Full Series The Petition to Disney: Save The Clone Wars

I'm just saying a petition is pointless when Disney will pick up TCW.

 

There is no guarantee Disney will broadcast it. Also there is a difference in airing already filmed/recorded episodes and funding for new episodes. It's rumored that one episode of TCW costs 2 million dollars to produce. That in comparison to many of the existing cartoons is pretty high. The Disney XD channel is struggling to keep an audience, and that would be the most logical home for it at this point.

Whats crazy is writing a letter can't hurt, only help. So why not do it? Almost every one has access to a computer and a printer (you are probably on a computer right now). Worse case all you need is a pen and a piece of paper. And a stamp is like 47 cents now right? Seems like a small price to pay for possibly a little insurance.

 

I actually do not watch the show during its TV broadcasts any longer - i don't have cable. I download the itunes season pass - so it would essentially have no effect on my viewing of the show if it became a "web-only" series.

However, I do think it would have a profound effect on the quality and longevity of the show. Moving a TV show off of broadcast TV and onto the web is the equivalent of moving a patient from the hospital to hospice - The web is where old broadcast shows go to die. Not that they are sent there with that intention, of course. The problem is that if it is only available on the web, it becomes a "behind-the-counter" product as opposed to something on display in the window. Not everyone who watches TCW seeks it out. Some people catch it on TV while channel surfing, others may see an Ad for it while watching a different show, and others still may end up just sticking around to watch whatever is on next after the show they were watching ends because it looks interesting. Sure there are also those who plan ahead and say "Oh! The Clone Wars is on tomorrow!" or "...in an hour." and even some who may set their DVRs to make sure they don't miss it...but I know that many of those who do wait for the show or plan on watching it ahead of time still wouldn't try to seek it out online. And when you consider all of the other groups who do not seek it out and/or plan ahead, there is no way that the demand for the show will increase or even stay steady. In fact, the longer something becomes "only attainable through a self-venture," the less and less people will eventually venture out to find it.

The fact is that being on a broadcast TV or cable network, ensures that a show remains a part of the people's schedule and routine. When that routine is eliminated, demand will decline even further until it is not reasonable to produce the show any longer. Sure, you could set up a website so that it adheres to a schedule for episodic releases and attempt to maintain that routine, but it still not as easily accessible. Consider a family who enjoys watching a couple shows a week (whether live or by way of DVR). They sit down to watch them as a family and the TV is that portal. The TV is part of that routine. Its easy for us to look at this scenario and say "whats the big difference?!" but trust me, if even subconsciously, a move away from TV and onto the internet would disrupt routines and people simply would fail to adapt. Of course some would adapt but there would definitely be a dip in interest.

What about kids with limited internet access and all sorts of parental controls? what about whether these would be free streams or paid - and even if they were free, the possibility of certain viewers thinking they have to pay or hearing false rumors that they do? All of these things would push viewers away inadvertently. Slowly but surely, the series that we all love so dear (well, maybe not all of us) would seem to lose interest from the POV of the people "upstairs" and it would be scrapped/shelved/etc.

No, I do not watch the series on TV, I do watch it online on itunes. But I also have the desire to wait until 2:30 am on sunday morning (when the itunes download is available) and to hook it up to my home theater....I'm not trying to save this show from moving to an online format for me I'm trying to do it for everyone else who isn't like me.

 

Excellent points. A lot of people forget the costs to make the episode have to be weighed along with how much advertizing the network gets. This is why ADs cost so much during the super bowl, because so many people watch it.

You are correct, "online" is a death sentence. Media execs will NOT fund an "online only show". They won't even fund a show with average viewership numbers. Luckily TCW viewership is up and the final episode got 2-3 million viewers.

 

Ughhh... Toonzone is down. Would be interesting see what 6-11 age group did, CN's bread and butter. I think its awesome TCW has such broad demographics but that can hurt since it makes it harder to attract advertisers. I need to rewatch "Wrong Jedi" and not fast forward commercials just to see what they were. They give a great impression of how a shows doing and what demos are being pulled. I imagine TCW would make and awesome lead in show however because of he wide demos. It might be the kind of show presently, that could be stuck anywhere on the schedule and perform. Anyone got ratings for Young Justice and following shows?

 

If i were a father, i would not let my kids watch this brutal show. Decapitations, suicide bombers, Brainworms. TCW should be completely PG13 rated.

i still have nightmares of Clonecaptain Rex killing that defenceless injured Umbarans. Nearly executing them. And than they blame Ventress of beeing a warcriminal..

