Although I posted yesterday about why I’m worried by what the Veronica Mars Kickstarter means for the future of film and television (in particular, the continued destruction of independent media as the conglomerates continue to move into the independent space), that doesn’t mean I don’t have my secret list of shows that I would like to see come back via crowdfunded campaign.

Does this make me a hypocrite? Maybe. I still think that some of my issues could be resolved with, at a minimum, greater transparency about the process, although like every other Kickstarter project ever, successful funding does not guarantee the funders anything, regardless of what was actually promised. I also think that some of these projects could be better served (read: treated as truly independent) if the studios were willing to license the content (i.e. licensing the characters/story/names/etc. back to the creators to allow them to make whatever they want) rather than, essentially, taking our money in directly.

But this post isn’t supposed to be about those fears – this one is supposed to be about shows that should come back and have some sort of resolution.

A note about the list – I am purposely leaving off shows that already have a second life (Arrested Development, Firefly/Serenity), are still on the air (Community), or have already been mentioned elsewhere by their creators, even offhand (Terriers, Pushing Daisies). I am also not considering shows that were brilliant in their time but could never be replicated now because of the time difference/age of the cast who were so central to the success of the show (My So-Called Life, Freaks & Geeks, Jack & Bobby). Also, these shows are not necessarily shows that would succeed at such a campaign (their creators likely don’t have the cache to pull in the kind of money necessary), but still.

So now, a few choice selections:

1. Defying Gravity (ABC, 2009)

Did you watch Defying Gravity? Of course you didn’t. Almost nobody did. Picked up by ABC as a summer series, it was never given a chance to succeed, which is too bad, because it was brilliant. Take the soap of early (i.e. good) Grey’s Anatomy, the thematic flashback narrative structure of Lost, and set it in a future where we’re traveling across the solar system, and you’ve got a very rough idea of what this show did. Add in a terrific cast (led by Ron Livingston and Laura Harris) and an excellent writing staff, and you’ve got a show that would have done 5 terrific seasons on Syfy. Instead, they aired about 7 of 13 on ABC in August and then pulled it.

 

2. Better Off Ted (ABC, 2009-2010)

You probably haven’t seen it, but Better Off Ted was the best-written comedy for the two years it was on the air. It also provided the most biting social commentary this side of South Park in the past decade (read this excellent post that I didn’t write on the racial sensitivity episode for a good example of what they managed to pull of). It was well-cast, incredibly well-written, and somehow managed to be supremely goofy and make you think at the same time.

Go watch the two seasons (they’re streaming on Netflix) right now. I’ll wait.

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Okay, now tell me that this show doesn’t deserve another shot. You can’t, can you? That’s what I thought.

 

3. Kitchen Confidential (FOX, 2005)

Here’s what made this show awesome:

Based on the book by Anthony Bourdain.
It starred Bradley Cooper.
It co-starred (among others) John Cho, John Francis Daley, Jamie King, and Frank Langella.
It was about chefs.
It was very funny.

Not that Bradley Cooper would be available to do it (or John Cho, or Frank Langella, probably), but you could probably make this movie today with this cast and you’d be able to get a LOT of people to see it.

 

4. The Middleman (ABC Family, 2010)

An ABC Family show? Really? Yes really. Written by Javier Grillo-Marxuach (who was on Lost, among other shows), The Middleman was a sort of pop-culture-y Men In Black with a cute girl at the center. It was incredibly smart, well-written, and very funny. There were two problems:

1. ABC Family didn’t have the budget to make this show work completely (the effects, which are supposed to be cheesy anyway, looked a little too cheesy at times because of the budget).

2. It really didn’t fit in with what ABC Family was trying to do, which was become the next WB.

Although I stated up top that I don’t know that any of these shows have enough cultural capital to turn in a successful campaign, Grillo-Marxuach certainly has his fans, and The Middleman also is based on an indie comic (which Grill-Marxuach created when nobody would make the show, years earlier, before turning it back into a TV show), so… maybe.

 

9999. Work It (ABC, 2012)

Ahem.

If you haven’t heard, Rob Thomas (creator of the television show Veronica Mars) launched a Kickstarter campaign yesterday to raise funding to shoot a Veronica Mars movie, with as much of the original cast as he can wrangle. In just about ten hours, they reached their 2 million dollar goal, thus meaning that they will get their funding and presumably will make the movie.

Today’s a victory for crowdsourcing, right? A much-beloved show will get an ending. Fans get to contribute to help make this dream a reality. I should be enjoying this moment. Instead I’m terrified. Here’s why.

