TV VIEWERS VOICE

The Viewers Voice Awards Banquet was one our members will always remember. We had in attendance the majority of the cast from the ABC Family series “State of Grace” along with the creators of the show Hollis Rich and Brenda Lilly. The evening was fun but it was also very disturbing. When a fantastic family show like “Sate of Grace” is canceled by a cable network, that is suppose to be a family network, you have to wonder where the justice is.

“State of Grace” was voted on by our members as their Favorite Half-Hour Primetime Show. Following is the acceptance speech of Hollis Rich and Brenda Lilly:

Hollis: Well it looks like it’s turned into a sort of “State of Grace” evening simply by nutrition. We’ll take it any way that we can get it. We would have been interviewed on the set but we don’t have a set anymore, we could have been interviewed in the parking lot. (Laughter)  

“State of Grace” what an unusual experience this has been what an unusual two years this has been. Sometimes I’m so narcissistic I think this is my own journey and then I look out at this room and I see all these people, and I think my goodness we created a ripple in a pond. I could not have imagined that when I started with Brenda in her backyard imaging this show, basically talking about our childhoods and how we grew up and how that might make an interesting show. To have gotten to this point and really it certainly is incredibly unfair, I will say that the show is no longer on the air for lots of reasons that are just stupid, stupid and that Viewers Voice is so aware of and that’s why it makes Viewers Voice such a wonderful organization. Viewers Voice is grassroots it represents the people. Sharon Rhode, I have to say, Brenda and I have both been on the phone with her many times, in good times, we’ve been recognized by Viewers Voice and certainly in this past year in bad times. Viewers Voice was a very supportive organization and Sharon herself an incredibly knowledgeable woman who keeps this organization going and it was very impressive. Thank you very much Sharon because you’re also frankly a source of comfort in a time when things were a little rocky.

This is what happens in this business sometimes. I look at Alias (Alia Shawkat) and I look at Mae (Mae Whitman) and I think well gee to bad this had to end in this sort of way because I think this show represented for me, working in this business several years, represented I think the best of television in the way it came together and the cast we brought together and the directors and everyone who contributed to this show, a very unique energy. I always wanted to have a television show with Brenda.

Brenda: With me. (Laughter)

Hollis: No one ever told me I’d like it so much and that was a big surprise, that I liked it so much and that I became so attached to everyone. That was a huge surprise because this family is a reflection of my own family. That is a family on its own merits and Alia and Mae you said it very beautifully as the children in the family, as the youngest ones. You really spoke I think for everyone that this was a unique experience. I feel very, very, very privileged and grateful to have shared it with all of you. It is going to live on for ever certainly in my mind as a peak and gold bar and standard for which to again strive for. Everyone in this enterprise is so talented and I hope that what they do is draw from this experience a sense of courage and strength that we can actually come together and do this sort of thing and that’s what I would strongly urge because it’s so easy sometimes to become cynical. At times it’s comforting to just sit and wallow in cynicisms; however I think that the main thing is to take from this experience the strength from all these people in the room, which is an incredible group of people and to move on and to create good television, to create good entertainment and to do what we came into this business, however long ago whether it was a year or two ago or whether it was seventeen years ago, which was to create quality shows that we were all very proud of.

Brenda: There is one person that I regret is not here tonight and that person is Angela Shapiro who is the president of ABC Family who canceled our series.

Hollis: I’m going to take these out of her hands (referring to the award plaques Brenda was holding). These can actually be used as weapons. That’s the thing about cable TV, it’s down and dirty. (Laughter)

Brenda: I really would like for her to understand what this show meant to so many people and it was not a show about a bottom line. I really would like for her to understand what this show meant to so many people. It was not a show about a bottom line; it was a show about family. When we created this show and when we went to FOX Family originally to pitch this show that was what they were looking for. They were looking for a show that a family could sit down together and watch. That was what we wanted to do, that’s how we grew up. We grew up with a television that was a family piece of furniture and you sat there with your family and you watched it and you talked about what happened or you laughed or you cried or you did whatever. This was something that we wanted to be able to do. We wanted to create a show that entertained people who were very young, also the parents, the grandparents, that anyone could sit down, that a parent could leave the room and not worry that their child was going to be exposed to something that was inappropriate. The adults could sort of snicker and laugh about something that was adult, that they didn’t really have to explain to their kids, that appealed to them on an adult level but the child in the room also got a lot out of the show. That was our goal and I think that what we did was to meet that goal and I think we did it successfully with the help of a tremendous amount of people many of them sitting here. Not only the actors in the show, but obviously the parents who put up with having their children participate in our show. It was a uniquely fabulous experience for me in this business. The people involved in producing this show every day for thirty-nine episodes, there was never complaining, there was never just people that were miserable.

Hollis: There was somebody.

Brenda: It was you. (Laughter)

Hollis: Go on, you’re right, I’m sorry it was me.

Brenda: It was a wonderful experience and it really was made better by all of you, but mostly I really want to thank Sharon for just charging in on her steed to help us try and save the show. It was an immediate phone call, we e-mailed her, she called us immediately and said what can we do to help, how can we put our organization behind you and behind the show, and that is a terrific gift and it’s something that I can’t thank you enough. We met, Hollis and I, actually met you a number of years ago on “Second Noah.”

Hollis: That’s true; I think it was in this very room.

Brenda: I think it was. I didn’t know at the time that we’d be up here you know thanking you for this award and your organization and for all the work that you all do to make sure that quality television exists and for supporting shows like ours. Thank you all for this evening and for this award.

I just want to say briefly that Hollis and Brenda are wonderful ladies, but they did give me way too much credit. Without the members and my board, Viewers Voice would not exist. One person does not make an organization. Until my next column let your voice be heard.