December 28, 2006: Say Hello to my Rantings:
Okay so welcome to the Poolhouse, sorry I co-opted the name from the Fox boards old poolhouse that was run by Buzz Rodell before the poolhouse was torn down and never replaced.
Anyway, I needed a place to put all of my various and sundry rants about the OC, mostly because I'm just so bent out of shape at the Fox Network because it appears that for all intents and purposes they intend to pull the plug on our Show. Well I'll tell you now I don't (as you may have noticed from my rants) intend to go silently. I would like to use this Blog to encourage others to not go silently. Rant away, email everyone you can think of to SAVE THE OC, Fox, the CW Network, although I must say I'm leaning more towards the CW Network because I no longer trust Fox with my show.
No news is not good news. There was a SAVE THE OC Campaign today which at it's conclusion had upwards of 250,000 votes to SAVE THE OC on it, well as a friend of mine has stated, how many votes is enough Fox? I don't believe they ever intend to answer the questions. To that end I've have posted many of my own thoughts and letters regarding the current state of the OC. Feel free to peruse them, ask questions and email others to your hears content. Why not, I certainly do! Many of these letters have been sent to Fox and/or posted on there boards, I've yet to receive a response.
I still have a few questions of my own and so I've taken my thoughts elsewhere, directly to the CW network.
So this is for you guys, The CW Network has a blog and a poll, to date 88% in favor of moving the show, vote as often as you like and post a comment!
Rumormill: Should the OC move to the CW Network
Check it out: It's a real blog site and poll by Tribune and the CW Nework:
http://blogs.trb.com/network/cwsource/2006/12/rumorville_the_oc_coming_to_th_1.html
leave a comment
Then
http://cw11.trb.com/entertainment/network/stv-cwsource-poll-theoc,0,3469433,post.poll
Vote as many times as you want.
I'm not sure what it means, just that the sites are real, they're posted by
the Tribune which owns the CW Network (Tribune Media Services, they own
newspapers).
So it's worth a shot since it's looking like Fox is going to bail on the
show.
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satcnewsletter@tribune.com
(I sent the following letter, please send one yourself!)
Dear Sir/Madam:
Oh my, oh my, is the CW Network really contemplating picking up the OC, as the CW Network Blog and Poll seem to indicate? That's the most wonderful news I think I have ever heard. I'm a big fan of your network and I'm apparently not in your target market, but you had me at Smallville! I became addicted to Smallville while looking for something at watch on Sunday nights a few years back, there were 57 channels and nothing on. Anyway the CW Network made the wise decision to replay their young shows on Sundays at 5 and
That said, my favorite show in the whole world, is THE OC. When THE OC premiered I began watching all of Fox's other shows, Bones, House, American Idol, I had never seen the first season of American Idol, but watched it when THE OC premiered while waiting for THE OC to come on. If THE OC is cancelled by Fox I will no longer watch the FOX Network at all. Fox has completely and thoroughly mismanaged THE OC for many seasons now and could stand to learn a thing or two about promoting and supporting a show from the CW Network. Your network
knows how it's done. Apparently the only shows Fox is interested in are: House, Bones and Standoff and that they run them several times each week. They cancel new shows right off the bat without giving them a chance to gain an audience. I really don't have anything positive to say about the Fox Network. Fox shuts down everything for baseball while all the other shows are premiering for the season. They lose people right out of the gate, people make their viewing decisions in the beginning of the season.
Fox apparently no longer cares about the OC and has never been successful in shoring up the OC with an appropriate lead-in for the OC. In my opinion The OC is just no longer a good fit for Fox. The CW Network is the perfect fit almost any of the shows the CW currently has on it's network fit with THE OC. I say do it, do it now, because the fans of the OC are unshakeable and we will support the network that carries our favorite show, that's why we, the fans, have chosen to contact the CW Network to plead our cause to you directly. Go ahead, make my day, allow me the chance to say, "Welcome to the CW......Switch!"
Thank you in advance for your time and consideration in this matter.
Cathy Tallarico
Michael,
I've got to tell you, you're seriously my hero! Did you see where the Tribune/The CW Network has an actual Blog and Poll site set up. They're kind of feeling out the situation to see if they should pick up the OC. You rocked Michael, I owe you a world of thanks as do many other fans of the OC. Your famous on the Fox boards now, everyones talking about how Ausiello says there's no chance for the OC on Fox, but maybe another network! So from me and many others we bow to the master who has started the ball rolling. Keep up the good work and the great column, you da man! Thanks!
