Do you think the Fox network gets bashed to much?

[Jayson1]

I'm not talking about FoxNews. Frankly they haven't been bashed enough as far as I am concerned. To me though the regular Fox network has always been a good thing for tv. They were even HBO before HBO became HBO in terms of tv shows. They took chances with things that were differently and kind of edgy or cutting edge like "Married with Children" "The Simpsons" and "The Gary Shandling Show" and "In Living Color." No way would ABC,CBS or NBC do anything like those shows.

While it's fair that they have cut shows,especially genre shows way to early such as "Space Above and Beyond" "Brimstone" and of course "Firefly." but you can also say those shows only existed because only Fox would do them. Even "FIrefly." Also they did stick with some shows even though they weren't huge hits or huge hits at first like "X-Files" and Fringe" and "Futurama."

Plus they were proably a ahead of the curve with diversity because of things like "New York:Undercover" and "In Living Color" and the Tracey Ulman show.

Jason

 

[DonIago]

I'm not aware of the regular Fox network particularly getting bashed. Sources?

 

[Jayson1]

I'm not aware of the regular Fox network particularly getting bashed. Sources?

It seems to come up whenever a popular Fox show is cancelled. Especially in the case of "Firefly" but I remember it really getting started when "Futurama" got canned. Granted it's not as bad as the sci-fi channel during that time period when they were trying phase out space opera stuff and then you would have them show Wrestling. They really did deserve some criticism back then. In fact i'm not sure if they have ever fully re-captured their golden age of tv starting with Farscape then adding Stargate and Stargate Atlantis and Battlestar Galatica and Eureka.

Jason

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Fox’s reputation for being more crass than other networks isn’t unearned. Yeah, having shows with less perfect families was cutting edge in 1990, but not many of those shows can claim artistic value. They were just first to find a new market.

 

[Forbin]

I'm not aware of the regular Fox network particularly getting bashed. Sources?

Go back thru the decades, and Fox has been known for coming out with a good genre show that a lot of people like right away, then cancelling it after only one (or two) seasons. On the one hand, it's nice that Fox gives cool genre shows a chance, but on the other hand, we get really mad at them for canceling them too soon.

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[Forbin]

^That's far from a full list, of course.
A show I really enjoyed was "Strange Luck", which was axed after 17 episodes.
And of course "Space: Above and Beyond".

 

[DonIago]

Ah, okay. Yes, I would bash Fox for that, but only in the sense that they seem to expect shows to be immediate hits, and exhibit little patience when they're not. Or, put another way, they just keep throwing things at the wall until something sticks, but they don't give many things time to stick.

 

[MacLeod]

Ah, okay. Yes, I would bash Fox for that, but only in the sense that they seem to expect shows to be immediate hits, and exhibit little patience when they're not. Or, put another way, they just keep throwing things at the wall until something sticks, but they don't give many things time to stick.

The only prolem with a network earning a reputation for cancelling shows (whther it's warrented or not), is that viewers are less likely to invest time in shows because they think it'll be cancelled after 1 season at best anyway so it can become an almost self-fulfilling prophecy.

 

[DonIago]

Heh. As I started reading your post the phrase "self-fulfilling prophecy" went through my head, and then I got to the end of it.

The sad fact is some of the tv shows that were ultimately the best still needed some time to build up. Can you imagine if TNG had been given only one season (or less!) to get good?

 

[bigdaddy]

In the 90s Fox was bashed because it was the newer network. Frankly I don't think anyone has bashed Fox in like 20 years.

 

[Redfern]

One of the earliest examples "one season wonders" was "Alien Nation" based upon the movie. It had started to build a complex "backstory" for the "NewComers" only to have the series cancelled on a cliffhanger!

Thankfully a TV movie (several years later) wrapped up that plotline (Francisco's family had been poisoned in the closing scene of the series) and even garnered a few more. But it was dang frustrating at the time FOX dropped it.

 

[Greg Cox]

It seems to come up whenever a popular Fox show is cancelled. Especially in the case of "Firefly" but I remember it really getting started when "Futurama" got canned. Granted it's not as bad as the sci-fi channel during that time period when they were trying phase out space opera stuff and then you would have them show Wrestling. They really did deserve some criticism back then. In fact i'm not sure if they have ever fully re-captured their golden age of tv starting with Farscape then adding Stargate and Stargate Atlantis and Battlestar Galatica and Eureka.

