Wednesday, December 19, 2007

All good things...

Well, we just witnessed what could be the last episode of Journeyman. If so, the show certainly went out with a bang. I want to thank Kevin Falls, and of course the amazing cast, crew, writers, producers, directors, and cinematographers who brought this short lived favorite to life. This last episode typified what the series was all about.

We love you, Journeyman, and if this is the end, then it was a great ride that will always be a part of us.

Now just a few notes:

I'm a bit behind on updating the donations list, so hang in there. I will get each and every one of you on the list if you've donated, and if you see a mistake or your name is still missing and you donated before the "updated" time listed, just e-mail me and let me know.

I'm still working on placing online orders as well as shipping out my own bulk packages, and as of this moment around 400 total boxes of Rice-A-Roni have shipped, and I will be sending more soon. I've received a much bigger response than I ever could have imagined (over $1,000 donated), and it's a testament to how much this show is loved.

Another important note - I've received a TON of e-mail since I started this blog and the Save Journeyman website (http://SaveJourneyman.funurl.com), and there are still a lot of e-mails I haven't been able to reply to. Please know that I've read every single message, and a lot of your ideas and suggestions have either been implemented already, are under consideration, or are in the works. If I haven't replied to you and you still need an answer on something, or if you have an urgent issue to address, by all means either reply to this post or send me another e-mail re-stating your comment or question. Believe me, your support and suggestions have been great, and even if I haven't replied to you I am not by any means ignoring you.

Thanks for all your help, and we're not ready to give up. Even as the Rice-A-Roni mailings will eventually wind down, there are still things we can do to promote Journeyman. While it's probably a long shot at this point, so have many things in history been a long shot. There's still a fight to be had, though.

I will be updating again soon as to the top things you can do (besides Rice-A-Roni) to help. Keep in mind that a long term, sustained "attack" that can't be ignored is the only way this will work. You need to keep writing, keep calling, keep e-mailing, etc. The names of key people to write to are scattered throughout this blog - just read through some of my previous entries for addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses of those people that need to hear from you.

Don't forget that shows changing networks isn't unprecedented, so FOX may need to hear from us soon. They are the ones that produce the show, so it wouldn't be out of the question for them to pick up Journeyman if NBC relinquishes the rights to it. Again, a long shot, but you never know.

It's not any one fan doing a lot that will result in success, it's lots of us doing the little things, so hang in there, and stay tuned to the blog here and the other Save Journeyman sites on the web for news and updates.

Thanks again, Journeyman fans!

43 comments:

Anonymous said...

How about getting donations to put up a full page ad in the New York Times that points people at both the online petition as well as the rice-a-roni campaign. Doing so would have two benefits, A. publicity for the campaign, and B. more publicity for the show itself (which always seemed to be lacking imnsho). I'd definitely be willing to kick down some loot for this if it sounds like a worthwhile idea...

Cheers!,

--
Carl

Anonymous said...

Thanks for all your hard work with this! let me know if you want me to help buy and ship - I dont mind, really! You can just shoot me a paypal for whatever you need help spending and I will get right on it!! :)

I am feeling blue tonight. Like my dog died or something....

Anonymous said...

Carl - not a bad idea. I looked at their rates a bit - they vary by section, but I think it would cost about $1000 for a full page ad in the Sunday National. If you're gonna do it, do it right. Right?

jacks12 said...

great idea to put something in the paper and if you are goingto do it i think you should post it in as many papers as possible.

One thing that might help is that nbc.com is now showing all episodes online on the journeyman page so anyone who wants to help but has never seen the show.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Really, this show deserves an award. It is every bit if not better than Battlestar Galactica is. I still can't comprehend that a show this good is ending. much lesser shows have been given a second season. Unbelievable, really.

Anonymous said...

I have already donated but if we are going to do an add I would consider donating a bit more to help with this. I think it's a great idea. This is a great show and I don't want it to fall by the waste side like so many do.

Anonymous said...

If we can get 100 people to donate $1000 - or better yet 1000 to donate $1 we could do it, Carl, you want to organize this?

Rabbitt said...

