'Interstellar Transmissions' Interviews David Kemper




Transcribed by feldman
INTERSTELLAR TRANSMISSIONS, SEPT 20TH 2002


Host: [voiced over Sousa's "Stars and Striped Forever"] What makes America great? Is it the fact that we have the freedom of choice? Is it the fact that we could just go ahead and tell our elected officials what we want to do because hell, we voted them in in the first place? It could be the same thing with science fiction television programs. And of course this goes back as far as 1968 when Bjo Trimble led that grass-roots effort to save Star Trek and have NBC realize that there were viewers for the show on a Friday night, and in the end result a third season. Added to the fact that if it weren't for Bjo and that grass-roots effort, well, we probably wouldn't have a Star Trek mythos, but then again that could be wishful thinking. And at the same time that's most important, two weeks ago Farscape was cancelled by the Sci-Fi Channel and in the end result all hell broke loose in a grass-roots effort that has just about rivaled Bjo Trimble's Save Star Trek Campaign about 34 years ago. It's unbelievable what's happened and joining right us now on a broadcast of interstellar transmissions we have David Kemper for the balance of the hour. He is the Executive Producer as well as Head Writer for Farscape. David, live from Australia, welcome to the broadcast of Interstellar Transmissions.
DK: Thank you very much. How're you doing?

Host: We're doing great, thanks. We'd feel a lot better if the Sci-Fi Channel didn't--how can we say this?--didn't take advantage of that little escape clause because your show was I think the only Sci-Fi Channel original program that was renewed for an unprecedented two season. And I can only name about maybe five television programs overall that have been renewed for two or more seasons and yet they decided to go ahead and pull the plug with no reason whatsoever, without so much as a by-your-leave and everything just goes crazy from there.

DK: Well, you've got to remember in all fairness they do have their reasons. They're not reasons that we all like, but they do have their reasons. Their rational is in, a way sound, from a network perspective. I worked at a network for ten years, so I can understand it, ash, I don't agree with it. In this case, I think, it's wrong. But their rational--they have reasons, they can list them. I think they have, also, he-men.

Host: Well I though it was interesting they had put together a huge ad campaign that put back-to-back Stargate SG1, which was coming off of a Showtime network in it's original run, and comparing the adventures of Rich Anderson, who's playing the Colonel on Stargate to the adventures of Ben Browder's character. So what was the expectation of the ad campaign when the series premiered that generated, I guess, a sense of disappointment?

DK: Well, first of all, we weren't wild about the campaign. The shows are different. Normally in television, when you're dealing with a lot of shows and you have seven nights and three hours, on a bigger network, of programming, you can mix and match audiences that would watch Cheers and then watch Frasier. You put Frasier behind Cheers and maybe you've got something. But it's a smaller channel, they don't have as much product to pair us up with. We kept waiting over the years for something that would be perfect to go before or after Farscape and a lot of things that got put in, Lexx and Black Scorpion and Invisible Man, they never gelled. The audiences aren't the same. And so the audience, Stargate brings a huge audience to the Sci-Fi Channel by virtue of where it used to play but they may not be the same people that are watching Farscape. So trying to say "they're one and the same show, if you like one, you're going to like the other"--I think an expectation was built up in their minds that "this is a sure thing, this is a fit, look, hero and hero, huh, what could be better?" when in fact the shows, both good, are completely different. So the audience for one may not stick around to watch the other. That doesn't indicate a failing, that simply means they're not the same audience. I think that internally, they were hoping "goodness, these numbers, every single person from one show is gonna watch the other and we'll be rich rich rich". It doesn't work that way.

Host: Quick question, looking forward to the future, ADV the people who are distributing the Farscape video in America at least have announced for their display for [HipCon?] 2002 they're going to be hyping Farscape the animated series, being a 26 episode anime. Do you know anything about this?

DK: Personally no. I'm doing the live action, heh-heh, I did a live-action actor one. I know that there are things that go on within the Henson Company, which is my parent organization, but I am not up yet on all the [bee-ulds?]. I suppose I'll know everything shortly, but I've been busy doing the work. We're still post-producing the episodes here. We've got a lot of work to do to go on [gnawing?] of the last 11, what stand to be the last 11 episodes of Farscape at the moment.

