In any discussion about shows that were canceled well before their time, Joss Whedon's Firefly will almost always come up. The show followed the ragtag crew of the ship Serenity. Each week, Captain Mal Reynolds and his compatriots would take on dangerous space frontier jobs whilst avoiding the fascistic Alliance and the cannibal Reavers.
Despite its passionate fans, Firefly was canceled after one season. While the series was able to find dramatic satisfaction in a subsequent theatrical film, Serenity, many were disappointed that the show only received a single outing. While low ratings were to blame, the reasons behind those low ratings are more complicated.
Creative Differences
Right from the get-go, Whedon and FOX clashed on the direction the show was to go. The studio wanted, "more guns and less sex," and it forced a number of rewrites for episodes. It even objected to the marriage between ship's pilot Wash and First Mate Zoe in favor of a romance between Zoe and Mal; although, Whedon later won that particular creative battle. FOX also objected to a number of disturbing storylines, despite their effort to inject more violence in the show.
The Marketing
This disparity in agreement over what the show was supposed to be later reared its ugly head once again when the show started to be marketed. The marketing did not present Firefly as the gritty and witty show it was. Instead, it decided to lay into Whedon's comedic tendencies by presenting the show as a straight-up space comedy. It gave the characters goofy nicknames, even obnoxiously referring to Inara as a "cosmic hooker," and the promo was set to the tune of a Smash Mouth song. This made it very hard to attract the type of viewers that would've been interested in the show.
Release Strategy
FOX's strategy on when and how the show was to be released also affected Firefly. After the decision was nixed to have Firefly be a midseason replacement, the studio decided to air the show during the dreaded "Friday night death slot." Programming released during Friday's primetime hours have notoriously had lower ratings than other weeknight slots. This terrible slot was coupled with the decision to air the show out of order. This led to the pilot being aired last as opposed to first, which understandably confused viewers and hindered character development.
High Budget, Low Viewership
With its behind-the-scenes drama, terrible marketing and strange release strategy, the high-budget Firefly was eventually canceled for low ratings, with the last three episodes never airing. However, this was not an easy decision. In fact, former Fox Entertainment president Gail Berman said that canceling Firefly was "difficult" due to her faith in Whedon. She also believed the show wouldn't have done better with ratings, even if it was aired in order.
Although the show did get a big screen follow-up to wrap up its story, one can only wonder what Firefly could have achieved had it not been canceled so soon. However with its rabid fan-base, comic-book continuations and hopes for a revival, Firefly is not fading into canceled-TV obscurity anytime soon.