Honestly, I think we should be piggy backing off of someone else's campaign. Having these splintered groups doesn't help the cause any (e.g., there are actually /two/ separate petitions going on to save the show!) I wouldn't mind helping someone who is already running a campaign start up a NYT Ad project, but I definitely wouldn't want to set up a new site, and start from scratch. It would be great if we could even find a way to combine all these groups....

--
Carl

Anonymous said...

I think if we try to do too many campaigns, everyone will be confused and we wont make as much of an impact. People on the NBC boards are talking about everyone downloading an episode on the same day from Amazon because NBC is partners with Amazon... What does everyone think of that?

Rabbitt said...

@Amy: The whole point of doing a New York Times ad is to bring more attention to the the other campaigns (i.e., the petition(s) , and the Rice-A-Roni campaign).

Raising the level of public awareness for both is a good thing and, while it might detract initially from the rice-a-roni campaign, in the end, IMHO, it would prove a far greater benefit to all the campaigns.

On the topic of campaigns in general, I would be more worried about the already splintered efforts to save the show. If people really want to do good for the effort, they would work to combine these disparate groups.

Having multiple campaigns running under the guise of one larger entity allows for co-ordinated efforts and is completely doable without causing confusion. Running multiple campaigns without a unified organization would (and does) cause confusion however (which is what we have now with the 2 different petitions running, and the multiple "save journeyman" websites).

In closing, as I mentioned before, if someone with a preexisting infrastructure (i.e., website, userbase, donation account, etc) wishes to put energy towards this endeavor, I'd be more than willing to help push it along.

Cheers!,

--
Carl

Anonymous said...

I understand what the ad is for, but if people have already donated money or arent sure what to donate money to- the ad or rice a roni- it could get confusing. I do agree there should be awareness of the campaigns beyond just the internet, if that can done.

As long as all the savejourneyman sites are promoting the same cause such as Rice A Roni and writing to the execs, I think the message gets across to the network.

Anonymous said...

I think the ad is a good idea because I know about 10 people who didn't have a clue the show wouldn't be back, possibly. With my word of mouth to them, they have gotten on and donated what they can. Think of what an ad in NYC could do if people don't realize the show is on the verge of cancellation.

I also agee with Amy that as long as all site are promoting the same campagin then we should be okay! I for one am spreading the word as much as I can.

Anonymous said...

Would be great if we could maybe chat about this tonight, so we can all focus our efforts are coordinated and have the most impact. I was planning to try and schedule a chat on the NBC board tonight at 9PM for those who had expressed interest in the campaign going forward.

Seems we have to consider our target market very carefully if we want to spend for an expensive ad. I think the biggest impact of a New York Times ad is that it perhaps will make other news outlets that such an ad ran, but it may not. So if we were to do an ad, we may want to also focus efforts on making sure that the fact that the ad ran will be covered elsewhere.

Other ad venue options are LA Times, Hollywood Reporter. Don't know if that would hit more of our target market.

Anonymous said...

I would love to get on to discuss but I do have other plans tonight and can't make it but I am with the majority. Doing 2 ads might be too expensive but it is a good idea. You would hope if the fans run the ad news outlets would do a story on it. If we did another ad I would think SF would be the place considering Rice a Roni and where the show takes place.

Anonymous said...

I think the appeal of the NYT add is that the paper is just so huge - people buy it all over the country. the biggest circulation being the sunday national paper.

Chat is good idea - 9pm Eastern might be tricky for me, but 9 central or later would work great, I will try my best to be there whatever time is decided though.

I agree that one big coordinated effort will make more of an impact - but I think if fans across the board are mailing something - whether it is rice a roni, broken watches, letters from the future, - whatever - SOMETHING physical being delivered to NBC will have more of an impact than an email. Also - having a couple things going may attract more people. some may not have the interest to send rice a roni, but might not mind mailing their broken watch, or printing up and mailing a dozen postcards.

Regardless of what is decided it would be fantastic to have one central location here on the web for people to post what they mailed so we can have that all in one place.

Anonymous said...

