Poll: Why was Firefly canceled?

[BakaMick]

Never watched it, although I have heard a lot of praise for the show.

It would seem to be the Doctor Who of the United States.

If only Firefly lasted even one 8th of Dr Who, most people would be happy, I know i would. The film didn't help much, it just made me want more.

 

[Proteus214]

FOX put it in what is known as the "Friday Night Death Slot." According to TVTropes, anyway.
Basically, you don't put a show where the hero shoots someone in the face without breaking stride on at 8 or 9 PM on a Friday.

Also, they showed all the episodes out of order.

Also, they meddled with the show itself.

You pretty much nailed it on the head. Couple that with the fact that Fox also botched the marketing and Firefly wound up in the exact same situation as Arrested Development and Family Guy.

 

[axia777]

Firefly unfortunately was just way to expensive to produce. Bummer too, I really liked it.

More expensive than Battle Star Galactica? I really doubt that. Fire FLy would have kicked ass if it was left alone on Sci-Fi. In fact he people at Sci-Fi once said they had wished they had gotten Fire Fly instead of Fox.

 

[Hallow'sEve]

Where's the "sorta" button?

 

[Hallow'sEve]

It was cancelled when? Oh thats right 7 years ago, lets get fucking over it already.

I agree with this man. There have been a lot of great shows that got cancelled, but you people seriously need to get the fuck over it.

 

[Slimshad]

Can you honestly NOT parallel "Firefly" to "Outlaw Star"?

You got me there. It does parody a lot of the space westerns. But it does a lot more than that. It has creative thrill with the acting. But some of the people saying the show was cold because of writing, which gave it bad ratings. It was because of fox that it had bad ratings. They purposely jumbled the episodes, because it was slightly cheaper. They also said the pilot was stupid, so they jumped to the second episode. Stupid move after Stupid move. I also personally hate joss whedon for being an asshalf about making the deals. He whines the MOST about it, but he never really did anything to fix it. I bet SciFi would've picked it up immediately, but he never introduced it to other networks. Pardon my french.

 

[obex]

Why?

It wasn't very good.

Don't get me wrong, it's not like I don't like the show (own the series and "Serenity"), but, in truth, it just wasn't anywhere near as creative as so many of the fans would like to think it is. I know in truth that it was cut because of the producers pulling a switch on us, but I can't attribute the series' lack of commercial success on anything other than no demographic picking up on Joss Whedon's apparent need to keep a faux-witty series on the air, regardless of how utterly unoriginal it was (How long did "Buffy" and its spin-off run?).

Sure, I'm about to get flamed by the ridiculous amount of brown-coats I'm sure there are here, but, face it, it wasn't a very intellegent show. It wasn't a very well-written show. And it CERTAINLY wasn't a very original show.

I really, REALLY wish people would stop whining about it.

Well i was with you up until the "regardless of how utterly unoriginal" now im not saying it was creative but it wasn't unoriginal i cannot think of how it could be viewed as unoriginal seeing as there arnt even that many sci-fi shows on fox anyway it wasn't bringing anything to the table but it certainly hadn't ripped off any other shows in a way that could be written off with a unoriginal. Again with unintelligent what were you expecting? A moral thesis making us question the direction on which we move our own life?

Also as this forum is browsed mainly by a demographic of gamers with mainly the same interests in music ect, if you don't wish to see the same thread multiple times i would leave or prepared to be disappointed.

 

[happysock]

I have no idea why it was cancelled it's sure better than half the shit that's on at the moment, I'd rather watch firefly than Lost, Heroes and Flashforward.

 

[Good morning blues]

Firefly was canceled because it wasn't given much of a chance; it was pretty much immediately shuffled into a bad time slot and didn't get any advertising exposure. Frankly, we're lucky that it went beyond the pilot.

 

[LordWalter]

Firefly was canceled because there is no justice in this world. NO JUSTICE I SAY. CURSE YOU, MACHINATIONS OF THE TV INDUSTRY. Ah, well.

 

[Arrers]

FOX put it in what is known as the "Friday Night Death Slot." According to TVTropes, anyway.
Basically, you don't put a show where the hero shoots someone in the face without breaking stride on at 8 or 9 PM on a Friday.

Also, they showed all the episodes out of order.

Also, they meddled with the show itself.

That, and FOX executives hate nerds

 

[IanBrazen]

Can you think of a way that Firefly could've stayed on the air?

