Has F*X learned its lesson?

POSTED BY: gojiro
UPDATED: Friday, October 8, 2004 21:49
VIEWED: 8510
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GOJIRO

Friday, October 1, 2004 3:25 PM

I just saw this in a IMDB.com blurb about CBS:

Quote:
Fox continued to hold off introducing new programs until post-season baseball concludes next month.

Part of the reason (perhaps the entire reason) Firefly tanked in the ratings was that F*X did NOT wait until after the baseball post-season to air Firefly. ARGH!

I doubt they've learned to recognize quality TV shows when said shows bite them on the ass, but at least they've learned not to air said shows until baseball's over!

gojiro

JAKE7

Friday, October 1, 2004 4:45 PM

Maybe.

It will only be a matter of time before they're back to bringing great shows to air, only to yank them off!!

--------------
MAL: Everybody's makin' a fuss.

BIKISDAD

Friday, October 1, 2004 6:32 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by jake7:
Maybe.

It will only be a matter of time before they're back to bringing great shows to air, only to yank them off!!

--------------
MAL: Everybody's makin' a fuss.

Well, not necessarily. After doing just what you said with Wonderfalls last year, they have yet to introduce any show that could be described as great or even half-decent quality.

I think they may have learned a lesson, but the lesson they "learned" is to not bring anything of quality to the air at all!

Apathy on the Rise. No One Cares.

BROWNCOAT1

Friday, October 1, 2004 7:52 PM

"A little too little, a little too late".

"May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one."

SOUPCATCHER

Friday, October 1, 2004 10:05 PM

There's at least two schools of thought on F*x's treatment of Firefly. One is that F*x made mistakes. The other is that F*x deliberately set Firefly up for failure. I subscribe to the latter theory. From listening to Joss' commentary, it sounds like F*x really didn't like what they got and did everything they could (death slot, pre-emption for baseball, lack of advertising, asking for a new pilot over the weekend, running shows out of order, etc.) so that Firefly would not have good ratings. They used the low ratings and high cost as justification for cancelling the show but to me they created the situation, almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy. There's less evidence of why F*x didn't like Firefly. I have my own theories. Hank Parnell has advanced one that has some thought provoking elements. That's still a gray area for me. But there were too many mistakes made for this to be accidental, IMHO.

So I guess I wouldn't say that F*x learned anything from the cancellation of Firefly about how to better coax a show to success. What they did learn was that they were wrong in making the initial assumption that Firefly would never be a success (at least I would hope they learned this lesson).

*editted to change Josh to Joss. What the hell have I been smoking today?

There are three kinds of people: fighters, lovers, and screamers.

KASUO

Saturday, October 2, 2004 12:00 AM

Soup, what did Hank Parnell say?

SOUPCATCHER

Saturday, October 2, 2004 12:25 AM

Rather than do a recap, I'll just link to the article (and take the easy way out ).

http://www.fireflyfans.net/feature.asp?f=39

There are three kinds of people: fighters, lovers, and screamers.

ZOID

Saturday, October 2, 2004 6:21 PM

SoupCatcher and Fellow 'coats:

I myself have hypothesized that "Firefly" was killed by F*x because the message was anti-Big Business. BlueSun could not have possibly been interpreted by network execs (or their advertising reps) as being symbolic of somebody other than themselves. Joss stuck a a very sharp, pointed stick in the eye of mass marketing. Had the series been allowed to continue, Joss would have hammered that stake home, into the vast empty space that normally houses a brain in standard human anatomy (unintentional 'Buffy' reference).

When F*x brings "Fight Club" to their T.V. series lineup, complete with all the anarchist subtext, I will be convinced that they have learned their lesson. But, that ain't gonna happen, 'cause they're not gonna learn. I predict F*x will continue to deliver the T.V. equivalent of 'bread and circuses', and count on ad revenues from NFL, MLB and Fox News to keep them 'in the lilac'. And of course, they've got Ford and Coke paying big bucks for "American Idolatry" (*sneezes*Boycott Ford and Coke!*coughs*).

Luckily, I don't see that one success lasting 10 additional years. Everything wears out its welcome, eventually; hopefully, that show will die the ignominious death it so richly deserves, before I join the choir eternal...

Respectfully,

zoid
_________________________________________________

"Burn the land and boil the sea, you can't take the sky from me." The Ballad of Serenity

Only 201 days, 10 hours, 48 minutes, and 7 seconds left until The BDM!

RUXTON

Saturday, October 2, 2004 8:05 PM

The message of Firefly was also anti-government, and especially anti-government military. On another website I recently read that support is given to Hollywood movies by the military, but only if the prospective movie shows the military in a good light. No war crimes, and no Western government being the bad guys are allowed. If the military is shown to look bad by the movie script, the movie gets no support, nor any military "toys" to use. Of course the U.S. gov't and military complex of today are hand-in-glove with many TV presentations. Hence no Firefly.

.........Ruxton

SHINYLETO

Sunday, October 3, 2004 5:59 PM

Well, the thing is, while Fox was probably none too keen on Firefly's anti- Big-Business, anti- government ideas, the audience probably wasn't either. Think for a moment about Fox's primary programming: Reality shows. Right-wing Fox News. These kind of things attract Republicans (the news) and morons (reality tv). The GOP is very big on supporting Federal power and businesses (please note that I'm not trying to take a political stance here) and the kinds of people who watch reality tv aren't interested in a deep character study- type show.

Think about the current political climate. People who don't like the government (Mal) are labelled as terrorists who 'hate freedom'. The regular Fox audience wouldn't want to be called freedom-haters, and they don't want to watch people who operate outside their go-USA, stars-and-stripes comfort zone. Point is, great show or not, Fox would have difficulty persuading a large chunk of its audience to watch it.

http://blackbirdcomic.keenspace.com/

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