'Firefly' added to Sci-Fi (1 Viewer)

[Kevin Grey]

Er, Firefly aired on Friday nights.

And while Firefly might have made a nice success of itself, I feel pretty comfortable betting that it would never have been a top ten show.

 

[Qui-Gon John]

Will they be airing the pilot and all the episodes, in the correct order?

 

[David Williams]

Sure looks that way according to their website. Total non sequitur here, but does anyone else think that Shindig is Firefly's best episode?

 

[Joseph Bolus]

We'll never know for sure. All I can tell you is that my wife loves the show and she generally cannot stand Sci-Fi in any form. Many of my (over 40) co-workers also loved the show after being exposed to it via DVD. I think the show was set up to appeal to a much wider demographic than the average Sci-Fi show.

 

[Robert Ringwald]

Top 10? Probably not. Top 60-80? It had a chance I'm sure. Which would have been moderately successful.

 

[Lars_J]

For the vast majority of shows, this is quite common. Especially if your premiere episode is promoted heavily. For the first couple of episodes the viewer numbers fall until a "stable" viewer base is found. If the show is lucky, that base viewer number is high enough to justify the show. If not, it risks being cancelled.

Very few shows are able to grow their viever numbers from the first episode.

 

[Kevin Hewell]

"Ariel" is my favorite ep. It had a gorgeous look to it plus, the ending kicked all kinds of ass.

 

[Jason Walstrom]

'Out of Gas' is my favorite episode it's fantastic! My second fave is 'Jaynestown'. Hell I love all of em' maybe 2 are just ok.

 

[Jason Walstrom]

Who's got one of these on order? Browncoat

 

[Robert Ringwald]

I'm not that big of a fan... Although I saw a lot of people dressed up at the Serenity screenings. One girl had kaylee from the pilot (with the little umbrella and the blue cover-up thing) pretty much perfect.

My faves are Serenity (1 and 2), Out of Gas, and Objects In Space... but I love all of them.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The biggest obstacle to me in "Firefly" returning to TV would be the fact that Joss Whedon just isn't interested anymore. He's a feature man now.

 

[Kevin Grey]

Which is a damn shame. I understand where he's coming from but he has a lot of strengths in long form storytelling and that's just not going to happen up on the big screen. I guess I'll just have to stick with his run on "The Astonishing X-Men" for that fix.

I do think he might be having a little bit of sour grapes though. I know the cancellation and treatment of Firefly broke his heart but he got seven seasons out of Buffy and five of Angel. Which is pretty incredible for genre shows all things considered. If anyone should be writing off TV at this point it's Tim Minear.

Someone like Sci-Fi would probably jump at the chance to air an original Whedon show. Even if more than one season wasn't guaranteed from the outset, he would pretty much be guaranteed great promotion and the airing of the entire show in order. These cable networks are closer to where the WB was when Buffy and Angel first hit than any of the major networks.

I hope that Wonder Woman is a big hit for him because if it fails then it could seriously jeapordize his current "auteur" status that's given him such free reign with Serenity and potentially Wonder Woman. A couple of box office disappointments and I think he might find himself uncomfortably reminded of the lack of creative freedom of the old days of the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" feature film.

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

So maybe he will do a Buffy/Angel film.

I'm going to start to watch Firefly for the first time this week. I hope I am in for a good ride.

 

[TheLongshot]

You'd think, but they didn't want what JMS was selling, so who knows?

What is also part of the deal is that I don't think Universal can bring it back to TV until 4-5 years pass.

As for Joss and TV, it could be that after all of this time, he's just sick of it. He's gone through a lot with all of his series, and maybe just wants to move on and do something else.

Jason

 

[Kevin Grey]

I think Sci-Fi is a different network now, to a degree. Sci-Fi Fridays is doing well for them and they've had some good success with limited series with a "name" on them like "Taken" and are certainly hyping the upcoming "Triangle" heavily with Bryan Singer's name attached. My gut feeling is that a new, original series with Joss's name on it would attract a sizable audience, at least initially.

No offense to the wonderful JMS but I think Whedon is arguably a more marketable name to the community right now than JMS was when "Legend of the Rangers" premiered.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I'd be alot more sympathetic if Tim didn't dig his own grave to an extent; you bite the hand that feeds you as much as he has and it's no surprise when you find the hand isn't there when you want it.

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

And they passed on the new Doctor Who as well, so....


What did Tim Minear do wrong?

 

[BrianW]

I'm looking forward to seeing this series get decent treatment on SciFi and seeing the unaired (and pre-empted) episodes I missed. I've alerted several friends who've never heard of this show but now have Season Passes on their TiVos.

Why would there be a "No Resurrection" clause in the purchase agreement? It limits Universal's options without enhancing Fox's bottom line, which comes across as very vindictive. Just because they couldn't make a success out of it means they have to guarantee that nobody can?

Oh, well. At least Fox brought back Family Guy, which I think was very big of them to do. (Yeah, I know about the tie-ins and such, but I'm still grateful.)

And, yes, Firefly DVDs are in my near future.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Before his shows even get on the air, he complains to the press about Fox's shitty treatment of them. If I wanted something done, I sure as hell wouldn't openly bash the people who have the power to do it.

 

[Kevin Grey]

He was a bit nicer about The Inside. He didn't really complain about the summer premiere (I think he was hoping for the fall) and tried to put a nice spin on it.