Moonlightaholics

Starting a new thread because this isn't just about Three Rivers but is also about my feelings. Anyway my husband sent me a article that appeared in today's Washington Post (Washington DC that is) on the internet. The article was part of Lisa de Moraes TV Column and basically the headline was "You'll be Channeling CBS to See "Medium" This Fall, and NBC is Spooked." But I am not writing about Medium just wanted to give the source.

Included in the article was information about the CBS Upfronts and some questions that were raised to CBS scheduling chief Kelly Kahl. It indicated the reporters in attendance were (and the following is going to be a direct quote from the article) "deeply suspicious of CBS's decision to put a new medical drama, "Three Rivers" on Sunday at 9. One reporter informed Kahl that there have been a slew of medical dramas on the air over the years, and wondered what made them think this one was so special. Kahl smirked for just the briefest of seconds, then explained patiently that it stars Alex O'Loughlin -- the vampire from "Moonlight." The reporter had no comeback."

If this article has already been mentioned, that please forgive the duplication. While this speaks very very highly of Alex, and for that I have no problem, it is still breaking my heart to some extent that if CBS was so enamored of him, why couldn't they have kept on Moonlight? I remember Nina Tassler at some point last year saying that the fans of Moonlight were actor centric and that everything was about Alex. I sent her several long letters expressing my feelings and love for the show and that it was everything that made it so special, not just Alex. I remember last summer all the comments on MLL about Alex and Moonlight and that it led to a lot of heartache and I don't want to start that again. I am a fan of Alex and I realize he is real and that Mick St. John was a character he created, but it is that character and all the characters on the show that I fell in love with. I am definitely going to watch Three Rivers but I have to admit that some parts of medical type shows make me sick to my stomach.

So I will follow Alex and yes I have commented in a number of places (with my real name not anything Moonlight related) about what a great actor he is. I wish him all the luck in the world. However, the reality is if I had been given a choice, I would have preferred a second season of Moonlight with the cast and original writers. I know in my head that it isn't possible - I don't think I am crazy - but in my heart I still can't stop thinking about what could have been. I guess I am wondering if anyone else also feels like this?

I understand exactly how you feel. I would much rather have a second season of Moonlight myself. I plan on watching TR, but medical shows can be a bit intense. Moonlight was pure entertainment and I loved every second of it. TR sounds like it will have very sad situations from the donors that die. I was always uplifted after watching Moonlight. I don't know if I will have that feeling watching a show where someone dies every week. I know in Moonlight, the bad guys died, but in TR sounds like good people will die and that is just going to be depressing to me.

Moonlightsonata wrote: I guess I am wondering if anyone else also feels like this?

ME !!!

I think every single member of this board would have hoped for a second season with the original cast and writers. But it wasn't to be.

And, for me at least, there will never be another Moonlight and that's why I refuse to compare Three Rivers to Moonlight. There is no comparison - they are completely different projects and I think anyone who is looking for Moonlight mark two will be disappointed. Not because Three Rivers won't be good (we just don't know that yet) but because whatever it turns out to be, it won't be Moonlight and hoping it will would seem to be a road to heartache.

Red

No hunny you so are not the only one. I am ecstatic about 3 rivers but yeah frankly pissed at how CBS is treating it all like this. Am i actor centric? Yes in the sense that i follow my actors careers and if i know an actor i enjoy is in something it has a higher probably of me watching it. Moonlight for me only worked as an ensemble. Alex is amazing but he would be no where without Sophia, Jason or even Jacob and Shannyan. So yes it pisses me off to no end that they could have still had Alex, hell they DID sign him for 6 seasons originally and yes this all does raise my susupesions about the reason for the cancellation. I'm sure he did test better than the show. he is HAWT and the show was genre, vampires aren't taken serious .

I am happy for Alex that CBS likes him, it is great for his career and lets face it, he does owe them, no matter what because they did bring him to most of us for the first time. I will always see the cancellation as a bad business decision, hell the damn network brought back a failing show and put it in al proven death slot. Come on! Again CBS must think highly of the show to put it in that slot and i hope TR takes the housewives thunder every once in a while, but Moonlight, given a summer to make damn sure it knows what it is doing and BETTER PROMOTION, it could have been soo awesome. It had that potienal. I am soooooo proud of Alex and am just gitty about the hype, it only helps him but yes, it doesn't make sense....hell i'll be an optimist. I love all the actors on Firefly and some of them on Jerichio but they aren't Alex, maybe his sucess will make a ML movie more bankable.


