Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell - Bryce Zabel - Dark Skies (hour 1)
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Top of the morning, everybody.
In about an hour, we are going to have... I'm getting a million messages.
Art, what happened to dark skies?
Well, There's nothing like getting it from the guy who produced Dark Skies.
Bryce Sable.
So at midnight, we will call Bryce Sable.
And we'll talk to him about what's going on with Dark Skies.
Whether it's gone, in a hiatus, a moving, what's going on?
So the rest of the story, as Paul would say, at midnight tonight with regard to dark skies.
Otherwise, it's going to be an open line session tonight.
8255.
1-800-618-8255.
tonight at 2-5-5. 1-800-618-8255. East of the Rockies at 1-800-825-5033.
1-800-825-5033.
This is the CBC Radio Network.
We are the ones.
Good morning, everybody.
I'm Art Bell.
And I have received, I don't know how many faxes and emails and communications about Dark Skies, the TV program.
Everybody says, Art Bell, what has happened to Dark Skies?
Please, please, please tell me.
Um, and I've tried to answer as many as I could.
Uh, but one can only, um, uh, respond to so much mail, and I suppose if I've had a lot, the producer of Dark Skies, uh, Bryce Zabel, who's coming up in a moment, probably has bucketfuls.
In a moment, we're gonna find out what actually did occur to Dark Skies.
Because Bryce Zabel, its producer, is here.
So, that's coming up.
Do you drink bottled water?
6-9.
Tell them Art Bell told you to call.
That's 1-800-406-0469.
Alright, if you're one of the people who wanted to know what has happened to Dark Skies, here from California is Bryce Sable.
Bryce, welcome.
Thanks, Art.
Nice to be with you.
Bryce, what has happened?
Well, what happened today, we have at least news today, NBC has officially cancelled us, so you won't be seeing Dark Skies on NBC next year.
Will there be any more episodes aired at all?
Well, NBC says there will be, and I take them at their word right now.
They've had us scheduled to air the final two episodes for a month and a half now, and will supposedly air on May 24th and May 31st, but I'll
believe it when I see it. I hope they do air them though, because especially that May 31st episode is
about one of the most outrageous episodes of television I've ever seen put out on a
nationwide network. All right, let me ask you why you think your series got canceled. Well, let's be
honest, it's not that complicated.
We didn't connect with enough people to make it on the number one network.
I guess the real heart of the matter, though, is why didn't we?
I think you could argue there that NBC didn't do us any favors after we got on the air.
I don't want to feel like I'm just doing sour grapes here.
We did get one of the best promotional send-offs any network's ever given in a show, but then once we got on we found ourselves pretty much abandoned out there.
I think you probably remember, I think we talked about it last October, we were on for a couple of episodes and suddenly we were off for three weeks and so even at the beginning of the season we were reassuring people we weren't cancelled.
There's really no show, in my opinion, that could survive the number of preemptions that you had.
How many did you actually have?
Well, we had, I think, four big blocks of preemptions, this latest one being the fifth, and each one being two to three weeks.
This latest one, by the way, is nine weeks, but I think that's because they already gave up on us, but that's certainly got to be some kind of a record.
Although, in fairness, you have to understand that any network has to preempt Sometimes, because if you look at it, if you try to put an episode a week on, well, I can't make them that fast.
So obviously something has to go on.
But usually what will happen is they'll either repeat your show or they'll try very hard to let people know that you're not off the schedule and that you'll be coming back and there are ways to reassure people.
And we didn't get that kind of treatment.
All right, let's go back to the first episode, and you're quite right.
NBC gave you a wonderful send-off.
It was terrific.
We had advertising we did here.
I saw it everywhere.
There was a big build-up, and I would bet that the ratings were quite good in the beginning.
They were.
They were very good.
At the very least, I'd say they were.
More than acceptable.
They were strong.
And then, of course, the thing is, Dark Skies is a challenging kind of series.
A lot of series.
Let's take an example.
Not to trash this series, but just as an example.
