Firefly Question

[gkarfan]

When I saw the first ep. of Firefly, I was underwhelmed & didn't watch the rest of the series, but I am now watching the show on DVD & am changing my mind. I was wondering about that rumor of a movie version of Firefly. Is it really going to happen, & will it be a theatrical release?

Tammy

 

[KoshN]

I was wondering about that rumor of a movie version of Firefly. Is it really going to happen, & will it be a theatrical release?

Hope so! One thing for sure, the order in the DVD Set is MUCH better than FOX's airing order.

DVD Set Order (#'s are the FOX airing order)
11. Serenity
1. The Train Job
2. Bushwhacked
6. Shindig
7. Safe
3. Our Mrs. Reynolds
4. Jaynestown
5. Out of Gas
8. Ariel
9. War Stories
Trash (UNAIRED)
The Message (UNAIRED)
Heart of Gold (UNAIRED)
10. Objects in Space

If it'd been aired in this order, I suspect the series would still be on today.

 

[AntonyF]

Doubtful. The numbers weren't even there for the pilot. This wasn't a Birds of Prey, which saw high numbers and dived. I think there just wasn't the interest.

Plus Fox's Friday just gets worse, and worse and worse. I'd prefer to have Dark Angel still around.

 

[gkarfan]

Maybe people who are like me will watch the DVDs & realize that Firefly actually was a good series. I think I just wrote it off because I feared that it would get cancelled, since Fox is too cancel-happy. I hate getting hooked on a series that ends up being short-lived. At least they take DVD-sales into account now. DVD-sales are a lot more accurate than the Nielsen ratings.

Tammy

 

[AntonyF]

I think Firefly is Buffy all over again.

Buffy, so many people love when they get into it. I've gotten a few people into it. But the fact that it's "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer" it was never going to break past its own boundaries -- no matter how good the writing. That's why its Nielsens were steady for five years but were never spectacular. And also why the Emmys passed them by. It could never escape niche.

I think Firefly was heading for the same, with its heavy-Western feel. It would have never broken beyond mainstream... but in this case it didn't even reach viable.

I do hope the DVDs do well though. A series straight to DVD is something I'd really like to see happen... and something like strong Firefly sales would help generally in the market.

 

[phoenixrising]

IMHO, this show got canceled cause the network screwed around with the broadcast order. For some insane reason, the last episode they aired was the two-hour pilot .

I agree, this show was nowhere near as good as Joss Whedon's other show ( Buffy of course) but at the time, it was the only sci-fi on TV and anything (well almost anything) is better than nothing.

 

[AntonyF]

But phoenixrising... as I said above, it never had high ratings. This isn't like people tuned in, didn't like it, then left. It doesn't matter what they showed as the pilot... the numbers of interest just were not there.

 

[phoenixrising]

I watched the first episode they aired and found the show rather confusing (and we won't even go into the mixing of Western and Sci-Fi). After seeing the pilot, it cleared some things up. Maybe if they had aired that episode first, the ratings would have been a little higher.

 

[AntonyF]

Yeah... but you're saying this after the fact. Those thinking "Hmm, shall I tune in" don't know what episode is first.

And the fact is, the pilot ranked lower than Dark Angel ever did.

I stand by my assumption that it was a sell that just wasn't going to work from the start.

At most, Fox can be accused of not marketing it enough.

 

[kgregerson]

Fox also hurt the show by airing only 2 episodes (The Train Job and Bushwacked), then taking the show off for six weeks because of the baseball playoffs and World Series. Fox later admitted that this scheduling had been a mistake and announced that they would premiere some of their new shows earlier, so that they could get more episodes on the air before the Baseball Break. Thus The O.C. and a couple other shows got early starts when the rest of the networks were still in rerun mode, giving them time to catch viewers while there was no real competition. Unfortunately, Firefly had already been killed before Fox realized its scheduling might have been part of the problem.

 

[superbob]

When it was aired down here I knew about the ep mix up so I was quite prepered for it. It's a pity it was cancelled but when a show like farscape gets deep sixed, what chance does a mixed up, western/futuristic series have?