When will Firefly be seen in the U.S. again?

POSTED BY: Adasm
UPDATED: Tuesday, May 6, 2003 17:00
VIEWED: 10194
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TABITHA

Tuesday, April 22, 2003 10:16 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by InvisibleGreen:

As for the US/UK thing, FOX currently owns the rights to broadcasting the episodes. Therefore, they cannot be released on DVD or shown in the UK or elsewhere until FOX airs them or decides not to.

Thanks for your reply, however I still don't follow your logic. Fox has officially licensed SciFi Uk to air the episodes, and SciFi UK have confirmed that they intend to air all of the episodes. I read that this was a six figure deals (along with John Doe and poss some other shows). I don't understand what bearing Fox's decisions re: airing the show in the US has on whether SciFi Uk can air a complete run.

Here's a hypothetical. Let's say Fox (for whatever reason) doesn't air the unseen episodes until September. Does that mean, by your reckoning, that Firefly in the UK will have to grind to a halt in late July/early August, wait for Fox to air the as-yet unseen episodes in the US, and then continue it's run sometime after that?
I don't buy it. But maybe I misunderstood you.

As I see it, SciFi Uk bought the UK rights to air all the Firefly episodes produced, and if it decided to air them in a crazy backwards marathon Fox would have no right to complain.

Sorry if I am pushing this, but I was ecstatic when I read that we were getting these episodes in Britain, and have been really freaked out by the suggestion that we might have to wait even longer for the unseen eps to air in the US before we got them over here.

www.ascifi.com

TALRIUS

Tuesday, April 22, 2003 10:39 PM

No, hey it's a lagitament question. I didn't understand that whole thing either.

INVISIBLEGREEN

Tuesday, April 22, 2003 10:45 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Tabitha:
Thanks for your reply, however I still don't follow your logic. Fox has officially licensed SciFi Uk to air the episodes, and SciFi UK have confirmed that they intend to air all of the episodes. I read that this was a six figure deals (along with John Doe and poss some other shows). I don't understand what bearing Fox's decisions re: airing the show in the US has on whether SciFi Uk can air a complete run.

It's possibly FOX and Sci-Fi UK worked out some sort of special deal. But I have to say, I haven't seen the contract, so I don't know for sure. But for "Futurama," which is pre-empted more often than it is shown, the foreign stations can't air the eps until FOX does (and this pisses off a lot of UK & German fans, as well as US fans), and I believe this is how things are generally done. But As far as I know the UK won't get the eps first.

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As for the June thing, I've searched the FOX Firefly site and Whedonesque, and I can't find anything specific, but there were lots of articles back in Nov-Jan. Yet I'm positive it wasn't just speculation or a random assumption. Maybe TheFutonCritic knows.

INVISIBLEGREEN

Tuesday, April 22, 2003 10:47 PM

btw, If you want info on FOX's treatment of "Futurama", look here: http://www.gotfuturama.com/dispatch.cgi?target=index2

INVISIBLEGREEN

Tuesday, April 22, 2003 11:11 PM

I did find this @ TFC:

Quote:
To make room for its summer series, FOX will forgo airing repeats of "Boston Public," "24," "Fastlane" and "John Doe" during the period. Still to be determined however are the fates of the unaired installments of "Futurama" (8 episodes) and "Cedric the Entertainer Presents" (6 episodes) both of which had previously been scheduled to run new episodes beginning in June.

It seems like FOX is planning for a "Super Summer," and they may have changed their plans a bit. Since Firefly wasn't mentioned alongside Futurama and Cedric, I e-mailed TFC specifically to ask him about Firefly's television fate. Hopefully his reply will answer all our questions.

TVDIR

Wednesday, April 23, 2003 6:20 AM

I understand the sydication market pretty well. The UK Sci-Fi deal has nothing to do with America's Fox Broadcasting. 20th Century Fox owns the rights to Firefly, and they are the ones syndicating the program overseas. In the past, programs usually air in the US first then are seen overseas at a later date. But nowadays, the TV landscape has changed. In this case, Firefly has been cancelled by Fox TV (although nothing official has been said), so it doesn't matter.

TABITHA

Wednesday, April 23, 2003 10:12 PM

Thanks for the info guys - particularly on Futurama. I always wondered why we got it in such a piecemeal fashion over here in Britain.

I am still quietly hoping that I'm right and you are wrong though, Invisible... Don't want the long arm of Fox stuffing things up for us UK folk from all the way across the Atlantic!

www.ascifi.com

INVISIBLEGREEN

Sunday, April 27, 2003 9:18 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by tvdir:
I understand the sydication market pretty well. The UK Sci-Fi deal has nothing to do with America's Fox Broadcasting. 20th Century Fox owns the rights to Firefly, and they are the ones syndicating the program overseas. In the past, programs usually air in the US first then are seen overseas at a later date. But nowadays, the TV landscape has changed. In this case, Firefly has been cancelled by Fox TV (although nothing official has been said), so it doesn't matter.

That's basically what I was trying to say, thanks for clearing that up. But I don't think FOX has dropped it entirely. FOX has placed on hiatus in November, and cancelled in December, but the hiatus status remained b/c although the series was cancelled, FOX still intended to air the eps.

It is possible that FOX has changed their minds, however, with a decision that would not necessarily be publicized, in which case the episodes would be fair game anywhere. Although I haven't heard anything about this, it's definitely a possibility, but I don't know where we could find confirmation on it.

TVDIR

Sunday, April 27, 2003 9:44 PM

At this point, Fox has said nothing about Firefly. Period. They mentioned it briefly in articles about having problems with pre-emptions during the baseball playoffs.

Personally, it doesn't appear that Fox will air Firefly during the summer. It doesn't matter to them if there's 3 episodes unaired. Fox already counted FF as a loss.

BTW, Did you noticed Fastlane is moving to 9pm Fridays (EST) in June. No clue what's going to air at 8pm.

We shouldn't get our hopes up to see Firefly this summer at all. Maybe year or so from now on the Sci-Fi channel as special programming (like Cleopatra, Roar, etc.)

TALRIUS

Sunday, April 27, 2003 9:48 PM

Yeah, fox has sat on unaired episodes before. Once they cut a show they don't bother showing the unaired ep's ever. Especially when Happy Gilmore will garner 15 million viewers. Even thought it's shown every other week on Fox.

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DOBSON: I'm supposed to be meeting my wife's sister. I've only got a few days to see her...

ZOE: I wish there was another way...

DOBSON: Oh, no, no. That woman is like a dragon. I mean, I believe she has a tail. If there's any other moons we need to visit, or if we could just
fly very slowly...

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