With pleasure. Here 'tis. Felicia ******************************************** Here it is, the new and improved post-cancellation edition. Suggestions, additions, and corrections welcome. For all you newcomers out there, this is a supplement to the background you've already been given by some of the other esteemed listmembers. I'm aware I didn't elucidate on the wishing crane project enough, but I was told that Diane had mentioned it recently, and I didn't have the most up-to-date information ;) Sorry. Felicia Bollin AriCon@aol.com Ravenette*Immortal Beloved*MBDtK ************************************** ***THE "FOREVER KNIGHT" SAVE OUR SHOW FAQ*** Version 2.1 June 8, 1996 Ladies and Gentlemen: "Forever Knight" is in trouble, and it needs your help NOW. "Forever Knight" is a television show which features the embattled 800-year old vampire Nick Knight (Geraint Wyn Davies), who fights crime in Toronto, Canada in an effort to atone for sins committed in his centuries as a vampire. Along with Dr. Natalie Lambert (Catherine Disher), he searches for a cure to bring him back from the land of the undead. Adding to the conflict is Lucien LaCroix (Nigel Bennett), Nick's vampire master, who seeks control over Nick's eternal soul. The series had just inked an unprecedented dual syndication and cable deal with USA Networks for the television season of Fall '95-Spring '96, where the episodes would be shown on both the USA cable channel and in local syndicated markets, with a window of mere days between them. On December 22, 1995, through information on the Internet, sources close to the show informed the fans that USA Networks had decided to cease all further involvement in the show: USA's financial support would be removed from the remaining unfilmed episodes of the season, and USA would not show any of the remaining episodes which were not funded by USA. This meant that the remainder of the current season would be seen *only* on local syndicated stations; and placed any further seasons of the show in immediate jeopardy. (This cancellation was confirmed officially by USA in an article in the "Hollywood Reporter"'s January 9, 1996 edition). The Friends of Forever Knight and other support groups across the country began to mobilize immediately. Goals: To convince TriStar Pictures that there is a market for this excellent, groundbreaking television series and that it should continue into a fourth season and beyond; and to bring the program's plight and that of its devoted fans everywhere to the attention of various media outlets, in hopes that the Knight may rise again. In the interim, the fans succeeded to a small degree: The third season of Forever Knight was completed and the last episode aired at the end of May, due in part to the fans combined with the intervention of foreign investors who requested the full complement of episodes to air abroad. We also helped to win a small victory for Forever Knight on the USA Networks front: the Sci-Fi Channel, a subsidiary of USA, has acquired the rights to all three seasons of Forever Knight and is in the process of airing repeats of the third season, with first and second season to come eventually. You can tune in on Mondays at 8pm and 12am Eastern time. But don't lose hope now! There's more to do! Here's what YOU can do to help: I.) THE LETTER-WRITING CAMPAIGN Send heartfelt letters (and small gifts, such as edibles, which have worked well in the past), asking for any or all of the following: A fourth season and beyond of Forever Knight; FK movies; FK merchandise; and FK videotapes (when possible, snailmail is *always* better) to: 1.) Mr. Jon Feltheimer President Sony Television Entertainment 10202 Washington Blvd Culver City, CA 90232 email: callback@mis20.msmail.spe.sony.com fax: Jon Feltheimer (310)202-4920 (direct) Mail Room (*mark Attn: Jon Feltheimer*) (310)202-3272 2.) Ms. H. Onoyama Vice-President Sony Corporation of America 550 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10022 Sony is the parent company of Tri-Star, btw. 3.) Mr. Barry Schulman USA Networks Sci-Fi 1230 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10020 email: feedback@www.scifi.com 4.) Ms. Kay Koplovitz President/CEO USA Networks 1230 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10020 email: usa03a@prodigy.com 5.) Mr. Rod Perth Programming VP USA Networks 2049 Century Park East Suite 2550 Los Angeles, CA 90067 ***IMPORTANT*** NEVER send ANY letter with the words "Forever Knight" written ANYWHERE on the envelope! Keep it as clean and anonymous as possible as to its contents. If you do not keep all mention of FK off your envelope, your letters will be treated *as fan letters*, and will probably be discarded outright. Forever Knight is not currently in production, after all; there's no place for that mail to go. Do NOT mention *anything* that would indicate that you belong (pay dues, run, etc.) to a fan group per se. Such groups are often seen as "fringe" groups, and are taken less seriously. Same deal if you attend conventions; don't let them know about it. Anyone who has access to pre-printed airbills should use those. Official-looking overnight envelopes, like the type companies use, are automatically better than ones that look unofficial. If you don't have access to pre-printed airbills/shipping slips (either USPS ExpressMail and Fedex), try to type the airbills rather than handwriting them. Any letterhead envelope from an organization can't hurt either. If you have a business card, *include it*. Typed or handwritten are better than printed letters. Demographically speaking, each single letter is seen as representing *one hundred* viewers who feel the same way as you do, yet who might not pick up *their* pens and keyboards to write. Yes, your