A system that does not produce more Firefly is broken.

But does the fault automatically lie with the studio or distributor? I contend that at the very least an equal amount of fault would lie with the consumer who does not appreciate something like Firefly.

I'm not by any means saying that there isn't plenty of blame all around for Firefly no longer being on my TV, but perhaps you forgot about the 30 million people who want to watch American Idol every week.

Not that there is anything wrong with that. Please don't hurt me.

Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Oh, there is something wrong with that. Not that you are to blame.

does the fault automatically lie with the studio or distributor...

Well ... yes.

he would have to live in L.A. fulltime.

He does live in L.A. fulltime.

How is it the studio or distributor's fault if the general public simply doesn't want Firefly? It is entirely possible that it was a show that didn't appeal to a large enough population. That is called taste. Not good taste, but taste nonetheless.

He does live in L.A. fulltime.

t shudder

What happened to Cape Cod?

His wife's family is from Cape Cod. I think they go there for vacations.

Also, I like living in L.A. And I like visiting the studios with PAs zipping everywhere on little bicycles while people in odd costumes smoke outside warehouse doors.

Hm. There's an essay in there.

I've been to L.A.

I can t shudder if I wanna.

... while people in odd costumes smoke outside warehouse doors...

You've been to England. No, wait, You were talking about L.A. My bad.

The point I was trying to make is that without the studio system that is currently in place, we would be left with what is produced locally as that is all that would be accessible.

I understand. I just had to defend my livelihood. It's required.

If you lived in Columbus you would not be able to ever expereince Joss' brilliance.

True, but you can experience Richard Hess' brilliance once in a while.

He does live in L.A. fulltime.

And also chose to shoot Serenity here, which is rare these days.

Gus. I agree with you that the system we have is broken. I don't agree with people who say it is primarily a matter of taste. I'm not going to make the argumenent - too tired to defend it. I'll say I don't believe it and defend it another time - probably in an essay somewhere other than this board. (But I will link.)

But the thing is part of criticizing the current system is to specify a better one. And you are dead right to say you can't do without mediators.I don't even think you can do without distributors (which is a different thing than mediators.) But I think one could come up with a much better medieation and distribution system. Ipod by the way is a step towards that. You have a single place where much mainstream commercial music is available, most of the small labels, plus anything else the rightholder chooses to upload. Ipod as far as I know is not a mediator. (It does not do a whole lot to affect what music you download.) It is a distributor though. So think about what you would like to be changed about ipod as distributions system. Right now our mediation system is the studios, plus various media, plus informal networks of friends. If you don't like that (and I don't) decide what kind of mediation system you would like that would actually deal with the volume produced. Cause informal networks of friends and search engines are not going cut it. Somewhere you need somebody to do some filtering for you to find the stuff you like in that ocean of information.