Attracting New Viewers

[B5JMS Poster]

Subject: Attracting New Viewers
-----+-------------+--------------------------------------------------
 No. | DATE        |  FROM
-----+-------------+--------------------------------------------------
+  1: Jun 30, 1996: Ken Moore <kmoore at external.umass.edu>
+  3: Jul  1, 1996: bubvba at ix.netcom.com (Stephen Rosier)
*  4: Jul  1, 1996: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

From: Ken Moore <kmoore at external.umass.edu>
Lines: 39

After watching (and getting hooked on) Babylon 5 for the last year and a 
half, it struck me that the show's greatest strength (the 5 year arc) 
was also its greatest weakness in terms of attracting new viewers.  I 
watched a couple of episodes in the first season (mainly because I 
stumbled over them while channel-surfing).  Then I found the show again 
about a third of the way through the second season, and became intrigued 
by it.  I immediately faced two barriers:

1) Finding the show on a regular basis, since it moves around alot on 
the various stations that carry it.

2) Figuring out what was going on, since I did not come in at the 
beginning of the story.  

B5 is often compared to a television novel, and I think this is 
accurate.  For a new viewer to start watching the show now, it would 
almost be like opening a book and starting to read it at page 327, but 
not being able to see anything that had been written before that.  A new 
viewer really has to stick with the show for a while, and my fear is 
that many would not have enough patience to do that.  This is especially 
true now, given that the story is almost 60% complete.

I wanted to make a suggestion that might help in this regard.  One thing 
that the ST/Paramount people have done quite effectively over the years 
is in producing those one hour "catch everyone up with what's going on" 
specials.  I think something like that would be very useful for B5.  Put 
together a program which is narrated by one of the cast members, gives 
an overview of what's happened so far (with clips from key episodes), 
and had a few voiceovers from other cast members thrown in for good 
measure.

This program could be put together very inexpensively.  To avoid 
scheduling problems, it could be aired in place of one of the previously 
scheduled B5 summer reruns--ideally, the last rerun before the new 
episodes start up again in September.

Thoughts?



=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

From: bubvba at ix.netcom.com (Stephen Rosier)
Lines: 66

In <31D6341F.1568 at external.umass.edu> Ken Moore
<kmoore at external.umass.edu> writes: 
>
>After watching (and getting hooked on) Babylon 5 for the last year and
a 
>half, it struck me that the show's greatest strength (the 5 year arc) 
>was also its greatest weakness in terms of attracting new viewers.  I 
>watched a couple of episodes in the first season (mainly because I 
>stumbled over them while channel-surfing).  Then I found the show
again 
>about a third of the way through the second season, and became
intrigued 
>by it.  I immediately faced two barriers:
>
>1) Finding the show on a regular basis, since it moves around alot on 
>the various stations that carry it.
>
>2) Figuring out what was going on, since I did not come in at the 
>beginning of the story.  
>
>B5 is often compared to a television novel, and I think this is 
>accurate.  For a new viewer to start watching the show now, it would 
>almost be like opening a book and starting to read it at page 327, but

>not being able to see anything that had been written before that.  A
new 
>viewer really has to stick with the show for a while, and my fear is 
>that many would not have enough patience to do that.  This is
especially 
>true now, given that the story is almost 60% complete.
>
>I wanted to make a suggestion that might help in this regard.  One
thing 
>that the ST/Paramount people have done quite effectively over the
years 
>is in producing those one hour "catch everyone up with what's going
on" 
>specials.  I think something like that would be very useful for B5. 
Put 
>together a program which is narrated by one of the cast members, gives

>an overview of what's happened so far (with clips from key episodes), 
>and had a few voiceovers from other cast members thrown in for good 
>measure.
>
>This program could be put together very inexpensively.  To avoid 
>scheduling problems, it could be aired in place of one of the
previously 
>scheduled B5 summer reruns--ideally, the last rerun before the new 
>episodes start up again in September.
>
>Thoughts?
>
>

Very good point!  I, too, did not see my first B5 episode until season
2 (I never knew it existed).  The first few times I watched it, I was
in the dark.  When I did get hooked (season 3) I was disappointed to
learn that the first 2 seasons wouldn't be shown in rerun for a long
time.  There are still references made that I don't understand (both on
this newsgroup and in the show).  I agree that it would help attract
new viewers if some form of the previous seasons were available to view
or a program were made for the specific purpose of "catching up."




=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Lines: 19

"I wanted to make a suggestion that might help in this regard.  One thing
that the ST/Paramount people have done quite effectively over the years is
in producing those one hour "catch everyone up with what's going on"
specials.  I think something like that would be very useful for B5.  Put
together a program which is narrated by one of the cast members, gives an
overview of what's happened so far (with clips from key episodes), and had
a few voiceovers from other cast members thrown in for good measure."

We suggested it.  WB nixed it.  We don't have the same franchise value as
ST, and selling a one-shot isn't something the studio is set up for...and
you can do it for Fox because you can program a network, but you can't
program syndication.



 jms



-***
-*** B5JMS SUBSCRIBERS: Messages to this list come from various sources.
-*** Replies to them, automatically to go the maintainer of this list
-*** <b5jms-owner at majordomo.cs.columbia.edu>.  If you want to reply to
-*** someone else, make sure the "To:" header line is correctly set.