‘Forever’ fans express high demand for revival with Twitter event

Much like Henry Morgan (Ioan Gruffudd), ‘Forever‘ fans’ love for the show is immortal.  Ever since ABC cancelled the series after only one season in 2015, devoted fans around the world have been campaigning to resurrect the show. Like many of those fans, I was also crushed when this brilliant, heartwarming, and engaging show with a charismatic ensemble was cancelled.

This procedural drama with twist had me hooked from the first trailer (just like ‘Sleepy Hollow‘ and ‘Timeless‘). Whenever Henry seemingly dies, he is immediately resurrected and emerges naked from the river. Baffled by his immortality, he becomes a medical examiner and studies the dead in hopes of finding answers. Having outlived everyone he’s loves, the only confidant he has left is Abe (Judd Hirsch), an antiques dealer. How apropos! Henry lives in fear of having his secret revealed, so he leads a cautious life. He keeps co-workers like his morgue-mate Lucas (Joel David Moore) at arms length. But all of that changes when he becomes the key to an investigation.

Henry has lifetimes of historical and scientific knowledge, giving him a Sherlockian intellect of sorts. He soon finds himself working with Lt. Joanna Reece (Lorraine Toussaint), and Detectives Jo Martinez (Alana De La Garza) and Mike Hanson (Donnie Keshawarz) as a ‘Castle‘-like consultant. As he begins forming friendships with his new team, Henry realizes that he’s been missing out on life. Throughout the course of the series, we learn more about Henry’s past and fantastic flashbacks reveal his adventures through time. After two years, this still remains one of my favorite shows. The series also continues gaining new fans now that Season 1 is airing on CW Seed.

In a time of TV miracles (the uncancellation of NBC’s ‘Timeless’ ) and revivals of cult classic shows (‘Prison Break,’ ‘Gilmore Girls,’ ‘The X-Files,’ ‘Twin Peaks,’ and more) ‘Forever’ fans are hoping to make their dream a reality.

So here’s the deal, loyal Foreverists. There is an obvious passion and high demand to bring the show back. Even the cast was gutted by the show’s cancellation. We were all moved by Gruffud’s heartbreaking Instagram post in which he says Henry Morgan was a “dream role” and he whole-heartedly thanks the fans for their support:

Watching the interaction of the FOREVER fans come together and share their love for the show has been breath-taking. It was you guys who held me up when I thought I could no longer go on.

Show-runner Matt Miller had big plans for Season 2, which he shared in an interview with TVLine. Fans still want to see how Henry and Jo’s relationship will evolve, we want to know what happens to Adam, and we’d love to discover more about Henry’s past adventures. There are so many more stories to tell, which is why fans are still fighting to keep this show alive. Especially fans like Angela Green (@N3GatorFan), Cathy Carey (@CathyCarey311) and Katy Wheeler (@KatyWheeee) who have worked tirelessly on the #SaveForever campaign.

If you want more ‘Forever,’ join their Twitter party on Sunday, May 21 and tweet along with fellow fans. Warner Brothers still owns ‘Forever,’ so be sure to tag them in your tweets. Fans are also targeting The CW and CBS, since CW Seed is currently airing the show.

All you have to do is show networks how much you love this show. Take Angela’s plea as an example:

Almost three years ago, I wasn’t counting on falling in love with a new series, but I did from the first moments of ‘Forever.’ It’s one of those shows that have everything that I’m looking for in a good drama: suspense, mystery, humor, romance, excellent stories about family and friends, a different perspective on life, and so much more. I was naturally stunned, angered, and upset the day that I learned that Forever was cancelled. Wanting to let my voice be heard, I went online to see how I could do that. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that I was just one of the 7 million fans of the show in just the United States who felt as though ‘Forever’ should be renewed.

Two years later, that love for the show and a desire to see more of it continues I do enjoy being able to catch it again on CW Seed or watching my DVDs. But, there’s just something about seeing how Matt, the cast, and the crew will weave what we see in season 1 into what they have in mind for the rest of Forever’s story. It’s one of the many reasons why I still hope that one of the networks will listen to us and renew ‘Forever.’

She also notes all of the attention the #SaveForever campaign has garnered over the past two years:

Forever’s cancellation is TVLine’s 3rd most-talked about article in their 6-year history, generating 2,175 comments.

Fashion & Style’s The Eye, International Business Times, and France’s Tele-Loisirs all commented on the #SaveForever campaign. When TVLine interviewed Alana de la Garza (Jo Martinez) about Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, they mention it to her. She stated, “I know, and that is so wonderful. It makes me so sad that we didn’t get to give them more…”

Christopher Zara of the International Business Times wrote in his article about the #SaveForever campaign, “Still the rapid outreach for ‘Forever’ speaks to a growing chasm between broadcast television’s business model—which relies on attracting massive audiences to win over advertisers—and the sometimes small but passionate audiences that gravitate toward certain series.”

Roku Stream featured Forever in a #TBT article on its blog and mentioned fans’ love of it and the #SaveForever campaign.

Kasey Moore of “What’s On Netflix” mentions the #SaveForever campaign, and the blog noted it again the following year. She stated that Forever has generated the most requests for Netflix to renew it that they had ever seen.

Fans are on the right track. TV is entering a new age in which streaming networks (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, etc.) give loyal viewers hope that we’ll still be able to see our favorite shows live on. Warner Brothers Studio just needs to realize that the demand for more ‘Forever’ is large enough. The cast members have already shown interest in reviving the series during their conversations with fans online. Could some star power give the studio an extra push?

As fans of FOX’s ‘Prison Break‘ may know, the show’s stars, Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell expressed interest in resurrecting their old series. They produced Season 5 (a nine episode event series), which is currently on the air. This gives me hope that the same could happen for ‘Forever’ someday. Especially since ‘Forever’ was a solid performer.

As is the case for most network cancellations, ABC dropped the show because of money, not ratings. The ratings were not only steady, ‘Forever’ was ABC’s strongest performer in the Tuesday 10 p.m. time-slot. According to Variety, ‘Forever’ was one of only two shows within an eight-year time period that performed reasonably well in the time slot. If you look at Wikipedia‘s ratings chart for the series (below), you can see that the show maintained an average of 7 millions viewers and counting if you consider it’s international popularity.

 

Showbiz is a rough and illogical industry at times, but Hollywood is still seen as the land of dreams. Let’s see if we can make one more dream come true and #SaveForever.

Stay tuned for more #SaveForever Campaign details…

More details on how you can help #SaveForever HERE.