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Friday, July 7, 2023

What Is An Under Study

 


Attention Hollywood Lot my grandmere was Fay Wray understudy:  Now; the movie Serenity and the Firefly Series as I swam The Forks at the park in Roseburg, Douglas County where the Umpqua River in Oregon gave rise to this bridge as a kid as my grandparents apltly named for the representation of what is the family that gave to what is the last supper in this drama of the American cream at the pi of new. Whipped cream represented in plus as the avenue of construction to the address of 22-22 Avenue, San Francisco, California for busted at 815 Balboa for the ravenous act that continued to perpetrate the horror of Dorchester in San Francisco.  Oddly for Cantore arithmetic for I, a prodigy whom tested genius and brought to a plain savant status at the last testing from a doctor from the time of the action gave rise to nothing more that the original diagnosis of being known as a freak a real DSM label that I have worn for the entirety prior to the action of what brought today the now to say that I have a commercial art collection and a blog.  This active response to other than the movie Serenity and the encouragement that the series delivered is back to why you are cancelled as a developer and that is just back to the McCarthyism.


Fay Wray

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not to be confused with Fayray or Fay Ray.
Fay Wray
Wray, Fay 01.jpg
1942 studio publicity portrait
Born
Vina Fay Wray

September 15, 1907
Cardston, Alberta, Canada
DiedAugust 8, 2004 (aged 96)
New York City, U.S.
Resting placeHollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, California
OccupationActress
Years active1923–1980
Spouses
Children3, including Victoria Riskin

Vina Fay Wray (September 15, 1907 – August 8, 2004) was a Canadian-American actress best known for starring as Ann Darrow in the 1933 film King Kong. Through an acting career that spanned nearly six decades, Wray attained international recognition as an actress in horror films. She has been dubbed one of the early "scream queens".

After appearing in minor film roles, Wray gained media attention after being selected as one of the "WAMPAS Baby Stars" in 1926. This led to her being contracted to Paramount Pictures as a teenager, where she made more than a dozen feature films. After leaving Paramount, she signed deals with various film companies, being cast in her first horror film roles, in addition to many other types of roles, including in The Bowery(1933) and Viva Villa (1934), both of which starred Wallace Beery. For RKO Radio Pictures, Inc., Wray starred in the film she is most identified with, King Kong (1933). After the success of King Kong, she made numerous appearances in both film and television, retiring in 1980.

Life and career[edit]

Early life[edit]

Erich von Stroheim and Fay Wray on the set of the film The Wedding March

Wray was born on a ranch near Cardston, Alberta, to parents who were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Elvina Marguerite Jones, who was from Salt Lake City, Utah, and Joseph Heber Wray, who was from Kingston upon Hull, England.[1] She was one of six children[2] and was a granddaughter of LDS pioneer Daniel Webster Jones. Her ancestors came from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Wray was never baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Her family returned to the United States a few years after she was born; they moved to Salt Lake City in 1912[3] and moved to Lark, Utah, in 1914. In 1919, the Wray family returned to Salt Lake City, and then relocated to Hollywood, where Fay attended Hollywood High School.

Early acting career[edit]

Phillips Holmes, William Powell and Fay Wray in Pointed Heels (1929)
Cesar Romero, Wray, director Richard Thorpe and cinematographer George Robinson (in background) on the set of Cheating Cheaters (1934)

In 1923, Wray appeared in her first film at the age of 16, when she landed a role in a short historical film sponsored by a local newspaper.[4] In the 1920s, Wray landed a major role in the silent film The Coast Patrol(1925), as well as uncredited bit parts at the Hal Roach Studios.

In 1926, the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers selected Wray as one of the "WAMPAS Baby Stars", a group of women whom they believed to be on the threshold of movie stardom. She was at the time under contract to Universal Studios, mostly co-starring in low-budget Westerns opposite Buck Jones.

The following year, Wray was signed to a contract with Paramount Pictures. In 1926, director Erich von Stroheimcast her as the main female lead in his film The Wedding March, released by Paramount two years later. While the film was noted for its high budget and production values, it was a financial failure. It also gave Wray her first lead role. Wray stayed with Paramount to make more than a dozen films and made the transition from silent films to "talkies".[5]

Horror films and King Kong[edit]

Fay Wray in the 1933 feature film King Kong
1:32
Trailer for the 1938 re-release of King Kong (1:31)

After leaving Paramount, Wray signed with other film studios. Under these deals, Wray was cast in several horror films, including Doctor X (1932) and Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933). However, her best known films were produced under her deal with RKO Radio Pictures. Her first film with RKO was The Most Dangerous Game (1932), co-starring Joel McCrea. The production was filmed at night on the same jungle sets that were being used for King Kong during the day, and with Wray and Robert Armstrong starring in both movies.