1. A Successful Kickstarter Doesn’t Guarantee Anything.

Kickstarter doesn’t guarantee receipt of goods or that the money that you donate to a project will actually be spent on the given project, which, of course, makes sense – they’re just a middleman in the crowdsourcing world. But a lot of Kickstarter projects never actually get completed. Instead, the funds are taken and whatever the product was (video game, movie, book, etc.) just vanishes along with your money.

Now, of course, I’m not suggesting that someone as high-profile as Rob Thomas would pull something like that – after all, one of the reasons why projects helmed by successful people in their chosen field often can attract high levels of funding is precisely because of their visibility, and the implicit guarantee that they can deliver.

But in this instance, things are MUCH more complicated – in particular, with regard to Warner Bros., who owns the rights to Veronica Mars.

The Kickstarter page is pretty vague on what the deal with WB actually is – Rob writes:

Of course, Warner Bros. still owns Veronica Mars and we would need their blessing and cooperation to pull this off. Kristen and I met with the Warner Bros. brass, and they agreed to allow us to take this shot. They were extremely cool about it, as a matter of fact. Their reaction was, if you can show there’s enough fan interest to warrant a movie, we’re on board.

But what kind of deal is that? What constitutes “enough fan interest”? The implication of a successful Kickstarter campaign is that, well, 2 million dollars worth is “enough fan interest”, but to Warner Bros. that might not be enough. How much is enough? 5 million? 10? And what guarantees are there of distribution? Films get shelved – sometimes for years – and without knowing what kind of deal has been struck, there’s no way we can know if the film will ever see the light of day. And even if there were some kind of contractual agreement that kicked in at the completion of a successful Kickstarter campaign, do you think that the giant conglomerate couldn’t find a way to shelve the film if they wanted to?

 

2. What Is Going To Happen To Non-Blockbuster Film?

Even though there are a number of ways that the Veronica Mars movie could end up being screwed up and causing people to lose faith in Kickstarter forever, that, to be honest, is the best case scenario.

Much more terrifying is that this could easily become the new normal for non-blockbuster film development from the studio side. Want a sequel to that cult movie? All you have to do is generate millions of dollars upfront from the die-hard fans to mitigate the studio’s risk. It has the potential to become a vicious new type of pre-sale for the film industry – except that unlike the way things are currently done, the people who usually pay upfront before a movie has been made is getting something in return, like territorial rights to distribution.

All the while, the big studios can sit back and greenlight/kill a project based on the public’s response to their kickstarter campaign. Why fund small projects when the diehards will fund it for them? And if the funding campaign fails, it just bolsters their view that the project wasn’t going to succeed anyway.

 

3. % Of Hipsters Bitching About How “This Is What’s Wrong With America” Will Increase Tenfold.

I’ve already seen a bunch of posts from people I know saying roughly: “Hey, instead of giving our money to this why don’t we solve a problem like poverty or getting ourselves out of debt.”

To which I say: I’m glad you’re so socially conscious. I’m sure that on top of posting your sanctimonious rant on Facebook, you’re also gifting your tax return to the government to help pay down the deficit, or have donated it to a local charity.

 

4. Where Does Really Independent Film Turn To Next?

There’s “independent” film (you know, the kind that look like they were filmed pretty quickly, but also have five or more recognizable actors in it. See Joss Whedon’s upcoming Much Ado About Nothing for an example), and independent film – the kind that tends to find their funding on crowdsourcing sites like Kickstarter or IndieGoGo.

There was a time when independent film was supported by arms of the big studios – but those were eventually crowded out by “independent” film. Now they’ve moved to crowdfunding – but with the success of this project, it’s possible that “independent” film will soon dominate this space, too, pushing the films that probably need the backing more (i.e. have no shot at major studio backing) are going to find it tougher and tougher to compete with big names.

This is already happening in the gaming sector of crowdfunding – projects created by “name” developers can raise hundreds of thousands of dollars. Truly independent projects are lucky if they can get to five digits.

 

 

Naturally, all of these fears could be overblown. Maybe the movie will be a big hit. Maybe it will be regarded as a unique experience, rather than as something that should replace (and thus displace) traditional film development. Maybe as crowdfunding grows, there will remain room for both truly independent film and the studio films that otherwise wouldn’t get made.

But I have my doubts. Which will make the next year very interesting to see what happens after the Veronica Mars movie is delivered.