Firefly

The Outskirts: ’Cause everyone has an inner geek hidden somewhere

The harsh reality of the television world is that sometimes our favourite shows get cancelled. It sucks, but it’s just a fact. TV executives and networks won’t think twice about snipping a show from their lineups. However, one thing the head honchos do have to think about is the power of super-fans.

Consider the recent cancellation of Stargate: Atlantis, for example. It was announced that the series will live on after the finale in movie form, or so we hope. One movie is definite so far: with the possibility of the franchise telling the rest of its story through a series of films. Talk of a new 2009 TV series, branded Stargate Universe, is also rampant.

The cancellation announcement hit fans hard, and justly so. Legions of Stargate followers began forming numerous petitions, culminating in more than 13,000 votes to save their series, with numbers growing by the day. Will the cries of shattered fans be heard? Time will tell. Meanwhile, let’s take a look at the power that fans demonstrated in the past.

Firefly

Joss Whedon’s sci-fi baby blasted onto the scene in 2002 just before he laid Buffy the Vampire Slayer to rest. Cancelled after only 11 of its 14 episodes aired, the show left a fire burning inside fans who craved more. DVD sales were so strong that Whedon and Universal Pictures teamed up to create a feature-length film, Serenity, named after the show’s fictional spaceship.

Farscape

Though contracted for five seasons, this quirky sci-fi series was abruptly cancelled after production ended during its fourth season, leaving the series teetering on a cliffhanger in 2002. Two years later, fans were finally treated to a four-hour miniseries called The Peacekeeper Wars, which aimed to tie up the show’s loose ends. Fans used every media vice conceivable to save the show, including buying a cover ad on Variety magazine. The reverberations are still present in the franchise, with a series of online episodes slated for sometime in 2008.

Jericho

This post-nuclear drama followed the struggle of a group of survivors living in a small U.S. town. When it was cancelled after its first season due to poor ratings, fans got their creative juices flowing and pulled a fantastic protest stunt. In the season finale, main character Jake Green uttered the iconic phrase “nuts.” That’s exactly what CBS executives were greeted with when they went to work one day: 18 tonnes of peanuts, to be exact. The revival attempt was relatively successful, with the network granting an additional season comprising seven episodes.

Strangers With Candy

Before The Colbert Report, funnyman Stephen Colbert co-created and wrote this hilarious offbeat cult hit. The show focused on 46-year-old former boozer, user and loser Jerri Blank, who returns to high school and learns all kinds of invaluable lessons along the way. The hilarious Amy Sedaris was a shoo-in for the role of Blank, complete with a jutting overbite, fat padding and over-the-top hairstyles, not to mention her hilarious mannerisms. Fans were granted more good times through the prequel film that came out more than six years after the show’s end.

There you have it. Those resurrected shows were but a taste of what super-fandom can accomplish. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a more dedicated and passionate group of viewers than we geeks. We’re clearly a force to be reckoned with.