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Post by Extremis on Oct 14, 2011 17:40:00 GMT -5
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Post by Extremis on Oct 30, 2012 19:29:24 GMT -5
5 Ways ABC Can Bring Back Legend of the Seeker
-October 28, 2012
By scifiguy
Millions of Legend of the Seeker fans were stunned and set adrift in 2010 when ABC Studios stopped production on the popular syndicated television show due to the financial collapse of the Tribune Company, which owned 1/3 of the American television stations that were then contracted to carry the hit series.
Despite numerous steps taken by angry and passionate fans around the world no network has stepped forward to pick up a third season of the show, which is based on Terry Goodkind‘s Sword of Truth novels. A fan-run campaign dubbed Save Our Seeker raised tens of thousands of dollars to buy advertising and help fans create promotional materials to keep the show alive. Now an ongoing convention-recruiting effort aims to build a groundswell of support for bringing back the show.
But frankly syndicated television just doesn’t seem to hold the economic promise it did in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Despite the fact that Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert’s Pacific Renaissance Pictures (makers of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Xena: Warrior Princess, Young Hercules, Jack of All Trades, and Cleopatra 2525) studio actually produced the show the production and distribution rights are own by ABC Studios, a subsidiary of the ABC Television network.
ABC made what many fans feel was a half-hearted effort to persuade the SyFy Network to pick up the show (SyFy has a history of working with or resyndicating stressed genre shows); SyFy, for their part, claim they were disappointed in the numbers they saw when they ran some LOTS marathons (but the fans argued that the marathons were not well promoted).
So now ABC is sitting on the rights to Legend of the Seeker, which is a standard practice in the film and television industry to ensure that no one else can figure out a way to profit from the franchise. In fact, it is now possible to buy both seasons 1 and 2 on DvD and loyal fans do their best to promote the DvDs and keep sales going. Still, that isn’t enough to bring the show back.
So we here at Communizine put our heads together and came up with five ways that ABC Studios (or anyone who manages to sub-license the rights from them) could produce the show with more than a small chance of turning it into a successful franchise. Star Craig Horner hinted to fans that one of the reasons why SyFy would not pick up the show was that they were concerned about illegal downloads of the episodes on the Internet diluting the show’s commercial value. These ideas take the downloading into consideration.
Legend of the Seeker was cancelled after 2 seasons because the Tribune Company’s bankruptcy shut down 1/3 of the show’s American syndication market.
1) ABC Television could add the show to their prime time lineup. The success of “Once Upon A Time” shows that there is an eager audience for magic and sword fighting. They could even use some creative dream episodes to manage a few out-of-canon crossovers. Everyone has fun together defeating the bad guys and then someone wakes up and realizes it was all a dream. Somewhere down the line they can clear up the mystery by revealing that a bad guy in one world or another was messing with people’s minds.
2) They can re-launch the show as a Web series. There are a growing number of successful commercial Web series. Fans around the world would be able to watch the show legally and ABC could develop an international advertising market that surpasses the limitations of American netcasters.
3) ABC can run the show on Hulu or Netflix. Okay, the American netcasters have a real problem with reaching the international advertising market but ABC could always look for a European netcaster (there will be one eventually).
4) ABC can invest in Direct-to-DvD syndication. Fans around the world have made it clear they’ll buy whatever products are available. This is a market that numbers in the millions. Even a 5% sales rate should net ABC a couple hundred thousand DvD sales per episode.
5) ABC can launch a subscription Internet entertainment channel. ABC has the money, the talent, and the online resources to create their own video service. They could populate it with shows that need a second chance or which the network isn’t entirely sure about. Again, they would have to build up their advertising revenue but if they do this smart they can take on international markets before their competitors get their game on.
What do you think? How would you want to see the show return to production? Some people are suggesting that a movie could or should be made (look at “Serenity”, which followed upon the shutdown of production on Joss Whedon’s Firefly). Still, movies are expensive gambles, and even when they gross $300 million in worldwide sales they may fail (ala “John Carter”, which proved to be too expensive for a poorly managed marketing campaign).
www.communizine.com/2012/10/28/5-ways-abc-can-bring-back-legend-of-the-seeker/
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Post by Extremis on Oct 30, 2012 19:42:54 GMT -5
Dear ABC Studios: It’s Time for Legend of the Seeker
-October 29, 2012
By Michael Martinez
The economy isn’t going to get any better any faster whether Mitt Romney or Barack Obama is elected President in November, but economics have a huge impact on the entertainment programming that we mere viewers are offered. As is usual the Fall 2012 lineup is filled with TV shows that are mostly unappealing and unimaginative.
But the ABC Television network has a pretty solid lineup on Sunday nights with “Once Upon A Time”, “Revenge”, and “666 Park Avenue”. Admittedly I don’t watch “Revenge” but I do watch “Once Upon A Time” faithfully and I have caught a few episodes of “666 Park Avenue”.
What I am missing, however, is a good, old-fashioned sword-and-sorcery action/adventure show — like Legend of the Seeker. More people on Twitter now follow the SF-Fandom @seekerfans account than follow the main @sf_fandom account. And believe me when I say that the SF-Fandom account publishes far more news and new content than the Seekerfans account.
So that says something to me. It tells me there is still a lot of passion out there for Legend of the Seeker. And I am not the only person who sees this passion.
Fans have driven up comments on Facebook to over 1,000,000. Now they are working toward a goal of 2,000,000 comments:
www.facebook.com/groups/269657990457/permalink/10150513278600458/
You can see that the official LOTS Facebook page has received over 450,000 LIKEs. If you have not added your LIKE yet, you can do so now.
www.facebook.com/LegendoftheSeeker
With this large an audience, it seems like someone is missing out on a real opportunity to make some money. ABC Studios, that could still be you. Think about it.
People interested in learning more about what other projects fans are organizing in support of the show should check out SaveOurSeeker.com, which is the unofficial headquarters for the fan campaign.
www.saveourseeker.com/
www.sf-fandom.com/2012/10/29/dear-abc-studios-its-time-for-legend-of-the-seeker/
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