Firefly fans trying to raise money to bring back show

[SilverWingedSeraph]

Honestly I'd love to see Firefly come back in some form or another, but I really doubt this will lead to anything, so I'm not getting my hopes up. Even just a spin-off or something set in the same Universe or something would be pretty cool, but if it doesn't happen, eh, I'll live.

[Sidewinder]

Try pitching Firefly to most people. You can't get them to even consider watching it ("A space western? What is this shit?").

Han Solo is a de facto space cowboy, and he's one of the most popular characters in Star Wars. That suggests a "space western" can become popular, if the writers are competent.

[Uraniun235]

Star Trek was off the air for TEN YEARS before they even made a feature film about it and that film was a hit (grossed about three times its budget).

To be fair, it's not like Star Trek had just disappeared during the 70s. It was a big hit in the syndication market, and that success was what led Paramount to consider doing either a movie or a TV revival even before Star Wars had appeared. That said, like Aaron mentioned earlier, Star Trek was also actually viable as a syndicated series. Firefly is way too short for almost anything except a weekend marathon run on Syfy.

[Ugolino]

More's the pity. To be honest, at this point it'd work better as an MMO than anything else...

[Simon_Jester]

I never quite understood the fanaticism of the Browncoats. The show was good, but do I miss it? No. It's no nBSG in it's heyday and it's not something that I generally see sci-fi fans clammoring for. It was just a good show that stood out from the ordinary but these people just refuse to let it die.

I think part of it's just the frustration with the network- that lingering sense that the show was never given enough of a chance to hit its stride. Very few shows are at their best ten episodes into the first season; that's barely enough time to get character development rolling on a decent-sized cast.

So there's this sense that we could have gotten a better Firefly, if only this and that and the other thing... which gives people a target for their frustration when they see the unfinished plot arcs laid out in the series (or brought to a roughly amputated conclusion when Whedon tried to wrap everything up all at once in the movie).

[PREDATOR490]

Maybe one day in the far flung future there will be a New Firefly introduced in a similar manner to nBSG.
Although I see more chance for TSCC coming back or Dollhouse.

Cowboys in space - Really not going to work and the way Firefly plays out they wouldnt be able to maintain that angle for long.

What we see in Firely is the outer fringes of a bunch of rogues. The few times we see the 'core' worlds its more akin to a generic sci-fi setting. If a follow up occured it will be Firefly getting chased down by the government for whatever reason.

I.E Cue Farscape rip off with the Alliance taking the form of the Peacekeepers / Scarrans and the Firefly being Moya.

Alternatively, its back to episodic repeats of what we have seen told a dozen different ways. Minus two of the characters that added some genuine intrigue and humour to the show.

A mousey engineer
A classy prostitute
A mind reading nut case
A cluless Doctor
A badass dick
A Badass soldier
and... the bad ass's female sidekick

... not seeing much to play with out of that bunch that hasnt been done already.
I would realy not see a Sci-Fi series reduced to slow placed drama shit like SGU and there is only so much 'little guys' sticking it to the big bad government / law that you can do before it gets boring.

[Simon_Jester]

Well, the "rogues on the fringe" story has a lot of potential. The deliberate folksiness of the Space Western setting could be abandoned to some extent and still have a good plot.

Honestly, though, the prospects for a "Firefly Season Two" would have been a hell of a lot better back in 2003 when it would be a logical follow-on to the character development Whedon had already done in Season One-and-only. Whedon kind of burned his bridges with the movie, by revealing too many important secrets and killing off characters who were important to the dynamic.

Now you'd have to choose between setting after the movie, probably without the full original cast since not everyone will go back, and risk losing the 'happy ship' dynamic enjoyed by the crew. Or try to set your 'season two' before the movie, which makes the problem even worse since now you don't have a way to explain the absence of crew members. Either way, not good.

This, again, is part of the reason the hardcore fans of the series get upset about this and keep trying to breathe new life into the thing somehow: there was potential, at least for a decent series that could have been spun out for a few years without turning to crap, but Fox more or less threw that potential away.

Unfortunately, that tends not to factor in how hard it would be to recapture what they threw away ten years ago.

The best thing you could do for Firefly would be a complete remake, I think, but you'd need to guarantee enough content and enough support for a stable story arc.

[Purple]

Why not just decanonise the movie and start season 2 as if it newer happened? That sounds like the simplest solution.

