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Firefly Coming to DVD
Kaypro writes "According to the scoop over at Ain't it Cool, it seems that Fox has decided that there's not enough viewers to keep the Firefly series on the air, but somehow there's enough fans to make money off DVD sales. Go figure. Included in the set will be the entire season plus unaired episodes and the original pilot in full 16:9 format. Extras I assume are included as well. No release date has been set as of yet." The missing episodes will be nice. In order will be nice. Such a good show. The last couple of episodes were just awesome.
I know a lot of people were put off by the first few episodes not being that great. Personally, I liked the entire series, I was just not around much while it was on. I just can't understand why they would put it on during a Friday night.
Can someone explain the demographic they are shooting for with that time-slot?
I give FOX a thumbs up for this. I mean they could have release Joe Millionaire on dvd....
Excerpt from AICN:
"Further to the piece about Firefly coming to DVD at some point, the UK Sci-Fi channel have now added the series to their listing for May. According the listings here they have it on Sundays at 7pm starting with the first part of Serenity on May 18th. In their forums they have also confirmed they'll be showing the unaired episodes!! YEAH!!!"
Also I have a blooper quicktime clip of FireFly which is pretty funny, but more often scary. Weighing in at 57.9MB, I was wondering if anyone would be willing to host it on a BitTorrent link for our fellow Slashdotians. Reply below.
Eddy.WriteLinux.Com
Ok, Fox...
Where's MILLENNIUM!?
I live in a backwater communist country (read Sweden), so I haven't had the chance to see it yet. We're usually a year or two behind everyone else. It's quite annoying actually, since you usually manage to spoil half of the episodes just by reading stuff on the net.
Anyone with a well-paid job in the states who want to switch lives with a law-student in Stockholm? I have a cute girl-friend that would be included. Anyone?
It's apparently cost effective to release them for series that weren't on the air long and which will therefore be difficult to find even in syndication (which has traditionally at least demanded that shows be on the air for three years or so to sell). The other short-lived Fox show I'd like to see come out on DVD is Action.
Fox didn't handle Firefly particularly well but I'm sort of doubtful that was the reason for its demise at the end of the day. I sort of enjoyed it and found the characters generally appealing, but the whole literal Western in space thing took a REALLY massive suspension of disbelief. The whole economic system the show portrayed just didn't make sense (e.g. paying for an interstellar trip by hauling some cattle around). Etc. And it was reputedly a very expensive show to make.
I really enjoyed Firefly and was very disapointed when it was cancelled. The idea of seeing the three unaired episodes really makes me happy. For those of you who don't know much about Firefly, its basic premise revolved around a trader/smuggler who once fought a secessionist war against Earth (heavily referencing the American Civil War). In describing it, the creator Joss Weadon said, "The idea that they may have invented cool lasers but not everybody can afford them is sort of the premise on which we work. Lasers take you to a science-fiction place that I feel has been covered too much." Firefly was the type of ship he flew. The first episode aired was terrible, but the show continued to get better and better. There were lots of subplots and so forth. One of the things I really appreciated from the show was they never showed sound in space, which was done very artfully and really added an eerie feel to the show. Over all it was very well done.
"Space Western" works for almost any SciFi show. It was the original description for Star Trek.
While Firefly did have a lot of semi-low-tech frontier-town-like adventures, they balanced it off fairly well showing the high-tech rich worlds.
It's a real shame the pilot didn't air first. The pilot clearly showed that there are bery highly advanced worlds, full of high-tech. Unfortunately, many people don't like the opressive governemnt running these worlds and have relocated to distant frontier worlds, where they aren't as supressed by the government, but also don't have access to much of the advanced tech.
Firefly was a very well-made show. Fox chose to push the Space Western aspect, airing the more space-westerny episodes first. I guess they thought that'd be the show's gimmik, rather than really good writing and character development.
Anyway, yes, Firefly was a "space western", but not "just a space western". I think a better description would be "Really well written space western".
Another good description would be "The Anti Startrek". The ship actually has a bathroom, for goodnessake.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is kinky.
The scripts of the three unaried episodes were auctioned on ebay and two of them were later released by the buyer. Go grab Heart of Gold' and 'Trash'.
