On Monday, we got a press release from a erstwhile devoted fan of Smallville, with unprecedented news. The press release, in its entirety, follows:
“Fans honor CW leading lady & Smallville star, Allison Mack, with tribute commercial to air in Los Angeles.
Smallville fans have funded a professionally-filmed tribute commercial for the CW leading lady Allison Mack and her tv character, Chloe Sullivan, to air this Spring in Los Angeles before this season concludes. Starring on Smallville since 2001, Ms. Mack has gained a large and devoted fan base as one of the CW’s most beloved stars.
For the completion of her 9th year on the series, Smallville fans decided to celebrate Allison Mack and her tv character, Chloe Sullivan, with a commercial project entitled Legendary. Scripted and funded entirely by fans, this first of its kind tribute ad was filmed in Los Angeles in late February. In the capable hands of the director, Jon Michael Kondrath, cast and crew created a tribute ad focusing on who Chloe Sullivan is and what she means to Smallville fans.
The ad highlights milestones in Chloe Sullivan’s journey from her introduction as a high school student in Smallville to being hired at the Daily Planet as well as becoming Clark Kent’s confidante.
The website, Legendary (http://www.legendarychloe.com/), has been set up for the project. Although the intial goals of the project have been met, the organizers invite other Smallville fans to help them expand the project with longer air time for the ad or airing it in a second tv market.
Ms. Mack has been the center of a flurry of fan activity recently. Earlier this year, Smallville fans participated in Operation: Truth & Justice, another initiative to honor Ms. Mack, in which fans donated $3000 to the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation in her name and sent the CW star baskets of fan created gifts in appreciation of her performance.”
“Legendary” was co-produced by ReKon Productions in Los Angeles and features actresses wearing Supergirl t-shirts to talk about the meaning of the character to the fans. Allison Mack really is one of the best things about Smallville. Her character has gone from having a crush on Clark Kent, to pretty much being the brains behind the whole operation.While we may never see the commercial air here in Arizona, hopefully it’ll be on Youtube soon.
But, what does this mean for the future? What would happen if every cabal of devoted fans produced commercials and sent gift baskets? Would Dollhouse still be on the air? Could Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles be in its third season? Could Jericho fans have skipped sending CBS 20 tons of peanuts? It’s a bold new initiative, and could open doors for fans to effect the future of their favorite projects.
On the other hand, it could create a Jihad among fan groups. Let’s keep it under control people, otherwise we’d have an hour-long commercial for “Green Arrow” pre-empting the show.
Tomorrow, we’ll feature an interview with Maggie Bridger about the commercial and the “Legendary” project.
How do you feel about honoring an actress, such as Allison Mack, with a television commercial?
[Image from blog.cw.com]
Updated
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="42797 ">25 Comments
this site is so great for covering this. I think it's great the fans are giving the leading lady of smallville so much attention!
Can't wait to see the commercial.
Happy to see Allison Mack be honored with something like this. Totally deserved. She's the best.
I love it. I've recently gotten involved after they went public because I've never seen something so big and so cool happen in a show I follow. It's amazing, and I hope other Smallville fans will step up to the plate now as well to give the show something truly unique as it heads into next year and its 200th episode.
Thank you so much for covering this Amazing fan project!
I as a 20 year old girl who has been watching Smallville since I was 11 am more than proud about all Chloe Sullivan fans joining forces to honor our favorite SV Heroine! And of course Allison who brings warmth to the character we've grown to love so much!
Chloe has been an inspiration while I grew up, her character's tenacity and unconditional love for truth, journalism and what's right have inspired me along the years.
Thanks for covering us! You guys rock
LUNA
This is a great project that has united Chloe fans regardless of who they'd like to see her romantically involved with (Oliver, Clark, Davis, Bruce, Dean etc) and that highlights all the qualities that make Chloe a kickass heroine worth of admiration.
We all love her
Thanks a lot for covering up this fan effort.
You are great for covering this and I do adore how this project came to be. The fans are great and Allison Mack deserves all the praises she get and then some.
Cool! Chloe is my fav character on SV and Allison is my fav actress, I think this is fantastic!
What an amazing project for an amazing actress and character! Thank you for covering this!
Thanks so much for the coverage of this amazing project! It's obvious how loved Allison Mack and her character Chloe are. She deserves all the recognition she gets!
It's so great that you guys are covering the Legendary Chloe project!
