THE TKTV NEWSLETTER
Season 2, Episode 2 aired January 11, 1999

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CONTENTS
1. Intro
2. Letters from the viewing audience
3. Fan Fiction
     -by guest writer Rachel Vagts
4. Don't miss
5. Favorite quotes of the week
6. A totally unrelated link

1. Intro

So we finally got some snow here in New York. I heard it snowed around Christmas as well, but I wasn't here to witness it, so as far as I'm concerned, our first snow was last Friday.

Unfortunately, last Friday was also the day that I discovered that there's a hole in the sole of my right shoe. Very wet right foot.

I saw the movie "Clerks" on Friday night as well. Everyone I had spoken to about it said it was a great and funny movie. People forgot to tell me that it's very weird, all in black and white, only has one camera angle per scene, and the acting is horrific. But yeah, it's pretty funny. I hear I'm supposed to see "Chasing Amy" now, which is by the same guy, really funny, and actually had a budget for filming.

So I'm looking for reviews of some of the new shows that are coming out. Did anyone watch? Does anyone have an opinion? Last week was the premiere of both "Providence" (on NBC) and "The PJs" (on FOX). Keep an eye out this week for "60 Minutes II" (on CBS) and "Zoe, Duncan, Jack and Jane" (on the WB). I think the WB is going for a "Friends" audience with this new half-hour sitcom. We'll see how they do. The previews don't look horrible. I don't really pay much attention to news shows, so "60 Minutes II" will be just as ignored by TKTV as "60 Minutes" is.

I'm really excited about the guest article this week. Rachel was one of the first people on board TKTV, and she has been great at co-maintaining the "Party of Five" site with me. (We've only overwritten each other's stuff once or twice.) I think the subject of fan fiction is a great one, because it's really something that not many people know much about, and its prevalence has also been greatly advanced by the internet.

If there are any other Newsletter viewers that are interested in writing guest articles, please let me know. I'm always looking for new points of view on anything television.

A couple new things to look for on TKTV. Along with a page for the Golden Globe nominations there is a page for the "TV Guide" awards nominations. And as briefly mentioned last week, there are sites for "Providence" and "The PJs" if you want to learn more about these new shows. There should also soon be a site for "Zoe, Duncan, Jack and Jane" and there will finally be a site for "Charmed."

So enjoy the Newsletter!

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2. Letters from the viewing audience

David in response to Jess0147 (regarding the Rugrats Hanukah special and whether or not they're Jewish):
As I understand it, Didi, her parents, Tommy, and Dil are Jewish; Stu is Gentile and so are the rest of the regular characters. In the Passover special Angelica was complaining to her parents about having to go along to Didi's family's seder, saying, "It's not even our holiday, it's Tommy's."
From Jen:
As maintainer of TKTV's Felicity site, even I have to agree with the comments that the show is not very deserving [of the Golden Globe nominations]. Of course I like it, and I wouldn't maintain a site about it if I didn't feel some kind of connection to the storylines and the characters. But watching it is similar to watching a well written soap opera. The characters are gorgeous, there's great chemistry between the leads (Felicity and Noel), and well, there's sex. A lot of people have compared this show to "Ally McBeal" and "My So-Called Life" (my favorite show of all time), but I think its real distinguishing mark is its subtlety and its film-noir quality. I also think that the lack of quality shows this season overall has made this one a stand out. In a larger sense, I don't think Felicity is nearly as intriguing as MSCL or the first 3 seasons of "Party of Five." And on the other side of the coin, it isn't nearly as offensive as Dawson's Creek. So ultimately I believe that it all comes down to timing. Felicity was created at a good time, during a season of lackluster 80's remakes [ala Fantasy Island and Love Boat], and for this reason it has received an inordinate amount of press coverage--more fuel for the show and the WB, but also more pressure for what could possibly turn into next season's Dawson's Creek or Charmed--bad writing, convoluted plots, and the Party of Five syndrome: what movie will each actor appear in next?
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3. Fan Fiction by Rachel Vagts

This week I rewatched "Sleepless in Seattle" and I found myself wondering about what happened after they got off the elevator. Did Sam drop to one knee and propose to Annie? Did they live happily ever after or did it just not work out? Maybe Sam had to get back to Seattle so they just called it a night. Maybe Annie did follow him West, she never found a job in her field, and the relationship just didn't work. Maybe Noah decided he didn't want a new mother. Maybe they got married and had 3 more kids. We'll never know because it isn't the kind of story that has a sequel.