Cathy Tallarico
This was sent on November 2, 2006 to:
Fox Network
Attention: Peter Ligouri
CC: Josh Schwarz
Subject: The OC
Dear Mr. Liguori:
To begin with I have a question, did anyone on your Management Staff ever take a Marketing Course? Color me crazy, because it would seem to me that they did not. I have to tell you that you and your staff have done an absolutely abysmal job of promoting and/or supporting the OC.
Where to begin to point out the where you went wrong:
First and foremost you put the OC back on the air in November; most of the other shows began in September when most television viewers make their viewing selections. Then you left it on Thursday night in the same time slot as Grey’s Anatomy and CSI. (Grey’s has blown you out of the water in the promotion department; they played back to back episodes during the summer. Grey's Anatomy spent all summer taking ownership of the timeslot in a supreme act of one-upmanship. Where was the OC during this time? Any promotion going on? Any repeats being shown? Ah, yah, no. Nothing, nada, zip. No effort at all.
Then your next big promotional effort is to move the OC to Wednesday for one night to see how it does in a lame attempt to drum up ratings, but when did you advertise it, during the OC, are you kidding me, I’m already watching, I’m not the person you have to tell about the move. It’s the people who aren’t watching you need to inform. So your big plan is move the OC to Wednesday, for one night, up against the Final Episode of Lost before it goes on hiatus until January and up against One Tree Hill, not that One Tree Hill is competition for the OC. The OC really has a different audience then One Tree Hill, a lot of the OC’s audience is older than that of One Tree Hill. Your best bet would have been if you had moved the OC to Wednesday at 8 pm or 10 pm, you may have gotten back some of the teeny bops and tweens that stopped watching when you killed off Marissa and began watching One Tree Hill IN SEPTEMBER, when it came back on. This isn’t rocket science I’m discussing here; it’s marketing, what’s wrong with you people? Can you answer me that?
So your brilliant plan was to move the OC to Wednesday with no promotion and then find that it’s ratings didn’t skyrocket, amazingly enough, based upon your indifference, and then move it back to Thursday to flounder. You’ve cancelled so many shows from your lineup this season, you’re currently showing back to back episodes of House and Bones over and over again, great plan. Why don’t you move House, Prison Break or Bones to Thursday night with no lead-in, which is what you’ve done to the OC? No lead-in ever, certainly not one that’s a good lead-in for that type of show. It’s pathetic what you’ve done to a really good show. Granted the show floundered in Seasons 2 and 3, but Season 4 is amazing. The writing and acting is just stellar. The OC is back in spades, it’s new, fresh and exciting, and the possibilities are endless. But you, Fox, you’re just going to go with the 16 episodes and just kill if off, aren’t you? Well as a really big fan of this show, I’m extremely disappointed and offended. The fans that are watching right now are rock solid and we’re not going anywhere. The OC is gaining fans on a daily basis, returnees and new, now that the buzz is back about the show. We’re here Fox, so tell me where are you? What are you going to do to keep me watching your network, cause I’m telling you now, if you don’t come through for me, I won’t come through for you. I promise you I will no longer watch your network if you cancel this show. WE WANT MORE – 24, NOT 16 EPISODES. It’s so annoying to always have to be concerned about what you’re going to do to my show, because as a network your business decisions are not to be trusted.
Here’s an idea, The OC is owned by the Warner Bros. Why not move the show to CW Network, who might appreciate its value, since it seems Fox doesn’t anymore? I think it’s the perfect plan, especially if you don’t intend to do anything to save the OC. Perhaps the CW Network might be able to do something more productive with it, like maybe put it on before or after One Tree Hill, get more bang for the buck if you will, since it seems that you are unwilling or unable to do so. You’ve spent much of the last four years dragging the show all over the place, more concerned about squeezing every drop of money out of your cash cow that you lost sight of the quality of the show. Well the quality is back now, where’s the network support? I’m not really feeling the love.
Of course, this is just my opinion, perhaps I’m wrong, if so, please feel free to point out where I err in my views.
Cathy
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Letter sent November 2nd to FOX/JOSH:Cathy pummels through the 5 Stages of grief over the summer and comes out on the other side of the OC, the side that really, really wants it to stay on the air, so I though I’d re-share with fans/Josh and Fox all of the stages which coincided with my various and sundry letters/rants to Fox. Come on all you fans of the show don’t let it happen, don’t let it get cancelled, do your part and do it now! I CAN’T HEAR YOU!!!!!!!!!!! Now is the time to act, we're out of time!
