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In my last column I discussed what a great family show 7^th heaven was and that The WB would be foolish to cancel it even if they were in their tenth season. The series is still their number one show and there are still many stories to be told. The Camden grew up with their audience and still growing. Guess what, The WB did cancel the show, or I should say that the President of Entertainment for The WB, David Jangler didn’t like the show and had it pushed to be canceled because it was a thorn in his side. He wants to put his efforts into promoting their new series Related. I’m not putting down Related because it’s not a bad show but it’s no where close to being the excellent family entertainment that 7^th Heaven has brought to Monday night television. The fight for network family programming is getting harder and harder and forcing viewers to find what they want on cable or their DVD players.

If you’re a fan of 7^th Heaven and would like to protest its cancellation give Mr. Janollari a call at The WB; 818-977-6200. We need to boycott networks that only want sex and violence. It may seem a little extreme but it’s our only hope of saving family programming. We need to write our congressman and Senators.

Viewers Voice is also supporting a campaign to get the creator of 7^th Heaven, Brenda Hampton this year Peabody Award for keeping a great family show on the air for ten years. If you’re interested in writing a letter in her support, write to the Peabody Committee and send your letter to Pamela S. Cotton, Coordinating Producer, 7^th Heaven, 3401 Exposition Blvd., Santa Monica, and CA. 90404.

Another series that has been canceled and really is the best sitcom on television is FOX’s Arrested Development (Mondays, 7:00 p.m., CST). A comedy that has gotten critical acclaim but has had a problem with picking up an audience. I’m not sure why the viewers have not taken to the show but if you watch it you can still let your voice be heard and write the FOX Network. There has been some rumor that Showtime or TNT may be interested in picking it up. Arrested Development did win the Viewers Voice Award for their favorite Primetime Comedy Series Award so at least we know that our members are watching. In my next column I will take you on a behind the scenes set visit of the show when we were in Los Angeles in October.

Medium (Mondays, 9:00-10:00 p.m., CST), a drama on NBC was one of the shows our Viewers Voice members visited on our trip to L.A. and got a real nice tour of the set from executive producer, Glenn Gordon Caron.

Medium is a one-hour chilling drama series inspired by the real-life story of research medium Allison DuBois. Patricia Arquette stars as the young wife and mother who, since childhood, has been struggling to make sense of her dreams and visions of dead people. The show is excellent and Arquette won the Emmy in the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series category after the telecast of the initial sixteen episodes. The show also won the Viewers Voice Award for Favorite New Primetime Show of the 2004-2005 seasons.

We arrived at the Medium production offices in Manhattan Beach on a beautiful Thursday morning and waited outside the studios until our publicist arrived. We brought along my 17 month old grandson Matthew knowing he’d probably have to wait outside with his father Gary Saugstad. It was such a great day so that was no real problem. While we were waiting Jake Weber who plays husband, Joe Dubois on the show came by with his little pug dog and Matt was thrilled and went over and got acquainted. Also while waiting little Maria Lark (Bridgette Dubois) stopped to say hello and this made Matt’s day seeing another little kid around.   Maria was real cute coming over and talking to us and I got a bang out of how she talked like a grown-up in a little person’s body and so serious and polite. We asked her how many hours she works and she replied: “Like eight.”  We asked a day, a week? “It depends on how long the scene took.” Her mother then stepped in and said “She’s tutored three hours a day and then it depends on the scenes. She’s tutored privately.” Maria then jumped in and said: “Well not privately, I get tutored with Sofia who plays my sister.” We asked what grade she was in; “I just got into second.”

After our conversation with Maria the publicist took us into the building and introduced us to Glenn Gordon Caron. They were in the middle of building a new set and it was quite noisy but this is just part of what goes on behind the scenes. Mr. Caron seemed genuinely happy to see us and commented: “It’s really flattering by the way that you guys like our show we appreciate it.” He then proceeded to take on a tour of the Dubois house. It was fun seeing the kids messed up room, the kitchen and especially the Dubois bedroom where many of the scenes are shot. It’s where Allison has many of her dreams about things that happened or are about to happen. The rooms actually looked like someone was living there.

My daughter Debbie watches the show faithfully and asked Mr. Caron if the real Allison ever comes to the set. His reply was: “Once in a very great while, not very often. She checks in and we’re certainly interested in her opinion. Sometimes she’ll call me and say here’s something that happened to me and we try to incorporate that into the show, that kind of thing. But she really does work for the District Attorney of Phoenix, Arizona and she does jury selection, she helps with murder cases and she helps find missing people. She’s got a life above and beyond the show. Deb read Allison Dubois book about her life and Mr. Caron told us she has a second book coming out in December.

We ended our tour in the courtroom where many of the cases on Medium take place. We decided it was a good place to present Mr. Caron with the Viewers Voice Award for Favorite New Primetime Television Show. He is a very funny man and when he found out we were taping the presentation for our TV Show he said: “If I would have known I would have changed my underwear.”

When I presented him with the award his acceptance speech was: “Thank you. You know you do these things hoping that somebody will like them so it’s very, very gratifying to find out that a lot of people like them, particularly a discriminating group like Viewers Voice. So thank you and I speak for the entire cast, the entire crew, all the people behind the scenes, all the people in front of the cameras, thank you so much this means the world to us and I will proudly hang this in my office.” He then looked at the plaque and jokingly said: “It says Joan of Arcadia on here. No, really I appreciate this so much.”

Mr. Glenn Gordon Caron can also be remembered for doing Moonlighting, I guess that’s where his sense of humor comes from. He was delight to meet and we appreciated his kindness to our group.

We didn’t get the chance to meet Patricia Arquette because she wasn’t on the set that particular day and that was a little disappointing but then we will probably get another opportunity another time.

After the set visit and award presentation we did get to interview Sofia Vassilieva who plays Ariel, the Dubois oldest daughter. I’m saving that interview for my next column. She was a very interesting young actress that I’m sure you will see more of in the future.  

You the viewers are very important to the networks so let your voices be heard.