Firefly

[Felon]

To be fair to Fox, they tried a LOT of sci-fi on their network, usually on Fridays. Out of that came X-Files, Millenium, Sliders and Firefly with multi-year runs, plus shows that presaged nBSG and Chuck that would come a decade later.

Sure, they managed to screw a lot if stuff up, unlike a lot of pre-Sci-Fi network broadcasters, Fox put a TON of sci-fi in their lineup.

True, and they did the world a favor and made sure Kindred: the Embraced DIDN"T run a full season.

Also, good observation about Chuck. Among the many other flaws that make it an awful TV show, it's a rip-off of Jake 2.0. Excellent point.

Seriously, though. When the Firefly cast were at DragonCon promoting Serenity, Adam Baldwin actually spoke up for Fox when the fans started booing and pointed out that they didn't have to bother with the DVD's or the movie.

 

[John Crichton]

I've always been perplexed how Whedon could have thought that titling a movie "Serenity" would produce a marketable action movie. Kind of foolish to just assume audiences would pick up on the irony. And the Fox execs didn't even pressure him into changing it. Weird.

When it really comes down to it, Serenity wasn't made to be a big-time action movie. It was primarily made for fans of the show and peripherally for everyone else.

There were a few sci-fi shows with (short) multi-year runs, like Harsh Realms.

Pretty sure HR didn't have a multi-year run. A few unaired eps creeped out after cancellation which happened to air in the spring not fall, IIRC. I really liked that show.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Yeah, right about HR- I just went and looked up FOX's past aired shows

 

[John Crichton]

Yeah, right about HR- I just went and looked up FOX's past aired shows

You actually got me excited for a moment cuz I thought I may have missed something!

 

[Felon]

When it really comes down to it, Serenity wasn't made to be a big-time action movie. It was primarily made for fans of the show and peripherally for everyone else.

That's a charming notion: $40 million was spent on a big hug to all of the loyal fans of a show cancelled mid-season. But, when you get right down to it, entertainment is a business. If mainstream success was not a primary consideration--well, that's what direct-to-DVD is for.

 

[Janx]

Per some other source, Kindred got canceled because the principal actor died in an accident. I only saw a few episodes, it looked alright for one of the only vampire shows on at the time. It was basically a V:tM clone, which I would have thought those fans would have loved.

While it's true that Fox has given a number of sci-fi shows a chance (a half-season), many get the axe. It's really a shame that Sci-Fi channel isn't getting these shows, since it's the SciFi channel (ignoring that SciFi is NBC/Universal affiliated).

I suspect Whedon called the movie Serenity, to avoid licensing issues with the name Firefly. Unlike Buffy, where he had to put his film partners in as executive producers and give them a cut, because they had some rights in the licensing.

 

[Crothian]

Per some other source, Kindred got canceled because the principal actor died in an accident. I only saw a few episodes, it looked alright for one of the only vampire shows on at the time. It was basically a V:tM clone, which I would have thought those fans would have loved.

It was based on VtM. It had the clans and everything. Not a great show though and I was not surprised it got canned quickly.

 

[LightPhoenix]

While it's true that Fox has given a number of sci-fi shows a chance (a half-season), many get the axe. It's really a shame that Sci-Fi channel isn't getting these shows, since it's the SciFi channel (ignoring that SciFi is NBC/Universal affiliated).

Well, it's Syfy now...

I don't think it's so simple that Syfy (via NBCU) can simply grab shows that were canceled. For one thing, for shows on another network like Fox, the network retains the rights to those shows. Those rights can be sold, but in practice that rarely happens. Another thing is that many sci-fi shows are expensive. The big networks can afford that, but a small timer like Syfy can't. A big (but IMO not the only) reason Farscape was canceled was how much it cost to make, versus how much it was bringing in advertising revenue.

One thing I would have loved to see Syfy do was grab rights to show older sci-fi shows out of general syndication. Except the problem with that is again cost versus revenue. Anything that is going to have a good ratio is snapped up by bigger networks (see Star Trek). Anything that has a poor ratio is going to lose the network money. So it doesn't work as neatly as one might think.

Of course, Syfy has plenty of old shows. They could replay some of their old shows (GvE, I miss you so). Cost is non-zero (royalties, etc), but relatively low. However, revenue from them isn't that great either, hence cancellation.. Plus, suppose one of them takes off? Well, too bad, most of the sets are stuck and actors moved on, so it'd be difficult to leverage into something profitable.

Still, it's nice to dream that NBCU would throw it's clout around. Except, right now, they don't have much clout at all.

Still, it's nice to dream.

 

[John Crichton]

That's a charming notion: $40 million was spent on a big hug to all of the loyal fans of a show cancelled mid-season. But, when you get right down to it, entertainment is a business. If mainstream success was not a primary consideration--well, that's what direct-to-DVD is for.

Considering that the fans of the show (read: massive DVD sales) are what got the movie made, it's more truth than fiction. The bottom line is that it wasn't made for mainstream audiences. The title is a great example of that. There was a monetary consideration: everyone who bought the series would buy the movie plus whatever it brought in at the box office. And that's what happened. Fox/Universal made money off Serenity. Not much, but they did.

 

[Orius]

As an aside, anyone who watched Andromeda may want to read RHW's Coda and related discussion - it basically outlines what RHW was going to do with the series, and then he goes an answers questions about it.

Now that sounds very interesting, and a bit subversive. Better than the junk the show unfortunately morphed into. Big problem is there's a lot about the show that I forgot, so some of the references I don't quite understand.

For all that Fox catches a lot of flak, they really did have a good track record as far as giving sci-fi shows a chance to at least see air when the big three wouldn't even touch them. Not to mention something like Fringe, which is still on Fox and in its third season.

The biggest problem is ratings. The networks have gotten more and more impatient with ratings over the years as cable, videotapes/DVDs, video games, the web and so forth have slowly taken more and more bites out of the audience. They expect a show to become a huge hit and axe it when it doesn't even if it pulls in some decent ratings. That hurts sci-fi even more since it gets lower ratings due to the mundanes often not connecting with it, and it's more expensive as well.