Star Trek & FF/Serenity- an analysis of the popularity differences
POSTED BY: chrisisall
UPDATED: Monday, September 1, 2008 00:28
VIEWED: 8959
PAGE 1 of 6
Star Trek > CANCELED > Huge fan base > Movie later > More after
Firefly > CANCELED > Moderate fan base > Movie later > Nothing more yet
Star Trek was an optimistic view of our future.
Firefly was a pessimistic view of our future.
Q: Is Serenity's limited success due to it's inherently negative view of what we are and where we're going?
Curious Chrisisall
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Folks do like a happy ending, even if a bad one is more likely. See Chamberlain, Neville: "Peace in our time; peace with honor."
________________________________________________________________________
- Grand High Poobah of the Mythical Land of Iowa, and Keeper of State Secrets
- Captain, FFF.net Grammar Police
- Vote JonnyQuest/Causal, for Benevolent Co-Dictator of Earth; together, toward a brighter tomorrow!
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Star Trek was a three season show that was aired without any significant interruptions. The show came at a time when there wasn't anything else quite like it on TV. It gained mass appeal in a day when there were fewer channels to skip through. It was provocative, often testing the limits of censorship and social issues. It didn't hurt that the ship was pretty cool. The movies came about a long, long, long, long time after the show was cancelled.
And then there's Firefly. The pilot was never shown. The short run of limited episodes were interrupted or moved so many times in its single, half-season as to cripple the show's popularity right out of the starting gate. It never had time to reach a large demographic in the short time it aired on one of dozens and dozens of channels available in a dead time slot. It gave us stories without apologies, what with Mal shoving people into engines with little or no speeches. It also had a pretty cool ship. Strangely enough, the movie came about in a very short time after the show was canceled, proving we're capable of doing the impossible.
They are two completely different stories which experienced altogether different runs on television and in the media. It was easy to sell a Star Trek movie by the time they made it, what with an adoring fan base of millions spread worldwide and built up over years. Just like any other pop culture show gone from television to the big screen.
Firefly was strangled, delayed, abused and thwarted in every possible way while it existed, but we still made a movie.
In the end, it's almost easy to explain Star Trek's success for too many obvious reasons, but Serenity is a glorious fluke built on the failure of a show that was never given it's due.
Browncoats understand victory can be born of failure. We will rise again.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by yellowjacket:
Firefly was strangled, delayed, abused and thwarted in every possible way while it existed, but we still made a movie.
Damn skippy! This is why, even if we never get anything else, I'll be happy to be a Browncoat.
________________________________________________________________________
- Grand High Poobah of the Mythical Land of Iowa, and Keeper of State Secrets
- Captain, FFF.net Grammar Police
- Vote JonnyQuest/Causal, for Benevolent Co-Dictator of Earth; together, toward a brighter tomorrow!
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Star Trek was never a popular show when it ran, but it did hold on long enough to produce enough episodes to make it the superstar of re-runs. It's the re-runs of Trek, playing multiple times every day that helped Star Trek become a pop culture icon. Unfortunately, Firefly will never have that opportunity. And I'm ok with that. I generally don't like popular things.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by Causal:Quote:
Originally posted by yellowjacket:
Firefly was strangled, delayed, abused and thwarted in every possible way while it existed, but we still made a movie.
Damn skippy! This is why, even if we never get anything else, I'll be happy to be a Browncoat.
Amen!
King of the Mythical Land that is Iowa
NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
It was mentioned above that Firefly was a pessimistic view of our future, and I disagree with that ascertain. I think Firefly was a more accurate portrayal of our possible future than that of Star Trek, because while it did show us a rather bleak existences on the fringe of some make believe 'verse, it did make it clear this is from the perspective of our heroes, and it did show us that there were other perspectives to be had. I think that Firefly from any of the available perspectives shows a more realistic future of mankind, because in them the essence of mankind remained and we didn't become some socialistic utopia. I learned from Jack Handy on SNL why mankind was so difficult to understand, and that was because if you break mankind down into its root words of mank and ind they make no sense, and thus that explains why we are so difficult to understand. 
http://swyzzlestyx.com/index.html
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:Okay- let's say that FF held on by it's fingernails for two or three seasons- do you think re-runs and such would have made it a pop culture icon akin to Trek?
Originally posted by Jongsstraw:
It's the re-runs of Trek, playing multiple times every day that helped Star Trek become a pop culture icon.
What I'm postulatin' here is that Trek, although it had it's darker eps (Private Little War for example), was mainly bright & funny & adventurous, whereas Firefly promised us more struggle and realistically complicated characters in a not-fun (for the most part) 'Verse. I can't really see an America that would be acceptin' of that lack of happy-happy on an iconic level.
In other words- Joss writes TOO well.
Just sayin'isall
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Okay- let's say that FF held on by it's fingernails for two or three seasons- do you think re-runs and such would have made it a pop culture icon akin to Trek?
What I'm postulatin' here is that Trek, although it had it's darker eps (Private Little War for example), was mainly bright & funny & adventurous, whereas Firefly promised us more struggle and realistically complicated characters in a not-fun (for the most part) 'Verse. I can't really see an America that would be acceptin' of that lack of happy-happy on an iconic level.
In other words- Joss writes TOO well.
Just sayin'isall
Actually I think the fact that Firefly was cancelled so early after being such a great show is the reason Firefly is or will be the pop culture icon that it is or will be. Firefly is very much the new Trek imho.
http://swyzzlestyx.com/index.htmlNOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
