SciFi Weekend: Firefly Plus Other Canceled & Surviving Shows

This week I’ll begin with a TV alert for tonight: Firefly returns, sort of. Unfortunately it is only in reruns on the Science Channel, which starts airing the old episodes which were remastered in high definition at 8:00 tonight. Future episodes following tonight’s rerun of the pilot will be at 10:00. The network will be including science features which are tied into the show.

A recent interview by Entertainment Weekly with Nathan Fillion got a number of Firefly fans excited:

If Castle had its series finale tomorrow and Fox said to you and Joss: “We screwed up, let’s try doing Firefly again.” Would you do it?

Yes. Yes. I would examine very closely Fox’s reasoning — I’m a little gun-shy. If I got $300 million from the California Lottery, the first thing I would do is buy the rights to Firefly, make it on my own, and distribute it on the Internet.

There’s even been activity by fans to raise the money, but it will take far more than this to get the old cast, not to mention Joss Whedon, together to make this happen.

Fans of No Ordinary Family are hoping this show doesn’t die like Firefox and are organizing a campaign to try to save the show. The Cape has already been canceled and NBC isn’t even going to broadcast the last remaining episode. They are planning to stream it on line sometime this month. The Event returns this Monday, with commercials for the episode giving away more than we have learned so far by watching the series. It appears they are finally getting to a storyline which Fringe has already began developing.

Many shows are fortunate to be returning, and rare shows have even been renewed for more than one season. CBS recently renewed Big Bang Theory for three seasons. They have now renewed How I Met Your Mother for two more years, giving more time for Ted’s quest to meet his wife more time to play out.

Anna Paquin True Blood Nude Scene Eric

True Blood, like many cable shows, doesn’t have the same worries about being discontinued before having a chance to develop an audience. There are now reports that Eric will lose his memory for much of the season. Anna Paquin is also saying there might be a romance between Sookie and Eric extending beyond the previous dream scenes. There’s no word on whether this is while Eric has lost his memory or at some other time.

 

6 Comments

  1. 1
    Mikaela Skye says:

    RT @RonChusid #SciFi Weekend: #Firefly Plus Other Canceled & Surviving Shows #p2 #p21 #topprog http://bit.ly/gklP1o\\R u a browncoat? Shiny

  2. 2
    Captin Sarcastic says:

    I was watching Firefly on DVD last night, for at least the 10th time, and the fact is that the writing, acting, style, and effects on this show were so superior any of the current crop (except Fringe) that if it were handled properly, it could have been a franchise to rival BSG and Star Trek.
     
    There are shows that I miss, but not a single one as much as Firefly. If Firefly had the support that clearly inferior shows like V and The Event have gotten, it would still be on the air today. The only downside to that is that we may never had the pleasure of the Serenity movie.

  3. 3
    Ron Chusid says:

    I don’t think either V or The Event are going to last very long but V did make it into a second season and might survive for a third. With the hiatus I’m not sure off hand how The Event compares to Firefly with regards to number of episodes, with it far from certain as to how many more there will be.

  4. 4
    Captin Sarcastic says:

    I have been watching The Event, but it is getting ponderous. It seems to be a two hour movie that they have dragged out into an endless story. I love a good arc, but there needs to be some episodic joy and that just isn’t there. Better with V, but not much.

    Fringe is the only Sci-Fi show on American TV that is nailing it.

    Doctor Who will fill a big void.

  5. 5
    Ron Chusid says:

    That’s one of the problems with American TV–a show must fit the format of approximately 22 episodes per year and be able to go on for several years. I think the Event could have been more than a good two hour movie but it appears like more of a several hour miniseries than a multi-year tv series.

    What winds up happening is that they try to stretch out some shows far too much, they don’t succeed, and then get canceled without a good resolution for the story. It would be better to have science fiction series which were designed for a shorter time span which had a satisfying beginning, middle, and end.

    Even when there is a format which could go on for multiple seasons, BBC and cable shows often have a big advantage in terms of quality by only needing around 13 episodes per year.

  6. 6
    Captin Sarcastic says:

    I agree, and I suppose it’s a matter of artistic control vs business control. Clearly the Doctor Who franchise has been in wonderful hands for since the revival in ’05, and they were able to think FAR ahead, weaving an ARC into wonderful episodic tales.
    I am hopeful that the DarkTower experiment might change the way big shows work. A two year television commitment, sight unseen, with two feature movies between television seasons to tie it all together.

    If it works, we could see something new and good in this artform.

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