“We’re going to run all the episodes,” said Fox scheduling chief Preston Beckman. "We’re not saying we’re happy with those numbers, or accept them, but we don’t have to overreact. During [November] sweeps we might have to jack up the numbers a little [with other programming], but we plan on completing the order for this show".
as an indication that they would pull Dollhouse during sweeps. I wonder if they're just going to pull Brothers and give it a better lead in to boost the Friday night ratings? Does it even matter?
Obviously they just want to get it over with. The Sacred Whedon cannot be rescheduled, and this time they want to prove they gave him every chance. THEN axed him.
Nope. They made their bed when they let Whedon in the door. Now they have to suck it in and take their medicine. Whedon fooled them with Firefly, shame on him. He fooled them with Dollhouse, shame on THEM.
Originally posted by pisher: Nope. They made their bed when they let Whedon in the door. Now they have to suck it in and take their medicine. Whedon fooled them with Firefly, shame on him. He fooled them with Dollhouse, shame on THEM.
I'm with you that Fox has to eat whatever they ordered this time with Whedon, but based purely on a ratings/scheduling perspective, Fox kind of owed him after Firefly. I mean that show didn't have a chance in hell. Air the episodes out of order and put it on Friday, at a time when Fox Fridays were notorious for airing a new lineup each week. Hell, at that time, the entire Fox schedule changed monthly. They used to put out press releases for each month with the "new" lineup when Gail Berman was in charge. I never got into Firefly. A show about space cowboys wasn't something I was interested in as a teenager, but it was one of many shows never even given a chance. Ditto for Wonderfalls, another show I believe he created.
Wonderfalls was actually Tim Minear's baby not Whedon. TM is a former Mutant Enemy writer/producer worked on Angel and was co-EP with Whedon on Firefly
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Ditto for Wonderfalls, another show I believe he created.
Actually, Bryan Fuller created Wonderfulls. Tim Minear just ran the show. Which explains why it's such a cloying facile contrived mess, and yet not nearly as awful as Pushing Daisies.
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Originally posted by morrigan: Wonderfalls was actually Tim Minear's baby not Whedon. TM is a former Mutant Enemy writer/producer worked on Angel and was co-EP with Whedon on Firefly
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Ditto for Wonderfalls, another show I believe he created.
I'm with you that Fox has to eat whatever they ordered this time with Whedon, but based purely on a ratings/scheduling perspective, Fox kind of owed him after Firefly.
An opinion easy to find online, and impossible to find anywhere else. Which I do not share.
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I mean that show didn't have a chance in hell.
Because of its premise, casting, and the truly idiotic scripts. Yes.
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Air the episodes out of order and put it on Friday, at a time when Fox Fridays were notorious for airing a new lineup each week.
Doesn't explain why people kept tuning out, OR why the movie version flopped. It's just like Dollhouse--Whedon suckered them into buying a half-assed concept, did a half-assed job, and by the time they realized what they had, it was too late to pull the plug. So they didn't waste good timeslots on it, but they gave it a more than fair chance--and they've paid for it ever since.
And the whole business with the pilot is just fan-based nonsense. It would not have helped to air it first--when it did air, it got the lowest ratings of any Firefly episode. Whedon just writes lousy pilots--always has. Even Buffy's pilot isn't very good, but that time he had a premise and a cast that really worked. And I've mentioned before that he doesn't deserve nearly as much credit for that as people want to think. Back then, 20th Television was just a great place to develop a show (they're the only reason anybody has ever heard of Chris Carter), and as a beginner in TV, Whedon took their advice, and benefited greatly from it. He had a great production staff (all of whom knew more than he did), and he was also forced to accept Gellar and Hannigan as Buffy and Willow--and those two casting picks made the show, more than any others. Would you believe he wanted KATIE HOLMES as Buffy?
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Hell, at that time, the entire Fox schedule changed monthly.
It was so AWFUL of FOX to force Joss Whedon to keep doing shows for them!
We've seen shows that attracted the same silly fan-fervor get fantastic timeslots, tons of promotion, massive critical support, and even Emmy nods--and fail just as badly.
It was the show. Whedon should not be doing science fiction. He does not know how to make it work, and frankly these days it's almost impossible to make it work on a major network. He could have pitched to the SciFi Channel, but he didn't want to deal with their budgetary restraints. He keeps going back to FOX--why do you think that is? NOBODY ELSE WILL PUT UP WITH HIM.
