Rogue588

Wasn't too interested in this..

Until I found out Eliza was in it. I'll even forgive her for being a Red Sox fan.

JasonF

So is death. Why even bother?

All TV shows are going to get cancelled eventually, with the possible exception of 60 Minutes. Enjoy the ride while the show is on. Whether you get 4 episodes or 400, all that matters is this: do you enjoy the episodes you get? If so, watch -- even 400 episodes won't be enough. If not, 4 episodes will be too many.

Patman

Seinfeld wasn't cancelled!

HE Pennypacker

Of course I was being a little facetious in my post, as I'll still watch it. However, I do not feel the way you do about TV.

Superman07

Did anybody else see the trailer for this? I found it on a few sites, but apparently it was pulled within hours.

I wasn't sold at first, but once you find out what is driving the story I think it's very interesting.

A lot of familar faces as well!

I think it has a 7 episode committment, but a friend also said that Fox had agreed to air fewer commercials? Anybody have any more info on that?

RichC2

Firefly's cancellation wasn't FOX's fault (I recall ample promotion for the series, and there wasn't really any huge lead out show at the time (could be wrong there), the ratings were absolutely horrible and seemingly declined week to week), so I'm not sure why Whedon would have fallen out with them except over them airing it out of order.

But I agree, not a whole lot of hope on this one. It will have it's small group of "Whedon is amazing!" folks tuning in, but unless it looks absolutely amazing in preview format, I don't see it catching on based on the somewhat alienating title alone. Fox is probably the most lenient network that isn't the CW when it comes to ratings. Whedon's shows on CBS, NBC, ABC, etc; would have been canned after 1 or 2 eps.

Snowmaker

While its still there:

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FOX better not screw this one up! They already dumped two of my favorite shows involving both Joss and Eliza.

Looks like part Dark Angel and part something else I can't think of right now.

RichC2

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080516/tv_nm/fox_ads_dc

Jay G.

Firefly may have had a good amount of promotion before the series aired, but all the promotion centered around the pilot episode, which FOX didn't air until last. Anyone turning in for the first episode was left thinking "did I miss an episode?" Which they had, just not through any fault of their own.

After the series started, The show that aired after it, John Doe, got more promotion.

Well, there always was American Idol. However, there's a difference between not giving the show the absolute best lead in, and burying it on a Friday time slot that now show other than The X-Files has ever survived. The show FOX immediately replaced it with did even worse in that time-slot. Pre-empting the show for baseball didn't help much either.

RichC2

Idol was in it's first season at that point, not sure how big the ratings were at the time. I forgot about the Friday timespot and pilot fiasco, but gut instinct tells me it wouldn't have lasted long in just about any timespot, aired in proper order or not. In fact, I distinctly recall a lot of dislike geared toward the show when it initially aired (reviewing some posts on here confirms that), and I was always a little turned off by the advertised pilot, which was a little too similar to Outlaw Star for my taste.

Gunde

The premise: meh
Joss Whedon: don't care
Eliza Dushku: don't care
Olivia Williams: I'll tune in!

Gizmo

Episodes were aired out of order and made no sense at all.
It is 100% Fox's fault. Why not throw a few time and day changes in there too.

I'll watch Dollhouse. But this is Fox. They cancel decent shows after a few weeks and instead keep crap like American Idol on forever.

RichC2

I'm sure if Dollhouse draws 20m+ viewers a week, it'd be safe too. Hell, it'd be the second highest rated scripted show on the channel if it drew half that.

riley_dude

Tamoh Penikett is in it. I will be watching!

B.A.

I was interesting before, but she ensures that I will set the season pass.

Superman07

Why the big deal over her? I had to look her up to see who she is and she doesn't seem to have had a major role in anything. And that's an ignorance question, not a judgemental question.

das Monkey

I'm not sure what you define a "major role", but she was the leading female in The Postman and Rushmore and played a prominent role in The Sixth Sense. At the time, she received a lot of press, perhaps because she was the only one in The Postman who could act. It's been about a decade since she's starred in anything the American public paid attention to, but she's beautiful and talented, so I'll be looking forward to seeing her again.

