Joss Whedon Is Still Bitter About Firefly

[originalgeek]

What sensationalist crap. I was there, watching the panel, after sitting in the damp grass for an hour and a half in line. If anything, Whedon was empowered. The context in which he quipped about Firefly (and only indirectly) was when he was explaining the realities of the business model of broadcast television, and how his stories don't fit well in that venue. He wasn't bitter in the least. Snarky, perhaps. But not bitter. He's not getting an ulcer over the cancellation of Firefly, he is delighted to work with Marvel who understands what he has to offer and has no problem allowing him to do it.

 

[Therumancer]

I also think part of Joss Whedon's lack of success has largely been him bouncing around onto obscure projects. To be honest I don't think anything he's done has risen to the bar of Buffy or Angel, and that includes Firefly... though that might have happened if it lasted longer. Having read some of his comic stuff, I personally think it's not his best genere even though many fans disagree, his run on the "X-men" was to me pretty average.

To put it simply I think he needs to go back to campy, episodic TV. He's not at his best when he tries to be perfectly serious. He needs to come up with a concept similar to things he's already worked on like "Buffy", or "Firefly" and move from there. In general when it plays with other people's works, or tries to get too serious (and oddly I think this was one of Dollhouse's problems, while it had it's lighter side it was too much of a "hard" science fiction concept to really shine under his hand) I think he fails. Teenage monster hunters, soulful vampires, and space confederates acting like Han Solo are more his thing.

This, but I don't think people enjoy being pigeonholed into one set genre. Perhaps he was beginning to be, and wanted change, which resulted in FireFly and Dollhouse. Or maybe he just wanted a challenge. Either way, I'm not surprised he's bitter; Fox screwed up two of his shows-regardless of quality-and never done anything to right it. Can't be too happy an experience for any man.

Well, as I understand things he wanted to keep "Buffy" and "Angel" both going well beyond the point where they ended (especially Angel where the story arc never finished). I do not think he really considered himself to be pigeonholed. I consider "Firefly" to be the same as either of his "modern fantasy" shows because it was also very campy and outrageous.

To some extent I've been thinking that the way he's been writing recently has mostly been due to his own irritation over what happened to those works. The problem being that it doesn't really play to his strengths.

I've also wondered if one of the reasons why he moved on to largely playing with other people's universes, or doing things so differant, was because he was concerned that if he did anything else that was too similar to his other work he could be sued. To be entirely honest I'm not entirely sure how all the liscencing as far as his old creations worked out.

But as I said, and we both seem to agree on, I think he needs to get back to what he does well. Honestly the name "Joss Whedon" is ceasing to mean as much to me as it once did because he's been involved in so many underwhelming things. Him doing the "Avengers" movie is sort of like "Peter Jackson" pulling out another movie. He's done some good stuff, I like to remember him at his best, but he picks some ridiculous projects that don't turn out as good as they should have and I'm getting to the point where I'm just not trusting the name as a sign of quality.

 

[Nigh Invulnerable]

Firefly is 8 years old
you people seriously need to move the fuck on.
(it wasn't even that good of a show anyway)

I agree that people need to get over Firefly being canceled. I do think it's a very good show, but 8 years of wishing won't bring it back.

 

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[Celtic_Kerr]

Never watched Dollhouse, but I'll always be upfront to say Fox treated Firefly poorly. Cancelling it because they thought another show might due better (despite Firefly's huge success) is a dick move. Plus they didn't respect the order, so even I'll admit massive confusion at watching it on TV.

 

[BlumiereBleck]

Firefly is 8 years old
you people seriously need to move the fuck on.
(it wasn't even that good of a show anyway)

THANK YOU!!! Seriously I was upset Drive, War At Home, and Reunion got canceled but i got over it the next day. And if you don't bring in the ratings on Fox what makes you think the ratings will be higher anywhere else. If it doesn't make the ratings minimum the show sucks

 

[Lisolet]

Okay, Escapist posters, negativity to Whedon about Dollhouse or Buffy or Alien Resurrection I guess I can understand, but negativity against Firefly? That's...that's damn near inconceivable.

I don't believe in many universal truths. I don't think death and taxes are inevitable; science very well may some day find a way to imbue immortality, and taxes are already avoidable if you're rich enough. I don't believe that the sun will rise every day, because eventually, millions of years from now, it will explode and consume our solar system. But one universal constant, one absolute truth, was this: all geeks love Firefly.

You people have shattered my worldview. I don't know what to think.

Scratch your one universal constant buddy. I don't love Firefly (I don't even like it), I work in IT and my idea of a good time is building server/database environments.

