Fox is like Whedon's secretly abusive boyfriend; no matter how many times Fox hurts him, cheats on him, beats him down, Whedon always believes Fox when they say it will be different this time.
Peter Griffin: Everybody, I've got bad news. We've been canceled. Lois Griffin: Oh no! Peter, How could they do that? Peter: Well, unfortunately, Lois, there's just no more room on the schedule. We just gotta accept the fact that FOX has to make room for terrific shows like Dark Angel, Titus, Undeclared, Action, That '80s Show, Wonderfalls, Fast Lane, Andy Richter Controls The Universe, Skin, Girls Club, Cracking Up, The Pitts, Firefly, Get Real, Freaky Links, Wanda at Large, Costello, The Lone Gunmen, A Minute with Stan Hooper, Normal Ohio, Pasadena, Harsh Realm, Keen Eddie, The Street, American Embassy, Cedric the Entertainer, The Tick, Louie, and Greg The Bunny. Lois: Is there no hope? Peter: Well I suppose if all those shows go down the tubes, we might have a shot.
Lothar: Personally I think Joss Whedon screwed up the pitch. Virus: Explain. Lothar: The way I see it, he goes into a room with a stuffy TV executive who doesn't know his arse from his elbow and goes into great detail about the backstory, the rich setting, how the entire cast is made up of good actors portraying likeable characters. Then he went on to explain the witty well written script and suddenly his best show ever is stuck in TV scheduling hell and cancelled before the paint on the set could dry. Whereas if he had gone in and simply said "Cowboys and Prostitutes in Space", we'd probably be watching the spin-off series where Jayne and Simon have to live together in a tiny space apartment without their space landlord Saffron finding out they're not actually space gay.