Host: [re-intro and thanks to Tracy Gilbert of Henson for setting up the interview] And we do have a number of people who do have some questions for you, David, so let's go ahead and go to the first one. We have Andy calling from Cape Kroll, Florida, you're on a broadcast of Interstellar Transmission, what's your question for Dave Kemper tonight?

Andy: I'd like to tell David that I am a huge huge fan of the show, I've been a fan since Day One. I've personally turned 23 people onto the show. We love the show. We're flying out to the convention in Burbank, I'm wondering if he'll be attending?

DK: Well, I've got an answer and then a question for you.

Andy: Okay.

DK: I don't know if I'll be attending this year. It's real close to Thanksgiving, and for four or five years I haven't been able to spend Thanksgiving with my family. And I have lots of family in Detroit, and I never get back there, because I've been in Australia. So I'm still debating which part of the country I'll be sitting in when the turkey gets rolled out. I've got a quick question for you.

Andy: Sure.

DK: If you turned this many people on to the show, which I think is fabulous, just my question is, when you watch the show do you watch it alone, or do you watch it with people?

Andy: I was in the chat room last night when you were talking about this and um--

DK: Yeah.

Andy: I watch it alone. As a matter of fact I got people hooked on it via videos.

DK: Okay, because a lot of our fans, we know, watch in groups and that, we were talking, I've been talking about this and Sci-Fi, we were all aware of it, you know that will hurt our demographics and the Nielsen. It's almost like a party show. People do get together on Friday night. That's one of the things that ends up hurting a show sometimes. You know, we're not Cheers, we're not on NBC, so we don't have the audience access that West Wing has. We're a niche cable channel and if you lose 10% of your audience, not really lose them, but they're watching with someone else, it makes a huge impact on the ratings. So I was just curious and as long as I've got you on the line I thought I'd ask you.

Host: [cuts off Andy before he can ask another question and re-introduces Kemper] Let's go to Princeton, New Jersey where Kevin is on the line. Kevin, you're on the air now with David Kemper.

Kevin: Hey Dave, how're you doing tonight?

DK: I'm good, how are you?

Kevin: Or this morning, their time.

DK: Right now it's about 9:45 here a Saturday morning.

Kevin: Yep, see that's what I thought. Dave, first of all, thanks for the show.

DK: Later on I'll tell you guys what's going to happen, you know, later tonight for you guys. It's just one of those night you won't want to spend inside, you know. Well we had all the Farscape people, we had a barbecue at Rowan Wood's house last night and I can tell you how the night turns out, okay?

Kevin: Great. Dave, one of the things that a lot of people are asking is, "what do we do now?" A lot of people have been really busting their butts in the last couple weeks to make it known that the show is popular, make it known that people want to see the show. But at this point, you know, people are like "okay, what do we do now?" And the other question is what about alternative networks, there's a lot of rumors going around about one specific network that is interested--

DK: Which network are you hearing?

Kevin: UPN.

DK: Yeah, that's a pretty good network. Personally, I've written for Star Trek in various incarnations. I know all those guys, I'm in touch with Brannon Braga all the time. And Star Trek, he's head of the network of course, that does the show. If I was a fan I'd start calling UPN and say "gee, wouldn't Farscape go great after Enterprise?". Umm, what can the fans do? Well my question is, "hey, what can we do?".

We were all at the barbeque last night and we were all sitting around a table and a lot of the actors a lot of the producers, directors, the creative people, and Claudia, we were joking and Claudia goes "okay, so what TV show am I gonna be on next?" and we all played the game about which bad TV show we were all gonna end up on, calling each other saying "I hate this job! I hate this job!" <{> So, hell with you, what do we do?!? What do the fans do? This is something that Ben first suggested which I put in the chat yesterday which I think is great. Sci-Fi Channel said that we were under performing, that's part of the reason that they got rid of us, and to me, I gotta be honest, it makes no sense. We're just barely below the ratings that we did last year--

Kevin: Give...example...Nielsen ratings?

