Don't F*** With River! [Firefly]

[takyris]

Except that this isn't entirely accurate. See, at the peak of its half-season run (assuming half a season can be said to have a peak), Firefly was pulling in more viewers per episode than the concurrent seasons of Buffy or Angel.

I might be mixing up my Farscape/Firefly cancellation information, but didn't Firefly cost a whole lot more than Buffy or Angel ever did per episode?

Regardless, yeah -- a new show on Fox is, generally speaking, going to have higher ratings than a new show, or even a continuing show, on UPN or WB. That's just a matter of being one of the big four. I'm sure that Firefly also did better than a rerun of Alien Resurrection on TBS airing at the same time, but that doesn't make Firefly a success.

The problem isn't that Firefly wasn't a success. The problem is that Firefly wasn't a success by Fox's standards. If the show had been on UPN or WB, we'd probably still be watching it.

I agree with everything but the first sentence of this quote completely. I think that the first-sentence is a non-statement. You can judge "success" in a whole lot of ways, but the only one that's going to keep you on a network is whether or not you're a success by the standards of that network.

 

[Ranger REG]

Yep, it's that damn stoopid network "suits," who at the moment cannot make up their collective brain cells as to what kind of format (i.e., identity) the FOX network embrace. Right now, they're leaning toward reality show programming.

[image placeholder: the "to hell and back" rolleye]

 

[Lazybones]

I've recently gotten involved in playing Firefly online via a total conversion of Neverwinter Nights, done by Forrestwolf using the material in the d20 Modern NWN Project. It's pretty darned cool, the ship is completely mapped out (within the limitations of the NWN tile-based system), and there's a Player's Guide that includes, among other things, a guide to Chinese cursing...

http://nwvault.ign.com/Files/modules/data/1080769905000.shtml

I was a latecomer to the series, having just bought and watched the entire show on DVD about a month ago. I agree that HBO would be a GREAT home for the show, as my wife and I regularly rent and/or buy several HBO series (Sopranos, SITS, Six Feet Under) on DVD, even though we don't have cable.

 

[Aulayan]

To be fair to FOX, 2.5 million viewers for a show that costed 2 mil an episode...Not worth it.

To put the blame back on FOX, they did market it horribly wrong (They marketed it as camp), and they aired the episodes horrendously out of order. But then again, they do that kind of thing. (Undeclared, marketed wrong and shown out of order. Andy Richter, marketed right but shown out of order. Yes, these were both sitcoms, but it was actually noticable).

 

[LightPhoenix]

Oof, at 2 million an episode, it's no bloody wonder Fox dumped the show. That's a HUGE amount of money for a show to cost. I'd honestly be very surprised if the show got picked up by anyone after the movie if the budget is still that high. You won't see many networks jumping at that...

But Firefly does indeed rock on toast.

Anyone have numbers on how much was made on DVD sales alone?

 

[Ranger REG]

To be fair to FOX,...

Screw FOX. If they want cheap entertainment, let them continue dishing out reality shows. That should get them out of the genre format.

 

[John Crichton]

I don't believe it was 2 mil per ep. That was the cost of the pilot if I'm not mistaken.

 

[Aulayan]

It probably was the cost of the pilot, but it was the only figure I had to go on. I remembered it being bandied about after Firefly was cancelled, and I don't read too many unsubstantiated sites.

Needless to say, though, even if it was only the pilot...they had some bloody expensive episodes. And the Nielsen viewership was low.

 

[Inebriated Alhoun]

The last few posts seem to be pretty close to what I'm thinking. Someone also mentioned FOX going towards reality shows. when you realize that the cost of "reality programming"(I prefer unscripted television)is much cheaper than shows that require say actors or some such, you realize they don't need to pull in that many viewers to make a solid profit.

 

[ShadowX]

Good grief, some of you are belligerent. You need to step back and look at this objectively. Fox is trying to make money, they would not engage in some conspiracy to pull Firefly off the air after investing millions of dollars in it. While they did make some mistakes, network TV is facing competition now. Marginal ratings are not good enough when they can spend $5 and throw another reality show on and pull the same. Even with the enhanced awareness of Firefly from the DVD release, I wonder if it could pull large enough ratings for its giant budget.