The Most Dangerous Game was followed by the release of Wray's best remembered film, King Kong. According to Wray, Jean Harlow had been RKO's original choice, but because MGM put Harlow under exclusive contract during the pre-production phase of the film, she became unavailable.[6] Wray was approached by director Merian C. Cooper to play the blonde captive of King Kong; the role of Ann Darrow for which she was paid $10,000 ($200,000 in 2022 dollars) to portray.[7] The film was a commercial success and Wray was reportedly proud that the film saved RKO from bankruptcy.[8]

Later career[edit]

1930 publicity photograph
1953 cast of Pride of the Family: Bobby Hyatt, Wray, Paul Hartman and Natalie Wood

Wray continued to star in films, including The Richest Girl in the World, but by the early 1940s, her appearances became less frequent. She retired in 1942 after her second marriage but due to financial exigencies she soon resumed her acting career,[7] and over the next three decades, Wray appeared in several films and appeared frequently on television. Wray portrayed Catherine Morrison in the 1953–54 sitcom The Pride of the Family [9] with Natalie Wood playing her daughter. Wray appeared in Queen Bee, released in 1955.

Wray appeared in three episodes of Perry Mason: "The Case of the Prodigal Parent" (1958); "The Case of the Watery Witness" (1959), as murder victim Lorna Thomas; and "The Case of the Fatal Fetish" (1965), as voodoo practitioner Mignon Germaine. In 1959, Wray was cast as Tula Marsh in the episode "The Second Happiest Day" of Playhouse 90. Other roles around this time were in the episodes "Dip in the Pool" (1958) and "The Morning After" of CBS's Alfred Hitchcock Presents. In 1960, she appeared as Clara in an episode of 77 Sunset Strip, "Who Killed Cock Robin?" Another 1960 role was that of Mrs. Staunton, with Gigi Perreau as her daughter, in the episode "Flight from Terror" of The Islanders.

Wray appeared in a 1961 episode of The Real McCoys titled "Theatre in the Barn". In 1963, she played Mrs. Brubaker in The Eleventh Hour episode "You're So Smart, Why Can't You Be Good?". She ended her acting career with the 1980 made-for-television film Gideon's Trumpet.

Wray holding her autobiography titled On the Other Hand

In 1988, she published her autobiography On the Other Hand.[10] In her later years, Wray continued to make public appearances. In 1991, she was crowned Queen of the Beaux Arts Ball, presiding with King Herbert Huncke.[11]

She was approached by James Cameron to play the part of Rose Dawson Calvert for his blockbuster Titanic(1997) with Kate Winslet to play her younger self, but she turned down the role, which was subsequently portrayed by Gloria Stuart in an Oscar-nominated performance. She was a special guest at the 70th Academy Awards, where the show's host Billy Crystal introduced her as the "Beauty who charmed the Beast." She was the only 1920s Hollywood actress in attendance that evening. On October 3, 1998, she appeared at the Pine Bluff Film Festival, which showed The Wedding March with live orchestral accompaniment.

In January 2003, the 95-year-old Wray appeared at the 2003 Palm Beach International Film Festival to celebrate the Rick McKay documentary film Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There, where she was honored with a "Legend in Film" award. In her later years, she visited the Empire State Building frequently; in 1991, she was a guest of honor at the building's 60th anniversary, and in May 2004,[12] she made one of her last public appearances at the ESB. Her final public appearance was at the premiere of the documentary film Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There in June 2004. [13]

Personal life[edit]

Wray married three times – to writers John Monk Saunders and Robert Riskin and the neurosurgeon Sanford Rothenberg (January 28, 1919 – January 4, 1991).[14] She had three children: Susan Saunders, Victoria Riskin, and Robert Riskin Jr.[15][16]

After returning to the US after finishing The Clairvoyant she became a naturalized citizen of the United States in May 1935.[17]

Death[edit]

Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6349 Hollywood Blvd.

