One Big Conspiracy?

POSTED BY: InvaderChat
UPDATED: Friday, October 15, 2010 05:57
VIEWED: 5534
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INVADERCHAT

Thursday, October 14, 2010 2:18 PM

Joss could have had inside information as a part of the business. You know it takes media companies AGES to do anything and there were probably talks of this brand new thing where all sorts of tv shows would be readily available for purchase, a light bulb went on in Joss' devious mind and Firefly was born.

And who's to say Joss' next television series, watched by millions after the engineered failure and massive fanbase of Firefly, will not be imbedded with some mind control code that will cause entire populations to kill world leaders and praise Joss as their new supreme ruler?

EDIT* Yeah BYTEMITE, I seriously doubt that it would have been taken seriously enough for the government to bother trying to shut him up, like you said I guess people would just censor anything like that for themselves.

What makes you think that V wasn't just taken off of the air to avoid the subject and not cause problems? I remember one chinese movie (I CAN NOT remember the name) back when those earthquakes happened was held back like eight months just to prevent causing negative impact.

JONGSSTRAW

Thursday, October 14, 2010 2:20 PM

The network suits killed Firefly despite Joss and Tim's every concession to their whims. Joss produced an amazing Pilot that the network rejected out of hand because they were too lazy and too stupid to grasp it. Then the execs f**ked with Firely every way they could by preempting episodes at every opportunity. For some reason Firefly was preordained to fail for them, and I'm sure they were quite pleased when it did.

BYTEMITE

Thursday, October 14, 2010 2:24 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by BrucePluto:
So Joss purposely produced a failed tv show that would lead to a failed movie that would eventually have him be involved in a writers strike ( because shows like Firefly were doing well on the web and were getting nothing for the writers) That would then lead to Dr. Horrible then to Dollhouse then ……..

Hey, Dr. Horrible was good, I'd even say it was almost as good as Firefly. The Dr. Horrible verse has as much potential for awesome as the Firefly verse (Mad Scientists! Supervillians versus Superheroes forming unions to manage their conflicts!)

It just didn't have as many characters or enough time to show off the verse and delve into the deliciously complicated storylines we all crave. I watch Firefly more than Doctor Horrible because I was able to get in deeper, but that doesn't mean potential isn't here.

BYTEMITE

Thursday, October 14, 2010 2:30 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by InvaderChat:
What makes you think that V wasn't just taken off of the air to avoid the subject and not cause problems? I remember one chinese movie (I CAN NOT remember the name) back when those earthquakes happened was held back like eight months just to prevent causing negative impact.

It probably was. That's my point. But the reason it was taken off air for a while was because someone in the CDC saw the storyline, realized it could scare people away from getting flu vaccines, and asked the network to kibosh it at least until peak season was over.

INVADERCHAT

Thursday, October 14, 2010 2:31 PM

Coding, Error...

INVADERCHAT

Thursday, October 14, 2010 2:33 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Jongsstraw:
The network suits killed Firefly despite Joss and Tim's every concession to their whims. Joss produced an amazing Pilot that the network rejected out of hand because they were too lazy and too stupid to grasp it. Then the execs f**ked with Firely every way they could by preempting episodes at every opportunity. For some reason Firefly was preordained to fail for them, and I'm sure they were quite pleased when it did.

That's actually another thing that I've been thinking of after listening to the commentary tracks again and reading some old interviews. Joss especially did NOT concede whenever given the tiniest opportunity not to. Sure the pilot was rewritten because it wouldn't have aired but Joss also shot in widescreen when told NOT to shoot in widescreen and not only that but he made the shots near impossible to reverse by standing actors at opposite ends of the shot and stuff like that.

Fox network automatically cuts to commercial whenever a black screen appears, blank screens aren't allowed so Joss just fades to...dark grey?
He left in stuff he was told to cut as well I think, the point is, while his rebellion was one of the things that allowed Firefly to be so great it was also probably one more reason for Fox to say 'screw you Joss, your show is canceled'.

Dr. Horrible was really amazing in my opinion, I was expecting to come away laughing my arse off but instead I was so immersed in the actual story of this ridiculous musical... and the ending...whoa.

