3 New Firefly episodes coming?.... (1 Viewer)

[todd s]

The following was taken from a buffy forum from Tim Minnear, who is an associate of Joss Whedon.



Tim Minear - Jan 19, 2003 7:42:31 pm EST #5420 of 6002


Okay. I'm gonna scram. Victor, really enjoyed your article, by the way. Have you published yet?

Also wanted to let everyone here know that Firefly is not dead. Not yet. Joss and us'ns are working on a new angle, the details of which I cannot get into just yet. Also, I'm finishing editing my last episode. I think it's gonna be good. And "Trash" is lots of fun and we're finishing "Heart Of Gold." So some day, at the very least, ya'll get for certain three more hours of us.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Tim Minnear, who is an associate of Joss Whedon.

Geez, give the guy some credit - he was Firefly's Executive Producer and show-runner, responsible for the nuts-and-bolts of getting the show made, probably just as important to the show as Whedon (if not more so; I tended to like the episodes he wrote more than Whedon's). "An associate" indeed!

And the three he talks about are probably just the ones that had been shot but not aired when the axe came down - they're probably just finishing up post-production.

If I were Fox, I'd be thinking pretty hard of not airing them at all, but making them exclusively available in the DVD set - if they sell well, they can certainly use that when shopping some alternate version of the show (TV-movies? short-season arc?).

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Yes, the alternate vision he's talking about is Firefly TV movies or miniseries

Tim Minear is the Pope of Fireflydom, when he speaks of things like this it's direct from the pulpit. And yes, he may even know better than Joss

I also agree with Jason that "3 never before seen episodes!" is a damn good seller for the DVD, unfortunately I think the show may be too expensive to justify that (rougly 5-6 million in additional sales would be required.

 

[Jason Seaver]

I also agree with Jason that "3 never before seen episodes!" is a damn good seller for the DVD, unfortunately I think the show may be too expensive to justify that (rougly 5-6 million in additional sales would be required.

Well, it depends what they'd make for News Corp. on TV. The $6M they cost to make is sunk costs - it can't be unspent. These episodes probably wouldn't be broadcast on Fox until June, and the combined advertising revenues for Fox and their O&Os likely won't make that up. The question is, if they put the show out on DVD (at, say, a $40 SRP for the pilot plus 13 episodes), would "Three never-before seen episodes!" on the cover and all the advertising increase sales enough to make it worthwhile?

Not knowing the numbers involved (what's an ad during Fox summer burn-off cost? what's Fox make on this set?), I can't really say. I sort of doubt it - Firefly fandom is small and intense enough that I think most of us would be willing to buy the set even if it didn't include anything new; I don't think the enticement would boost sales much at all.

 

[todd s]

Sorry guys, I did read about his credentials. But, I was running late and I wanted to post the info. Another thing I just saw at www.fireflyfans.net that quoted Yahoo:

According to an AP article that appeared on Yahoo.com Fox Television Entertainment Chairman Sandy Grushow implied that Firefly's failure to attract an audience after the series' premiere can be attributed to FOX's misjudgment in taking the new series off the air for a few weeks to air baseball and then bringing it back during November sweeps where it struggled in the ratings.

"This network is in a state of transition. It's rebuilding," Grushow said. "To put new shows on for two weeks and then take them off for four weeks for baseball is not a particularly effective launch strategy."

With this admission, FOX is planning to launch their next slate of new series during the Summer instead of Fall, capitalizing off the lesson learned from the successes of FOX's reality series like 'American Idol' that was launched during mid-season and subsequently struck gold for the network.

With Firefly having 3 remaining episodes in the queue, perhaps FOX might consider airing them during Summer in conjunction with premieres of their other new shows--giving Firefly a second chance. And if ratings for the three are significantly better, perhaps Firefly's "hiatus" is really just that, an hiatus.

ps-Is it me or does the guy who plays the doctor look liker Joachim Phoenix?

 

[Jeff Kleist]

According to an AP article that appeared on Yahoo.com Fox Television Entertainment Chairman Sandy Grushow implied that Firefly's failure to attract an audience after the series' premiere can be attributed to FOX's misjudgment in taking the new series off the air for a few weeks to air baseball and then bringing it back during November sweeps where it struggled in the ratings.

There we go, the network admitting that baseball MURDERED Firefly. Thanks to this, and the fact that they aired it out of order managed to lower the ratings far enough o kill the show. It would have survived out of order airing, but not the killing stroke of professional sports

Nuff said

 

[Jason Seaver]

With Firefly having 3 remaining episodes in the queue, perhaps FOX might consider airing them during Summer in conjunction with premieres of their other new shows--giving Firefly a second chance. And if ratings for the three are significantly better, perhaps Firefly's "hiatus" is really just that, an hiatus.