Wray died in her sleep of natural causes in the night of August 8, 2004, in her apartment on Fifth Avenue Manhattan.[18][19]She is interred at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California.[20]

Two days after her death, the lights of the Empire State Building were lowered for 15 minutes in her memory.[21]

Honors[edit]

Fay Wray Fountain, Cardston, Alberta

In 1989, Wray was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award.[22] Wray was honored with a Legend in Film award at the 2003 Palm Beach International Film Festival. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Wray was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6349 Hollywood Blvd. She received a star posthumously on Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto on June 5, 2005. A small park near Lee's Creek on Main Street in Cardston, Alberta, her birthplace, was named Fay Wray Park in her honor. The small sign at the edge of the park on Main Street has a silhouette of King Kong on it, remembering her role in King Kong. A large oil portrait of Wray by Alberta artist Neil Boyle is on display in the Empress Theatre in Fort Macleod, Alberta. In May 2006, Wray became one of the first four entertainers to be honored by Canada Post by being featured on a postage stamp.

Partial filmography[edit]

Cultural references[edit]

  • In The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Fay Wray is referenced by name in two songs. At the beginning of the movie, "Science Fiction/Double Feature" contains "Then something went wrong / For Fay Wray and King Kong / They got caught in a celluloid jam", and near the end extraterrestrial transvestite mad scientist Frank N. Furter sings in the song, "Don't Dream It": "Whatever happened to Fay Wray? / That delicate satin-draped frame / As it clung to her thigh / How I started to cry / 'Cause I wanted to be dressed just the same".[23]
  • Mentioned in the chorus of the Jimmy Ray song, "Are You Jimmy Ray?"
  • Type O Negative, on their album Bloody Kisses, has a track titled "Fay Wray Come Out to Play."
  • Mentioned repeatedly in Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow.
  • Fay Wray is briefly mentioned in the Bruce Cockburn song "Mama Just Wants to Barrelhouse All Night Long" on the 1973 Night Vision album in its second verse: "I hear the city singing like a siren choir / Some fool tried to set this town on fire / TV preacher screams 'come on along' / I feel like Fay Wray face to face with King Kong / But Mama just wants to barrelhouse all night long."
  • Fay Wray has been mentioned in the Peanuts comic strip a couple of times, mostly involving characters Snoopy and Woodstock in reenacting the iconic scenes from King Kong. The first one was in a September 11, 1976 strip with Snoopy playing as King Kong while holding Woodstock as Ann Darrow (with a brief mention of her co-star Bruce Cabot);[24] and in an August 29, 1976 Sunday strip format where Snoopy is dreaming that his nose is the Empire State Building and Woodstock, as King Kong, is climbing atop of it in real time. Waking up from it, Snoopy complains afterwards that "Fay Wray didn't even show up" in it.[25]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Ancestry of Fay Wray". Wargs.com. Retrieved March 9, 2011.
  2. ^ "Fay Wray". Northern Stars. Archived from the original on June 11, 2011. Retrieved March 9, 2011.
  3. ^ "Utah-Hollywood connection runs deep", p. B2, The Salt Lake Tribune, January 26, 2009.
  4. ^ SL Tribune, January 26, 2009
  5. ^ "Fay Wray". TCM.com. Archived from the original on March 5, 2011. Retrieved March 9, 2011.
  6. ^ Parish, James Robert; Mank, Gregory W.; Stanke, Don E. (1978). The Hollywood Beauties. New Rochelle, New York: Arlington House Publishers. p. 203. ISBN 0-87000-412-3.
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b "Fay Wray". Emol.org. Archived from the originalon February 24, 2012. Retrieved March 9, 2011.
  8. ^ "Fay Wray by Kendahl Cruver". Things-and-other-stuff.com. September 15, 1907. Retrieved March 9, 2011.
  9. ^ Terrace, Vincent (2011). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010 (2nd ed.). Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. p. 853. ISBN 978-0-7864-6477-7.
  10. ^ Wray, Fay (1989). On the Other Hand: A Life Story(1st ed.). New York City: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-02265-5. OCLC 17917980.
  11. ^ "Beaux Arts Society: Royal Family". Archived from the original on January 2, 2014. Retrieved February 24,2014.
  12. ^ "UPI.com". UPI.com. Retrieved March 9, 2011.
  13. ^ Luther, Claudia (August 10, 2004). "From the Archives: Fay Wray, 96; Actress, Object of Ape's Desire in 'King Kong'". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 28,2022.
  14. ^ "Social Security Death Index". Ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com. July 15, 2010. Retrieved March 9, 2011.
  15. ^ Roy Kinnard; Tony Crnkovich (October 25, 2005). The Films of Fay Wray. p. 14. ISBN 9781476604152. Retrieved July 17, 2016.
  16. ^ "'King Kong' damsel Fay Wray dies at 96". TODAY.com. Retrieved July 17, 2016.
  17. ^ Riskin, Victoria (February 26, 2019). Fay Wray and Robert Riskin: A Hollywood Memoir. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-5247-4729-9.
  18. ^ Luther, Claudia (August 10, 2004). "From the Archives: Fay Wray, 96; Actress, Object of Ape's Desire in 'King Kong'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 17, 2022.
  19. ^ "Fay Wray, Beauty to Kong's Beast, Dies at 96". The New York Times. August 9, 2004.
  20. ^ "A Visit to FAY WRAY's Gravesite (at Hollywood Forever Cemetery) King Kong" – via www.youtube.com.
  21. ^ "Fay Wray – Empire State Building to Dim Lights in Remembrance of Actress Fay Wray". UPI.com. Retrieved March 9, 2011.
  22. ^ "Past Recipients: Crystal Award". Women In Film. Archived from the original on June 30, 2011. Retrieved May 10, 2011.
  23. ^ McHorse, Shawn. "Rocky Horror Picture Show Soundtrack: 19 song lyrics". RockyMusic.org. Retrieved March 28, 2022.
  24. ^ Schulz, Charles (August 29, 1976). "Peanuts by Charles Schulz for August 29, 1976". GoComics.
  25. ^ Schulz, Charles (September 11, 1976). "Peanuts by Charles Schulz for September 11, 1976". GoComics.

