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What Has Fox Got Against Its Own Sci-Fi Shows?
brumgrunt writes "Dollhouse. The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Fringe. Three science fiction shows that Fox commissioned, put on the air, and — in the case of at least one of them — has won rave reviews. But why does it seem that Fox is trying to kill some of its own shows with crazy scheduling decisions? How can Fringe survive after being pulled for two months, and what hope is there for Sarah Connor and Dollhouse on a Friday night?"
Tivo recording numbers is why they would do this. I've recently read an article about this, and it is clearly a good decision. Shows like Sarah Connor Chronicles (bleh) have small but dedicated followings, and the Tivo recording numbers (also kept and recording by Nielsen) are considerably higher than live-showing numbers. Hence, schedule is irrelevant, since the people who watch these shows will continue watching them regardless of the schedule.
Trust me, kids; don't drink and post.
Friday isn't all that bad for Sci-Fi. The longest running sci-fi show in history, Stargate:SG1, spent most of it's life (if not all) on Friday nights. It's spinoff, Stargate Atlantis, also resided on Friday night as well.
I really enjoyed the firefly series after purchasing it on DVD, and watching the episodes in order. FOX seemed to do everything in their power to kill this show..
1. Friday night scheduling.
2. Airing the episodes out of order.. I mean HELLO ?? The order was 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 4, 5, 9, 10, 14, 1; with 11 â" 13 unaired
The wikipedia entry for Firefly contains more detailed criticism of Fox for their treatment of this series. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Firefly_episodes
Fox is definitely the last place you want to try out a new series. It's hard to start watching a new series on their network, knowing their track record for killing off anything that might be halfway decent.. Why bother getting interested in a show that won't be around tomorrow ?
far...out
Those 5 o'clock Simpsons episodes were programmed by your local station (which may have been a Fox station), not by Fox.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
The fact that so many great shows have been canceled on Fox over the years and yet MadTV somehow KEEPS GOING ON AND ON FOR SOME INEXPLICABLE REASON was what finally turned me into an atheist.
Good news, Everyone! I just found out that they were announced to be canceled in November 2008.
Posts not to be taken literally. Almost everything is sarcasm.
Btw, Mad TV just got canceled:
http://www.variety.com/VR1117995723.html
God loves you!
That's due to a fundamental difference in the nature of soccer and the more popular American sports. When I watch English Premier League I know that there will probably be 10 minutes of stoppage time or so at the most. If it is a draw - that's the end.
Soccer only allows for a very limited set of conditions that actually stop the game clock. (I know it is tacked on at the end - but same difference.) American sports that are timed have a number of variables that can greatly affect the amount of time. Baseball and basketball both allow for practically endless games even in the regular season. Football and Hockey do the same once they move to playoffs.
To my knowledge there is no equivalent in soccer. There may be a small amount of stoppage time and things either end in a draw or a shoot-out. I think these differences make it a little tougher. That said, the vast majority of the time, one can pretty much count on an American sporting event fitting into a 3 hour window. Soccer is usually two right? I've got young kids so they are all too long for me to usually check out for an entire game of anything.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
It is funny, because that was the joke. That script is from when Family Guy went back on the air.
Tivo is horrible at managing conflicting shows. You have to go in and manually handle every last little detail or you end up with:
And my all time favorite, for which there's no solution other than telling it a set channel and time:
And I have no plans on switching to a multi-tuner DVR, as I'd have to give up my DVD burning capabilities. I've thought about switching from satellite just so I didn't get told every other day that some channel has moved, but I'm not willing to give my money to Verizon or Comcast after incidents in the past.
And I particularly hate Fox for their Futurama timeslot that resulted in my recording 20 minutes of a sports game week after week, but the Friday timeslot isn't the kiss of death -- if I remember correctly, that's where X-Files was, 12 years ago.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
For some reason which has not been well explained imo, (the official FOX claim is that Joss chose to make the changes), the original episode he created was axed at the last moment and was cobbled together with new material to completely alter things and stretch the material over several episodes.
This was a pretty huge blow.
I hunted around and found a copy of the script for the original first episode, and I thought is was very strong compared to the episode which got aired. I've uploaded a copy of it here. . .
First Dollhouse Script
The show feels a bit cut & pasted at the moment, but the themes are very strong. Read the script and see what you think.
-FL
The day that a significant number of viewers realize this, turn more to the Internet for their shows (for time convenience), and stop watching TV (because it'll be pointless) is the day that the mass media industry starts to care.
It'll never happen. The mass media caters to the masses. Humans are pack animals, they are wired to follow a strong leader. Television gives the appearance of being that leader, it never wavers in its resolve. In the USA and most of the world, the 60Hz carrier wave and thus refresh is an Alpha wave generator and makes you even more susceptible to suggestion; another fine reason to have a non-CRT television since none of them have a 60Hz anything-but-retrace - and often, that isn't really 60Hz either, although sometimes it is because we've done things that way for ages. The core point here is that Fox already caters to the masses, and the masses are asses. Not because they're bad people, but because they're too lazy to think for themselves, or to try to do something different even though what they're doing now isn't making them happy.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
But on the flipside, most US TV series don't appear to really have "proper" endings, unlike many Japanese anime...
Respectfully sir, you've never watched Evangelion, have you?
Internet scofflaw
This is one of the things that sold me on TiVo the first year I had it. I added "The Tick" to my season pass and it got every episode regardless of where Fox moved it to. Trying to keep up with scheduling moves that Fox makes is a nightmare.
As for Futurama, at the end they stuck it on Sunday night at 7pm. At best you got to see the show already in progress because of football running long.
Brought to you by Team SPAM! where we believe: "Information in the noise!"
The original Doctor Who ran straight for 22 seasons from 1963. That was followed by a one-year hiatus before seasons 23-26, then cancellation. Not counting the 1996 TV movie, there was a 16 year gap before the show started up again.
In the USA and most of the world, the 60Hz carrier wave
The carrier wave for TV signals is just a teensy bit higher frequency than 60 Hz: 54 MHz to 806 MHz depending on the channel. (I suspect you don't actually know what a carrier wave is, btw.)
and thus refresh is an Alpha wave generator
Alpha waves are way lower frequency than 60 Hz.
and makes you even more susceptible to suggestion;
As the other AC said, how's your tinfoil hat? Are you claiming that fluorescent light tubes are mind control devices? (They output 60 Hz pulsed light too...)
another fine reason to have a non-CRT television since none of them have a 60Hz anything-but-retrace - and often, that isn't really 60Hz either, although sometimes it is because we've done things that way for ages.
The fact that NTSC video is transmitted with 59.94 fields per second has a little bit to do with it, don't you think?
Some (not all) non-CRT televisions have light sources which aren't pulsed at 59.94 Hz (actually 29.97 due to interlacing). For example, LCDs typically use cold cathode fluorescent lamps (at a frequency much higher than 60 Hz) or LEDs to provide light.
However, it doesn't matter, because the reality is that (as you can see every time you look at a CRT) with a little bit of phosphor persistence (afterglow) a strobed light source at 29.97 Hz looks like a constant light source to your retina. The photoreceptor cells in your retina translate light intensity to a stream of nerve firings (impulses). The firing frequency varies with the amount of light hitting the cell. However, the cell has rather limited intensity bandwidth, and acts like a low pass filter. If the incoming light's amplitude modulation is too high in frequency, it effectively time-averages the signal.