Page Three

Cherri:
There was a guy who stopped to see what this was all about, and after getting an explanation, he said "Oh, well I'm going to see Jon Feltheimer later today. I'll talk to him about it." Heh heh. Later, there was this guy from security who came by and asked her what was going on here. She explained, and he said "Oh, so Forever Knight is tv related. Okay then." Apparently there had been people hanging around the day before from a food drive, who were annoying people, so that's probably why security was so prickly this morning. Then he asked for a brochure, and sounded really enthusiastic to go and write his local station. :)

(Cath insert: which reminds me, Toni also found a cabbie who was a fan, and he apparently spread the word around to all the other cabbies, and so he came back later asking for a bunch of fliers to pass around to all of them. So there was another unexpected surge there. We got stuff like this all the time. The cabbie who took Toni and I around to hotels hadn't watched FK, but we convinced him to go watch. This stuff happened to all of us all the time. It was *great*.)

Paul DaCruz came by and needed to go buy film, so he gave her his badge to go on the floor legitimately. So she got to go and see all the booths, and saw Chuck Norris at the TriStar booth. We all saw these two Klingons later, all dressed up with head ridges and everything. They were very cool. :)

Dianne DeSha:
Well, while everyone else was finding sneaky back entrances to the convention floor, casing every press crew in sight, and carefully shmoozing whoever they could find, I was... well... I was handing out flyers and bags... for oh, about 6 hours....

Basically I spend the day doing for love the kind of job I vowed long ago *never* to do for money. :-)

{flips into FK flashback mode (tm)}

"Hello! I'm with Friends of Forever Knight. Would you like a bag?" (trust me, it took practice to spit _that_ much out fast enough as people rushed by!)

I will be saying it reflexively in my sleep, big friendly enthusiastic {face-tiring} smile and all, for at least the next week. (Working out the numbers-- how many I passed out times how many times I had to offer before someone would accept-- I worked out that I must have said that line well over _two thousand times_ yesterday... at the very least...

{sigh............... pass out :-}

Some people stopped for more chat. Among the memorable:

-- Some executive guy (he was turned so I couldn't see his name tag and he just rushed on by): "Hey, _we_ didn't cancel FK. Talk to Rod Perth!" (Oh yeah, thanks for the tip, dude! :-p)

-- A guy who took a brochure walking by, then came back after reading part of the brochure, asked "Are you really 'a real fan, unaffiliated with the tv industry'?" I assured him I was and went into the "explain SOS FK" spiel. He started taking down my name from the nametag and I gave him my SOS-FK business card (were we overprepared or what? :-). He turned out to be a TV critic "very glad to see people so concerned about good tv." More publicity perhaps? :-)

-- the tram drivers lining up to leave at the end of the day. Toni collared one bored driver and talked to him (closet fan... we learned not to be surprised, closet fans came out of the woodwork all day long :-). He later hit Catherine up for a bag and brochure. Later he came back when I was there to get a stack for his buds, the other drivers. He and the other drivers then spent the next 45 minutes (as long as I was there!) chatting FK up and down the line. (I think the Las Vegas ratings are gonna go through the *roof* starting next week {vbg}).

-- a tired older executive-type guy who stopped by, got the basic "who we are and what we're doing" spiel, patted me on the arm, wouldn't take a flyer ("No, I'm _leaving_ now.") and said "I wish someone had done this for *my* shows," sighed in a very sad way, and walked off. (sniff)

-- and the many people who responded to my line (see above, I _ain't_ typing it again... I ain't even *thinking* it again! :-) with some combination of: "Ooooh! *I'm* a friend of Forever Knight!.... I love that show!... They're *cancelling* it?!?... That's a *great* show!...I don't get home until 11 & I always watch FK to unwind...."

Debbie:
She met up with some punk rocker guys in the front entrance by where the shuttles let out, and apparently they saw her standing there with her FK bag and came running over, they said FK was their favorite show and they were ereally curious about it. They asked about whether or not it was in production, and she said it was still in season 3, but that there wasn't going to be a season 4, etc. and they were really enthusiastic and asked for some bags and flyers so they could put them up in their booth, so she did. And she says that the reason she thinks she didn't get thrown out is because she was wearing the traditional NATPE green. (Yeah, I think she was the only one not to get thrown out, of all of us, except Toni and maybe Angela. I'm *still* torqued about that. :( -Ed.) [Debbie and Angela were the only ones.]

After three or four hours of standing, she went over and found a booth that was giving foot massages, and so she got one. (For which we could have all skinned her with envy, but that's another story... -Ed.)

Angela's story is part of the NATPE 7 Quote List.

Toni:
Suffice it to say, it was great. I couldn't have met a greater group than the "Lucky 7" and I know you all were there with us -- check your virtual schedule -- I know you were. Each time we thought we couldn't talk to one more suit, each time we got told we just couldn't do something, each time we were about to give up on any part of the whole adventure I felt a gentle, but firm hand in the small of my back and the voice in my head-- "come on, don't give up, you can do it!" I know whose voice it was -- all of you!

