:: Earl Green - Freelance Television Writer / Producer ::

Also tying in with the final episode of Deep Space Nine was a contest to send a viewer and some friends to Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas. While the promos for this contest were among the coolest I had done, reviving the “Federation computer graphics” style of some of my earliest KFDF promos, the experience of this contest was not one I’d wish to repeat. At the eleventh hour, with promos already on the air, management yanked the contest and pulled our budget to do it, saying something about Star Trek being niche programming, and how contests needed to be saved for something that would draw a mainstream audience. Paramount Theme Parks was providing the Star Trek: The Experience package for free, and all we had to pay for was airfare for four. Quite a battle ensued, and the contest only continued when it was agreed that the airfare would come out of the promotions budget - and when it was pointed out that the station was already getting calls from viewers who had seen the teaser promos. The contest received a reluctant green light, but sales pulled all support out from under it.

Their loss. It turned out to be the most popular UPN 32 contest ever, with thousands upon thousands of entries. Our winner couldn’t have been more thrilled. The ratings for Deep Space Nine - despite the fact that it was airing opposite Fox’s X-Files at 8:00pm on Sundays - were solid.

There’s nothing quite like shamelessly hurling oneself onto a passing bandwagon which you know will get attention. In March and April, leading into the May 1999 sweeps, UPN 32 launched the Legends campaign, which consisted of a series of spoofs and homages of the immensely popular Star Wars: Episode I theatrical trailer. The Legends promos were essentially clip promos boosted by an able assist from our in-house voice, Randy Moreau, and references reinforcing the Star Wars connection (i.e. graphics over black stating “Every generation has a legend,” “Every journey has a first step,” etc.). This worked especially well with a campaign building up to the late May series finale of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, so much so that a few viewers actually called the station requesting copies of the promo. In contrast, the Simpsons promo speaks of a boy with the power to change the universe…but he’s not here right now, so let us introduce you to Bart! Again, graphics were created on a PC with Paint Shop Pro v5.3 and imported into the Media Composer for compositing and animation.