You take a look at either a Dr. Quinn, which was our competition, or any number of shows like that.
Every week, you know, it'll be a different kind of story.
And if you miss one week, it won't matter because it's all very much you know modular one one episode or another sure and you
take a look at dark skies and what we're telling is kind of an epic story gone
with the wind within with aliens and I think some of the people may have thought
if they missed an episode or two that maybe they couldn't catch up
I don't happen to think that was true, but I think people might have thought that.
And then, of course, when you're preempted for three weeks, people think they missed something, even though they didn't, and then they feel like they shouldn't.
Or they actually think after three weeks, they think you're cancelled.
Well, in this environment, because let's face it, what have the networks done historically but had a very fair trigger on these things and pulled the shows off?
I mean, there's one legendary show, I don't remember what it was, but it got cancelled while somebody was flying in an airplane from the East Coast to the West Coast.
So, you know, they take you out pretty quickly these days.
Ah, right.
Um, that's because you guys survive day to day to day.
In other words, you've got your overnight ratings, correct?
Yeah, absolutely.
And you go and scramble for those the next day and pray that you got a 12 share because that's at least somewhat healthy and 14 would be better and a 10 is in trouble and we were getting 10s.
10 shares.
Yeah.
Now I have to tell you, by the way, though, in contrast, we are an international success.
We're on in all kinds of countries from Germany to Great Britain, South Africa, Australia, South America.
Really?
And in Great Britain, for example, where They basically put a show on and leave it on.
And we have, I believe, Monday night at 9 o'clock is our time slot in Great Britain.
Last I heard, we had a 21 share, which would make you a total hit in the United States.
And even in Great Britain, our numbers are as strong as the ER numbers are in Great Britain.
Here's what everybody's going to want to know.
Sure.
Is Dark Skies dead?
Not at all.
I don't think it's dead at all.
I am glad, in fact, that NBC went first, and if they were going to cancel us, I'm glad they've got it out of the way, because it's a new environment than it used to be.
It used to be that if you were one of the shows on one of the big three networks and they canceled you, that was the end of the line.
And it's changed because now there aren't just three networks, there's all kinds of different places and in fact the networks are routinely taking shows that get cancelled from one network and putting them on theirs.
NBC did it to several shows itself last year.
So what we're planning to do, the fans are acting in concert to tell the other networks that since NBC was foolish enough to cancel the show, That if they're smart enough to pick it up and put it on their schedule that they will follow the show to the other guy's network.
What about one other alternative that would be financing and syndication?
I'm sure you've thought of that.
That will be... I don't want to say last resort because that implies it's the thing you don't want to do but that is certainly a resort but it's the one that we'll probably get into if all else fails because right now Hollywood is kind of doing the dance where All the poobahs and pundits gather in New York to announce the schedules and I guess all the agents and studio executives come to wine and dine each other.
And since that's happening and all the networks are announcing their schedules, I think the idea is to get the word out right now to those people and try to get on somebody else's schedule.
And now if that fails, syndication is a natural for us and I'll tell you why.
If you have a show that doesn't have any international appeal and your network pulls the plug on you, that's the end of the line.
Sure.
It's not the end of the line when you have international success because we are making money per episode to make these Dark Skies episodes because people want to watch it in other countries.
So all Sony, which is the producer of Dark Skies, needs to do is to find somebody else here in the United States who will pay some amount of money to put Dark Skies on their schedule And that money plus the foreign money equals a series for a second season.
Well, if you're pulling 20 shares in Britain where they're running it consecutively, as it should be run, I would say there's definite hope.
You know, I know a lot of... I've had some friends today call and say, gee, I'm really sorry to hear what happened.
And the point is, the fans and myself, we've all been expecting this.
We knew this was coming weeks ago.
I mean, let's face it, when someone puts you in a nine-week preemption, Yeah, I don't think you need a newspaper headline to tell you what's happening.
So we've been planning all along how to take the show on the road.
And I have to tell you, I am quite heartened by what's going on.
And I owe it all to the internet.
Not only has the network situation changed, but the internet has allowed fans of television series to get together.
