Retooling Firefly

POSTED BY: Hobbes
UPDATED: Monday, November 18, 2002 09:30
VIEWED: 10275
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REYVNDARKNIGHT

Saturday, November 16, 2002 6:42 PM

The best retooling Fox could do is move Firefly to another time slot. Personally, I think it could hold its own against Birds of Prey. Or maybe Monday at 8 pm.

HOBBES

Saturday, November 16, 2002 7:00 PM

I like Monday at 9, in the (canceled) Girls Club slot.

-------------------------------------------------
May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May you be in heaven an hour before
The Devil knows you’re dead.

GREASEMONKEY

Saturday, November 16, 2002 8:23 PM

If something isn't done about the show though It's gonna get the axe! Let's face it, Fox is a buisness and they are in it to make money. If there are not enough people watching, no money.
Since Firefly is a fairly cerebral show, it's viewer base is relatively low.
I think the biggest problem is that there are no "aliens". For a sci-fi program not to have an extra-terrestrial (or in this case non-human) race is, in my opinion, a mistake. I know what Joss was going for when he decided this but it's not going to work.
The problem with Joss telling the execs to "shove it" is that they are the ones paying the bills. Not him.
I love the show just as it is, don't get me wrong but the average TV watcher will just sit there and go "I don't get it, let's watch 'everyone loves raymond' honey..."

RAGNAROKGS

Saturday, November 16, 2002 10:23 PM

True, it is not a show for the average viewer. But retooling to make it so would ruin it.

Be aware, however, that the rumors of its cancellation originated from its critics, not from anywhere in FOX.

-----
RagNaRoK *gs*
"Ich kodiere, folglich bin ich."

KEF

Saturday, November 16, 2002 11:45 PM

I'm not too concerned about any possible retooling. In all the Joss Whedon interviews I've read, what comes across is that Firefly, at it's core, is about the characters. How they deal to the situations they find themselves in, and how they deal with each other. Everything else is, to a certain extent, window dressing (my interpretation.) It's not about flying around in outer space, or reinventing the western, or trying to come up with new gee-wiz sci-fi ideas, or whatever. JW did want to do a sci-fi show, and the western take is what inspired the concept, but characters and storytelling are what he's all about. (It's why I'm watching.) Fox execs know it, and they're not gonna mess with that. That's why they wanted him to make a show for them in the first place.

In the interviews, JW says that basically they only had one problem with the pilot. He wanted to go slow, explore the characters, then build up to an action climax. But they wanted the elements that would grab the viewers (the casual viewers, not hardcores like us) to be brought up front. Make it exciting first, then the audience will follow you wherever you want to go. He says that in retrospect the execs were right. It was just a matter of adjusting the structure a bit.

The point is that any "retooling" will only be window dressing. JW is willing to listen and work with them to make his creation a success. I believe (as an previous post said) that he can take whatever suggestions they have and make it work for him, and it will be just as good a show. Hopefully he'll get the chance.

NOVAGRASS

Sunday, November 17, 2002 1:59 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Greasemonkey:
I think the biggest problem is that there are no "aliens". For a sci-fi program not to have an extra-terrestrial (or in this case non-human) race is, in my opinion, a mistake. I know what Joss was going for when he decided this but it's not going to work.

I'm worried at how DISGUSTED that comment made me (worried for my sanity, worried for my sense of reality, worried about my temper). Sorry, GMonkey, but I have to say you are way off base. I don't like to tell people that they're flat out wrong ever, but I'm going to say you're wrong.

The fact that there are no aliens *should* be drawing more of a mainstream audience. Aliens, I think, are what alienate (no pun intended) the mainstream audience from sci-fi. Without aliens, it's more like a normal drama, only set in the future on a space ship. Perhaps if Whedon was trying to appeal to the Sci-fi fanbase, you'd have a point, but sci-fi fandom alone will not provide the ratings necessary for Firefly to survive in any time slot.

Most importantly, the WHOLE CONCEPT of Firefly is designed to examine HUMANITY in the future... not Alien-ism in the future, not android-ism in the future, HUMANITY in the future. It was not a mistake to get rid of the aliens, it was not a bad decision... it SHOULD be appealing to more people... if only FOX knew how to market it correctly, they'd have a HOT property on their hands. I've maintained, since seeing the pilot this summer, that if Fox understood anything about the show, they'd have something big on their hands... Big, NYPD Blue, big... Big, Law and Order, big.

Fox needs to realize that Firefly is not a space-opera. It's a character drama. They need to start advertising it as such. They need to wrap their heads around the fact that not everything set in the future needs to be an action show... that it is possible to have a DRAMA set in the future that doesn't involve lasers and space battles and aliens. THEY NEED TO REALIZE THAT FIREFLY IS MORE HUMANISTIC THAN ANYTHING ELSE ON TV. Then, they'll have the audience they need to carry the show onward... an audience bigger than any re-tooling could provide.

