Yes, Fox gave “Terminator” a full season pick-up. And where are they relocating it to?
Friday nights. The official Fox genre death slot, where a dozen SF series have gone to die.
And what are they putting as its lead in? “Dollhouse.” Because Joss Whedon’s last project did so well on Friday nights that they just had to put his newest one in the same slot.
And when are they launching it?
In February on Friday the 13th.
It’s Fox. It’s SF. It’s Friday. It’s Friday the 13th.
What could possibly go wrong?
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What could go wrong is that it could be a hit, and then Joss would continue to think that selling his shows to Fox is a good idea.
You forgot to mention that that’s the Friday before the Monday Presidents’ Day holiday, which’ll further limit audience for the premiere.
Actually, according to both zap2it and comingsoon.net, T:SCC will be the lead-in for Dollhouse. I think it makes a little more sense that way. And personally it works for me if not the rest of the country. Now if they’ll just show the episodes in actual proper sequence…
I fear they’ll be able to put out Drive: All Six Episodes With Absolutely No Resolution To Any Plotline and Dollhouse: The Complete Epic Series together in one 3-disc set with plenty of room for extras and commentaries. (D*mn you, FOX!)
I’m not thrilled with the move but considering that SCC has a relatively large DVR/online audience it may not matter when it airs. It doesn’t look likely for a third season, but at least this way we have a decent chance of seeing the entire season.
As for Dollhouse I realize this may be blasphemy but maybe it’s simply not very good? There have been mutiple retooling efforts and attempts to fix scripts. Now when joss is on he’s on, but there has also been stuff that’s pure crap. Of course if it does fail, he’s got a built in excuse again and the fan base will continue to proclaim that he’s just misunderstood by the suits
They left out V.R. 5 (1995) when they put the list together.
I was a big fan of 7 of those shows.
They also used the death slot for dark fantasy as well. Brimstone (1998) was a show I loved to death. Died a fast death on Fox Friday Nights,
I agree with most of the above examples (I also loved MANTIS and Brimstone; also Firefly after the fact), but Dark Angel lasted two seasons (the second being far worse than the first) and if Sarah Connor and Dollhouse “only” last as long as Sliders, I won’t complain too loudly.
Brisco County was sci-fi? I thought it was a western.
I was really only a fan of one of those shows: Strange Luck. Ðámņ, that was a good show. I’ve never even heard of some of those other shows, so, yeah, excellent job, Fox marketing guys.
I only liked “Dark Angel” and “Firefly” of that list.
Isn’t one of the classic signs of insanity when you keep repeating the same actions over and over again but expect different results?
Hmmm…
::shakes head:: I just don’t get it.
here’s a question–WHY is Friday such a death valley for SF? All the sci-fi geeks out on dates? Going out to see movies on the first night they’re released? Weekly D&D games? What?
Poor Joss. He keeps going back. Battered Writer Syndrome.
RE: “Dollhouse”
From many reports, there has been extreme friction, with Fox accused of wanting to “dumb the show down because it was complicated”.
If that is true, that is a shame, since I hate whem Hollywood takes something unique and interesting and tries to homogenize it.
However, as big a fan as Joss’s as I am, I am not ready to automatically assume he is being wronged. he is extremely talented, yes. But not everything he writes is automatic gold – or even comprehensible – and there is often wasted potential.
See various “Buffy” and “Angel” episodes, and “Serenity” in particular.
RE: “T;TSCC”
For the life of me, the thing I really don’t understand about making this a “sci-fi night” is the fact that they ARE going up against another SCI-FI night, literally, headlined by “Battlestar Galactica”. My only theory on this is that Fox looked at the limited success of SCI-FI’s slate, saw that their shows once had more viewers on Friday night, and that they could bring them back and even poach some of the competition with the followings both Whedon and the Terminator franchise have. Seems a bit risky to do with a new show that has had problems and a series that was near cancellation, but I guess that’s their reasoning.
Also, where else on the schedule WOULD be a good fit? And though it easy to bash FOX for their failures, at least they consistently produce genre shows. Maybe Whedon went to Fox because ABC, CBS and NBC would rather dream up reality shows, newsmagazines and formulaic sitcoms any day than answer his calls about a sci-fi/fantasy show. Couple that with CW’s smaller audience and Whedon’s problems with both parent companies of that network, and perhaps he is just grateful that FOX is at least giving him the glimmer of a possibility that his vision will hit the screen and reach the masses.
Sci-Fi channel has been able to do very well with putting shows on Friday. The audience is definitley there on that night.
Fridays? I’m usually home, wiped after long hours at work. It’s Saturday evening that I’m (usually) out or with friends. Of course, that’s mostly moot nowadays as all the crap they throw on over the image (from station logos to “You Are Watching” ‘banners’ which cover 20-25% of the screen) have, with only a couple of exception, literally turned me off watching shows ‘live’ and wait instead for pristine DVD season sets.
(The exceptions? HOUSE, M.D. and BIG BANG THEORY)
By mid-February, based on the January schedule, SciFi’s Friday lineup will be:
8:00 pm Invasion
9:00 pm Moonlight
10:00 BSG
Of course, Scifi’s record of acquired network series on Friday nights has been worse than FOX, showing a couple of episodes and either pulling it or banishing it to daytime rotation blocks. Most recent examples have been Threshold, Odyssey 5, and Charlie Jade. It may be a repeat of the previous week’s Galactica in the 9 pm slot by then.
“the “key 18-49 demo” of viewers”
When are the Idiots That Be going to wise up? It’s a new world out there… as the sci-fi loving generation gets older, we don’t lose our love for the genre… we don’t lose our passion for great stories and twisted concepts… and we have more money to spend to indulge our obsessions now that our kids are on their own… the whole ratings system is frakked… I still take “risks” and watch genre shows even knowing that I’ll probably be left angry when it’s cancelled in the middle of a great plotline… We need Dennis Hopper as a spokesman – he doesn’t need to be doing retirement plan commercials – he needs to represent US!
Argh! Mike D. *had* to go and mention “Wonderfalls”. Now I’ll have that stupid Oasis “Wonderwall” song stuck in my head all day.
John, FOX is not just one guy, sitting in a chair saying, “Today, I shall think about newspapers.” The people who make the decisions about the FOX network are the people who *work* at the FOX network. They don’t work for the newspaper, they don’t work for the news channel, their job is the FOX network. So yes, they do care.
Well, no FOX has never been kind to genre shows… but it looks like they’re maturing… at least they didn’t shut down SCC after 6 episodes. ( but they’re gonna keep the Simpsons on for another 3 seasons- 23 years … go figure. I think it jumped the shark about the same time Futurama went out)
So show a little faith… maybe they’ll realize that Friday may not be the death sentence it used to be.
Bob A
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