Top 5 Movies/TV Shows about Fanboys-Erin
1) Spaced: From the very beginning the characters in this British TV show quote Star Wars and re-enact scenes from their favorite movies. It blends so seamlessly into the plot that sometimes you don’t even realize they’re references. One of the special features is an “homage-o-meter” that displays at the bottom of the screen what movie/tv show the scene is a reference to.
2) Fanboys: In 1999, a group of friends decide to drive from Ohio to Skywalker Ranch in California to steal a copy of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace 6 months before it hits theaters.
3) The Big Bang Theory: Sheldon wears superhero T-shirts in nearly every episode, they have a comic book night, and Wil Wheaton (Star Trek: TNG), Summer Glau (Firefly, The Sarah Conner Chronicles, Dollhouse), and have Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Gallactica) been guests stars—making all the boys giddy.
4) Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back: The name says it all! Kevin Smith is a huge fanboy himself, and someday Silent Bob will successfully move something with his mind.
5) Futurama: Nearly every episode features a Star Trek reference, Leonard Nemoy was in the pilot, and George Takei has been in 2 episodes. The cast of The Original Series guest-starred together in a tribute episode titled “Where No Fan Has Gone Before”.
Top 5 Efforts to save a TV Show
Futurama: Nearly 11 years after it’s first episode aired, Futurama returns to the air waves. The original airing included 5 seasons (72 episodes total—what a normal show would do in 3-4 seasons). What resurrected the series was great dvd sales and 4 straight to dvd movies that sold in the millions, convincing Fox (who still owns the rights to the show) to commission a new 26 episode season. Luckily, cartoon characters age well.
Chuck: Fans purchased footlong sandwiches from product-placement sponsor Subway and wrote letters to NBC to get Chuck into a third season. Fan’s vigor got them into a fourth season as well.
Firefly: I still say that mishandling is the reason this show was cancelled after one season, and I think fans agree. Record dvd sales convinced Fox (hmm, I’m noticing a pattern here) to let Joss Whedon make the movie Serenity, which gave some closure for the Firefly characters. More details that would have been flushed out in episodes are coming out in comic form because the fanbase is so strong.
FlashForward: Fans staged a 2 minutes, 17 second “blackout” to protest the cancellation of the show outside ABC offices in the US, Canada, and the UK, as well as sending 20,000 friendship bracelets to executives. Unfortunately, the show wasn’t renewed.
The Sarah Connor Chronicles: After two season, Fox (Fox again) canceled the show. Fans rented movable billboards and created the “Save Cameron” campaign. Shockingly, (eh hem, sarcasm) Fox ignored their pleas