INVADERCHAT

Thursday, October 14, 2010 2:37 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:
It probably was. That's my point. But the reason it was taken off air for a while was because someone in the CDC saw the storyline, realized it could scare people away from getting flu vaccines, and asked the network to kibosh it at least until peak season was over.

My bad, I meant by the network, not the government.

GWEK

Thursday, October 14, 2010 2:47 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by InvaderChat:
Quote:
Originally posted by Jongsstraw:
The network suits killed Firefly despite Joss and Tim's every concession to their whims. Joss produced an amazing Pilot that the network rejected out of hand because they were too lazy and too stupid to grasp it. Then the execs f**ked with Firely every way they could by preempting episodes at every opportunity. For some reason Firefly was preordained to fail for them, and I'm sure they were quite pleased when it did.

That's actually another thing that I've been thinking of after listening to the commentary tracks again and reading some old interviews. Joss especially did NOT concede whenever given the tiniest opportunity not to. Sure the pilot was rewritten because it wouldn't have aired but Joss also shot in widescreen when told NOT to shoot in widescreen and not only that but he made the shots near impossible to reverse by standing actors at opposite ends of the shot and stuff like that.

Fox network automatically cuts to commercial whenever a black screen appears, blank screens aren't allowed so Joss just fades to...dark grey?
He left in stuff he was told to cut as well I think, the point is, while his rebellion was one of the things that allowed Firefly to be so great it was also probably one more reason for Fox to say 'screw you Joss, your show is canceled'.

Dr. Horrible was really amazing in my opinion, I was expecting to come away laughing my arse off but instead I was so immersed in the actual story of this ridiculous musical... and the ending...whoa.

I wish I could find the quote (which I think is in one of the FINDING SERENITY books) where Joss talks about meeting with the FOX execs in 2001/2002. The conversation, by his own admission, goes something like this:

FOX: Mister Whedon, do you have any ideas for a show that's uplifting, patriotic, and straightforward?
WHEDON: I have this idea for nine people stuck in the darkness of space trying to eke out an existence at the poverty level.
FOX: Great! Let's do it!

Right there, FIREFLY was doomed--and it wasn't just FOX's fault. It takes two parties to not listen to each other. It takes two parties to disrespect each other.

I definitely agree with you a bout Joss's culpability. While the network was definitely to blame for many of the problems of the show (especially marketing and support), Joss himself was rebellious to the point of being subversive. Now, in many cases, he was RIGHT, but being subversive and rebellious (even when you are right) is a good way to get fired.

www.stillflying.net: "Here's how it might have been..."

BORIS

Friday, October 15, 2010 4:17 AM

I think you are wrong about there not being as much love for Serenity if it went on. If TV series are well produced, developed and thought out they can continue for a while and still garner alot of love. E.g. Chuck, Big Bang Theory, The Star Treks, Dr Who, The A-Team, Mash (I still cry everytime I see the series fianle just because of how it made me feel the first time I realised there would be no more new Mash eps), Happy Days, the Rockford Files, The Wire,Homicide: Life on the street (could have gone on forever as far as I'm concerned) X-files, Northern Exposure, The Venture Bros (Okay I know it's not everyone's cup of tea but those of us that do love it are totally dedicated and happy for it to go on and on and on), Black Adder, Mr Bean,. Some shows I think are tired and should end now are Desperate Housewives and How I Met Your Mother .Nothing more to explore in either of those two shows and I'm at the point that I actually don't care who the mother is coz Ted is such a douche.

INVADERCHAT

Friday, October 15, 2010 5:57 AM

Yes, Joss was definitely partly to blame for the failure, on the other hand his bullshitting skills did manage to get PART of Firefly aired, if he had just gone along with them we would likely have seen a much more watered down version or simply no Firefly at all.

And on that same point, while people hate Fox for their part in what happened (including me) it still has to be said that THEY were the studio that picked it up and aired it at all, nobody else did.

Boris, I can see where you're coming from but I still disagree. I'm sure that had Firefly been allowed a proper run it would still have gained a big ol' fanbase and have become very popular but somehow I can't see as much actual love happening that way. I mean, people rallied behind this fourteen episode, shown out of order, meddled with show and managed to get a movie, years later people are still walking about in Jayne hats, singing original songs about Firefly and showing regular charity screenings, STILL hoping it will come back. People love the underdogs.

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