Absolutely!
And to act in mass action in a way that gets people's attention.
What have you got going on the internet?
How can people help out?
What can they do?
Well, great question.
Lots of places to get involved.
I'll tell you what, let me just give you just a tiny bit of background.
You'll see what you can do.
When I started checking my email box a few weeks ago, I found it overflowing.
Not probably as much as yours does, maybe because I was harder to find.
There were all kinds of fans saying that I should do something to help save the show and of course my response is an executive producer can't save a show only the fans can really do that.
And I wanted to talk to people and tell them what they could do, but I didn't have time to answer everybody individually.
So I composed kind of an open letter to the fans and sent it off to these people.
Well, before long, this open letter has been posted on anywhere from eight to a dozen websites internationally, and it's got the addresses in it where you can write and the names of the people who you should write to and their phone numbers and their email addresses.
So it's really news you can use.
And more than that, this open letter ended up becoming kind of an electronic chain letter.
One guy sent it to 10,000 people on his list.
And it's chasing around the world right now, and I have a feeling that there are a lot of network executives that are getting a lot of letters.
And what we've been urging people to do is to send snail mail, as opposed to email, because you can always delete email, and you can't dump it on somebody's desk.
If you show the commitment to buy a $0.32 stamp and to write a letter, that will raise their consciousness because they have to deal with that letter.
They have to figure out who's going to read it, how to answer it, and when they're getting hundreds or thousands of them, that really can make a big difference.
So, the answer to your question, what can people do, is they can either try to find that letter with the addresses, Uh, which is posted on a number of websites.
One of them right now that comes to mind is the 60 Greatest Conspiracies website.
But, you know what?
If we could get it on your website, then people could download it from there.
Believe me, we can.
If I know where to go and get it, I would be glad to post it.
Well, you and I will make that arrangement later, and I would think that then It's really boiled down to the addresses now.
There are certain key players that need to get snail mail, real letters, in the very near future to raise their consciousness that there are people out there that actually wanted to see the show and would like to see it on their network next year.
And once that happens, Sony goes out to those various people and says, we'll make you a deal.
And then we'll be back.
All right.
I'm sure that we can get it.
As a matter of fact, we've got something up there right now.
I'm trying to figure out what it is.
Well, you know, the link, it's kind of funny.
I was just, I'm looking at your webpage right now and the link is to the NBC Trilogy, which we're not part of anymore.
So we're going to get you updated there.
All right.
We can change that link.
If you tell me where I can find that letter.
Sixty greatest conspiracies?
Well, you know what?
I think I just downloaded it to you, and I think you can probably find it.
And if not, I'll do that right after the show.
Okay.
All right.
And we will get it on the page, and then everybody can go up there and write an appropriate letter.
And you're right.
Letters help.
You can dump a big basket of them on somebody's desk, and it's very impressive.
Yeah, I think it gets their attention.
And the thing is, I actually haven't whined about the reasons too much.
Let me just make a couple of quick hits that people can use in their letters.
We did not fail on NBC because we were a bad show and people didn't want to watch.
They put us on Saturday nights, which is historically the worst viewing night in all of television.
They put us on at 8 o'clock, which is the worst time slot on the worst night.
And they put us on in a time slot where we were inappropriate.
I mean, at 8 o'clock at night, It's not when people are watching Dark Skies, or should.
It's got a lot of adult material in it.
May I ask you a question?
Sure.
If you had your druthers, and you could pick any hour of any day of the week, where would you have put Dark Skies?
I'd love to be on at 10 o'clock on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday night.
I mean, Art, look at it this way.
People tend to be home because they have to work the next day on those nights.
Sunday is the highest viewing night because people are getting ready for the week.
Saturday is the worst because, let's face it, if you've got a life, on Saturday night you're trying to either go out to dinner, meet friends, go to parties, see a movie, anything but sit home and watch your TV.
Or at least watch regular television programming.
So it's just, it's really climbing a hill to try to succeed on Saturday night.