[Connor MacLeod]

Considering how often B5 tried to make a comback and "recapture" its popularity after Crusade was axed, I'm justifiably suspicious of any such efforts automatically being a success. B5's spinoffs were never quite as good as B5 (and B5 still had some flaws, as others have pointed out before). I dont' see why Firefly would be immune to that.

If firefly ever came bakc, its going to be as a "reboot' or "rebranding", and that's not really going to be the firefly that the fans know/love.

[Shroom Man 777]

That's because B5 culminated in the awesome Legend of the Ranger which had a space girl screaming and punching firebreathing fists at enemy spaceships. All Firefly has to do is not to descend to that kind of lameness, and it's safe.

[Skylon]

That's because B5 culminated in the awesome Legend of the Ranger which had a space girl screaming and punching firebreathing fists at enemy spaceships. All Firefly has to do is not to descend to that kind of lameness, and it's safe.

Don't forget the Lost Tales which came later!

That said, I really wanted to see where Firefly was going, but I know that isn't happening. Even if Serenity didn't do hot in the box office, it at least gave the series some type of resolution, which is a lot more than some 13 episode TV shows that get canceled EVER get. I'm happy with the series and film on my shelf as the complete story of Mal Reynolds and company. It's a shame there wasn't more, but that's the way it is.

[lance]

I don't see Firefly coming back short of how Hawaii Five-0, V, or the Brady Bunch came back.

Except those series were successful as far as I know. Any non successful series make a return in that fashion?

[Connor MacLeod]

That's because B5 culminated in the awesome Legend of the Ranger which had a space girl screaming and punching firebreathing fists at enemy spaceships. All Firefly has to do is not to descend to that kind of lameness, and it's safe.

HAH you think that was the low point? You clearly didn't see or hear about the Lost Tales. That proved to be the ultimate death knell for B5 I think (I hope). JMS has said he won't do B5 again unless it is as a movie. Make of that what you will.

[Skylon]

I don't see Firefly coming back short of how Hawaii Five-0, V, or the Brady Bunch came back.

Except those series were successful as far as I know. Any non successful series make a return in that fashion?

Battlestar Galactica.

[lance]

I don't see Firefly coming back short of how Hawaii Five-0, V, or the Brady Bunch came back.

Except those series were successful as far as I know. Any non successful series make a return in that fashion?

Battlestar Galactica.

Touche, I didn't realize it failed as badly as it did.

[weemadando]

How about all you Browncoats shut the fuck up about a show that is dead and fucking buried and was, even when it had money dumped into it for the movie, a commercial flop.

If you want to support new, innovative and ALREADY IN PRODUCTION INTERNET SCI FI, then man the fuck up and put your money into Pioneer One.

Need to be convinced? Torrent the first two eps for free. Because that's their business model.

[Sarevok]

@Weemadando

I have never heard of the show but their community oriented production model does intrigue me.

My internet is very slow so before I dl it so can you describe the show and why it is good ?

[RedImperator]

I don't see Firefly coming back short of how Hawaii Five-0, V, or the Brady Bunch came back.

Except those series were successful as far as I know. Any non successful series make a return in that fashion?

Battlestar Galactica.

Touche, I didn't realize it failed as badly as it did.

It didn't. It got a full season and was doing reasonably well in the ratings, though, if I recall correctly, not well enough to justify its production costs. ABC even tried to bring it back a year later--hence, Galactica 1980.

[Sarevok]

One important thing many in this thread have overlooked is the age of the actors.

People sometimes forget that Firefly was made way back in 2002. Some of the actors on Firefly are starting to visibly look different now, like Summer Glau for instance. Makeup and digital effects only go so far in restoring the original looks. They can't set any revivals to continue in the same vein as the original. Eventually any resumption of Firefly will have to set the plot several years after Serenity at least.

This will only get worse as time passes. A few more years and the chances of getting the original Firefly back will be all but impossible. Unless the fans are willing to settle for outrageous amounts of CGI on the actors.

[weemadando]

@Weemadando

I have never heard of the show but their community oriented production model does intrigue me.

My internet is very slow so before I dl it so can you describe the show and why it is good ?

The basic plot is that an object enters earth's atmosphere over central northern US of A, spreading radiation before crashing in Canada. The story follows a small group of Homeland Security agents who are based in Montana who are tasked with crossing into Canada to do a joint investigation with Canadian agencies into what is assumed to be a terrorist attack.

When the crash site is found, they find a teenager wearing a soviet space suit, who has apparently been sent back by a Russian Mars colony.

As it's made on an insanely low budget, it's mainly interior shots of offices etc, but the setup is intriguing and the story is being told very well.