Hmmm, here have a piece, cause I’ve got to tell you this is the tastiest crow I’ve ever eaten, nice an crispy just how I like it, if I have to eat it.
What can say? I’m frankly shocked. I didn’t think you could do it, but you did. I’ve seen the first two episodes and quite honestly I stand in awe of the brilliance of the writing and the acting. It’s intense, raw, emotional, dramatic, poignant, funny and quirky where it needs be so that we don’t all fall over into the abyss.
Am I happy that Marissa is dead, no, I loved Ryan and Marissa but I never got what I wanted from that coupling. For those who want her back, it’s done, she’s dead on the show, and they can’t bring her back, that’s an effort in futility. We all need to move on. The reason I watch the show is because as I’ve said before, I wanted to find out what happened to the kid from
Right now I understand that you’re trying to correct where the show went wrong, and pull it back on track. It was always a show about Ryan and the Cohen’s and somehow it started to turn into the Marissa show, which if I’m honest, was annoying because she was written horribly. To make matters worse no one ever liked the new characters, it seemed that the writers forgot that to be acceptable, the characters had to have some kind of redeeming quality that made us like them. They just didn’t. Now at least with
In other words, I have great hope for my favorite show of all time again. I didn’t think it was possible, but it appears I was wrong; apparently there are many facets to the diamond that I like to call the OC.
So I have to say Josh, I loved it, didn’t think you could get me to say that, but you did and I’m impressed. Kudos, Sir! Bring it, I’m ready.
THIS PARTS FOR FOX:
Okay, this just in again, I’m hearing rumors that the OC is on the block for cancellation again and may not even make it through November, now that just seriously doesn’t float my boat. FOX you’re moving it so give it a chance, not one showing, we waited for November, now you wait awhile, suck it up. Give it chance it’s not like you’ve gone out of your way to promote the show at all. You did nothing over the entire summer, nothing at all. I don’t think that’s the way it works, you want fans back, you have do something to draw them back. You do nothing and expect immediate results. That’s laughable and quite frankly a travesty. Are you standing on your heads and advertising everywhere that you're moving the OC again. This is such a case of poor business and complete and utter disrespect for the fans of the show. However I would like to reiterat my original promise to, if you cancel The OC, I will cancel all of the Fox shows I currently watch and no longer support your network in any fashion as stated in my previous emails.
So while this letter is meant for Josh and Fox it also is for serious fans of the show to request that they put their need to complain about the show to better use and support the show. Show up for it, wherever it ends up and email fox at askfox@fox.com and tell them to: SAVE THE OC: WE WANT MORE=24 EPISODES!!!!!!!!
As ask those who feel the need to still complain to at least respect my right to my opinion and not to post there complaints under my message, take them elsewhere, I’m trying save my show, even it your not. I guess you’ll be happiest when the show is gone and the boards vanish as well. Where will your complaints go then?
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My September 2006 Letter
Fox Network
Attention: Peter Liguori
Network President
Reference: The OC
Subject: We Want More – 24
Dear Mr. Liguori:
I have a few questions to which I really would appreciate receiving an answer. What’s the game plan, why did you only order 16 episodes of the OC, when you’re fully aware that, that is when the storyline arcs, and all the storylines start coming together to merge and set up for the season finale. Your comment, “That we shouldn’t read to much into it”, is a bunch of horse manure. “A couple of things, One, we ordered 16 because we’re going to start the show November 2nd, after baseball”. That’s what you did the 2nd Season and you didn’t order 16 episodes, you ordered 22 and showed 24 episodes. You ordered 16 episodes so you could air something else, if you find something else to show once 16 episodes are over. So apparently the game plan is you don’t have a game plan.
You’ve commented that, “The O.C.’s ratings have been a bit challenged recently. I think the audience is loyal. Frankly, Thursday night has been a weak spot for us, and The O.C. has done well………last year we were up 30 percent in that
And another thing will stop with the audience being made up of 18-24 year olds, the only people I know who watch the show are all over 40 years of age, off the top of my head, at least 20 people. Hello, perhaps you’re targeting the wrong audience. We’re all obsessed. We love it. We’re angry about Marissa, but we love the Ryan. I think the show will be alright, as long as you don’t forget that Ryan’s the reason people started watching the show. It’s all about the kid from
I have said it before and I’ll say it again, because of the OC I now watch a lot of Fox’s programming, American Idol (which I will have you note, I started watching because I was already watching The OC, I had never watched Idol before) as well as Bones and House. I am aware that Fox is affiliated with the WB and I watch a lot of shows on that network as well, Smallville, Supernatural, and Everwood, etc. All of which occurred because I started watching The OC. Prior to that time period, I mainly watched ABC, NBC and CBS. IF you cancel The OC, I’m going to cancel Fox, I will no longer watch any programming by Fox or the WB. If you remove The OC from your programming roster, I will remove The Fox Network from my viewing roster, so that both will be removed from view, The OC and Fox, the loss of one for me will mean the loss of the other. Sorry but I’m a little upset with your Network. Please put my mind at rest by telling me that you intend to order at least 22 episodes of the OC this season.
