Firefly

[Tsukiyumi]

Woudn't be the same at all without the surviving characters.

I think it could be done right, but like you said, no network would likely take the risks involved with the kind of show Firefly was. Heroes and Lost are rather edgy, but the built-in prejudice against space sci-fi would put Firefly in a different category (even though all three shows are technically sci-fi/fantasy).

I'm still a Browncoat for life, though.

[sunnyside]

I wonder if Firefly primarily appeals to people who have already watched a lot of sci fi.

Again the toilet scene. Anybody who has spent much time on Trek message boards will be be like Ahhhhh I see what you did there.

Whereas John Q Channelsurfer would probably be wondering wft are they showing me this for?

And the bit that went:

"wait, this is something that captain has to do for himself"

"NO IT ISN"T"

"Oh"

*bang bang bang*

Is essentially an inside joke for those of us who have had to endure that in other series.

The series is rife with stuff like that and I love it for it, but it'd sail over most peoples heads.

[Tsukiyumi]

Like the line from Serenity:

Mal: " Zoe, ship is yours. Remember, if anything happens to me; if you don't hear from me within the hour, you take this ship... and you come and you rescue me."

Zoe: " What? And risk my ship?"

Mal: " I mean it; it's cold out there, and I don't wanna get left..."

Good stuff; totally against the grain.

[sunnyside]

Yeah there's something like that most episodes somewhere. You only really get the joke if you already know the grain it's going against all too painfully. Otherwise it's just kinda oddly phrased banter.

[Tsukiyumi]

Actually, it's phrased strongly right for where I'm at. I'd expect most cosmopolitan folks to not wrap around it quite right, though.

[katefan]

I would like to have seen the possible relationship between Book and Jubal Early explored. And The Agent from Serenity was black as well. I had thought that perhaps there was some secret and/or exclusive order, like Ninjas or Samurai or the like, that hired out their services and these men were a part of it? It just seemed interesting that two of the most dangerous men on the show were black and that Book had a mysterious past and certainly seemed able to take care of himself.

[sunnyside]

I'm not touching that with a 10 foot pole.

But I get the feeling there were deliberatly leaving things open to bring back Early if the show had been picked up again or something.

Of course it would be more firefly to actually have the bad guy that goes flying off into space at the end be dead.

[Mikey]

I'm not touching that with a 10 foot pole.

But I get the feeling there were deliberatly leaving things open to bring back Early if the show had been picked up again or something.

Of course it would be more firefly to actually have the bad guy that goes flying off into space at the end be dead.

Too true. I would have loved to have seen Early again, but if he were brought back, I would have thought: "Well, the show has just turned its back and what it did right."

BTW - anyone else get Universal HD channel? They show eps weekday afternoons - in HD!

[Nutso]

When I first heard about it, I didn't want to watch it. It was being marketed as a Space Western. That's all that was being said about it. Cowboys in Outer Space. I wouldn't ever want to watch that. Glad my brother saw Serenity. He loved the movie enough to make it his first movie ever purchased. So did I. Thankfully there were a few reruns on Sci-Fi and I was hooked. The television series was great. It was deep, full of it's own history, great acting, a lot of action, drama, tension.

[Tsukiyumi]

Fox's lousy marketing campaign, plus re-structuring of episode orders, and pre-emption for sports is really what killed Firefly. Fox just doesn't know what to do with a good sci-fi or fantasy show (Brimstone springs to mind).

[Mikey]

Fox's lousy marketing campaign, plus re-structuring of episode orders, and pre-emption for sports is really what killed Firefly. Fox just doesn't know what to do with a good sci-fi or fantasy show (Brimstone springs to mind).

Too right. Plus, they were unwilling to put in the initial investment/wait for return that a sci-fi series needs. SFX are expensive, and a show like that will need some time to get in the black.

[sunnyside]

Besides botching it I think part of the problem was that Fox wanted a mega hit. I poked around and Firefly actually did better than Buffy or Angel and stood shoulder to shoulder with Enterprise (in the early seasons when people watched it, not in the later ones where everybody got sick of the temporal war crap and it started tanking)

So a network like WB/UPN might well have been pleased. But I think FOX wanted Firefly to hit like CSI, Survivor, or Lost.

[Tsukiyumi]

All of those shows but Enterprise and Lost (which aired in 2004) are in completely different categories. Fox was looking for a miracle hit show in a genre without any contemporary TV hits. They should've appreciated the ratings it brought in and given it more than 14 f*cking episodes... I honestly don't trust Fox to handle anything more unorthodox than the X-Files (which they eventually f*cked up).

[Deepcrush]

Fox also messed up with Space: Above and Beyond which I thought was a damned good show.

[Nutso]

Fox also messed up with Space: Above and Beyond which I thought was a damned good show.

Fox kept preempting this show for sports coverage.