And ETA I completely agree with Red. TR is not ML and never will be and it could be bad, though i doubt that given the cast but who knows. I'm giving TR a chance for Mr. AOL's sake

I am not half as excited about Three Rivers and Back Up Plan as I was and still am for Moonlight. I follow the careers of Alex and Jason and want them to have work, and I certainly will watch anything they are in just because I think they are terrific actors and I enjoyed their work that I have seen.
I don't expect to fall in love with TR as hard as I did with Moonlight, because I'm still mainly a Moonlight girl. I write fanfic still, and can't imagine writing fanfic for anything else. I still love Mick St. John more than I love any other characters Alex played. There's just no comparison.

But I'm no longer depressed about Moonlight. I cherish what it brought to me: a great storyline, great characters, great discussions about the show, the sets, the make-up, the characters, the storyline, great friends on the boards, lots of beautiful pictures, interviews and videos to gush about, lots of fanfiction to read, lots of new english vocabulary, lots of practice in creative writing, lots of discussion about writing, lots of knowledge about how Hollyweird works, ...
I could go on and on. I learned so much during the last year and a half that I don't want to miss. I would have loved to have a second and third and fourth season, but it didn't work out. I am over blaming CBS or JS or WB or NT or anyone else. I stopped analyzing ratings and tv politics. What I got is so much more than that. After all, ML was just a TV show. If it was a movie, we would have had 8 sequels of about 150 minutes, and that's just about fine with me.

There are so many "what ifs" about Moonlight - I'm sure we could all recite them in our sleep, and most of them still make me wonder. And make me sad. But that is all they are - questions and hopes to which we will never get an answer.

Personally I'm delighted CBS is promoting the hell out of Three Rivers already and I hope they keep it up. Anything they can do to maximise the chances of the show being a success have to be a good thing, yes? Whatever we may think about how they promoted Moonlight, doing a bad job of promoting Three Rivers would only compound that error rather than making amends.

Red

Moonlight's only bright spot was its cast. The behind the scenes turmoil, numerous show runners all with different visions, and the relatively low ratings by today's standard is what got Moonlight cancelled. Not Alex or any of the other cast members. There were other reasons, obviously, but at least CBS had the good sense to recognize the gem they had in Alex. And despite the argument that can be made about the show-centric -vs- the actor-centric issue, Alex was Mick, IMHO. You can't not be actor-centric, especially if you're writing CBS (as they claim) and toll the virtues of Alex/Mick. I can easily see how CBS would take that to be actor-centric, even if the writer was talking about Mick. It would work to their benefit to make that argument. Is it true? Where most fans actor-centric? I just don't see how you could prove the argument one way or the other. Again, JMO.

But the cast has moved on. Alex has his new show and Jason was thisclose to getting his. I've every confidence that Jason will find his niche in the world and we'll have him back on our TV soon. The other cast members are working, which in this economy is nothing to sneeze at. Is it what we want? i.e. more Moonlight. Of course not. But I just don't think its realistic to expect a ressurection of the TV show, and just a bit more probably to wish for a movie. I had to let it go and accept it. For my own sanity. This site and my ML friends now keeps Moonlight alive for me in my heart. Along with my DVD set. And thats enough for me.

VAsusieQ18 wrote:I had to let it go and accept it. For my own sanity. This site and my ML friends now keeps Moonlight alive for me in my heart. Along with my DVD set. And thats enough for me.

*Red Susan*

That's why I'm happy here at moonlightaholics. This is a site for people who love Moonlight, the wonderful things that all worked together just right to create an atmosphere, a spark, a world that sucked all of us in. It was beautiful and it lasted far too short a time, and that will always break my heart a little. But I'm here to celebrate Moonlight, not to grouse about what should have happened. (Well, OK...maybe a little.)

I'll admit it freely. I didn't get excited about Three Rivers until I watched the clip yesterday - and even now, my excitement is tempered with a layer of sadness. No matter what Alex does in the future, Mick St. John will always have a special place in my heart.

I'm an Alex fan, through and through - I'm THRILLED he's getting a chance to shine in a vehicle more people are apt to give a chance. But, I'm also a Moonlight fan - Three Rivers won't ever be Moonlight. It CAN'T be.

