Hey everyone, yes I’ve been neglecting my blog but I have good reason.  I’ve been out of town for most of the past 3 weeks – work, wedding to attend in Toronto …  I’m just so glad to be at home, in my own bed this weekend.  Now, if the AC can keep working this weekend (it had to be shut off last night because there was a burst pipe in the cooling system in our building!) I can actually hide out from this ridiculous humid heat.  If this is any indication of the kind of weather we’re going to have this summer (and they are predicting a hot one) it is going to be a very long summer.  But I digress.

The Variety Ad Committee is pleased to announce that the Blood Ties Ads are ready to go!

Greeting to All Blood Ties Fans:

This is an official announcement on behalf of the Variety Ad Committee.

We are elated to be able to make this announcement to all Blood Ties Fans.  We did it! The ads will officially begin running on Variety.com for five consecutive days, with the launch beginning on June 9 and continuing until June 15.

The ads will be programmed to run intermittently in the following three sections of Variety: to appear on the home page, in the film section, and additionally, in the awards section. While we realize that Blood Ties was a television production, we were advised that in order to reach the DPT in the biz….these were the best fit options for maximum exposure. In addition, this week was chosen primarily because it is the week of the daytime Emmys. Our consultant considers this an ideal week for the ads to garner maximum attention, exposure and coverage for the business.

Please, remember the ads will be running on-line, they will not be stationary, they will be programmed to alternate either between one another, pop-up together, or to appear between the three pages together or apart from one another as listed above for viewing, so you may have to watch the screen(s) a bit for the appearance of one or both.

We will place the static page of the ads as soon as they are received from Variety for viewing. There will be a link provided to revert all inquiries directly back to: http://www.bloodtiestv.com/.  We are also, including the link to the Variety site for your convenience: http://www.variety.com/. We additionally, increased the impressions to a reasonable maximum, thanks in part to the generous donations of the fans.

This has been a long and arduous endeavor, but it was also a labor of love. The total amount raised for the ads came to: $4,500.00. The Variety ads were purchased at: $3,700.00. The remaining balance of $800.00 will be donated to the “Best Friends of Animals Society“ on behalf of: Dylan, Kyle and Christina.

We are very excited and sincerely hope that everyone enjoys the ads.  Let’s all keep our fingers crossed that the ads can work a “Bit of Magic” for the actors and the show. This could not have been accomplished without ALL THE DEDICATED AND DEVOTED BLOOD TIES FANS…….remember “Blood Ties Fans” can still bite back!

Again, to all Blood Ties Fans “Thanks So Very Much for Your Support” of the ads. We are very proud of the ads and hope you will enjoy seeing them run in Variety.com.

Sincerely,

Katieore, the Ad Chair,
Kel, the Co-Chair,
and the rest of the Ad Committee

The committee organizing the Variety ad campaign are pleased to announce that they reached their goal … and then some!  Congratulations fans!  The ad will go ahead.

Tonight in the tradition of Blood Ties Fans, we would have celebrated our “Fitzroy Friday”.   But, tonight we have another reason to celebrate - we reached $3,826.00 surpassing the $3,500.00 for the Ads and Paypal as of 10:00 p.m. EST. 

At this time, the Ad Committee would like to take a moment to acknowledge the phenomenal fan support and generosity of all. The Ads were a labor of love for the committee. But we could not have accomplished this enormous endeavor without all of YOU! So tonight, all Blood Ties Fans should be so proud of themselves, this is simply amazing, what we have accomplished together.

We would like to dedicate the Ads to ALL BLOOD TIES FANS, and of course, the actors whom we so admire and love, Kyle, Dylan and Christina… The Ads are for you!

The fans can breathe a sigh of relief tonight. The ad committee however, still has alot of planning and work left to do. We will, of course, make a formal announcement as soon as all arrangements are finalized with Variety to run the Ads.

~”Blood Ties Fan Can and Will Bite Back”~

The happy ad chairman, katieore and all members of the ad committee

Good news everyone.  The organizers of the Variety Ad Campaign have updated their donation honour roll.  As of May 10th, they have received 72 donations for a total of $2287.66.

A total of $3500 is needed to cover the cost of the ads and PayPal.  The deadline for raising these funds is May 15th.  So, in these last few days of the campaign, please be sure to head on over to the website to make a donation if you can.  And if you’ve already made a donation consider making a second one.

