THE AWAKENING
Join the Resistance to Save DARK SKIES

An Open Letter to Fans From:
BRYCE ZABEL
Co-Creator / Executive Producer

Updated May 13, 1997

By now, you have no doubt heard that NBC has officially 
cancelled the show.  This is what we expected.  They are still 
scheduled to air our final two episodes on May 24 and May 31.  
Cancellation, however, is not cause for despair but simply the 
opening shot in our campaign to find a new home for our second 
season.  

If you wrote NBC, your effort was not wasted.  Fan letters, e-
mail, telegrams and faxes to them have already started decision-
makers in Hollywood talking about the series.  You are placing 
our future on their agenda where it has to be in order to succeed.  

The strategy can be simply stated now that NBC is out of the 
picture.  

WE NEED TO MAKE ALL THE OTHER POTENTIAL BUYERS IN 
HOLLYWOOD AWARE THAT THE SHOW HAS PASSIONATE 
FANS WHO WILL FOLLOW THE SERIES WHEREVER IT GOES:  
NETWORK, CABLE OR SYNDICATION.

Acting NOW we have a rare opportunity to raise consciousness.  
Even as I write this, network executives, studio suppliers, agents, 
lawyers and other power-brokers are flying back and forth 
between New York and Hollywood during the annual 
announcement of fall schedules (NBC went first).  Their days are 
a flurry of faxes and phone calls.  It’s a time for power lunches 
and anxious anticipation.  By night, they make the cocktail and 
party circuit.  Most of all, they talk to each other about what’s 
happening.  Make sure that they are talking about you and DARK 
SKIES because letters are piling up in their offices.

Your efforts to date are starting to bring attention to your cause.  
By way of measurement, I have already received calls from 
reporters working for USA Today, Broadcasting & Cable, Media 
Week and AP Radio.

In a very important step, last night I appeared on the Art Bell 
Talk Show to talk about NBC’s cancellation of DARK SKIES with 
the fans.  They called in from around the country and they 
wanted to know what they could do to keep the show alive.  To 
help channel their frustrations, Art posted the previous versions of 
this open letter (Dark Skies Over Hollywood / Stroke of 
Midnight) on his web-site, one of the busiest in the world.  This 
year to-date, it has received 2.4 million hits!  That’s about 20,000 
per day!  Many of those people are DARK SKIES viewers.  You 
can check this out for yourself at:

http://www.artbell.com

In addition to Art Bell’s coverage of the campaign, AOL has 
maintained an extremely active profile all season on their 
ParaScope site.  You can get involved there by writing 
PSCPgunman@aol.com.  Out on the open internet, you will 
also find postings at the following web addresses:

60 Greatest Conspiracies
http://www.conspire.com/

Unofficial Dark Skies Site
http://www.patriot.com/darkskies/index.html

SFTV Talk
http://www.ambitweb.com/sftvtalk/sfnews.html

Save Dark Skies
http://zeus.kspress.com/wohlerk/letter2.html

Dark Skies: Realm of Truth / Save the Show
http://www.pcb.co.za/users/phillip

While these web-sites are continuing to get the word out, those 
of you reading this need to get the word DIRECTLY to the 
prospective buyers of DARK SKIES.  The contact information you 
will need follows now.

First on our priority list is UPN, which has certainly shown an 
inclination toward sci-fi with Star Trek Voyager, Nowhere Man, 
Burning Zone, etc.  The movers and shakers at SONY (our 
production company) seem to think this is the best bet.  UPN 
announces its schedule on May 20.  

Lucie Salhaney 
President, UPN
11800 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90025
(310) 575-7000
http://www.upn.com/email2.html

Although Salhaney still runs the network, she is leaving in 
September.  The man upstairs who will still be running things 
when she’s gone should also get your input.  He is:

Kerry McCluggage 
Chairman, PARAMOUNT TELEVISION GROUP
5555 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA  90038

Meanwhile, ABC-TV will announce its schedule on May 19.

