Moonlight Fans Hand Hibberd His Head
June 24, 2008 by Cynthia
Remember the whole Jericho brouhaha from last week? Where I told fans to give up the fight and they came back loud and proud? This week it’s James Hibberd’s turn to take the fandom flack for his article “Moonlight is Dead, For Real This Time.”
The TV reporter was apparently bombarded with emails from angry fans annoyed with not only the content of his piece but also his condescending tone. He says, hey I was only joking, but the fans aren’t having anything but Hibberd’s head on a platter.
So tell me, my fine fannish friends, is there such a thing as being TOO vocal when it comes to your favorite TV show? And is passion an acceptable excuse for leaving comments full of foul language and insults? I’m here and I’m listening.
Photo: Cliff Lipson/CBS ©2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc.
I can understand when someone gets so angry that a case of potty-mouth spews forth. That’s why I’ve made it my Number 1 Rule to never post when “steam is rising from me noggin.” However, Mr. Hibberd’s “tone” should be applauded because I think it was deliberate in that he baited the responses he received.
However, my main issue with Mr. Hibberd and why you will not find a response from myself is because I was royally po’d. I have emailed Mr. Hibberd, more times than I can count, on the various efforts the fans of Moonlight initiated in an effort to save the show.
Not once. Not ONE bloody time…did Mr. Hibberd post in his blog about those efforts. So yeah…I have a problem with Mr. Hibberd. I’m not sure if he’s a writer expressing his opinion for THR or if he’s a journalist…either way when your blog is attached to THR I would think a person would subscribe to some journalistic ethics…if you can post about one show’s campaign (Jericho)…you should post about another’s. Heck…I would have been satisfied if he posted…”don’t care for the show, but these efforts are underway.” Then I would have accepted his latest post with more credibility and with a sense that he emphasized with the fans’ loss. As it stands, it reads as a “spit in your face…a’ha…you lose” report.
However, Mr. Hibberd chose not to. He only chose to post the supposed demise of Moonlight on his blog, along with his condescending comments. I wouldn’t be surprised if he got a “woody” while he was writing about billowing shirts and that Moonlight is dead…dead’s I tell you! *boing* **Hey, I’m only joking!**
I don’t think there is any excuse for foul language, but then again I don’t think there is any excuse for a columnist or blogger to be rude and condescending to fans of a show. I find it quite amazing that so many of these writers look down their nose at the people who truely care about a piece of entertainment when entertainment is the world where they make their living. A show comes out, people love it, and then they are sneered at and belittled when they say so or fight to save it. There is something wrong with that picture but it seems to happen over and over.
Cynthia, the majority of the Moonlight community are well educated, eloquent writers with very level heads (usually), so you do not really find a lot of profanity in our posts overall, although there are those few exuberant ones that seem to get all of the attention from the press.
We have all been on this roller coaster ride of a campaign for over a month and you cannot blame us for being defensive and a little short tempered when we constantly see blogs/articles telling us our efforts are useless and basically “get a life”. It is our choice to fight for good programming on television and even if our efforts for Moonlight do not result in what we are hoping for, the campaign should be a wake up call to major networks that America is ready for a change in overall programming decisions, ratings systems, demographic reliance, etc. If our efforts and those of other fan communities like Jericho can get some needed attention to the real problems with network television, then it will be worth it.
Angela in Oregon
I hear where you’re coming from. I am a DIE HARD fan when it comes to my favorites such as Supernatural, and I’d fight to the end to save it but sometimes I worry that the over the top responses make the whole fandom look bad.
Let’s face it, when men strip off their shirts in 30 below weather and paint their chests the team colors for a football game – that’s an all American sports fan, but wear a Star Trek pin in public and you’re labeled a lunatic fanatic who needs a life.
There are several issues here that need to be addressed.
First off, the vast majority of the Moonlight fan community is made up of very respectful and supportive people. I have seen very few resort to using profanity to make a point. However, when people are looked down upon for speaking up for what they want, then no one can expect them not to feel insulted.
Another issue, as was mentioned before, is that we seem to be receiving these “get over it” and “get a life” messages without any regard to what the fans have been doing. There was even a blog a few weeks ago belittling the blood drives. The Moonlight fans are some of the most charitable people I’ve seen. I have never seen a show that has inspired people to give back so much like Moonlight has.
As was mentioned by another commenter, this isn’t just about bringing the show back (even though it’s a main focus). It’s about changing how the ratings are calculated. The system is outdated. With the technology that we have today, there is absolutely no reason why there shouldn’t be a more accurate system in place to judge what the viewers really want to see.
While everyone is entitled to their own opinions, it would be nice if they were voiced in a respectful manner.
Maybe it’s because the writer’s don’t have a life, after all, they have to look for things to write because their life is so boring. They need to pick on the fans because no one else will pay ttention to the dim witted stuff they write about that isn’t true !!!!!!!!
