I didn't see it until it had been off the air several years. I don't remember hearing much of anything about when it was on the air. It's a good sci-fi western with interesting characters and set designs. I'm puzzled why this barely lasted one season but a gazillion police procedurals, reality shows, and The Simpsons last for 7 to 20 seasons.
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I'm puzzled why this barely lasted one season but a gazillion police procedurals, reality shows, and The Simpsons last for 7 to 20 seasons.
Firefly premiered about the time the networks discovered they could pull higher ratings with cheap unscripted TV like American Idol, and the masses were dumb enough to buy into it.
shareSimple math: didn't get the ratings.
Of course, Fox did a horrible job of promoting the show (I'm a sci-fi nut and I barely remember seeing a promo). It also skipped airing the pilot and showed episodes out of order.
No excuse for why the movie didn't do better, other than it came out close to the same time as the utterly inferior Star Wars Episode III, which raked in a bazillion quatloos.
👷👳
Bob the Builder and Hadji walk into a bar...
I wonder why it didn't get the ratings. It seems like the type of quality show that would get at least a second season, which is just my opinion of course. Perhaps my TV tastes are unique among most Americans because quite a few shows I've really liked got cancelled soon.
Is Fox known for not promoting their shows or was Firefly special for some reason?
And why in the world would they not air the Pilot first? It did well what a pilot is supposed to do. It introduced the characters in an engaging manner, made sense, and immediately pulled me into that fictional world.
I liked the movie Serenity but I think if you didn't see the series first, it would seem like watching an episode in the middle or towards the end of a season.
Fox just didn't know how to promote it. It was drama, it was comedy, it was a western, it was sci-fi. In fairness to the marketing department, how do you promote something like that?
And why in the world would they not air the Pilot first?
Fox wanted more action for a series opener.
Is Fox known for not promoting their shows or was Firefly special for some reason?FOX is the worst. They have (IMO) the distinction of being the network that cancelled, due to poor ratings as a result of their own incompetence, the two greatest television shows of all time.
only just seen this show in 2016 so took all them years when syfy showed a recent repeat.
this was a pretty good show I hope they do a reboot so syfy can have more stuff to show instead repeats all the time.
www.youtube.com/eastangliauk
Cool.
shareI'm puzzled why this barely lasted one season but a gazillion police procedurals, reality shows, and The Simpsons last for 7 to 20 seasons.
I didn't see it until it had been off the air several years. I don't remember hearing much of anything about when it was on the air.
CGSailor speaks the truth. Fox messed up in pretty much every way they could, like they WANTED the show to fail.
I even heard they suddenly changed air time with little or no warning. It had to compete with a very popular X-Factor or whatever it's called, baseball playoffs etc.
Imagine what could have been if they had competent CEO's... no wait, it's still too painful imagining what could have been.
Instant Browncoat (with tears running down my cheeks), yep, happened to me too.
Yeah the show really was not promoted at the time the show was on I was already Buffy fan but not a fan boy and that I watch the show and enjoyed it but never got into the backstage information. So that even though I already like Joss Whedon and was watching Buffy I never even knew Firefly was on the air until it was off the air.
shareIt was the ratings. FOX was way too hasty to pull the plug on Firefly. After over 10 years after a limited, cancelled season, Firefly has been a huge hit in Comic Cons.
The cancellation was a huge mistake and FOX has been reminded of that ever since.
The show did get some closure via Serenity but as a Browncoat I would have loved to see so much more.
Yo momma
I would summarize the reason to: STUPIDITY.
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A gentleman will not insult me, and no man not a gentleman can insult me.
I don't buy the arguement that it was cancelled because of ratings. Fox cancelled the show before the pilot even aired. I'm guessing Fox simply had underlying financial issues they were dealing with since they cancelled Firefly, Fastlane, and John Doe all in the same year.
Sadly the only show that wasn't cut was American Idol.
Firefly wasn't cancelled until December. And yes, it was because of ratings. They weren't high enough to justify the show's budget.
Let's be bad guys.
The network moved it around, scheduled it in a bad time slot and preempted it a few times. Which then accounts for it getting bad ratings
To Love and win is the best thing. To Love and lose, the next best.share
Short answer; Firefly got cancelled because it was produced / broadcast by a big TV studio / network Fox.
If the Syfy channel had done the show, imo it would have lasted.
Long answer;
- Since 2000 how often does a major US TV network produce a new multi-season space travel (with space ships) science fiction show? (Not a miniseries)
I'm talking about big TV studios/networks; CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox. (Not Syfy)
It's pretty rare. CBS did Star Trek Enterprise in 2005 and cancelled that after 4 seasons.
Fox did Firefly in 2002 and cancelled that after 14 episodes.
That's about it.
Major networks want low cost and big ratings. Space travel SF shows are expensive.
Almost always only the Syfy channel takes a risk on these shows.
I wish Syfy had done Firefly. If that had happened, then imo it would have survived for at least two seasons.
BB ;-)
it is just in my opinion - imo - 🌈