• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

News Seth MacFarlane’s The Orville

Serveaux said:
This is true.

Note that there are also two threads comparing The Orville to Discovery in the Discovery forum right now - there's a bit of complaining and bashing going on in both directions up there.
Click to expand...
Yeah I saw those...and may have posted a bit in them. There's one about how The Orville is overshadowing Discovery which I find quite funny. To tell you the truth I'm not that excited about Discovery, and I find it amusing how the "discovery is going to be the best thing ever" people are feeling threatened by The Orville.
 
Well, sometimes folks who start "concern threads" like that are not really worried for the sake of the putative object of concern. A hypothetical poster might like for Discovery to be in a bit of trouble.

Not that I'd know anything about schadenfreude. :shifty:
 
Mr Awe said:
There's not a shred of evidence in what you wrote or elsewhere that they "overruled the folks making it" to force their viewpoint on them. That IS disputed. In fact, quite the opposite because the showrunners have said that many of Fuller's idea remains in the show. So, nope to you buddy. You're just guessing to support your rationalization for not liking the show before it airs. :guffaw:

It's notable that you can't reference a reputable source to support your guess. :thumbdown:

We get it. You're convinced that you won't like it. Fine. But, don't make shit up to try to support it.
Click to expand...

Read the following interview published on Trek Today with Fuller. He proposed an anthology show and CBS wanted serialised.

https://www.trektoday.com/content/2017/07/fullers-departure-from-star-trek-discovery-explained/
 
Marc said:
Read the following interview published on Trek Today with Fuller. He proposed an anthology show and CBS wanted serialised.

https://www.trektoday.com/content/2017/07/fullers-departure-from-star-trek-discovery-explained/
Click to expand...
It still would have been "serialized" had they done what Fuller wanted. He compares it to American Horror Story, which means it would have been more of a seasonal anthology series, basically a season-long story arc, with the next season being a completely different setting with different characters and everything. Fuller wanted to do season 1 as this thing we're getting with Klingon war and space mushrooms or whatever, than season 2 could have been something that takes place during TNG era, with season 3 being TOS movie era, season 4 being some point in the 80 year wilderness between TUC and TNG, season 5 set during Enterprise era and so on in that order. CBS instead wanted to go with the story of Discovery and Shenzhou, and make that into a continuing series instead.
 
Marc said:
Read the following interview published on Trek Today with Fuller. He proposed an anthology show and CBS wanted serialised.

https://www.trektoday.com/content/2017/07/fullers-departure-from-star-trek-discovery-explained/
Click to expand...

That doesn't prove ongoing attempts to override the showrunners. In fact, they reached a fair compromise.

The bigger factor was: "“[CBS] executives say they were frustrated that, giving the ticking clock, Fuller was spending so much time on his equally ambitious Starz show, American Gods, which was simultaneously shooting its debut season.”
 
Marc said:
Read the following interview published on Trek Today with Fuller. He proposed an anthology show and CBS wanted serialised.
Click to expand...
Isn't this sort of like what happened with Thershold, where CBS meddling forced the show into a procedural format that was ill suited for the nature of the series?
 
Sophie74656 said:
Yeah I saw those...and may have posted a bit in them. There's one about how The Orville is overshadowing Discovery which I find quite funny. To tell you the truth I'm not that excited about Discovery, and I find it amusing how the "discovery is going to be the best thing ever" people are feeling threatened by The Orville.
Click to expand...

All I know is that I hope to like both shows. We've already seen The Orville so I know I like that so far. We haven't seen Discovery yet, so we don't know about that. You can't judge it from the previews because those don't show what it'll really be like. But, I hope that is good too.

We'll all know more in a couple of days. At this point, I'm feeling optimistic. I think I'll end up liking both. But, the proof is in the pudding.

In the end, I'm sure that we'll see the full spectrum of responses, as we do with everything. Some people will like only one or the other. Some will like both. Some will like neither. Etc. No big deal. That's to be expected.
 
I have a question on the whole tonal shift thing? How come people love a series like Orange is the New Black but deride The Orville on the basis of "It doesn't know what it wants to be"? We've seen Dramady before, mainly in that show, or Ally McBeal, or even Boston Legal. I keep reading the whole thing about it has to be one thing or the other and I don't understand that complaint. I think The Orville knows exactly what it wants to be and if it finds an audience, great. I enjoy the casualness of it, the likeable and relatable characters, and just a show that offers true escapism from the crap in media we are inundated with on a day to day basis. If the show doesn't succeed, than fine, but considering Fox's relationship with McFarlane, mainly because of Family guy, I see this show lasting at least 2 seasons if not more.
 
I don't see a tonal shift in the show. It's exactly what Seth said it would be in interviews before the pilot aired.

My problem is, however, he's not doing it very well at all.

Most of the comedy is tumble weeds passing by because it's not funny. So far the drama is seriously lacking. He's just not doing it right.

If he wants comedy and drama mixed together done right, see "Scrubs". If he wants comedy in the work place with quirk, see "Newsradio".

It's just not meshing together yet. But that's amongst other problems (which I've already talked about earlier in the thread).
 
tharpdevenport said:
I don't see a tonal shift in the show. It's exactly what Seth said it would be in interviews before the pilot aired.

My problem is, however, he's not doing it very well at all.

Most of the comedy is tumble weeds passing by because it's not funny. So far the drama is seriously lacking. He's just not doing it right.

If he wants comedy and drama mixed together done right, see "Scrubs". If he wants comedy in the work place with quirk, see "Newsradio".

It's just not meshing together yet. But that's amongst other problems (which I've already talked about earlier in the thread).
Click to expand...

I guess this is personal preference then because I laughed a lot during the second episode. The first episode might have been a little rough, but it was only the first episode. The second was a massive improvement over the first.
 
Yeah, I agree the second episode was an improvement, and funnier, but I can't agree on laughing at it. To me, the votes are asides that aren't meshing together; they don't weave in properly like the shows I previously mentioned, and as CorporalCaptain mentioned, "M*A*S*H".

But I can't agree with waving the pilot off so easily. Seth had the time to get this right, he had the freedom, he had the cash; it shouldn't have been the way it was. Plenty of series fire on all cylinders from the first episode out, like "white Collar" and "Frasier".
 
In terms of Frasier, they already had the characters backstory as a baseline. I'm not sure that's a comparable show to The Orville.
 
Heck with that--7 seasons! Orville gives me a welcome, harmless diversion, another "guilty pleasure" if you will. If it somehow turns into something more than that, like "there are four lights!" material, that's gravy. Rich gravy, of course.
 
tomalak301 said:
In terms of Frasier, they already had the characters backstory as a baseline. I'm not sure that's a comparable show to The Orville.
Click to expand...

They had a character's back story -- everyone other regular was new. And they re-invented Frasier some and put him in a whole new setting and eliminated his beer/bar days.
 
My biggest, and I mean biggest concern is, will Mercer really stop trying to do comedy with Bortus. I don't think he'll be able to help himself with a natural born straight man like that.

I say he goes 1 episode. Who's giving odds?
 
Ar-Pharazon said:
My biggest, and I mean biggest concern is, will Mercer really stop trying to do comedy with Bortus. I don't think he'll be able to help himself with a natural born straight man like that.

I say he goes 1 episode. Who's giving odds?
Click to expand...
I think he'll make it his grail quest. Yeah, 1 episode tops before he tries again.
 
tharpdevenport said:
They had a character's back story -- everyone other regular was new. And they re-invented Frasier some and put him in a whole new setting and eliminated his beer/bar days.
Click to expand...

I did say a baseline. All the other characters are developed as the series goes, as Frasier did so well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top