A fun little quote from Joss... by Whitefall

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

A fun little quote from Joss...

POSTED BY: WHITEFALL
UPDATED: Saturday, July 9, 2005 10:29
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VIEWED: 2515
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Wednesday, July 6, 2005 8:44 PM

Well, the official website posted about how EW.com had an article about the crew as 'must see', and an article about Joss, Serenity, and Firefly... well, it turns out, in order to read the whole thing, you have to subscribe to EW, be a newstand-er, or.... have an AOL account. As it happens, i haven't gotten around to canceling my AOL, here's a fun highlight of the article.

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EW So they invested millions in a show they didn't like, just to kill it? Why would they do that?

JW [Bewildered] Because Fox is a bad network that makes bad decisions. [While The WB would not comment, a Fox spokesperson said: ''We wish ''Firefly'' had found an audience, and we would like nothing better than to be in business with Joss again.'']

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Discuss. :)

"Some people juggle geese!" -Ancient Chinese proverb.

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Wednesday, July 6, 2005 9:02 PM

11THHOUR

Quote:
Originally posted by Whitefall:

JW [Bewildered] Because Fox is a bad network that makes bad decisions. [While The WB would not comment, a Fox spokesperson said: ''We wish ''Firefly'' had found an audience, and we would like nothing better than to be in business with Joss again.'']
___________________________________________

Discuss. :)

Uh huh, yeah right Fox. The "We wish 'Firefly' had found an audience" quote is enough to prompt mulitple paragraphs of comments; and I just don't need the aggravation... again.

Let's just say it's gonna be pretty easy to find Firefly's audience...

they're gonna be millions of them all across the country in theaters beginning September 30th.

11thHour

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"Because teenage pranks are fun when you're about to die!" - Hoban Washburne

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Thursday, July 7, 2005 2:03 AM

ZOID

Well, I'm glad I didn't pay for an EW subscription (and have avoided AOL like the plague it is since I dropped it 13 years ago). EW quoted comments that are easily 2 years old. If you ever wanna really get pi$$ed off, just find the 'spokesperson''s statement when Firefly got cancelled. It's an outragageous 'form letter' cancellation notice with Joss' name pasted in.

...Especially considering that F*x Entertainment President Gail Berman used to be the executive producer of BtVS and AtS. She and Joss were once close associates and successful business partners. She parlayed that success into the top slot at F*x TV. She purchased and then killed Firefly by dicking it over with a sucky Friday slot that you really had to hunt for because of baseball playoffs. She then sends a nameless underling to read a generic cancellation notice for the press, insinuating that Joss and Firefly weren't even worth her personal attention (apparently, she had a BOTOX appointment scheduled that day). Doesn't sound as though Joss has particularly forgiven F*x (meaning, Ms. Berman) for its transgression, either. In the intervening years, F*x (meaning Ms. Berman) have prematurely cancelled shows by another Mutant Enemy collegue: Wonderfalls, and soon, The Inside (both by Tim Minear).

I suspect that the true story behind Joss and Gail "May She Rot In Hell" Berman's tizzy would make the Capulets and Montagues blush (or Hatfields and McCoys, if one prefers). That's a tell-all book/movie I'd pay for...

Recollectively,

zoid
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"Sure as I know anything, I know this: I aim to misbehave." -Capt. Mal Reynolds, Serenity, a.k.a. 'the BDM'

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Thursday, July 7, 2005 5:37 AM

ZEEK

The sadest part of all of this is that I think Fox has been rewarded by Firefly finding its audience.

They made money off of selling movie rights, the reairing rights to scifi and then all the dvd sales. I'm sure they are perfectly happy with their decisions at the moment. Grrrrrr

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Thursday, July 7, 2005 1:03 PM

ZOID

Zeek:

While I'm sure they are making a profit on their original investment, F*x have still got to be kicking themselves for their lack of vision. They could've had a cash cow for 7 years, DVD sales on 7 full seasons, and a movie sensation to replace their expiring Star Wars franchise.

As an analogy, if you'd purchased stock in Microsoft's IPO and then held onto it for two years, you'd have realized a tidy ROI, no doubt. But you'd also kick yourself for having ever sold it, because you could have been a millionaire if only you'd had the cojones and the intelligence to see the big picture.

F*x is -- at the least -- guilty of short-sightedness, if not outright malfeasance as I suspect (meaning Ms. Berman's scuttling of our ship for personal reasons)...

