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Well, I don’t actually know this for certain, but lets look at the facts:
- Shows with much poorer ratings have stayed alive
- Wheddon has not yet leant his name to any attempts (on-line or off-line) to drum up support to save the show
- The pilot still hasn’t aired yet!
- There are no rumours from Fox or Mutant Enemy that the show will be cancelled
- Only the critics have posted comments that the show may be cancelled
- Wheddon is notorious for starting his story arc’s late
- Most sci fi geeks didn’t get into Buffy and Angel until they were WAY into the first seasons
- Most of the people are very confident about the show – there is no dissent from the production teams
- Nobody from FOX or Mutant Enemy have felt the need to join us in helping to save the show
- Even the most critical fans (like me for instance) have to concede that the series hasn’t had much of a chance to get really, REALLY interesting yet
Most cult TV Sci FI shows (with the exception of LEXX) start poorly while they develop story, arc and characters. I’m just reviewing the first season of Babylon 5 and was appalled at how bad (compared with the later shows) the first episodes were.
I don’t think we should refrain from promoting the show or drumming up viewer ratings on our websites, but I can’t help feeling less concerned about FOX axing the show that I was a few weeks ago.
Good points all, and I sure hope you’re right. Firefly has already proved to me that Whedon hasn’t lost his touch. This show has the potential to be great.
ANd to top it all, the Ariel episode was completely, whoppingly excellent!
Nobody in their right mind would cancel this just as it’s starting to get all tense and interesting!
quote:
Originally posted by SadGeezer:
ANd to top it all, the Ariel episode was completely, whoppingly excellent!Nobody in their right mind would cancel this just as it’s starting to get all tense and interesting!
I so agree. Ariel was fantastic! I kept thinking that Fox would be some-fairly-bad-words if they cancelled it now. It’s just getting really interesting.
The theme song is so growing on me that it tortures me every Saturday morning as it runs lightly and laughingly through my brain. Get it out, get it out!
[ 18-11-2002: Message edited by: Praxilla ]
Yeah, the only source of rumors is SyFy Portal, and it seems to me to be a big publicity grab for them.
I have it on semi-good authority that, while Firefly is pre-empted the next couple of weeks for November sweeps movies, we shouldn’t worry. I hope they know what they’re talking about. The ratings for Ariel apparently held.
http://tv.zap2it.com/news/tvnewsdaily.html?28977
quote:
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) – A source close to Mutant Enemy, the production company for FOX’s struggling Friday-night science-fiction drama “Firefly,” reports that the network has ordered two more episodes produced, keeping the series before the cameras through December.
The new episodes come from six scripts previously ordered, over and above the original order of 13 episodes.
More good news:
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/art-main.html?2002-11/21/13.00.tvquote:
Joss Whedon, creator of Fox’s new SF series Firefly, told SCI FI Wire that the network is giving the show another chance to attract viewers with its recent order of two more episodes. Early in the show’s first year, “we just couldn’t have been more boned by baseball and clearly in the death [time] slot and not promoted very heavily and, you know, the show taking time to find itself, as shows do,” Whedon said in an interview during a break in the filming of “Objects in Space,” the show’s 11th episode, which Whedon wrote and is directing this week.
Whedon added, “The only question is whether they’re given that time. And now Fox is getting a good response to the episodes we’re putting out, and so they’re looking to see, well, if they do give us a bit of a push, can we build some and get a base that’s big enough for them to justify keeping us around. So … we all feel like we’re on Serenity. We’re looking ahead to that next job. We’re still flying. The future’s uncertain, but we’re still flying.”
Arg,
I hope this show doesn’t vanish before I get to check it out—I am going to watch it
on this friday for the first time.Thanks for the tip, I am always looking for new scifi
Many mothers say: If you dont have anything nice to say dont say it!!
So I havent hehe. But now its a moot point so maybe I can get a few things off my chest to my friends here =)
1) THIS SHOW HURTS REAL SCI-FI!
This is not Sci-Fi. Its another Josh Wheaton production that blurs the 90210 genre with Sci-Fi lite. Sure I love Buffy too, its an entertaining show, but its a soap opera that just happens to take place around demons. The Glory arc was its finest moment when it finally took a break from that 90210 setting and got down to hardcore lore and fiction. Then they immediatly returned to the teen-drama in the next season.