The one thing from NATPE I think I haven't seen addressed too much was our conversation with Sandie Currie of TriStar. This was the culmination of several attempts to get past the security that ringed their various cocktail parties (armed in the case of Rikki Lake's). Late Wednesday, just before leaving, Catherine & I decided to make one more attempt. We went to TriStar and she marched up to a secretary and introduced herself and asked if they had heard from many local stations asking for Forever Knight. They quickly got us a "sales guy" who as soon as he realized who we were became a bit agitated & said we needed to talk to Sandie -- "wait here, I'll get her". He finally produced a blonde 30-ish woman who told us that they had been "expecting us". How they "expected" to see us since we had no credentials _and_ they had their own security on top of the badge checkers, I don't know. (unless they know about the Wars & were counting on "Cousin" Angela finding the hidden bathroom.) Anyway, we talked to her for about 20 minutes and then were joined by Diane E & Angela who had also used her "secret passage".

First, we were clearly not exactly what she had expected. "Fans" who talk about ratings, demographics & possible partners for production money were clearly outside her experience {vwg} -- you guys did good and prepared us well!)

She had planned to have Ger at NATPE, before "the show was canceled" as she put it. [We got confirming evidence from a separate source that TriStar was originally planning on pushing Forever Knight hard at NATPE.]

She told us three different things about the cancellation: (Catherine, help me out if I'm remembering this wrong. I'm doing my best to remember exactly her words & my impressions, but it's been a hard day...):
1. She said after USA pulled out, the decision was "made at the top" not to continue.
2. She said later they had a meeting two weeks ago and decided to finish the 3rd season but not to continue beyond that. She said that TriStar was losing money by finishing the season, but that they were "honoring their committments".
3. She said that they had been looking for a nationwide rating point of "2" and that the show had only reached "1.7" and couldn't seem to make it to the next level. When she was told about the good ratings in individual markets she said she knew that, but that nationwide levels were what counted. (I couldn't figure if this was a reference to the USA deal or general averages for syndies. I tend to think the USA deal as the numbers fit).

She said a *number* of times how "totally overwhelmed" TriStar had been by the fan reaction, and how they were "completely surprised" that they though no-one cared about the show and how amazed they were at all the letters, telegrams, etc. She said that at this point all calls, letters & items were being routed to public relations, but that she was telling "the bosses" every day about the numbers & variety.

She was evasive or changed the subject in asnwer to three questions:
1. Catherine forthrightly asked "Have you heard from many stations who are asking for a fourth season?" and later again asked if "any" stations had asked. She responded vaguely that they had to talk to their sales people & wouldn't really know till March or so. (*No-one* in the TriStar booth from the receptionists to Sandie would answer this question even casually-- almost like they'd practised too...)
2. I asked specifically who was the person in TriStar syndie stations should contact. (I'd had trouble getting this info. before from TriStar, hence the number in the brochure which was the best they could do). She started to tell us we should write our local stations instead of TriStar. I reiterated "No, who should we tell our local *stations* to talk to at TriStar". She never answered. I'm beginning to believe that there is no-one at TriStar from whom you can buy this show. Is it possblie all the sales are handeled through reps? I also asked if the show was sold directly or was packaged with another (as I had heard) or was done on a barter basis. She referred to the USA deal as being sold that way, but never really answered.
3. Additionally, after talking for a while about the "Internet" connection (She'd seen the article in EM so Catherine & I discussed it as a positive -- affluent, educated computer users as a desireable demo) I said to her "what can we do to help TriStar find the money to continue making Forever Knight". She said "Oh you guys have already done a lot" -- repeating how much the support had meant to the cast & crew.

I recognise this technique -- change the subject slighly to avoid answering, I do it myself on occasion, so I repeated, saying very politely,
"No, Sandie, what I'm saying is that you have a group of 1000+ people here who are committed to seeing this show continue. This is a group that raised nearly $10,000 for the EM ad and the materials we brought today, a group that has generated over $7,500 for PAF in a very short time. It's a group that includes professionals with skills and contacts all over the country. We've proven we can generate over 3,000 letters. We don't consider TriStar the adversary, we're on _your_ side. (Thank you to whoever sent me that brilliant line!).We want to help. So who can we begin working on that might be a potential financial partner for TriStar in producing a 4th season of Forever Knight? "

This got the Vachon treatment, smile, blink, blink. I don't think she was offended, I honestly think this time her mind just could not bend around the idea of "fans" wanting to talk about/to funding sources.

This relates to a conversation we had earlier where she offered to send Catherine & I some FK related goodies and asked for our addresses. We both said thank you, that was a very nice offer, we (and all the viewers would love to see anything FK realted) but what we _really_ all wanted was a 4th season of Forever Knight. (Uncorruptible, that's your task force -- although we did give her cards {g} - watch that P.O. box). Again this seemed a bit puzzling to her. She was very nice to us, spent a long time and was quite synpathetic, but didn't seem to understand fans who weren't distracted by the idea of cool FK stuff. (well we were a bit, we're just *very* well trained{g})

She also said that the Syndicated stations were the key.

She said at one point that "they weren't the ones who had cancelled the show" and that they would *love* to continue doing the show, if adequate funds were available.

When Diane E described sending the vamp cookies to Feltheimer she said in a "significant" voice -- I'm sure I don't have to tell you you've got the right person"

Continue to write TriStar -- (They ain't seen nothing yet, right?)

The Pewter Gryphon's Lair