Fight for Your Right To Party
'Red Widow' Gets The Axe
'Firefly,' Fillion, Fans and the Future
by Jay Black, posted Feb 22nd 2011 4:00PM
Taking a break from his responsibilities in the fantasies of women across the globe, former 'Firefly' and current 'Castle' star Nathan Fillion mentioned recently that if he won the lottery, the first thing he would do is buy the rights to 'Firefly' and then distribute it on the Internet.Rather than just taking the statement as the same idle if-I-won-the-lottery speculation we all do (I'd build my own Muon Collider then lure my middle-school bullies into it), the Internet decided to leap into action. There's currently a movement underway to explore the possibility of actually raising the money and getting the franchise into the hands of its fans.
I'm not a fan of "save our show" stunts, but this goes beyond sending nuts to CBS ('Jericho') or Tabasco sauce to the WB ('Roswell'). I'm rooting for the 'Firefly' nerds because it could signal a massive shift in the way we consume entertainment.
Are you ready for a tortured metaphor that only kind of makes sense? OK, here we go: Anybody here raised Catholic knows about the intercession of the saints. Basically, you pick a saint who you think might be sympathetic to your cause and pray to him to pray to God on your behalf. Does that seem needlessly complicated? Good, that means the Vatican council on needlessly complicating things is doing its job.
Up to this point, nerds have been using this method to try to save their favorite shows. They take out ads in 'Variety', send letters and packages and organize rallies in the hope that someone at the network will hear their prayers and keep their show on the air.
Except, this is dumb. I've outlined why before, but networks don't care about passion (or quality, or morality, or ethics or ... you get the picture). They care about money. If a show has a small, but devoted fanbase, all the network sees is "small."
What Nathan Fillion just did, though, was nail 95 theses on the door of the network. This movement could obliterate the idea that shows are delivered to us from experts on high, who then sit in judgment of the ratings to determine if those shows get to live or die. Using the organizing power of the Internet, Fillion has unraveled the mystery of faith in the networks.
(I told you this was a tortured metaphor. This is why most people wait until the afternoon to start drinking Scotch. Let's move on, shall we?)
Here's what is truly exciting: If Fillion's moment of thinking out loud really does lead to the fans buying the rights to 'Firefly', it'll be the first time that fans decided to rise up and be self-governed.
This fascinates me. Since the Internet began (or at least since the rise of YouTube five years ago), I've been curious to see whether real talent might be able to self-organize outside of the established system. It hasn't quite happened yet. We have 'The Lonely Island' (of SNL's Digital Shorts) and Justin Bieber, but they've only used the Internet as a way in to the "real" Hollywood.
If this movement does get the rights to 'Firefly,' and he and fans decide to reboot the show on the Internet, one of two things will happen:
1. It'll be the real nail in the coffin of the studio system. Talent will realize that it can appeal directly to the consumers and no longer will shows live or die based on the whims of studio executives.
or
2. It'll be the most awkward and expensive piece of fan-fiction ever. And that includes the time I drained my IRA to finance a retelling of 'Community's' Dungeons and Dragons episode with Britta and Annie in Mithril bikinis.
Either way, I'm excited for the outcome.
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