TV Hot Spot: News

Men In Trees: Plant It Forward Campaign!

Post by: Sal


Source: Zap2It & ABC

Plant it Forward Campaign to save Men In Trees:

A large group of fans from the popular ABC.com Men In Trees message board has organized a campaign, currently underway, to plant food trees in less-fortunate countries. This is being done in honor of an ABC primetime show that the fans will go lengths to save - Men In Trees. 3,000 trees have been contributed so far. Their goal is 5,000.

The food tree campaign is to encourage ABC to renew Men In Trees for a third season and encourage them to promote the show. "ABC moves around the time slot with the frequency of a CB radio," reports Sally Johnson. "The network hasn’t given the show a fair shake yet. They seldom promote it, but with meaningful encouragement from fans, that can change."

TV writers and critics agree: "...considering ABC's track record with Men in Trees — 234 time slots in two years! — I'm not holding my breath," writes TV Guide commentator, Michael Ausiello. The "little show with a lot of heart" as it bills itself, has received praise from many critics.

5,000 food trees can produce up to 50 million pounds of food for hungry people over the lifespan of the trees. Each food tree costs $1 and is tax deductible. They are being planted through the non-profit organization treesforlife.org. A certificate of contribution is given to each donor. These certificates will be presented en masse to ABC's Primetime Program Director, Stephen McPherson, at the conclusion of the campaign.

"We believe that, in the end, our Plant it Forward campaign will show ABC how devoted Men in Tree fans can be and how many fans there could be if they just promote the show and settle on a consistent time slot," explains lead organizer, Liz Herdade, who goes by the screen name CatinTrees. "No show can possibly withstand that over time, regardless of high acclaim. We’re pleased to be changing this by contributing food, trees and clean air."

Johnston adds,"When we reach 5,000 trees, we will distribute a press release with the goal of bringing exposure to Men in Trees." She points out, "Somebody has got to promote the show. We prefer ABC do that, and eventually we'll convince them, but in the meantime, we will kick up some glamour dust for our show."


Take Care,

Sal