@juneboba / juneboba.tumblr.com
Why is there this unspoken pressure to give explanations for reblogging our own work? Why should we feel ashamed of promoting ourselves? The artists and writers on here work their asses off and deserve as much recognition as possible and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Congrats to Emma Pearl on Facebook; she wins the drawing for last week’s ValenTEES Day Giveaway!
THIS WEEK!: Heads up, Pen Ward fans, you could win your choice of these two awesome NEW Adventure Time and Bravest Warriors designs, “Bro Hug” and “Hero’s Journey”! Reblog this post and you are entered - it’s that easy! Reblog through the week, we’ll draw the winner next week on 2/13! GOOD LUCK!
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And win a Bravest Warriors or Adventure Time shirt from Mighty Fine.
Electric Daisy Carnival through out the years
Let’s talk about “Community”. Specifically, let’s talk about what we can learn from history about whether or not it’s a wise decision to pull a show like “Community” from the mid-season schedule.
Once upon a time there was an American television sitcom that was unique, quirky, and something of a risky project. It was given a chance, and received high critical praise throughout its run, but because of low ratings, it was cancelled midway through its third season. Post-cancellation buzz and word of mouth from the show’s small but dedicated fan base generated great interest in the show. It quickly became recognized as one of the great creative achievements of recent television history, developed a huge and loyal following, and its premature cancellation was considered a travesty. This show was called “Arrested Development”.
People who were introduced to “Arrested Development” post-cancellation often asked, “Why didn’t I know about this show when it was on the air?” The Fox network was lambasted by professional television critics, bloggers, and fans for not giving the show the kind of marketing support it deserved. Shifting time slots, poor lead-ins, and a lack of advertising spots made it nearly impossible for new viewers to find out about the show during its initial run. Earlier this year, it was announced that (because the show was so openly and vocally beloved by critics and fans alike) it would be given another chance next year.
In the past couple of years, @NBC has also had its fair share of criticism for the way it handles its prime time programming. The 2009 fan campaign to save “Chuck” demonstrated the intensity of that show’s viewers and their willingness to speak up about the kind of programming they wanted to watch. A short time later, the absolute debacle that was the “Tonight Show”/”Jay Leno Show” experiment left a lot of viewers with a sour taste in their mouth regarding @NBC policies and politics. Once again, the internet lit up with viewers expressing their opinions on the way a network was handling its programming. During that unfortunate period, a large portion of Mr Conan O’Brien’s fan base - the same young, quirky, risk-loving demographic that would make up a large portion of “Community” fans - felt alienated by @NBC.
Now, @NBC is repeating history with “Community”. What efforts have you made to market the show to a broader audience? How often do your promotions for your Thursday night block showcase “Community”? How high has the show been on your priority list?
“Community” is a whip-smart, funny, strange little show, and it has a deeply devoted fan base. Earlier this season, an episode featured a video clip, just a few seconds long, of a fictional television show called “Inspector Spacetime”, a parody on the popular BBC show “Doctor Who”. Fans of “Community” went into action, joining forces on the internet to fabricate an entire 50-year history of a show that doesn’t even exist - all in the name of fun. “Inspector Spacetime” has its own tumblr, TVTropes page, and wiki - all created by fans of “Community” as a way to express their love for the show. Just think - if @NBC were equally devoted to marketing the show to as many new viewers as possible, rather than allowing it to slip between the cracks in a desperate attempt to cling to the golden years of “The Office”, how commercially successful could it become?
Obviously, the television industry is a business. Original programming is an expensive endeavor, and viewership matters. Ratings is a game of breadth vs depth, and advertisers want to know that their expensive time slots are going to be seen by the largest possible number of customers.
But people are intelligent, much more so than your network sometimes treats them. If the kind of thought-provoking, witty, original programming they want to see is not available on your network, they will find it elsewhere. These kinds of shows are available in droves, on networks, basic cable and cable.
@NBC, rather than stumble into the next big mistake in American television, please learn from “Arrested Development”. Learn from “Chuck”. Pay attention to your viewers. Try to see us, just for a moment, as people rather than numbers. We’re screaming at you about what we want to watch, about what programs we want to see and how far we’re willing to go to keep them on the air. Go online and look around. Don’t just look at what shows people watch, look at the shows people love. It’s these shows, like “Community”, that deserve the best efforts you can give them.
If you promote it, they will watch.
Thank you.
