CHICAGO TRIBUNE ARTICLE

`Farscape' fans use Internet to resurrect canceled show

By Maureen Ryan
Tribune staff reporter
Published November 19, 2003

A massive Web-based fan campaign apparently has succeeded in bringing back the canceled TV series "Farscape." Click here to continue...

The cult science-fiction show, which premiered in 1999 and had a four-season run on the SciFi Channel, will return next year as a 4-hour miniseries, according to a knowledgeable "Farscape" source and several Internet reports.

A spokesperson for the Jim Henson Company, which created the show, would not comment on the record about the future of "Farscape," and a SciFi spokeswoman said the network had no comment regarding the show.

Most of the cast, including stars Ben Browder and Claudia Black, reportedly is being reassembled in Australia in December for the filming of the mini-series. It is not yet known whether it will air on SciFi or another network.

When the show was canceled in September 2002, fans staged rallies in cities all over the U.S., wrote thousands of letters and used the Internet to wage a massive campaign to bring it back. As chronicled in an August Chicago Tribune story (chicagotribune.com/farscape), months after the last episode aired in March, hardcore "Scapers" continued to work for the show's return and even held "Farscape" conventions.

"I've never seen an online community like this," said Nina Lumpp, who co-founded the Web site SaveFarscape.com early in the campaign to bring back the show. "I'm very excited. There was a lot of work done by the fans, and to see something actually happen is tremendous."

"As a TV viewer, there's usually very little I can do" to show appreciation for a favorite TV show, said Astrid Reinhardt, a "Farscape" fan from Los Angeles. "This campaign gave me the opportunity to tell the world about `Farscape' and to try to effect a change."