Fandom. You gotta love it. Well actually you don't. I can imagine that there are a ton of executives at various networks and studios who dearly wish that fans of a show or a movie would just give them their money and then go docilely home like the little sheep they imagine them to be once the thing - whether it's a TV series or a movie - is over and not bother them about it again. Of course the people who run movie studios and TV networks don't understand Fandom. I once heard a story - which may or may not be true - about the preparations for the original Star Trek movie. It seems that the execs at Paramount were ready to start production when a little movie called Star Wars came out. Paramount immediately shelved the Star Trek movie on the grounds that the science fiction fans had spent all their money on Star Wars (and all the licensed stuff associated with it that made George Lucas wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice). I don't know if it's true but it makes a good story.
I've been a Fan - I was a Dueser (Due South), a Browncoat (Firefly) and enough of a Trekker that I watched all six series, including the animated one from Filmation that made Hanna-Barbera animation look like Disney at its best. Fans can save shows - I doubt that Arrested Development would have lasted as long as it did without a devoted cohort of fans (a cohort, by the way, is a Roman military unit smaller than a legion - if Arrested Development had a legion of fans it might still be on). I sometimes wonder why Fans gravitate to the shows they do. Beauty and the Beast with Linda Hamilton and Ron Perlman was a Fan Favourite with a lot of the fans being women who found the character of Vincent "romantic". Which was true, but if you looked at the series a bit harder you realized that Vincent was a character who solved his problems (usually a threat to Catherine) by eviscerating his enemies. I'm just saying.
All of which brings me to the most recent poll. I got hit by "Kidnappers" - fans of the series Kidnapped - in a big way. More votes were cast than in any of my previous polls ever! Interestingly enough if you took out the votes for Kidnapped it was still one of the highest number of votes cast in one of these. And most of these were votes by individuals; despite a rather flawed execution on my part I was able to blog multiple voters for most of the polling period. I know because I tested it with a vote of my own.
So anyway, the results. Seventy-six votes were case. Tied for tenth place with no votes were Standoff, The Game, 'Til Death, Men In Trees, Big Day, and Justice. In a tie for seventh place with one vote (1%) each were Jericho, Shark, and The Class. In a tie for fifth place with two votes each (2%) were 30 Rock and Ugly Betty. In fourth place with three votes (3%) was Friday Night Lights while Studio 60 finished third with four votes (5%). The second place finisher was Heroes with eight votes (10%). However the overwhelming winner, with fifty-four votes, 71% of those cast was Kidnapped. As just about everyone should have expected.
For the record, the show I voted for as a test was Friday Night Lights but the reason I cast my vote for that show is because I think that it is a criminally overlooked gem of a show, and I am so glad that the powers that be at NBC are supporting it even while I agree with the "Kidnappers" that the network thoroughly mishandled Kidnapped almost from the moment it was announced in the network's first variation of their schedule. Here's the interesting thing in my opinion anyway: of the nine shows that got votes in this poll, five are on NBC and all of them got more than one vote. Only one other show - ABC's Ugly Betty - managed to do that. That's all of the NBC shows on the list. Of those five only one is secure in terms of ratings and that's Heroes. It seems then that in the opinion of the readers of this blog, NBC has produced the best shows of the season, Nielson ratings be damned. Very interesting stuff indeed.
I have an idea for a new poll which will be up shortly, after I look for a better polling client.
I've been a Fan - I was a Dueser (Due South), a Browncoat (Firefly) and enough of a Trekker that I watched all six series, including the animated one from Filmation that made Hanna-Barbera animation look like Disney at its best. Fans can save shows - I doubt that Arrested Development would have lasted as long as it did without a devoted cohort of fans (a cohort, by the way, is a Roman military unit smaller than a legion - if Arrested Development had a legion of fans it might still be on). I sometimes wonder why Fans gravitate to the shows they do. Beauty and the Beast with Linda Hamilton and Ron Perlman was a Fan Favourite with a lot of the fans being women who found the character of Vincent "romantic". Which was true, but if you looked at the series a bit harder you realized that Vincent was a character who solved his problems (usually a threat to Catherine) by eviscerating his enemies. I'm just saying.
All of which brings me to the most recent poll. I got hit by "Kidnappers" - fans of the series Kidnapped - in a big way. More votes were cast than in any of my previous polls ever! Interestingly enough if you took out the votes for Kidnapped it was still one of the highest number of votes cast in one of these. And most of these were votes by individuals; despite a rather flawed execution on my part I was able to blog multiple voters for most of the polling period. I know because I tested it with a vote of my own.
So anyway, the results. Seventy-six votes were case. Tied for tenth place with no votes were Standoff, The Game, 'Til Death, Men In Trees, Big Day, and Justice. In a tie for seventh place with one vote (1%) each were Jericho, Shark, and The Class. In a tie for fifth place with two votes each (2%) were 30 Rock and Ugly Betty. In fourth place with three votes (3%) was Friday Night Lights while Studio 60 finished third with four votes (5%). The second place finisher was Heroes with eight votes (10%). However the overwhelming winner, with fifty-four votes, 71% of those cast was Kidnapped. As just about everyone should have expected.
For the record, the show I voted for as a test was Friday Night Lights but the reason I cast my vote for that show is because I think that it is a criminally overlooked gem of a show, and I am so glad that the powers that be at NBC are supporting it even while I agree with the "Kidnappers" that the network thoroughly mishandled Kidnapped almost from the moment it was announced in the network's first variation of their schedule. Here's the interesting thing in my opinion anyway: of the nine shows that got votes in this poll, five are on NBC and all of them got more than one vote. Only one other show - ABC's Ugly Betty - managed to do that. That's all of the NBC shows on the list. Of those five only one is secure in terms of ratings and that's Heroes. It seems then that in the opinion of the readers of this blog, NBC has produced the best shows of the season, Nielson ratings be damned. Very interesting stuff indeed.
I have an idea for a new poll which will be up shortly, after I look for a better polling client.
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