Save jPod

Can fans really save a TV show from cancellation? The CBC had barely pulled the plug on the adaptation of Douglas Coupland's novel about a group of pop culture-spouting, cube-dwelling, Vancouver video game designers, when campaigns to save it started sprouting up.

It has been done before. Most recently fans of the show Jericho deluged CBS with tons of nuts in their successful campaign to revive the show. We've seen Family Guy and Futurama saved by robust DVD sales and Arrested Development is at least getting a big screen treatment following its premature demise. Fans of other shows on the cusp have purchased billboards and ads in Variety. Campaigners for Everwood set up a ferris wheel outside the executive's offices while Veronica Mars fans deluged the CW network with Mars Bars (to no avail as it turned out). Even the original Star Trek got a second life from a fan letter-writing campaign.

So it's not that it can't be done, it's just that those are the exceptions, not the rule. For every reprieve there are dozens more consigned to the dustbin every year. I've seen many of my favourite shows get the axe before their time: Andy Richter Controls the Universe, the aforementioned Arrested Development, The Critic and Sports Night just to name a few. But unlike all those other times, I want to try and help this time. So I have called the CBC, emailed audience relations and signed a petition calling for jPod's return. I can see those cbc.ca domains popping up in my stats, so I know somebody is reading.

That being said I don't think we should start sending crates of Robitussin to CBC headquarters — read Denis McGrath's excellent Emily Post's Guide to Save-Our-Show Campaigns post for exactly why — but I think it is worth trying something. It may not save the show, but there is no chance at all if we do nothing.

And if I can't convince you, here's what Raugi Yu, who plays Kam Fong on jPod, has to say:

Dear Friends,

Hi all, Raugi Yu here. I play Kam Fong on jPod. Okay, so you have heard that jPod has not been picked up for a second season by CBC. I got the call a couple of days ago about it.

At first I was upset and disappointed and immediately thought of the great times and experiences I had shooting jPod and how much I would take from that… There was one problem though… I kept wondering why. Why not have a season 2? I started to hear what others were saying. I heard anger, resentment and frustration. So many of you my friends along with thousands, yes thousands, of strangers have expressed outrage over the cancellation of jPod.

I got angry too.

One may think that, “Sure, I’d be angry too if I lost a steady gig like that”. Well that’s not what I’m angry about. Gigs come and go. It is no huge hardship for me to go back to auditioning and booking and living my life as an actor. It is my passion. No. It angers me that the CBC our nation’s television station (yes I know among other things) chooses to cancel a show that is so cutting edge, fun, smart and CANADIAN. So many viewers have gleaned joy from watching jPod week after week. We look forward to it; I dare say we yearn for it.

I’d like to go down swinging. Many of you, who know me well, know that I am quite a loner and I don’t ask for help often even when I need it. I guess I‘m asking now.

I’m a pretty chilled out go with the flow kind of guy, but I recognize that there are times in my life when I’ve got to fight. In surveying the land I recognize that I need a lot of help.

If you feel you can, please call CBC at: 1-866-306-4636, choose option 1 for English programming and choose option 1 again for the “Attendant” then ask for “Audience Services”. Audience Services will answer and at that point tell them how you feel about jPod being cancelled and how you would like to see a season 2.

OR

E-mail them at http://www.cbc.ca/contact/

I alone can reach out to all of you and if all of you can reach even 2 people and we get that people ball rolling… we could possibly be jamming up some phone lines at CBC. Am I being naïve and hopeful? I hope so; it feels better than lying down and taking it.

Thanks everyone! I really appreciate all of you for watching the show and for all the great things you’ve all been saying about it.

Longevity and persistence is the key. Phone or e-mail, if you can do it everyday.

I send my love to you all and just to be clear, that love stays whether you phone, e-mail, write or not.

Thank you all!
Raugi Yu
A.K.A Kam Fong

There are are two petitions floating around: Request that CBC continue jPod and We the undersigned ask CBC to renew jPod over at Save jPod. There are also the request Facebook groups, jPod and Save jPod Now!

It will be interesting to see what comes of it.