The Lousy Luck of Tim Minear

Last year, Glenn Reynolds (of Instapundit) and his wife did a podcast interview with John Scalzi and Tim Minear.

Scalzi as you might know, is an accomplished author who has managed to leverage the “power of the internet” to drive his book sales. Tim Minear is a writer and producer who has worked on projects like Firefly, Serenity, and Wonderfalls, among others. This episode of the podcast really is an excellent listen, highly recommended for any science fiction fan.

That said, I really feel for Tim Minear. His most recent effort “Drive“, has been cancelled after only 2 aired episodes.

Minear has experience with early cancellations, as the same fate befell Wonderfalls and Firefly. I thought Drive had a lot of potential, and I was shocked to see it go so soon. Fox seems to have no clue about how to launch a series, but they seem particularly antagonistic towards Minear. With Drive, they debuted a 2 hour pilot on Sunday, and followed up with the second episode on Monday (against “Dancing with the Stars”.) Firefly was presented out of order, against the World Series, and skipped weeks early on.

When up against such odds, you might think that it’d make some sense to give a series some room to breathe…find it’s viewership and whatnot. Not Fox. If the ratings aren’t there 2 episodes in, you’re gone. When it comes to patience, Fox is like a kid with ADD. With these kinds of odds stacked against it, I don’t think Drive ever had a chance.

Here’s what some other blogs are saying about the cancellation:

Ah, “Drive”, we hardly knew ye... – Sci Fi Fodder
“Drive” cancelled: The Minear/Fillion curse strikes again – Premium Hollywood
Super Hyped ‘Drive’ Cancelled – TV Envy
Drive Cancelled – Robologicon
Fox Does it Again – Almost, Not Yet
Fox cancels Drive – TV Squad

There are dozens of similar entries out there.

What makes this particularly sad is the excitement evident in Minear’s voice as he talks about this project on the podcast. You can tell that at the time he really thought that “this is it.” He seemed to believe that he had finally found the formula for a long lasting show.

Maybe next time, Tim.