I do remember the excitement, but I don't remember who said what. Sorry!

Yeah, the Hobbit fandom... well, one person put it firmly in the migratory slash fandom oart of fandom (which has *weird* fads in fics sometimes) rather than being an outgrowth of Tolkien fandom.

I have no hope about the show content, but I do have slight hopes we'll have a fandom revitalization. But it very well could be its own thing again.