Very rarely do we see the day after the "big moment." I can think of one instance when this did happen. In college I saw a Stephen Sondheim musical called "Into the Woods." The first act drew several well-known fairy tales together. The act came to an end as we hit the "happily ever after" moment. The second act was what happened later. Prince Charming turned out to not be so charming, dumping Cinderella for Sleeping Beauty. Poor Jack grew another beanstalk, the giant's wife climbed down and killed his mother. What was Sondheim doing? He was writing some fancy fan fiction.

What is this fan fiction? They are stories based on characters created by someone else. Usually based on television characters, they can also be movie characters, characters from books, comic books. The possibilities are endless.

I remember when I first discovered fan fiction. I had become a syndication convert to "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman." I loved Dr. Mike. I couldn't get enough of her, even watching five days a week when I got home from graduate school. I found a novel based on the show, and it was like a dream come true. Then one day I found the motherlode . . . a whole page with stories written about Michaela and Scully. There were stories of tragedy, sexy stories and stories that filled in the blanks for scenes that seemed to be missing from my favorite episodes. I was in heaven. I e-mailed my friend Sally to tell her what I had discovered. She responded quickly. What had I found? Fan fiction. Actually, I was late to the game. Star Trek fans have been producing the stuff for years. Before the Internet, they even published it in magazines produced for other fans, but it was the online world that sky-rocketed this genre to a level incomprehensible only a few years ago.

Fan fiction exists for almost every show. Karen Nicholas runs a large web site of links to different fan fiction archives at http://members.aol.com/ksnicholas/fanfic/index.html. There are so many X-files archives that they get their own page. The largest of these archives is the Gossamer Project, originally started as a single web page in 1995 by Vincent Juodvalkis. After he closed his site in 1996, the project began. It has grown to 4 complete story archive sites as well as 3 specialty archives collecting unfinished stories, poetry, nonfiction and other related works. Although each site has the same content, I prefer to use the German mirror at http://germany.gossamer.org/. I've read everything from Mulder being tortured by his past, and Scully and Mulder being married, to Scully blind, and Mulder pregnant . . . that's right, Mulder pregnant. You name it, I think someone has written it. Some are as short as a few lines, others would rival Tom Wolfe for novel length.

So who writes fan fiction? Well, for the most part it's women. I can count on one hand the number of male writers I've read. From my experience it's people from all walks of life who are just taken with the characters from the shows they watch. I know I started because, quite frankly, the characters started talking to me in the shower. I had to put it down on paper. Actually, it's not quite as weird as it might sound. I found myself wondering what would have happened if the plot went the other way, what happened after the credits ran before they showed up the next week.

As a librarian I have often heard the predictions about the paperless library, where we look to the computer for everything we read. I didn't believe that would be possible until I started reading fan fiction. Now I don't regularly read my book before I go to bed. I like to go online and read the work of my favorite fan fic author. I monitor the sites or lists where she publishes and often can read things very shortly after they are finished. How do I pay for this enjoyment? Feedback! Every fan fiction author lives for hearing what people think of her work. After publishing my first piece, I practically cried at my desk over the feedback (from our very own TK!). I think I still have that message somewhere on a disk.

The Internet has drawn the world closer together. We are able to connect with people we would never meet otherwise, share our creativity with strangers around the world. Fan fiction is just a little part of that. So, go forth and read . . . just be careful, it's addictive.

(Note from TK: TKTV has an incredible fan fiction collection, but unfortunately, it's only for one show, "Party of Five." You can check it out at http://partyoffive.tktv.net/fanfic/ and see a lot of stuff that Rachel has written. If you are inspired to write fan fiction for any television show, please feel free to submit it to TKTV, even if it's for a show that TKTV doesn't cover. Having a fan fiction section could be really neat....)

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4. Don't miss

For details and lots more fun TV to look forward to, see
http://www.tktv.net/upcoming.html

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5. Favorite Quotes of the Week

From "Dharma and Greg"
"Oh, please. I'm dying. I should be chain-smoking cigarettes wrapped in bacon." -Beatrice

From "Sports Night"
"You know the biggest difference?" -Dan
"The biggest difference between what?" -Casey
"The biggest difference between women then and women now." -Dan
"What?" -Casey
"You're on television." -Dan

From "Will and Grace"
"Never gesture emphatically with a taco in your hand." -Will

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6. A totally unrelated link

Predictions for the Web in 1999

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Sit up straight.