Fiduciarily,

zoid
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"Sure as I know anything, I know this: I aim to misbehave." -Capt. Mal Reynolds, Serenity, a.k.a. 'the BDM'

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Friday, July 8, 2005 7:55 PM

the movie is not the Series. Only the facts have been changed, to irritate the innocent; the names of the actors and characters remain the same

Quote:
Originally posted by Zeek:
I think Fox has been rewarded by Firefly finding its audience.

They made money off of selling movie rights, the reairing rights to scifi and then all the dvd sales. I'm sure they are perfectly happy with their decisions at the moment.

Everybody's makin' a fuss about "Fox" (upper & lower case), which is misleading. There are two different companies involved.

The FOX Broadcasting Company (FOX Network) bought original US broadcast rights to Firefly, paying a total of $38million to produce 14 eps, sold ad time for it, had to refund most of that ad revenue when Firefly didn't meet guaranteed minimum ratings for the time slot, then cancelled the show. FOX's rights to Firefly ended when they cancelled the show. They lost a lot of money on Firefly.

20th Century Fox (the studio) had a contract with Joss & Mutant Enemy to produce TV series. When the network (FOX) cancelled Firefly, the studio (20th Century Fox) left the sets up for an additional six months, to allow Joss time to shop the series to other networks. 20th Century Fox owns Firefly, & they're the ones who sold original US broadcast rights to FOX Network, movie rights to Universal, US rebroadcast rights to SciFi channel, foreign broadcast rights to foreign networks, and a go-se load of DVDs. They made money on Firefly. I'm sure they'd have been happier if the show had continued on TV, 'cause I'm sure they've made a lot more money on Buffy & Angel.

20th Century Fox = the studio = Good
FOX (all caps) = the network = Bad
Fox = Ugly (or, @least, ambiguous)

Keep the Shiny Side Up . . . (wutzon) Amanda Marshall, "I Believe In You", eponymous
. . . (while I'm waiting for Wiccanslyr to get her website back up, so I can download a Browncoat Anthem)

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Friday, July 8, 2005 8:05 PM

PINGJING

Thanks for the clarification, YT, I needed that. So the question is, how does FOX earn any money? I thought they at least made some profit off of DVD sales.

Julia

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Friday, July 8, 2005 9:11 PM

the movie is not the Series. Only the facts have been changed, to irritate the innocent; the names of the actors and characters remain the same

Quote:
Originally posted by pingjing:
how does FOX earn any money?

Selling advertising time. If a show meets its guaranteed minimum rating for the time slot, the Network turns a profit. If a show is a hit, they make a fortune on ad revenues for future seasons. This is also why some new stars try to renegotiate their contract when they find themselves in a hit show.

By the b'ye, it's been remarked that the WB would have been happy with Firefly's numbers.
a) WB is a much smaller network (fewer outlets) so, even if they handled it better, Firefly might not have been able to draw as many viewers. Especially when you consider that
b) they wouldn't have given Joss $12million to make the pilot. He probably would have had to make the show in Canada. Nathan & Jewel could've worked it, but there would have been @least a couple of other Canucks on Serenity, no David Boyd, & probably no Greg Edmonson.

So, I'm glad Joss didn't go to WB with Firefly, and I understand why Tim Minear keeps going to FOX.

Quote:
I thought they at least made some profit off of DVD sales.

FOX Network on Firefly? Zip. Their rights ended whey they cancelled the series.

Keep the Shiny Side Up . . . (wutzon) Clapton, "Sunshine of Your Love", from "Crossroads"

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Friday, July 8, 2005 9:45 PM

BATMARLOWE

All true in terms of corporate divisions but 20th Century Fox (the studio) and Fox Broadcasting (the FOX Network) are both owned by Rupert Murdoch. So if 20th Century Fox's FIREFLY/SERENITY profits are more than FOX Broadcasting's FIREFLY losses, then Murdoch still makes a profit 'cause if it is part of the entertainment industry and the letters f, o, and x are involved, then it belongs to Rupert Murdoch.

If SERENITY makes a bundle those profits go to Universal. But I wouldn't be surprised if as part of their deal with Universal, 20th gets a cut of the gross and the DVD sales of SERENITY.

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Friday, July 8, 2005 11:49 PM

the movie is not the Series. Only the facts have been changed, to irritate the innocent; the names of the actors and characters remain the same

Quote:
Originally posted by batmarlowe:
20th Century Fox (the studio) and Fox Broadcasting (the FOX Network) are both owned by Rupert Murdoch. So if 20th Century Fox's FIREFLY/SERENITY profits are more than FOX Broadcasting's FIREFLY losses, then Murdoch still makes a profit 'cause if it is part of the entertainment industry and the letters f, o, and x are involved, then it belongs to Rupert Murdoch.