And to be honest with you, I feel pretty good about our numbers, considering the inappropriateness of the time slot for our show and the night that it was on.
On our worst nights, we had 8 million people watching us.
And that's a lot of people.
Well, let me tell you, Bryce, syndication is also not, by any means, is not out of The reason I say this is Strange Universe is doing quite
well.
They are aired at midnight or 12.30 or 1 o'clock in the morning in a lot of markets and it
just works fine.
I think syndication is a grand idea.
Yesterday I flew back from a sci-fi convention next to J.
Michael Straczynski who is the executive producer of Babylon 5 which is syndicated.
I asked him how many people actually watch his show in a given week and considering it
is in all the different time slots they think around 15 million people might watch it.
Well, that's terrific.
I'd go for those numbers any day.
You betcha.
All right, what about the cast?
With the notice of cancellation, the cast will slowly begin to scatter, won't they?
There is that happening and some of it was planned as well from a creative point of view.
In fact, I'll give you one little tease about the May 31st episode.
Not everybody gets out alive.
Some of the cast members, a cast member of a lead is not going to make it through that episode and that was planned.
Then, of course, you're right.
If this goes on too long, we might lose some people, but I'll tell you something.
Even though I think that we had a terrific cast, I believe that this isn't like the John Larroquette Show, where if you lose John Larroquette, you're out of business.
Dark Skies is about a concept.
It's about an epic struggle.
And as such, I think we can weather almost any cast affection that we would have.
But I hope not to lose them all.
I hope that we keep the people we want to keep.
All right.
Well, here's something that occurred to me.
In fact, NBC advertised and I watched Invasion.
Right.
And I thought Invasion was Kind of a ripoff from Dark Skies.
Me too.
You too?
Yeah, well, I mean, let's face it.
Nobody owns Alien Invasion and nobody owns UFOs.
Although I have to admit...
I know, but we're talking Hive here, really.
Yeah, exactly.
I mean, I'm just willing to be a little more broad-minded about it because I got stung
pretty badly at the beginning of the season.
It seemed like every critic in the country wanted to imply that somehow X-Files had copyrighted UFOs and government conspiracy and that somehow I was infringing their copyright by doing a show in the same area.
And so my feeling is You know, just because they made Bonanza didn't mean that they couldn't make another Western, and just because Hill Street existed doesn't mean that you can't have NYPD Blues, so just because there's X-Files certainly didn't mean there couldn't be Dark Skies, and there's probably room for an Invasion.
I didn't happen to think it was as intellectually interesting as our show, and I didn't find it as interesting, but on the other hand, you know, it's a big television dial.
There's lots of room there.
Sure.
Look, we're coming toward the bottom of the hour, but I would love to keep you on for about a half hour and let some of the fans call in.
Do you think we could do that?
I always love to talk to the fans because they keep us honest.
A lot of them are just absolutely heartbroken.
Now, one more question.
If you're pulling 20 shares in Great Britain, what's the possibility of, in effect, turning around and producing it in Great Britain?
Having talks over there?
Oh boy, you know, I think that that is Highly unlikely because I think people want it to be an American television product.
That was certainly the premise.
And then the other thing is they just don't have the money.
In other words...
And this is certainly something that speaks to, I guess, the cultural power of America.
But people around the world will watch American programming, but basically Americans don't want to watch somebody else's programming.
You know, it's very interesting.
It is, I think, one of our largest, if not the largest export in our entertainment industry.
All right, Bryce, hold on.
We'll be back to you after the bottom of the hour.
Okay?
Very good.
All right.
My guest is Bryce Zabel, the producer of the freshly canceled Dark Skies.
But folks, it may not be all over.
So if you have a question for Bryce Come Now, I'm Art Bell, and this is the American Independent
CBC Radio Network.
So, Bryce, thank you for being here.
Thank you.
That's 702-727-1295.
First-time callers can reach Art Bell at 702-727-1222.
702-727-1222.
Now, here again, Art Bell.
Once again, here I am.
card line at 702-727-1295. That's 702-727-1295. First-time callers get free card bill at 702-727-1222.
