Former Fox president explains why Firefly had to be cancelled

Veyron

Veyron

Scooby
Joined
Aug 8, 2008
Messages
525
Age
59
Location
Newcastle on Tyne UK
Black Thorn
Don't know if this has been posted before, if it has, my apologies.

--

Firefly fans (aka "Browncoats") have had it better than most fans of a brilliant-yet-cancelled series:


"We got something like closure, thanks to the feature film Serenity (2005). The show is also rerunning on the Science Channel, with all-new commentary from scientist Michio Kaku." w*

But we Browncoats also have it tougher than most. With multiple references to our favourite spacefaring cowboys in star Nathan Fillion's current show, Castle, we're constantly reminded of what we've lost.

To that end, Gail Berman, the former president of entertainment at Fox Broadcasting Company, spoke about why she had to pull the plug. She said in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that:

"Cancelling 'Firefly' was as difficult as anything I'd ever been involved in because Joss and I had been creative partners at one time ... I worked with him very closely on this particular show and when it didn't perform [in the ratings], having to cancel it was very difficult."

"If I had to do it over again, I might have reconsidered it but I'm not sure it would have changed anything," she said. "It was a numbers things. It was a wonderful show and I loved it and I loved working with him on it but that was a big show, a very expensive show and it wasn't delivering the numbers."

The fact that Berman's quotes are still news is a sign that Firefly fandom hasn't lost steam since the show was canceled in December 2002 ... more than eight years ago.

So although it's tough to be a Firefly fan, with the re-airing of our show, as well as the Help Nathan Fillion Buy Firefly campaign that started three weeks ago, at least our lives are never boring.

--

* - As I'm not sure when this article was posted, there's no date on the original post, please don't take this info as current.
 
That the show was cancelled because of low ratings is hardly a surprise or even the wrong thing to do.
Of course will they cancel a show that doesn't draw enough viewers.

A more interesting question she should answer is why it was so mistreated.
Why not show the proper pilot?
Why the Friday night timeslot?
Why did they show somes episode out of order?
etc...

/SK
 
View previous comments...
I
itssmiletime
[No message]
R
Robb Stark
[No message]
Moscow Watcher
Moscow Watcher
[No message]
BuffyElevated
BuffyElevated
[No message]
Bluebird
Bluebird
[No message]
Well duh! I wonder why shows get cancelled. Can it be not being profitable enough and not seeing any change coming. Shows with good/decent ratings can get cancelled because they're too expensive. Nothing new here.

As been mentioned by previous posters the question has never been why it was cancelled. Even if some phrase the question like that. It's always been about why it got treated the way it did.

The friday night death slot I can accept even if I'm very unhappy about it. They need to show something. I'm obviously not fond of skipping the pilot episode but I know that some people have had trouble watching the whole episode first time around. Had those people seen the pilot on tv with no one to assure them how good the show is they'd probaby zapped over to something else. All in all FOX mistreated it extremly and didn't show it any confidence at all. So yes, doomed to fail.

Veyron said:
The fact that Berman's quotes are still news is a sign that Firefly fandom hasn't lost steam since the show was canceled in December 2002 ... more than eight years ago.

* - As I'm not sure when this article was posted, there's no date on the original post, please don't take this info as current.
Click to expand...

A few years it seem. But there's nothing wrong with posting so called new news and especially if you don't know when it was posted. So thanks.
 
AndrewCrossett said:
The fact that it wasn't delivering the numbers was, of course, 100% due to Fox's incompetence and meddling. I don't see Berman mentioning that anywhere.
Click to expand...

I know this is kind of holy territory for diehard Firefly fans (and I do quite like the show, even if I wasn't as captivated by it as some were), but while I agree very much that FOX screwed Firefly up, the show did have some core issues, or at least, they did at the beginning.

Yes, they skipped the pilot. There's no excuse for airing the other episodes out of order (which I never saw the point of), but there's a reason why the pilot didn't air. It sucked. It's long, it's convoluted and it's difficult to follow. I have a theory, and that's all it is but I think it's a good one, that FOX was drawn to Firefly, despite the premise, because of Joss Whedon's star power. They green lit the project but when final edits had been completed on the pilot, they got freaked out, and I don't blame them.

It takes a pretty big leap for the average viewer to give a show with the premise of "space pirates" more than the briefest of looks. That's just reality. If any show needed a dynamite, explosive pilot, it was Firefly, and instead they delivered the worst episode of the series. There are a lot of things that FOX screwed up in regards to Firefly, but it was a tough sell from the beginning. It was a great show, one I still enjoy, but I can see why they dropped the pilot. You can argue very validly that they should have been more involved with the production of the pilot, but that mess falls in Joss' hands as much as FOX's.
 
EVIL UU
EVIL UU
[No message]
Robb Stark said:
Yes, they skipped the pilot. There's no excuse for airing the other episodes out of order (which I never saw the point of), but there's a reason why the pilot didn't air. It sucked. It's long, it's convoluted and it's difficult to follow.
Click to expand...

I keep hearing stuff like this. So perhaps they did the right thing.
Even though it's beyond me how they could think that The Train Job would do a better job as a pilot.

Personally I think that the Firefly pilot is one of the best pilots I have ever seen.
Absolutely loved it from the first minute. Would even say that it's my favourite episode in the series.

So for me it's almost mind boggling how they could throw it away... but that's just me though. 🙂

/SK
 
I don't think Firefly had any weak episodes, least of all the pilot.

If this show was just starting today, it would be a big hit, because (a) it would be on cable, where good dramas belong, and (b) nobody would dare jerk Joss Whedon around like that now.
 
Bluebird
Bluebird
[No message]
Veyron said:
* - As I'm not sure when this article was posted, there's no date on the original post, please don't take this info as current.
Click to expand...

Even though it's not that relevant, I'd say the article is from 2011, as it says, Firefly fandom hasn't lost steam since the show was canceled in December 2002 ... more than eight years ago.

Anyway, I agree with sk73. She totally answered the wrong question. I'd say it's quite obvious that they wouldn't have canceled a show with high ratings.
I wanna know why they more or less screwed the show over. They didn't give it a real chance to "perform". The cancellation was quite predictable and probably wouldn't have happened as soon if they had given people the opportunity to get into the show.
 
Firefly might be a great show, and I agree FOX did it an injustice by not showing the pilot, but I find it very, VERY hard to believe it would have changed anything, because it's just not mainstream at all, maybe showing episodes in the correct order would have raised the average per episode by a half mil but not enough to keep it on the air.

FOX's issue was always (recently they've been a LOT better about these things) too high expectations and not enough patience, which is why I don't think Firefly would have ever survived. BUT the aftermath of that is what I think is partially responsible for FOX being so patient nowadays...makes me feel better that the two new shows that I'm most looking forward to (Sleepy Hollow and Almost Human) are on FOX this fall. 🙂
 
The pilot was great. Long and complex is good, it pulls you in and let's you properly settle in this new universe you're being presented with and gives you a chance to see a lot of stuff straight off the bat.
 
sk
sk
[No message]
VisionGirl
VisionGirl
[No message]
The show didn't have to be cancelled. It is 100% FOX's fault that the show is off the air and I will stick by that argument until the day I'm in the ground.
 
While I certainly enjoyed Firefly and was said to see it go, re-reading through this thread there seems to be a lot of people who think the series had more mainstream potential then it actually did.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom