Fox To Public: We Screwed Up Firefly

POSTED BY: BrownCoat
UPDATED: Monday, February 3, 2003 02:48
VIEWED: 22022
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KIRINAN

Wednesday, January 22, 2003 1:28 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Ruxton:
In my middle-aged cynicism I had strong suspicions (and voiced them to personal friends) there was a female executive behind the screwing (yes, rutting) of Mr. Whedon's latest masterwork. Now I have had my ignorant eyes opened, and learn there are no fewer than two involved: Gail Berman and Sandy Grushow. I have nothing against competent women, but suspect these two are less than competent.

Actually, from everything I've read, Sandy Grushow is a man. So I guess incompetence knows no gender. Especially when it comes to network execs.

HKCAVALIER

Wednesday, January 22, 2003 2:05 AM

That there was something personal and unprofessional at the bottom of Firefly's cancelation is entirely possible, but I have to say, Ruxton's war of the sexes interpretation struck me as pretty out of line. So he's had some bad luck with some executives that happened to be women and there are two women executives involved in the decision process that led to the cancelation of Firefly. Not exactly a representative sampling of female executives, is it?

For the record, I know only three other humans who know of Firefly at all and they all love it and they are all women. And they are all, along with a large contigent on this and other boards, in love with man's man numero uno, Mal Reynolds.

I'm glad that FOX is claiming any responsibility for Firefly's demise, it can only help ME's attempt to sell the show to someone who won't bungle it.

HKCavalier

Hey, hey, hey, don't be mean. We don't have to be mean, because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are.

CARDIE

Wednesday, January 22, 2003 3:20 AM

First of all, yes, Sandy Grushow is a man. The pronoun he is always used in news stories that feature his commentary. Secondly, Joss Whedon though male, is a feminist icon via Buffy, and has himself said that one of FOX's biggest blunders was to aim and market Firefly exclusively toward young males. The demographic research that's been independently conducted on "Farscape" revealed that it had a 60% female audience. There is a huge female audience for science fiction that always gets discounted because of stereotypes about women only wanting to watch romantic mush. Now, yes, the violence on Firefly may have been less attractive to some women than on softer genre shows, but I'm female and know many women who loved the show. Just look at how many females are on the fan boards. It not only has strong, capable women in it but extremely attractive and compelling manly men to drool over.

Lots of things caused Firefly's cancellation, but female sexism is not very high on the list, if you ask me.

Cardie

LIVINGIMPAIRED

Wednesday, January 22, 2003 4:35 AM

So lemmie get this straight. Because I was born with two X-chromosomes, I therefore dislike science fiction, get sick whenever someone gets pretend-shot on tv, and I'm incompetent? Forgive me, but I think that is the same kind of insane troll logic employed by certain Middle-East countries.

And as for where the Fox executives are concerned, I think it's clear that stupidity knows no gender…. But I suppose that the blatant, ignorant chauvinism of a certain post in this thread says all on that point.

________________

I'm marveling at the wrongness of that idea.

DANIKIN

Wednesday, January 22, 2003 5:05 AM

Two thoughts on this article:

#1) Duh. We've been saying this for months.
#2) About damn time. We've been saying this for months.

-Dani Kin

Keeper of:
Inara's Tea Set of hot lovin'
Inara's shuttle

And has been know to, on occasion, poke badgers with spoons

SLOWSMURF

Wednesday, January 22, 2003 5:39 AM

Its likely too hopeful, but is there any way this could result in firefly getting a proper chance?

They wouldn't even need to produce new episodes(for a while), just give it a decent timeslot and RUN IT IN ORDER.

RUXTON

Wednesday, January 22, 2003 5:52 AM

Re:
"They wouldn't even need to produce new episodes(for a while), just give it a decent timeslot and RUN IT IN ORDER"

AMEN! What on earth would they have to lose?

BROWNCOAT

Wednesday, January 22, 2003 12:09 PM

They would have to FULLY admit that they blew it, and I don't think they would ever be prepared to take it that far...

THEWRITINGWENCH

Wednesday, January 22, 2003 2:01 PM

Quote:
With this admission, FOX is planning to launch their next slate of new series during the Summer instead of Fall, capitalizing off the lesson learned from the successes of FOX's reality series like 'American Idol' that was launched during mid-season and subsequently struck gold for the network.

With Firefly having 3 remaining episodes in the queue, perhaps FOX might consider airing them during Summer in conjunction with premieres of their other new shows--giving Firefly a second chance. And if ratings for the three are significantly better, perhaps Firefly's "hiatus" is really just that, an hiatus.

These are the paras I find most interesting. Fox's implied promise (or someone's interpretation that Fox implied such) to offer Firefly another chance. Which doesn't, to me, seem like a promise at all - or even the hint of one - unless there is a full push and the entire season is run first in order in repeats, from the 2 hour series opener Serenity to Objects in Space with the final 3 hours to follow to hook the summer audience. And then they'd better plan to have everybody under contract and a new set of shows to follow up with. That's the only way this "implied" promise might work.

The Writing Wench

Quote:
"Boy's going to get us killed. Let's just
do this deal and get."

Jayne, Jaynestown

BROWNCOAT1

Wednesday, January 22, 2003 2:55 PM

Ruxton said:

Quote:
In my middle-aged cynicism I had strong suspicions (and voiced them to personal friends) there was a female executive behind the screwing (yes, rutting) of Mr. Whedon's latest masterwork. Now I have had my ignorant eyes opened, and learn there are no fewer than two involved: Gail Berman and Sandy Grushow. I have nothing against competent women, but suspect these two are less than competent.

I can't say that I am too comfortable w/ or share the opinion you stated Ruxton. Obviously incompetence is not restricted to one gender or the other when referring to TV executives. Sandy is a man and Gail seems to have personal issues w/ Joss as exhibited by her comments in a recent interview I saw over at the official site. It seems to me the mishandling in general seemed to cause the cancellation of Firefly not a female out to shut it down.

My fiancee loves Firefly and she is not bothered by the violent scenes in the show. Quite honestly, there is nothing done on Firefly that is not done on any other TV show or movie you might sit down to watch. I know it is not the western feel, as I love them and my fiancee hates them, yet she likes the show.

Guess that leaves us w/ incompetence on the part of Fox executives in general and their idiotic decision to preempt the show for baseball and show the episodes out of order. Hard to reach your target audience to get ratings when the show is never on or advertised.

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