702-727-1222. Now, here again, Art Bell.
Once again, here I am. Good morning. A little late, but better late than never.
We were trying desperately in those last seconds to get this letter up there, and we may have succeeded.
We'll know shortly.
On the website, it's the one Bryce is talking about.
By the year 2027.
That's 1-800-557-4627.
You've got nothing to lose but the fact.
Alright, I think that we may have... Bryce, are you there?
I'm here.
Did you send that to me as an attachment?
I did.
All right, I think then I got it and I got it over to Keith and it probably, before we're off the air at the top of the hour, it will be the open letter from you will be on our website.
That's great.
You know, I have to tell you my learning curve on all this internet stuff has really gone up immensely, although I still haven't quite figured out whether one sends a text file or a text with line breaks file, but I'm working on it.
I have to tell you, by the way, Art, I just got Netscape.
I don't know if that's good or bad, but you were the first bookmark on my computer.
Kind of you.
Alright, there are a lot of your fans, or fans of Dark Skies, that would like to speak with you, so let us go and do that.
On the wildcard line, you're on the air with Bryce Abel.
Hi.
I've got two basic questions.
One is just a personal thing.
I talked to you last time you were on Archer, I think it was back in October or so.
Terrific.
Well, at that point in time I'd asked you some questions and I'm disappointed to hear
that the show's been canceled.
Don't give up though.
Well, exactly.
I've got two basic questions.
Sure.
One's just a personal thing.
I mean, since I talked to you, I don't know if you remember what I talked about, but I
asked you about one of the main characters, JT Walsh, and you told me how long he was
on.
Right.
one of the people that's... anyway.
Second question, what about Sci-Fi Channel?
Well, Sci-Fi Channel is an excellent idea, and in fact, USA, which is the parent company of the Sci-Fi Channel, was very interested in Dark Skies from the beginning, and we had a meeting a couple of months ago with them about them purchasing Dark Skies as their first original TV series.
And the only problem with that right now, as I understand it, there's kind of a There's a lawsuit going on as to whether they're in business with Paramount or Universal.
It's very complicated.
I don't quite understand it, but the checkbooks aren't out.
And the other problem is the Sci-Fi Channel doesn't have a lot of money for their original programming, so a deal needs to be struck.
But people are talking about it.
In fact, you'll notice that the Sci-Fi Channel address is one of the ones we're putting out because I think a couple of thousand letters sitting on their desks may cause them to get their checkbooks out and write one.
Well, I think the people that watch that channel are right up the alley of the people that were watching yours.
The Sci-Fi Channel is a terrific place to be exposed, and in fact, I hope that no matter what happens, to sell the first season of Dark Skies to the Sci-Fi Channel so that people can actually watch it in chronology and enjoy it.
All righty, and my last, absolute last question to you.
Yes.
I remember last time I asked you about taping it, you said you didn't have a problem.
You wanted everybody to tape it, distribute it to everybody they know.
Does that feel that way?
Well, sure.
I mean, the only problem I have with taping it is just that, in effect, someone who watches a tape that someone else made, Is part of the problem in that NBC was not measuring them, and so they feel like those people weren't represented.
One of the things that I was encouraging people to do if they taped it, is to take that little black tab out of the tape, the record tab, and mail it to these people and say, hey, just because I'm watching it, a lot of other people are watching it too.
Great.
Appreciate it.
Thanks, guys.
Thank you.
Thank you very much for the call, and have a good morning.
First time caller in line, you're on the air with Bryce Abel.
Hi.
Yeah, hi, Art.
This is Mark from Milwaukee.
Hi, Mark.
Hey, Art, great book.
I'm about three-fourths of the way through it in two days.
Thank you.
Excellent.
And by the way, one quick thing.
I noticed that your web number is now in the High Times magazine in the back.
Is it really?
Yes, it is.
You're all over the place.
Okay.
You're everywhere, Art.
Uh, from Mr. Bryce, I was wondering if you could maybe let us know if, uh, how the general course of the show, the direction, might have gone had it continued, maybe?
