Episodes as aired vs. the "true" order/ What was it like for you? by reaverfan

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

Episodes as aired vs. the "true" order/ What was it like for you?

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POSTED BY: REAVERFAN
UPDATED: Sunday, April 21, 2013 16:41
SHORT URL: http://bit.ly/Z6Q9JC
VIEWED: 5857
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Sunday, April 14, 2013 3:03 AM

Having watched the Firefly episodes in the intended order dozens (hundreds?) of times, I decided to watch them in the order they were originally broadcast, just to get an idea of what the show was like for people trying to watch it in 2002. I tried to forget what I knew and imagine what viewers went through.

Wow. The Train Job was a fun little romp, but as an intro to the series and characters, it was confusing. Seeing Serenity as the LAST episode aired was bizarre, too. Talk about setting it up to fail! I wonder how many people thought the 2-hour episode was an indication that there would be more?

Seriously, it's as if someone wanted it to fail.

I didn't know about the show at the time, but even if I did, I doubt I would have understood what it was all about, or made time to be home on a Friday night just to see it. It was like starting a book in the middle. No wonder it didn't fare well.

These days, Joss has been vindicated IRT his shows. I hope the "suits" have learned their lesson.

What's your history with Firefly? Were you there from the start, or did you not learn of it until later?

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Sunday, April 14, 2013 3:51 AM

ECGORDON

There's no place I can be since I found Serenity.

I didn't know that much about the show when I saw "The Train Job" on first broadcast, but I was aware that it was not the originally intended pilot. I got home late the second Friday night, and due to a screw-up with my VCR, either my error or a power failure or something, I did not see "Bushwhacked" until the DVD was released. I loved "Our Mrs. Reynolds," which was the third episode aired, but several things about Book were confusing. "Jaynestown" was next, and it was cool, nothing much out of context, then came "Out of Gas," and I was asking myself if that had been the original pilot, but then again, Book, Simon and River were already aboard so I was still confused.

When they finally got around to running "Serenity" (which was promoted as an 'origin special') I knew the FOX execs were gorram crazy. What it was about that ep that they didn't like I'll never know. It had action, humor, drama, and a perfect introduction to the characters and premise. Even if they were reluctant to broadcast both hours on the first night (they also premiered John Doe right after "The Train Job"), they should at least have run the first part which ends with Mal opening the cryo-box and discovering River inside.

wo men ren ran zai fei xing.

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Sunday, April 14, 2013 4:40 AM

MOOSE

I think Train Job did a good job on setting everything up.
It got me hooked.

I didn't know Serenity wasn't being aired first, so I was confused about not seeing the stuff I saw in the preview commercials. Particularly why was the "girl in a box" already out? I figured that FOX must of aired the first 2hr episode on a more popular night for exposure and I just had not heard.

'Course I learned better once I got online.
The rest of the series really wasn't too hard to follow, the worst part was not knowing if it would actually air or if it would get pre-empted by something else.

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Monday, April 15, 2013 8:41 AM

ZEEK

I was there in the beginning. I remember the whole episode of Train Job wondering when this "girl in a box" thing was going to happen. That's one of the things I remember from the commercials that advertised the series. If you find those on youtube or something you should really have yourself a good laugh. They were pretty horrible as a way to promote the series.

As for the out of order nature of the episodes I don't really remember noticing it too much. I was downloading a lot of the episodes because I was in college and wasn't always around on Friday to watch the episodes. So, when I was finding places to download the episodes I found out about the unaired pilot and downloaded that. So, I saw Serenity before it aired. That may have cleared up a lot for me.

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Monday, April 15, 2013 8:55 AM

TWO

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:
Originally posted by Zeek:
If you find those on youtube or something you should really have yourself a good laugh. They were pretty horrible as a way to promote the series.

Horrible FOX Firefly Promos

The Joss Whedon script for "Serenity," where Wash lives, is
Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/two

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Monday, April 15, 2013 12:40 PM

JONGSSTRAW

The only show I was watching in 2002 was The Sopranos. The rest of my tv time was sports and news. I didn't know any shows on network tv, let alone Firefly. From the years of commentary I've read on FFF I would not have given Fox any credit for promoting the show at all. Those commercials were pretty good. I might have tuned in if I ever saw one.

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Tuesday, April 16, 2013 4:02 AM

BOOKONBOARDSYSTEMCOM

I took 3 swings at Firefly before it took for me.

First was on Fox. My buddy told me about it. I watched it, liked it, but the sometimes on, sometimes not, scheduling lost me.

I didn't think about it again until Serenity came out. I missed it in theaters but watched in when it came out on DVD. I rented the series and watched the first episode. Never got around to watching the rest.

Sometime later I was stuck out of town for work and had the day off. I turned on the TV and Sci Fi was running the series. I watched Train job and was hooked. I watched a few more episodes and when I got home I bought the DVD and watched again, and again and again.

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Thursday, April 18, 2013 1:57 AM

TWO

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:
Originally posted by squarepeg1:
If we're very nice to Haken, he might dig through the archives and try to find it.

I googled timeline cancel baseball site: www.fireflyfans.net

The timeline you are thinking of could be the one by josina_peterson at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/firefly_nyc/message/5634?var=1

Or maybe it is one of these two?
www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=33969
www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=48603

Quote:
The inside story is that Firefly was the "baby" of an ousted executive. If Firefly did well then there would be all sorts of questions along the lines of "Why are we firing guys who are making hit shows?"

The solution was well documented -- tank the show by showing them out of order, not advertising them, and then changing the show times so you couldn't catch them. I remember seeing the adverts on TV and going "that looks COOL!!" and then I couldn't find it. -- Monkelectric
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=149312&cid=12516692

The Joss Whedon script for "Serenity," where Wash lives, is
Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/two

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Friday, April 19, 2013 11:58 AM

SHINYGOODGUY

I agree, although I really don't remember these. The promo that got me hooked was one that was part of the show's intro - Serenity flying over wild horses (still gives me chills).

But, yeah, these promos are horrible. They are promoting an entirely different show.

But I remember how confusing it was to follow, although I loved almost every episode, and I remember thinking it would get better and trying to guess River's secret. That was awesome.

SGG

Quote:
Originally posted by two:
Quote:
Originally posted by Zeek:
If you find those on youtube or something you should really have yourself a good laugh. They were pretty horrible as a way to promote the series.
Horrible FOX Firefly Promos

The Joss Whedon script for "Serenity," where Wash lives, is
Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/two

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Sunday, April 21, 2013 9:15 AM

REAVERFAN

Thanks, everyone, for all the good info.

Screw you, Fox, for screwing up a great show that still makes you money, you heartless snollygosters!

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