TV Series

POSTED BY: Companion
UPDATED: Friday, January 16, 2004 05:15
VIEWED: 4427
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VETERAN

Thursday, January 15, 2004 4:25 AM

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Friends (much as I hate it) had the rateings to support the cost.

Yeah, frankly I don't get it. Judging by the few episodes of Friends I've seen,it's got to be one of the dumbest things on TV and yet, it's had a great run. Firefly was so good and it's already gone. Maybe if it had a better timeslot. I really think they should have challenged Enterprise on Wednesdays.

BROWNCOAT1

Thursday, January 15, 2004 4:02 PM

Caitlyn wrote:

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To Browncoat1: To answer your question, my roommate, who turned me on to Firefly, read a while back that that cost was even more of a consideration than the poor ratings.

I would like to know where he read that information. I have not seen it or heard it mentioned before. Not saying I doubt he did read, just wondering how reliable the source is that he got the information for that statement.

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Considering what Fox did to the show, airing it out of order and all, how could it not have poor ratings? I mean, when I first saw it I felt like I had been dropped in the middle and they weren't explaining things. Of course, that was because "Serenity" hadn't been aired.

I was one of the many who watched Firefly on Fox and was confused by them showing the episodes out of order. The lack of advertising was disappointing, and the preempting for baseball grew tiresome. I can see how people would get easily discouraged. It might also explain the influx of fans since the DVD set was released showing the episodes in the intended order.

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I honestly gave up on it while Keith kept watching. He kept trying to get me to watch and I did catch a couple towards the end including "Serenity". We both cursed Fox that night. We knew right then and there that if they had shown it in order we would have loved the series from the start.

I really wonder what the ratings could have been.

I think you were not alone in giving up and tuning out of the show. I, like I am sure many others, felt like we got dumped into a story in the middle of the book, instead of at the beginning. It was hard to get to know the characters or like them without knowing something of where they came from or why they were on Serenity in the first place.

Shame on Fox execs for thinking they knew better than the creative minds on how to air the episodes. This to me was the worst mistake in handling the series.

Kurukami wrote:

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Actually, from what I'd heard the costs weren't that high. I seem to recall reading somewhere that the true production cost per episode was around $800,000 per episode, and that the Fox distribution costs (I have no idea what that category entails) were around $1,200,000 per episode.

Compared to the $6,000,000+ that was spent on pretty much every one of the later "Friends" episodes, I'd say that's quite affordable.

See this is more in keeping w/ what I had heard and read around the net. The cost of production was not abnormally high, and from what I had read, was less to produce than an episode of Space Above and Beyond.

I know "Friends" was high, but if you look at the grossly high salaries of its stars I think you will find that about 75% of the production costs went there.

"May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one."

DRBORIS

Friday, January 16, 2004 5:05 AM

Runing Firefly against Enterprise would be nearly as bad for rateings. 7 PM Wednessday in addition to Enterprise, also contains the WB hit Smallville. Thats a three way audience devide for scifi type shows.

Better would be to have run it some time when NOTHING good comes on, like Tuesday at 8 (appologies if you have some favorite show then, but I don't) or some other empty slot. That would be how to encourage a new hit to break out, instead of sticking it against established competition.

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"If I ever kill you, you'll be awake, you'll be facing me, and you'll be armed." - Mal

SAINT JAYNE

Friday, January 16, 2004 5:15 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by BrownCoat1:
I was one of the many who watched Firefly on Fox and was confused by them showing the episodes out of order.

I just thought it was a charming flashback episode, like Objects in Space only less jumpy.

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