Being on the other side of the Atlantic sometimes make things confusing. As I understand it, Warner Bros. and Fox are competitors. They compete on the big screen and on the little screen. My DVDs of Buffy come from FOX Home Entertainment. OK, so they distribute it. But why? Wouldn’t Warner Home Entertainment be a more logical choice? Why was Fox in the mix anyway? If they had their hands on the franchise, and believed in it enough to be part of the production, why didn’t they air it? How come it went to TheWB in the first place?
Fox produced Buffy.(or rather Mutant Enemy does) They then sydicated it and WB bought it. (For the last season UPN aired Buffy because they outbid WB)
At the time of bidding war,ther was talk of the Fox network (which is a different division) taking it. But this was not done because basically if they did that, then no other network would ever buy anything from Fox again.
Airing rights and DVD rights are different. I suppose Fox could have sold DVD rihgts to somebody else.
The network that makes ashow is often different than the network that airs it. ABC could make show swon on CBS for example.
–As big a cult hit as BUFFY is, it doesn’t pull in the kind of ratings numbers that even the crappier FOX shows do. It might have occurred to them that if they supported it and nurtured it, it could’ve been a ratings champ eventually, but FOX doesn’t do nurturing. The pathetic chance they gave FIREFLY, GIRLS’ CLUB and THE AMERICAN EMBASSY is about as suportive as FOX gets.
–FOX does air BUFFY–on FX. As basic cable rerun channels go, their investment in BUFFY is considerable.
Here in America, the networks make very few of the shows that air on their network. There is almost always a company that makes the show, and the network buys it.
This is how one show jumps networks(like Buffy, for example).
Mutant Enemy is producing, of course. Then there is those other outfits: Kazui Enterprises and Sandollar Television. I realize that those are production companies too, and that Kazui prolly has something to do with Fran Rubel Kazui, who’s credited as executive producer, and who directed the movie.
So, re-phrasing my question for clarity:
ME, Kazui and Sandollar are the production companies (nothing strange there, it works that way here, too). TheWB aired it (And no, UPN didn’t outbid TheWB. They picked it up after TheWB dropped it). So, apart from distributing it on DVD/VHS, what role does Fox have?
I’m not sure, but it must be important, seeing as the copyright is attributed to them, and they get their logo at the end of the show. “Copyright holder?”
FOX airs Buffy on its own stations as well over the weekends - or at least the boston fox network does. This weekend’s episodes are on Sunday 5pmEST and Midnight.
Yes. Fox owns Buffy and all related copyrights, trademarks, and other intellectual property.
The WB and UPN only aired the show and have no other relation to it or ownership of it. This is the case with many TV shows. For example, Friends and ER are both owned by Warner Brothers but air on NBC, not the WB. As such the DVD releases are handled by Warner Brothers, not NBC Studios.
No Tengu, the WB picked it up and aired it from Wecome to the Hellmouth, and basically worked their entire schedule around it because it was their first “teen drama.” FOX never aired Buffy during their first run. The WB took it from the beginning “when no one else would have us”, and then dropped them and (to quote JOss) UPN came in said “You’re dumping them? Fine, we’ll marry them.”
The whle thing was explained on A&E’s BtVS Biography, but honestly, I’m too lazy to hunt down my tape and watch it again.
Seing that FOX produced the original movie, with, as I said, Kazui as director, could it be that the young JW sold the whole concept to Fox, when selling them the script? It was, after all, his first feature movie.
So, when time came for the TV show, Mutant Enemy had to go through Fox? This kinda makes sense.
However, it still doesn’t explain why Fox, owning the franchise, handling negotiations with actors ASF, at least didn’t take a chance on that first, albeit half, season.
Buffy wasn’t dropped by the WB; the WB were outbid by UPN. The WB would have been happy to keep the show.
Why didn’t Fox run the show at first? Because they made more money selling it to the WB. The WB took all the risk if the show flopped; Fox was guaranteed a set amount per episode. If the WB couldn’t sell ad time, Fox still gets its money. In addition, if the show is a hit, Fox gets the syndication, which is where the real money is in TV. It’s a win-win situation for Fox if the show is on another network.
