Shadows and Smoke

So much for all the excitement! According to tvshowsondvd.com, the much anticipated Blood Ties DVD will contain only the so-called first season (that's 11 episodes) that aired on the US Lifetime channel. Bummer.

It will include 4-discs and a behind the scenes featurette. After all this time waiting, this is all we get??? And are they going to follow through and release the rest of the episodes, that in my opinion, were the best of the series? Sigh. I was so happy a few days ago and now this. Tres bummer.

Finally, some good news! According to Blood Ties Central, the North American Blood Ties DVD will finally be released on June 2, 2009. According to the site, there will be a lot of extras included on the DVD!!!

It's been a long time waiting for the show to finally hit the DVD shelves. The show is still airing in spots here and there, on the Space channel here in Canada and in some places in Europe, though I don't know if it is airing in the U.S.

Here a link to Blood Ties Central.

Sigh. I've been wanting to start writing again but I just haven't had A) the time, and B) the inspiration.

( read more )

Whoa, it's been awhile. Anyways, here are some icons I've made. I'm not the most prolific icon maker, but it does relax me. Have a look if you want.

( Enter at your own free will.... )

Earlier this week or last weekend Lifetime sent emails out to fans. In the emails they finally acknowledged that they were canceling the show, blaming ratings. Whatever.

I've heard Blood Ties got decent ratings when it first started airing, but that ratings had fallen when the network showed the remainder of the season (ostensibly called "Season Two" by their idiotic marketing dept even though in reality it was the rest of the original 22-episode season. Again, whatever). No kidding the ratings fell. First of all Deathtime did little promotion ahead of it's return to TV, then they moved it from it's original Sunday night timeslot to Friday nights at 11:00 pm. Then, they had said they would rebroadcast the first 12 episodes as a sort of lead up to the rest of the "new season" but didn't follow through on that promise. Then, inexplicably, some bozo decided that the last 2 episodes would be shown online only. Honestly, they couldn't kill it they tried any harder.

I'm glad it's over, not that I'm giving up the fight. I'm just glad Deathtime finally made a decision that should have been made a year ago. I just wish Blood Ties hadn't aired originally there in the first place. The network was never really behind it and treated the show's fans with complete and utter disrespect. As I said, I haven't given up hope that Blood Ties will find a new home.



On that note, keep writing those letters, emails, and sending postcards!!!

Here are some addresses:

FX Cable Channel
Peter Ligouri, President/CEO
P. O. Box 900
Beverly Hills, CA 90123-0900

Email to: user@fxnetworks.com

Scifi network
e-mail: feedback@scifi.com
or, scifiwire@scifi.com

Bonnie Hammer, President
NBC Universal/Sci-Fi Channel
30 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10112

Mark Stern, Executive VP Original Programming
NBC Universal/Sci-Fi Channel
100 Universal City Plaza, Building 1440, 14th Floor
Universal City, CA 91608

And for fans in Canada, you need to write to CTV. Even though Blood Ties aired on City-TV, they will no longer have the rights to rebroadcast as of August 2008. CTV also owns Space (the Sci-Fi equivalent in Canada). I've included City-TV contact for good measure.

City-TV @: http://www.citytv.com/toronto/1462_contactus.aspx

CTVGLOBEMEDIA INC.
9 CHANNEL NINE COURT
SCARBOROUGH, ONTARIO M1S 4B5
TEL: 416-332-5000
www.ctvglobemedia.com

CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS:

TEL: 416-332-5000
EMAIL: ctvglobemediacommunications@ctvglobemedia.com

PS
It was a bad week for the vampire genre on television. CBS canceled Moonlight despite the show doing relatively well in the ratings, although a network rep said that the show was losing the audience from its lead-in Ghost Whisperer even though viewer ship went back up for the show following Moonlight, Numbers. I think a lot of shows may have suffered through the writers strike, losing the momentum they had before the strike. I wasn't really a fan of the show, I watched the first three episodes and just never got into it as passionately as I did with Blood Ties. I'm not dissing the show. It's so subjective what will appeal to some people as opposed to others. Still, I'm sure Blood Ties fans are feeling Moonlighter fans pain.

A poster over at the Bloodlines forum has posted some disappointing, though not unexpected news, from Lifetime. The poster said that she was making her usual weekly calls to LIfetime and, while the New York office had no news, the LA office did. This person was told that Blood Ties was not being renewed by the network.

On the one hand, the news is disappointing because...well, it's crappy news for sure. We want our show to continue, we want to see more of Henry, Vicki, Mike, and Coreen. I want to see Henry and Vicki work through their issues and finally give into passion. But that's not going to happen, at least not on this so-called 'women's network".

On the other hand, it's about time Lifetime said something definitive after keeping all of us fans on the hook for about a year. Now, we can concentrate our efforts on other networks, like FX, Sci-Fi, or USA or even CW in the U.S. (or if you're like me and have been doing this all along, you don't have to waste your efforts on Lifetime). In Canada, we are concentrating our efforts on CTV and Space, since it seems City-TV won't have broadcast rights to the show beginning in August.

Don't give up the fight. We had news this week that Kaleidescope (the production company) was still looking for backers and now they can concentrate on other networks as well. It would be the best news if Kaleidescope could get financial backing through partnerships with other companies, as has been done in the past with shows such as Andromeda, Mutant X, and Murdoch Mysteries.

Henry and Vicki need you!

Keep writing those letters, emails, and sending postcards!!!

Here are some addresses:

FX Cable Channel
Peter Ligouri, President/CEO
P. O. Box 900
Beverly Hills, CA 90123-0900

Email to: user@fxnetworks.com

Scifi network
e-mail: feedback@scifi.com
or, scifiwire@scifi.com

Bonnie Hammer, President
NBC Universal/Sci-Fi Channel
30 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10112

Mark Stern, Executive VP Original Programming
NBC Universal/Sci-Fi Channel
100 Universal City Plaza, Building 1440, 14th Floor
Universal City, CA 91608


for more possibilities, check out SaveBloodTies.org

Well, as you can maybe guess from my icon I'm a fan of the show Blood Ties. Fans like me are waiting...and waiting for word on whether Lifetime or some other network will pick up and renew Blood Ties for another full season.

There is currently a fan campaign to not only raise awareness about the show but also do a little good. Fans are being asked to donate prescription and non-prescription glasses to The Lions Club during the month of May. The effort is an international one, so you can donate even if you live outside of the United States or Canada. This is a real worthwhile cause and ties in with the show because Vicki Nelson, the show's heroine, suffers from retinitis pigmentosa (I hope that's how it's spelled). Anyway, you can read more about it here and, if you can, pledge to donate a pair of unused glasses.

This is another great site to check out. It's called savebloodties.org. It houses all the fan-based initiatives to keep Blood Ties on the air. You can also sign up to get email updates. They're a great reminder of where to send emails.

And finally, my favorite site for Blood Ties info and discussion is the Blood Ties Bloodlines fan site. It's a great, fan friendly site with lots of screen caps. If you're new to Blood Ties, go check it out.