Schedule Rewind: A look back at the Prime Time schedule from seasons past and network decisions impacting sci fi and fantasy shows.
The season that Firefly was cancelled offers an infamous moment for sci fi TV, but taking a look back at the schedule from that year sheds some light on why FOX was so quick to pull the plug on such a promising show. The Big Four broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC) had shunned sci fi and fantasy entries for most of the ’90s and into the ’00s. There was little in the way of genre shows on those channels during the 2002-03 season, and of the few shows airing, most were gone by the end of the year. The broadcast nets have felt like they needed to throw out a few shows each year to keep genre fans tuning in, but often they pulled the plug on them far too quickly as evidenced by Firefly and other shows from this season.
ABC:
Alias (Sundays 9 PM EST)
Veritas: The Quest (Mondays 8 PM EST)
Miracles (Mondays 10 PM EST)
Dinotopia (Thursdays 8:00 PM EST)
Among the Big Four, ABC had the most to offer in genre shows that year with one returning from the prior season and three new entries. Sadly, though, all three of the new shows would be gone by season end. The J.J. Abrams series Alias was back for its second year and performing well enough for the network. It did not go too heavy on the sci fi elements and followed a procedural format, so it was much more network-friendly. That show would continue for three more seasons and get the rare chance among broadcast net sci fi entries to wrap up its storylines.
The fantasy series Dinotopia was a continuation of the mini-series based on the book by James Gurney which aired as part of The Wonderful World of Disney the prior season. The network certainly had high hopes for the series, but they gave it a late start in November and had recast all of the main roles from the mini-series. It underperformed in the ratings and ended up getting yanked from the schedule after six episodes had aired.
The adventure series Veritas: The Quest arrived at mid-season with a fair amount of promotion, but it also failed to pull the numbers expected and disappeared quickly from the schedule (more on that one at this link). The supernatural drama Miracles (with future Jericho star Skeet Ulrich in the lead) was also a mid-season entry, but it failed to find much of an audience in the 10 PM EST hour going up against top-performing CSI: Miami on CBS. That was the third of three ABC shows that season which was pulled from the schedule before airing all of its episodes.
CBS:
Touched by and Angel (Saturdays 8 PM EST)
CBS only had one show on the schedule that might count as a genre with Touched by an Angel, but that feel-good series was in its ninth and final season. That network had cancelled the werewolf drama Wolf Lake the prior year after one season and would not have much of interest for sci fi fans for several more years.
NBC:
The peacock network had nothing to offer to sci fi fans for the 2002-03 season, nor did it have anything on the schedule the prior year. It would be a couple more years before it would have anything of interest to genre fans, starting with Medium in the 2004-05 season.
FOX:
Futurama (Sundays 8 PM EST)
Firefly (Fridays 8:00 PM EST)
John Doe (Fridays 9:00 PM EST)
FOX had three sci fi shows on its schedule at the start of the 2002-03 season, but all would be gone by the end of the year. Matt Groening’s Futurama had carried over from the prior season, but the network had been airing that erratically for years which hurt its ratings. After four seasons of mismanaging the show, it was cancelled by FOX but would eventually find a new life in a direct-to-DVD release as well as on Comedy Central (and a new revival is on the way from Hulu).
Firefly was scheduled on Fridays at 8 PM EST which seems like a bad timelsot, but FOX had previously had success on that night with The X-Files. But what network execs seemed to forget is that they had to be patient with the Chris Carter series for it to find an audience. They didn’t afford that same luxury to Firefly–after also bungling the marketing and airing episodes out of order–and it was notoriously cancelled after only fourteen episodes (read more on that show’s cancellation at this link).
John Doe–which followed a more network-friendly procedural format–was paired with Firefly in the lead-out 9 PM EST timeslot, and it performed a little better in the ratings (it was also less expensive to produce). It stuck around for the full season, but the numbers had dropped by year-end to the point that network executives were not willing to greenlight it for a second season. That show ended without resolving any of its major storylines (more on that one at this link).
