The Orville

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

So apparently Fox’s next to-be-cancelled SF series is “The Orville,” from and starring Seth MacFarlane. It basically seems to be “Galaxy Quest” as the TV series would have been.

The part I like the most is that the ship’s captain (MacFarlane) has, as his first officer, his ex. All I could think of is, Wow, I wish I had thought of that twenty years ago when I created the crew for the Excalibur in “New Frontier.” Would that I had made Calhoun’s first officer his ex.

Oh. Wait.

PAD

22 comments on “The Orville”

  1. Watched the trailer and it looks so dated and lame, I will still watch it though, its my shame I love Seth stuff.

  2. Are you concerned the entire concept was plagiarized from one source or another?

    I’m not a huge MacFarlene fan (hate Family Guy), but it looks promising. He’s a big TNG nerd, and has spoken often on how the world needs another TNG-type show, one that portrays the future as a positive place vs. a dystopian nightmare.

    Keeping my fingers crossed on this one.

      1. It struck me as trying too hard to be Galaxyquest, Red Dwarf or live action Futurama.

  3. At least I think we can safely say that thirty seven seconds after the first episode Fox will send this show to the footnote section of McFarlane’s career. Or the fans will.

    1. Since this is airing on Fox instead of some streaming service that offers no other programming of interest, I’ll give it better odds of survival than Discovery.

  4. I’m cautiously optimistic about this show based on the trailer. On the good side, there’s plenty of material to be mined from the TREK universe. (Imagine the crew encountering one of the series’ nigh-omnipotent aliens and experiencing sheer panic.) On the bad side, MacFarlane does tend to go for the juvenile and crude jokes (there’s even one about peeing a lot in the trailer), and I’d hate to see the show devolve into FAMILY GUY (or worse, AMERICAN DAD) in outer space. Then again, with MacFarlane’s clout at Fox, he could probably keep the show going if it would otherwise be canceled.

    1. If only. Kebron’s a big (no pun intended) part of the reason for my love of NEW FRONTIERS. Years later, his “We intend to redecorate” line (among many others) still cracks me up.

  6. Unless this absolutely tanks, I’d bet Fox given it a full seaon. They have a long relationship with MacFarlane and probably want to keep him happy.

    1. Yes, and I’m sure they wouldn’t want to jeopardize that relationship by cancelling his show…which they did to “Family Guy” after three seasons.
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      PAD

      1. They didn’t cancel Family Guy once either. They cancelled it six weeks in and intended to let it ‘burn off’ all the episodes they had. But they had zero shows ready enough to replace it and brought it back. Then a year or two later they cancelled it again. Then Cartoon Network and DVD made it a hit. They tried to work out an agreement with Fox to make new episodes. Fox said: Great idea. We’ll make’em, air’em and give them to you a year later.

    1. The really impressive thing is he stole from it nearly twenty years (based on the copyright info of the first books) before the TV series existed.

      That, friends, is true talent.

      1. Yup. I haven’t managed that since Bill Mumy and I cast Jewel Staite as an engineering genius on a space ship ten years before Firefly.
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        PAD

      2. And don’t forget that Buzz character from the Supergirl comic that was a *clear* rip off of Spike over on Buffy.

  8. The Orville could be re-titled as “A Million Ways To Die In Space” but it does look fun.

  9. It’s either going to suck and Fox will give it every chance to keep going or it will actually be great and Fox will cancel it 5 minutes before the first episode comes on.
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    Either way, I’m in it for the first few episodes.

  11. C’mon, it has Norm MacDonald in a voice-over-only role! When has a show with Norm MacDonald in a voice-over-only role not been successful?

  12. Regarding “Orville.” It just occurred to me that this show illustrates how much pull Seth McFarland has at FOX. Because I can’t think of anyone else who could ram this show down FOX’s throat other than McFarland.

  13. This looks far more appealing to Star Trek fans than Discovery. I am very upset about what I see from Star Trek: Discovery, and that’s before even considering the distribution side of things, while The Orville looks to give me everything I loved about The Next Generation, with added in Seth MacFarlane comedy gold.

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