There are a ton of sites to answer not only this question, but the same question for MANY other shows as well. I won't remind you that a google search for firefly space western may turn up some infromative pages, but will point you to TV Tome.
New /. poll:
How many of you have seen^H^H^H^H heard of "Firefly"?
It's the best |..| 18 votes
What the @!%&#$ is that?? |.............| 8142 votes
CowboyNeal should be shot |...| 246 votes
Stop and think about it for a second.
Cost to produce new TV shows and air them? Lots
Cost to release existing shows on a cheap meduim? Not a lot.
It's very simple.
I had made a comment that the issue isn't that Fox couldn't/wasn't doing well with Firefly, it was that Fox new that reality T.V. had more bang for the buck. Since it appears that Fox tried to tell Joss what do to and he wouldn't, they were more than prepared to tank the show in favor of all this rubbish that has been coming down the pike. Producing a DVD for an "unviable" series I think proves that Fox knew full well the series had and has a following.
Bel, the mostly sane.. "Of course I can't see anything! I'm standing on the shoulders of idiots." -- Me
"...it seems that Fox has decided that there's not enough viewers to keep the Firefly series on the air, but somehow there's enough fans to make money off DVD sales. Go figure."
I'm going to be uncharacteristically non-cynical for a moment, and suggest an alternate theory. Perhaps Fox will see how many DVD sets are sold, and if sales are surprisingly high, continue the series.
TV production houses now undoubtedly see DVD sales as a huge revenue earner, most likely beginning to rival their traditional advertising and subscription income. Now, even if the series doesn't cover costs while being broadcast, the money from DVD sales could potentially more than make up for that. In that scenario, a series like FireFly would have a huge chance at success - but it would all depend on how much the fanbase truly does value the show.
The future of TV could become little more than DVD advertising, with the episodes shown on the air little more than fodder to lure people in. DVD sets then become the real product, and are sold riddled with bonuses, extra scenes, and eventually, as in this case, extra episodes.
So, maybe Fox will think there's enough viewers - if you cough up for the DVDs.
(Then again, what do I know? I've never watched FireFly, I have no experience with American cable TV at all! Armchair analysis is fun!)
Adam Baldwin (Jayne) said on the Fox Firefly message board that one of the commentary tracks was going to be the entire cast, plus Joss and Tim Minear (one of the head writers), drinking beer and generally mocking their characters.
Good times, good times.
"Max, come over here. French-Canadian bean soup. I want to pay. Let them leave me alone." - Dutch Schultz
Honestly, the sets are why I liked the show. Star Trek looks like a cruise liner, not a military ship. FireFly is the first sci-fi where the inside of the ship actually looks like the inside of a real ship - functional, cheap, and not as many windows as people would like. And the freaking sofas and normal terrestrial furniture/decorations reinforce that.
I loved how FireFly's ship just seemed so real. A ship I could finally believe.
Atleast the stories in Outlaw Star made sense.
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
I see a lot of people knocking 'Firefly' around. They call it a ripoff or not entertaining enough or confusing. Wake up and smell the cow manure blended with starship exhaust.
What isn't a ripoff these days? Most creators of art even take the time to admit and thank those that influenced their work. Space westerns have been around much longer than, oh say 'Cowboy Bebop' for example. Robert Heinlein and other authors have explored that genre before. So what? If an old idea is done well, it can bring enjoyment to new people.
It may not be interesting enough to you. Everyone is entitled to their opinions ('specialy if they're congruent with mine). I find it quite interesting however. Science fiction blended with sociological aspects appeals to quite a lot of people. Remember, it was fringe groups that got many science fiction shows the recognition they deserve. Examples: 'The X-Files', 'Farscape', 'Buffy', just to name a few of the more recent.
Confusing? Okay, I don't have a better answer for this. You're confused and you read Slashdot? Do you have an interpreter?
British SciFI have bought all of Firefly and will start showing it next month. Originally they were planning to show it in the same order as in the US, but when fans (from across the pond) started emailing them about the importance of NOT showing the pilot LAST (like Fox did!) they agreed to show the series in the right order (fancy that).
3 516
http://www.uk.scifi.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
It's always the same pattern:
"[TV Show/Movie] is a complete and utter ripoff of [some TV show or movie or book the fanboy irrationally obsessed about]" as if the latter was the first ever made with the themes or ideas in question.