DK: --in comparison now to a show that gets a higher audience. Maybe, you know, there are certain factions within Sci-Fi, it's not a uniform decision, I'll just say that. There are people who love the show and are disappointed by the decision, there's other people, you get into a battle and some people want to free up the money that it costs to make Farscape so that they can make their own shows, put their stamp on things. That happens at every network, whenever there's a transition. This network only has two original shows, one home-grown--Farscape, and one that they got from somewhere else, so there's not a lot of places to cut it. You want to get money back and the ratings are a bit higher for Stargate so you cut the other one, with barely an understanding of how the fans love the show, without looking at the fans. What can you do? You know, the last caller was saying--it was a huge--23 people (I'm tired, I'm sorry). You get so many people watching the next 11 eps that we blow the ratings through the roof. That's in January, guys, that's three months from today. So a lot can happen.

If we come back in January with a couple eps that are sky-high in ratings--and the critics love us, I've talked to a lot of critics and they're shocked--the ratings go through the roof, something's gonna happen. Because that's what it's about. And so, that would be my goal, is just to sit back, [spend an arn s o laughing?]. Because we do have a lot of fans and maybe they tape it and maybe the Nielsen ratings aren't in the right houses, you never know. We know there's more people that were undercounted, so does Sci-Fi, that always happens in a small cable channel. Just get people to watch the show. Use your energy and thoughts and resources to get people to watch the show. And if they watch the show, I would suspect there'll be more show, because it's "give the people what they want" at the bottom, and when the people speak even the most recalcitrant ears sometimes get the wax pulled out.

Host: Indeed on that. Kevin, thank you for your call by the way. And with that, obviously since ratings is the bottom line a question we got as an email from Lauren in Pompano Beach, Florida, which is not too far down the road here: "Would that lose momentum of the campaign if we wait too long for that? Considering the fact that if the ratings are high enough, this whole Save Farscape campaign might just be a moot point?"

DK: Well, this is real interesting. I had a discussion with the Sci-Fi people and I said "take a look at what's happening. this is insane." I mean, it's really flattering by the way, all the core people from Farscape were together last night, and we're a bit, well, we're humbled. I mean that, really. We just "can you believe it?". Because we're in Australia, the show doesn't even air here. So we don't walk, Ben Browder and Claudia and Anthony and Gigi, they don't get to walk down the street and have people go "hey! you're Chiana!". It's not on the air here. So you don't get the feedback loop. Now, we're getting the feedback loop and we're going "who are these people?" I mean they really love the show. We were just making the show like a little community theatre. We'd get together and we'd paint a set and someone makes a costume and then a couple people write some lines and other people say them and we're kinda stunned that people are going "wow, it's our favorite show!". And we're not stupid, we just didn't know it was this big.

Now, can people sustain this momentum, is there an outlet for it? I said to Sci-Fi "put us back on in re-runs at ten o'clock. there'll be so much buzz that new people are going to tune-in and get hooked on the show". They're gonna tune-in and say "what's this fuss about?". They said, "well the repeats of Stargate are getting higher ratings than the repeats that you would get at ten". And I said, "but you don't want to be the all Stargate network. here's an opportunity to have new people sample our show, so even if for the next four weeks our rating and re-runs are down a bit compared to what Stargate will get you, you might be getting new fans who'll stay with your whole network, which aggregately over time, is a benefit". And there was a bit of deafness there. And I thought, my goodness, if I'm at a network, and I was for a decade, I was at CBS, and this kind of groundswell is happening, I'm treating these fans like they're my best friend. I'm saying to my advertisers "see these loyal people out there, see these Farscapers, these 'Scapers?". I want these people in my camp. I want to do anything I can to get these damn people.

If they called us and said "we're gonna run some special Farscapes, would you people come on and do commentary before and after, even though they're re-runs?". We could think of a million ways to make re-runs into an event. We could do live DVD commentary from Australia over the broadcast. We could turn the sound of the broadcast down and let the actors and the producers and directors talk over the images that our fans know. We could turn this, with creative thinking, we could turn this into such momentum. But I'm not getting the creative thinking. And the creative thinking is down here in Sydney at the moment. And I think there was an underestimation of the groundswell and that's what the fans can do, is they can say "oh why the hell isn't it even on in re-runs right now?".

It's almost like the fans voice--well look, it's a business so sometimes if they get rid of a product, if Coca-Cola drops a product and the fans scream it's just not economical for Coke to make the product, we all have to be aware of that. Just because it's our favorite show doesn't mean it's gonna get back on. But boy oh boy, those re-runs exist and they have 'em and we're willing to do things. It's kind of like "let's go, let's go, let's do something". And I think that's where the energy should be focused.

