Firefly Cancelled--Officially. (1 Viewer)

[Mark_Wilson]

I think a lot of things contributed. I personally never liked the name. In fact I didn't watch the show initially because of it. I read on HTF that it was a sci fi show so I started recording it at 'Jaynestown' but didn't really GET into it until 'Out of Gas'. After that episode I was hooked!

 

[Robert Ringwald]

I honestly would have cancelled it too. I'm not mad at FOX for that.

I would have aired SERENITY, and then the rest in order. I would have stuck it on Monday's after Girls Club was cancelled, and pushed the advertising by saying something like "So good, we moved it." Really, all the american public needs to hear is "It's the next big thing!" and they'll swarm all over it.

If I had been Joss, I'd have written episode 13 - 15 as a final episode arc or something, because it was likely before it even aired that Firefly wouldn't maintain a high audience.

Hopefully Joss can strike a deal with some other network (I think firefly would work well on WB actually. He's sadly have to "hip" it up a little, but it wouldn't hurt the overall good of the show) to either finish the season, or to make some kind of "mini" series finale.

 

[Jason Seaver]

I think firefly would work well on WB actually. He's sadly have to "hip" it up a little

That's the old WB, with only Dawson's Creek, Charmed (maybe) and Jamie Kennedy hanging on. The new WB is about family-friendliness. Inara would have a new job about thirty seconds into the first WB episode.

 

[Robert Ringwald]

That's my point. And the violence would have to be toned down I think.

 

[Dan Rudolph]

I agree with the problem of being over-complicated. There were 9 leads. It was a few episodes before I could remember everyone's names. Starting with the pilot would hve fixed this, but the pilot had its own problems.

 

[Martin Rendall]

Interesting. I wonder why he couldn't have introduced characters over the course of a season or two.

To summarize, if Firefly had a smaller cast, no western theme, no Chinese theme, more CG, more fighting, less character development, less whoring, a more upbeat intro song, not been preempted once for baseball, sounds in space, on a niche network, a better name, aired in their proper order, not aired in their proper order, more gadgety, Gina kicking higher, had a better timeslot, and didn't have to compete with other shows, it would have survived. Did I miss anything?

Martin.

 

[Joel C]

See? Clearly, all Fox's fault.

 

[Mark_Wilson]

Those are all the reasons why I WATCHED it.

 

[Dan Rudolph]

I don't think it so much had too many characters as it had a lot and we didn't get a proper introduction. Ultimately, the problem seems to be breakdown in communication between Fox and Mutant Enemy as far as what Fox wanted for a pilot. Lack of pilot made for a rocky start, and it couldn't really recover.

 

[Rex Bachmann]

For all you Firefly fans (hope this hasn't been posted elsewhere):
SciFiWire
dateline: 9:00am ET, 15-January-03

 

[Martin Rendall]

Truly, out of gas. :frowning:
Although, puppet theater would be cool!
Martin.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

I'm down for puppet theater
I'd love to see SOMEONE finance a TV movie that'd give some closure, assuming the additional 3 eps don't
Please don't take the sky from me :frowning:

 

[Jason Seaver]

Well, that still leaves WB, but it looks pretty grim. If they could move it to Canada, that would be great (heck, that might even help the show by giving them more diverse environments to shoot in). But $2M/episode is just much too expensive for this show to be viable.

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know what Andromeda costs? The CGI production values weren't bad at all last year, and might serve as a good ballpark estimate for what Firefly would cost if they up-and-moved to Vancouver and cut the production values down some (fewer space scenes, or at least fewer new models).

The other option I might see for this is to change the production/distribution model - this seems like it would be perfect for the UK-style 6-episode series. That would cost $12M, which Fox could probably recoup in foreign and video sales. Do a couple of those a year, make sure they're pretty self-contained, and air them domestically on Fox/FX/Sci-Fi.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

He says that moving to Vancouver wouldn't do much in the article. I'm guessing Andromeda costs around a million an ep.

 

[Mark_Wilson]

Not many deserts in Canada.

How about Showtime?

 

[Martin Rendall]

Not many deserts in Canada.

But we've still got cowboys!

Martin.

 

[Bryan Tuck]

I think Showtime might be game; they seem to have carved a small niche for certain types of Sci-Fi shows. Of course, if something doesn't change, it would probably still be on Fridays :rolleyes, but on Showtime, that wouldn't be as much of a problem.
Have they tried FX yet? Of course, Fox is the one that cancelled it, but who knows?
I, too, think that had they showed the original pilot to begin with, and aired the episodes in the proper order, it could have done at least a little better.
I still think there could be a chance. TNT, A&E, and syndication are still chances, albeit remote, and $2 million per episode is indeed steep for a syndicated show.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Not many deserts in Canada.

But you've got snow! Which could actually work if you go in for the "one solar system" model - as they get further out from the core worlds, even terraformed, the planets will still likely be chillier.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

think Showtime might be game; they seem to have carved a small niche for certain types of Sci-Fi shows. Of course, if something doesn't change, it would probably still be on Fridays , but on Showtime, that wouldn't be as much of a problem.

Nope, Showtime has purged all Sci-Fi programming except Jeremiah, for some reason, especially sinec Odyssey5 was better rated

 

[Bryan Tuck]

Nope, Showtime has purged all Sci-Fi programming except Jeremiah, for some reason, especially sinec Odyssey5 was better rated

Rats. Well.......I dunno; we may be up a creek on this. Maybe TNT? They helped Babylon 5 when it was in trouble. Of course, it had been going for 4 years and had a pretty substantial following, quite a bit larger than Firefly's, I would imagine.

Well, I still believe anything is possilbe. We'll see what happens.