I saw a brief glimpse of the lovely Stacey Scowley in that clip, but I'd assume she only has a small role in one episode. I'll take what I can get.

das

Slumbering Fist

I'm a Buffy and Angel fan, but even I think the prospects are grim. On the surface, it sounds like Whedon might be retreading what he's done before. I mean, the whole girly action heroine thing has become such a cliche, and such a purely cult, ratings failure, he's gonna' have an uphill battle to make this catch fire.

rfduncan

Well JJ Abrams' show Fringe which also features a heroine leading role gets to pave the way first since it debuts in the fall while Dollhouse isn't premiering until January...

Jay G.

By the end of the first season, American Idol was a clear hit. In fact, FOX used the second season of American Idol to boost the ratings of 24.

It's hard to say. The perpetual selling of the Series DVD set seems to belie the fact that there are plenty of people who like the series. When was the last time you heard of a single-season TV show getting a second, special edition DVD release? A lot of these new fans suggest that they would've watched the series when it aired had they known it existed and/or been promoted better.

That doesn't prove anything; you can find a lot of dislike for any show on this site. It's really hard to say if this show could've become at least a minor hit. It's pretty damn easy to say that FOX never really gave it the chance to become one though.

Were you turned off by the pilot itself, or the advertising for it? Because the pilot's only superficially similar to Outlaw Star. The advertising for the show, what little it got, was pretty terrible. I remember it using Smash Mouth's "Walking on the Sun"

What's clear from interviews with Joss and Tim Minear and from the treatment FOX gave it, this was simply a show they didn't want. Joss and Tim had barely saved the show with the script for the second episode, and it became clearer and clearer that there wasn't much support for their show at FOX at the executive level.

FOX can, and has, saved low rated shows. 24 was so close to not getting more than the initial 13 episodes ordered that the producers wrote their 13th episode as a potential series ender. The same year as Firefly, FOX gave Fastlane and John Doe second chances (although Fastlane was the show that inherited Firefly's timeslot and subsequently tanked). Hell, even Arrested Development got 3 seasons despite low ratings and a complete lack of promotion.

Jay G.

While I'm no fan of FOX, it's a bit of a stretch to say that the episodes "made no sense at all" in the order they were aired. Pilot episode aside, all the episodes that relied on continuity from a previous episode were aired after said episode. The only episodes where the ending of one led directly to the opening of the other, Shindig and Safe, were aired on adjoining weeks. And of course, Objects in Space even had a small reshoot of some dialogue so it fit the continuity of what had so far aired at that point.

The pilot episode is, of course, one glaring error in terms of continuity. I'm not sure if I've ever heard of another scripted drama starting with something other than its pilot episode.

das Monkey

For starters, Star Trek. Networks begin with episodes other than the pilot more than you'd think, but in this case it was disorienting and indefensible. I'm not sure how much it mattered in the end, though. Firefly was DOA, its fate sealed long before that moronic network decision. That was clear to many of us months before "Train Job" even aired, and it's been confirmed by the producers in subsequent years. Nothing short of record-breaking ratings would have kept that show on the air.

Hopefully Fox has better plans for Joss's latest effort, because there is a lot of shitty writing in TV Land right now.

das

Original Desmond

ill give it a chance

Jay G.

Star Trek started with it's pilot, it started with the second pilot made for it. Nice try though; got any examples that aren't 35+ years old?

Although some mention The Train Job as an "alternate pilot," it's clear from the episode itself, and the interviews/commentary with Joss and Tim confirm it, that this episode was alway intended to air after the pilot.

das Monkey

No it didn't. You need to work on your nerdy if you want to play here.
Law & Order? Wait, that's been on for 35+ years. Is The Dresden Files recent enough for you?

das