What’s wrong with you? Why aren’t you showing reruns like crazy? Grey’s Anatomy is setting itself to take over Thursday night in spades. What’s wrong with you? They’re showing season 1 on Thursday night and Season 2 on Sunday. And I have to say I’m watching it. Thursday nights they are showing two hours in a row. Why aren’t you inundating everyone, everywhere with incessant celluloid images of the OC.? I get that when it first came on that it was some new kind of marketing strategy to pump it up. Make everyone miss The OC for its subsequent re-appearance in November. While this strategy may have worked in Season 1, it has failed you miserably in Seasons 2 and 3 as ratings have continuously dwindled. Suck up it, move on, change it up, and stuff the show down everyone’s throat. Do something, don’t just roll over and play dead. You’re playing with the Big Dogs now, learn something from them.
Show the re-runs on another night; attract/entice a new audience/additional viewers. This strategy worked for both Smallville and One Tree Hill. I never watched them at all in their respective time slots. However in the summer, both shows were run by the WB Network on Sundays, when nothing is on. And guess I watched and now I watch them all the time. GET OFF YOUR ASSES OVER THERE AT THE NETWORK AND DO SOMETHING!!!!!!
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My August 2006 Letter
Dear Josh,
I’d like to start out by saying that I am highly disappointed in your decision to kill/write Marissa (Mischa) off the show. For three years I have faithfully watched the OC, waiting in vain for a few happy moments between Ryan and Marissa. Never happened.
This is the thanks I get for acting in support of you and your show. For months there were rumors surrounding the show and its possible cancellation. So I emailed Fox relentlessly, day after day and I asked everyone on the boards to email Fox to make their displeasure known to the network. I advised Fox that should they decide to cancel the OC, I would cancel Fox at my house. If the OC was on the bubble, then Fox was on the Bubble. If Fox cancelled the OC, I would cancel Fox and no longer watch any programming by the Fox Network. I let them know that because of the OC I now watched many of the programs they aired, i.e., Bones and House. I hadn’t watched American Idol the first season, but began watching it while waiting for the OC to come on in its second season. I told them that I faithfully watched the show and that my dissatisfaction with the show was between you and I and that was because of the way you treated/wrote Ryan and Marissa.
Why did you do this? You wrote a love story, you had Ben sell to me and it went nowhere. Ever. What about this mythic connection that these two characters were supposed to have with one another? We believed in it, you made us. You do understand that it’s a Soap, right? The fans suffer through hell with the main couple, waiting and waiting for the magical moment when they get the payoff for all faith in the writers. It never happened. Everything was always awful, what’s wrong with you? The first love scene we get between Ryan and Marissa, is supposed to be romantic, it was horrible, all interspersed with scenes of her father being brutally beaten. It was nauseating. It’s a soap, you’re supposed throw the fans a bone. Did you not understand that the main couple of your show was Ryan and Marissa? Not Seth and Summer. If the show were about Seth and Summer, no one would have watched. If the core couples were a barbeque, Seth and Summer would be the side dishes and the main meal would be Ryan and Marissa. You owe the fans of the show a better explanation that we have been given. Not just I felt like it!