 

You must be new to violence if you have nightmares about Rex.

 

Fives_Says_No_To_Sixes and phatdude1138 you guys make great points about the necessity for keeping a show alive on broadcast TV. I also want to ask the question, will moving networks also hurt or kill the Clone Wars' viewership, and is this part of the long delay in finding out where it's airing?

Moving networks alone can be detrimental to keeping viewers, i.e. the audience don't move to the new channel along with the show either because they don't know where it went, or they don't go seeking it out. Or maybe they don't have the new channel on their cable package. Possibly even worse, I've heard so many bad things about Disney XD and how crappy a station it is, would that also be a death sentence?

Maybe Disney is being smart and negotiating with Cartoon Network to keep the show healthy by leaving it there where it is thriving?

 

I am expecting that things are still being negotiated which is why we haven't heard anything.

We may have heard about another season much earlier then this before but that's before the Disney buy when CN didn't have that to consider so could easily say 'we'd like to air another season'. This time it is different so if CN are serious about wanting to keep the show then haggling will need to be done after the end of S5. I suspect now that that contract is now officially ended, CN will try to seek out for another season but it had to wait till now because of the buy and now that ratings have risen again, they will be even more interested in keeping the show.

Perhaps in your letters you should mention you'd like the show to remain on Cartoon Network where it already has an established audience. Disney may be willing to allow airing rights to CN, because they will be getting the money for it. They will be getting a profit from it.

 

Rex killed that Umbaran like someone would kill a Fly or a cockroach.

 

I read the big Bloomberg article that came out today regarding Disney's purchase of Lucasfilm. The Clone Wars or Lucasfilm animation were not mentioned once, but they made passing reference to the Live action series being discussed with ABC. What was mentioned generally was what we heard previously, that Disney wants to leave Lucasfilm in tact and let them run the creative side without interference. On the other hand, CEO Bob Iger says "he doesn’t want to do anything that might detract from the upcoming movies. “I don’t want to over-commercialize or over-hype this,” he says. “It’s my job to prevent that.”"

So, does the Clone Wars count as over-commercializing Star Wars? Do they want us to sit around without Star Wars visual entertainment for two years in order to "cool down"? I feel like we're being put in "time out." Here's the full article:
http://www.businessweek.com/printer...-bought-lucasfilm-and-its-plans-for-star-wars

 

I don't think the Clone Wars counts as over-commercializing Star Wars. Something like Detours might get quietly dropped because that is over-commercializing in my view.

 

I prefer the term euthanize.

 

Pffft... over-commercialism. Lego Star Wars is over commercialism in my opinion TCW not so much. Canceling it for that reason would be pretty dumb. Disney needs stuff like TCW to keep people hype. They don't want to pull a Cartoon Network and drop it for a while thinking that will spike up interest in Star Wars returned. Hell no. I don't believe for a moment that Disney won't cook up some sort of new animated show in the next few years for SW either. I'm sure Disney Toon Animation is already rolling their sleeves up for something.

 

Oh, so we can look forward to some crap animation you mean?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DisneyToon_Studios just a filmography.

 

Ok I can't really speak to the quality of those, but I do not like the idea of 2D. But if they do as they've promised, they'll leave the production to Lucasfilm animation so as not to mess with it too much. That team has only done 3D so far.

 

The one thing that gave me hope in that article was:

One weekend last October, Robert Iger, chief executive officer of Walt Disney (DIS), sat through all six Star Wars films. He’d seen them before, of course. This time, he took notes. Disney was in secret negotiations to acquire Lucasfilm, the company founded by Star Wars creator George Lucas, and Iger needed to do some due diligence.

If this was true, I think Iger would take notice of letters arriving at his office with fans concerns. It might just be over optimism, but you never know.

 

IGN have an interview with Filoni about Season 5... and on the last page they ask him about the future of the show. Based on what he has said it looks like that letters/campaign/petition is not needed. They just can't announce anything yet.

