I am – Hercules!!


Should we, as one talkbacker below suggests, be sending Mars bars to The CW??

I watched “Jericho,” but I loved “Veronica Mars.”

Now it looks like the former series’ “nuts” campaign has convinced CBS to reconsider its cancellation. From Wednesday morning’s Variety:

Hoping to take advantage of a devoted fan based -- and the new multiplatform era -- CBS is readying a plan to bring back the drama sometime next season. Net will likely order seven or eight episodes for broadcast.

Eye killed "Jericho" last month, leaving the show off its fall schedule and declaring it dead (Daily Variety, May 16). Normally, that would've been the end of things.

But fans of the show revolted, launching a massive online-based campaign to save the show. Their gimmick: Deluging the Eye's Gotham and L.A. HQ with bags of... nuts. Nearly 20 tons, at last count, according to a Web site tracking electronic orders for the nuts. Protesters even found the cell phone number of a CBS exec, flooding him with calls and forcing him to change his number.

“Mars” creator Rob Thomas wants to keep “Veronica” on, even going so far as to shoot a “presentation” (or mini-pilot) depicting the title character attending Virginia’s FBI academy several years in the future. (The “Veronica FBI” presentation will, by the way, be an extra on the show’s third-season DVD).

And Dawn Ostroff, who runs The CW’s entertainment division, is also said to be a huge “Veronica” fan.

From the May 18 edition of The Hollywood Reporter, published the day after the CW announced its “Mars”-less fall schedule:

At a news conference after the presentation, [CW entertainment president Dawn] Ostroff confirmed that "Veronica Mars" has solved her last case in her current incarnation but that no final decision has been made on a proposed new version of the series by creator Rob Thomas in which the title character, played by Kristen Bell, is at the FBI Academy.

This would seem to be confirmed by a report from TV Guide's Michael Ausiello:

The press conference is over. I tackle Dawn just as she tries to escape and I ask her to level with me. Is Veronica dead? "Veronica Mars is over, but we're talking about something else. I don't know if it's going to be anything. I'm being honest with you. It could come back in some form, but I don't know what form that would be." She confirmed that the deadline to make a decision is "somewhere around" the June 15 date I referred to previously.

I would posit that “Jericho” was FAR deader two weeks ago than “Veronica” is now. Did “Jericho” fans just want it more than “Veronica” fans?

I say NUTS TO THAT! In the 2007 E! “Save One Show” poll , “Veronica” beat the living shit out of “Jericho,” 32 percent to … ZERO percent!!

If you’re aware of a current petition to save “Veronica Mars,” tell us where it is and we will publicize it here at Ain’t It Cool just as vigorously as Merrick publicized the “Save Jericho” movement.

Write Dawn Ostroff. Send her nuts. Send her something more appropriate. Send her something in an envelope, with stamps. (Email isn’t as impressive as giant sacks of paper, apparently.) Her address:

Dawn Ostroff
President of Entertainment
The CW Network
4000 Warner Boulevard, Bldg 168
Burbank, CA 91522-0002

BE POLITE!! Dawn loves “Veronica” as much as we do; she just needs ammunition to convince her bosses at Time Warner and CBS that “Veronica” deserves to attend the FBI.

Here's the address of Dawn's boss:

John Maata
Chief Operating Officer
The CW Television Network
4000 Warner Boulevard, Bldg 168
Burbank, CA 91522-0002

I invite and encourage my friends, Mike Ausiello at TV Guide and Kristin Veitch at E!, “Veronica” lovers both and both with huge followings, to redouble their efforts in support of the “Veronica” cause.

If you’ve a better idea than nuts, post that idea in talkback. (Not bullets, as those could scare people.) Somebody just sent me this MarsBuck. It's cheaper but perhaps not as impressive as nuts. Also, that "two seasons" thing could use updating.

UPDATE!! As I type this at 2 a.m. PT, this petition to save "Veronica" already has 35,154 signatures. Kindly add to it if you've a mind to.

UPDATE!! Here’s the cheapest thing I could find on Amazon with “Mars” on it!! It’s $1.79 (and shipping is free if you enter code "VERONICA" at checkout)!! If you can find anything cheaper (or better?) anywhere, let us know via email or talkback.

If you can't afford the $7.50 to have a Mars Bar shipped to UPN, talkbacker TigerRobot pointed out BARSforMARS.com. You can download a Mars bar wrapper there you could probably use to cover a Snickers With Almonds or something. If a fan goes to the trouble to MAKE such a Mars Bar, I would think that would make an even bigger impression!

"Jericho" has given us an opening. Now it's up to our sorry asses!

MORE CW BELL!!!!

I am – Hercules!!

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