Red's right - we could "what if" until the cows come home and it won't change a thing. And - I think we want to be careful about criticizing a network that signed our Alex to a talent contract, gave him a movie role and a guest star appearance on one of their regular show AND now has cast him as a lead in a new show. I firmly believe that even with the most strigent promotion, Moonlight as a genre show would not have the universal appeal that Three Rivers could have.

It's ok to mourn what we've lost. It's ok to be sad that Moonlight is no more. It's also ok to rejoice in the great friends we've made, the fantastic fanfic we've read and to laugh at learning more about the way Hollywood works that ANY of us wanted to know!

I too understand how you feel and feel much the same way. I loved Moonlight, the whole show just worked for me. It was different from anything on TV, then or now. The sets, lighting, the love story, the mythology, the supporting characters. I did think that Mick was the most interesting and intense character and that translated into an Alex fan being born, but for me it was Moonlight first, Mick (and Alex) second.

While I wish him, and all of the cast, luck in their careers and know that Moonlight won't be coming back, I STILL catch myself thinking about all of the "what if's". I don't know why Moonlight didn't catch on with the general TV viewing public, but then I don't watch any reality or procedurals and so it must be me that's the odd ball.

But comments like in this article just bring the hurt back - I truly believe that given a second season removed from the writers strike, with the success of Twilight, and with a summer to tweak here and there, Moonlight would have become a hit.

While I will watch TR, and I hope it will be good, and I know Alex will be good in it, it still won't be magical - it will at best be a good medical show. Moonlight was magic. Some days I am just so sad that it is gone, and some days I'm just so mad at CBS. (I still haven't watched CBS (except for the recent CM episode) since Sonata.)

I know it's not healthy to have such an emotional attachment to a TV show, and one that's has been off the air for over a year to boot, but there was just something so special about that show and those characters. Most days I am able to celebrate what was, and use the fantastic fan fic on this site to keep the characters alive, but sometimes I still get tears in my eyes over what should have/could have been.

I you, pgal... thank you for saying what I couldn't say.

I realized today that I'm in mourning for Mick all over again now that Three Rivers has been given the go-ahead. Stupid? Yep... I know it. But here I am, teary-eyed at my desk at work.

PNWgal wrote: It's ok to mourn what we've lost. It's ok to be sad that Moonlight is no more. It's also ok to rejoice in the great friends we've made, the fantastic fanfic we've read and to laugh at learning more about the way Hollywood works that ANY of us wanted to know!

Many have put this already so well, that I just wanted to add...the fantastic fanfic that we've read, and are still reading, and are still writing.

Moonlight on the screen may be dead...and yes, that's a sad thought, but it's so...but as long as we have writers who are coming up with more stories, more "what if's?", more romance, more adventure, more of Mick and Beth and Josef and Coraline (and the others), Moonlight is not truly dead. These characters will never age, never die...and they will never be unloved.

Lucky

Moonlight had a lot going for it, particularly its cast and, frankly, the very concept of Mick. What a brilliant character, tho I cannot imagine him ever being played by anyone other than Alex. It also had some things NOT going for it, mostly the behind the scenes crud that most fans like me had no idea about. And I'm guessing we still don't know the whole story there and never will.

So fans being too rabid, too communicative, too actor-centric or NOT had nothing to do with its death. ALex being too good an actor, one that CBS wanted to exploit for other projects, had nothing to do with its death. THere was stuff going on between and within the network, the production company, and its producer, that was just not working for the higher powers. It really had nothing to do with us or Alex. Tho it affected us enormously and clearly, based on his blogs, brought ALex nearly to his knees too...

We all still love it tho, dear dear MS, as dead to the rest of the world as it is... and that's why we're here. Like francis, I am not so worried anymore about the "what could have beens", cause it's not gonna be. Should ALex's own success someday result in any kind of ML resurrection, I will be delighted, but I do not expect it.

Like Susan, I am grateful to have found you all... who just like me know it isn't coming back, but are happy to keep it alive in OUR way, with our writers, our contests, our pictures, our ep discussions and all the silly rest of it. We are all with ya, honey, just letting go of the angst...

And like Redwinter, I will follow and support our actors, but I will judge 3R and any other projects from our cast on their own merits... because none of them will recapture the magic of the original and best.