the show has done - I can't say enough about it. It drives me up the frigging wall that I can't keep secrets, that I can't keep things off the Internet. The crewmembers of my own shows are feeding things to the Internet so that people will know what happens before it happens."
74David Boreanze is making $200,000 for the UK Convention in August. Anthony Stewart Head made over $50,000 for Moonlight Rising according to convention organizers and filmjerk.com.
75 James Marsters Q&A at Tampa Vulkon, Chicago, and Moonlight Rising amongst others. For transcripts see any of the Spike centric sites: www.bigbad.net, www.morethanspike.com; or see slayernews.com.
76 Cityofangel.com transcript of the Writers Panel at Comic-Con
77 Personal experience - I recently was contacted and got one of these packages. I turned them down. While I don't care who knows what television shows I watch, I do care about my internet privacy. A close friend and a relative had received Neilsen TV boxes - so I know what is involved in that as well.
78 See generally: Blumenthal and Goodenough, The Business of Television, pp. 402-415, Billboard Books, New York: 1998.
79 See IGFN Interview with ASH, January 6, 2003. p. 34
80 TV Guide's Save Our Show Campaign and The Association for Quality Television - both spearheaded by media critics are campaigns geared to protect television shows adored by critics.
81 www.futonmediacritic.com - Firefly had approximately 12.2 in contrast to BTVS' 3.8 and Angel's 3.2. Firefly was also ranked at 129 in contrast to BTVS at 136 and Angel at 139 respectively.
82See The Firefly archives on www.atpobtvs.com and televisionwithoutpity's reviews.
[> Part VI . Fans: Breaking the Fourth Wall Part A: Media Critics -- s'kat, 10:19:20 08/23/03 Sat
VI . The Effect of Fans: Breaking the Fourth Wall (72)
"Audience: Do you read or routinely scour the websites, because we've talked about stuff and then like 4-weeks later it'd be on screen?
Joss: "Obviously I've gotten most of my ideas from you. When we go to websites what we're looking for is a general feeling of; what's not playing, what are people really passionate about and what are they debating and where are we getting it right and where are we getting it wrong? If you see something 4-weeks after it comes out on your website that means we've been working on it about 8-weeks before that, at least." Comic-Con Writer's Panel, www.cityofangel.com (73)
The main purpose of a television show is to bring as large an audience as possible to the advertisers. To do this, a tv show must hold the viewers attention span past a commercial, it must tempt the viewer with that dramatic act break/cliff-hanger before the scene switched to commercial so that the viewer does not flip channels between acts for fear of missing a second of the next act, thus ensuring that the viewer watches the commercial. (Tivo and RealPlay devices sort of counter-act this, but that's a whole other essay.) Television is nothing without viewers. TV shows from the moment the first crossed over from Radio are nothing without fans. And the creators of the TV shows from the network exec's to the actors who play the parts know this by heart.
At the conventions where actors are paid anywhere from $30,000 to $200,000 to appear in front of busloads of fans, they know who is behind their fame and fortune. (74) James C. Leary and Charisma Carpenter have been known to publicly ask their fans to send post-cards regarding their characters to ME, Fox, WB and UPN in order to keep them on board. James Marsters has personally thanked his fans for Spike's continued presence on the show, recognizing the fact that he would not have a job if it weren't for their interest. (75) The Writers of Angel The Series informed the audience at Comic-Con that if it weren't for the fans - they would not have jobs. (76) Angel was only renewed because of the fans support.
But how does a network or a television production company know that a TV show is taking off? That it has fans? Market analysts make their living analyzing Neilsen Ratings, scanning newspaper and magazine articles for reviews, and the internet for responses. Did you know that the Neilsen Company now has a software package that tracks which sites people visit on the internet? Now they can collect data on the top internet sites just as they currently collect data on television shows. The system is similar - they choose a random sampling of viewers/users and on a weekly basis download which sites or shows the person visits or watches. (77) The data is compiled and analyzed. If you're interested you can check out www.futonmediacritic.com for the Neilsen ratings for TV shows. The numbers are in the millions and represent the analyst's approximation on how many viewers each show received based on the available data. The box compiling the data is pretty sophisticated, it can tell you for instance exactly when a viewer tuned into a television show, if they taped it, and how long they watched, when and if they switched it off or turned to another channel. The data is then broken down into age demographics and in some instances race and gender demographics, this information is collected from the selected viewers prior to the distribution of the software. How many men watch BTVS/ATS? How many women? What race? What age? How often? When do they tune in? And all pulled out of the Neilsen data, which has been downloaded from a random selection of viewers in counties across the United States. That's just one method and all it tells the advertising and/or the network/studio exec is how many people in each category are watching a specific television show. It does not tell them why people are watching the show or what it is about the show that appeals to them. It just tells them people are watching it and how they are watching it. (78)
Why do you watch a specific TV show? Or even turn on the set for that matter? I asked this question once last year on a fanboard and without exception the responses fell into one of three categories: 1) To be entertained. 2) To escape. 3) To be informed or enriched in some way. Most shows just meet one of the three requirements, but sometimes a show will come along that meets all three requirements. BTVS fit all three requirements for me. But my "individual" reasons/tastes aren't really that important. What is important is figuring out why the "majority" of fans watched - what attracted the "majority" to the show - is what matters most to the television executives, producers, and advertisers.