Now, see, Lasa refers to everyone being respectful then Moonglow says TV writers (which would include me) have no life and write dim-witted stuff.
I beg to differ – most of the TV reporters I know including Brian and myself – write about TV because we are fans and we love it. We don’t write because “Life is boring” and we have nothing better to do. Believe me, he and I have both have PACKED schedules but we write because we can’t not write.
I agree that no matter what someone says insults and profanity should not be used. But it is hard when people are insulting to you. Despite the fact that Moonlight fans have always tried to incorporate worthwhile goals into our campaign we get belittled and labeled as nothing more than overwrought women with no common sense. As a well-educated, fairly mature 23 year old woman I find that offensive. And while I don’t agree with some of the comments people have made I can’t fault them because I’ve come close to saying some of the same things.
See, now I made my point ! See how it feels to
be judged, that’s the point I am trying to get across ! Moonlight fans are not Rabid Based Fans,
I am a subsitute teacher who works hard trying to give our children a decent education. I just am tired of the Big Networks putting on quality
shows, get you interested, them wham, they
cancel it ! After they promised a second season,
and get our hopes up, is that fair ! Mad, sure,
wouldn’t you be !!!!!! People need a variety of
tv shows, not the same stuff over and over !!!!!
I really don’t get the recent condescension of Moonlight fans by some bloggers. Really, are we not allowed to fight for our show? Jericho fans are praised, and their show was cancelled twice.(I’m not bashing Jericho Rangers, they are an inspiration). Could it be that Jericho fans are predominately male and Moonlight’s are predominately female? I sense some underlying sexism in the different ways we are portrayed (dedicated vs rabid) though I doubt they will admit it. Seriously, insulting me only makes me want to fight harder.
Also as entertainment journalists we have to toe the line between being too fannish and calling it like we see it.
Cyn and I both instinctively cheer for sci fi shows, but we have to point out the flaws and weakness as well. After all, there are 100’s of other sites posting news. I think you all come here for an “honest take” which means we won’t always agree.
I wanted Flash Gordon and Bionic Woman to be good, they weren’t. I would have liked Knight Rider to be better, but I realize it’s all about the car.
I would love it if Jericho and Moonlight fans get what they want. I think some network (regular or cable) should make it a point to have a “rescue team” in place for shows like this. I suspect the positive PR they’d get would go a long way towards offsetting the cost. But then, this may be why I don’t have my own network.
There is NEVER an excuse for foul language or personal attacks — even on a flippant journalist who is trying to be funny at others expense. But people deserve to be heard about something that means so much to them.
I posted the following as a reply to Hibberd’s snippy column. Yet the comment that appeared just below mine is yet another personal attack on the passion of Moonlight fans. What sorts of creeps continually attack those who show passionate devotion? Why even bother reading about topics in which they have no interest? Can’t we all just get along?
To James Hibberd from Joliebat:
Sorry, Mr. Hibberd. “Moonlight” is NOT just TV!
It is a look deep into the mythical ethos of the Hero with a Thousand Faces. It is one of the most literate, sophisticated shows ever to appear on television. It has changed lives, brought people together over disparate continents and served many charities and worthy causes. Did your poker show do that? I think not.
Until you can quote and NAME real sources with ties to the show, your scurrilous little Deep Throats will not be believed. You seem to have a slight sense of the importance of Moonlight to its millions of fans. So why would you treat the supposed death of the show as something humorous? Is it worth wounding those fans just to get in a bit of sniggering “insider” information so you’ll look like a smart reporter?
We still don’t believe you, but if we DO get the final word of Moonlight’s demise from someone in real authority I would think you, as an entertainment writer, would be deeply sympathetic to the loss of something so valuable. I look forward to your interesting follow-up column announcing Moonlight has been picked up for additional seasons.
Posted by: Joliebat | June 24, 2008 at 12:46 PM
I wanted to add my two cents in here. People feel very strongly about Moonlight, and I am one of them. When this reporter did what he did, it just rubbed us the wrong way. There is such thing as freedom of press, but also there is such thing as respect. He was very disrespectful. What kind of response did he think he was going to get? I agree that profanity and rudeness is not a way to go, but if he knew about the blood, sweat, and tears that is going into trying to save this show, I would hope he would have had a much nicer tone when writing the article. Everybody is putting in so much effort that they just want to be counted and heard. Not called lunatic or rabid or whatever else we are being referred to as. We are all from various backgrounds, religions, professions, ages, and countries. All we ask for is the chance to fight for one of the most wonderful shows without having someone coming along and trying to discourage us. We may or may not get our beloved Moonlight back, but to everyone out there who is telling us to just “let it go”, I ask with the utmost respect, please give us a fair chance to try.
