It's Like Firefly All Over Again

 

 

I remember commenting to my fellow geek friends when I had learned that Joss Whedon's new show Dollhouse was going to be on the Fox network that I was suprised by his choice to work with them again.  Fox was, after all, the network that royally fucked over his show Firefly.  It argued with him over the show and its scripts, it forced episodes to be aired out of order, and then it cancelled the series before the first season had even finished airing.

 

So his willingness to work with Fox again on his new Sci-fi show confounded me.  Why would he work with the network that treated his last show so horribly?  But in interviews everywhere, Whedon was telling everyone that this was a different Fox.  They understood his new show and he wouldn't be going through that same crappy Firefly experience again.

 

Well, I'm sorry to say this, but from an outsider's perspective it looks like he was totally wrong.  The first bad sign was back in the summer when Fox ordered that the entire pilot episode be scrapped and a new pilot for the show be written.  At the time Joss said it was because the first episode they had didn't do a good job of introducing the characters properly, and he promised the pilot they had would just become the show's second episode.  Then came a production halt in August that was said to have been due to more writing issues.  Possible arguments between Fox and Whedon about the show are rumored to be the reasons.  Whatever it was that caused it though, the show was temporarily shut down while Joss went and rewrote a bunch of the episode scripts.  Rumor also now has it that the original pilot episode has been pretty much completely scrapped and won't air at all.

 

Now, today comes word that Fox has announced that Dollhouse will air on Friday nights.  For those of you who don't recall, Friday night was the timeslot Firefly was given for the few episodes Fox allowed to air before they canned the show.  Also, Friday nights are historically known for being a Science Fiction TV Show killer.  Fox has not successfully launched a successful Sci-fi TV show on a Friday night since 1993 with the X-Files.  Here's a fun little list of other shows that Fox threw into its Friday Night Lineup:

 

• The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. (1993)


• MANTIS (1994)


• Strange Luck (1995)


• VR.5 (1995)


• Sliders (1996)


• Millennium (1996)


• The Visitor (1997)


• Harsh Realm (1999)


• Freakylinks (2000)


• Dark Angel (2000)


• The Lone Gunmen (2001)


• John Doe (2003)


• Firefly (2003)

 

Now, admittedly most of the shows on that list are total crap (I'm looking at you MANTIS), but Firefly and Briscoe County Jr. were damn fine shows, and they deserved better treatment from Fox.  And now it looks like Dollhouse is going to suffer the same fate.

 

I hope I'm wrong here.  I'd hate to see a possibly great new show cancelled again by Fox.  I'd hate to see Joss Whedon make the same mistake twice.  But then again, maybe this is what will be needed to make him learn never to deal with Fox again.  He should just go back to the CW network (Formerly UPN and the WB).  They at least treated Buffy and Angel properly.

 

Oh, and on a related note, Fox is also moving its best show Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles to Friday's as well.  This seriously saddens me.  Farewell Sarah Connor, it was nice knowing you while it lasted.  At least we have this kickass poster to remember you by.

 



 

Ok, so I only posted this picture because of my massive geek-crush on Summer Glau.  So sue me.  But come on, just look at how awesome it makes the Sarah Conor Chronicles look.  It's Summer Glau (who also starred in Firefly) looking super badass and holding guns.  I would argue that you don't really need much more than a poster of Summer Glau holding guns to sell a show.  I know I'd watch whatever show the poster was for, and I know that's not just true for me.