To determine why people watch and what it is about the show that attracts them, studio and advertising/marketing executives rely on two things: 1) television and media critics, specifically the ones being paid to write criticism about television and are established in the field. 2) online fans who post to internet posting boards, chat-rooms, set up websites, and write fanfiction. Prior to the internet, they relied on fan-clubs and fan mail. Also on conventions. You honestly don't believe that Star Trek movie was financed on faith alone? Please - the executives knew about the Trek Conventions and how many fans out there the series had - the movies were tailor-made for those fans. Same with Star Wars - Lucas knew about his fans through the internet and the conventions. Also ancillary product purchases.
A. Television and Media Critics
Television and media critics are more often than not the voice for what works and what doesn't work in television. They provide the studios with insight on what the audience considers quality. Not a perfect gauge by any means, since five times out of ten - the mainstream audience's taste and the critics don't exactly jive. But what can you do? Short of telephoning every television watcher in the country, there really is no precise way of figuring out what is working in a TV show. So network execs to a small extent follow what critics say about their television shows.
In his interview with IGFN, Anthony Stewart Head stated: " the critics were always with [BTVS]. I remember the first tour that we did, the first sort of media tour, we all camped out at a hotel and you sort of field questions from various newspaper critics and TV critics, and right across the board it was unanimous that we had a hit. When I went back for the second season, the critics were actually really excited to see us, and ask us what was going to go on, and I remember vividly one critic saying, "I knew the line was crossed when Principal Flutie was eaten..."" (79) Often critical approval of a show will keep it alive even if the Neilsen ratings are low. If the show is critically panned and the ratings are down, the show is dead in the water. If the ratings are high but the critics hate it? It may last two or three seasons depending on ratings. Examples: Party of Five, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel The Series, The Practice, Once and Again, My So Called Life - all had low ratings when they started but the critics loved them so they stayed longer than expected. (80) In the case of Party of Five, Angel The Series and My So Called Life - the critics helped save the shows. Critics and fans started mail-in campaigns. Often a combination of positive critical response and fans can keep a show from being cancelled even if the ratings are below the coveted mark, which is what happened to Angel The Series. But if the show does not have a positive critical response or ratings, such as Firefly, than it is dead. You need both to keep yourself alive. Firefly oddly enough had higher ratings than BTVS and ATS (81), but it did not have the devoted fan following (it just started) nor the positive critical response. Most critics either panned it or were largely ambivalent. Without the Neilsen ratings to counter this response - Firefly did not have a chance. It did not help that the "majority" of internet fans were largely lukewarm towards the show. (82)Note, I said "majority". I personally liked Firefly, a lot better I might add than the current hit O.C., but I'm in the "minority" and in the wonderful world of television - the "majority" rules.
_______________________________________________________
72 Meaning of the Fourth Wall, http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_wall: "The term signifies the suspension of disbelief used by the audience, who are looking in on the action through the invisible wall. The audience thus pretends that the characters in the story are real "living" beings in their own world, and not merely actors performing on a stage or studio set, or written words on the pages of a book. In order for the fourth wall to remain intact, the actors must also, in effect, pretend that the audience does not exist, by staying in character at all times and by not addressing the audience members directly. Most such productions rely on the fourth wall." By Fourth Wall - I mean the invisible wall between the audience and the show - the audience does not dictate plot, casting choices, anything regarding the show - they suspend disbelief and treat the show as operating in a reality they cannot affect or change, as real as their own. When they break through that wall - they change the plot, the characters and the cast - the audience affects it and the story suddenly becomes an "interactive work" between the audience and the performers, writers, etc.
73 See also Joss Whedon's Interview with IGFN for his thoughts on the internet fanbase: "IGNFF: What are your thoughts on the Internet's role in television production? WHEDON: The Internet, you know... The bitch goddess that I love and worship and hate. You know, we found out we have a fan base on the Internet. They came together as a family on the Internet, a huge goddamn deal. It's so important to everything the show has been and everything the show has done - I can't say enough about it. It drives me up the frigging wall that I can't keep secrets, that I can't keep things off the Internet. The crewmembers of my own shows are feeding things to the Internet so that people will know what happens before it happens."
74David Boreanze is making $200,000 for the UK Convention in August. Anthony Stewart Head made over $50,000 for Moonlight Rising according to convention organizers and filmjerk.com.
75 James Marsters Q&A at Tampa Vulkon, Chicago, and Moonlight Rising amongst others. For transcripts see any of the Spike centric sites: www.bigbad.net, www.morethanspike.com; or see slayernews.com.
76 Cityofangel.com transcript of the Writers Panel at Comic-Con
77 Personal experience - I recently was contacted and got one of these packages. I turned them down. While I don't care who knows what television shows I watch, I do care about my internet privacy. A close friend and a relative had received Neilsen TV boxes - so I know what is involved in that as well.
78 See generally: Blumenthal and Goodenough, The Business of Television, pp. 402-415, Billboard Books, New York: 1998.
79 See IGFN Interview with ASH, January 6, 2003. p. 34
80 TV Guide's Save Our Show Campaign and The Association for Quality Television - both spearheaded by media critics are campaigns geared to protect television shows adored by critics.
81 www.futonmediacritic.com - Firefly had approximately 12.2 in contrast to BTVS' 3.8 and Angel's 3.2. Firefly was also ranked at 129 in contrast to BTVS at 136 and Angel at 139 respectively.
82See The Firefly archives on www.atpobtvs.com and televisionwithoutpity's reviews.