Farscape to Return? Is Sci-Fi Channel Redeemed?

Cyno01 writes "I was just watching Firefly and switching to Taken during commercials (i'm a thief i know), and I caught a commercial for Sci-Fi 2003. It looks like there's going to be a few new actual sci-fi shows, and some not. Tremors: The Series, Children of Dune and another talkshow-esq looking thing called The Dream Team with Annabelle and Michael. Also it looks like Stargate: SG1 and yes, Farscape, are still alive and kicking."

Comments

possibly

[RobertTaylor]

Why no link directly to the latest farscape news? Or perhaps the Cancellation FAQ and get some real facts!

A novel concept for /. no doubt ;)

Re:possibly

[StormcallerESC]

Because there is no latest Farscape news there, and the cancellation FAQ is out of date and, for the most part, PR propoganda. For some real up to date news and facts, try savefarscape.com.

Re:possibly

[Anonymous Coward]

Just because someone uses the acronym FAQ doesn't mean it all contains facts.

There are several things notable in the faq which, well, sidestep the issue. The reality is, the later viewing time DID hurt the show. It comes at the same time as early newscasts (10pm) and people don't want to stay up to catch the 12am showing. Not only that, humans are still creatures of habit. If they are watching for a show to start at 9, and they don't see it, they don't think it's on.

The fact as they stated that Stargate did not cut into Farscape is almost funny. Networks look at the bottom line of the network as well as the shows both, not separately. A big budget on one show can negatively impact another show on a network that is sliding down. At the time of the cancellation, the ad sales for TV had been sliding for months.

The network committed to 2 more years. They withdrew using a clause in the contract. That's their right. There is no dispute of these facts. SciFi can try to spin it all they want. It was still their action that cancelled the show.

The promo'd the 4th season? Hah. I watch a LOT of TV. There was little promo'ing of the 4th season compared to earlier seasons. Heck, I knew about Farscape before I even had SciFi channel in my area due to their promo'ing on other channels. Come the end of the 3rd and more importantly the 4th season, the only reason I knew the 4th season started was because I was looking out for it. Not only that, they screwed up the 3rd season scheduling by splitting up the season 3 ways with at least 1.5 month breaks between and then changed the start of the 4th season twice.

Reruns? Please. Since the cancellation, they haven't shown the show. Period. No reruns. Nada. So they'll have a chain reaction on the 24th. Uh huh. Except for fans, what a horrible time to rerun. 1 day when everyone is shopping or travelling. Idiots. Oh, except for the recent pseudo-push, I haven't seen 1 commercial for Farscape in 3 months.

The real facts speak for themselves. Ignore the fans, and you'll still find TV execs and writers wondering what the hell SciFi channel did what they did. Whether you like the show or not, the fact is, it was cancelled by SciFi. We can debate the merits of the cancellation or the show all you want, but at least recognize when something is or is not accurate. I know the ratings went down--hell, I felt that way myself. I was half asleep by the time the show kicked in waiting for it on it's first run and had difficulty remember it was on at a different time. Then again, maybe I'm the only person in the world that once in a blue moon sits down on Tuesday night thinking Angel is coming on.

Farscape

[cat_jesus]

Is still canceled.

Re:Farscape

[Photon Ghoul]

Exactly. Just because they are still promoting the final episodes of the series does not mean that it is now back in production. They are simply trying to squeeze what they can out of the rest of their investment by promoting the last of the season.

*mumbles something about a Slashdot story based off of some guy's malinformed impression of a TV commercial he saw as he was swapping back and forth between two shows*

Re:Farscape

[Twirlip of the Mists]

I am hearing rumors of firefly being cancelled, or are they just rumors?

The Straight Shit:

Firefly has been placed on hiatus. What that means is that Fox has not ordered any additional episodes beyond the ones (15, I think) that have already been produced. This does not mean the show has been cancelled; when a show goes on hiatus, that means the network is trying to figure out what their next step should be. They can move the show to another night, or re-tool it somehow with the cooperation of the producers, or they can just give up on it completely. The decision has not been made yet.