Well said Joliebat, well said my friend.
Yes, well said Joliebat!
Not a rabid fan here either, just someone who likes good quality Tv and Moonlight delivered big time. But it seems the networks don’t want to give us anything but game shows, survival contests, and other lame “reality” junk.
For me Moonlight was the last straw. Finally a great show that I thought was a shoe in for 2nd season, but no again!
I won’t even bother watching anything on network again, nothing worthwhile stays long enough to matter. And the “reality” junk doesn’t interest me.
I wonder why the networks even bother putting shows like Moonlight and Jericho on in the first place, it seems they have a plan from the start to cancel after 1 season no matter how many people watch. It doesn’t make sense.
It’s the climate this country is in. Bush has swindled the public for years and now that oil companies are breaking records for pure profit as we pay more and more for gas, the public has decided it can no longer sit by and allow the world to pass by us. It’s time to start dumping the tea off the ship!
As far as Hibberd is concern, karma is after all based on cause and effect. If you become someone’s whipping boy, you pay the price. His latest column contained news that was over a month old and of little value. Sure, sets were taken down, but anyone in Hollywood knows exactly how fast they can be put up again.
If one were to take in all the facts, a conclusion could be drawn that Hibberd was put up to the article by someone unnerved at the interaction between DirecTV and the fans. That would be the best time to strike, wouldn’t it? When the fans start getting some traction?
La Tassler’s had quite a year. Jericho fans gave her a hard time and she figured she’d use all the free publicity they gave her for a few episodes. With the writer’s strike looming, having those extra scripts could come in handy. All she’d have to do is make sure no one could figure out when the Jericho Second Season episodes were going to air and she’d have a legitimate reason to close them down.
Certainly the fans would have to back down if she proved to them it was a bad idea? Jericho fans weren’t buying into it though. They stayed strong and united, even paying for a billboard ad announcing they refused to be swept under the carpet. Even funnier, the billboard they put it on was owned by CBS.
The promos for the last ads for “Moonlight” claimed we would all miss them when they were gone. Perhaps a little childish, but I guess someone was feeling their oats. Too bad it backfired on them. Again, that whole Boston Tea party thing.
Having DirecTV take “Moonlight” fans seriously, certainly couldn’t have been in the master plan. It may have been the last straw, especially since the ratings for the show Tassler put on the air for her parents (who wrote the book “Swingtown”) has been steadily tanking more and more each week.
Until Joel Silver tells us specifically (because there are legitimate contacts already established) to stop the fight, we’re going to keep going. My matriarchal ancestors walked across the plains and mountains to take the Oregon Trail west. Working to find a new home for the show we love is a walk in the park compared to that. The Hollywood head games have no place in our lives.
People camp on lines for days for tickets to concerts. As someone mentioned – football fans paint themselves up and sit half-naked in the snow to show their support. Buffet fans wear Hawaiian shirts and parrot hats.
But Moonlight fans are “crazy”? The definition of crazy seems to be getting skewed.
I know many of the people involved in this fight – not ‘I know them from the websites’, but I have actually spent a great deal of face time with them – and I hate to burst anyone’s bubble…..we’re not crazy.
Mr. Hibberd’s diatribe was old news delivered in a seriously rude and condescending way. I don’t care who you are – that’s not right. Some people lost their temper and let the potty-mouth fly. It happens – we all have our breaking point. That doesn’t make it right, it just explains the situation.
The people who are fighting for Moonlight are generally just disgusted with the current state of network television, and are really tired of having ignorant reality television and mindless procedurals crammed down their throats.
I just have this to say – It’s my time, my money, and my right to continue to fight for what I believe in. No condescending writer is going to convince me otherwise.
I think this whole thing has gotten a little blown out of Proportion.. And Nasty..
The Writer James Hibberd, should know If he works in this Media, That People are passionate where there favorite shows are concerned..
And the Snide Comments poking fun were not really called for…
That being said.. I can’t really blame him for not writing about the Save the Show Campaign.. Or looking at Us Moonlight fans, like just another group wanting to keep a show.. I remember another massive campaign to Save a Vampire Detective show.. A few Years ago..
ANGEL.. They also did great things.. A Blood Drive. And a Months Long Charity Campaign Set up at a LA Food Bank.. To name a couple..
Also, If you look around the Web.. Save My Show, Is Everywhere!
Save “BloodTies”.. Save “Jericho”.. Save “The 4400″, Save “The Dead Zone”.. And there still Trying to Save “The Dresden Files”.
As much as I’d love to see this Show continue,
Slamming Journalists who report Bad New’s
And Claiming to refuse to “Believe” Them is a little Childish! After all.. Do you Think they even Care if we believe them???
I actually read Hibberd’s column and thought some of it was funny. True, he didn’t report much of anything that hasn’t been known for a couple of months.