IGN: There are so many questions, obviously, about the future of the show, but back last summer at Celebration, you talked about work being done on Season 6. We know that there are completed episodes that we haven’t seen. Might we get an announcement one way or the other about when and where we’ll be seeing that, any time soon?
Filoni: [Laughs] Well, that’s the interesting part, this wait-and-see thing, I know, for fans. But there are more stories to tell, and as I’ve said, we’ve been working on them for awhile. I’ll be excited when we can share more details with you about that, but at this point, there isn’t really much I can say. Unfortunately, that’s all I can say. Sadly, for you guys. [Laughs] I see cool stuff every day… it’s totally unfair!
IGN: That’s very encouraging, because there are some more extreme rumors saying, “The show is over!” But I kept thinking, “But they’ve been making episodes, so that can’t be the case!”
Filoni: Right? Always in motion is the future. This is where I can be very vague and quizzical. [Laughs]
Link here: http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/03/...ve-filonis-season-5-wrap-up-discussion?page=5

 

Better safe than sorry, bro. Lets voice our opinion now. Filoni actually gives me the impression we're in for a longer wait.

 

"Better safe than sorry."

?

This petition is a waste of time. When Disney announces that they will be picking up TCW, I really hope I don't see you "petitioners" cheering that they must have read your letters. A dozen of people writing in will probably go un-noticed. I wonder how many angry letters CN got from people petitioning for TCW to end? I know when the Mandalore episodes first appeared, there was a boycott from the RepComm/Mando community to not watch those episodes. Hundreds of people participated. Was that noticed by CN?

No.


And before you say it, no, this is not off topic or derailing the thread, seeing as you directed people to this thread to talk about Disney picking up TCW.

 

I sincerely hope all this letter writing is a waste of time and TCW is picked up by Disney like everyone knows it will be. Or TCW is picked up by CN. So long as its on TV. We are just doing our part in helping out since folks in the know are scared its going to be cancelled. When TCW is picked back up. I will celebrate that its back with the forum. Lets keep in mind its TCW that's driven discussion in this section atleast for the last two years I've been here, love it or hate it. This is the TV section after all. Yep, please talk about Disney picking TCW up in here. We don't need different threads on "Should TCW Continue?" "Will Disney Cancel TCW?" "Save The Clones" ... its all part of the same topic.

Oh and BTW, Back in 2001. 1,000 people wrote to Cartoon Network asking Sailor Moon be moved to a later time slot. What happened? Sailor Moon was moved from 4:00pm to 4:30pm. I wrote my letter and left my message. I dunno if I had an impact on that but maybe. If you don't do nothing then you can't say you've done anything whether it works or not.

 

Did the thirty minute time change help?

 

It helped kids who didn't get home from school in time to watch it. =b

 

I don't think the majority of us think Disney is just going to throw away all of the work thats already done on TCW. I think many of us (I know I do) think that Disney WILL "pick up" TCW. but its the WHERE and WHEN that I think most people are petitioning for.

Petitioning for "When": We don't want this acquisition to cause a yearlong delay before we see more of TCW. We want a quick solution so that the next season of TCW premiers at the same time as last year (by the latest). We don't want it to be shelved until they find the "proper outlet for their needs." The quicker it comes to TV, the less chance that they're going to do something stupid with it down the road and ruin its future (i.e. begin releasing it direct-to-DVD until sales prove it to be non-profitable and it is wrapped up quicker than intended causing rushed and terrible endings to these characters' stories).

Petitioning for "Where": This is the big one, IMO. Sure i think TCW will continue in some form at one point or another. However, that form is a HUGE deal. It could mean the difference between the life and death of the show - and if you think that its not going to be released any other way than on broadcast TV/cable, you're being naive. Take for instance this excerpt from the Bloomberg article:

The deal fit perfectly into Iger’s plan for Disney. He wants to secure the company’s creative and competitive future at a time when consumers are inundated with choices, thanks to a proliferation of cable television networks and the ubiquity of the Internet. “It’s a less forgiving world than it’s ever been,” he says. “Things have to be really great to do well.”

Releasing the show in a direct-to-dvd format or online rather than on a strong network is a very real possibility and it is one that we all know (for reasons highlighted throughout this thread) will kill the show.

This petition is NOT a waste of time. The show is definitely facing a dire situation. Sure, Disney may not be stupid enough to cancel the show completely, but their actions could very well lead to that effect, sooner than intended. Maybe letters won't change their minds about their final decision of when and where to release the next season. but as Seerow said, It is better to do something to try and fight it, rather than to take it lying down.
(excuse the LOTR reference but...)
Even if...
"We cannot defeat the armies of Mordor!"
"No. We cannot. But we will meet them in battle nonetheless!"

That is why I'm petitioning.