Congress Investigates Communists in Hollywood


Serenity (2005 film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Serenity
Serenity One Sheet.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJoss Whedon
Written byJoss Whedon
Based onFirefly
by Joss Whedon
Produced byBarry Mendel
Starring
CinematographyJack Green
Edited byLisa Lassek
Music byDavid Newman
Production
companies
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release dates
  • August 22, 2005 (EIFF)
  • September 30, 2005(United States)
Running time
119 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$39 million[2]
Box office$40.4 million[2][3]

Serenity is a 2005 American space Western film written and directed by Joss Whedon in his feature directorial debut. The film is a continuation of Whedon's short-lived 2002 Fox television series Firefly and stars the same cast, taking place after the events of the final episode. Set in 2517, Serenity is the story of the crew of Serenity, a "Firefly-class" spaceship. The captain and first mate are veterans of the Unification War, having fought on the losing Independent side against the Alliance. Their lives of smuggling and cargo-running are interrupted by a psychic passenger who harbors a dangerous secret.

The film stars  Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, Adam Baldwin, Summer Glau and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Serenity was released in North America on September 30, 2005, by Universal Pictures to generally positive reviews and several accolades, including the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, the Prometheus Special Awardand the Nebula Award for Best Script, but underperformed at the box office.

Plot[edit]

In the 26th century, humanity has colonized a new solar system. The central planets formed the Alliance and won a war against the outer planet Independents who resisted joining the Alliance. River Tam is conditioned by Alliance scientists into becoming a psychic and an assassin but is soon rescued by her brother Dr. Simon Tam. During her training, River inadvertently read the minds of several top government officials and learned their secrets. Consequently, an Alliance agent known only as the Operative is tasked with recapturing her.

The siblings have found refuge aboard the transport spaceship Serenity with Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds, first mate Zoe Washburne, pilot Hoban "Wash" Washburne, mercenary Jayne Cobb, and mechanic Kaylee Frye. Despite Simon's objections, Mal brings River on a bank robbery. River warns them that savage and cannibalistic Reavers are coming. They escape, but Simon decides he and River will leave Serenity at the next port. Once there, however, a subliminal message in a television commercial causes River to attack numerous bar patrons, and Mal takes the siblings back aboard the ship. The crew contacts reclusive hacker Mr. Universe, who discovers the message designed to trigger River's mental conditioning. He notes River whispered "Miranda" before attacking and warns that someone else has viewed the footage.