Well, in fact, that's a...
That is not a simple question because when Brent Friedman the co-creator with myself and I set out the whole scenario we had basically a five-year plan that started with basically Roswell and picked up the story in our pilot in the 60s with the idea being that we would catch up with real time on the eve of the millennium that we would the show would hit 1999 in 1999 and that that was the plan And would still be the plan if I had my druthers.
Now, I have to tell you, there are people who would like to cut the cost of the show, and the period is a very expensive part of the show.
You can imagine rounding up all those 1960s cars, and every set you shoot has to be dressed for that.
So there are people who would like to say, yeah, the period's not important, just put it in the present and nobody will notice.
I don't happen to share that opinion, but I have to tell you that that thought's been out there.
So, one way or another, the show is destined to catch up with the present, and the question is when.
If I had my druthers, however, though, the first season that we just finished goes from 1960 through 1967.
Our final episode takes place during the summer of love in San Francisco.
And the next season would take us from that really uh... important year of nineteen sixty eight all the way
through the nixon watergate
can wait a little and and and then finally ended in the view that followed
that we would in fact
leap quickly uh...
to the present all right uh... wonderful thank you
thank you uh...
i'm a saver is uh... my one experience of being down there and being on one of
the shows playing a network executive i might mention yes indeed uh...
this is a very ironic considering uh... it was the experience of a lifetime
I had no concept of what went into producing a television show of the magnitude of dark skies.
It was amazing.
It's amazing art, isn't it?
I mean, you have to create a little city wherever you are, and there are hundreds of people working on it, and if everybody works hard, the details get right, and it looks great.
If they did not play these last two episodes, and I have been able to make that last program, I might have been on the last one on NBC.
You would have.
In fact, Art, I have to tell you that one of the great Shames of the series for me is that because of your schedule and so forth, we weren't able to continue in the Paley role for you because, in fact, Paley, as a member of the Majestic 12 board, turned out to, I think, be in four episodes, and he certainly is in the last episode.
I will treasure my Majestic ID forever.
It hangs in a very honored place here in my home, Bryce.
East of the Rockies, you're on the air with Bryce Zabel.
Hi.
Good morning, gentlemen.
Hi.
A couple of things.
Where are you, sir?
Oh, I'm sorry.
My name is David, and I'm calling from St.
Louis.
Okay.
First things first, for those of us who have email but not web access, is it possible to get this document via email, or is there an address to get it with a self-addressed stamped envelope?
Very good point.
You know what?
Is it committing suicide if I give my email address out?
You do so at your own risk.
I warn you that.
Yes, it is, Bryce.
Feel free.
If you can't get it any other way, write to me.
I'm BZTV at AOL.com.
BZTV at AOL.com.
People can certainly, if you can't get it any other way, write to me at, and I'm bztv
at AOL.com. BZTV at AOL.com.
Got it. Okay. Secondly, well, in no way am I trying to be accusatory,
but I did notice some similarities between the way the Hive aliens
control humans and that used by Robert Heinlein in the Puppet Masters.
I was wondering if you had heard from his estate in that regard.
You know, I haven't heard from Heinlein's estate, and certainly I guess the only thing I could say is that when you get into the world of alien invasion and parasitic invaders, there are bound to be certain similarities, and it isn't so much the process of the alien taking over the human body that I think is defensible.
It's what you do with it.
Well, I mean, look at invasion.
Look at body scratchers.
It's the same concept.
Yeah, I have to confess, I didn't see invasion.
I didn't think it would be nearly as good as dark skies.
You know, so you just, you try to make your thing as distinctive as you can.
I mean, to be honest with you, I laughed when you said, when I heard from his estate, the only person I've heard from is a, I guess a convicted murderer who's suing us from his cell in a California State Prison.
Really?
Oh, charming.
Who claims to have created Dark Skies.
Oh, no kidding?
I have to confess, the thing I'm going to miss is how you're going to deal with the Star Trek fan phenomenon Ah, good point.
