What if Firefly was an NBC Show
- Thread starter Hashasheen
- Start date
It is going to be very difficult to comment on this thread without taking a long walk down wishful-thinking road.
I would suspect that things would be better since it's hard to see anyone mishandle that show worse than FOX did. Also, Universal picked up Serenity, which means they're more likely to be sympathetic. Who can say?
If NBC gives the good ship Serenity a chance, does it develop a large enough audience to sustain itself, or is it too ahead of its time despite the inevitable rabid fanbase?
I would suspect that things would be better since it's hard to see anyone mishandle that show worse than FOX did. Also, Universal picked up Serenity, which means they're more likely to be sympathetic. Who can say?
If NBC gives the good ship Serenity a chance, does it develop a large enough audience to sustain itself, or is it too ahead of its time despite the inevitable rabid fanbase?
If it holds out until 2004, it ends up as a staple of the Sci-Fi Channel/SyFy, and lasts until 2010. Of course, the series Chuck never comes into being
Fox has a bad habit of airing episodes of cool new shows out of order and weeks or even months apart, then being surprised when they don't live up to ratings expectations and cancelling them.
Firefly, being a scifi show, does rely a bit on being able to establish its universe and as well also needs to establish its characters due to its dramatic elements. Not airing the first episode of the show until dead last and airing other episodes in odd timeslots out of order did it no favors.
The concept had meat enough for another few seasons at least, and if it hadn't been treated so poorly, I think it could have been fairly sucessful. It's not ahead of its time, it just never got a chance to build a fan following while it was on air due to being handled incredibly poorly by Fox.
Firefly, being a scifi show, does rely a bit on being able to establish its universe and as well also needs to establish its characters due to its dramatic elements. Not airing the first episode of the show until dead last and airing other episodes in odd timeslots out of order did it no favors.
The concept had meat enough for another few seasons at least, and if it hadn't been treated so poorly, I think it could have been fairly sucessful. It's not ahead of its time, it just never got a chance to build a fan following while it was on air due to being handled incredibly poorly by Fox.
Fox isn't the only one, but they have done that recently with Fringe (episode in January was one that had Charlie still alive even though he died in the first/second episode of this season)
CBS royally screwed Jericho viewers over in it's second season by changing time slots and putting a 6-8 week hiatus in the middle of the season.
ABC has done it with V with HUGE hiatus'
NBC screwed over Heroes some too with long hiatus' as well..and screwing up shows once they get bumped to Sy-Fy
mad: )Firefly would probably do a lot better on NBC but they are just as bad as other networks
The thing is, NBC is sometimes good to shows with cult followings. Basically The Office, 30 Rock, Parks and Recreation, and Community all had lackluster first seasons but have been allowed to remain long enough to improve and gain loyal fans, even as some of them continue to do poorly against other networks' shows in the same timeslots.
So maybe Firefly would last as long as Heroes will.
So maybe Firefly would last as long as Heroes will.
Network TV
The big 4 (NBC,CBS,ABC, FOX) are the worst for airing Sci-Fi TV shows. Any Sci-Fi series needs to run to build continuity look at the recent greats IMHO: Stargate, Star Trek: Next Gen, Battlestar all ran multiple seasons and only got more popular as time went by. Myself, I hadn't even heard of Firefly until Sci-fi (sorry I will never call it SyFy) started re running it in the lead up to the movie. Basically Sci-Fi TV shows will never do well in my mainstream because IMHO it requires a certain amount of imagination and predisposition to the absurd but not to the level disbelief as required of someone who watched E! or Fox News on regular basis. Seriously, I can't remember who said it either Arthur C. Clarke or Isaac Asimov, paraphrasing, Science Fiction is a medium used to explore and express the human psyche and how it reacts to various situations. Its at the end of the "Wormhole X-Treme" episode in Season 6 or 7 (??) of SG-1. Basically like any other, except instead of a court room or a hospital it is a spaceship on the run from the govt (ala FireFly).
The big 4 (NBC,CBS,ABC, FOX) are the worst for airing Sci-Fi TV shows. Any Sci-Fi series needs to run to build continuity look at the recent greats IMHO: Stargate, Star Trek: Next Gen, Battlestar all ran multiple seasons and only got more popular as time went by. Myself, I hadn't even heard of Firefly until Sci-fi (sorry I will never call it SyFy) started re running it in the lead up to the movie. Basically Sci-Fi TV shows will never do well in my mainstream because IMHO it requires a certain amount of imagination and predisposition to the absurd but not to the level disbelief as required of someone who watched E! or Fox News on regular basis
. Seriously, I can't remember who said it either Arthur C. Clarke or Isaac Asimov, paraphrasing, Science Fiction is a medium used to explore and express the human psyche and how it reacts to various situations. Its at the end of the "Wormhole X-Treme" episode in Season 6 or 7 (??) of SG-1. Basically like any other, except instead of a court room or a hospital it is a spaceship on the run from the govt (ala FireFly).