WB Heeds “Roswell,” “Felicity” Fan Mail

Thanks to Jencbean, Courtney, Jenn, Jenna, and Angela for sending this in!

From E!online:

WB Heeds “Roswell,” “Felicity” Fan Mail
by Mark Armstrong
May 15, 2000, 5:00 PM PT

Attention, Roswell fans: The Tabasco sauce can now go on your food, not in the mail. Felicity lovers, pull those scissors away from your heads.

And you Sports Night viewers, just keep praying.

As the nail-biting continues over this week’s announced fall TV picks, fans’ desperate campaigns to save their favorite shows are paying off with mixed results.

First, the good news: According to network sources (and E! Online’s own TV scribe, Wanda), the WB will announce tomorrow it’s renewing Roswell and Felicity for another 13 episodes.

Both shows had relatively dismal seasons, and both were the subject of a midseason schedule shuffling. But they also had intensely devoted fans, who organized their own Net campaigns to keep their twentysomething casts on the tube.

Devotees of the freshman sci-fi drama Roswell flooded the WB with thousands of tiny Tabasco sauce bottles–using the show’s own alien space drink to lobby for its survival. And two weeks ago, Felicity fans let their obsession with curly-topped star Keri Russell go to their heads,
literally–encouraging viewers to snip off locks of their hair and mail them to WB head Jamie Kellner.

According to draft schedules currently making the rounds, the WB may put Felicity in the same Wednesday night slot as Jack & Jill, giving the shows alternate weeks to see how they stack up, ratings-wise. This season, Felicity has ranked a dismal 148th, drawing some 2.9 million viewers on average. And Roswell hasn’t fared much better, luring about 3.6 million viewers every week and landing in 140th place.

Those who did watch, however, were pleased about the news. “We were worried,” says Felicity campaign founder Kristen Dee. “But we had gotten hundreds and hundreds of messages on our boards. It was a desperate attempt.”

In other WB news, Eddie Murphy’s Fox foamation comedy, The PJs, also will be joining up with the Frog this fall. The network had a deal with the show’s producer, Imagine TV/Touchstone, to pick up the show, but it had been uncertain whether the WB would take it.

Now, the bad news: It looks like fans of ABC’s Sports Night couldn’t scrape together enough support, or ratings, to keep the show on. Wanda also reports that the critically lauded, but poorly rated, TV sports dramedy is a definite goner from ABC’s fall lineup after two seasons.

But all is not completely lost. According to the Hollywood Reporter, creator Aaron Sorkin may be close to a deal with HBO to serve up a “revamped” version of the show on cable. ABC is set to announce its schedule Tuesday, but there’s been no official comment yet on Sports Night’s fate.

One fan site, however, allegedly received an email from Sorkin confirming the cancellation. “I’m sorry to report that it’s true. Tommy and I are absorbing the news for the moment, and we’ll re-group tomorrow to discuss the future. In the meantime, don’t miss Tuesday night’s show.”

It could be the last.