Why Firefly Was Cancelled

[DinoLast]

I have to agree with Devil, I did not like the TV Show, or the movie.
And if you look at Wheadon's track record he's really only had one success, even Angel got cancelled.

If serenity became a success after the fact, it would of had a resurgence, it would have a special edition Blu-Ray with all the bells and whistles on it, it would have built an Extended Universe through novels, it might of even had a Video Game based on it. However none of this has happened.

 

[CelticPredator]

Well, I would stir the pot even more by saying you need to die for hating Firefly....but I wont.

Reason why none of this happend? It's a niche show. Period. End of story. The show was too different for people to get into. The people who got it, got it and loved it. The people who didnt....didnt.

The show got cancelled because it didnt do well. Pretty simple.

Be happy it didnt get ____ed with in it's second season. Give me 13 good episodes over 13 more episodes with everything changed.

 

[darthviper107]

I have to agree with Devil, I did not like the TV Show, or the movie.
And if you look at Wheadon's track record he's really only had one success, even Angel got cancelled.

If serenity became a success after the fact, it would of had a resurgence, it would have a special edition Blu-Ray with all the bells and whistles on it, it would have built an Extended Universe through novels, it might of even had a Video Game based on it. However none of this has happened.

All shows get canceled at some point, I think 5 seasons can be called a success.

And as far as resurgence goes--as stated before, they never even wanted to release Firefly on DVD, but they did it because of the fans. It's become one of the best selling DVD sets of a TV series. And went on to be released on Blu-Ray. And Serenity--the DVD sold really well, and it was one of the top sellers on HD-DVD (during the HD wars) and was popular enough to get a Special Edition DVD along with being released on Blu-Ray. I would say that people have definitely shown their interest.

And it's extended universe has been created through the comics---the issue with having tons of that stuff is that the main strength of the show was the characters and the ship, which means that if you create any stuff about the series, it needs to have those things---unlike Star Wars which has tons of characters besides the main ones to explore.

 

[hairlesswookiee]

All shows get canceled at some point, I think 5 seasons can be called a success.

And as far as resurgence goes--as stated before, they never even wanted to release Firefly on DVD, but they did it because of the fans. It's become one of the best selling DVD sets of a TV series. And went on to be released on Blu-Ray. And Serenity--the DVD sold really well, and it was one of the top sellers on HD-DVD (during the HD wars) and was popular enough to get a Special Edition DVD along with being released on Blu-Ray. I would say that people have definitely shown their interest.

And it's extended universe has been created through the comics---the issue with having tons of that stuff is that the main strength of the show was the characters and the ship, which means that if you create any stuff about the series, it needs to have those things---unlike Star Wars which has tons of characters besides the main ones to explore.

Pretty much. As much as I love Firefly, I never got a chance to see it on television because I was overseas (before the military had the nice luxuries like cable TV) during its short tenure. I remember one of my best friends telling me about Whedon's new show (we're both Buffy/Angel fans) that was a Sci-Fi/Western, and I couldn't wait to get home to see it only to find out it was cancelled before the entire season was shown.

 

[devilof76]

I can think of a lot of reasons why the general public didn't take to Firefly, and 'because it sucked' isn't one of them.

 

[DinoLast]

The show failed because as Celtic says it's a niche show, that to me means it appealed to a small number of people. I see it's on syndication on the Science channel. Will it get a second chance like Star Trek? Who knows?
The movie also flopped, and that had nothing to do with FOX, so you can't totally blame them for the lack of success.
I just found a lot of the Characters very bland.

 

[BuffyGirl]

You guys are like a gigantic excuse machine for this guy and his failed projects.

Everything you guys mention didn't stop YOU from watching and supporting these shows/the movie so how come you use that as an excuse as to why they all failed!?

And now the conspiracy that FOX hates this guy!? Wow, just scrapping the bottom of the barrel.

If you liked/still like all these projects, cool. But it's clear, you were in the minority because everyone else thought they sucked. That's why the shows had terrible ratings and that's why the movie Serenity bombed horribly. That shouldn't prevent you from still liking them, or interfere with your enjoyment of these shows/the movie either.