Host: Exactly. {Re-introduction of DK] Fans are waiting on the line to speak with you, let's go to Kyle out of Boston, Massachusetts. Kyle, you're on a broadcast of Interstellar Transmissions, what's your question tonight for David Kemper?

Kyle: Hello Mr. Kemper, just wanted to say that your show has made a big difference on people and prior to it being cancelled I had never written or called a company before. I guess I should get to the question.

DK: Thank you very much.

Kyle: It seems from all the stuff that, I've really over the last couple of weeks gotten into researching this stuff on Sci-Fi and trying to make a difference, that it really seems the network is gearing more toward just getting rid of their science fiction programming in favor of getting something that think would, quote-unquote, go to a broader audience.

Host: Exactly, exactly. In fact, I understand that the Sci-Fi Channel is looking right now--I just got this information from Sci-Fi--apparently they're submitting this, they want viewers to submit their dreams for possible analysis on an upcoming original reality series "The Dream Team". So apparently it's not so much the Sci-Fi Channel as much as it's the New Age Channel.

Other Host: Hey, I've got a dream: how about they put Farscape back on Sci-Fi?

Host: Exactly, exactly.

DK: [through laughter] Well, let me jump in. Cause I'm just thinking this through. One of the things, this is one of our arguments. Look, I lost a lot of sleep and I'm hoarse from being up, you know, these weird hours Because you guys are in Florida, same time zone and I'd be up at three, four in the morning when it would be two in the afternoon there having, yelling. Our audience, to my knowledge, and I'm easily easily corrected by anyone including Sci-Fi and I don't have a problem with that, but our audience is the best demographics that they're gonna get in terms of women, in terms of the prime groups that they would want, that advertisers would want to sell to.

Host: Oh definitely across the board, yeah.

DK: Yeah, so to say "I want to broaden my audience", well it goes back to the--I won't get into specifics because it's not fair at this point--the marketing campaign that was supposed to be in January of this year I rejected and Ben Browder rejected. And it basically equated Stargate with Farscape. Not to get specific. But to say "it's the same thing, if you like one, you're gonna love the other". No. Farscape is a love story. It's not even science fiction. The reason people are passionate, it's not your father's science fiction. It's weird. We're totally--we are a completely dysfunctional group of people and we all belong on a boat in the middle of the ocean where no one can be contaminated by us. But, fortunately, we've been able to make a television show together. And it's different.

And if people who--if we were airing at Fox, they might say "oh yeah yeah, it's science fiction but you've gotta watch it, it's got character and love and romance" but because we're at a place, and Sci-Fi's aware of this, with the name 'Sci-Fi Channel' a lot of non-sci-fi fans who will watch Buffy and say "oh, Buffy's not sci-fi", they won't watch us, because we're here. And that's not a slam against Sci-Fi, that is the name. So they're trying to broaden, they want to reach more people. My attitude is, you've got, we're not a bunch of 14 year old boys staring at the poster going[???]

We have middle-aged people, the letters I get are from mothers and housewives and grandmothers and there's a woman in [Maine?] with six kids and two grandkids and we have this group of people that I think Sci-Fi should be building upon. And instead at the moment, they're shunning them and saying "well we'll start over and try to find some way--" Oh. That's the Farscape phone ringing, I'll just turn it off. Um,

Host: Actually if it means much we're running out of time.

DK: Okay.

Host: And I feel bad about this, though I do want to ask you this.

DK: I'll come back if there are questions on another day.

Host: I'll tell you what, I'm thinking about that for next week if that's okay because obviously we want to make sure that, we gotta keep on top of this situation until there's a rightful conclusion, whether or not Sci-Fi doesn't appreciate you or what.

DK: Well Tracey at Henson, and she'll make everything happen for you.

Host: Very well. Our apologies to all the other callers who tried to get on here, obviously didn't with time constraints. David Kemper thank you so much for being on our broadcast of Interstellar Transmissions tonight and talking to the most important group of people that matter to Farscape, the fans. Crackers do matter

DK laughs.

Host: And I'm not saying this just cause we're from Florida.