Save Kim Possible

The story of the movement starts in 2003 with one man whom was already a prominent figure in the Kimmunity. Tucsoncoyote (Tuc for short) had been following disney for years, and was the first to alert KP fans to Disney's so-called "65 Episode Rule." It was mid 2003 and KP had just started her second season at the time. At the time, many KP fans dismissed the problem, some even calling us spammers!

The save KP movement got an unexpected boost on November 30th 2003, when Roy O. Disney (Walt's Nephew) resigned from the board of the Walt Disney Company and started a campaign against Michael Eisner. This is centered around the website SaveDisney.com. He was joined by Board Member Stanley Gold the next day. Due to the efforts of the SaveDisney Campaign Eisner received a 43% “No Confidence” vote from the shareholders This resulted in Eisner losing his title as Chairman and his September 9th announcement that he would resign when his contract expired in 2006. Roy Disney and Gold where not satisfied with this, and continued to push for change at Disney.

Sensing growing momentum for a real fight against the 65 episode rule, Tucsoncoyote founded Mission Kim Possible as our new base of operations on January 14, 2004. The SKP website was created less than a week after MKP was founded. One of our members, without discussing it on the group first, decided to register the domain with a simple hosting package. It was at this time that I became an active member of the movement as I began to work on the website project.

At around the same time, several events in real life helped to focus my efforts for KP. Most notably, it was my senior year of High School and we where required to make a 15 minute "Personal Passion" speech in English class. It was a difficult decision to make, but I decided to "out" myself as a KP fan. In retrospect, it seems silly, but it was a very big deal at the time. It wasn't until I stood in front of the class, asked who had seen the show, and saw every single person raise their hand that I realized how much this show meant not only to me, but to everyone.

After using my knowledge of KP to make my English speech (A+ by the way) I began looking for excuses to use KP for other school projects. Most notably, I wrote a Fairy Tale called "The Evil King Eisner" and did a report on "Corporate Greed" for my Sociology class. The report didn't go as well as I had hoped, but the fairy tale was a hit. And it was even posted on Roy's SaveDisney.com in June 2004 - In my mind, an unofficial endorsement of our movement. It wouldn't be until later that year that we got an official endorsement with a link on their friends section.

And finally, due to some great work by Tucsoncoyote, we where able to make contact with the creators of KP, Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle. they where quite impressed with both the website and the fans that supported their favorite project to date. Their input over the following months would be crucial both for morale and planning.

Our movement was small, but we we had our mission, we had our leaders, we had a plan. It wasn't much, but it's a start!

It was a dark night, filled with frightful spooks and other horrors. It was Halloween night 2004, and the MKP owners where making plans that would change the direction of the entire movement. I was running the SKP more or less on my own at the time, and there had been discussions for several weeks over what we would do if the show wasn't saved before the site was up for renewal. To renew with the current host was almost out of the question due to the price. Likewise, it was far to expensive to try and move the domain to another host, as the host retained the rights to the savekimpossible.com domain name. So on that night, the decision was made to leave the old website behind and create a new site dedicated to saving all quality shows from the 65 episode rule. The domain suggested by Tucsoncoyote and ultimately chosen for that purpose was SaveDisneyShows.org. MKP Owner and SDS Co-Webmaster Adam Humpherys was instrumental in the setup of the new Save Disney Shows site. Adam shaped the basic structure of the new site, creating sub domains for the KP section and the new SDS Forum.

Save Disney Shows Officially Opened on Monday Nov 08, 2004. To christen the new site, I said a few words: The *hardest* part is done. We have our new website. The KP section is up and so is the forum. We've already done far more than thought we'd do. So everyone take a moment and congratulate yourselves. Now let's get back to work... (link). Little did I know at the time that the hard work was just beginning.

April 8th, 2005 - A day I will never forget. That day, exactly five months after the founding of SDS, was the premiere of the Disney Channel Original Movie Kim Possible: So the Drama.

When StD first premiered, there where still six unaired season three episodes, which Disney slowly premiered in the months following the film. As I said at the time, the intent was to throw fans off and make them think that StD was not the end of the show. Fortunately, many fans saw through this facade and our numbers swelled in the days immediately after the movie. Many of those fans that had once cast us out, suddenly came running to help - and we where glad to have them.

On April 16th 2005 "Ron's the Man" made a Suggestion on the SDS Forum that would ultimately change our method of campaigning. His ideas, initially poorly defined and dismissed by many, would set the groundwork for a series of Save Kim Possible days over the summer and fall of 2005.

Our first Save Kim Possible day was a disaster. The website went down only a few hours into the day, and there was rampant speculation on MKP that disney had found a way to shut us down. But by the next day, it was obvious that it was just a strange coincidence. And a date was sent for a second day. Only days before the second event, new Co-Webmaster Wayne Simons created the first generation SDS email program. This handy little web script allowed members to easily send an email to all of our disney contacts at once using a prewitten template letter.

