Advertisers Still In Dark With No Firefly by NewsAdmin

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Advertisers Still In Dark With No Firefly

POSTED BY: NEWSADMIN
UPDATED: Tuesday, September 3, 2002 06:23
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Monday, September 2, 2002 8:18 AM

In an article that appeared on Media Week's website, it is said that advertisers have yet to see a single episode of Firefly in its entirety, which, according to the article, isn't a very good thing for a new series. Questions about the length of the series arose as a result and many buyers wonder if the series will last longer than the currently planned 13 episodes slated to air this season, "If I had to make a guess, it doesn't look good," said Stacey Lynn Koerner, senior vp/director of broadcast research at Initiative Media.

Furthermore, talk of Firefly appearing at midseason as originally planned reared its head again. "He's not just grinding out 13 episodes, he's building a whole new universe," said Sharianne Brill, vp/director of programming services at Carat USA, one of Whedon's longtime supporter and advertising buyer. "Maybe it would have been better if Fox held this back for midseason."

Gail Berman, Fox's entertainment president, remains confident and steadfast that her decision to drop Dark Angel and replace it with Firefly on Friday nights was a good one and believes Firefly will do a better job at attracting the right audience for advertisers. "I think Firefly has a wide appeal both to men and women," she said. "We feel great about it."

Well, let's hope FOX and Berman's move to possibly let the ratings do the talking won't backfire and damage the series--if the damage hasn't already been done. We'll just have to wait and see.

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Monday, September 2, 2002 8:55 AM

NOVAGRASS

Perhaps a full episode, with effects and all, is not yet complete? Aside from Serenity, which FOX I'd imagine isn't distributing to advertisers, maybe there has yet to be a compete episode of Firefly produced that the time of this article?

I'm not too worried yet. The only thing that matters to me now is ratings.

--Dylan Palmer, aka NoVaGrAsS--

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Monday, September 2, 2002 8:59 AM

HAKEN

Likes to mess with stuffs.

That's kind of hard to imagine with less than 3 weeks before the premiere. You would think that The Train Job is done.

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Monday, September 2, 2002 9:02 AM

NOVAGRASS

True. Nevertheless, this doesn't worry me. They did show the 40 minute Serenity condensation so maybe the PR people at Fox thought that was enough?

I'm sure there's a reason.

--Dylan Palmer, aka NoVaGrAsS--

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Monday, September 2, 2002 9:38 AM

TINYTIMM

Quote:
Originally posted by Haken:
That's kind of hard to imagine with less than 3 weeks before the premiere. You would think that The Train Job is done.

Unfortunatly heavy SFX shows often find the promises of external SFX shops are often fairy gold. Non-delivery, late delivery of SFX killed Space Rangers (1993) and was a MAJOR problem for Babylon 5 (1994) (Gosh, has it been that long.)

Jeff
Who notes Hollyweird promises as well.

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Monday, September 2, 2002 10:07 AM

HAKEN

Likes to mess with stuffs.

Quote:
Originally posted by Novagrass:
They did show the 40 minute Serenity condensation so maybe the PR people at Fox thought that was enough?

Though, based on what the article said, it seems that advertisers weren't shown the re-edited Serenity, which is why I'm guessing FOX's plan is to use rating and not content as a selling point to advertisers. But if for some unforseen reason the first episode tanks in the rating, it's anyone's guess as to what will happen to the series.

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Monday, September 2, 2002 2:00 PM

MILLERNATE

Quote:

Unfortunatly heavy SFX shows often find the promises of external SFX shops are often fairy gold. Non-delivery, late delivery of SFX killed Space Rangers (1993) and was a MAJOR problem for Babylon 5 (1994) (Gosh, has it been that long.)

Yeah but shouldn't things have improved in the 8 years since these incidents happened? Frankly, with Firefly I'm beginning to have a flashback to Harlan Ellison's essay dealing with his failed project The Starlost as much the same things seem to be plaging it (executive interference, lateness, etc.)...

Nathan
"It looks like a great adventure...That's what it is; that's what it feels like. When I saw the pilot, it was really engaging. It was exciting. It was unusual. It threw me off every now and then. I think people will be grabbed by it." - Ron Glass, on the pilot, during an interview with the Indianapolis Star

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Monday, September 2, 2002 3:35 PM

ZICSOFT

Quote:
Originally posted by millernate:

I'm beginning to have a flashback to Harlan Ellison's essay dealing with his failed project The Starlost as much the same things seem to be plaging it (executive interference, lateness, etc.)...

Well, I certainly hope that Joss Whedon has stronger social skills than Harlan Ellison. His temper tantrums and general flakiness probably had as much to do with the demise of Starlost as any other factors.

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Tuesday, September 3, 2002 6:23 AM

MILLERNATE

Quote:

Well, I certainly hope that Joss Whedon has stronger social skills than Harlan Ellison. His temper tantrums and general flakiness probably had as much to do with the demise of Starlost as any other factors.

Well there was also the fact that it was turned into a Canadian production due to various instances, which led to a smaller budget and a writing staff that wasn't familiar with Sci-Fi. In Harlan Ellison's defense it should be pointed out that Gene Roddenberry (who does not like Harlan at all, and the feeling is mutual) said that Harlan would have done a good job if the company hadn't given him the crap that they did. Anyways, if even half of what Harlan said was true in his essay then the failure of The Starlost wasn't really his fault.

Nathan
"It looks like a great adventure...That's what it is; that's what it feels like. When I saw the pilot, it was really engaging. It was exciting. It was unusual. It threw me off every now and then. I think people will be grabbed by it." - Ron Glass, on the pilot, during an interview with the Indianapolis Star

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