Firefly
- Thread starter Mike Olbinski
- Start date
Stout
Hold onto the ball, Murray!
Jayne just might have to be my favorite character. Trying to trade his best gun for the girl, and the whole Jaynestown episode...great stuff.
Cardinals.Ken
That's Mr. Riff-Raff to you!
Stout
Hold onto the ball, Murray!
Stout
Hold onto the ball, Murray!
Curse your stunning yet inevitable betrayal!
My favorite episode was "Shindig." I loved Kaylee in that one. Her being at that fancy ball and talking about "guy stuff" was such a great moment. I just have a thing for girls that aren't all prissy.
Stout
Hold onto the ball, Murray!
Agreed completely. In fact, I cannot stand girls that are all, or even mostly, prissy. Give me a real woman that likes what I do, and I'm a happy camper.
arthurracoon
The Cardinal Smiles
Just finished the show - loved it
Now Im gonna have to go back and re-watch the movie
Sad its over though
Now Im gonna have to go back and re-watch the movie
Sad its over though
ActingWild
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Yeah, it's a bitter sweet experience. You discover such an amazing show, only to realize that you discovered it too late to save it. The way Fox absolutely mishandled this show is one of the biggest network blunders that I can think of.
arthurracoon
The Cardinal Smiles
The only other show where I care about the characters is The Office
AMEN. FOX has mishandled a ton of shows. When Fox first came out they took all sorts of chances on TV shows and let them grow. Now Fox has had the fast hook on so many shows I can't keep count.
Maybe their recent full season order for Terminator: Sarah Conner Chronicles is signal of change back to the way the network used to be?
If so, that makes you sort of wonder what could have been if Firefly was to come out now.
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Chaz
observationist
Knight Rider is NBC not FOX
DOH! Your Right still applies though to TSCC. Fixed my post.
Chaplin
Better off silent
Firefly's problem was not that the show was any good. It just didn't get the ratings. Especially for a major network like Fox. It went on hiatus after the first 3 or 4 eps, and when it came back, it had some major competition in the mini-series hybrid Taken, which was Spielberg produced. Ratings and bad timing led to Firefly's demise. I love the show myself, but I never watched it on-air, I only discovered it on video, like many of the millions that love it now.
Agreed. They also didn't market the show very well. I know people who stumbled on the show while it was on air but had not heard about it until it was too late. I think it was a general mishandling of the show. They could have tried a different time slot or moved it around.
I just think FOX got into this quick hook mode and never looked back. Maybe they are changing a bit?
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Wasn't Firefly air on Fridays? That was so long ago.
Correct. Like Chap mentioned they preempted the show 3 times. Once 2 weeks in a row. All of this while trying to introduce a new show and grab an audience. Terrible marketing for the show leading up to the premier didn't help. Last minute changes demanded by Fox (showing episodes out of order, demanding pan & scan versus wide screen etc., writing a new pilot) all contributed. Also, the show cost about 2 million per episode to make and FOX was unwilling to make anymore of a commitment to the show financially.
Now add not so good ratings on top of how the show was handled (which led to the bad ratings IMO) and I would say that would spell DOOM for any new show out of the gate.
There was a story out there about the Fox execs who initially green lit the project were eventually replaced. In an apparent internal struggle about programming Firefly became one of the shows caught in the middle of internal fighting about programming. Either way it led to a quick hook of the show.
Just wish Firefly had been picked up by Sci-fi. However, I believe at the time Sci-Fi was up to their ears in their budget with Stargate and BSG.
Will there every be a chance at a re-launch or a new movie?
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Its hard to see Firefly getting another big screen movie soon, considering its box office haul came just short of the film's budget (which doesn't include its costs of promotion). Given the genre's loyal fanbase, maybe the SciFi channel will give a tv movie a try or something.
Agreed. SG1 is proving that making a straight to DVD movie can be very successful. I see no reason why they could not do the same with Firefly. I doubt it ever sees the big screen again though.
The Stargate franchise operates on a much smaller budget. They write their entire season with the budget in mind, so there's always three or four episodes intentionally written minus special effects (or perhaps shots that can be re-used).
Ironically, Firefly was never a big effects show, and the shots it had were almost comically sparse -- but effective for the show. The most expensive shots were location scenes with lots of horses, traditional gun battles, etc. When they were on the ship in space, those were the cheap scenes!
SG1 is also shot in Vancouver. Firefly ... in vastly more expensive southern California. X-Files NEVER would have been successful if it had started ops in LA. It only moved there after it had become a phenomenon, and the move to LA (in addition to silly ego battles with Carter, Duchovny, and Anderson) is Reason No. 1 the show went south.
Bottom line, I think, is Wheadon's heart really isn't into it. It's a battle he's already conceded and moved on (to Dollhouse). The only thing keeping this alive are the fans who discovered the series on DVDs and feel a bit betrayed they never had a shot to support it when it was on TV.
Ironically, Firefly was never a big effects show, and the shots it had were almost comically sparse -- but effective for the show. The most expensive shots were location scenes with lots of horses, traditional gun battles, etc. When they were on the ship in space, those were the cheap scenes!
SG1 is also shot in Vancouver. Firefly ... in vastly more expensive southern California. X-Files NEVER would have been successful if it had started ops in LA. It only moved there after it had become a phenomenon, and the move to LA (in addition to silly ego battles with Carter, Duchovny, and Anderson) is Reason No. 1 the show went south.
Bottom line, I think, is Wheadon's heart really isn't into it. It's a battle he's already conceded and moved on (to Dollhouse). The only thing keeping this alive are the fans who discovered the series on DVDs and feel a bit betrayed they never had a shot to support it when it was on TV.
Stout
Hold onto the ball, Murray!
Yeah, BSG had that problem in the third season (I think it was). They kept on making 'slice of life' episodes within the fleet and it was really killing the season. I suspect its because they didn't want to spend the loot for the special effects.
ActingWild
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That sums up my sentiments on Firefly perfectly. Betrayed. If Fox had handled it like any other show, I would have been a big supporter but as it is, I never found out about it until I rented Serenity. Loved the movie so much that I watched the special features, found out about Firefly and immediately ran out and purchased the DVD's.
I've shown Firefly to so many people and other than ONE exception (a guy who just had a new born and was staring a business, so he had little time on his hands), everyone has purchased it for themselves and told others about it.
So, given that, "Betrayed" that I didn't get a chance to support it when it was on the air is exactly my sentiments.