You see, to fanboys, there is no history existing before the moment they saw the show/movie they consider the archetype. The entertainment universe simply cam into being fully formed at that moment.
Dude, I dug Bebop, enough to shell out semiserious cash for the special eidition DVD boxed set, but Bebop and Firefly are completely distinct shows.
Is Trigun a ripoff of Bebpo or vice versa?
It's like someone I know claiming the PS2 game Xenosaga is a Stargate ripooff because both start with the unearthing of ancient alien tech on Earth. He's a Stargate fanboy, so the idea of ancient alien tech on Earth came into being with that movie. Forget the fact that H.P. Lovecraft was exploring that idea in the 1930's, and the fact that Xenosaga then leaps 4000 years into the future and has nothing to do with Stargate's story. To him, Xemosaga is a Stargate ripoff because of a single common theme in the opening scenes.
C'mon, tell the truth. You are just angry Firefly didn't have muppets, aren't you?
We watched the pilot, however, and didn't miss an episode since.
Since the pilot was the last episode aired, that wasn't very hard to do.
Fox is stupid.
You can't take the sky from me...
is that they don't really even seem interested in Sci-Fi. John Edwards, Scare Tactics and the bounty of 'B' quality horror movies make up the majority of their lineup. They only seem to put up 2 hours of quality sci-Fi per week. Babylon 5, Stargate SG1, Farscape, Outer Limits... In the past 5 years they have had very few good Sci-Fi shows considering that they are called the Sci-Fi Channel.
I think if they had any real sense, they would negotiate hard for syndication rights for good, recent Sci-Fi shows that started on broadcast TV, or recent quality movies. How come TNN can get Star Trek:tNG, and the best that the 'Sci-Fi' channel can do is the ancient original with Kirk? They never seem to get a movie less than 10 years old that grossed more than 10 million in the theaters. In fact, alot of the movies they show had to bypass the theaters because they're so bad.
Sci-Fi's problem is that they think only single, dateless dorks would like Sci-Fi. They usually only have 2-3 hours of programming each week to promote their good shows in (on good weeks, no less). This is their 7-10 slot on Friday, the no-date loser slot where regular networks put their crappy shows. Sci-Fi thinks this is the best time to run their top-notch programming. There really isn't any reason to tune in any other time, so you only find out about their new shows if you are already very into one of their current shows.
Get off my launchpad!
Zoic Studios does the CG for Firefly, Angel and Buffy (all Mutant Enemy shows).
Zoic was started in 2002 by Loni Peristere who previously worked for Radium and Digital Magic. Mutant Enemy already worked with Loni when he worked for Digital Magic and moved at the same time as Loni to Radium, so it is not a coincedence ME decided to move to Zoic after Loni left Radium.
More information about Firefly CG
BitTorrent
Regular Link
it had a rep for being an illegal transport, because it had lots of places to hide things, if i remember correctly.
re TV->DVD market -- part 3, profit!!, is questionable
First, when Millennium was ended, DVDs were not really all the rage, esp. full TV series releases. The cost to go to DVD was probably far higher than it is now. The transition to go to DVD was not on people's minds immediately (see third).
Second, Fox probably was trying to sell the series to some sort of syndication like market, for reruns, which is the traditional faire. They tend to make more money this way.
Third, if they killed the series so badly as you think, you honestly believe there was someone with a clue who cared about the series at Fox? Hardly.
Fourth, the contracts they may have signed may have been dependent on a certain amount of time before going to VHS or DVD. Or a number of years to try to sell before going to syndication. Time passed, now coming out with a DVD looks less bright, and in retrospect not coming out with the video sooner was a mistake. Maybe they had something else in the pipe, like a holding agreement on the video release of the series.
Fifth, they could have looked at the economics and seen that while assured sales figures were high (the fringe fan market if you will), the other potential buyers were iffy enough not to warrant the risk (lame excuse in my book).