[Molyneux]

I never quite understood the fanaticism of the Browncoats. The show was good, but do I miss it? No. It's no nBSG in it's heyday and it's not something that I generally see sci-fi fans clammoring for. It was just a good show that stood out from the ordinary but these people just refuse to let it die.

I have never seen an episode of the new Battlestar Galactica, and now (much like the Sopranos) I don't think I need to.
I find it hard to believe that you seriously don't understand why fans of an above-average show would want to try to revive it, rather than let it drop and hope for something new to come along that's worth watching. Remember Sturgeon's Law.

[Darksider]

HAH you think that was the low point? You clearly didn't see or hear about the Lost Tales. That proved to be the ultimate death knell for B5 I think (I hope). JMS has said he won't do B5 again unless it is as a movie. Make of that what you will.

Meh. Lost Tales wasn't great, but it was never "Legend" bad. Screaming DBZ chick is pretty much as bad as B5 ever got. I just wish we'd gotten a longer battle scene in Sheridan's Tale. The updated CGI was the shit.

[Connor MacLeod]

HAH you think that was the low point? You clearly didn't see or hear about the Lost Tales. That proved to be the ultimate death knell for B5 I think (I hope). JMS has said he won't do B5 again unless it is as a movie. Make of that what you will.

Meh. Lost Tales wasn't great, but it was never "Legend" bad. Screaming DBZ chick is pretty much as bad as B5 ever got. I just wish we'd gotten a longer battle scene in Sheridan's Tale. The updated CGI was the shit.

That's a retarded way to look at things. B5 had plenty of bad actors and retarded characters (Byron being the most blatant example) but it did nothing to ruin the series as a whole. Plot wise, LOTR actually had some opportunity for growth and exploration of a portion of B5 that could do with exploring, the Rangers organization. The Liandra was an interesting concept, and we got to see lots of new/different Minbari ships (breaking up the idea that the Minbari only use one kind of ship at all ever.) Crusade had annoying characters too but it also had lots of promise (especially regarding Galen.)

Lost Tales was just the last gasp of a dying franchise. I like B5 but since Crusade went off the air nothing went quite right.

[MKSheppard]

Yeah, it's like that SciFi series back in the 1960's, you know, the one with a womanizing captain and his sidekick with the pointed ears and that space doc? What was it called, Star Trek?. Yeah, they tried to bring that one back, too, but nothing ever came of it...

How about you shut up you silly woman?

Star Trek had three seasons; providing a wide base to syndicate it. Star Trek the Motion Picture cost about $40 million to make, and took in about $11 million on it's first weekend; for a total of about $80 million total lifetime gross. The first movie while not being totally awesome, was financially healthy enough to provide a base for Wrath of Khan development to begin.

Firefly had just a shitty ten episode truncated season; and a movie that cost $39 million to make. Total gross? $38 million. Figure in the marketing costs of the movie; and it basically lost money.

Finally, the movie was one huge style over substance fallacy with The Operative and Mal.

Finally, lets all remember that Firefly gave us nBSG. There was going to be a BSG revival with Bryan Singer, but Firefly took the money and that died.

[Bakustra]

Yeah, it's like that SciFi series back in the 1960's, you know, the one with a womanizing captain and his sidekick with the pointed ears and that space doc? What was it called, Star Trek?. Yeah, they tried to bring that one back, too, but nothing ever came of it...

How about you shut up you silly woman?

Star Trek had three seasons; providing a wide base to syndicate it. Star Trek the Motion Picture cost about $40 million to make, and took in about $11 million on it's first weekend; for a total of about $80 million total lifetime gross. The first movie while not being totally awesome, was financially healthy enough to provide a base for Wrath of Khan development to begin.

Firefly had just a shitty ten episode truncated season; and a movie that cost $39 million to make. Total gross? $38 million. Figure in the marketing costs of the movie; and it basically lost money.

Finally, the movie was one huge style over substance fallacy with The Operative and Mal.

Finally, lets all remember that Firefly gave us nBSG. There was going to be a BSG revival with Bryan Singer, but Firefly took the money and that died.

1) Would you say that Broomstick, in addition to being a "silly woman", is also possibly "vapid" and maybe "hysterical"?

2) How exactly can a movie be a "style over substance fallacy", and assuming that you can explain this to people who don't share your twisted brain, what exactly makes Serenity an example of such?

3) Why exactly is the existence of nBSG a negative against Firefly, and why would such a revival of oBSG be a positive?