Probably had an editor telling him to write something about Moonlight because as we see, it gets the hits.
Will Jericho and Moonlight fans go away. Your shows are canceled and done with
We fans of Moonlight will get our show back. Whether it be a second season, movie, or miniseries.
I used no foul language when I made my reply. Though I do not condone anyone using such language when replying to a post in regards to Moonlight, I will say I do understand the anger.
There are too many crime shows out there. There are too many reality shows and comedy shows. If we want jokes we have only to look at our paychecks in comparison to our rising utility bills and price of gasoline. If we want reality, all we have to do is look at the total of those same bills and how much money a lot of us DON’T have to pay them. If we want to see a crime show, we’ll watch the local news, or even national news for that matter, and there is all the crime we could ever want to hear about.
Then one day, CBS came out with Jericho, and at least the premise of the show was something that made us all think, to rally behind the human spirit in the face of adversity and cheer on the fight to re-establish the country we love. And it wasn’t just about that, but also the premise that if we, as Americans, as neighbors, as cities and towns, would pull together there is nothing we cannot do. So the fans of this great show loved it and CBS’s response was to cancel it. We screamed, roared and sent POUND after POUND of nuts and we get a harried second season followed by yet another cancellation. So then we were back to crime dramas, reality shows and comedy.
Then came Moonlight, and so we thought that maybe CBS would let this one be, and NOT cancel it. But to our great dismay, they did just that, stating that the Neilson ratings were too low to keep it in production. The Neilson rating system is outdated. There are over 8 million fans of Moonlight out here and CBS just ignored us in favor of yet more comedy and a couple of new dramas.
As I said when I replied to Mr. Hillberd’s post, we don’t want more comedy, we want to soar of the wings of the supernatural and let them take us to a world where vampires DO exist. We want to live every week for Mick and Beth, and their romance. We want to be taken away from reality for that hour each week and wonder what we would do if faced with the kind of choices that Beth was faced with. As I said here, if we want reality, we don’t need a show for that. Our current state of economic hardship is all the reality we need right now, and even that is too much. We need shows like Moonlight, Jericho and (I applaude CW for not cancelling this one) Supernatural.
The anger that these fans feel is from watching damn good show after damn good show being cancelled. Their anger, as well as mine, is from being made fun of and all but outright called ‘obsessed wierdos’.
We just want our show back. We want Moonlight back, on whatever network will have it, and believe me, all of the fans, myself included, will follow.
And yes. We want more ‘vomance’. Its sure beats the hell out of some dumb show about swingers.
Let’s face facts, the networks are so enamored with the almighty dollar, that they do not even consider “the good of the viewer” anymore in their decisions. It is exclusively, what is good for the budget and the bottom line. They took us out of the equation long ago, taking our viewership for granted.
Personally, I feel used and abused by the networks. This past season, I never missed an episode of my Jericho, Moonlight and Cane. I was active posting on their bulletin boards to show my support. I gave my business to their sponsors. All three were cancelled!
I am gun shy about getting involved in new offerings because of what happened this season. Why throw good time after bad? It is obvious that network executivies don’t give a flying frack about me and my viewership.
I am boycotting CBS and hope that many others will do the same. Fewer viewers means CBS can charge less per ad spot, which in turn, means they earn less revenue. Hopefully, as revenues fall, so will the heads of executives who took us for granted. It is the only way to ever change the way networks take us for granted.
“MOONLIGHT” is the only show that has taught me that I can be more than I am! I’ve been considering others and helping complete strangers.
“MOONLIGHT” has made me beleive that in the face of adversity we can all rise and answer the call to put others before our selves. This show makes me feel, anger, sadness, happiness, it is a rollercoaster ride that grabs you by the throat and does’nt let you go!!! I refuse to let “MOONLIGHT” die reguardless of what the networks say I will continue to fight for my show!!!! The story is not finished, and it needs to be!!!! Would you buy a book that is only half way written????? NO!!!!! “MOONLIGHT” deserves a second season, let’s make it happen NOW!!!!!!!!!
It truly makes no difference what’s so ever rather or not Mr.Hibberd was tying to sound like he ONLY making a “funny ” or not. As a writer ONCE you WRITE “CONDECENDING” “RUDE” material that you know full good in well is going to be read, by “MILLION’S’ of fan’s, then, really and truly as a writer, or journalist, you have then really and truly LOST ALL RESPECT, not only in yourself, but for your job in general. IT should NOT be up to Mr. Hibberd if we persue getting MOONLIGHT back on on. When you start TRASHING the folk’s who read your arcticles, that your MAGAZINE produces, that is like biting off the hand that feed’s you–NOT A A VERY SMART MOVE. IRREGARDLESS if it was only SUPPOSED to BE A JOKE–NOT FUNNY AT ALL.