That's a nice fantasy. Of course, after Friday, the cast is no longer under contract, Fox will be disassembling the sets, and by the time the reruns air under this idea (August), both cast and crew will all likely have moved on to other projects. And even if the ratings are better, they'll still need lead time to get the show back into production, even if Tim Minear isn't running NYPD 2069 by then.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Uh, no, Sean Maher doesn't look much like Joachim Phoenix, IMHO.

I think Fox might burn these last 3 episodes during March/April.

 

[Jason Seaver]

There we go, the network admitting that baseball MURDERED Firefly.

Perhaps we're reading the word "implied" differently. The article I read suggested that the baseball interruptions were responsible for the Fox schedule's sluggish start as a whole, not Firefly specifically.

And the out-of-order thing is such a complete non-factor it's ridiculous. Heck, the average viewer probably wouldn't have realized it was out-of-order if not for the Mutant Enemy patented time-sucking overly-detailed "previously..." blocks making it obvious.

 

[Patrick Sun]

There's nothing to stop Fox from showing Firefly in the Friday 8 p.m. slot if they need a filler for Fastlane as far as stretching out the episodes until May sweeps.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Which they likely won't, because it did miss all those baseball weeks and its 22-episode order will probably stretch longer. In addition, Fastlane's a show that probably doesn't suffer much from rerunning (no complex backstory to go back and forth with), and it probably makes sense to keep the show visible between sweeps periods.

 

[Patrick Sun]

You do realize this is Fox we're talking about, right?

 

[Jason Seaver]

Yep. Still, I can't recall Fox ever doing something that's got no point to it, like airing episodes of a cancelled show during the season. They've done hopelessly optimistic things (which is why we love them ), but seldom stuff that couldn't really help them much for the future.

 

[Robert Ringwald]

While I love Firefly, I've passed the final phase of its death. I'm aware that it's done, and probably gone forever.

I am, however hoping that Joss can get a 2 or 3 hours SERIES FINALE produced to fully end the series, but I doubt that would happen.

At least FOX is likely to put out a FIREFLY dvd set with all 15 episodes...

 

[Dan Rudolph]

Keep in mind Fox never aired the final episode of the Tick. They also have a history of coancelling and un-cancellign things. (The PJs, Family Guy, Futurama)

 

[Jason Seaver]

I am, however hoping that Joss can get a 2 or 3 hours SERIES FINALE produced to fully end the series, but I doubt that would happen.

And you know, it really doesn't need to. One of the things Whedon & company were trying to get away from with this show was The Chosen One with a Great Mission; I think not having a real finale suits it well - they just keep flying.

 

[Robert Ringwald]

Jason, that's a very good way to look at it. It'd have been corny to have a "finale" episode in which they take down the Alliance (lol, Alias did this, but the episode wasn't exactly corny) and fly off.

This way is better. We didn't start the series with the whole group getting together, and we'll end it with them the way they were. One brief look into their lives at one point. Kind of like My So Called Life

 

[Jason Seaver]

This way is better. We didn't start the series with the whole group getting together, and we'll end it with them the way they were. One brief look into their lives at one point. Kind of like My So Called Life

Of course, that's partly because we started with "The Train Job" rather than "Serenity". Maybe my perspective would be skewed if Fox had aired "Serenity" first - I might have looked at the series as being about River and Simon, and really wanted that ending. Instead, though, that became backstory, and if it's not resolved - well, that's a bummer, but it also means Firefly isn't incomplete as it stands.

I also think that we, as genre fans, have grown so attached to the macrostory that many of us have a hard time looking at television any other way. In fact, I think a portion of the audience might have wound up disappointed in Firefly, since many of the interviews I've read stated that they were intentionally making it less serial and continuity-heavy than Buffy or Angel. I like that style, but it's definitely no longer the standard for sci-fi/fantasy.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Yes, the series should absolutely end with them warping off somewhere.

I really hope that SciFi or hey, even Fox like the apology they did for killing Alien Nation will do a once a year Firefly TV movie, just to see how it goes.

 

[Robert Ringwald]

Even SERENITY was simply about Book, River, and Simon on the ship. We didn't see where the others came from until episode 5 "Out of Gas"

I guess I'd like some kind of 'wrap-up' with the River story at least. That's all I'd want. Perhaps the mission is that they find out there's a way to erase River's file or something from the Alliance, and they would be "free" and just get to keep flying without the blue hands on their back.