I believe that Fox knows the show is in a timeslot-of-death. Friday night at 8:00 is not a particularly fertile ground in which to plant the seed of an hour-long, serious, continuity-heavy, science-fiction drama. So the prevailing opinion is that Fox is going to find a new night and time for the show. The leading candidate as of a few days ago was Monday night at 9:00, but rumors have surfaced around the office lately that they're considering Thursday night at 8:00, opposite "Survivor" and "Friends."

Moving Firefly to a new timeslot would be good, and an easy fix. A somewhat harder fix might come if the network decides to go to M.E. with notes. Joss doesn't typically respond well to notes. He's a reasonable guy and all, but he's not big with the compromising of his vision. See, Joss is a thinker, and he's already got most everything he wants to do with Firefly for the next year or two planned out in his head. If Fox comes in with notes that say, "Drop three main characters and introduce a romantic interest for the captain," he'll probably not be too agreeable. At that point, M.E. has the option of either going along to get along, closing down the show, or shopping it around to another network. And they're not in the greatest position to shop it around to another network right now.

But the bottom line is that Firefly has metric assloads of critical acclaim, and a positively rabid fan-base. Fox knows that it's possible to take a little show with a few dedicated fans and turn it into a hit: see X-Files, The. They're not in any big hurry to cancel the show until they're sure it's not going anywhere.

For evidence of this, just think about David E. Kelly's last show, "Girls' Club." Fox dropped that particular hot potato after only two episodes aired. They knew that the show was going nowhere, and had no particular hopes of saving it. So they cut their losses. The fact that they haven't done this with Firefly is reassuring in the extreme.

Farscape

[zaren]

Don't forget that they finished shooting the rest of hte shows for this seasn, and SciFi has stated that they will be releasing those shows starting in January. It's possible they're going to continue the series... then again, it's possible they're just using the material they have left, with no intention to continue the series past the new episodes they've shot.

Only the remainder of Farscape...

[CuriousKangaroo]

They're only going to be showing the still unaired last half of the fourth season of Farscape.

After that, it's over, ending in a helluva cliffhanger.

No Farscape for you!

Don't think so...

[sparkler]

You obviously haven't even read the very links you posted! Check out the Farscape link and you will find (sadly) that the Sci-Fi channel is just running the episodes already filmed to finish season 4! According to the FAQ, the show has been cancelled and will not be returning for another season. (They will however, undoubtedly be endlessly re-running the shows already made.)

You linked to Farscape Page - BUT DID NOT READ IT!

[jackb_guppy]

A small clip from the SCIFI-FAQ:

Additionally, in past seasons, Farscape had built upon its lead-in program (i.e., had more viewers than the program preceding it - a standard industry indicator of a show's success). For example, during the summer of 2001, Farscape increased 44% in ratings and 51% in households over its lead-in, The Invisible Man. However, this past summer, Farscape lost 29% of its lead-in program in terms of ratings, and 27% in households.

Based on this FarScape lost market share when SciFi cancelled I-Man. Two great campy shows work better than one.

I guess I can not understand network programming.

PS: When you go to the FarScape page... A pop-up about the cancelation appears. My guess it is still cancelled.

Farscape

[edo-01]

Well, we wrap work on the VFX for episode 422 this week, and once that's done we're archiving everything to DLT and going our seperate ways... as far as I know it's still over.

I was at Animal Logic last week and asked our producer if she'd heard anything different from Andrew (one of the exec producers) - nada. It's all winding down - on Thursday we hit a local pub for the VFX wrap party then that's it :-(

Anyway, at this point I'm rooting for Firefly ;-)

Farscape still has 13 episodes left

[Cyberllama]

It hasn't been cancelled in the sense that they won't show it anymore, just that they won't buy any new episodes. The 13 episodes slated to start airing in January are the last 13, they were the ones being finished up when the word came down that sci-fi wasn't ordering anymore.

Farscape only 11 episodes left

[CryoStasis]

They are airing commercials for Farscape but as far as I know the show is still canceled. The episodes that they will be airing in Jan 2003 will be the last 11 episodes of the 4th season if I recall correctly.