Bryce, very good point.
Star Trek.
You may recall.
Sure.
It's debuted.
It was incredible.
People loved it the way they loved Dark Skies.
And then it got in trouble.
Well, you know why?
It's because when you play at the number one network level, they're looking for home runs.
That's the game they play.
Star Trek wasn't a home run, and it's run on NBC, and it took time to build to the phenomenon it is now, and we weren't a home run on our first season either.
I know, but you didn't have very many innings.
No, no you didn't.
And I think, by the way, it's a far, far different world on network television than it was when Star Trek was on.
At least then it was still primarily those three networks.
And now there are so many people competing for the attention of the American viewers, it takes longer than a year for almost any good show to break out.
Even a hit show now like X-Files was not a hit its first season, was moderate in its second, and didn't actually come to, you know, to be fully respected until its third season.
Well, who, if I might ask, makes the decisions about Or how do they make them about what lives or dies?
I mean, as you pointed out, not all shows take off right away.
So how do they make those decisions?
Through a lot of different... Let me put it this way.
Let's analyze the 8 o'clock Saturday time slot.
If you're NBC, you're saying, basically, look, we want a hit here.
I can make all the arguments in the world why Dark Skies didn't succeed at 8 o'clock, and they'd say, well, we agree with you.
It probably wasn't fair what we did, and it probably did need more time to break out, but we're looking for a miracle.
Clearly, we found that you're not our miracle, so we might as well try another one.
So that's one answer.
It is a new world in terms of ownership of shows as well.
Congress a couple of years ago said that the networks could own their own shows.
And the networks said, as they were getting that privilege, well of course we'll still reach out to the community, we want to maintain diversity, etc.
But in fact, in point of fact, the only show on NBC's Saturday Night lineup that was not owned partly or wholly by NBC was Dark Skies.
We've been replaced by a show that is half owned by NBC.
And that is why, by the way, I think that we stayed in the 8 o'clock time slot.
You know what I would have loved?
Had it been on the air long enough.
That the timeline could have caught up and I could have played myself.
And you would have.
You would have been the prophet of doom in the desert.
Ah, the prophet of doom.
Oh, that'd be just right on.
Wes for the Rockies, you're on the air with Bryce Zabel.
Hi.
Hi, yeah, this is Ed in Altadena, California.
Yeah, about the Star Trek, of course, everybody got together.
It was sort of a, that was the 60s and people, you know, got together and protested.
That's right.
And MIT and Caltech got together and all kinds of people got together Dark Skies actually came out of the mouth of my partner Brent Friedman one day.
someplace but you know our head of the law who supposedly flew into area 51. I think that would
make a good show and by the way where did you get the name dark skies? Dark skies actually came out
of the mouth of my partner Brent Friedman one day who we just we both kind of like two word titles
and dark skies just seemed to to say what we were saying that when you looked up they were
there was reason to be fearful. Ah the dark skies well uh we're all behind you and you know I just
started so uh to listen to Dark Skies and then it uh...
Then off it went.
Off it went. They put all kinds of other things on and no explanation.
Alright, well if it, if it, look, if Star Trek was saved, so can Dark Skies be saved.
And I'll tell you what we've done.
As of right now, folks, if you will go up to my website, under latest news and items, you will see
Stroke of Midnight by Sable.
And if you will read that, it will direct you in the way that you can help out.
So it's already up there, Bryce.
Completely amazing that you can do that.
Well, it's not me.
It's my webmaster, and he's very, very good at what he does.
A very resourceful man.
By the way, it just struck me.
We were talking about the Star Trek thing.
In point of fact, though, Star Trek, even though they had Very strong fan support actually went away and was only resurrected as movies ten years later.
That's right.
We need a little faster cure than that and I think that the internet, the very power that you've just demonstrated with the internet here by being able to take something on the fly and pass it on like that is the very reason why Since the rules have changed, we can save this show a lot faster than a Star Trek was saved.
Since you mentioned motion picture, now there's another idea.
Yes.
What about a motion picture based on the Dark Skies concept?
