Well, today, we finally got through to the lady who actually does the scheduling of the pledge content and, well, everything we were told up to this point was apparently wrong. Apparently it’s been on “a few times” already. (To be fair, some folks in the comment threads said they’d heard that it was on, but that was directly contradicting what people at the station were telling us. The moral here: ALWAYS believe ANYTHING you read in one of our comment threads!) :)
And we were told today that it won’t be shown again. Public television stations everywhere are struggling, and these pledge events need to maximize donations. While the lady we talked to called it “a wonderful, hilarious show,” the pledge response during the previous showings was not great.
So, we failed in our attempts to alert you when this was going to be on. We tried. Sorry.
That said, I promised I would pass along THIS LINK, where you can make a pledge to KETC and receive a DVD or ticket(s) to the CT show in November as a premium (depending on how much you pledge). Respond as you see fit.
) to help our users cope with "trolls" and other commenters whom they find annoying. Go to our
[We kept getting told “soon, soon, we’ll let you know when we know for sure.” They never got back to us. We checked the schedule on their Web site. Nothing.]
It’s really nice that some tv station would show this, and I don’t mean to sound harsh, but should a level of incompetence of this proportion really be rewarded by pledging money to them?
No. If I lived in that area, I wouldn’t give them a dime. Why should they be surprised that the donations weren’t great? People don’t have the money to donate to “public television”.
So…did anyone tape the pledge breaks?
It’s aired at least 3 times that I know of.
Obviously they missed an opportunity for national advertising by not keeping Satellite News informed – no wonder the pledge response wasn’t very good.
Yeah no kidding, what the hell did they expect if they didn’t let us know it was going to be on?
Sometimes things don’t go as planned. Adapt and overcome. There is always a next time. ;-)
Oh well, back to showing Irish Tenors and Rick Steves travel shows.
Another thought, isn’t it silly how PBS stations use irregular programming during pledge drives, even though the money is meant to support the regular programming that is interrupted by the pledge drive?
It does seem like a wasted opportunity. Not telling the people most likely to want to watch and perhaps donate. Not exactly marketing genius.
I wanted to buy an out of town sports hat one time. I asked the owner of the store if he had a particular hat. He told me that he doesn’t stock them because he can’t sell them but I should have been there last week when he got a dozen by accident. I asked him what happened to the hats and he told me he sold them all within 2 hours. I asked him if he bought any more since he sold the first batch so quickly and he told me he didn’t because nobody buys them.
Ugh. More showings of that Transiberian Orchestra. Christmas music in early fall, whee!
I’ve really never understood television. Why is it that it’s more commercially viable to show complete crap that no one would ever actually want to watch? I mean, the only thing I can think of is their main audience is people in nursing/retirement homes.
Infomercials. Reality TV. Crap movies (Sci-Fi channel).
KETC was good when I was a kid. Dr. Who. Blake’s 7. The Prisoner (still remember the promos to it, set to Hotel California). The Outer Limits. The Man from UNCLE. Old classic movies uncut.
Now it’s Rick Steves, Tavis Smiley, crap yuppie music flavor of three years ago.
I was wondering about this as soon as I read that this was for a pledge drive.
The shows during pledge drives need to be big, splashy (for PBS) specials that you feel like you can leave for a minute to pledge. Who’s going to make a phone call in the middle of a CT movie?
What we really need here is a special Pledge Week special of Pearl, Pearl, Pearl, Pearl…Pearl.
I like DOOMSDAY MACHINE but they should’ve picked a peppier installment for a pledge drive- although I guess the CT films are a pretty dreary bunch. I guess SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS, THE ALIEN FACTOR, and EAST MEETS WATTS seem to be the most upbeat of the released eps.
#4 Tarantulas–I just want to state for the record that I consider you a trusted source, and when you said that in a previous thread, despite the fact that the people at the station were saying the exact opposite, I believed you and it was my first glimmer that I was getting the runaround. I just wanted you to know that I hadn’t ignored you. I just couldn’t get anybody at the station to confirm it.
This is a little off topic, but in light of this unsuccessful pledge drive thing, is anyone else getting just a little bit worried about our beloved post MST groups. I mean Rifftrax has hinted that the last 2 live shows weren’t all that successful; CT had to cancel 2 shows for lack of ticket sales.
I know that CT still sells out shows in some areas and that Rifftrax will probably do OK as long as there are Twilight and Harry Potter movies to riff, but is this as far as they go? Has everybody that “gets it” already gotten it?
#16 – I doubt that, just because of one horribly mismanaged local pledge drive, that CT & RT are “over”. Between the tangled web that Sampo got caught in and the deep vein of (personally understandable) resentment towards pledge drives that you can see here, this “failure” was pretty much unavoidable. Don’t be a doomsayer and think that one local botched airing will doom two whole series/companies to disaster.
#17 I’m not a doomsayer, I said just a little concerned. Sorry
That is pretty lame that they were getting national press for this stunt (or is it “buzz” when its on the internet?) and they couldn’t be bothered to know when they themselves were airing it. Perhaps they should put a tv tuned to their own channel in their employee break room.
#16 Dip – I don’t think CT & Rifftrax are over, but I do think there’s something to what you’re saying. Maybe the whole “live” thing has run its course. If they keep going to the same cities, how many times will the same people go see them when they can pay significantly less to get the DVD and be able to watch it over and over? Many people who might see it can’t afford it, or live too far away. If they go elsewhere, they risk not getting enough ticket sales.
Personally, I do hope they stop it, because I think the quality of the live stuff is greatly inferior to the studio stuff.
I think both groups need to lower their prices a bit, plus I may be in the minority but after seeing CT live and doing the meet and greet afterwards, it’s not something I feel I really need to do again, considering how much cheaper the DVDs are. Of course it doesn’t help that I am 400 miles away from the nearest town that they have performed in, I probably would go to a repeat show or two if they hit me where I live.
Scenario_dave: Which sports team cap did you ask for?
casmir: “Perhaps they should put a tv tuned to their own channel in their employee break room.” LOL!!!!!!!!!!! Totally agree!!!
to #10 Scenario_dave. I love your story about the merchant, but I think he was expecting you to read his mind when he said the hats were not selling. More than likely what happen was he got a batch of these out of town hats a long time ago and they sold out. Thinking he had a hot item he ordered more, but the people who wanted the hats had already bought what they wanted. So they stayed on the shelf month after month taking up room till he either sold them or returned them. Which mean he is now reluctant to take another chance on any items.
I meant he doesn’t want to take a chance on any NEW items. To bad you can’t edit your comments
As for me, I will never make a donation to a PBS channel. Bringing you program no one else will, indeed! No one like BBC America, The Scy Fy channel, Discovery Channel ex cetera, ex cetera ad nauseam.
#25 I wasn’t aware PBS ran quality films like “Sharkoctopus”. ;-)
JeremyR: NEVER Say an unkind word about Trans-Siberian. Beside, TSO has done 2 non-Christmas albums too ya know.
/misses Criss
//continues to fight for the rock
#25 No they didn’t, but they did Overdrawn at the Memory Bank :lol:
correction
#26 No, they didn’t, but they did Overdrawn at the Memory Bank. :lol: