In 2002 Joss Whedon created one of the best
Sci-Fi series ever. It was then canceled after 14 episodes. The reason
for this was poor ratings. The poor ratings were due to what fans believe was
network interference. In actuality Firefly failed because of its
broadcasting format.
Firefly should have been a syndicated TV show
much like Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star
Trek: Voyager, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Xena: Warrior Princes.
Of course the name would have changed to Firefly (colon) catchy tagline.
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| If it worked for The Hoff it can work for anyone. |
Back when Firefly aired, primetime TV wasn’t
ready for serialized sci-fi show. While
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel were chugging away on the smaller WB and UPN
networks, ratings were low compare to the big “4.” Thus, if Buffy and Angel
were on Fox, NBC, CBS, or ABC it would have been canceled midseason much like
Firefly was.
It wasn’t really until ABC aired Lost that sci-fi
found a home on a major network. Lost wasn’t even advertised as a sci-fi
show. It was just a “stranded on an island show” and when everyone tuned
into the first episode and realized how awesome it was they just kept
watching. Then you got Breaking Bad which took serialized TV drama to
another stratosphere.
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| The very pretty people helped too. |
This all started as early as Star Trek: The
Original Series. While each Star Trek episode was a standalone they
maintained a consistency that fans appreciated and still holds up rather nicely
after 50 years. More modern story telling such as Buffy and Angel really
focused on story arcs in conjunction with standalone episodes. Major
network primetime TV wasn’t ready for it though.
It’s difficult for a mainstream audience to get
behind a sci-fi show, then add a story arc and you only appeal to hardcore
nerds. Syndicated TV on the other hand was doing story arcs all along.
Toward the end of Hercules and Xena series’ they had diversified the story
telling and slightly shifted away from standalone episodes. They were
appealing to the loyal fans that tuned in each week.
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| What other reason did people watch Xena for? |
This is where Firefly would have shined. It had a
super loyal fan base. The problem was that it was small. Most
people of he present day Firefly fans did so after the fact. I personally
didn’t watch the show until after I saw the film. Firefly needed a first
run syndication that would constantly replay the episode, giving the audience
time to discover it.
Fox never advertised Firefly as a western in
outer space. It was advertised as this glammy over hyped saccharin
that would be lucky to last half a season. It didn’t advertise how
interesting or funny characters were. It was as annoying as the ads
hyping House after episodes of America Idol.
It's a wonder anyone watch the show after this shit commercial.
Meanwhile in syndication land Firefly would have
found audiences that appreciated the sci-fi and western genre. Firefly’s
pop culture success really didn’t take off until DVD made the show more
accessible. Star Trek, Hercules, and Xena dominated the 90s with
accessibility. You could find replays of the shows at anytime.
Firefly needed that exposure to help sell the show. Married With Children
did abysmal in the ratings in early seasons. Fox kept it running because
they had no other shows. Because of that enough time passed that the show
found an audience who appreciated its anti 90s PC message.
Firefly was at the tale end of traditional TV
broadcasting methods and the beginning of the DVR age. DVR dominates how TV is
watched now. People need to be considerate of spoilers weeks after a
show’s finale has aired. People can live their lives and watch TV on
their own time. When Firefly aired most people still had to reserve an
hour of their life to regularly scheduled programming. Sometimes tough
choices had to be made on what to watch like deciding between The Drew Carey
Show and Melrose Place. Now with the latest DVR tech, Sunday night
programming allows for viewers to watch Family Guy, The Walking Dead, and Game
of Thrones all at the same time.
Firefly lacked that convenience and a network
patient enough to let a show build in the ratings. Then there were the
subpar episodes that were produced. Granted they were unaired and the entire
cast and crew knew the show was being canceled but they were still rather
crappy episodes with hints of funness. These episodes include Heart of
Gold about a pregnant woman who lives in a whore house and is being harassed by
her abusive baby’s daddy, The Message about the organ harvesting friend who
screws over the people he agreed to smuggle organs for, and Trash the third
time in 14 episodes about a scheme to steal something from a rich person.
The latter being the most watchable. That’s right, Firefly was delving
into some lazy formula plots with the most painful being the entire gang in a
shoot out during the last act. In 14 episodes there were at least 4
shootouts to solve the problems. Imagine 7 seasons of that. It
would have grown tiring. I have faith that the think tanks behind
Buffy/Angel would have steered away from those simple solution endings and the
film all but confirms it. There was a genuine repetition that could work
and be forgiven in syndication and is certainly allowed with most primetime
shows. But for a sci-fi western on primetime TV, it was just not going to
fly.
River Tam turned audiences off. Most people
do not say nice things about her character when remembering Firefly. Her
crazyness was too much for the general audience and it was fucking
confusing. Having the benefit of Serenity to explain her character issues
helps ease the understanding but her nonsense is definitely fast forwardable on
rewatch. Which is sad since she is the driving plot point in the
show and film. The most important character other than Mal is the most
annoying. That hurts a show. In syndication land annoying
characters were not only tolerated they were loved. We had Nelix from
Voyager, Joxer from Xena, and Sarah Powell from Charles in Charge. All
horribly annoying characters but they all have their own fan base.
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| No one else knows either. |
Thus we conclude that if Firefly aired today on
The CW or SyFy or if it was originally broadcasted as a syndicated TV show
without an affiliation to any network it would have gone 5-7 seasons. The
best example of this is a show called Dark Matter which is a complete Firefly
rip off with lamer hackneyed characters but since Firefly was so great Dark
Matter is still a really good sci-fi show and the characters are likable And since it aired on cable it got renewed for a second damn
season.
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| It's the same damn show. |
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| It's the same damn show. |
Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