Personally, I agree with you--stuff should go to DVD sooner. Millennium would probably have been a success; even now, still. Babylon5 come out after years on DVD (was on VHS) and seems to be doing reasonably, despite the time to DVD was a while and there is a dichotomy in whether people liked that show. Then again, I'm one of those people that think Season 5 of Farscape could have been a sequential release DVD and been able to recoup the costs of shooting season 5 plus some small profit (although interest lost from the time to sales might not have made it viable)--iow, release a DVD with 2-3 shows, wait until sales reach figures that recoup the shooting costs for those episodes (so people buy, knowing they support the show, and limit pirating) + 3/22 of that amount (since the last DVD released doesn't have this guarantee), release the next in line, etc., until all 22 episodes were released.
It's really very sad and disturbing. Fox honestly seems to develop some of the best and most original shows that hit TV these days, along with some of the absolute worst crap. Why do they nearly always choose the crap over the good stuff?
Firefly is a great example. Do I have to mention Futurama? What about Andy Richter being taken off the air for this godawful crap "The Pits"?
*Sigh*.
:Wq
Not an editor command: Wq
I think if you read the full posting you'll see that they were actually destroyed. The wording was, "They did not fold and hold them..." They could certainly be rebuilt, though. And the latest glimmer of hope came just last week.
I think that's the first time I've ever heard someone say "goddamn" when talking about Firefly.
Freedom, well depending on how you define this, we used to have this, though we have significanlty less now than we did two years ago and are looking at even less. We're actually going to get Big Brother watching us pretty damned soon(TIAO), and I personally can't think of anything less free than that, especially since we're not even getting anything in return.
Wealth, well you can get wealth if you're born into the right family, or if you luck out, and assuming you measure wealth entirely by unecessary material objects. Of course this wealth comes at the price of making sure that at least several hundred other people don't get any of that wealth. Capitalism survives because it's likethe lottery, it offers people an astronomically low chance of upward social mobility which keeps the poor in line while not upsetting the rich.
Progress may as well be wiped off the list immediately since it's both hard to define and hard to place a value on, one man's progress is another's degeneration.
best of the best is merely American arogance, if you don't think there's anything wrong with America, then you've got to look around at the world outside you.
As for your arguments against socialism, we aren't all that far from the first two(though we're slaves to the protection of "democracy and freedom", neither of which we really have), we're in an economic recession which sort of implies at least temporarily the last two
That's not to say socialism is the answer either, Marxism is just as based on rampant materialism as capitalism is, and yes of course several millions of people have been murdered by communist systems, as they have by fascist systems, monarchic systems, and even supposedly democratic systems, people aren't terribly nice to each other. Nor does Marxist socialism actually exist now or previously in it's theorized form anywhere on the globe. That said, Marxism though it is certainly a failed ideology, it is a step in the right direction(if you don't believe this, look at how many socialist style reforms have been introduced into the united states and how many of your freedoms depend on those, particularly economically). There is value in working towards the good of the many rather than solely for your own gain, just as there is value in having the state play a much larger role in protecting the people from the economic excesses of big buisness.
I personally have almost zero faith in my own(American) politcal system, and just about the same amount in that of other countries.
Sorry missed a hit, soma comes from the book brave new world by Aldous Huxley. If you had read said book, it critiques a society which places primary emphasis on physical enjoyment and consumption and was a critique not of Socialism or Communism, but of the future of capitalist and in particularAmerican society. That is all.
Agreed, that show kicked ass.
I signed up for a "fan club" over it, something I've never been a member of. Ever. In my entire (30 something) life. I don't even like TV, I'm only a moderate fan of sci-fi, but this show was so good overall I actually wrote a snail-mail to Fox (email too of course).
So good in fact that I procured the aired episodes via pirate channels, something I've never done for music or movies. Not out of some moral obligation, mind you, I've just had better things to do than shuffle around the net looking for crap to fill my brain with or waste my money on. As it is I got horrible copies (including the weather alerts and ghosting of the signal from whomever recorded it) - and I've watched them twice.
In fact, I've had a hard time finding anyone who DIDN'T like it -- at least for those who saw it since they jerked the schedule around so much. I know it was expensive to produce (2 mil per episode), but it had better ratings that the X-Files' first season (a show I only caught by accident). And that was with the scheduling snafu's... says something about the show and it's ability to flourish if given half a chance.
Another note, I've heard even FOX knows they screwed up, they just think it's too late to save now. In any case, yeah, I'll pick up clean copies. Bastards.
Sgt_Jake