I would love to, and Sony is certainly a producer of motion pictures, so potentially we could do that.
Another idea that has been suggested would be a series of movies in the same way that they maintained the Alien Nation franchise after the series itself was cancelled.
And I have said repeatedly that if it comes to it, I'll have to stand on a street corner with a mimeograph machine and tell the story.
I'd rather avoid that and try to tell it in film, and I'd be open to any way.
All right.
All right.
Very good.
First time caller on the line, you're on the air with Bryce Abel.
Hi.
Hi, Art.
This is Jim from Lexington, Kentucky.
Hi, Jim.
Uh, Bryce?
Yes?
Can you explain to me how the Beatles played into that episode of Dark Skies that our affiliate here, Lexington, did not pick up earlier in the season?
Oh, they didn't?
See?
Yeah, by the way, I'll tell you in a second, that demonstrates one of the things that also works.
And not only was NBC preempting us, But because we were the first show on Saturday night, many local affiliates would have either baseball games, basketball games, or in even cases like the Billy Graham Crusade pre-empting us.
And if we'd be in TV Guide, people would think that they were going to watch the show and they'd end up getting a religious crusade or something.
It was very frustrating to the fans.
The Beatles episode you mentioned was called Dark Days Night and it was I think our fourth episode and we basically tied the Hive master plan in with the Ed Sullivan broadcast and brought in mind control.
Okay, well I hope you get renewed somewhere else, and good luck.
Thank you very much.
And for everybody up there right now, go to my website, www.heartbell.com.
Go to the latest news and items section.
You will see, as of right now, something entitled, Stroke of Midnight, Bryce Zabel.
And if you will click on that, you will get the whole story directly from Bryce.
And Bryce, if you had to pick one area, And you recommend many in your letter.
Right.
Where you would like to concentrate efforts, where would that be?
Reasonably, we could say that UPN is a very strong possibility, because I think Sony could make them a very good offer.
I think USA is a very strong possibility because of the SyFy channel.
I would single those two out.
But at the same time, I realize it's a boatload of material in that letter, but it's because I wanted the fans to have all the details.
And I wouldn't rule anybody out, because, let's face it, We aren't sitting in those network offices and we don't know how bad their development has been and so it's hard to predict whether they're optimistic or pessimistic.
A lot of times this time of year networks are just quaking in their boots over the fact that the stuff that they spent millions of dollars producing looks so bad.
So maybe we'll look pretty good in contrast anywhere like CBS or ABC.
What about networks in general, Bryce?
They're getting in increasingly more trouble all the time.
Their share is dropping as a general rule, isn't it?
That's so true, and that's also, I think, possibly one of the ways that we'll save ourselves.
There's just a lot of other customers out there because there aren't just three networks.
The big three are way, way down, but that's Good news for a diversity of product.
One of the things that even HBO and Showtime are doing their own shows right now, and that's really... In fact, I mean, let's face it.
If I had a creative place where you'd want to put Dark Skies, it would be on, say, Showtime, where they do Outer Limits or Poltergeist, because you could at least push the limits.
The same for HBO.
I mean, on cable, you can... Oh, there'd be a lot of things you could do that you couldn't do on NBC.
Although I have to say, there were certain episodes that we did, like the Warren omission, where we talked about the whole Kennedy assassination, Roswell, Warren commission testimony, and I found myself just shaking my head saying, I can't believe a national network is going to put this on the air, but they did.
We even had Norman Schwarzkopf as a and never heard a peep from anybody about it.
Huh, interesting.
Well, alright, Bryce, I want to thank you for coming on.
I suspect that Dark Skies is far from done.
So, though it may seem like a dark day, tomorrow's bound to be better.
And you watch all the response.
I...
Being on your show, I can only guess at it, but thank you very much, Art.
It's been a real pleasure.
All right, my friend.
Take care.
That's Bryce Zabel, folks, and if you would like to send Bryce email, you may do so at bztv at aol.com.
That'll go directly to him.
If you would like to help out, The way you can help is now documented on my website.