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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 give FOX a thumbs up for this. I mean they could have release Joe Millionaire on dvd....
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'.
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.
"...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!)
Wow, you couldn't be more wrong. Yes, you could be right that the show itself is partly responsible because the first two episodes were not as engaging and original as the rest of the show, but Fox scrapped their 2 episode pilot and they were forced to write a new one OVER THE WEEKEND. X-Files survived that slot with worse ratings than Firefly, probably because it was less expensive, and Fox was more of an up-and-coming network. And as to vcrs, tivos and downloading the show, you're totally off. Fox is a business. They make their money from advertising, and they use Nielsen ratings to decide how many people are seeing their advertising. They know people can avoid watching the commercials if they use a vcr or tivo, and they aren't even there if you download the show. Fox doesn't want to count those viewers. Finally, there is a groundswell of support for this show, especially given that it ran for only 11 episodes and the pilot aired as the series finale. Check out sites like fireflyfans.net, http://www.immantcreative.com/fireflysos/, and fireflysupport.com. As for ebay, it's pretty unethical to sell tapes. Maybe Firefly fans just have a conscience. There are many high-quality rips in circulation, including 800MB SVCD versions of all episodes. It's nice to see that Fox has at least seen that there's enough of a market for Firefly on DVD to warrant their attention.
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...
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