Re: Radio Stations and Tv

From: chance <chance_at_unix.infoserve.net>
Date: Sun, 21 Jan 1996 17:19:11 -0800

>Why don't we put the story behind Swat Kats Cancellation on 60
>minutes or one of those newsmagzines?
>
>It might attract some attenion...

I had some press interest earlier from the East Coast (New York, I think...)
who suggested a survey of sorts be conducted in an Eastern video arcade to
ask kids what they'd rather see: a "Captain Planet" movie, a "SwatKats" movie,
or something else that I've forgotten. The individual who wrote me suggested that
if Turnerco didn't do it, then "others" would...but I heard nothing after that, and
the return e-add was bogus. I had a bunch of these about the time I posted stuff
to r.a.a., and most sounded as though they were coming from people within the
Turner empire afraid of having their names associated with the commentary. I would
personally have done something like that on a Saturday if I lived in some major U.S.
city, but hardly anyone in Canada knows what SwatKats is - especially in the West
where TBS was pay-cable.

What the media love is when a company such as Turner is caught out in a direct lie, or
some not easily explainable public contradiction. Well, there's been plenty of both (especially
the Gary Owens thing), but I really didn't see how embarrassing Tedco in front of
millions would go any further towards renewing the Kats. I may have gotten some personal
satisfaction from it (and did in fact try to get an article in an major Atlanta daily), but kinda
realized that making adversaries of them all wouldn't help achieve the goal. Really, I've got
enough stuff over the last year or so to make a fine "Hard Copy" instalment, but again, what
good would it do, and who would it benefit? Plus, there's always the spectre of another
witch-hunt at H-B, and good people have the possibility of meeting a bad end. These people
have to eat, and a single TV show ain't worth the price that _they'd_ end up paying. I'm
kinda fussy about quoting stuff if it's going to reflect whatsoever on those supplying the info -
even if it would end up benefitting the Katfans in some fashion. These guys pass on stuff
to help, but it's based on trust - and I'm not about to turn that in for some instant publicity
or a nationally televised "cheap shot" at Tedco - as much as I'd like to. Ain't honesty a bitch?
Turner himself makes enough televised gaffes personally to overshadow anything that Katfans
could do, and to understand the cancer eating away at the organization one needs to look no
further than one of his personal appearances. I somewhat pity those who find themselves in
the position of Ted's lieutenants; they're experienced industry people in many cases who know
exactly what to do, but are prevented by the next layer of management eager to be Ted's
lap-dogs. A more frustrating existence I cannot imagine.

_____________________________________________________
"Dedicated to the indomitable spirit of the sled dogs that relayed
 antitoxin six hundred miles over rough ice, across treacherous waters,
 through Arctic blizzards from Nenana to the relief of stricken Nome in
 the winter of 1925. Endurance, Fidelity, Intelligence." -- "Balto"
_____________________________________________________

Received on Sun Jan 21 1996 - 20:32:31 PST