I also wouldnt be able to make a 9pm eastern chat... can anyone do it earlier like... 6 pm est? or is that too soon?? Or maybe like 6 or 7 pm eastern tomorrow so we have more time to let people know about it?

Anonymous said...

Post cards are a great idea. they are cheaper to mail as well. Think I might be able to print a few off at work and get them mailed off!

Anonymous said...

I can be flexible with times either tonight or tomorrow night.

Options: 9PM tonight
7 PM tomorrow (is this too earlier for people on the left coast?
9 PM tomorrow
10 PM tomorrow

Anonymous said...

No reason to leave out 8PM tomorrow as an option. ;)

Rabbitt said...

Keep in mind - the NYT is a /national/ newspaper - that's the reason the Mozilla team chose it for their full page Firefox ad. The point about doing an ad is that it will /drive/ the other campaigns and help them to flourish - besides having the added benefit of getting national news attention, and in particular, the attention of the Executives at NBC, Fox, etc. I think that, while it's really important to do the rice-a-roni campaign, doing an Ad placement will garner a lot more support (and more importantly, /visibility/) for /all/ the campaigns and really drive home our desire to see the show continue.

p.s. I could be around for a 9pm (EST) meetup tonight.

Cheers!,

--
Carl

Anonymous said...

Plus as a general rule, I think the NYT readers are intelligent or at least they think they are! lol jk. But this type of show is going to be appreciated more by an intelligent audience than say Jackass.

on the postcards - someone somewhere (sorry dont remember who) mentioned just printing the journeyman logo on a postcard. Another idea would be printing the card like it was the card that announced the winner at an awards show "and the Oscar for best writing in a drama series goes to JOURNEYMAN". While the bulk idea of RAR is great, a variety of mailed things will get attention too - and it allows each mailer to add their own personality

Anonymous said...

I just printed and mailed 20 post card with the JM logo on it saying the devoted fans don't want to see the show go by the waste side and to enjoy the rice-a-roni because more in on the way. If anyone has ideas for other postcards please email the ideas to me.
bond_karla@hotmail.com

Anonymous said...

I am stil gathering the best times for everyone. So far tomorrow night seems better, but I'll probably check in there around 9PM since I already posted it and can't edit your posts over there. I will post as soon as I know.

The key people to have at the chat are the ones who have been running the campaign thus far, the person who runs this campaign, the person or people who run savejourneyman.net and the person who has been heading the efforts at the NBC boards (I've been in touch with her). I'm just tryinig to facilitate, so to speak ,right now. A number of people have contacted me on the NBC board wanting to do something.

Anonymous said...

I live in SF and thought that maybe postcards of SF would be good to send in??? I wouldnt be able to get postcards of SF to anyone else but I found this site of people want to print them out???? http://www.cafepress.com/sfgreetingcards/448776

Anonymous said...

I like the idea of an ad, and NYT would definitely be the best choice.

I am wondering if we could get support from rice a roni as a potential future advertiser if they know about the rice a roni campaign.

Anonymous said...

Time it was, and what a time it was . . . !

Here's something we can all do to aid Journeyman's fate. With the writer's strike still going on, get your friends to watch the Journeyman episodes on NBC.com.

Why? Online viewing has ads connected to the episode. NBC makes money on the viewing.

Can you imagine the making Journeyman a web phenomenon? It gives NBC (or any other network interested in picking Journeyman) a reason to invest another season of the show!

You may say, I bought it on iTunes/Amazon. If I recall correctly, 20th Century Fox is the production company behind Journeyman, so the profits of episodes purchased will go to FOX, not NBC.

Here's a thought, watch Journeyman online Monday nights at 10pm!

Anonymous said...

The chat will be tomorrow. I will be there at 9 PM eastern tonight too.

I love the idea of SF postcards. Really catchy.

Anonymous said...

NBC journeyman chat feature is down. If you would like to join the yahoo chat, PM me on the NBC boards. The moderator knows about the chat problem.

Anonymous said...

Any ideas for a back up chat place tomorrow?? Looks like NBC's gabby chat is down a lot.

Anonymous said...

