A Firefly Lecture - The reason I love being an arts student!

POSTED BY: VeraCobb
UPDATED: Monday, August 30, 2004 03:47
VIEWED: 7387
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SHINY

Thursday, August 26, 2004 8:14 PM

I'm not sure the decision on the Dark Angel cancellation hinged on the network exec's reaction to the train job; do you have a source for this information?

Jayne, your mouth is talkin. Might want to look into that.

ELLYDRAGON

Thursday, August 26, 2004 8:25 PM

The other thing you might want to look into is trying to dig up the TiVo ratings for the season. I seem to remember something about it being very highly rated there, and that was used as an argument that it wasn't the show that was getting the bad rating, but the timeslot.

TENTHCREWMEMBER

Thursday, August 26, 2004 8:56 PM

Can't say I know enough to help with the details, but as for the scene that sold me, was the scene in Serenity, just after Patience tries to doublecross Mal, and he comes back onto the ship with the Fed holding River hostage and Mal is so pissed (Badger, Patience, River popping out of cryo, Inara cock-blocking him, Feds, Reavers; enough is enough!) he just shoots the guy mid-sentence and Jayne smiles an "it's about time" smile. I was like "Hell yeah!"

I liked it because it showed that even a hardened battle veteran like Mal can only take so much. Sooner or later he has to do "what he has to do" otherwise he goes insane.

And then the Crazy Ivan...first time I cheered outloud at a show/movie since I saw the Death Star explode the day Star Wars was released.

After that, I HAD to watch it all. Stayed up all night as a matter of fact. Watched every episode, and then logged onto the net to find this fansite! That was one month ago.

I hope you get an A+++ and hook everyone, professor included, on Firefly!

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BROWNCOATS! Rise again and promote Firefly/Serenity!
visit: http://the11thhour.home.att.net

STICKGIRL

Thursday, August 26, 2004 9:16 PM

There is much more fun. The fireworks actually start before "Serenity" is even written.

Due to the success of Buffy and Angel and their being on different networks, Fox finally decides to get its head out of its ass long enough to want a Joss series of its own to air. They approach him and ask him if he has anything in mind. He has been toying with an idea and says that he might be able to put something together.

At this same time the guys that do X-Men 2 are busy working on a revival of Battlestar Galactica for Fox. This is NOT the crap that aired on Sci-Fi later. This was actually good and honored the original mythology. It was canned after they got the sets and everything ready to go because the timetable for X-Men 2 had to be moved up due to actor availability. No more Battlestar Galactica series.

Fox comes to Joss and asks him to move things up. This puts Firefly in an awkward position from the beginning. Being the miracle worker that he is, he practically dumps Buffy in the hands of Marti Noxon, who at the time was pregnant and not around all the time, dumps Angel into the hands of OMG I don't have an executive producer!!!! What am I going to do?!?! David Greenwalt left Angel to head "Miracles" and reportedly out of protest due to a character's arc (possibly Cordelia). Joss needs Tim Minear to help with Firefly, so he can't be over on Angel much. Joss brings in some guy who doesn't work out. Then Jeff Bell gets the position and does a bang up job with it. Angel suffers very little from Joss' absence. Buffy fans will tell you how greatly Joss and Marti' absence affected the beginning of Buffy's final season. They will use very bad language typically to do this.

Since things are so rushed over at Firefly, when Fox being the asshats they are, decide they don't like the two hour premier that Joss wrote, he has a grand total of 2 days to write what will be the series premier, "Train Job." It is only an hour (technically 42 minutes when you account for commercials) and Joss has to use shorthand to introduce the characters and the universe. From the beginning Fox was incredibly unsupportive.

The Buffy fans weren't sure how to react to this brand new universe and Fox didn't have a clue how to market it. Buffy fans could feel that this was Buffy's last season and were going through some pretty intense emotions. Most weren't sci-fi fans and the whole space ship thing didn't feel right with a lot of them. Fox wanted a series that would pull in the Buffy/Angel fans. That isn't what Joss gave them.