At first we all believed that you wrote her off because she wanted off. Now you come forward and tell us that it was your idea. I think fans of the show could learn to live with Mischa’s departure if it was Mischa’s idea. Doesn’t mean we would like it, but it would’ve been more palatable. However the knowledge that the fingerprints on the knife in my back are yours really isn’t acceptable. IF I tune in to see the OC in the fall, it will be because of Ben McKenzie, not you. You need to realize that if/when this show goes off, I would never watch anything you had anything to do with ever again. I don’t trust you, you led me down the garden path and it didn’t lead anywhere. You sold me a bill of goods, told me who to root for, and then haphazardly pulled the rug out from under my feet, without ever delivering anything. You need to fix this. I have no desire to see a show about Caitlyn (God save me, I can’t tolerate her) and
You’ve commented that in the Fourth Season you’re not going to care about ratings, you’re in it for the fans, that’s a crock, if you were in this for the fans at all, you would never have done this. Okay, you want to kill her off, you could have had them together at least once before she left and made it good, how about an "I love you", during the death scene, something, but you gave us nothing. What’s wrong with you? As Seth would say, “You’re such a Tool!” You’ve said that the show was originally about the Cohen’s and Ryan. I’m not an idiot, I realize that. Ben’s the reason I watch the show, not Mischa. If Ben had the left the show I wouldn’t watch it anymore, because without Ryan I wouldn’t care what happened to Marissa. I don’t watch the show for Marissa/Mischa. I watch the show for Ben/Ryan, from the start I wanted to know what happened to the kid from
I need a better explanation; none of the story lines between Marissa and Ryan were ever completed. They never spoke about sleeping together, between themselves or with their friends; you gave us nothing, for supporting your show. No discussion about Trey, Nothing. Why throw in the Volchok comment about Marissa to Ryan and have Ryan get all crazy, implying it’s because he’s still loves her and then do nothing with it. You constantly tortured fans by giving us these little glimmers of hope that went nowhere. You just flat out slapped the majority of the fans of your show in the face. I feel like you have absolutely no respect for your audience at all. What’s wrong with you?
I was so happy to find that maybe, just maybe in some way all of my efforts to support the continuation of the OC by Fox helped ensure the renewal of the series for a Fourth Season. I was ecstatic on the morning of May 18th to find that the OC had been renewed. My thanks for my trouble were that by evenings end, you had destroyed my love affair with Ryan and Marissa. All hope for a reunion between my favorite star-crossed lovers of all time was crushed making me wish I hadn’t gotten what I had asked for, the renewal of the OC. Woohoo, so what? What’s wrong with you? What did I do, except tune in every week faithfully since August of 2003 to see my favorite people on a weekly basis, no matter where or when the network had placed the show.
I’d really like an answer, I think I deserve one. And hey, thanks for nothing.
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My May 2006 Letter
DEAR FOX:
What happened, how, when, why am I hearing rumors of cancellation? What in the world are you thinking? What happened to you definitely moving the OC if ratings dropped. That was the plan when you moved it to Thursday night, remember? Was that statement just a lie? If it was, I am extremely unhappy with your network. You’ve let me down and I am very disappointed.
I turn in and have tuned in every week wherever or whenever you put the show on since August of 2003. Let’s face it; you’ve made it a constantly moving target. It’s my favorite show. I am not a kid; I am a 40 something married woman who during the course of the last 3 years has managed to make all of her friends addicted to the show. Sorry if I’m messing up your demographics, but it’s no lie.
I may at times become angry with Josh for the course of the story, but that’s because I am enamored of the Ryan and Marissa romance, always has been. That’s between me and Josh, Network Execs, get lost!!! Josh makes me crazy over Ryan and Marissa, I think he likes it, while Seth and Summer are very cute, they’re a side dish. I may be annoyed at the way the story is going at the moment and I may very well vent my anger, however, it has nothing to do with whether or not I watch the show. I have never been this addicted to a show in my life, I Tivo and tape it, just in case. Not to mention the great music promoted by the show. Because of the OC I now watch a lot of Fox’s programming, American Idol (which I will have you note, I started watching because I was already watching The OC, I had never watched Idol before) as well as Bones and House. I am aware that Fox is affiliated with the WB and I watch a lot of shows on that network as well, Smallville, Supernatural, and Everwood, etc. All of which occurred because I started watching The OC. Prior to that time period, I mainly watched ABC, NBC and CBS.
Now I’m hearing that the OC is on the bubble. Guess what, if the OC is on the bubble, Fox is on the bubble, if you cancel the OC, I’m going to cancel Fox, I will no longer watch any programming by Fox or the WB, if you pop my bubble, I’ll have to pop the Fox bubble at my house, so that both will go poof for me at the same time. The OC and Fox, the loss of one for me will mean the loss of the other. Sorry but I’m a little upset with your Network. Please put my mind at rest by telling me the OC is being renewed and please do so quickly
So I’m going to ask you once more, what’re you thinking? Don’t do it!
You, the Fox Network, swore up and down that if the OC didn’t do well on Thursday nights, you would move it back to Wednesdays, well do so. Put it back after American Idol and win back your damn audience. I have kept the faith, I have followed the show
through the many reshuffles and re-schedules that Fox has put it through. Move the show, what’s wrong with you. Move House to Thursdays at
