In 2013, Rob Thomas launched a Kickstarter campaign that successfully funded a movie continuation of his cancelled series Veronica Mars. That immediately generated interest in additional campaigns for other television shows that had ended or had been cancelled. Zach Levi started talking about a Kickstarter campaign for a Chuck movie, which had ended its run on NBC after five years. And Bryan Fuller floated the idea of crowd-funding a Pushing Daisies movie, which had been cancelled by ABC after two short seasons. But neither of those got very far and efforts to generate interest in crowd-funding campaigns for other sci fi TV shows stalled as well. Within a couple of years, the Kickstarter craze started by Rob Thomas had mostly died out.
Why Were No Sci Fi TV Shows Saved by Crowd-Funding Efforts?
Chuck, Pushing Daisies, and even Firefly were not saved by Kickstarter, and for each it was a longshot even if a campaign had been put together (I go into more detail on the specifics for each of those showa in the prior post). Ultimately, the two biggest obstacles are money and a lack of interest from those who control the rights to the properties. The Veronica Mars movie was doable financially because it could be produced on a relatively low budget (Thomas originally targeted $2 million but ultimately raised $5.7 million). A Chuck movie could have potentially been done with that amount of money, but shows like Pushing Daisies and Firefly would cost considerably more, likely beyond the reach of a crowd-funding campaign.
And even if the money could be raised, there’s a lack of motivation from those making the final decisions. Rob Thomas was able to work out a deal with Warner Bros. for his movie, but in general the entertainment industry is more interested in the next big thing than the prior thing that did not prove to be an instant hit (until enough time passes to make it nostalgic and it becomes the target of a reboot). Plus, network and studio execs likely don’t want to commit resources to something that might only turn a small profit for them and that might be nothing more than a one-off project. Sure, the fans may have kicked in the money, but then the project will require a time commitment from the cast and crew as well as studio space, tying up resources that could be used for other productions.
No matter how much effort a person like Zach Levi or Bryan Fuller puts into reviving a show, or the amount of money raised by fans, the final decision is made by less-enthusiastic parties. If the network and/or studio cannot be convinced, the project is dead in the water. Network execs are notoriously heartless when it comes to cancelling shows that are not making the bottom line. And they have little interest in throwing a bone to fans who want some closure as they focus their attention on trying to crank out the next big hit. Rob Thomas’ effort, in this case, proved to be the exception and not the rule, and crowd-funding lost favor as a way to revive cancelled shows when no further significant initiatives followed.
Can Sci Fi TV Shows Be Saved by Crowd-Funding?
Yes. And one was just a couple of years after Thomas successfully funded his Veronica Mars movie. Mystery Science Theater was revived by Joel Hodgson through a Kickstarter campaign that delivered a fourteen-episode eleventh season (more about how that succeeded in the prior post). And it is not impossible that a movie revival through crowd-funding like what Thomas did could happen again. Independent films and web-series have been living off Kickstarter-type campaigns for years. So the means to accomplish it is still there, it’s just a matter of getting over the many hurdles.
For more recent television shows, the cost has become much more of a factor. The networks and streaming services are throwing big dollars at their productions to be more competitive in the Peak TV era, with the average episode for many of these shows (especially from the streamers) costing $5 to $10 million. So if fans wanted to fund a movie for YouTube’s cancelled sci fi epic Origin, the price tag would almost certainly start at $10 and could possibly be much more. But less expensive shows could still be within the realm of possibility. A movie continuation of Syfy’s recently cancelled Vagrant Queen could almost certainly be done for $5 million or less which is doable for a crowd-funding campaign if the fanbase is there (which does not appear to be the case for that show). The Orson Scott Card/Aaron Johnston-created series Extinct from 2017 (more on that one at this link) is another inexpensive show that could be revived by Kickstarter (possibly raising enough for an entire second season if the fan interest was there).
Another show that is within the realm of possibility is Farscape, and Bryan Henson has repeatedly expressed interest in reviving that property. It would definitely be costly, but it’s not impossible that a pilot for a revival and/or a web series could be produced under $10 million. And that show has a large enough fanbase to come up with that sort of cash. If Henson were to make a push for it to happen, I believe he could pull it off. But for any effort like this, it is going to require money, a driving force, and the cooperation from networks/studios that have any control over the property. The initiative to crowd-fund cancelled TV shows may have faded a few years after Thomas’ success, but that doesn’t mean that it is no longer an option. If all the stars are aligned again like with the Veronica Mars movie, we could see another Kickstarter revival at some point.
The One that Got Away
Just a short time after Rob Thomas’ success, there was another Kickstarter campaign launched, though not to revive a cancelled series. David Gerrold (long-time Star Trek writer and creator of the Tribbles) attempted to fund a television series based on his star-spanning Star Wolf novels. His goal was to raise $650 thousand to produce the pilot and then he believed that subsequent episodes could be produced at around $500K each. He recruited fellow Trek alum (the dearly departed) D.C. Fontana along with producer David C. Fein (Star Trek: The Motion Picture).
The Kickstarter campaign was launched in May of 2013, but sadly drew very little attention. Even though this would have delivered the space-based show that many in the sci fi community were clamoring for at that time, with seasoned writers attached, the interest was minimal. It’s possible that if the pilot was funded that one of the networks or even streaming services could have picked it up and carried on the show from that point. But sadly the campaign fell well short of its goal and the Star Wolf series never happened. We at CancelledSciFi.com did all we could to promote the project, but it was mostly ignored by the entertainment industry, particularly (and inexcusably) the venues dedicated to sci fi.
There were indications that Gerrold and crew would give it another go, but I have not heard of another crowd-funding effort for Star Wolf nor of any interest from the networks in picking up the show. But this one could have happened if people had supported it, and perhaps at some point we will get another opportunity to back the series (in the meantime, the novels are definitely worth checking out).
Kickstarter (and other crowd-funding platforms) never proved to be the savior of cancelled sci fi TV shows (beyond MST3K), but it is not impossible that we will get another shot at some point in the future, and maybe even the opportunity to launch a new series like Star Wolf.
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