After the series was canceled, Joss shopped it around with Fox's permission. Few networks want to piss off this man. Everyone is waiting to get their hands on "Faith." At the time Eliza Dushku hadn't signed onto "Tru Calling" and "Faith" was expected to replace "Buffy." No network knew how to handle Firefly and figured Joss wouldn't be around as much when "Faith" did take off, so no one would give him a chance.

That and as much of an asshat Fox is, the president of Sci-Fi is worse. The new president of Sci-Fi doesn't like space shows. Joss was told that his show was too space oriented for her network. This is perhaps the most confusing thing that Joss heard. He has a rather funny string of comments about that...he took it to Oxygen and they told him it was too feminist among them. I think he said this as ComicCon 2003.

Then comes Angel season 5 where Joss works out all his feelings about the Uber-evil nature of Blue Sun...I mean network Television and he gets canceled. The only thing that redeemed this was that he had gotten "Serenity" the movie greenlighted and Universal is actually behind the project. He was lucky to still have his actors, since Nathan has a sweet deal with NBC should they find a decent series for him. Joss said he would not do Serenity with a different cast.

This movie is incredibly important to Joss Whedon's career. He is known as being one of the best script doctors in Hollywood. Practically every line of dialogue in "Speed" is his. His work on "Toy Story" even earned him an Oscar

STICKGIRL

Thursday, August 26, 2004 10:42 PM

Forgot something. The Attacks on 9/11 play into this as well. Sometimes there are advantages to having a husband that is a Battlestar Galactica fan.

9/11 affected most tv studios. Many put productions, especially new ones, on hold. Battlestar Galactica was one show effected by this. This put them behind schedule, which added to the reason Fox shelved them. There was no way they would be ready by the time the writers were necessary for X-2. If you were Fox, would you put your money on a major blockbuster movie franchise that already had proved it would make money or a new iffy tv series? This all afffected poor Battlestar Galactica, Firefly and Buffy negatively.

DROCCULARI

Friday, August 27, 2004 2:00 AM

If you want a good read and something to cite that your professor might respect, there was an excellent profile piece on Joss done in the New York Times about the time Firefly went on the air that also covered FOX's inability to understand Serenity. It's called, Must-See Metaphysics by Emily Nussbaum in the September 22, 2002, Sunday Edition. It might have been in the magazine section.

A good scene to show that's powerful, quiet, has complex character development and is one of my favorites in a long list of favorites, is the scene in Serenity where Simon is explaining to the crew his and River's back story.

Have fun, and good luck!

BANRIGH

Sunday, August 29, 2004 4:54 PM

Which uni?

I wonder if I can sneak in, even though I'm not a uni student.

It's fascinating watching the reactions of potential fans as they watch Firefly for the first time.

Did they kiss your ass to your satisfaction?

FLYINGTAMS

Sunday, August 29, 2004 5:39 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by VeraCobb:
Then all of a sudden, it hit me. Firefly. I know that's a loose interpretation of the word 'publication' but I am resolved. Besides, Joss's pains with Firefly are far more relevant to today's world than Austen's.

Well, Joss said at comicon that they are planning to make a Serenity cartoon - so that's your publication right there :)

LINDLEY

Sunday, August 29, 2004 5:41 PM

Quote:

Forgot something. The Attacks on 9/11 play into this as well. Sometimes there are advantages to having a husband that is a Battlestar Galactica fan.

9/11 affected most tv studios. Many put productions, especially new ones, on hold. Battlestar Galactica was one show effected by this. This put them behind schedule, which added to the reason Fox shelved them. There was no way they would be ready by the time the writers were necessary for X-2. If you were Fox, would you put your money on a major blockbuster movie franchise that already had proved it would make money or a new iffy tv series? This all afffected poor Battlestar Galactica, Firefly and Buffy negatively.

There's also a good chance it indirectly ruined Legend of the Rangers ratings.

EBONEZER

Monday, August 30, 2004 1:26 AM

I know nothing about the history, but i got some clip suggestions:

Kicking whats-his-face into the engine in The Train Job.

Crazy Ivan

Finding jaynes statue in jaynestown.

and i think you should end by showing the movie trailer, as a kind of, 'the story isn't over yet', and to maybe get some people to watch the movie.

Also, get ready to be bombarded by requests to borrow the DVD.

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Four out of five dentists reccomend calling Ebo a girl.

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