Viewers Voice, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.  Contributions received from individuals, foundations and corporations are tax-deductible.  If you wish to support the work of Viewers Voice send donations to:

Viewers Voice, Inc.,

P.O. Box 27758

West Allis, WI  53227-0758

Please make checks payable to Viewers Voice, Inc.

This month Viewers Voice celebrates 13 years since it was founded in 1991. The organization since has worked hard to help keep quality and family programming on the air. It hasn’t always been successful but it certainly has been interesting.

The first show Viewers Voice campaigned to keep on television was “The Trials of Rosie O’Neill” starring Sharon Gless. Along with writing letters we also had a petition drive and collected over 10,000 signatures. We were given credit with helping to extend briefly extra episodes of the series but lost the battle to keep it on the air for another season.

During this campaign is when I really got to know Sharon Gless and her husband, executive producer of the show, Barney Rosenzweig. These two people helped us to get Viewers Voice started and have been friends to me and the organization ever since.

I first met Barney and Sharon before Viewers Voice when I worked for a group called Viewers for Quality Television. I joined VQT when they were campaigning to keep “Cagney and Lacey” on CBS, another series starring Sharon along with Tyne Daly; Barney was also executive producer of this show.

I was a member of VQT for four years working hard to help their efforts to keep quality programming on television. I became a chapter representative in the Milwaukee area for VQT and believed in what they were trying to accomplish. Our chapter was very successful and we had a great relationship with the local network affiliates. I started a local access television show called Viewers for Quality Television and bicycled it around to other access facilities. I guess I was too successful because the president of VQT thought I was trying to take her organization away from her which was the furthest thing from my mind. Unfortunately she was more like a dictator than a president. She accused me, of supporting a series which she felt wasn’t quality. I just stated on one of my television shows that I thought a series called “Sons and Daughters” was fun to watch and was very entertaining and asked my viewers to give it a try. I wasn’t suppose to voice my opinion unless it was her opinion. I never once used the word quality when referring to the show, but really isn’t quality in the eye of the beholder. Any way I was fired for letting my voice be heard. Actually I don’t know how she could fire me from a volunteer job, but sick minds work in sick ways. It may not sound that way but I really don’t have any bad feeling about VQT, she did me a big favor and gave me the opportunity of a lifetime.

After leaving VQT the local members in the Milwaukee chapter decided that we put too much work and gained too much credibility with the networks to let it all go for naught. They convinced me, with their help, to found an organization that was to be a resource for the viewers to communicate with the networks and to let them chose the shows they feel are entertaining and want to support; not be dictated by what the board wants to support. We must be doing something right because after thirteen years we’re still around and the other group is gone.

Success wasn’t instant for us we had to work hard to get the confidence of the producers and the networks. Our first big victory came when we campaigned for “Party of Five,” a series that got off to a slow start in the ratings and was being threatened with cancellation on the FOX Network. We bombarded the network with tons of letters and protests and talked the show up on our web site and on our TV Show. “Party of Five” started to grow and grow in the ratings and became a hit. Amy Lippman, the co-creator and executive producer of the series was quoted as saying: “Viewers Voice was one of the first organizations to get behind our show, and their support has helped tremendously in our battle to stay on the air.”

Viewers Voice has lost their share of campaigns to keep excellent television shows on the air, but at least we didn’t go down without a fight. ABC’s “Second Noah” and the ABC Family series “State of Grace” were especially hard to lose.

Another series in 1993 on NBC called “Against the Grain” was probably one of the best TV series that was ever canceled so quickly. It told the story about an insurance salesman Ed Clemons (Jon Terry) who had just taken on the task of coaching a slumping high school football team in the small football crazy town of Sumpter, Texas. He is given just one season to turn the fumbling teens around, and he throws himself into the job wholeheartedly. Though his methods ruffle the feathers of the quiet little town, he manages to make some real progress with the players who also include his own son Joe Willie (Ben Affleck). 

The series lasted about eight episodes and if you never got to see it you will never know what a great show it was. Nancy Miller from “Any Day Now” was one of the writers and is a big supporter of Viewers Voice.

We went on location in Los Angeles to a high school football field to watch “Against the Grain” at our 1993 convention. We had fun talking to the star of the series, Jon Terry, but the interesting part was meeting this really nice young man who played his son. He wasn’t very well known then but he is probably one of the biggest movie stars around today; Ben Affleck.

Since we started in 1991 we have met a lot of big stars; Scott Wolf, Neve Campbell, Ray Romano, Jim Belushi, Randy Quaid, Burt Reynolds, John Ritter, Barbara Eden, Jane Seymour, Cindy Williams and many, many more: too many to mention them all. That’s been the fun part of working with Viewers Voice. The hard part has been losing too many excellent television programs, especially when you see the crap they replace them with.

How many more years can we continue trying to keep excellent television programming on the air? I don’t really know since people respond more to taking shows off the air than keeping good ones on. Viewers Voice is the voice of the viewers and the only one that’s left with any credibility.

Until my next column let your voice be heard.