Jason

Hah. I had the opposite response. I used to bug me that people would constantly bash Syfy for cancelling things (usually after three or four seasons), despite the fact that Fox and the other networks were much faster on the trigger finger when it came to cancelling genre shows. And, yeah, I get that the wrestling thing stuck in people's craws, but it was only one night a week, just to pay the bills. The way people griped back then, you'd think Syfy was running wrestling 24/7..

Most fan-favorite Syfy shows lasted three or four seasons at least, as opposed to all the one-season wonders on Fox.

 

[Jayson1]

Hah. I had the opposite response. I used to bug me that people would constantly bash Syfy for cancelling things (usually after three or four seasons), despite the fact that Fox and the other networks were much faster on the trigger finger when it came to cancelling genre shows. And, yeah, I get that the wrestling thing stuck in people's craws, but it was only one night a week, just to pay the bills. The way people griped back then, you'd think Syfy was running wrestling 24/7..

Most fan-favorite Syfy shows lasted three or four seasons at least, as opposed to all the one-season wonders on Fox.

I think the issue wasn't so much that some of the shows getting canceled by Sci-FI but more about the general shift away from those kind of space opera's. They started doing more fantasy type of stuff or things set on modern earth. Things like "Being Human" and "Flash Gordon" and think a few cops investigates strange things like "Warehouse 13." I think the lady in charge of the channel was named Bonnie Hammer or something like that and boy was she lambasted back in the day. Rick Berman level of lambasting.

Jason

 

[Aragorn]

Fox's history of cancelling shows is no different than the other networks. It's just that they've been more risk-taking and less CSI: Topeka, NCIS: San Antonio, Law & Order: Illegal Handicapped Parking, and thus had more vocal freak outs about genre show cancellations, to the point where those people go nuts over below average fare like Almost Human and act like Fox cancelled The Wire. Could you imagine the outrage if Fox cancelled Person of Interest, Limitless and Supergirl at the same time? But since it was CBS, it's crickets. The Fox people back during the Firefly era aren't even there anymore.

 

[Greg Cox]

I think the issue wasn't so much that some of the shows getting canceled by Sci-FI but more about the general shift away from those kind of space opera's. They started doing more fantasy type of stuff or things set on modern earth. Things like "Being Human" and "Flash Gordon" and think a few cops investigates strange things like "Warehouse 13." I think the lady in charge of the channel was named Bonnie Hammer or something like that and boy was she lambasted back in the day. Rick Berman level of lambasting.

Jason

To a degree, but I remember "Syfy cancels everything!" being a refrain in some quarters, perhaps because, ironically, enough, their shows stuck around long enough to become fan-favorites, thus generating more outrage when they were cancelled after "only" three or four seasons. As opposed to the one-season wonders on other networks that didn't stick around long enough to build a following.(with the notable exception of FIREFLY).

One could also argue that audiences had, perhaps unrealistically, developed the idea that all good genre shows were "owed" seven seasons at least, because that had become the norm during the 90s. Whereas, in fact, three or four seasons was once considered a decent run for a series.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Most of the Fox bashing I’ve seen was about lewdness and crassness of a lot of their shows.

Fox has reputation for cancelling things yet Brooklyn 99 is in its fifth season with mediocre ratings.

But I guess with all networks critically liked shows get a longer chance. Seinfeld had poor ratings the first two seasons. And critically praised shows get better residuals.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

In discussing Fox’s reputation let’s not forget the fact that it had shows like When Animals Attack long before the other networks dove into the same gutter.

 

[Forbin]

One of the things that Fox drove us nuts with was scheduling the cool shows we like on Sunday night after football. Space: A&B, Alien Nation, Firefly (IIRC), were in that time slot. Of course, games went overtime more often than not, and the show would get pre-empted or delayed. There was a suspicion that Fox decided to cancel the shows based on poor viewership, when the poor viewership was the result of their stupid scheduling.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I remember the original run of Family Guy. Since they brought it back it’s been consistently in the same heavily advertised time slot, but before? It ran in six episode stints six months apart in random time slots with no announcement. Fox didn’t figure out anyone liked it until the DVD sales.

 

[kirk55555]

FOX screwed over Firefly and then cancelled it, but stuff like Gotham just keeps going and going. They've also kept The Simpsons on about 15-16 seasons past the point it was good. They have a good show every so often, but as a network its pretty garbage.