But I digress. Shows like “Firefly” actually hurt the Sci-Fi community. Rather than use this opportunity to stuff good science fiction down the throats of viewers that are on the fence; once again they cop out and go with the soap opera. After watching the first 3 episodes I was furious. Once again these ‘on the fence’ viewers which make up probably 80-90% of the audience are treated to Sci-Fi lite and are not impressed. Most people with no Sci-fi experience think this is what its supposed to be like!!! I blame shows like this for that.
Lets not put all the blame on Mr. Wheaton, apparantly he tried going the hardcore route only to have FOX reject it. But why? If a show is going to get cancelled in its first year regardless(as every single magazine and critic predicted) why not use the opportunity to give viewers new to Science fiction a real taste of it? Instead they dish out the snappy reparte’ and psuedo relationships built upon fluff.
2) Be Original!
Firefly was neither original nor did it create anything.
Lexx was in the same boat as Firefly. Both were a “Star Trek” but Donovan and company decided to REALLY think about making an impact on the genre. So they went the Insect route, giving fans the impression that FTL travel and advanced technology required the hybridization of human and insect technology. They also made us realize the future of human nature isnt something set in stone. Those that lived under the rule of HDS knew nothing of religion, politics, life outside the propaganda. This tiny little tidbit in IWHS set the stage for the entire series.
Firefly had the same opportunities, but they gave in and catered to the networks and popular opinion. Too many creators today would rather have a crappy version of their show go on the air than a visionary one get passed upon. And it just plain sucks. Id rather see a real version of Firefly on public access with ****ty special effects than what they showed on FOX.
Just my thoughts Ive wanted to get off my chest for several months now, but I didnt want to be seen as a contributer to the demise =( When its all said and done its better to have some Sci-Fi on tv than none at all.
One of the biggest problems with fandom is elitism. Especially science-fiction fandom, as everyone seems to have their own idea what constitutes real science fiction. About the only two bits of “science fiction” to be commercially successful in the mainstream are Star Wars and Star Trek, in their various incarnations. Firefly can’t do any more harm than that.
It was an enjoyable show, far far better than most of the stuff on the air, in my opinion. Originality and “real science fiction” are poor arguments.
Oh, and if you’re going to bash a show, at least get the creator’s name right. Joss Whedon. Wheaton was the guy who played Wesley on ST:TNG.
[ 16-12-2002: Message edited by: stormsweeper ]
Hehe
LexxLurker yer a dude! But you aren’t going to get much sympathy from a forum dedicated to the show you are bashing
I take on board much of what you are trying to say but I can’t really accept it. I’ve had a lot of critisism for the show since it started, but at the time of axing it was one of the few shows that I was beginning to look forward to.
I can’t say that Firefly was innovative ()at least in the same way as Buffy) but it was watchable and I don’t tink it did sci fi any harm.
I’ve watch other threads on this board talk about how sci fi is still seen as geeky and unfashonable, Firefly will help alleviate that a little and introduce the genra to other folk who wouldn’t bother to check it out.
BUT. There are desperately few HARD sci fi shows on TV, mind-blowing stuff is terribly hard to come by (even Stratzinsky has taken to showing boobs and blood in the hope of making his new show more watchable (Jerimiah)).
If Wheddon was trying to make a hard sci fi show then he failed, but he certainly made a sci fi show – and a pretty good one at that!
I for one am hoping that another TV station picks it up!
I don’t know what does or doesn’t constitute “real” science fiction — seems like an oxymoron to me — but I know what attracts me to a TV show or movie, whether it’s scifi, fantasy, mainstream drama, whatever, are the story and the characters who tell the story. If all you want is technobabble and special effects, you might as well go watch the Discovery Channel so you won’t be bothered by all that human drama.
Science fiction is speculative, sure. What if we could travel from planet to planet at FTL speeds? What if there were alien civilizations? What if we had a society where everything was turned on its head? All that is fun. But what if there’s no real story? What if there are no people in the story to care about? Boring, pretty quick.
One of the most powerful scenes I’ve seen on TV in a long, long time is when Mal locked Jayne in the airlock and opened the outer hatch as the ship was taking off. Instead of begging for his life like the lowlife scum he had been, he just asked Mal not to tell the others about his betrayal. That was Firefly’s potential, all the way. I’m extremely disappointed that Fox canceled it (and for a piece of “reality” trash called Joe Shmuck — oh, sorry — Joe Millionaire).
If anybody is interested in saving Firefly, the official site has all kinds of campaigns going to get it moved to another network.
http://www.fox.com/firefly/%5B/url%5D[ 18-12-2002: Message edited by: Lucygoosey ]
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