Slynky: "It's easy for a person who doesn't care about a particular show to not care much about why it was canceled."
Certainly not enough to look beyond the obvious reason--low ratings--and come up with a VLWC ("Vast Lucas Wing Conspiracy") to explain it.
"Be sure to click on footnote #5 for information that contradicts your insinuation that the show didn't have much of an audience."
Um, the show was popular with TiVo users? Sure sign of a blockbuster, that!
How about this: "Back in 2002, Firefly was one of the beleaguered Fox network's many casualties, ranking 66th in the Nielsen ratings for its first episode and quickly descending to around 100th place for the rest of its run." --
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=1910&p=.htm
Maybe Fox should have handed out more free TiVo units?
"It's all about making money fast. If it isn't made fast enough, then don't "get behind" the series and push it, NO, by all means, just cancel it!"
This suggests to me that Slynky is well aware of the show's precarious ratings, and is merely criticizing Fox's reluctance to take a bigger risk on it. Series DVD sales suggest Fox may have make a mistake, but the film's lukewarm reception indicates the TV series may never have appealed to more than a niche audience. In any case, Fox's bottom line is enough to explain the cancellation, so I'd need more than just Lucas' alleged trash talk to hang a conspiracy theory on.
BTW, now that
Battlestar Galactica is poised for a third season, isn't it about time Lucas turned his Jedi mind control on the Sci Fi network?