Why Cancelled? A Confession...
POSTED BY: Stardude
UPDATED: Friday, November 4, 2005 16:47
VIEWED: 5137
PAGE 2 of 2
I never liked westerns before I watched Firefly. And, to be honest, I don't think I would have given Firefly the chance it obviously deserved if I hadn't already been a Whedon fan.
About a year after I saw Firefly a friend lent me the Sergio Leone / Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns, and I gave them a chance because I loved Firefly. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I also liked standard westerns, although I've yet to find any that match the quality of the Leone/Eastwood films (or FF).
"Gorramit Mal... I've forgotten my line."
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Quote:
Originally posted by Stardude:
Which ironically enough is what both Sci Fi and the Western needs to keep it's now sophisticated and intelligent audiences watching and attentive
I agree, but the problem is, this section of the market is not where the money. It sad to say, the intelligent sophisticated audience is the minority of viewers.
I like westerns, but not the stereotypical, cookie cutter, type. I preferred the "spagetti westerns" and most recently ones like Unforgiven, The Quick and the Dead, and Silverado. In these, there are no clear cut "good" guys. That's what drew me to Firefly. Gritty, not polished. No, white ten gallon hat, wearing good guys.
I am not a fan of Buffy (I didn't mind Angel), I had no idea who Joss was. It was the tone of the show and the unfortunate handle of "space western" that caught my attention.
Welcome aboard Stardude! Nice first post!!
Safeat2nd, Chief Handyman of Destiny
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I have always loved Westerns...fond memories of sitting on Dad's lap as a little rugrat watching John Wayne.
Some of my favorite movies of all time are Westerns...
Silverado
Unforgiven
High Plains Drifter
Rio Bravo
Plus, I was also fed a steady diet of Star Trek reruns, Road Runner cartoons, Japanese monster movies with a side of Charlie Chan. (We got cable when it first came out. 6 channels! Woo hoo!)
Somehow this all morphed into a rabbid love of Firefly from the first time I saw it advertized. I was excited about seeing the show, and I was not disappointed even thought it was aired out of order (did not know that until much later).
What TOTALLY hooked me beyond anything I could have expected was the end of the Train job. I fell out of the chair I was laughing so damn hard.
~~~~~
"Funny and sexy. You have no idea. And you never will."
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While I have been a Firefly fan since the first episode aired, and I was a Whedon fan long before that, I can see where you are coming from.
I, too, have never been much of a fan of westerns; in fact, it was one of my least-favourite genres. The idea of a sci-fi western didn't sit well with me, despite being a huge SF fan, but because Joss was behind it, I made a point of watching. From that point on, I was hooked! Firefly is one of my favorite TV series of all time (I hesitate to say it's my absolute all-time favorite).
I think there were two problems with Firefly catching on from a concept standpoint; First, I know many people who either refuse to watch SF shows, or they watch them but won't admit it. They have this idea that it's akin to reading comic books or watching cartoons (i.e. for kids, in their minds). That turns many people off, but there are still a lot of SF fans out there. However, I feel that many people who like SF aren't 'into' westerns, and vice-versa. Rather than enticing more people to the show, it alienated them before they had even seen a single episode. This, combined with the fact that Fox made it require serious effort to actually watch more than an episode or two, made it all the more difficult for people to get hooked.
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As DonCoat said, this is about the frontier. Moving out among the stars would be much like going on a conostoga wagon to the old west. There would only be so much that you could bring. You would bring an anvil, and one set of hammer and tongs, and as much iron stock as you could without comprimising everything else, then you would make what you need out of what you brought. You'd bring one axe and maybe a spare handle, but that would be optional as you could always carve one.
Robert Heinlein in his book "Time enough for love" did a remarkable example of this. The rest of the book might not be for you, but his take on the colonizing of a planet is exemplorary.
I believe that people would load as much as they could on a ship, and then just blast off for the unknown. Once you got there, you only had what you blasted off with, so you'd better have not forgot things, and you'd better be good at jury rigging what was left.
Serenity went between the worlds, but never was a whole part of one, which allowed a switch between genres, which in turn helped plot or pilot the show so that it wouldn't have turned boring. Getting tired of the old west, go to the modern future.
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I think it all comes down to this...Joss is preaching to open minded people. If you aren't going to give a show a chance because of it's setting or genre or whatever, then he just doesn't want to deal with you. Yes, it's a problem for making money, but that's not what he really, deep down cares about.
So, really to find this beautiful piece of art people have to let go and give a scifi western a chance. Seems like the majority of people who really give it a shot end up seeing what we all found.
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Well, I just gotta throw my two cents in. First off, to inject some positiveness into this thread.
To borrow a surprisingly good line from Man of the House, it's all about the duality of man. You've got born to kill on one side, and peace on the other. I agree that there's horrible cruelty and so forth in humanity, but there's also incredible good. You've got your psychopathic killers and Hitlers on one hand, and your Gandis, Martin Luther Kings, and Mother Theresas on the other. There's people who are incredibly brave and selfless out there, so don't lose heart in humanity yet.
Now, about Firefly: part of the problem was also that people didn't even know about it. I never heard anything about it until Serenity came out, and I know a lot of people who didn't either. And it's not like I don't watch TV. I watch Fox every week to catch Simpsons. Had I heard of it, I would have watched it immediately, since I'm a fan of Joss Whedon, and just the premise of a space western would have fascinated me. So that was the big problem, I think. Anyways, that's my little take on things.
I give to you the Seeker of Serenity, the Valkyrie Warrior, the Gourmet Cook and the Truth Scoper.
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Another convert! Yay! No power in the 'verse can stop us!
I agree with safeat2nd. The spaghetti westerns and Leone's view were excellent. I haven't seen Once Upon a Time in the West yet, which is supposed to be the ultimate from what I hear, but I will see it sooner or later. Pretty much most of Eastwood's movies were good, particularly Josey Wales.
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