Do you say this because you are opposed to the owners of a company enjoying a positive return on their investment when the company does well & shows a profit? Or only if the owner is Rupert Murdoch?

When you say "owned by" & "belongs to", what do you mean? The studio & the network are owned by the Fox Entertainment Group. That is owned by News Corporation. News Corporation is a publicly traded company (NYSE: NWS). Rupert Murdoch is chairman. When any single entity owns more than 5% of a company whose stock is listed in the USA, they must file a form SC 13D with the Securities & Exchange Commission. I could find only one such filing from News Corp, back in 1999, and that was for stock purchased by MCI. I focused on News Corp's early filings, & may have missed a later purchase by Murdoch, but I think he owns less than 5% of the company. Who really cares about all this go-se?

I'm glad that 20th Century Fox made money on Buffy, & Angel, & Firefly. And I'm pleased as punch that the FOX Broadcasting Company took a bath on Firefly, 'cause I think that was mostly their own fault. As for the shareholders of News Corporation . . . well,

By the b'ye, the Fox Entertainment Group also owns a third of DirecTV so, if you get the SciFi channel via DirecTV, Rupert will still be makin' money on Firefly. Perhaps you'd prefer cable.

Keep the Shiny Side Up . . . (wutzon) Steve Kimock Band, "Tongue n Groove", from "Live in Colorado"

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Saturday, July 9, 2005 2:55 AM

MIKEYMO

Quote:
Originally posted by YT:
I focused on News Corp's early filings, & may have missed a later purchase by Murdoch, but I think he owns less than 5% of the company. Who really cares about all this go-se?

I just did a quick check and it seems that Murdoch (and his family) owns about 30% of NewsCorp. The next largest shareholder, Liberty Media Corp., owns about 18% of voting stock. From the same article (re: FOX broadcasting v. Fox studios) --

Quote:

Despite the poor performance of its Fox television network last fall, News Corp.'s quarterly profit rose 80% on strong DVD sales and continuing strength of cable channels such as Fox News Channel.
• • The company reported Wednesday that its net income rose to $386 million during its fiscal second quarter, which ended Dec. 31, or 13 cents a share -- up from $215 million, or 8 cents, in the same period a year ago. Revenue was up 18% to $6.56 billion.
• • The company projected that operating profit for fiscal 2005 would increase by as much as 20%, up from a previous growth forecast that was in the mid- to high teens.
• • News Corp.'s biggest weaknesses during the quarter were the Fox television network and Sky Italia, its Italian satellite TV service. Operating losses at Sky Italia rose to $105 million, from $104 million a year earlier.
• • At the Fox TV network, operating losses widened by $26 million to $153 million for the quarter, as programming costs increased, prime-time ratings fell and local advertising sales at its TV stations were weak. News Corp. executives blamed the network's continuing problem on disruption of its fall prime-time launch caused by its airing of professional baseball games.
• • Yet News Corp. President Peter Chernin predicted that Fox would end the season in a battle with CBS for first place in the ratings for young adults because of the continued dominance of returning shows such as "American Idol" and "24," and the promise of new programs such as "House."
• • On a brighter note, News Corp.'s film division was the quarter's star performer. Home video sales doubled in the period to $1.2 billion from a year earlier, giving News Corp. the highest profit margins in the film business, at 20%, analysts said.
• • Twentieth Century Fox Television posted strong DVD sales for "The Simpsons," "24" and "Family Guy," along with various library titles.

And no, I don't really care either way. But if you read between the lines a bit you can see why everyone's worried that their favorite conspiracy theory could be true. i.e., Fox Studios greenlights a brilliant new series, FOX the network cancels it because they're a bunch of tools, but Fox/NewsCorp (umbrella) makes a ton of money from DVD sales. Bad FOX!

"Be ashamed to die before you have scored some victory for humanity." -- Horace Mann

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Saturday, July 9, 2005 10:29 AM

the movie is not the Series. Only the facts have been changed, to irritate the innocent; the names of the actors and characters remain the same

Quote:
Originally posted by MikeyMo:
everyone's worried that their favorite conspiracy theory could be true.

The Vietnam War was started over a bet that Howard Hughes lost to Aristotle Onasis? Or was it the other way 'round?

Keep the Shiny Side Up . . . (wutzon) Galactic, "Crazyhorse Mongoose", from "We Love 'em Tonight (Live @Tipitinas)"

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