But damn, you guys are reaching for reasons for the failures and everyone is avoiding the obvious: They failed because the majority of people thought they sucked.

 

[Devil_666]

 

[The Craw]

don't mean to troll, but why are people still hung up on this? shows get cancelled all the time. move on. this show wasn't even that good. i watched all the episodes once and saw part of the movie and there wasn't anything special about it. it suffered from too many main characters and poor plotlines. plus that whole "licensed hooker" thing was the worst idea in the history of televison.

ok carry on.

 

[BuffyGirl]

don't mean to troll, but why are people still hung up on this? shows get cancelled all the time. move on. this show wasn't even that good. i watched all the episodes once and saw part of the movie and there wasn't anything special about it. it suffered from too many main characters and poor plotlines. plus that whole "licensed hooker" thing was the worst idea in the history of televison.

ok carry on.

We are all passionate about something Craw. This happens to be one of mine, and many others. So we'll stay hung up.

 

[Devil_666]

It's cool to be passionate about something, until that passion blinds you. You know? From the majority of responses in this thread it seems like all the fans of this show readily accept every explanation (no matter how far fetched) as to why this show failed, except one: Most people just didn't like it.

And that's the most obvious and simple explanation. Yet no one in here who's a "passionate fan" is willing to accept that. That's what I was pointing out.

 

[MarfMaster]

My two cents, for what they're worth...To have a legitimate, grounded opinion about a television show, you have to experience at least one episode. If the ratings had been excellent when the show kicked off, then dropped drastically, I could get on board with saying people just didn't like it. But the show struggled with ratings from the start, which supports the theory that the show's promotion was mishandled. They just didn't draw enough eyeballs, it wasn't necessarily that those eyeballs didn't like what they saw.

 

[Devil_666]

But could it be as simple as the promotion being handled correctly and just the material/premise of the show presented in the promotion not attracting viewers?

Because I saw promos for Firefly and I didn't see anything that interested me enough to bother watching it. I also saw promos for Dollhouse and had the same reaction.

Possible?

 

[Colossus]

Good for you Christina, Stand your Ground Brown Coat

 

[MarfMaster]

But could it be as simple as the promotion being handled correctly and just the material/premise of the show presented in the promotion not attracting viewers?

Because I saw promos for Firefly and I didn't see anything that interested me enough to bother watching it. I also saw promos for Dollhouse and had the same reaction.

Possible?

Absolutely it's possible, I wouldn't claim to know the factors behind the success or demise of any show for certain. Gaining that knowledge is an elusive science that people much smarter than me are still trying to pin down I'm just a big fan of the show, so I support my theory

 

[ShadowX81]

One other factor that hasn't been brought up yet is that what little promotion the show did recieve was mishandled. I remember when this show originally aired, and the promos made it seem like a sex comedy set in space. From the promos I had no interest in watching it either. It was only years later after the incredible word of mouth and cult following that I had to give it a try and found it to be nothing like I had originally thought.

 

[Devil_666]

From all the promos I remember seeing, it looked like a western in space ala BraveStarr.

 

[Chapter 2099]

We are all passionate about something Craw. This happens to be one of mine, and many others. So we'll stay hung up.

And that folks is how it's done.

 

[CelticPredator]

Mal is the best hero. If you hate Mal. You hate Han Solo. And if you hate Han Solo, you're a communist.

 

[screamingmetal]

Mal is the best hero. If you hate Mal. You hate Han Solo. And if you hate Han Solo, you're a communist.

Mal is no Han Solo. Han had charm which is something I never got from Mal.

As for the series, I just watched the unaired pilot a couple months ago, and it still didn't quite hook me. And I saw the rest of the series when it aired. Some good ideas in the show, loved the premise, the Chinese elements, but the forced western elements just seamed too anachronistic for me. The whole deal with River was uninteresting, I really hated that character (but I love Summer Glau, TSCC was the show that shouldn't have been canceled).
And I really didn't like that stupid looking ship, I'll take the worst looking Trek or SW ship any day over the Serenity.

Personally, I liked Dollhouse more then Firefly.