UPN:
Buffy: The Vampire Slayer (Tuesdays 8 PM EST)
Haunted (Tuesdays 9:00 PM EST)
Star Trek: Enterprise (Wednesdays 8:00 PM EST)
Twilight Zone (Wednesdays 9:00 PM EST)
For sci fi and fantasy on free airwaves in the 2002-03 season, genre fans were best served by the part-time networks UPN and The WB. Both had multiple shows of interest, though three of the four airing on UPN would be gone by season end. Buffy: The Vampire Slayer had moved over to that network the prior year with its sixth season and it was in its final year during the 2002-03 season. There are debates on whether the show could have continued into an eighth season and beyond, but series star Sarah Michelle Gellar had decided to bow out and it did not make sense to continue without her.
Leading out from Buffy to start the season was the supernatural drama Haunted which had a pre-Lost (post-Party of Five) Matthew Fox in the lead role. But it failed to attract much of an audience–even by UPN standards–and was yanked from the schedule after only seven episodes aired. It has since become someone of a cult-favorite.
Star Trek: Enterprise was in its second season and the ratings were falling below expectations as it tried to compete in the highly competitive Thursday 8 PM EST hour against Friends on NBC and Survivor on CBS. But it would stick around two more seasons before ultimately getting cancelled. That show was paired with a revival of The Twilight Zone, but the anthology series did not do well in an equally competitive 9 PM EST hour against Number 1 series CSI on CBS and highly-rated comedies on NBC. That one would be cancelled at the end of the season.
The WB:
Charmed (Sundays 8 PM EST)
Angel (Sundays 9 PM EST/Wednesdays 9 PM EST)
Smallville (Tuesdays 9 PM EST)
Birds of Prey (Wednesdays 9 PM EST)
Sabrina the Teenage Witch (Fridays 8 PM EST)
The WB had the most genre entries among the broadcast networks in the 2002-03 season, and that included several that would have notably long runs. Charmed was in its fifth season and would continue for three more, ranking it in the Top 20 longest-running sci fi and fantasy shows. Smallville was in its second year and would continue on when The WB and UPN merged to become The CW. Its ten seasons would count it as the longest-running genre show in the U.S. for a while until other shows like Supernatural, The Walking Dead, and American Horror Story would outpace it. The comedy Sabrina, the Teenaged Witch had carried over from ABC after four seasons and it was in its seventh and last season.
Angel had carried on the Buffy-verse on The WB after the parent show jumped ship to UPN. It would stick around for one more season before getting its well-regarded run capped off at five years. The superhero series Birds of Prey was the one new genre entry on The WB that season and it aired in the same crowded timeslot that had claimed UPN’s Twilight Zone revival. Birds of Prey also struggled to find an audience and it was gone by mid-season.
Cable/Syndicated Shows of Interest:
Andromeda (Syndicated)
Jeremiah (Showtime)
Farscape (The Sci Fi Channel)
Stargate: SG-1 (The Sci Fi Channel)
There were several shows of interest airing off the broadcast networks in the 2002-03, giving sci fi fans a few more options for viewing. The space opera series Andromeda was in its third season in syndication, and it would stick around for two more years (though it would go through constant changes, more on that at this link). J.Michael Starczynski’s Jeremiah was airing on showtime, though it was on hiatus through much of the 2002-03 season. It would return for a second year before getting cancelled by the premium cable channel (more on that one at this link).
Farscape was in its fourth season on The Sci Fi Channel and it would infamously get cancelled on a huge cliffhanger. Fans lobbied for the show and European investors eventually put up the money for the Peacekeeper Wars mini-series that wrapped that show up (more on that one at this link). Stargate: SG-1 was in its sixth season and had moved from Showtime over to The Sci Fi Channel. It would continue for five more years and eventually count among the longest-running sci-fi/fantasy shows.
There was definitely plenty of sci fi to watch that season, you just had to search beyond the broadcast networks. And among the shows that did air on the old-school nets, most were gone by the end of the season. That would continue for a few more years until a little show called Lost would prove to network execs that there was an audience for sci fi TV (more on that at this link).
More Schedule Rewinds at this link
CancelledSciFi.com: Keep up with the status updates of all the currently airing sci fi and fantasy shows with our Cancellation Watch posts. And be sure to follow the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site for breaking news and updates.
SciFiTVSite.com: Follow our Sci Fi TV Schedule for all the currently airing and upcoming sci fi and fantasy television shows, and you can see the premieres for all the upcoming genre entries at this link.
