Firefly and Fox, what the hell?

[brodie21]

Ok, so i have a question. I have seen firefly, and i have seen the movie, Serenity. They are very good. i was just wondering why Fox cancelled the show, and why they continue to not bring it back. and i also wonder why they screened the episodes out of order. it just doesnt make sense. now that lost is gone wont they be looking for a new tv series to hopefully attract a following? why not give firefly another shot? it already has an audience. or even sell it to another channel, mabye SyFy (i think that that is what the Science Fiction channel calls itself nowadays)

Questions?

Comments?

Limericks?

 

[NJ]

FOX also canned Titus for a lousy ass reason, I wouldn't be surprised if the reason for flushing it down the crapper was "Legal disagreement on coffee breaks; Biscuits or Oreos"...

 

[Dags90]

Ratings, high production costs.
Original actors have moved on and are probably contracted.
Fox already has Fringe as its big budget arc drama.

 

[Rino Rando]

Fox does a lot of really stupid stuff.

Like getting rid of Arrested Development.

 

[manythings]

Well the way I understand it Joss Whedon killed Wash to as a definative "No, the show is never coming back" but then again I don't know that for sure... I think it was part of the directors commentary on Serenity or the series.

Futurama was also cancelled despite being great, family guy was cancelled and brought back what must be 15 times at this point, Jericho was cancelled and brought back, God know what else. My point being Corporate thinking just does this sometimes.

 

[vivadelkitty]

There once were some people at FOX,
Who decided to be massive c**ks,
With a space opera pulled,
And potential fans culled,
They were found in a sack by the docks.

 

[elricik]

FOX also canned Titus for a lousy ass reason, I wouldn't be surprised if the reason for flushing it down the crapper was "Legal disagreement on coffee breaks; Biscuits or Oreos"...

I could actually see this happening in a fox office. (Oreos ftw!)

 

[Haagrum]

Dags90 has it summed up, more or less.

Just be glad that it never got old or boring and that we even got Serenity, then mark it down as another reason for FOX executives to be among the first against the wall when the revolution comes.

 

[NJ]

FOX also canned Titus for a lousy ass reason, I wouldn't be surprised if the reason for flushing it down the crapper was "Legal disagreement on coffee breaks; Biscuits or Oreos"...

I could actually see this happening in a fox office. (Oreos ftw!)

Goddamn you and your Oreos, our legal agreement clearly stated sugar biscuits with every coffee break on set.

You'll hear from our lawyer soon!

 

[unoleian]

Fox does a lot of really stupid stuff.

Like getting rid of Arrested Development.

This, pretty much. Fox is notoriously good at canning good shows well before their time and milking shows that lost their humor long ago for seventeen extra seasons...

 

[cerebus23]

Firefly did not do well in the ratings i recall, it had a small core of rabid fans that grew over the years.

For as much as they claimed that they shopped show around for new partners after fox canned it, i find it hard to see how scifi channel would not pick up that series unless joss and crew were looking for some hefty bucks.

About the time firefly was on farscape was coming to an end, firefly would have been a good pick up for them, because the one thing scfi had going for it up until bsg was farscape. not like they were awash in hits back then.

Fox never gave the show a chance if it had the run of say dollhouse, which was a fairly mediocre series with bad ratings that got extended play, if firefly had been given the same chance it could have been a decent hit given some time to build momentum, since it was a much more interesting show with great characters and a few outstanding stories under it's belt even with one season to it's credit. Did not help matters much that fox aired the series out of order.

 

[Avaholic03]

Have you seen the start of the Futurama "Bender's Big Score"? That pretty much covers it.

 

[Kapol]

Fox is full of idiots. The ratings were horribly because they aired the episodes out of order (can't remember how wrong it was, but I suggest googling it. I know they aired the first episode last) and had no advertising. As for why not renew it, I think it's because Fox is full of idiots, and the cast likely have changed enough where it would be weird to see. I doubt it'd because of Whedon.

 

[Luftwaffles]

Remember Futurama???? yeah....fox are big dicks like that. Serenity was flipping cool. Word on the street is that more Futurama is coming soon too. A big bird to fox

 

[elricik]

FOX also canned Titus for a lousy ass reason, I wouldn't be surprised if the reason for flushing it down the crapper was "Legal disagreement on coffee breaks; Biscuits or Oreos"...

I could actually see this happening in a fox office. (Oreos ftw!)

Goddamn you and your Oreos, our legal agreement clearly stated sugar biscuits with every coffee break on set.

You'll hear from our lawyer soon!

And thats the story of how Firefly was cancelled.

 

[Irridium]

They canceled it because it got low ratings.

It got low ratings because FOX decided to completely fuck up the time slots of the show. And blamed that for the show's low ratings instead of their own incompetence.

Same thing happened to Futurama, until Adult Swim picked it up and showed it every weekday at a normal time slot. And big surprise, give a good show a good time slot it gets lots of ratings, which warranted Comedy Central to pick up the show and then later commission a new season.

Point is, FOX is full of idiots and morons. Plus its a business, and apparently common sense doesn't exist in business.

 

[pigeon_of_doom]

Well the way I understand it Joss Whedon killed Wash to as a definative "No, the show is never coming back" but then again I don't know that for sure... I think it was part of the directors commentary on Serenity or the series.

I thought he'd mentioned that he was willing to make it non-canon in the event of the show being brought back? That may have been his attitude towards the Buffy comics though.

Anyway, I believe it's always been popular with a niche group, until recently, but the niche group didn't translate into good ratings or sales.

The strength of the dvd sales led to the production of a feature film, sales were very good.

Anyway, much as it pains me to say it, Firefly isn't coming back on tv. It's been eight years, no way can they get the original cast and support together for that. Anyway, Whedon has other projects for the near to mid term and has said that after Dollhouse he would be focusing on internet distributed stuff (although Dr Horrible 2, which is meant to be in production now, is suggested to be a traditionally distributed feature film). So it looks like the comics continuation is the best Firefly fans will get.

Also, to mention another show cut down by Fox's insane desire for ratings, Arrested Development is apparently getting a movie! Nothing too concrete yet though.