letter does count! If you have friends and family who care about FK and want to help, **do not** send petition letters with multiple signatures--- they are counted as *one letter*. Get them to write their own individual letters; or, play secretary for them and compose the letter according to their own words, and let them rewrite and stamp it. Paper is more effective every time, and is far more enduring than email; but every little bit will help. Carry around preaddressed postcards and offer them to coworkers and friends. For the same effect, have them mailed from different postmarks. It is very important that we let them know what a diverse group we truly are. DO NOT: Make up names, or sign anyone's name to anything without their permission. It only takes one call to one address that is false, and all the rest of the letters sent by fans will be looked upon with suspicion--- and may even cause TPTB to disregard them all. Most important of all, **Be Polite**! No ultimatums or threats like "if you don't do this I will never watch anything on your network again". They've probably heard such threats many times before, and this will most likely hurt your chances of being taken seriously. This is not the time or place to air your personal pet peeves about the show either; if you have any nitpicks or complaints about content (keep your hands off the topic of "Last Knight"! I mean it! I know it's tempting, but *resist* the urge to flame them), ignore them for the duration of this letter. Write every four to six weeks or so, if you can. We don't want them thinking we've given up or that we don't care about FK anymore. And that's not all! There's also: *The Forever Knight Wishing Cranes Project* Help in folding and sending 1000 origami cranes to Sony execs, all with the same wish -- "More Forever Knight". Check Diane E's web page at B.) The Advertisers Send letters to the recent advertisers on FK. Tell them that you started using their products *because* you saw them advertised on Forever Knight. Call the toll-free numbers you find listed on the back of their products. Tell current advertisers that their dollars were spent well! Send the sponsors your cash register tapes with their product listed, along with a "since you support our favorite show, we support your product" note. If you need a list of the show's sponsor addresses, contact Karen Tobin at ktobin@tiac.net. C.) The Local Station Call your local station and: a.) Ask for the Station Manager, Programming Director, or the person responsible for purchasing their syndicated programming. b.) Tell them how much you love Forever Knight, how glad you are to see that they have the excellent taste to show it, and tell them your tale of woe (how USA Network summarily dropped the show and now its future beyond this season appears moribund). Yes, we know there is little they can do about it. Yes, we know they are no longer producing more episodes for your local station to buy. But the *station* doesn't know you know it. Play dumb :) We're trying to keep the show alive in the minds of the broadcasters, and sketch a true picture of the size of the fan base. Every little bit helps. Thank them for their time, attention, and efforts. And write them a thank-you note. Followup is very important. It keeps you in the front of their minds, and it's polite. Also: If anyone gets a positive response from their local station ("Oh, yeah, we love that show! It's one of our best syndicated programs! We're so sad it's gone!" and so forth), please email me at AriCon@aol.com and tell me so. II.) THE CHARITY: A.) Donations, to be sent to the Pediatric AIDS Foundation in honor of the cast and crew of "Forever Knight". One donation of nearly $6,000 was already delivered to PAF in January, and we are closing fast on a ten-thousand dollar total. We suggest a minimum donation of five dollars, but you can give as much as you want and feel you can afford. *SEND DONATIONS TO: * Lisa Prince PAF "Forever Knight" Group Charity Organizer 360 Connecticut Avenue, Suite 133 Norwalk, CT 06854-1824 Make checks / money orders out to the Pediatric AIDS Foundation. B.) Also, we ask that you consider following up your donation with a postcard to USA and TriStar, informing them ($ amount is optional) that you have donated to PAF in the names of the cast and crew of "Forever Knight". You might also want to consider adding a sentence about how much you enjoy the show and hope to see more of it in the future. If you do not wish to send a separate postcard, add a line about having given money in the charity drive to the letters you write to TriStar and USA. Make it easy on yourselves--- if you write to one of the addresses above, send carbon copies to each and every one of the other addresses. III. THE WWW AND INTERNET: A.) Visit the SFC Webpage at B.) The main SONY FK page (for however long that will last) is located at C.) Another something that takes not much time at all: Include the SOS effort in your Internet sig. Something like: "Forever Knight has been cancelled. If you want more information, email me at (insert your address) or check out the Save FK webpage at (insert URL)." IV.) WORD OF MOUTH "It is said that there is at max six degrees of separation between any two people on this earth. I'm sure that if you think about it, you know someone who knows someone, who knows someone, etc... it is also called networking. "We can not limit ourselves and our campaign to the net. It is time to move away from your keyboards and talk to all those other people. Someone somewhere will listen. "So, talk to everyone you know.. maybe they know someone who might be interested in our story." Get out there and talk to your friends. If you are a college student, talk to dorm members, post