Save This Show!
It was the year youth dramas flunked out. But three endangered standouts deserve promotion
BY JAMES PONIEWOZIK

THE ARTS/TELEVISION
MAY 1, 2000 VOL. 155 NO. 18

Excerpt:

"Though [Felicity's] ratings have perked since a time-slot change, it's still uncertain for renewal, as is Roswell (Monday, 9 p.m. E.T.), which just last fall was riding high on a 22-episode commitment. The triumph of Roswell is that it takes what sounds like an SNL skit--teen UFO-crash survivors in New Mexico--and plays it straight, with an eerie, noir beauty and stately pacing rare on today's chatty dramas. (Few series do pauses better than Roswell, thanks largely to Jason Behr, who plays alien Max like a junior Duchovny.)

If any of the trio see the fall, they can thank a young fan base with little better to do than badger TV execs, abetted by websites, the fanatic's best friend. Roswellians sent the WB thousands of bottles of Tabasco sauce, a favorite condiment of the aliens. (WB flacks reshipped bottles to TV critics nationwide.) Felicityphiles have sent in cassettes like the ones Felicity mails to her friend Sally--and, creepily, locks of their own hair--and crashed WB servers with e-mail. Meanwhile, Freaks freaks are sending peanuts to networks that may buy the show (a favorite character on the show is allergic) and are taking out a full-page ad in Variety, as have Roswell fans."