“Podcasting is work. Editing, web site, doing it when you aren’t having a good week… It’s a lot of work, so be ready to put some time in. But, that passion covers it all. As long as you’ve got that, man, you’re probably going to be golden.” Kevin Bachelder, Host – Tuning Into SciFi TV
It’s hard to admit when it’s over.
In 2016, after podcasting about Once Upon A Time for nearly four years, my co-host Anne Marie and I decided to end our first podcast, Greetings From Storybrooke. The “Land of Untold Stories” arc was our breaking point. After two seasons of being excited by the concepts Once was exploring, we were over feeling disappointed by the execution. We’d had enough. If the section on Building A Show gave you any indication, we spent a lot of time planning our podcasts. After Season 5, we agreed that the show just wasn’t worth the time to us any more, particularly when we were finding so much success and fulfillment with Legends of Gotham.
Don’t get me wrong. It was a hard decision to end our podcast while Once was still airing new episodes. It felt like throwing a dinner party, then pushing all the guests out the door halfway through the night because you want to go to sleep. It felt like quitting, and I don’t like being a quitter.
“I used to write recaps for ‘The Walking Dead,’ and in the second and third season, I really stopped enjoying watching ‘The Walking Dead.’ It was a conflict for me, because I liked interacting with the fans about it. I liked writing about it. I just hated the show, and I felt bad that I couldn’t write honestly about what I was seeing. All of a sudden the comments went from ‘Hey, we’re having a good time with “The Walking Dead”’ to ‘Why are you picking on “The Walking Dead” for several hundred words?’” Justin Robert Young, Host – Who’s The Boss?
Looking back on it, quitting was the kindest thing we could have done for our listeners. Some of them were already complaining we were too negative about the show. That started shortly after the ninth episode of Season 5, “The Bear King.” We disliked the Brave crossover episode so much that we very loudly refused to discuss it, pretending that it hadn’t aired in the United States, and that some of our listeners had watched a “Canadian Bootleg” of the episode.
Our chat room took this in good stride, but it was the beginning of the end.
We referred to “The Bear King” as The Canadian Bootleg from then on, and it definitely cost us a few listeners, which bums me out. I see now our frustration with the show was dripping out in jokes that went too far and revealed too much about how we really felt about Once.
We could have continued talking about Once for two more seasons, but if we couldn’t maintain our Café POV, how many listeners would we have left by the time Once finally wrapped? Listening to two people talk about how they can’t believe a show hasn’t been canceled yet doesn’t make for a compelling podcast, and it doesn’t provide anything positive for anybody. No. Better to end it while our listeners still liked us, then become the target of a Oncer hashtag on Twitter. Those Oncers were intense.
Our last episode of Greetings, complete with plenty of inside jokes in the chat room.
We decided to quit Greetings From Storybrooke several weeks before the Once season finale, which gave us time to enjoy and say goodbye to our listeners. Our final episode, “Farewell From Storybrooke,” featured a long discussion about the season finale, followed by an even longer Feedback segment and closing thoughts from us. Everybody said what Greetings From Storybrooke meant to them, including Once Upon A Time actor Jarod Joseph.
“Caught wind that you kids were closing down the shop and I just had to reach out and wave a verbal goodbye, if you will. Pour one out for the little guy Gus Gus one more time. Goose Goose if ya’ nasty. Bill, Anne Marie, thanks for the rapport. Love begets love and I love you guys.” – Jarod Joseph, Billy The Mechanic/Gus Gus on Once Upon A Time
“Sad to hear that @GFStorybrooke is ending their podcast. You guys ran a great podcast that was always fun to listen to and got me into the Once fandom. You were one of the first podcasts I ever listened to, and my first internet friends.” – Marshall
“Robin Hood dying did not make me as sad as you guys becoming disenchanted and throwing in the towel.” – @mystickid
“Oh my god! My heart is breaking.” – Liz
“Well, there goes my final reason to keep watching Once Upon A Time. I was hanging in just so I could follow your podcast.” – Amelia
“You two always brought the fun of Once Upon A Time and had the most vibrant group of listeners ever. You should be very proud of what you accomplished (and still are in other podcasts). It was so incredibly awesome to meet you, hang with you and be a part of your panel at Regal Con, Bill. I’ll never forget it. You both will be missed, but what you did for Once Upon A Time will never be forgotten. Best wishes and much love to you both.” – Jeff Roney, Once Upon A Time Podcast
“I want to thank you both for all the years of time and energy you put into entertaining us and giving us all a place to laugh, cry, vent, theorize, and just be crazy fans. The chat room and regular writers and callers like Bobby, Hope and Other Annemarie have made this show even more fun.” – Tracey
“I joined the podcast about halfway through Season 2, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it ever since. Even when my enjoyment of the show started to wane in the past season or so, your podcast always made the show more enjoyable to me. Best of luck on your other podcasts, and I’m sure that I’ll find one or two of them to listen to!” – Vicki
The comments from our listeners hit me in the gut. I second-guessed our decision at the time, but I think we made the right choice. Some listeners admitted they were only watching Once so they could make sense of our podcast. What bigger compliment for a fancaster, that our podcast was so important to them that they continued watching a show they didn’t even enjoy anymore, simply because we sat down and talked about it in our home office for an hour and change every week? What an honor for our silly little fancast to have such an impact on so many people.
“I had to produce a weekly show about The Bachelorette, and I couldn’t care less about that show, but I enjoyed producing it because of the passion of the hosts.” Darrell Darnell, Co-Founder – Golden Spiral Media
A year later, we shut down Legends of Gotham, Universe Box News, and We’re So LOST, not because we fell out of love, but because we just didn’t have the time. I also wanted to try some new podcast formats, ones that weren’t subject to the quality of whatever it was I decided to review. The result? My scripted “sketch dramedy” podcast The Fakist, which has featured over 100 voices from multiple countries, many of them former listeners to my fancasts. As of this writing, The Fakist is about to go into its third and final season. It doesn’t get the numbers our fancasts did, but I’m proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish together over the internet.
The last goodbye on Legends of Gotham was definitely easier. While it was still a hard decision, we felt much better leaving Gotham while we were still in love with it. It didn’t feel like giving up. It felt like moving on to something new.