Firefly-10/11/2002 (1 Viewer)

[Dominik Droscher]

Ah, good old Germany where our favorite sports has fixed times (soccer 2x45 mins +15 intemission and about 5 minutes extra time). I am glad that less and less people are watching Tennis over here. But as mentioned earlier in this thread this is just a matter of personal taste. It would be best if the sport channels show only sport, the news channels show only news and Fox shows only Firefly, 24, Firefly, Futurama and The Simpsons. So sports, news and TV-Shows never hurt each other and everyone is happy.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Actually, I'm going to take a different tack and blame the Firefly "outage" on Joss Whedon himself for taking his show to Fox in the first place. It's all Joss's fault, he knew about the sports programming and the pre-emptive nature of the playoffs in the fall, and he was okay with it, so get over it.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Patrick, the issue is not soley Firefly related. It's just a matter of Firefly being the LATEST sci-fi show that is in its first year, which may or may not be canned, and being pre-empted by sports is NOT the way to keep an audience as has been proven time and again on Sundays.

 

[Todd Terwilliger]

Jeff,

It's the networks. They could easily shift the show times or use rebroadcasts if they wanted to. Don't blame the sports.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Todd, the sports are the ones who force these contracts. The "heidi" factor being the most infamous.

I asked our local UPN affiliate that since they're going digital first week of november, if they'd consider putting the pre-empted program on a second digital channel (since the game is only 480, you can fit 4 SD signals in there) the guy said he actually brought that up, but that it was nixed by Comcast, the owner of the Flyers. So it IS the sports doing.I offered a PERFECTLY reasonable compromise and it's not being taken.

 

[Todd Terwilliger]

Jeff,

Your compromises are not reasonable.

All the networks have to do is either shift their schedule back or rebroadcast the show later in the night.

EDIT:

Jeff,

I don't blame the sports for protecting their product. Whedon and co. could and should do the same for Firefly.

 

[Mike St.Louis]

I don't see why FOX wouldn't want to protect their shows. It's in their best interest to have a slot of good TV programs that win ratings and advertising dollars.

I guess what I'm saying is that FOX isn't out to kill their own TV shows. But since MLB is a major draw they don't want to lose that either. And if Firefly gets the axe they lose too.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Todd, I doubt they even knew they weren't on until Day-of

And why is the compromise not reasonable? Everyone (well, those who have digital, myself NOT included at this time, but it would show an EFFORT) is happy that way. Sports fans can watch sports, fans of the non-pre-empted show can watch that, problem solved!

Let's face it. for the most part the sci-fi audience and the sports audience are mutually exclusive, so it's not like you have many people torn between the 2

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

All the networks have to do is either shift their schedule back or rebroadcast the show later in the night.

When no one knows it's on.

 

[Todd Terwilliger]

Jeff,

I was referring to your earlier suggestions. As for the extra channels, I'm not going to jump all over Comcast without knowing their reasoning.

Adam,

That's what promos and advertising are for.

Anyway, I'm done. To me, it comes down to how strongly a network feels about it's show. To me, the fact that Fox let Futurama languish in that obviously undesirable timeslot says much more to me about Fox than it does about football.

As for Firefly, I appreciate the fact that its trying to build a viewer base. However, unlike Futurama which was consistently preempted for an entire season of football, all Firefly has to worry about is a couple of baseball playoff games, if there is even another Friday night game. If that's enough to kill the show, how strong was it to begin with?

 

[Patrick Sun]

Where's all the outrage for John Doe being pre-empted as well?

 

[Glenn Overholt]

John Doe doesn't know who he really is, so we don't know whom to complain to.

Glenn

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Good one Glen
Well, we wll commission equal rage toward the John Doe pre-emption, fair is fair!

 

[Todd Terwilliger]

On the digital front, when the networks do go digital, are they going to split out into seperate channels? Having, for example, CBS Sports, CBS Family, etc. would be very cool.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Let's face it. for the most part the sci-fi audience and the sports audience are mutually exclusive, so it's not like you have many people torn between the 2

Right, we're not torn. Tonight, we watch baseball. Friday, we watch "Firefly".

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Right, we're not torn. Tonight, we watch baseball. Friday, we watch "Firefly".

That's the exception rather than the rule

 

[Todd Terwilliger]

In my experience, I have not found sports and sci-fi to be mutually exclusive.

 

[Patrick Sun]

BTW, I just watched the 2-hour pilot (don't ask how, be resourceful) of Firefly, and that's the real crime, Fox not showing THAT to us as the first glimpse into this show.

Sure, it was a bit "slow" in getting us introduced to the crew of the Serenity in the first hour, but it was a better good opening episode than what was shown (The Train Robbery episode). The second hour is quite lively, the dialog is crisp and there's a good amount of action and tension.

Hope the pilot goes get shown because it fills in a lot of the backstory of many of the characters (not all, but enough to want to keep watching the show).

 

[Todd Terwilliger]

I missed the pilot. Hopefully, they'll rebroadcast it sometime.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Last I heard, a 1-hour version of the pilot will be edited and shown as some kind of 'flashback' episode later in the season.
Mike (sports fan AND sci-fi fan, as are many of my friends In Real Life)