If anybody wonders why most tv stations say nothing in the face of viewer questions, or release only the barest press releases -- let Crusade be a lesson to you.

A few days ago, I posted this response to a question that's been asked a lot of times by fans here on the SPACE website...

>>>Any chance that SPACE could co-finance some continuation of Crusade? I know these projects are hideously complex and expensive, but just thought I'd asked if anyone had considered it...

No. Not an option at all. For a host of reasons that I could never go into even if I wanted to. Unfortunately, sometimes bad things happen to good shows. And that's what's happened to Crusade. I think, in light of the fact that production has been shut down for months, the cast is released from their contracts, and even the creator has moved on, people need to face up to the fact that 13 episodes of Crusade is all there is ever going to be, and that for the foreseeable future, they won't even be replayed--the rights for reruns have not been cleared.

I can't explain why. I don't know any of the details, but any speculation that this group or that group could finance it and continue just demonstrates how little is understood about the shadowy world of how television gets made. Space can't finance more. Warner won't. There is no white knight. There is no way to 'get it going' again. Crusade is dead.

It's a shame, but there you go. Add it to the pile of worthy shows that never got a chance to do what they could, and move on.

DMc/Space

Okay. Now, I was a big believer in trying to explain to people some hard truths about how television works, or at least giving people credit enough to not bumph them with PR flackery, when an answer could be forthcoming. And the simple answer is that saying something like this-- "maybe Space could be part of some coalition to produce Crusade..." is simplistic. It would never happen--we buy Canadian rights to the show--which is kind of like saying we're the mayor of Parry Sound, Ontario (population 5000.) Television is expensive, and Crusade is a US show, made and budgeted for a broadcast audience 10 times the population of our country. In terms of the great pie of Crusade, we're a little tiny piece. Warner owns it. TNT helped make it. We licensed it. for CANADA. These things are all very different. And as I've tried to point out many times in the past - wishing that the production of a show worked a certain way is a far cry from that being the way it works.

At the same time, I didn't think people should get their hopes up. We at Space are frustrated that Crusade apparently isn't going to continue--it does great for us. We love the show. But the news to us isn't very good--we have been told that we can't get rerun rights, for now, to the 13 eps. And 'producing more' is just not something that we could ever be part of. That's not our role--our production money is comitted elsewhere. The best we could hope for is to continue licensing a renewed Crusade.

So flash ahead a few days, and apparently, (thank you, Internet) I'm the dark heart on Crusade message reports as the person who pronounced Crusade dead. Sigh. And upset fans are saying that JMS hasn't said it, so who the hell am I?

I'm just a guy that's trying to answer Canadian fans who write to Space. And hopefully, tell them the truth and not give them some puffy PR copy. But apparently, people prefer puffy. And they prefer to kid themselves. So fine.

Do I have 'inside knowledge' of the production of Crusade? No.

Have I talked to the creator of the show and had him tell me it was dead? No.

Is there a mathematical possibility that Crusade might return in some form in the future? Yes.

IS it likely. Not very.

I think JMS is very attached to his property and would never close the door. I'm a writer too, and writers, even powerful writer/creators, are never in the business of closing the doors on their children. But the reality is that as much as I personally, or Space as a corporate entity, would love to keep running newly produced Crusades, it looks very much to me like this is not going to happen.

There will be no word, everything will be up in the air for months, and by then it will have faded off the front burner for everyone and everyone will have moved on. Because that's the way things go in tv.

It's too bad. It's not what we would like. But keep in mind, please, that all this started because I was trying to explain to someone that space "producing crusade" wouldn't be an option.

Now I don't know if this will make its way onto the scads of Crusade message boards, but if it does, then maybe the lesson should be this: look what happens when someone tries to clarify. Look how it's seized upon. Look what's provoked.

And you wonder why the people at the source aren't saying anything?

Sometimes you don't say a thing because you're playing your cards close. And sometimes you don't say a thing that you know is true, because to do so will provoke a reaction you'd rather not provoke. I think, much to my chagrin, that reading between the lines you know exactly what the fate of Crusade is.

I hope that JMS goes on to do some more great tv, that I can enjoy as a fan, and as a writer. I know he will. I celebrate that.

..But you can bet I won't be saying anything else about Crusade.

Denis McGrath, "Why Crusade = Aspirin (for me)", 8/23/99.