Sci-Fi Shows Set to Dominate Fox's Fall Lineup

[Mistwell]

How many last more than one season?

How many last the whole season?

How many last more than a month?

Anyway, I have to say they all sound pretty unoriginal.

Virtuality - someone was either watching the BTL episode of Red Dwarf, or the Holodeck episodes of ST:TNG. Frankly, the holodeck was the worst part of that show, I can't imagine it lasting very long.

Fringe - Besides the ones like the X-files and Supernatural and Kolchak, you had Special Unit 2 (where it was a special police unit) and things like Poltergeist the Legacy and Psi-Factor, where it was a private organization. And then Sci-Fi had one I kinda liked where it was a tabloid (that ended on a cliffhanger, too)

Dollhouse - Alias, Le Femme Nikita with a dash of Bionic woman.

Boldly Going Nowhere - A bit more orignal, but considering how long Quark and Homeboys from Outer Space lasted, I bet this will be the first dropped. You could compare it to Red Dwarf, but that wasn't really campy (like Quark or Homeboys)

I bet if you tried hard, you could be even more negative and cynical.

 

[Elf Witch]

Why berate these shows for lack of originality? I mean, BSG was popular with a lot of folks, and it was a remake of a TV show that was a knock-off a movie. Very ambitious things can come out of seemingly unoriginal premises.

Just have to nit pick here the orgininal BSG was not a knock off of a movie. It was a made for TV movie/pilot. It was then recut from its pilot running time and released in movie theatres after it was shown on TV.

As for SF shows on Fox it is a fan thing to blame Fox but if you look at the ratings most of the shows Fox canned had low ratings.

I think part of this is that for years Fox kept hoping that they would recreate on Friday nights what they had with X- Files and never did.

The Firefly fiasco was part of Whedon fault he hid from Fox what he was doing they wanted a traditional space show not a space show ala western.

I do think they made a huge mistake Firefly was a great show and like all Whedom shows was strong on character development but not giving everyrhing to the audience right away.

SF shows have often had a hard time finding a following on network I have to wonder if Fox was not new if X-Files would have lasted past a first season.

 

[Sir Brennen]

Just have to nit pick here the orgininal BSG was not a knock off of a movie. It was a made for TV movie/pilot. It was then recut from its pilot running time and released in movie theatres after it was shown on TV.

Too further nitpick... Star Wars was the movie the original BSG was often viewed as being a knock-off of.

 

[Elf Witch]

Too further nitpick... Star Wars was the movie the original BSG was often viewed as being a knock-off of.

20 Century Fox felt the same way and sued Universal.

I never saw it. The special effects were similiar but then several people who worked on Star Wars worked on BSG as well.

But the stories are very different. One is an intergalatic empire the other a human empire with twelve colonies.

One was about over throwing an evil empire and the other about what happens when the good guys lose and are on the run.

The cyclons are robots the strom troppers are wearing body armor.

They both had carrier type ships with smaller fighter type ships ala aircaraft carriers.

I don't doubt that BSG got made because of Star Wars but saying it is a rip off is saying that Babylon 5 is a rip off of DS9 are vice versa because they both take place on space stations.

 

[BadMojo]

As for SF shows on Fox it is a fan thing to blame Fox but if you look at the ratings most of the shows Fox canned had low ratings.

Fox moved Firefly around so many times they made it almost impossible to figure out when it was on. I liked the show and it was moved and preempted so many times that I had to check the listings each week to see when (and if) it was on.

It almost seemed like they were trying to kill the show. Corporate politics being what they are (in any industry) I wouldn't be shocked if new upper management came in and tried to make their shows look better by tanking ones championed by predecessors.

 

[Elf Witch]

Fox moved Firefly around so many times they made it almost impossible to figure out when it was on. I liked the show and it was moved and preempted so many times that I had to check the listings each week to see when (and if) it was on.

It almost seemed like they were trying to kill the show. Corporate politics being what they are (in any industry) I wouldn't be shocked if new upper management came in and tried to make their shows look better by tanking ones championed by predecessors.

Yes they did because they were not happy with the show Joss Whedon delievered to them. There was no doubt that they killed that show.

But other shows were given a chance a take the Lone Gunmen is was giving a spot behind X-files but could not find an audience.

And yes it is common practice for new management to want to see favorite shows of old management go if they are not hige rating sucessess.

Don't get me wrong I love SF TV shows but I do think that a lot of fans don't realize that one of the big reasons Sf shows get canned is because sometimes they don't bring in the ratings.

B5 fans love to trash TNT for Crusades but there was a reason why TNT cut ties with JMS one was he was hard to work with but more importantly they found out that while B5 brought in ratings those people who watched did not stick around to watch other TNT shows. And the core TNT viewers did not watch B5 so the show was not bringing in new viewers to the network who were sticking around.