--Dylan Palmer--

"Oh my god, I'm a hack!" - Joss Whedon

EVANS

Sunday, November 17, 2002 7:04 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Novagrass:
Fox needs to realize that Firefly is not a space-opera. It's a character drama. They need to start advertising it as such. They need to wrap their heads around the fact that not everything set in the future needs to be an action show... that it is possible to have a DRAMA set in the future that doesn't involve lasers and space battles and aliens.

Years ago, on the order of 40, perhaps, what is now PBS showed a play called "The Flight of the Auk." The Auk was a space vessel orbiting the Earth. One of the men on the Auk, in a radio interview with someone on Earth, mentioned that it would be easy to mount nuclear warheads on platforms in space. The crew learned, later, that this casual remark sparked a war on Earth, and that they might have nothing to go home to.

This play, on a plain set, could be called science fiction, but it was really about choices, and about human interaction. I don't know how the local station promoted it, but I'm sure it wasn't as science fiction. And how I'd love to see it again.

m.

"But ... not boring, like she made it sound. " Wash, in ARIEL

KEF

Sunday, November 17, 2002 10:16 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Novagrass:
Quote:
Originally posted by Greasemonkey:
I think the biggest problem is that there are no "aliens". For a sci-fi program not to have an extra-terrestrial (or in this case non-human) race is, in my opinion, a mistake. I know what Joss was going for when he decided this but it's not going to work.

I'm worried at how DISGUSTED that comment made me (worried for my sanity, worried for my sense of reality, worried about my temper). Sorry, GMonkey, but I have to say you are way off base. I don't like to tell people that they're flat out wrong ever, but I'm going to say you're wrong.

The fact that there are no aliens *should* be drawing more of a mainstream audience. Aliens, I think, are what alienate (no pun intended) the mainstream audience from sci-fi. Without aliens, it's more like a normal drama, only set in the future on a space ship. Perhaps if Whedon was trying to appeal to the Sci-fi fanbase, you'd have a point, but sci-fi fandom alone will not provide the ratings necessary for Firefly to survive in any time slot.

Most importantly, the WHOLE CONCEPT of Firefly is designed to examine HUMANITY in the future... not Alien-ism in the future, not android-ism in the future, HUMANITY in the future. It was not a mistake to get rid of the aliens, it was not a bad decision... it SHOULD be appealing to more people... if only FOX knew how to market it correctly, they'd have a HOT property on their hands. I've maintained, since seeing the pilot this summer, that if Fox understood anything about the show, they'd have something big on their hands... Big, NYPD Blue, big... Big, Law and Order, big.

Fox needs to realize that Firefly is not a space-opera. It's a character drama. They need to start advertising it as such. They need to wrap their heads around the fact that not everything set in the future needs to be an action show... that it is possible to have a DRAMA set in the future that doesn't involve lasers and space battles and aliens. THEY NEED TO REALIZE THAT FIREFLY IS MORE HUMANISTIC THAN ANYTHING ELSE ON TV. Then, they'll have the audience they need to carry the show onward... an audience bigger than any re-tooling could provide.

--Dylan Palmer--

"Oh my god, I'm a hack!" - Joss Whedon

Quote:
Originally posted by Novagrass:
Quote:
Originally posted by Greasemonkey:
I think the biggest problem is that there are no "aliens". For a sci-fi program not to have an extra-terrestrial (or in this case non-human) race is, in my opinion, a mistake. I know what Joss was going for when he decided this but it's not going to work.

I'm worried at how DISGUSTED that comment made me (worried for my sanity, worried for my sense of reality, worried about my temper). Sorry, GMonkey, but I have to say you are way off base. I don't like to tell people that they're flat out wrong ever, but I'm going to say you're wrong.

The fact that there are no aliens *should* be drawing more of a mainstream audience. Aliens, I think, are what alienate (no pun intended) the mainstream audience from sci-fi. Without aliens, it's more like a normal drama, only set in the future on a space ship. Perhaps if Whedon was trying to appeal to the Sci-fi fanbase, you'd have a point, but sci-fi fandom alone will not provide the ratings necessary for Firefly to survive in any time slot.

Most importantly, the WHOLE CONCEPT of Firefly is designed to examine HUMANITY in the future... not Alien-ism in the future, not android-ism in the future, HUMANITY in the future. It was not a mistake to get rid of the aliens, it was not a bad decision... it SHOULD be appealing to more people... if only FOX knew how to market it correctly, they'd have a HOT property on their hands. I've maintained, since seeing the pilot this summer, that if Fox understood anything about the show, they'd have something big on their hands... Big, NYPD Blue, big... Big, Law and Order, big.

Fox needs to realize that Firefly is not a space-opera. It's a charact

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