So much for a great show. Firefly gets the axe.
POSTED BY: JCWang
UPDATED: Friday, December 13, 2002 23:41
VIEWED: 8604
PAGE 2 of 2
It's 1am on a worknight, but I'm sitting here, listening to Bon Jovi and writing a letter. It's a little long and rambling, but cope.
Fifteen years ago, I went looking for Silverhawks, and instead stumbled on a little-known and very well-done cartoon with characters that burned into my memory, and forever changed my writing style.
That little show, Galaxy Rangers, boasts a small and dedicated fandom. Tapes are scarce, worn, and degraded from many years of use, but I still can recite the opening narration from memory...
"In 2086, two peaceful aliens journied to Earth, seeking our help..."
It was one of three cartoons that made a fusiuon of genres that have a hell of a time mixing - Wild West barfights and sci-fi ray guns. Blend it with light cyberpunk and a large dollop of fantasy, then add 4 wonderful characters - a charming computer hacker, an archeologist/mage from parts unknown, the survivor of a disasterous genetic engineering project, and a captain who kept it all together even as much of what he had known fell apart.
In late 1996, after a disasterous exit from DS9 fandom, I find a trace of it on the web, and a small mailing list. Eventually, I build a good page for GR and get a notice from my guestbook. Robert Mandell, the show's creator, had been nice enough to drop by...
"Thanks for the support. The making of the series was a labor of love, which means it was a financial disaster. But this is a series that won't quit. So never give up."
Well, it turns out that Joss Whedon can now sit across a saloon table with "Sir Robert" (as us GR fans call him) and discuss labors of love that were financial disasters, Nielsen ratings that never showed, and their tortured captain characters.
Firefly is dead.
USA Today ran it, the FOX boards are confirming it (Adam "Jayne" Baldwin posted there). And "Joe Millionaire" is snuggling right in and is sure to be a dandy little hit with all sorts of people cooing how "romantic" it is.
The coldest comfort I can get is that I will never see Mal and crew shoved into an airlock and killed by Bad Plot Gimmick, as was the fate of FOX's "Lone Gunmen" after their spinoff croked and the X-Files had gone past the point of corpse. I won't see a bad episode with my favorite characters dying needlessly called "poingant" and a "treat for the fans."
When my brother-in-law showed me this little gem, I was astonished and insantly hooked. I must have bored my family silly with my talk of it. And at work, I am scratching out a novel-length adventure. All the while, I have been talling myself that I never should have let myself watch, never become attached to these characters or their world. This series was a lost cause and I should turn away before I got disappointed again.
On so many levels, I fight for lost causes every day. I don't dare share my frustrations and fears on political boards (united front and all that). I have friends and family who worry about me being "disappeared" or killed for my political beliefs and activist work. I try to go out there and risk my neck for my convictions, and even as I grab my sign, attend my meetings, and send my weekly letters to Congress that I am fighting for a lost cause. Politicians work for those who line their pockets, protesting is seen as a quaint relic of the '60's, and the majority of people would either call me a filthy traitor, a nutjob...and usually both. I also have losing battles in my personal life - a mom who has cut herself off from the rest of the clan, despite all my pleading for reconcilliation, a job I dislike but pays the bills...and fanfic, the hobby I resort to so I can express my emotions and entertain...
Now, I feel like even that comfort is gone.
I'm certain you'd like a little cheese to go with this whine, so here it is...
By canning this show, I've lost quite a bit of faith. It wasn't just the show, either. It was my hope that something...ANYTHING had a hope in hell fighting the odds these days. To be proven wrong once again (and so often) just hurts all the more.
The scene I was w
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Hey people, don't be giving up just yet! It's Christmas/Hanukkah, time, the time of miracles remember? (Did I just say that out loud?Ack!) Firefly will come back, somewhere. No network with half a brain could fail to see its potential. The very worst that could happen is it gets picked up by some cable netowrk at two am or some insane time like that, but it will come back, as long as it has fans.
Sensou
Never believe that a small group of dedicated people cannot change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
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Oh crap. I just realized what today is, too. I blame the calendar.
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