CONTACTING PEOPLE

Now I know all you good folks want to do something about this latest pop-culture tragedy. One thing you can do is write. Here, I’ll go through the list of people and places to contact.

Now, Sci-Fi Channel is more or less a lost cause, but if you really want to POLITELY give them a piece of your mind, you can nicely ask them to keep the show at the addresses and numbers below. Save the more hard-edged invective for the end of the year, after the final episodes have aired. For now, just sweetly tell them there’s nothing else on their channel really worth watching, and that you intend, upon MST’s disappearance to drop their channel and encourage your cable/satellite provider to add something like Fox News Channel.

 Bonnie Hammer Senior Vice President Sci-Fi Channel Programming 1230 Avenue of the Americas, Fl 20 New York, NY 10020  FAX: (212) 413-5631  SFC phone: (212) 408-9100 [email protected] [email protected] 

New York Observer columnist Ron Rosenbaum is advocating a personal appeal to Barry Diller, new head honcho at USA Networks:

 Barry Diller  USA Networks Inc. 152 West 57th St., 42nd floor New York, N.Y. 10019 

Now, let’s get to the real business at hand here, finding Mystery Science Theater 3000 a new home. Best Brains is not negotiating with anyone and is not at this time encouraging any particular campaign to get the show picked up by someone else. It’s YOUR job to write to persuasive, LITERATE, messages to the programming people so they will immediately place a call to Eden Prairie and cut Jim Mallon et al. a big fat check.

E! Entertainment Television was said to have made overtures toward Best Brains the last time they were junked by a major cable outlet. Who knows, they may be interested again. Make sure to email friend of the show, Talk Soup’s John Henson, at [email protected] and tell him to take the campaign to the cablewaves.

 E! Entertainment Television 5670 WILSHIRE BLVD LOS ANGELES CA  90036 [email protected] PHONE: 323-954-2400  NYC PHONE: (212) 852-5100   

Now we get to the various Turner networks. MST3k is a conceivable fit for TNT, TBS, or TCM (Turner Classic Movies). The Turner empire is, of course, headquartered in Atlanta, GA, and that address should be the one correspondence is directed to. I suppose one letter to each network, each expressing why MST would fit that particular channel, would be just as appropriate as one letter discussing each of the three. You may want to direct TBS-flavored inquiries to Gina McKenzie, who handles PR for the SUPERSTATION’s movie franchises like Dinner of a Monkey or whatever it’s called. SUPERSTATION TBS is saying at this time their programming schedule is flled through 2004.
Etiquette tip: Do NOT mention Ted Turner’s role in the U.N. agenda for global genocide.

 Turner Networks 1010 Techwood Dr., NW Atlanta GA 30318  TNT email: [email protected] TNT Comment line: (404) 885-4538  Another TNT number: (404) 885-0339  TNT New York: (212) 714-7972  TBS email: [email protected] TBS phone: (404) 827-1700            (404) 827-1717   TBS L.A. : (310) 553-0350   

Bravo is a very fine cable channel full of offbeat programming. Ask them if they would be interested.

 Sandy Salerno Customer Service Coordinator  Bravo 1111 Stewart Avenue Bethpage, NY 11714  (516) 396-4595  [email protected] 

American Movie Classics, AMC, has a film library full of movies suitable for the Mystery Science Theater treatment. (And like Bravo, AMC is owned by the cable/sports ConGlomCo Cablevision.)

 American Movie Classics 1111 Stewart Avenue Bethpage, NY 11714  (516) 364-1160  L.A. phone: (310) 453-4493 [email protected] 

AMC sez: Thank you for your interest in AMC. Your request for ”Mystery Science Theater 3000” has been forwarded to the AMC Acquisitions Department. Thank you for watching American Movie Classics.
Got a response from a network? Mail it in.

UPN could frankly use a replacement for that dreadful “Sci-Fi Movie night” they have on Thursdays:

 United Paramount Network   11800 Wilshire Blvd   Los Angeles, CA  90025 (310) 575-7000   [email protected] 

Everyone knows Mystery Science Theater 3000 is both Art and Entertainment of the highest order. Ask the good folks at A&E if maybe they can squeeze in some Minnesotan mocking between Lovejoy reruns.

 A & E Television Network   235 East 45th St Fl 9   New York, NY  10017 (212) 210-1400   http://www.aetv.com/feedback/other.feedback.html 

The WB Network is another small broadcast network, like UPN, that should consider adding MST to their schedule:

 The WB Network 4000 Warner Blvd., Bldg. #34R Burbank, CA. 91522  Fax:  818-954-6479  phone: (818)977-5000 Chicago phone: (312) 440-9696   

Rupert Murdoch and Pat Robertson had a baby, and they named it Fox Family Channel. MST3000 is fun for all ages, like Mr. Bean and some of the other stuff on the channel.

 Fox Family Channel 10960 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90024 1-877-98-FAMILY  [email protected] 

fX is another NewsCorp-affiliated cable outlet that could frankly use a bit more original programming:

 fX Programming      Fox Liberty Network   2121 Avenue Of The Stars   Los Angeles, CA  90025 (310) 444-8123   

Chicago-based WGN isn’t quite the SUPERSTATION that WTBS is, but they’ve got holes to fill since they dumped the WB from their national feed. If they’re looking for original programming to justify satellite bandwidth, they should take a look at MST:

 2501 W Bradley Pl Chicago, IL 60618-4701 (773) 528-2311 

Finally, do realize that BBI’s archenemy Doug Herzog has left Comedy Central. They haven’t picked a new head honcho yet, so I would not send them any epistles at this point. But among the people seriously being considered for the spot are South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker. Maybe they would want the show back, who knows?

 Comedy Central 1775 Broadway 9th Fl    New York, NY 10019 

You may want to include contact info for the Brains in your letters. Here it is.

 Best Brains Inc. 7615 Golden Triangle Drive, #J Eden Prairie, Minnesota 55344  Phone: (612) 941-8024 Fax: (612) 941-8250 

Please don’t abuse this information by harrassing the Brains with needless phone calls. You can email them at [email protected]

And that’s about it, for now anyway. If you want to contact your cable provider and get them to lean on SFC or something (again, I’d recommend waiting until after the season has its course). For now, you can dig through this few-year-old list or try Bravo’s cablefinder thing.

---

SAVE MST3K AGAIN