it on a campus-wide bbs or through brief campus-wide email. Get together with friends of yours who have or had dearly-loved shows in danger, and "trade" letters. If you're a homeowner, take an old real-estate sign, make your own FK billboard! Get people who have not yet watched the show to watch the reruns on the Sci-Fi Channel. Convert new fans! V.) THE MEDIA We also need media attention, and the more the better. If you happen to know of anyone involved in the fields of journalism, television, advertising, or cable, get them interested in the plight of FK too! Several press releases can be found on the website listed below, also at the ftp site if you are "web-challenged" and if you would like the official version to send your local affiliate. *THE* "Save FK Homepage" can be found at: http://members.aol.com/CuznJamiMR/SaveForeverKnight.html And it is case-sensitive, which means you must copy everything exactly, down to the capitals, or you will not be able to access it. Those who do not have web access but have FTP access can find most of the information at: ftp.cac.psu.edu/pub/people/lms5/FKSAVE This includes the documents necessary to compile a flyer to leave in public places such as: colleges and universities, public bulletin boards, meetings of your local SF or creative writing club, your local bookstores, gaming emporiums, and so forth. It is available in PC Word for Windows (sfkshort.doc) and Word Perfect 5.1 (sfkwp51.zip or sfkwp.doc) formats, as well as Word for Mac format (sfkmac.mcw). Don't forget to download the graphic (title.pct) as well. If you want the more "urgent" email updates, or know someone who does, send mail to mickey@cybercomm.net. If you know someone who is a fan and does not have any form of Internet access, you should send a SASE to: SOS-FK, PO Box 30596, Alexandria, VA 22310. They/you will then be placed on the snailmail update list. VII.) THE SPONSORS *Write to those who advertise* Tell them how much you love their product BECAUSE of their ad on FK; tell them of the nationwide effort to save the show -- and how much the loyal viewers will pay back the favor by buying their product. Be sincere, be believable -- and do it! If advertisers see a blip in revenues and sales, *they will believe* -- copy USA, TriStar, and Sony on all the letters. Write to those who advertise on our local cable companies. TriStar will listen if cable companies in the top 100 markets say they want to see FK -- because their local advertisers want to see it. Write or call the local cable companies themselves. Write to computer companies and their suppliers. If you bought a new modem, increased your memory, etc. recently, send them copies of your bills and receipts. Tell them that you bought this equipment / use this online service specifically so that you could communicate with other people involved with this specific TV show. Write to local or national papers. TV Guide also has a Sci-Fi page and a Cheers and Jeers column that might respond. Cheers & Jeers recently jeered the cancellation of MST3K. Columnist Ian Spelling writes a widely-read newspaper column which contained a sympathetic, favorable FK article on Nov. 13th. His snail-mail is: Ian Spelling c/o The New York Times Syndicate 122 E. 42nd St. New York, NY 10168. VIII.) RADIO and CLASSIFIED ADS: Use "Dedication and Request" call-in shows from the local radio stations to plug our efforts. The DJ might be interested enough to ask questions if you call up and say "I'd like to request a song to be dedicated to the TV series 'Forever Knight'". Take ads in your own little (preferably free) hometown papers; to get letters, attention, or whatnot. If we can manage to get the attention of some heavy-hitters, perhaps other, wealthier entities will be willing to chip in. Many of the people in "the industry" have been writing lately to stress this: The bottom line for all TV executives is MONEY. If you're writing from another country, they will want to hear from you at TriStar and Sony especially. A good chunk of the revenue is found in lucrative overseas rights. Don't forget your local station as well! Remember the vast market that has been found for Dark Shadows and most markedly Star Trek, among others; in terms of merchandise, revivals, spinoffs, reruns, cons, and the like, all moneymaking concerns; and the yet-unrealized consumer-good power of "cult TV shows" which most network execs don't seem to appreciate. IX.) *THE SOUNDTRACK* AND OTHER MERCHANDISE There is an Official Forever Knight Soundtrack. Composed and performed by the supremely talented and sincerely nice Fred Mollin, and featuring Geraint Wyn Davies on piano and the monologues of Nigel Bennett, among other things; it is available in major record store chains. If you cannot find it there, here's how you can get your own copy: For Visa or Mastercard orders call GNP at 1-800-654-7029 or send check for $12.98 + $3.00 Postage & Shipping for CD or $8.98 + $3.00 Postage & Shipping for cassette to: GNP/Crescendo Records 8400 Sunset Blvd. Hollywood, CA 90069 USA If you have "Forever Knight" clothing or jewelry, start wearing it. If you want to get some, visit the FK fan merchandise page. The URL is: http://www.eden.com/~gebbie/merch.html One of the people who maintains the Sci-Fi website had the following to offer us: "It couldn't hurt to call 1-800-TREKKER, our on-line catalog associates, to let them know you're interested in FK-wear." *Do This*. They need to know there is a market for FK merchandise. X.) EPILOGUE Every little bit you can do helps. Mix and match the possibilities to best suit your budget and time. If you have more, give more. If you have less; talk, talk, talk to everyone you meet, and pass this document on! Let's bring back the Knight!!!!!