FARSCAPE CANCELLED!!!!!
POSTED BY: LivingImpaired
UPDATED: Sunday, September 15, 2002 12:14
VIEWED: 10614
PAGE 2 of 6
Sorry to be so negative, but I suspect this decision is locked in. The only reasonable explanation for such a sudden reversal is that USA Interactive doesn't intend to let SciFi have the cash to buying the show. It's a pretty weird situation -- SciFi and USA's other cable networks were supposed to be spun off into a joint USA-Vivendi operation, but that seems to have fallen through. Instead, USA seems to be moving towards becoming a subsidiary of Vivendi. Except that Vivendi itself is in trouble. So they're both looking for ways to cut costs.
Yeah it's dumb. You have to spend money to make money. But it's the way business works these days. Investors see everything in terms of the quarterly bottom line. This was true even when the economy was booming and is doubly true now. The company I work for has been profitable for 8 quarters straight, has a huge amount of cash, and no long-term debt. And yet we have to jump through hoops to justify even tiny expenditures -- even ones that would obviously save us money in the long term.
The cash issue explains a lot of stuff at SciFi that had me puzzled. Their unwillingness to show Farscape episodes that supposedly had already been paid for. Their sudden disappearance of other shows because of "poor ratings". (Ratings that are poorer than the "Tales From the Crypt" reruns they used as filler?) I'm afraid the bottom line is this: SciFi's strategy of becomming a first-run entertainment provider is dead, and it's back to reruns of other networks' shows.
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i cant believe it, I started watching Farascape yesterday starting with the S3 premiere, and now its cancelled???? I shouldnt even get into it then.
If you know anyone that can help my screenwriting career, please help! And yes, I am self-advertising here. Hehehe, me such a little devil.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Novagrass:
Independent TV... Hey, it's worked in Japan.
Yeah, like a Farscape OAV.
I actually don't see why it couldn't happen one day. 1 million viewers paying $10 to $15 each generates $10 to $15 million in revenue. Even after subtracting overheads, there's still a good chunk of change left to produce an episode or two. I may be simplistic and somewhat optimistic in my calculations, but I can't see a reason not to do it other than not being able to obtain the initial funding to produce and distribute the first couple of episodes to get the ball rolling.
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The decision came down as 422 wrapped -- that means no "final" episode. I wonder if Sci-Fi will even bother airing what's left?
Once the sets are destroyed next week, it's a done deal. I suspect they won't formally announce cancellation until then, stifling the SOS campaign.
--- Joe
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Quote:
Originally posted by FURYFIRE:
i cant believe it, I started watching Farascape yesterday starting with the S3 premiere, and now its cancelled???? I shouldnt even get into it then.
The best advice I can give is to keep supporting the series, like David Kemper said. If you stop watching, there's one less person who can help support! It's a great show, and it *has* had an 88 episode run... an amazing one at that. We should be glad it made it this far, and support the past episodes, so that we might one day see future episodes.
On another note, is anyone having problems with the phone numbers? I know it's Saturday, but you'd think at least someone would be answering phones.
--Dylan Palmer, aka NoVaGrAsS--
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Quote:
Originally posted by Haken:
From what I remember of what was in the press. SCI-FI execs had requested that Farscape Season 4 be more episodic in structure because previous seasons have been too heavily serialized.
So we have SCI-FI to blame for the show sucking this year? I don't understand their reasoning. The FARSCAPE mag listed the highest rated eps and most of them were arc-heavy. Stand-alones were always the weakest part of FARSCAPE. There were some classics, but mostly they were repetitive.
Quote:
Speculation is that Vivendi, which recently acquired both USA and SCI-FI, is having financial dificulties and is looking at offloading the SCI-FI network. To make the network more attractive to prospective buyers, they're cancelling SCI-FI's high overhead items...
This heightens the attraction of a repurposing deal for FIREFLY, I would think. Some good news there.
--- Joe
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Quote:
Originally posted by mojoeca:
This heightens the attraction of a repurposing deal for FIREFLY, I would think. Some good news there.
Maybe not. Depending on the what Vivendi has in mind for SCI-FI, even the FIREFLY repurposing deal might fall through.
Here's another speculation. If Vivendi/USA/SCI-FI is in no financial condition to produce a high cost series like Farscape, chances are they won't have the cash to pay for, albeit partially, an expensive series like FIREFLY.
Bare in mind too that FOX has in recent weeks downplayed the importance of Firefly in the press and to their prospective advertisers. If indeed the repurposing deal is a major part of getting Firefly continued beyond the 13 episodes, then there stands a good chance that Firefly might be in trouble because of what has happened to Farscape.
Regardless, the financial situation of Vivendi will affect Firefly in one way or another. Given that I doubt Vivendi will spend any large amount of money until the whole SCI-FI Network situation is resolved. And should this be the case, it'll certainly delay whatever financial backing that Firefly requires to continue production if FOX is reluctant to invest further in the series.
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Yeah but I dont have SCI FI, Novagrass, I watch it on the canadian version called SPACE where ratings dont count to keep the show in production. I hope this doesnt hurt FIREFLY's chances even more.
If you know anyone that can help my screenwriting career, please help! And yes, I am self-advertising here. Hehehe, me such a little devil.
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God, I hate corporate politics. 
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At least this gives me another excuse to cross link fireflyfans.net from slashdot:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=39447&cid=4213802
Haken, rev up the hit counters!
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