On July 28th 2005, Longtime SDS member Red came up with a new idea to further expand the Save KP Day idea. His "email petition" changed the way we recruited members, and made a ton more work for me! But it was worth it because, along with our already established paper and pen petetion, it gave us a way to gage our own numbers and most importantly, the growth and reach of our movement.

Then on September 23rd 2005, the strangest series of events happened. First, this message was posted on the RonStoppable.net message board, by an individual claiming to be KP's director Steve Loter:

I may get in trouble for this... but, okay.

Kim Possible had been renewed for two new seasons by Disney!
Yep, I got a call a few weeks ago and was told that American Dragon: Jake Long season 2 had been post-poned. When I asked why, they said that they wanted me to direct season 4 of Kim Possible. They said that after that, I would work on American Dragon while another director took over for season 5.
So, there you have it. We were going to keep it secret, but I'm bad at secret keeping. We'll officialy announce it next week.

Adam proceeded to ask Steve if he posted on RS.net to which he replied, "Yes, it was me." However, when later asked about that specific post, he stated that he had posted on Rs.net before, but that he did not author the post in question. But before we where able to clarify that Steve hadn't made that post, our contact with Christy Carlson Romano was also able to confirm that what "Steve" said was true. As MKP Owner Binski said at the time: "it's really getting confusing as to who said what to whom about what and what to disregard or not."

We had a problem. A select few fans knew that Disney was in the process of restarting the show. But we couldn't announce that fact without getting christy in trouble, and possibly jeopardizing the renewal. We also couldn't stop campaigning, because then Disney might think we where giving up and reconsider their decision. Our only option was to keep the news under wraps and continue the campaign. It was a difficult thing to lie to our members, but the way I saw it, we where doing it to make sure the show as renewed and that our supporters would understand why we made the choice we did.

On November 11th 2005 the official announcement finally came in a news article from Reuters. "The 'Save Kim Possible' movement, which included petitions to former Disney chairman and CEO Michael Eisner and an online write-in campaign, may have been enough to have helped nudge the Mouse to decide to re-up the series for another 22 new episodes." That day just so happened to also be an official Save KP day! Needless to say, the mood and tone of the event quickly changed once the news of the renewal was passed along to the Kimmunity at large.

For myself, it was a day of vindication. A day I had long doubted would ever come, even after the events of September 23rd. We had truly made history, for never before had any group of fans been successful in getting any Disney show brought back from cancellation.

As we waited, Christy gave us updates as she began her Voice acting work for the series. Bob and Mark gave us teasers of what they where planning. We followed the development with the crew. I remember one time in particular when we heard about the rough animation arriving from Korea. And finally, more than a year after the renewal, the first KP season four screencaps graced the airwaves.

For many, it that was the moment the renewal truly felt "real." A week before the planned four episode, two hour premiere, Disney put one episode "Ill Suited" up on their brand new online video player. I, like many fans, first watched that episode online. And despite the sometimes out of sync sound, I never felt as good after watching an episode as I did that day. The renewal was real. KP lived on.

Kim Possible season four consisted of 22 episodes (or 23 if you count the half episodes as whole episodes) and premiered on February 10th 2007. Disney showed a new episode almost every week leading up to a massive second season finale event. For three days in september, KP took over Disney Channel as Disney aired the entire series! The event culminated on September 7th with the premiere of the two part finale, "Graduation." In my opinion, "Graduation" did not have the same epic feel as "So the Drama" but it provided a definite sense of closure that StD lacked.

Some referred to Season four as the "shipper season" because K/R fans where finally able to see Kim and Ron dating. But for me, the highlights included new Villains like Camille Leon and the Mathtor, the return of past villains like Professor Dementor as stand alone villains, And great new plot lines like SSJ and Shego's reunion and Wade out in the field.

One other amazing experience that came out of season four was the first KP Crew lunch, which was organized by RD after disney rejected his petition to have a full "Kimvention." The Luncheon at Jerry's Deli occurred on March 31st 2007 and it was one of the best days of my life. A thousand thanks to Bob, Mark, Steve, and everyone else who came.

A lot of KP fans look at the shows on DC now and quickly dismiss them while longing for the "good old days." I think this view is short sighted. KP will always hold a very special place in my heart, and no other show could ever replace it. That's why I think it's important that Disney releases box sets of the show - especially now that KP's last refuge, Toon disney, has become Disney XD.

At one time I pushed for a fifth season of the show, and began organizing fans for a new campaign before "Graduation" aired. Unfortunately, there was a lot of resistance to campaigning until after season four stopped airing. After I saw Graduation and spoke with the crew I decided that I was satisfied with the new ending.

Some are still fighting for a fifth season, and they have my full support. New endeavors like KP's Epcot attraction prove that the franchise still has life. Season five probably isn't an option anymore, but an occasional movie could easily keep the franchise alive for years to come.

The most important thing I've learned from this movement is that nothing ever ends, it keeps going. KP's legacy will live on forever in various , possibly unimaginable, forms. But no matter what happens, we saved KP, and nothing can ever take that away. That may not always seem like much but I have no doubt that the world is better for it.

Welcome to the Original SaveKimPossible.com!