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Firefly Marathon on SciFi, September 18th
kulakovich writes, "Hot on the heels of Stargate's cancellation, the SciFi Channel is running an entire season of Firefly starting at 8am (Eastern) on September 18th. This news is fresh from yesterday's posting on the Whedonesque blog. Start making space on the PVR!"
Doesn't anyone that remotely cares already have the DVD?
Start making space on the PVR??? How about buying the damn DVDs and in the process convincing the powers that be there's a market for good SciFi?
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
I know technically y'all like saying 'cancelled' but on the basis that SG-1 ran for 10 seasons, I'd hardly call that 'cancelled'. It's more accurate to state that 'it ended it's run' or 'completed' or simply just 'finished'.
When something gets canned after just the first season (Firefly), then THAT'S 'cancelled'.
-Jar.
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As a foreword, this comment is happily placed near the top so people can see it. It really only has to do with the overall subject.
// commitment] ...
--
Okay, so why is this so important to fans that own the DVD, have seen it, or can watch video streams or any other option that would mean they don't have to watch it on TV [regardless of ownership
Advertising.
What is probably one of the biggest parts of financing a TV network is securing advertising that pays well. If you buy the DVD, or watched it before, etc... yes you have made a commitment and helped them out. The problem is the same as with newspapers. They make SO MUCH of their money off advertising they would rather give away the newspapers in some situations to customers who don't want to pay than deal with their issue. Networks work similarly. If the show can't produce good advertising [TV spots in the tens of thousands] and they have one that can [TV spots in the hundreds of thousands] they will do what is financially the smart decision, even if viewers who are watching like the current content.
I could bet a good chunk of money that somewhere up there some people are watching this very carefully to see how it goes. They made a movie that did alright but not outstanding, but... it did good so it shows promise. The DVDs have sold well, but not in bundles... again, good but not outstanding.
What they're probably looking for is what kind of viewership they have during the marathon. This is the kind of event that could tip someone's opinion on their network into saying... hey... lets put together another season. This will get us viewers = dollars.
-TK
If you dig the Firefly opening, check the links below out. An indie folk group took the theme and turned it into a full-length song (and they did a pretty damn good job with it) using the theme as their chorus and adding some very well-written verses.
3
http://www.cyphertext.net/escapekey/Mal_studio.mp
Other songs by the same group, here:
http://www.cyphertext.net/escapekey/songs.html
--Rick "If it isn't broken, take it apart and find out why."
Have you seen the show
Several times. It was a good show, though I've gotten tired of it.
and do you know anything of the Civil War and American history in general?
I know the highlights.
Firefly has absolutely no racist content. It does use the post-Civil War South as the setting, but it uses it the way it uses spaceships as horses. They're slightly different. The sci-fi version of the Civil War is a libertarian vs. authoritarian fight with the obvious parallels filling in mythology gaps. The genesis of the backdrop is not "I wish the south had won", it's "no one is ever 100% right".
One of the consequences of the Civil War, while obviously doing some fantastic things for human rights, was a reduction in states' rights. And that is the part taken for the show. In the US case, it was a trade worth making. In the show's case, what is exchanged for the elimination of states' rights is never made clear, so it's assumed to be something unworthy.
But again, there is no racism in the show. You need to learn what "sci-fi/fantasy" means, and not judge a guy based on a story that doesn't say what you've decided it probably says. If the setting had been based on the War of 1812 and starred guys with British accents, would you assume they hated America?
Yeahbutwhat?
A show where one episode (Shindig) opens with Mal starting a bar fight with some guys... because they were slave traders?
Where one of the crew is a hero to an entire town of indentured servants because of his (ok, misunderstood) actions? (Jaynestown)
A show where most of the episodes revolve around personal freedom? (River's in Objects in Space, the whores in Heart of Gold, the indentured servants in Jaynestown, Saffron's in Our Mrs. Reynolds (till the end, anyway), Simon and River's in Safe and Ariel, Mal's in Out of Gas, and the list goes on with many moments in every show?)
A show where the entire premise is, arguably, about freedom?