Jamie Tarses
President, ABC-TV
2040 Avenue of the Stars
Los Angeles, CA 90067
(310) 557-7777

It’s been rumored that Tarses is not really as in charge as she was 
expected to be.  That means that the people who bought ABC-TV 
a few years ago may be calling the shots.  You may want to fire 
off another letter to:

Michael Eisner
CEO, WALT DISNEY COMPANY
500 South Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA  91521

Warner Brothers has already announced its schedule.  The other 
two networks, then, are FBC-TV  (announces schedule on May 
20) and CBS-TV (announces on May 22).  They can be reached, 
as follows:

Peter Roth
President, FBC-TV
10201 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90035
(310) 369-1000

Les Moonves
President, CBS-TV
7800 Beverly Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(213) 852-2345
audsvcs@cbs.com

As we’ve said before, it’s a Brave New World out there in TV-
LAND, and there are more buyers than ever before.  Three key 
players for DARK SKIES are:

Rod Perth
USA Network – Los Angeles
Attention: SCI-FI CHANNEL
2049 Century Park East, Suite 2550
Los Angeles, CA. 90067

Chris Albrecht
President, HBO ORIGINAL PROGRAMMING
2049 Century Park East, Suite 4200
Los Angeles, CA. 90067
http://www.hbo.com/cmp.feedback.html

Mark Zakarin
Executive Vice-President, SHOWTIME Networks, Inc.
10880 Wilshire Blvd., Suites 1500 – 1600
Los Angeles, CA. 90024

Remember, when communicating your thoughts to these 
executives, a real letter (snail mail) has the most impact.  It tells 
them you care enough to write something, to find an envelope 
and to pay 32 cents to mail it to them.  That’s COMMITMENT.  
It also forces them to open and process these letters.  That’s 
CONSCIOUSNESS.  

On the other hand, I don’t want to preclude anyone from 
communicating as they see fit.  I know many of you are on tight 
budgets or schedules.  Do what you think is best, just make as 
much noise as you know how.  One enterprising AOL fan, for 
example, found the direct phone line and fax number for Warren 
Littlefield and sent them around to everyone he knew.  So, e-
mail, fax, phone, rent a megaphone or make a sandwich board.  
It’s your Resistance.

Again, the best communications are heart-felt, original, passionate 
statements of your feelings for DARK SKIES.  Tell them who you 
are and what you do (and, especially if you’re a young 
professional making a lot of money, tell them that).  Make 
yourself a real person to them.  Most of all, tell them why you’ve 
enjoyed the series and how you felt about NBC's’handling of it.  
It may help to have certain key points summarized.

THE REASONS FOR LOW RATINGS ON NBC:

1.  Worst time slot (8pm) on worst viewing night (Saturday).  
Even Lois & Clark just died in this time slot.
2.  Early and consistent pre-emptions.
3.  No repeats.
4.  No real promos after the launch of the series.
5.  Because of this, many potential viewers thought the show was 
cancelled.
6.  Most potential viewers of this material are out on Saturday 
night anyway.

WHY ANOTHER BUYER SHOULD PICK-UP THE SERIES:

1.  You will follow DARK SKIES to their network and tell your 
friends.
2.  Based on people you know, DARK SKIES was just starting to 
find an audience.
3.  DARK SKIES will work much better on their network than it 
did on NBC.
4. Like X-Files and Star Trek, DARK SKIES needs a second season 
to really take off.
5. In countries like England, Germany, Australia and South 
Africa where DARK SKIES has gotten decent time slots and 
fewer pre-emptions, the show is POPULAR!

Even if these letters don’t cause one of these networks or cable 
stations to put us on their schedule immediately, they could give 
them the idea to order episodes of DARK SKIES as a mid-season 
replacement.  So, no letter is wasted or too late.

Please feel free to fax or e-mail this letter to other like-minded 
fans who could join the cause.  Make this the international chain 
letter that sets the standard for fan activism in the new 
Millennium.

For those of you who would risk an A.R.T. to see new episodes 
produced, try this for Extra Credit.  Get in contact with your local 
newspaper TV critics and tell them what’s going on.  Call radio 
talk shows and discuss how fans can exert more pressure to keep 
favorite shows.

Many of you have asked me what our chances of success are.  
Honestly, I don’t know.  I do know that they are vastly improved 
over what would happen if we did nothing.  I do suspect that a 
very significant amount of letters are making the point that you 
should not be ignored.

The truth is simply this.  A writer/producer can’t save the show.  
Only a genuine expression from you, the fans, can do that.  It 
must be well-timed, clearly stated and numerically significant.  It 
must come from the heart.  Over and over in my years in 
Hollywood, I have heard network executives say that they are 
looking for PASSION.

Give it to them.

Resist Singularity.

bz

