Wednesday, May 11, 2005

It would appear based on the shenanigans going on earlier that some folks might need a quick lesson on how television shows work. Just because a show gets canceled does not mean it was a bad show. It could have been the best show ever and still get canned. Here is a few examples how.

Sci-Fi, Jim Henson Studio creates Farscape. This big budget (well done) show was on for two complete seasons before anyone even figured out what was going on. It ran in the same time slot as an already well established series. I forget what one it was ER or Law and Order or something. The problem is... if you are busy watching a show you already knew about a slip like this can happen. Basically, television shows are a vehicle to make you sit down and watch commercials. If people aren't watching, you can't sell advertisements and you can't make money.

Farscape cost millions each episode to create and SciFi took huge losses the first two seasons to make it. By the time it grew into a frenzied fan base they weren't able to offset all the money they lost in the first two seasons. Eventually it became to expensive to make vs the income coming in. ~canceled. The fan base was in such an uproar they actually brought it back to put closure on the series, again at a loss. Originally the series just abruptly stopped.

Firefly was the same thing. A victim of poor timing. It was up against some pretty heavy hitters in the time slot it was in. Not to mention it just came out at a time people weren't ready to see that sort of thing on prime-time. Fast forward to now, basic cable television is different and you can show/do a lot more. Space operas, like Battlestar Galactica and Farscape (reruns) are now coming into full swing in popularity. So after this Serenity movie. I wouldn't be surprised if the show launched again in another form to success. People will know about it this time around, after all the buzz, and the network executives will be able to sell advertising space.

Whoopy! So that's how a good show can get canceled. Also a good example of how shows that are complete ass tend to stay on the air..... Stupid Nielson ratings.

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