The crew of Serenity were on the losing side of the war, and that's where the similarities end. Comparing Firefly/Serenity to the South in the Civil war is one of the more whacked out things I've ever heard.
My script don't crash! She crashes, you crashed her!
That's because they're not smart enough to realize you can't wage war against something just because it's a bloody noun.
Like a war on piracy?
Or a war on slavery?
The Royal Navy conducted both rather successfully (along with other countries). I admit, neither Fox News nor MSNBC nor CNN recently covered them.
Back to the topic, Firefly is unusual, politically. It's hard to think of an SF show that's that libertarian. Most are either Utopian quasi-socialist/progressive (e.g. Star Trek), or have a strong military background coupled with a government ranging from progressive to conservative, but almost never libertarian (BSG, Stargate, B5...). Many feature a rebellion against a totalitarian regime, (Star Wars) but all the rebels typically want to set up a conventional big (though nicer) government of their own ("The New Republic") rather than just fly free ("You can't take the sky from me")
Firefly suggests, almost heretically, that excessively centralized government itself is part of the problem, despite the good intentions of same.
Holmwood.
Okay, you made a great point about trying to show the popularity of the show by boosting viewership. Unfortunately, I don't have the SciFi channel, so I can't help out. However, a point continues coming to mind:
/., you think I rtfa? Probably was in there, wasn't it?)
How do networks determine viewership? Say a million of us tune in to watch the Marathon, half even stay for the entire thing. What is the process by which the networks discover this fact? I'm trying to figure out how much it matters what show I'm watching if I don't have some sort of Nielson box in my house.
Regardless, I'm very glad that enough of the popularity has gotten noticed so that it can be re-aired. And probably in the correct order, too. (This is
This particular marathon doesn't mean all that much, but starting on Sept. 24, Firefly will be broadcast in high definition on UHD, which is going to be awesome.
http://www.tvweek.com/page.cms?pageId=212
I just read this little insight about TV a few days ago (maybe here on /.) that completely changed how I look at TV. Programs are made for the advertisers, and we the viewers are just the product. When it comes right down to it, the sucess or failure of a program is determined by the advertising revenue, not really viewership. It's the amount of viewers that draw the advertisers which pays the bills. Bascially only DVD sales and 'webisodes', which are marketed directly to the viewers, are the only place the advertisers are out fo the process.
I just checked again on the list of bestselling DVDs on Amazon. The Firefly set is ranked at #59. That may not sound impressive, except consider the following:
This is about as low as I've seen its rank, as the interest is gradually fading. They update this list HOURLY, and I've checked on it quite frequently over the past year or so. It sat consistently in the top 20 for most of that year. The other thing is that DVDs come and go from that bestseller list frequently. The ones on there now are not the ones that were there 3 months ago, or 6 months ago, or a year ago. And yet Firefly has been on there all that time, mostly in the top 20. The Serenity movie was hanging in there about 10 spots lower than Firefly through most of that time.
There are some pretty impressive amounts of sales going on for it to sit in the best selling list that long. Also, I don't think the point is lost on the network people that this show has managed to build up a following much bigger after it was gone and off the air than it ever had in its short life. That shows that it's not just the hype and publicity and TV ads for it that are keeping up interest for it. It is actually people being introduced to the show by friends and loving it and telling others about it--THREE YEARS AFTER IT WAS CANCELLED!
I have been listening to a podcast about the Firefly universe called The Signal. One of the things they broadcast was an interview with Jewel Staite, who played Kaylee. She mentioned that the rights deal they signed for the making of Serenity options the cast for a trilogy of movies. Joss and Universal's deal to get those rights from Fox included that they cannot make more of the TV series for 10 years (from the cancellation in 2003). They do, however, have full rights to keep making movies. Also, if it does well, they could offer to buy out the remainder of that 10 years from Fox if they really wanted to.
If anything is going to float this boat, I think it will be the very strong DVD sales, which are already showing. They could even make more episodes to release straight to DVD. That probably wouldn't qualify as a TV show, so they could do that without running afoul of the Fox deal.
We may experience some slight turbulence and then...explode. -Capt. Mal Reynolds