Dead Like Me fans and several fully costumed Grim Reapers will be gathering Monday, October 31st, at 11 AM outside Showtime offices at 1633 Broadway (50th Street) to join a protest sponsored by TV fansite MediaVillage.com urging the pay network to complete the two-season series
with a final wrap-up movie and to encourage Sony Pictures Television and another TV network to consider picking up the series. The growing popularity of the series, which starred Mandy Patinkin, is another testament to the impact of DVD sales and the influence of global markets for U.S. television. MediaVillage.com will deliver to
Showtime programming chief Robert Greenblatt the more than 30,000 e-mails the site has received through its SoundOff to Network Executives feature. Many U.S. fans discovered the series as a result of video-on-demand and DVD sales, an audience Showtime failed to consider in its evaluation of traditional ratings. Fans from more than 30
countries have written to Showtime via MediaVillage.com, most of them pointing out they have only recently discovered the cancellation of the program as the second and final season episodes are wrapping up in their countries. Jack Myers MediaVillage.com is the
community site for intelligent TV fans, and features TVFanblogs, TVFanforums, WatercoolerTV, TV Photo Gallery, celebrity and executive interviews, TV astrological Star-casts, and extensive original TV commentary and reviews.
Christina writes:
I have lost two things that are pretty important to me- One was my older brother and the other is the show that we watched together. A year ago my brother was murdered and this was a show that he and I had in common. We
watched it in different parts of the USA and would call each other about it later on. He was 27 at the time he died and I was 24. We didn't have a lot in common but this was definitely something we had. So after he died I felt like a part of
me had as well but I still had our show. Please give me back that show that makes me feel like he's there with me. Dead Like Me.
Susan E. Sounds Off:
I am an attorney who works a lot of hours each week and barely gets to watch TV. Additionally, there is such GARBAGE
on most of the time I can't stand to just sit there and click through 200 channels. Therefore I have become very focused where my viewing is concerned and for the past
year or so have only watched HBO and Showtime series. For the longest time it was JUST HBO until someone introduced me to Dead Like Me. I was completely taken in. I immediately ordered
Showtime (previously had only HBO). I watched (and LOVED) the second season. The finale was brilliant (and coming on Halloween, it was so perfect). I started watching Fat Actress in what I thought was DLM's off-season and like it a lot but nothing else on Showtime will keep
me from canceling it if DLM doesn't come back. I will go back to only watching HBO. Showtime needs all the loyal viewers
it can get and this is no way to cultivate them. Thank you for your effort. Dead Like Me is quality programming with smart writing and great acting in the entertainment wasteland that is TV. Thanks for helping in the fight to keep it on the air.
Thomas Sounds Off:
Eight years ago, members of my family started dying. Not through old age, sickness, or accidents, but a mix of all those. My father, younger brother, girl friend and grand parents are all gone now. In just four short
years, my family was reduced to a fourth of its original number.
For years, I was in a state of limbo, personally. I had problems taking anything seriously and nothing would successfully capture and hold my attention.
I have never done drugs, and I
never ever will; instead I buried myself in books and music, and whenever I had the money for it, I would travel.
When I first watched Dead Like Me, it made me stop and think things over; in many ways it was an awakening.
Most importantly, it brought me something that had been missing entirely from my life for many years: hope.
Nobody really knows what happens when we die, and I suspect we never will find out. However, Dead Like Me had a refreshing take
on death, and how people deal with it. Through this show, I was allowed a glimpse of how things might be for some of us when we finish our time here on Earth.
I have bought the DVDs of season 1, and am in the process of subtitling the episodes, so I can watch them with my mother, who
doesn't understand English. Maybe this show will also bring a little hope into her life, and remove some of the grief from her soul.
It astounds me why anyone would cancel such a vivid and brilliantly written show.
Please, Nameless-Executives-Who-Run-Showtime, please
bring back Dead Like Me. Two seasons are not enough.
This show made a huge impact and a big difference in my life.
Diane K. Sounds Off:
Dead Like Me was amazing. The most captivating shows I had ever watched in my entire lifetime. It had me crying, shocked, laughing and feeling peaceful. Feeling peaceful in New York City, post 9/11, where
anxiety was and is a huge factor of life. I have had one of the biggest fears of death ever since I was a little girl, as well as lost my mom at a young age and this show just eased that fear and pain for that matter. No matter how fictional the story line, the underlying messages were a work of genius reaching out to me personally as well as to all genres and age groups. Words can't describe the
impact the show has had to myriads of people. I have had some disappointments in the past with cancellations, but this was devastation!!!! Not only to me, but also to the thousands of "cancellation-knowing" fans. I am researching the Message Boards on Showtime, the Internet, struggling to find a ray of hope for reconsideration by the network, and realizing the
countless people outraged by this decision. DLM fans, I have noticed have persistence, and the biggest sense of loyalty. We are followers of a show that demonstrated how fate could make a cruel play on you, but you don't have to follow the course of your fate without a fight! In summation, this appeal is not only beneficial to the viewers for the countless rewards the show offers, but to your
network. You have the "blue diamond" of series'. With a little more advertising the show would be a worldwide success. You can't think that shows like "Fat Actress" (no offense to Kirstie Alley) are quality. Showtime, you need to do some restructuring once again. Either your new president (as rumors have it) is making poor choices, or "Mr. New President" you need to pick a better team for show concept approval. Either way, resurrect Dead Like Me or may you rest in peace by this viewer and thousands of others!
Jamie W. Sounds Off:
Nearly two years ago now, I was flipping around on the on-demand offerings and found a show I'd heard of only in passing. I watched the first episode and was completely hooked -- killed by a toilet seat missile! Life
after death! Personal heavens! Exactly what I was looking for. I couldn't believe such an amazingly well-done show was so lightly advertised. And perhaps that answers my question: Why would Showtime want to
cancel a brilliant show like Dead Like Me? Because so few people had heard of it, no one was watching except for the lucky few like me who'd stumbled across this gem by chance.
With amazing actors and insightful writing, it was one of the best shows I've seen in years. I purposely addicted my husband to it, and now we both are dying to see the show continue -- why cancel it right
when it's getting really good? When George has just figured out how to kill the Gravelings? At least give it one more season to wrap up the loose ends. Maybe it's not Sex in the City, or Deadwood -- but that's the point! Dead Like Me is completely original, an innovative way of looking at the "what happens after," a gruesomely
funny and yet transcendentally philosophical show.
Speaking for all the fans in love with George's nervous rebelliousness and Rube's painful wisdom, please, please bring it back from the dead! And maybe, this time, tell a few more people about it.
Kirstyn M from Australia Sounds Off:
Being late to jump onto the surprisingly large Dead Like Me bandwagon, I was late to hear about its tragic cancellation. Why must every show I fall in love with whither and die? Buffy ended, and I thought
ok, I can live on with ANGEL. Then Angel is cancelled mid-season and my heart breaks. Finally, I found solace in the intelligent and quirky Dead Like Me, airing on Fox8 (a PayTV channel) in Australia. As soon as I could, I rushed out and spent my hard-earned cash on the season one DVDs, and I will
buy season two ASAP. I implore the network execs to revive Dead Like Me. Do not ignore your consumers with IQs in double digits - we can't stand the rest of the drivel on TV these days.