Veronica Cure, who has been heavily involved with the campaign to get Blood Ties renewed, has some important information about Lifetime and their decision not to renew Blood Ties.

Lifetime Sucks!  Blood Ties Rocks!!!

This week I made my usual calls to Lifetime.  Things were the same at the New York office, leave a message, but the LA office had some news.  The person I talked to said that Blood Ties was not coming back to Lifetime, that they had no plans to show any future seasons of Blood Ties.  To say that I was shocked is an understatement.  I called one of my friends and asked them to call also to confirm it.  It took a couple days to get a confirmation from both offices, but we finally got the calls back.  Lifetime is done with Blood Ties.

Viewer relations @ Lifetime said that they would be sending out emails with the bad news this week.  Even though it might make us feel better to call them, or send angry emails or postcards, Lifetime said it would not help.  Each of us is going to have to decide how best to use our time, energy, and money.

 
So where does that leave the fans?  The way I see it, we now have to concentrate on getting another network to pick it up.  The best info we have is that the production company that owns the rights to the show, is still working on finding a network to air Blood Ties in the US.  So let’s help them out.

 
Right now there are 3 big ways that we can help to get the attention of TV networks: 

1. Place an ad in a big trade publication (like oh, I don’t know, maybe Variety?)  Since there is already a campaign underway to do this, let’s help them out.  Go to http://www.geocities.com/bloodties_henryfitzroy/index.html or directly to www.paypal.com and send money to bloodties_henryfitzroy@yahoo.com.   There is a deadline of May 15th on this, so please go sooner rather than later.
2. Contact the other networks directly.  You can find their contact info @ http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/savebloodties/.
3. Blood Ties Fans Recycle for Sight  http://btfgb.wordpress.com/.

 I know that many of us were counting on Lifetime to step up and not lose this valuable show.  Unfortunately it looks like they could not see the gem that they had.  So let’s help the other networks out there see what they are missing.

This is not the end of Blood Ties.  We are stronger, smarter, and braver than anyone has given has given credit for.  We will not give up this easily.  We ain’t dead yet.

I’ve heard back from a Blood Ties fan who contacted CTV about the renewal of the series.  Here is the response from CTV:

Now, what is interesting about this response is that CTV Globe Media owns Space.  CTV is the parent company with the money and the final decision-making abilities.  I don’t, however, take this as a bad sign. 

I consider it a good idea to remind the parent company with the deep pockets that Blood Ties is a show in demand.  They need to know what a goldmine they have.  If the powers that be at the parent company are flooded with requests for the show they’ll have to wonder what is going on.

You might want to remind them of a few things:

• The ever-growing fan base which grows due to word of mouth and the broadcasting of Blood Ties on networks like the UK’s Virgin (i.e. more viewers = a better financial investment)
• Blood Ties has been nominated for various awards including 2 Constellation Awards (one for Christina Cox for her work in ‘5:55′ and one for Tanya Huff for her contribution to TV or film in 2007)
• Director David Winning just won 2 awards at the Houston Film Festival in Texas and a Special Jury Award for his work on Blood Ties and he’s about to be recognized again at this year’s Big Island Film Festival in Hawaii.

If you need any other ideas I suggest you check out this post by Skiffy for a great Top 8 List.

Okay, by now the fans of Blood Ties know that Lifetime has cold feet.  Seriously cold feet.  KEI, the production company, and Canadian networks are interested in a real second season of this series but they need a partner to help foot the costs of production. 

This isn’t new or specific to Blood Ties.  Canadian productions companies are used to working with foreign partners to create quality television.  Canadian shows have been co-produced with French, British, American, German and Australian networks just to name a few.  A good example of this is Murdoch Mysteries, a mystery series set in 1895 Toronto.  This series, which just happens to have been broadcast on CityTV the same network that broadcast Blood Ties, is co-produced with Granada out of Britain.

Canadian Blood Ties fans need to contact the Canadian networks to let them know that they still want Blood Ties on the air.  Well, not just that but also the fact that the fan base is growing even though new episodes have not been broadcast for months.  If the Canadian networks are ready and willing to buy in to a second season it will make it much easier for the production company to sell the series to a foreign investor network.