They could have gotten on a different channel instead of getting with the idiots on FOX.
FOX played all the episodes out of order, gave it a bad time slot, and did not even air the pilot episode.

point blank, the FOX network is the reason firefly failed.

They also canceled Dark Angel, another good show, to put Firefly on the air. and that is the reason why my girlfriend refuses to watch Firefly, so I cant watch it while she is around.

THANKS FOX!

 

[Ph33nix]

because it didn't have enough viewership on tv

 

[Spinwhiz]

Firefly unfortunately was just way to expensive to produce. Bummer too, I really liked it.

More expensive than Battle Star Galactica? I really doubt that. Fire FLy would have kicked ass if it was left alone on Sci-Fi. In fact he people at Sci-Fi once said they had wished they had gotten Fire Fly instead of Fox.

Well, that may be true, but if only a limited amount of people are watching Firefly, there is no real way to keep it going. So in that aspect, the ratio of production to money coming in due to ratings is probably a loss compared to BG.

 

[Charley]

Fox billed it as a Sci-Fi action series, which is only part true, then they fiddled with the order to try and convince people that they hadn't ballsed-up their promos.

They failed.

It's kind of a good thing it's dead though - it's a Joss Whedon series, if it hadn't been axed we'd be on series 119 and sick to the back teeth of it by now.

 

[chronobreak]

There's also a thread for "use the search bar", dedicated to you mini-moderators who feel they have to point out everyone who makes a duplicate thread. If you feel like you've read it already, then move on.

Before you make snide comments, please read the posting guidelines of The Escapist, where it is clearly stated that necro-ing a thread is preferrable to starting a new one if the discussion encompasses the same thing. Not that it would be necro-ing, really, because the original thread is only one page away. There is nothing wrong with trying to familiarize users with the rules, and if you disagree with them, we have very helpful moderators who I'm sure would be willing to read anything you sent them regarding them.

Also, in addition to the thread mentioned, here are three more threads about Firefly found by typing "Firefly" into the search, and searching off-topic.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.137396#3090976
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.118211#2257402
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.109838#1890098

 

[Kinguendo]

... It has a Baldwin... I honestly dont understand how it could have got axed... :/

EDIT: Although I have never actually seen it... though I do hate FOX anyway...

 

[GDW]

Well i was with you up until the "regardless of how utterly unoriginal" now im not saying it was creative but it wasn't unoriginal i cannot think of how it could be viewed as unoriginal seeing as there arnt even that many sci-fi shows on fox anyway it wasn't bringing anything to the table but it certainly hadn't ripped off any other shows in a way that could be written off with a unoriginal. Again with unintelligent what were you expecting? A moral thesis making us question the direction on which we move our own life?

Also as this forum is browsed mainly by a demographic of gamers with mainly the same interests in music ect, if you don't wish to see the same thread multiple times i would leave or prepared to be disappointed.

You coulds re-read another response I made, in which I claimed the plots and many of the general story-arcs were stripped almost directly from the many space-westerns before it. The only thing I think someone could claim original about it is that it was the first live-action television series to use those plots. I don't think that's very fair and I certainly don't think it original.

Now, on to the lack of smarts. I'm not saying that it had to be DEEP. Therer is a difference between depth and intellegence. Whedon is certainly not known for writing DEEP anything. I mean that there was nothing terribly smart about any of the story-archs. It was mediocre. All of it.
The only thing I think that sells it to so many people are the characters, which Whedon has always been the master of unlocking. He can write a character (even if it is only between three personalities), but that didn't really make for an interesting means of storytelling. No episode makes on think, and if a story can't even do that then it's not a smart script.

Anyway, onto your last (somewhat snide) point, I was talking about ALL forums. I can't seem to go to a gaming, film, book, cooking or porn site without seeign ten or eleven threads saying "BAAAAAAWWWW!!! Bring back "Firefly"! IT SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN CANCELLLLLED! FOX = SATAN" and it stands to reason that I'd grow tired of it.

 

[Mrsoupcup]

So basically they took someones hard work and messed around with it....nice one FOX....

Thats what they do to everything. Take Dragon Ball Evolution for example. WORST MOVIE EVER. Thanks fox.

 

[Snotnarok]

Because Fox is filled with idiots, they canceled Family Guy...what twice? Same with Futurama? They don't seem to care what people think, fans wrote in, people sent petitions begging for the show to stay on but they canceled it anyway.

Short reason, Fox isn't a bright company.