Firefly: A latecomer wonders what Fox was smoking

[Orius]

Oh, I get why it was cancelled. I just don't get why Fox seemed to shoot the show in the foot right from the start. It's one thing to give a show every possible chance. It's quite another to drop it in a deadzone time slot, butcher the continuity (could you imagine a season of Buffy or Angel being shown out of order?), and dump it unceremoniously without even finishing out the run of episodes that they probably ponied up quite a sum of money to make.

It's quite simple. Network executives are idiots, and often idiots who don't get sci-fi to begin with. The X-files is one of the only sci-fi show I can think of off the top of my head that really had any success on network tv, and I always thought that show was lame as hell. The other one is Quantum Leap.

 

[Orius]

Why Fox couldn't at least commit to a full season, give it a chance to fully develop and find an audience -- who knows.

Because networks have far too much competition these days to be patient. For them a show has to be a smash hit on like the first few weeks, or it gets pulled by November sweeps. It is stupid thinking though, because some shows do need time to build up a fan base, something you can't expect in about 5 weeks or so.

 

[Orius]

And FOX showed the show out of order too!

Friday is just a bad night but FOX could have also put in on in the off season, had better ratings and built a following.

True, they could have made it a summer show (some good shows have been on during the summer mothns when everything is repeats, and some good shows even get picked up for regular time slots), or put it on in like January to replace a show the got dumped from the beginning of the season.

Ah, well it's not like I care much. I never saw the show, don't really care about it either. I've pretty much given up on good television anyway, I've been burned by retarded network execs too many times already.

 

[Orius]

Incidentally, for more fun, watch the Firefly pilot next to the Star Trek: Next Generation one. Firefly does a much better job of showing us how the characters feel but manages to reveal less about them, so their backgrounds and motivations are slowly revealed to us. Compare that to, say, Geordi LaForge's character development or even Riker's.

But TNG was Star Trek, and thus already had a huge ready-made audience.

 

[John Crichton]

It's really a shame that the show ended up on Fox. Were it on FX, UPN, WB or Sci-Fi it probably would have at least gotten a full season. In the case of FX, the 13 eps would have been a full season.

 

[Teflon Billy]

...I've liked Nathan Fillon since his Two Guys and a Girl days...

THAT'S WHO THAT GUY IS!

Thank God! I knew I knew him from somewhere!

 

[Viking Bastard]

Yeah, he played Johnny, Sharon's love interest.

He was also in Saving Private Ryan.

 

[Ranger REG]

Nathan? He was on a daytime soap opera, One Life to Live.

Many good stars got their starts on soap, from Demi Moore to Meg Ryan.

 

[John Crichton]

THAT'S WHO THAT GUY IS!

Thank God! I knew I knew him from somewhere!

Yeah, it was really odd to see him be such a badass when all I knew him from was a sitcom.

On a similar note, I can't wait to see how Ryan Reynolds is in Blade: Trinity. Silly, frat-boy comic actor in an action flick...

 

[Klaus]

... River's feet (the actress is a ballet dancer whose feet express great character ) ...

BTW, Summer Glau (who plays River) played the cursed ballet dancer in an episode of Angel.