 

[Kelethor]

Firefly is 8 years old
you people seriously need to move the fuck on.
(it wasn't even that good of a show anyway)

I respectfully disagree. you know what? Fuck respectfully, I hate you

OT: I was shown Firefly by a friend of mine a year ago. I was starstruck. I thought it was an amazing show. one thing that always bothered me however, Why hasn't Joss ever tried to pitch Firefly to another station, other than Fox? it's his show, so technically he should be able to pitch the idea to anyone...right?

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

I liked Alien Resurrection.

Contains some of Ron Pearlman's (as Johner) best lines:
----
Ripley: Who do I have to fuck to get off this boat?
Johner: I can get you off. Maybe not the boat.
----
Purvis: God, I'm so tired.
Johner: Sleep when you die, man.
----
Johner: Don't push me, little Call. You hang with us for a while, you'll find out I am not the man with whom to fuck!

 

[GuerrillaClock]

The guy worked on Toy Story, so I won't hear a word against him.

And I, too, am bitter about Firefly. Still.

 

[ucciolord1]

Spoiler

Sorry, Yahtzee.

 

[Firia]

Firefly is 8 years old
you people seriously need to move the fuck on.
(it wasn't even that good of a show anyway)

I respectfully disagree. you know what? Fuck respectfully, I hate you

OT: I was shown Firefly by a friend of mine a year ago. I was starstruck. I thought it was an amazing show. one thing that always bothered me however, Why hasn't Joss ever tried to pitch Firefly to another station, other than Fox? it's his show, so technically he should be able to pitch the idea to anyone...right?

Sadly no. While Joss is the brain behind Firefly, Fox holds all the rights. Another company would have to buy up the rights, and saddle up the cast. Why THAT hasn't happened, I'm not sure.

 

[spookydom]

I had a nasty cold over the weekend, watched all the Fireflys followed by Serenity back to back. Haven't re-watched the episodes for about 4 years. Got to say it's as good today as it was at release. Found myself getting angry just thinking about why Fox canceled it, what a bunch of short sited knuckledragers! I don't know, shows like V get a second series and Firefly does not....../bangs head against wall. In the words of the Team America version of Kim Jong Il "Why is everybody so fucking stupid?"

 

[BloodSquirrel]

Sadly no. While Joss is the brain behind Firefly, Fox holds all the rights. Another company would have to buy up the rights, and saddle up the cast. Why THAT hasn't happened, I'm not sure.

I don't get why this is so hard for people to understand:

Firefly was not a ratings smash. The movie did not do particularly well.

No network is going to go shell out the money to buy the rights to re-make a show that was cancelled for low ratings. The moive was Whedon's gambit to keep the show alive, and it didn't do well enough at the box office to justify another run.

 

[NinjaKiwi]

Sadly no. While Joss is the brain behind Firefly, Fox holds all the rights. Another company would have to buy up the rights, and saddle up the cast. Why THAT hasn't happened, I'm not sure.

I don't get why this is so hard for people to understand:

Firefly was not a ratings smash. The movie did not do particularly well.

No network is going to go shell out the money to buy the rights to re-make a show that was cancelled for low ratings. The moive was Whedon's gambit to keep the show alive, and it didn't do well enough at the box office to justify another run.

Personally I'm bitter about the way Fox handled the show in the first place. If a network wants to have a show aimed at late teens and twenty-somethings to do well, having it in a Friday night time slot is pretty much a death sentence. That combined with the fact that there was no consistency; many episodes were shown out of order and others completely un-aired.

In my opinion Wheadon needs to find a network that appreciates him a little more, and yes i'm also still a raw about Dollhouse being canceled.

(That didn't make me sound like too much of a fan boy did it?)

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

In my experience Joss Whedon has a tendency to start getting choppy with the characters when a series is established, so in a way I was always glad that Firefly was cancelled before it turned into the next Buffy Season 6, for example.

On the topic of the Avengers movie, I'm glad to see Joss working on it, (especially after his foreword to the Ultimates Ultimate Collection comic book) but I'm getting a little apprehensive about the Captain America film preceding it. I just can't see much good coming from a superheor film directed by the man who directed Jumanji (and also, Jurassic Park III, seriously). Joss could potentially have his work cut out trying to make up for Cap and Thor (which I am also apprehensive about, but for entirely different reasons).

Oh well, I just hope that Joss gets his career back up there, because he is kinda a nerd idol. I also hope he eventually stops hating his audience and lets some of his characters live and maybe even get happy endings.

 

[quiet_samurai]

I think EVERYONE needs to get over Firefly. Sure I loved the show too, and I was mad that it got canned, but come on people... it's been ten years, the possibility of it comong back are near non exhistant. Besides, I wouldn't want to see it's return with Wash and Shepard... it would suck.... especially Wash.