I will try to get some SF post cards printed and sent this weekend. Anyone have any wording they would like me to put on them please email me.
bond_karla@hotmail.com

Anonymous said...

Alright, I have secured an alternate place for a chat tomorrow night. If held there, the chat would have to remain small - which I think is good at first anyway. The point of the chat, just like rabbit said is that we all work towards the same efforts and work with the established sites.

If there is suddenly a lot of interest in the chat for tomorrow night, then we would have to move to a messenger chat (google or yahoo or one of the universal chat programs).

For those who have expressed interest here...There are simple instructions to get into the chat. It won't be available to the public and will include one of the already ongoing campaigns. Amy I have your contact info on the NBC boards I believe. Jo, can you please contact me on the NBC boards and I will let you know how to get into the chat.

I will report back here with a report of the chat.

Anonymous said...

Sorry that last post was so long.

Just wanted to say I'm totally behind the efforts to get the NYT ad.

Rabbitt said...

Sorry I wasn't able to make the meeting last night - ended up at the mall gift shopping later than I anticipated. Anyway, I'll sign up for a NBC forum account later so I can attend the chat session tonight - unless you feel like shooting me the info for the meeting via IM or email:

MSN: rabbitt@xaraya.com
Jabber: rabbitt@jabber.tranquillo.net
AIM: u5rabbitt
YIM: u5rabbitt

email: rabbitt@gmail.com

Cheers!,

--
Carl

Rabbitt said...

Oh - one other thing, why don't we make use the the forum over on journeymanfansite.com ? It would go a ways towards unifying the movement to make use of another team's resources that are already available.. :-)

Cheers!,

--
Carl

Anonymous said...

Do you know if they every said what newspaper Dan works for in SF? I am trying to do postcards and thought it would be cool to put the newspaper on the front but for the life of me I don't remember they saying the name or can't remember.

Rabbitt said...

@karlab: the San Francisco Register.

Anonymous said...

Thanks. Since it's a fictional newspaper not sure what I will use. I was hoping they used the Chronicle. Thanks for the info though.

Anonymous said...

They cancel one of the best shows every yet we are left with "Tyra", "Battle of the Choirs", and various other crap? I have lost all hope in humanity.

DS, Atlanta

Chungyen Chang said...

I've been watching Journeyman since it first began, but not on TV. I've been watching every episode through NBC.com.

The idea is simple: to get the attention of higher-ups, we need to get as many people as possible to stream full episodes of Journeyman. With several hundred to thousands of concurrent connections going at the same time, we can effectively drain their bandwidth. In doing so, we will force them to see how much interest Journeyman really has.

You don't even have to watch the episode. All you have to do is turn it on, set the volume off, and select a new episode every 42 minutes. It's simple, effective, and doesn't require you to write a letter or send boxes of rice which, for all you know, may never actually reach the executives at NBC.

So what are you waiting for? Get your friends to watch. Watch the first season over again. If you've got cable or a T1, you can even stream multiple episodes at a time.

http://www.nbc.com/Journeyman/video/episodes.shtml

Rabbitt said...

@chungyen:

I don't necessarily think causing a Denial of Service is the right way to go - not that I don't support the idea of getting as many people watching the show as possible. But going so far as to watch the season over and over only to saturate their bandwidth is tantamount to performing a DoS attack and likely wouldn't put the campaigns in good favor with the studio.

I would suggest convinging people to watch the full season once, then stop.

Besides, it's not like they wouldn't know when people are repeating episodes anyway - they /do/ get your IP address each time you view a show (or browse the site in general). It wouldn't be that difficult for them to start filtering the packets of the those who start to repeat.

Again, while on the one hand I agree that people should watch the shows - I do /not/ agree with the idea of performing a Denial of Service to force them to do what we want.

Cheers!,

--
Carl

Anonymous said...

Carl, I will be emailing you soon with info on how to get into the chat.

The chat won't be on the nbc site because their chat program is way too unreliable and has been down too much this week.

Chungyen Chang said...

Carl,

Using a free service continually, a legal process, is completely different from DDoS, an illegal one. Yes, they may be similar in nature, but we are not taking over computers or abusing exploits in a system.