The fans weigh in
” Lost’s” creators had a problem: Hurley wasn’t losing weight.
He was one of several characters stranded on a remote island, none of whom were getting much skinnier (or rumpled, for that matter) — but fans had honed in and were asking executive producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof why Hurley was still so burly.
“So we wrote into the show that he had a cache of food, including a hidden 5-pound tub of Dharma ranch dressing,” Cuse says.
Television series were once a story being told to a passively receptive audience, but recently they’ve evolved into more of a conversation. Web-savvy show runners, writers and producers are increasingly using the Internet to tune into what’s being said about their creations — and making changes, from cosmetic consistency shifts to major arc adjustments. It’s a feedback loop between fans and writers that show runners now ignore at their peril.
“It used to be a one-way street,” says “Heroes” executive producer Tim Kring. “We created content, pushed it into the world, and three months later the ratings would be our only feedback. Now people can let you know what they feel immediately.”
Kring recognizes when fans have a point — he backed off adding more characters to the 17 he introduced in the show’s first season when viewers cried foul over their favorite heroes being ignored. But he also notes that instant response to fan desires isn’t practical, due to the lag between script completion and when the fans see it on the air.
He says his show benefits from a passionate writing staff: “We are like the fan base in terms of how we connect to the material. When you hear concerns about the show, you want to be able to say, ‘Just wait, we had that same thought three months ago.’” It was an interaction that helped keep fans happy, the ones who stayed with the show, at any rate. With declining ratings, “Heroes” was canceled in May by NBC.
“Big Bang Theory’s” staff is in the same position, having cast sci-fi faves such as Summer Glau, Katee Sackhoff and Wil Wheaton recently, inducing nerdgasms among the fans. But, says executive producer Bill Prady, “that’s not responding to the fans — that’s being nerdier than the fans.”
Casting choices and tubs of dressing are minor; shifting whole show mythologies to make fans happy is another kind of risk. Upon realizing their leading lady and her husband had a very popular romance fully in place, “Ghost Whisperer” executive producers-directors Ian Sander and Kim Moses regretted having developed that relationship before the show began. So they killed off the husband. And with writing partner P.K. Simonds, they brought him back, à la “Heaven Can Wait.” Now the couple is just getting to know each other.
“That courtship became the underlying mythology of the show,” says Sander. The fans, though, needed a little nudging. So all three execs went online to talk them into it. “We engaged the fans and told them we weren’t jumping the shark, this was a deep romance and it would reboot it,” he adds. No telling if the move might have increased fan engagement — the show was canceled in May.
Ryan Murphy says he thinks they’re doing a good balancing act between the producers’ and fans’ desires at “Glee.” The second half of their first season works in such fan desires as more music, more interaction between two favorites (Puck and Rachel) and Jane Lynch (as Sue Sylvester) singing.
“We’ll do special things for the fans as opposed to whole episodes or arcs,” he says. “I don’t think you should be slavish to fans, but you have to respect them and know that the more input they feel they have, the more the audience will grow.”
No matter how they do it, however, the days of two-dimensional TV are gone; shows like “Heroes” and “Ghost” have long had multi-platform access for their fans to contribute to the story. And while “Ghost’s” creators were in the minority six years ago when they pitched their book with an online expansion concept, now such an approach is de rigueur.
“You have to fight for your audience more than ever, and you have to be clever,” says Murphy. “But you have to do it in the spirit of the show — not be stupid or gimmicky.”
Of course, it’s all about keeping fans actively engaged. But “engaged” doesn’t always translate to “happy.” Kring says he’ll take whatever reactions he gets.
“I’m encouraged by the passion the fans have, one way or the other,” he says. “The ones who are the most angry are often the biggest fans of the show.”
