26 hours good grief. And there will be people who will do that.

Simon | December 24, 13:01 CET

26 hours! Pah! That's nothing, seasons 1-4 back 2 back, that's something.
Anyway, this is the second channel that seems to be rushing it's showing of season 7, BBC2 in the UK showed 3 episodes a week, and now this one are showing the whole season in one day.

Ghost Spike | December 24, 13:07 CET

Space is a sci-fi specialty channel. This is the first marathon of this kind that it has ever offered. Normally it does voter selected best of series compilations on long weekends, ie Best of Farscape, which will occur on New Years day. I guess it's a tribute to the serialized nature of Buffy that a network would dedicate so much of its schedule to one series. This is the channel's first showing of season 7 so it is a good way of showing the channels appreciation for Buffyfans. Buffy and Angel form a good portion of the network's primetime offerings - airing them back to back nightly since September. The channel holds exclusive rights to Angel season 5 in Canada.

The Buffy season marathon could be the start of a new trend for the network. Who knows maybe next Christmas they'll show all of season 2 or 3. I'm kind of looking forward to seeing some of it. Their last best of marathon featured a lot of behind the scene interviews which were kind of cool to see. The channel will resume the regularly scheduled screening of season 7 on December 27th.

Anne 5_by_5 | December 24, 18:29 CET

Ghost Spike you are mistaken. Space is not rushing the showing of season 7. In fact they are showing it twice. Once for the marathon and then again as part of their normal run. When season 6 came out they showed two runs of the season. They just like to celebrate getting the rights to new Buffy seasons. Rock on Space! You can send me my free DVD's now :)

Hembie | December 24, 18:30 CET

Networks realize they're also competing with DVD sales, and not doing a very good job. They know that fans of the series are buying the older seasons on DVD and playing them to their hearts content. This means they're NOT watching conventional network programming when they do that. I suspect more networks will do more extravagant attempts at publicity like this in the coming years, trying to show themselves as a better alternative to self-programming. They're gonna fail, by the way.

I mean I'd rather have my own copy of a performance that I can watch at my liesure, on my schedule, than make plans to sit in front of the TV without a pause button and with commercial interruptions on someone else's schedule. I don't see TV being very successful in the coming years, at least not regarding programming of this nature.

In fact, I'd really like to know how well the DVD sales of Firefly and Buffy Five are going right now. If the numbers are sufficient, we may see a day when a studio will invest at least as much money as was invested in Firefly's half-season, to create the equivalent of a season's worth of programming that goes straight to DVD. Straight to video purchase and rental, completely circumventing either tv networks or movie theaters. This happens already to some extent, but usually for projects which much lower budgets that simply can't get tv or movie distribution after the fact. What I'm talking about is a project which from the start aims for DVD release, not because they have to but because it's a better alternative to more conventional distribution.

I'm not saying we're ready for it now. I'm saying that day will come.

ZachsMind | December 24, 19:32 CET

Money on TV is made from the advertisting to go directly to DVD how could the costs, especially performers and special effects be affordable.

Linda | December 24, 20:15 CET

There's a number of possibilities. Some of which don't have the necessary infrastructure built up yet.

The easiest way would be to convert a handful of rich people into fans. Say for example Joss Whedon woke up one morning and decided to kiss the butts of every rich person he could find. He could ask them to invest $X,000,000.00 up front in return for a percentage of the profits of the DVD. I'd call this the Sugar Daddy process. If he could get twenty-five rich fans to each grant him a couple mill, Joss could finish up season one straight to DVD. There's gotta be 25 people on this planet who are both wealthy and fans of Firefly.

Another process would be more difficult. Every fan of Whedon's work would need to volunteer say, a hundred bucks. In return they'd be guaranteed one of the first copies of the final DVD upon release, and somehow be recognized in the DVD itself. Like their name listed in the credits as a financial supporter. Maybe someone who can afford to donate more would get a day on the set during production. Stuff like that.

Instead of wasting money on Variety ads, we could put the money into something that would actually help get Firefly flying again. Of course this sounds like a cross between public television and a telemarketing scam. May not fly. I'm sure there'd be legalities and complications involved. And in today's economy, who could afford a hundred bucks? Damn shame we can't just all walk up to Whedon and palm twenty bucks in his hand, y'know? Personally I might be able to afford twenty.

Amber Benson's been trying similar money making ideas trying to get her movie "Chance" distributed independently, and the end result has probably not involved her breaking even, much less making a profit.

Like I said, today's not the day, but I believe the day will come when TV networks and movie theater chains are seen as top-heavy middlemen and obstacles to getting to an audience. Heck, I see them as that NOW. Eventually an infrastructure will be built to be more sleek and efficient than conventional methods.

There's Mutant Enemy and then there's the fan base. Everything else is in my opinion just obstacles getting in between the performance and its audience. It's time to make those obstacles obsolete.

ZachsMind | December 24, 20:38 CET

Well, ZachsMind, I really like your thinking on this and maybe you could send Joss Whedon a letter because he may be interested in talking with someone who thinks like you do.

I too can see all the benefits of a show like Firefly going straight to DVD and bypassing all the middlemen and execs who think they know better what should be filmed.

When BtVS moved to UPN, all of a sudden we were able to see scenes of Tara and Willow kissing but when it was on the WB they wouldn't allow that. It would be great to see a show just as the writer really wanted it shown without anyone looking over his or her shoulder.

And I love Amber Benson and her attempts to get "Chance" distributed but because she is mostly an unknown actress to people outside of the Jossverse I'm sure he'd have a much more sucessful attempt at it considering how well known he is.

I'd be willing to pitch in a $100 bucks if I also got a signed DVD set from Whedon and the cast (you could probably make that all back with a quick listing on Ebay!!).

Firefly Flanatic | December 24, 21:00 CET

A marathon of season seven and the movie? Now that's torture.

David Nabbit | December 24, 21:40 CET

Yeah, there'll be a ton of folks who are going to pony up the bucks to produce a high-end series for straight to DVD with no projected audience...sure, that'll happen...never.

Get over it...Firefly tanked 'cos the network sucked. The network was Fox. NBC, ABC, or CBS would never have touched it.

It should have gone cable from the get-go...but to think that there is some massive, waiting to be exploited, DVD audience ready to plunk down what amounts to big bucks for an unseen TV series is...well...well...wacky.

Chris inVirginia | December 25, 08:24 CET