Why Firefly Failed

2002 was a pivotal year. The Winter Olympics were held in Salt Lake City, Utah, Halle Berry became the first African-American woman to win an Academy Award for Best Actress, and U2 performed at the Super Bowl Halftime Show. Many famous movies were released. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Spider-man, Lilo and Stitch, just to name a few. The second generation iPod was released by Apple as well. Kelly Clarkson won the first season of American Idol.

But something else happened this year. On September 20, 2002, Fox aired a new science fiction show. It showed only 11 of the 14 episodes, and was ultimately cancelled. As the years went on, it gained a bit of a cult following, and now is arguably known as one of the best science fiction shows. Even with all the popularity it has amassed, it’s initial airing was disastrous.

This is why Firefly failed.

Firefly was directed and largely written by a man named Joss Whedon. His other two shows, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff, Angel, gained significant popularity. Because of this, and Whedon’s reputation as a capable writer, Fox was excited to have yet another one of his shows. However, even during pre-production, problems began arising.

Fox had extremely specific constraints for Joss, in regards to the writing. The network felt that the original, two-part pilot that he had planned may be too complicated for new viewers. Additionally, they took control of when certain episodes and plot points occurred. For example, they wanted Bushwacked, the ‘horror’ episode of the season, to be very early on for the viewers. Yet, they wanted Out of Gas, the one containing all of the back stories and origins for the characters, to be in the second half.

The problems with Fox did not end there. It was during the filming of Out of Gas, the eighth episode of the first (and only) season, that the crew learned of the cancellation of the series. This resulted in having to film the remaining episodes with the knowledge that it would not get renewed and that the characters’ stories were over. While it didn’t affect the crew’s performances, it did affect their morale.

The final nail in the coffin was the actual airing of the episodes. Much like what happened with the script writing, Fox decided that the story and plot told in the fourteen episodes wasn’t up to their expectations. So, they re-ordered and deleted some of the episodes. Only eleven of the fourteen even saw air time, with dramatic order changes. For example, Serenity, the two-part pilot, became the last episodes ever aired.

Fox also killed the series with the timing of the episodes airing. They aired on a weekly basis, Friday nights at 9. Though, to us in 2019, this doesn’t seem like a big deal. But, back in 2002, recording and streaming technologies were nearly non-existent. Considering this was the nightly football slot, many of the episodes were missed. Also, in the span of only eleven episodes, there were two large breaks- one for the World Series, and one for the holidays. Because of these weeks off, the viewership dropped drastically.

The series has regained a large cult following in the years since its cancellation. It spawned a sequel movie in 2005, and two re-airings with other networks. There is also a global charity event inspired by the series, called Can’t Stop the Serenity. You can find more information on CSTS here.

If you’re interested in the series, it is currently streaming on Hulu. If you don’t have an account, you can buy the series on DVD on Amazon.