Gone But Not Forgotten With A Little Organization And A Lot Of Persistence, Viewers Can Resurrect Shows

For months, “Christy,” a CBS family drama, lingered in limbo, existing in that peculiar network netherworld reserved for programs excluded from the nightly line-up of shows, but not yet slated for the cancellation ax. Although the producers had 11 new episodes of the hourlong drama starring Kellie Martin and Tyne Daly ready to air, no one seemed sure when, if ever, those shows would be seen.

But fans of the rural drama refused to let their favorite show quietly fade away. They made telephone calls. They wrote and faxed letters. They e-mailed network executives. And they took out an advertisement in several daily newspapers last month: “Whatever happened to ‘Christy’? That’s a question you should ask CBS.”

Apparently enough people asked CBS that question for the network to announce last week that “Christy” would return April 15 - and network executives credited fans for saving the show.

“The return of ‘Christy’ is a tribute to the loyalty and support of the show’s viewers,” said Bill Allen, president of MTM Television. “They wrote and called CBS in record numbers, and the network responded.”

It’s the television fans’ version of fighting city hall. Take their favorite show off the air, and they toss aside their remotes and reach for the telephones or paper and pen. Or, as with ABC’s “My So-Called Life,” they hop on the information superhighway to rally the likeminded on the Internet and online services such as Compuserve, Prodigy and America Online. Sometimes their efforts succeed, as with “Christy”; other times they are less successful. But increasingly, television fans won’t let their shows go down without a fight.

“For a lot of years the networks were viewed as this great, almighty universe where the only common people who counted were those mysterious Nielsen families,” said Michael G. Kolwaller, a free-lance writer and television analyst in Los Angeles. “Now people who watch TV - and that means the majority of us - have really found their voices and their power in helping the networks decide what’s on the air and off the air.

The success of the campaign to bring back “Christy” may be a boost for fans of “My So-Called Life,” the acclaimed ABC drama starring Claire Danes. Although the show drew about 10 million viewers weekly, its ranking was 106th out of 127 shows.

During an America Online forum in January, ABC Entertainment President Ted Harbert wrote, “One of the unfortunate things about my job is that even though there are 10 million ‘My So-Called Life’ fans out there, the brutally competitive nature of my business requires that I try to put on shows that more people will watch.”

But even before the show was placed on hiatus last month, support for it was building. A group called “Operation Life Support” on America Online raised money for two full-page advertisements on the program’s behalf in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. And while ABC officials decide the show’s fate, MTV, the music video cable network, announced this week it has picked up the rights to all 19 episodes of the show. The program will air weeknights at 7 for a month starting Monday.

“Everybody here loves the show and our audience loves the show,” said Joe Davola, MTV’s senior vice president of original programming told the New York Daily News. “Maybe we can raise the awareness.”

Raising awareness of television shows they consider worthwhile is the goal of Viewers for Quality Television. The Virginia-based group is involved in campaigns to save “My So-Called Life,” the NBC police drama “Homicide,” the Fox family drama “Party of Five” and the CBS crime drama “Under Suspicion.”

Yet while she encourages viewers to support their favorite programs, VQT founder and president Dorothy Swanson believes too many campaigns for too many shows can undermine overall effectiveness.

“The problem occurs when it’s overdone. If you have a campaign for every show that comes down the pike, I think people get tired of it,” she said.

“Christy” is not the only example of fan support resurrecting a dormant program. The most famous example came in 1983 when “Cagney and Lacey,” the CBS police drama starring Tyne Daly and Meg Foster (later replaced by Sharon Gless), was canceled after a lackluster debut season. Loyal viewers flooded the network with calls and letters, and the ensuing hubbub increased viewership during summer reruns. In a virtually unprecedented move, CBS brought the show back in 1984, as advertisements for the program trumpeted, “You Want Them! You’ve Got Them!”

The acclaimed drama ran for four more years, and garnered several Emmy awards.

Other shows that benefited from viewer campaigns include “Hill Street Blues,” “St. Elsewhere” and “China Beach.”

Of course, even the best orchestrated campaigns may still fail to turn the heads of network executives. Both critics and fans have rallied without success to save such shows as “Brooklyn Bridge,” “I’ll Fly Away” Likewise, and “Homefront.”

Television fans, Swanson said, are “tired of being represented by nameless, faceless Nielsen people who may not have the same taste as they do.” And, she added, as organized efforts to save some beloved television programs increase, viewers should not be discouraged if their favorite shows are canceled.

“I don’t think anybody is under the illusion that they have the power. I think they want to assert power, and make their voices heard. So when a campaign fails, you don’t just say, ‘Oh well, I tried, I’m never going to do that again,’ ” she said. “People write one letter, it doesn’t get a result, and they become passive again. You can’t do that. That’s how we end up with the television that we do.”

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Saving your shows from TV death You can write the network programmers on your own, or join the campaigns spearheaded by Viewers for Quality Television and TV Guide. Here’s where to get in touch: ABC Entertainment President Ted Harbert, 2040 Avenue of the Stars, Seventh floor, Century City, CA 90067. CBS Entertainment President Peter Tortorici, 7800 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036. Fox Entertainment President John Matoian, Box 900, Beverly Hills, CA 90213. NBC Entertainment President Warren Littlefield, 3000 W. Alameda, Burbank, CA 91523. Viewers for Quality Television, P.O. Box 195, Fairfax Station, VA 22039. (A taxdeductible donation brings you 10 issues of The Viewer, a 24-page newsletter in which VQT members share comments about television, hear from industry executives and vote to endorse programs.) Fax for VQT information at (703) 425-8143. VQT forum also available online, on CompuServe (Go TVZONE); e-mail to 73072.1643(at)compuserve.com. TV Guide’s Save Our Shows campaign, P.O. Box 4822, New York, NY 10185-4822. Or fax your feelings about the four chosen series to (212) 852-7740. E-Mail response to saveourshows(at)delphi.com. Or call (900) 407-5577 at 95 cents a minute. Responses taken through Friday. -Diane Werts