Here is the hitch.  In 2007, there was a big merger in the Canadian TV indudstry. Long (and complicated communications regulations and ruling from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission [CRTC]) story made short, come August CityTV and its parent company CHUM media will no longer hold the rights to broadcast Blood Ties in Canada.  CTV will have the rights to broadcast Blood Ties.  CTV also holds the rights to broadcast Moonlight in Canada. 

Personally, I don’t see that as a major impediment to the renewal of Blood Ties.  Both shows, while featuring vampires (obviously, otherwise why would you be reading this post?  lol), are very different and there is more than enough room on TV for both.  If CTV opted not to broadcast a second season of Blood Ties on the main network, the show could be broadcast on one of the cable networks owned by CTV, for example Space: The Imagination Station (try saying that in your best Darth Vader voice just for fun!).  Space already rebroadcasts Blood Ties in Canada … so, yes that means that CTV already has its hands on some broadcasting rights even though CityTV owns the original rights … see, Canadian broadcasting is a complex business.  lol

What can the Canadian fans do?  Contact CTV.  They are the only ones who can opt for more episodes.  They hold the purse strings.  Here is how you contact them:

Let’s convince CTV that we really want a second season of Blood Ties … and that it would be a great and easy financial investment for them!  Remind them that as Canadians we deserve more quality television programming telling Canadian stories … and Blood Ties is a perfect example of that.

If you want to continue to contact Space, you certainly can.  However, considering that CTV is the parent company they should be the target of any future fan campaigns.

Until I can think of something witty to say (and no, a recipe doesn’t suffice) feast your eyes on ‘Vampire Kitteh’.  Obviously the creator of this lolcat is a Blood Ties fan … or more specifically a Henry fan.  Brings to mind my sister’s grey cat whom we call ‘Fang Boy’ from time to time.  LOL

Popular TV series, Blood Ties, has been nominated for a Constellation Award, Canada’s fan awards for excellence in science fiction television and film. 

A press release issued April 22, 2008, announces that Tanya Huff, author and creator of Blood Ties, has been nominated in the category of Outstanding Canadian Contribution to Science Fiction Film or Television in 2007.  And kudos to Christina Cox who portrayed Vicki Nelson in the series.  Christina has been nominated for Best Female Performance in a 2007 Science Fiction Television Episode for her work in the excellent and heart-wrenching ‘5:55′.

To read the full press release announcing the nominations click here.

All Canadian fans are invited to submit votes for their favourites in all 9 categories.  Even non-Canadian fans can get in on the fun … if you pay to join the TCON Promotional Society for 10 bucks.  Interested?  Then head here for the info on how you can become a member and add your 2 cents to this voting process.

Winners will be announced at the Polaris 22 convention July 12th in Toronto.

The awards are organized and administered by the TCON Promotional Society, the not-for-profit corporation that has organized Toronto’s annual Polaris science fiction event since 1987.

Finally some good news and recognition for this great show!

I don’t know about you but as summer approaches I start looking for lighter fare especially for supper.  Here is a quick and easy recipe to satisfy your summer tastebuds.

• Prep:  20 minutes
• Cooking Time: 30 minutes
• Makes:  a minimum of 6 servings
• Quick Tip: this sauce tastes much better if left in the fridge overnight and served the next day
• Quick Tip: this recipe can also be easily doubled

Chickpea Tomato Pasta Sauce

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 small onion
• 28 oz can diced tomatoes undrained
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 3/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 19 oz can chickpeas undrained

Instructions

1. Saute garlic and onion with the olive oil until soft. 
2. Add all other ingredients except for the chickpeas.  Simmer uncovered for 15 minutes.
3. Add chickpeas with the liquid.  Simmer uncovered for 10 minutes or until thick.
4. Serve over your favourite pasta and sprinkle with parmesan.

Denis McGrath, who wrote episodes of Blood Ties, has via his blog commented on various ’save my show’ campaigns.  Well, not just at his blog.  I heard Denis discuss this very issue on CBC radio a few weeks ago (this might have been a rebroadcast if I remember correctly).  Some of these campaigns are strange, to say the least; some are gimmicky.

Denis heard about the ‘Blood Ties Fans Recycle For Sight’ campaign via Tanya Huff’s blog, and you know what?  He calls this campaign smart because it ties into the show, is progressive and helps the community at large.  I agree.  You can read his comments here.