Two of the most fiercely devoted fan clubs in television belong to the ABC shows "Lois & Clark" and "Relativity."
They flood the Internet with information, launch letter-writing campaigns, place ads in newspapers and even, in "Relativity's" case, tout the show by sending cans of ravioli to ABC executives (it's a favorite dish of one of the characters).Despite the rabid support, both programs have such pitifully low ratings that they're on the execution block. ABC will be damned with a backlash from wounded fans if the shows are axed and damned with tiny ratings if they aren't.
That seems to typify the network's luck this season.
Unable to replace some of its fading shows with new hits, ABC has slid from second to third place behind NBC and CBS in the ratings. Its Nielsen Media Research ratings were down 14 percent from last year going into the May ratings "sweeps."
ABC even has to look out below: Fourth-place Fox has upward momentum, having solidified its appeal to the young viewers sought by advertisers.
"Once you're in a decline, it's pretty hard to slow it down," notes Bill Croasdale, president of network broadcasting for Western International Media, a company that helps set advertising rates.
Part of ABC's problem is a hardening of the television arteries. Many of the shows that made it the ratings champ during the 1994-95 season have faded either in quality or audience appeal, or both.
"Roseanne," which makes its final appearance next month, lurched out of control at times and lost viewers. "Home Improvement," "Grace Under Fire" and, yes, "Lois & Clark" also have looked long in the tooth.
Even "Ellen," despite tonight's much-hyped coming-out special, has sagged, and there's no guarantee a new story line will help it catch fire.
At the same time, ABC has been unable to revitalize itself with any new breakthrough hits. Michael J. Fox's "Spin City" and the youth-appeal "Sabrina, the Teen-age Witch" are the only rookies to catch on this year, but their success is merely mild.
In ABC's defense, experts say the traditional ebb and flow of television is working against it. Hit shows inevitably get old and lose their juice. But while they're doing well, a network must stick with them - and thus has fewer opportunities to launch new programs.
"You could take all the things that everyone is saying about them, change the ABC to CBS, and that's what people were saying last season," says Steven Sternberg, television analyst for Bozell, Inc. "It's a cycle. It happens time and again."
But ABC hasn't helped itself much. Many of its new shows, like "Leaving L.A." and "Gun," are dogs the public has quickly rejected.
Its most prominent failure is "Arsenio." The comedy starring the former talk show host was sent to the bench after a troubled midseason tryout - with no guarantee it will return again.
ABC's only recent bright spot has been the performance of the midseason replacement "Soul Man," starring Dan Aykroyd, in two tries this month.
The network's showing hasn't been helped by its constant shuffling of schedules, a trend that also seems to afflict its brethren and which annoys faithful viewers mightily.
Beth Guide, an insurance executive from Houston who heads the "Lois & Clark" fan club, says her favorite show has switched nights twice this season with little notice.
"How do you expect to follow it if you don't know when it's on?" she wonders.
ABC programming executives, perhaps a bit touchy about their network's downturn, didn't respond to several requests to talk about their fortunes. They're in the process of putting together next fall's schedule, which will be announced in three weeks.
Among the new ideas being considered are a spinoff from "Home Improvement" called "Father's Day," a medical drama called "L.A. Med," a drama called "Dogs" about the lives of softball teammates, and a comedy from "The Brothers McMullen" producers Ed and Brian Burns.
ABC also is mulling shows based on the movies "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" and "The Player," a show called "Teen Angel" about a teenager who dies and becomes a guardian angel to his best friend, and a comedy about a down-and-out golf pro.
Only time will tell if the lineup contains any hits, but one thing working in ABC's favor, Sternberg points out, is the tightness of the ratings race between all the networks. Just a couple of hit shows can dramatically change a network's fortunes.
"It will be very tough for ABC to turn things around this coming season," he says. "But I wouldn't be surprised to see it happen in two seasons."
- VIETNAM FLASHBACK: Today is the 22nd anniversary of the fall of Saigon, and MSNBC is marking the occasion with a weeklong flashback on its "Time & Again" series. Tonight's show, at 8 p.m. MDT, replays NBC correspondent Jim Laurie's report showing tanks barreling through the South Vietnamese capital city and through the gates of the presidential palace. Jane Pauley hosts the program.