Chloe Sullivan is Smallville's very own legacy and creative character, and Allison Mack has brought the character to life for nearly a decade. She is legendary. She is inspirational. We've watched her grow, hurt, achieve dreams and lose them, and we've watched her love a super hero.
So why honor Chloe Sullivan/Allison Mack and not Clark Kent? Because Chloe is an original character on the show, one that we're not supposed to care about because she isn't part of the myths, but she found her way into fans' hearts anyway. Because she's the heroine most women root for.
Again, thanks for covering the project! You guys are awesome.
Allison Mack is the best and she's a great deal why I keep coming back to watch Smallville over the years. Chloe's been that one character on that show that has kept me riveted given the mystery surrounding her character. Can't wait to watch the commericial never seen anything like it before within the fandom community
Interesting article, I look forward to part two. I find that I'm always impressed with fan related projects that honor under appreciated actors, characters and shows. Admittedly I've never seen a fan appreciation project of this magnitude but I think they've managed a very impressive feat and I look forward to seeing the commercial.
So Awesome! I've watched Smallville since S1 (in high school) & Chloe is such an amazing heroine to add to the Superman Mythos! Congrats to the show & fans FTW!!
I'd just like to say that we were extremely happy to post this. The interview is awesome, so look forward to tomorrow's post!
I think this is great. Although I doubt any amount of fan projects would really move Fox when they make up their mind, this kind of participatory culture is always fascinating from a media studies perspective. Thank you for covering this.
Further, I'm really happy to see Allison Mack get some credit for her long years of hard work. I think she has been underrepresented by her network, and it really is good to see her fans pick up the lack and give her the credit she deserves for bringing life to her character in a way that has touched so many people. I'm especially happy to see fans get together to donate so much for charity, and I hope it starts a trend! Fans do have power in their numbers, and in this case it really brought about a positive benefit.
I LOVE how Allison & Chloe inspired such creativity from fans! I think it's SO fab that they have put this together – it speaks so much to how popular a character Chloe is in the fandom. Thank you for the coverage of it AND for Part 2!!! I am looking forward to hearing more from the interview tomorrow.
This is so awesome, Allison Mack deserves this tribute.
Thanks so much for covering this project!
It really does amazing me that these fans are doing this! Chloe Sullivan has been gracing us with her presents on screen for 9 long years with little to no recognition. She is such an amazingly original character who has jump started the repetitive story of Superman and made it something unique and special!
This commercial is the perfect way to honor the name of Chloe Sullivan and show thanks to Allison Mack and the writers for making this character what it is! If it can get them to keep Chloe around for another year, that's amazing! If not, at least it will take the character out with a well deserved bang!
This is really cool…love seeing Allison getting press..she's so great…I tuned in to Smallville since episode 1 and Allison was a huge reason why I kept coming back…now she the only reason I watch…seeing her fans give her love is awesome…thanks for spreading the word on the project…its great to see positive things happening in a fandom!
Thank you so much for covering the Legendary Chloe Project!!!! You totally rock!!!
Chloe Sullivan is what have made SMV watchable for the last seasons and I believe Allison Mack deserves the recognition for her amazing work!!!
Thanks!! Hugs!!!
This is a pretty impressive project, especially for a character that (like many in the comments have said) is under appreciated. She started out as the stereotypical "hip/cool friend." Her purpose was mainly to provide a motivation for Clark Kent to investigate the meteor freaks, since his characters was more interested in Lana Lang and football than mysteries. She evolved into the most interesting and compelling character on "Smallville." As for the project, it really does break new ground in terms of visibility. I hope the show's producers take note and consider increasing her visibility. It definitely will help Allison Mack and hopefully make her more available for projects that showcase her acting talents. Looking forward to hearing more about the behind-the-scenes of the project.
I think it's great, Allison among with Tom has been the heart of the show since day 1.
I can't wait to read the interview follow-up. Chloe deserves all the appreciation she can get.
And the project is a very cool idea, I agree that it'll be interesting to see if other fandoms will try to do projects in this style somewhere down the line.
I'm so pleased about this project! Chloe's certainly my favourite character on the show, and it's been horrendous to see her so underused this season.
I can't wait till the commerial airs. Allison Mack and her character Chloe are truly Legendary. Smallville wouldn't be the same without her.
Thanks for the article!
I think it's Awesome, no one deserves recognition more than Allison, her portrayal of Chloe Sullivan for the past 9 years is what kept me watching the show. She is and always will be the best to come out of Smallville.