community was so excited about our idea and it's now leaked

Things leak a lot, be ready for that going forward. Or put a disclaimer: "keep this private"

You need to make a pilot episode. My suggestion would be to start the episode as normal, and then about 15 minutes stand up, close a curtain, get out of character in "mid sentence", and then say. The show can't; go on without your support. If you like this sort of thing, please xyz.

This is something that should be funded for sure. I'm excited to see whatever you guys do next. It's like giving life to steemit. We so badly need this...