So, what are we going to do??

[dontcallmesurely]

OK, we've all heard the news. We're all walking around with our heads down, tasting the sad, crying in the shower, and shouting out long strings of bleeped out expletives. But what's our next move?

I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to give up without a fight. But I'm also looking at this realistically. We can't keep fighting like this every year, and the ratings just aren't getting any better. So what do we want? Do we want to campaign to other networks and beg them to take it? Or do we want to keep fighting Fox?

The way I see it, we have two options:

1. We campaign to other networks to try and get them to take over the show, or
2. We campaign to Fox and ask them to rescind the episode reduction so that AD can finish out its storyline and go out with style.

Or we could do both.

Right now, I'm really rather favoring option #2. Yes, I'd love to see the show go on and on for years. But realistically speaking, it's probably not going to happen. AD is like that bright shining star that burns bright and hit and then burns out too soon. It's a show that is quite frankly too smart for most people. I'd rather see it go out well than to limp to an ending. And frankly, having HBO take AD would scare me. I think they'd actually try to make things too edgy, not as subtle as they are now with the network censors hanging over their heads. Plus we'd only get a measly 10 episodes every other year or so. I'm not willing to accept those things. I want the show to end with a bang, to end so brilliantly that its loss will leave a black hole in the TV universe. (Yeah, OK, I was trying to be dramatic there. It got away from me.)

So I'd like to campaign to get the episode order re-upped back to 22, with the understanding that the writers would use it to tie up the story. We could also campaign to other networks, on the likelihood that Fox won't go along with that request, but I hold no illusions of long-term runs on any other networks.

That said, I have an idea. As you know, we are not the only ones who were screwed over by Fox today. An awful lot of ex-Alias fans (supporters of Michael Vartan) were also screwed over. These people just finished getting screwed by ABC, when Alias killed of MV's character, and many of them were very excited about MV's upcoming guest appearance on Kitchen Confidential. They were all planning to watch the show and up the ratings. For weeks, they've been thanking Fox for giving them their MV fix. And now that's been ripped away from them. Who knows iof the episode will ever even air. The article suggested that the remaining episodes would air in December, but they didn't even know for sure. They're going to be furious.

So why don't we join forces with them? We agree to sign petitions, write letters, postcards, and e-mails to ABC asking that MV's character be brought back somehow, and to Fox asking that the episode of KC with MV be allowed to air. In return, we would ask them to sign petitions, write postcards, letters, and e-mails to Fox asking them to increase the episode order back to 22 so the show can finish the storylines, and to NBC, HBO and other networks (FX? WB? UPN?) asking them to consider buying out the rights to the show if Fox doesn't re-up the order or renew the show. We could also, if that wasn't enough incentive for them, try to campaign to have MV appear on an episode of AD, although of course, we couldn't promise it would happen. But if it did happen, well, it'd be a win-win situation for us... they'd get to see MV, we'd get to have the added boost in the ratings from them.

I have a feeling that this time the fight is going to be harder, and that we might have to face some very hard truths here about the future of the funniest comedy on TV. I think if we can get some allies in this (my friend, an ex-Alias fan who quit watching over MV assures me that they are an extremely loyal bunch and they're used to fighting), we may have a chance to win this.

Save AD!!!!!!!!!!

[Chelpo]

I like option #2 as well. A show this good deserves a proper ending and we probably have a better shot at getting that than getting another season or another network.