Firefly's cancellation

POSTED BY: Maltehwin2
UPDATED: Tuesday, June 19, 2007 22:14
VIEWED: 4481
PAGE 1 of 1

MALTEHWIN2

Tuesday, June 19, 2007 1:17 AM

ok, why exactly did Firefly get cncelled so early? Is the president of FOX allergic to good shows?

JOSSISAGOD

Tuesday, June 19, 2007 1:28 AM

I believe Firefly was cancelled because, the idiots at FOX showed it out of order, pre-empted it with sports, and never understood it to begin with, among other things.
Also, WELCOME ABOARD! Have a Mudder's Milk!

Fe'nos Tol
JOSSIS(Most Definitely)AGOD

Self appointed Forsaken! Been on the list for a while now!
98% of teens have smoked pot, if you are one of the 2% that haven't, copy this into your signature.
"Look at me, I'm STUPID!" The Doctor.

CALHOUN

Tuesday, June 19, 2007 1:47 AM

This guy had it pretty darn close to the mark I reckon.

Swatting the Firefly
by Hank Parnell
Posted on Tuesday, January 21, 2003 16:43
TIMES READ: 6325

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Originally published in The Texas Mercury

The very week that Fox TV finally deigned to broadcast the pilot episode of its unique, ground-breaking sci-fi show Firefly, they also announced its cancellation.

You may recall that I predicted this. It gives me no pleasure to be right about these things. Further, while I consider mocking irony to be a force of nature as real and pervasive as gravity and the convection of heat, the way in which Firefly was mishandled by Fox seems a little too calculated to be anything but deliberate. Yes, I tend to be paranoid; but sometimes, you know, even paranoids have real enemies.

One thing became utterly clear while I was watching "Serenity," the pilot episode: there was absolutely nothing wrong with it. It had action, it had adventure; it had character and development. It was smart, funny, tough-minded, and 100 percent different. It set everything up perfectly. Unless the programming executives at Fox are retardate morons who need to be in an institution rather than making millions as the heads of a TV network, the decision not to air the two-hour pilot first and the rest of the series' episodes in sequence is too big a blunder to be a simple "mistake" or "accident."

They wanted to kill this show. I believe that, as surely as I do that the sun rises in the east. Had they really been behind the series, and wanted it to "go" somewhere, they would have first of all given it a decent time-slot, one in which it would have had a chance to find an audience—the nine-o'clock (Eastern) slot on Sunday nights, vacated by that overwrought piece of dreck The X-Files*, would have been perfect. It is—was—not an eight o'clock primetime "kiddie" show. It was a serious drama with a fantastic setting. And it was simply without question the best show of its type ever made for television.

So why did Fox kill Firefly so deliberately? Did they want to punish creator Joss Whedon for his "unexpected" successes with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel? Demonstrate to him conclusively that it is not the few genuinely creative people in Hollywood who hold the real power in the industry, but the men and women who hold the purse strings?

Long ago I reached the conclusion that the medieval system of patronage, whatever its faults and drawbacks, was infinitely superior to the modern "market" system of "free-enterprise" for encouraging the creation of lasting works of literature and art. I put these in quotes because market economics is only a tool, and hence is only as good—or bad—as those who wield it. A society of intelligent, thoughtful individuals could, no doubt, produce the highest art ever known to man through a market economy. A society of lowest-common-denominator swine, sheep, slaves and mindless, pap-programmed robots could only, I submit to you, produce the kind of utter dreck that is foisted on gullible audiences today as "entertainment," and for which the swine, sheep, slaves and robots are only too eager to pay, and, by so doing, to support its continuance.

Bear in mind that medieval society was likewise comprised of swine, sheep and slaves (they didn't have the John Dewey-style system of "public education" in those days required to turn out the robots), so that the system of patronage actually could work; rich aristocrats who genuinely had an interest in the arts could selectively choose who to support and who not to with a taste and consideration which, clearly, the vaunted "common man" of any age is incapable.

But now this hints at another problem with Firefly, and which may have contributed to its undoing. This was an uncommon show, aimed at uncommon people. It had depth, sensitivity and intelligence—things notably lacking in every other show on television. The latest Star Trek incarnation, Enterprise, for example, is as shallow

MALTEHWIN2

Tuesday, June 19, 2007 6:47 PM

Well, now that I finally own the series I can say that Fox sucks balls. They fail at life and they need to know it. so, im gonna throw a rock through their window

AURAPTOR

Tuesday, June 19, 2007 7:17 PM

The suits at that network thought they were getting a series something like Galaxy Quest, and Joss went and made something really good. Go figure.

People love a happy ending. So every episode, I will explain once again that I don't like people. And then Mal will shoot someone. Someone we like. And their puppy. - Joss

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

JEDIJAYNE

Tuesday, June 19, 2007 8:04 PM

Well I had not read that one before, and I must say that that was one of the best written articles about it's cancellation that I have ever read. I am going to be sure to copy that one.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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ODININFINITY

Tuesday, June 19, 2007 8:08 PM

When it comes to Firefly's being canceled, there is a possible way to get Fox to renew it. Write in to Fox requesting that they bring it back. Course one or two people alone couldn't get it back. So try to get others to help you do so. That's what I've started trying to do. And if nothing else, threaten to stop watching the channel at all. If you can't beat 'em, screw 'em over.

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STOWEAWAY

Tuesday, June 19, 2007 9:43 PM

Thanks for posting that, Calhoun.

I hadn't read that before. I think it's pretty much dead-on.

MALTEHWIN2

Tuesday, June 19, 2007 10:11 PM

Odin, I don't think FOX is going to care if they lose a few hundred viewers.

ODININFINITY

Tuesday, June 19, 2007 10:14 PM

Depends on how clever you are. Namely in writing to Fox.

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