GF wow

I, um, have no idea what to say here.

I can't imagine that many humans managed to grab the torrent, and I'm sure a lot of this is splash-over from Whedonesque and Joss' (and by the way , where's HIS goddam Emmy?) mighty tribe, but ... this site got an extra 4,000 distinct visitors this weekend. At current rate, the next day or so will spike out at the same. I haven't gotten this much traffic since the TRANSFORMERS gig -- and they're making a $100 million dollar movie about that.

Strike that, I just checked my site numbers. This is actually slightly more traffic than the Transformers gig.

This is not to mention a couple hundred e-mails from people who've watched the thing and took the time to drop a line. I can only say thank you for all your kind words. (and occasional hysterical begging for more episodes. And creepy, creepy rage) There have been offers of spontaneous fan sites and "Get Global On" campaigns from the US, Canada, New Zealand, Scotland, England, and I think Germany and Spain, or some other place where Spanish is spoken. I'm not sure, those e-mails and weblinks were a little ... fractured.

So, in order:

1.) I assure all of you, I will call all the cast members over the next few days and convey to them your wonderful reactions, the genuine enthusiasm their performances created. (I think Josh and Jenni would like to know that a night under the rain machine wasn't a total waste) I'll also call Nelson McCormick, the director and let him know that on several counts he was right and I was wrong, and I owe him a beer. They made the show, you like the show. We executive types need to get the hell out of the middle of that relationship.

2.) I'm completely slammed on a deadline here, so I can't give this the full attention I'd like to, at least not for the next week. I've got one first draft of a film I'm writing and three others in active about-to-get-a-director mode.

But you know what? I bitch and moan about how all this emergent technology is going to change the entertainment industry and nobody's taking advantage of it. And here I have, well, unless I'm mistaken, a fan base which exists and is trying to organize for a show which has never appeared on television. Not a cancelled show -- a show which has literally never aired on broadcast television. This is BoingBoing and Wired's frikkin' dream. Seeing as I was planning on writing a book on this stuff, I'd be insane not to follow up in some way.

And, maybe it't the old stand-up comic in me, but to try nothing would be disrespecting you, the audience. I can't bring myself to do that.

I'll see if we can figure out what the next step is. I've got a light back half of 2005. Maybe it'd be fun to play Pancho to you fans' Quixote.

3.) Crucially, I have no idea what to do.

There may be nothing that can be done. Let's look at some very, very unpleasant truths. GF is not owned by Warren or myself -- it's owned by DC comics and Warner Brothers. Anything that happens has to be with their permission. They are large, multinational corporations, and although the people I interface with are immensely pleasant, the companies generally don't cotton to this sort of thing. I would also remind you that every copy of GF out there is of dubious legality depending on your local copyright laws.

Shows survive because of money. Period. There has never been a write-in campaign that's worked, because frankly e-mails and letters don't pay the rent on those studio lots. FAMILY GUY came back because the box set made unspeakable amounts of cash. You all know the FIREFLY story.

For more GF episodes, I have to somehow find $26 million dollars for 13 episodes of production (that stings, eh?), find somebody to air it (not airing them, going straight to Internet or DVD would require an even MORE insane paradigm shift) and convince the powers-that-be the DVD box sets will be profitable. That'll not only require stunning acts of fiscal contortion, but the fan base/buzz/media attention has to be of a truly EPIC proportion. What are the odds of that? I'll tell you --

The odds of this working are way, way too small to take seriously.

BUT ... having said that, I'll make some calls, talk to some humans. I'll try to learn, in what time I have, how this totally new process could work. That's what we're talking here, about you (the audience) creating a completely new process for television shows.

On the other hand, the entire idea of Global Frequency is of ordinary people subverting the establishment and getting things done. The concept of a fan base for the show subverting the establishment and getting things done ... frankly that's a little irresistible.

So, as I said, I have no idea what to do. But I'm smart enough to know that you probably do. Or you'll figure it out faster than I will. So check in here, hell, make your own damn websites. Look at who's posting, contact each other.

Because I'm just the guy on the Frequency with the Hollywood skill set. You're the audience. You're the numbers, you're the power.


(NOTE: summary of all GF posts HERE)

(a reminder -- GLOBAL FREQUENCY, all plots and characters and the logo thereof, are property of DC Comics, and the TV pilot script and broadcast production of GLOBAL FREQUENCY (etc. etc.) are property of Warner Bros. Television, as far as I know. Nothing on this site is to be considered a challenge to that copyright WB LAWYERS LOOK HERE ==> I remind all readers that the pilot itself is copywritten material, and urge you not to distribute or reproduce it in any, any way.)