Mal receives an invitation from Inara Serra. Realising it is a trap, Mal goes to confront the Operative who promises to let him go free if he hands over River. Mal barely escapes. Miranda is discovered to be a planet located beyond a region of space swarming with Reavers. The crew flies to the planet Haven but find it devastated and their friend Shepherd Book mortally wounded. The Operative promises to kill anyone who assists them until he gets River.

Mal has the crew disguise Serenity as a Reaver ship and they travel to Miranda undetected. They find its 30 million colonists dead, and a recording that explains an experimental chemical to suppress aggression had been added into Miranda's atmosphere. The population became so docile they stopped performing all activities of daily living and placidly died. A small proportion of them had the opposite reaction and became insanely aggressive and violent. The Alliance had created the Reavers and this was the secret in River's subconscious.

Mr. Universe agrees to broadcast the recording. However, the Operative kills him and prepares an ambush. Knowing this, the crew provoke the Reaver fleet into chasing them toward the Alliance armada. The Reavers and Alliance battle while Wash pilots Serenity through the crossfire. He crash lands near the broadcast tower before being fatally impaled by a Reaver spear.

The crew make a last stand against the Reavers to buy Mal time to broadcast the recording. The crew retreats behind a set of blast doors that fail to properly close. Simon is shot, and River dives through the doors to throw back Simon's medical kit and close the doors before the Reavers drag her away. At the transmitter, Mal fights the Operative, finally subduing him and forcing him to watch as the recording is broadcast. Mal returns to the crew. The blast doors open to reveal that River has killed all the Reavers. The Operative orders the Alliance troops to stand down.

The Operative provides medical aid and resources to repair Serenity. He tells Mal the broadcast has weakened the Alliance government, but while he will try to convince the Parliament that River and Simon are no longer threats, he warns that they may continue their pursuit in retribution for getting the word out. Serenity takes off, with River as Mal's new pilot.

Cast[edit]

Main article: List of Firefly characters

Production[edit]

Development[edit]

The film is based on Firefly, a television series canceled by the Fox Broadcasting Company in December 2002, after 11 of its 14 produced episodes had aired.[4] Attempts to have other networks acquire the series failed,[5] and creator Joss Whedon started to sell it as a film.[6] He had been working on a film script since the show's cancellation.[7] Shortly after the cancellation, he contacted Barry Mendel, who was working with Universal Studios, and "flat-out asked him" for a way to continue the series as a film, including as a low-budget television film. Mendel introduced Whedon to then Universal executive Mary Parent. She had seen Firefly and immediately signed on to the project, even though Whedon had yet to create a story.[4] Whedon remarked: 

Universal came in where I thought nobody else would, and quite frankly, I'm not sure anybody else would've, with absolute faith and has maintained it. It's been the easiest process in terms of dealing with a studio that I've ever had. And they turned it into—not a blockbuster, which is not what I was trying to make, but not a low-budget movie either. They wanted to make a real movie out of it. They wanted to give us the scope that the show could never have had. So all I had to do was come up with a story that was worth that.[4]

The nine returning Firefly cast members. Left: from left to right, top to bottom: Ron Glass, Summer Glau, Alan Tudyk, Sean Maher, Adam Baldwin, Jewel Staite, Morena Baccarin and Nathan Fillion in 2005. Right: Gina Torres in 2008.

In July 2003, Whedon said that though there was interest in the project, "I won't know really until I finish a draft whether or not it's genuine."[8] He felt that any film deal was contingent on keeping the show's original cast,[8] though he later stated that retaining the cast was "never an issue" as Universal executives believed the cast suitable after watching every episode of the series.[9]

In early September 2004, a film deal with Universal was publicly confirmed. Universal acquired the rights to Firefly shortly before the confirmation. Whedon felt that the strong sales of the Firefly DVD, which sold out in less than 24 hours after the pre-order announcement,[10]"definitely helped light a fire and make them [Universal] go, 'Okay, we've really got something here.' It definitely helped them just be comfortable with the decisions they were making, but they really had been supporting us for quite some time already."[4] Whedon felt it was "important people understand that the movie isn't the series", and so the project was titled Serenity.[11]

Writing[edit]

After Universal acquired the film rights from Fox, Whedon began writing the screenplay. His task was to explain the premise of a television series that few had seen without boring new viewers or longtime fans. He based his story on original story ideas for Firefly's un-filmed second season.[12] Whedon's original script was 190 pages, and attempted to address all major plot points introduced in the series. After presenting the script to Barry Mendel under the title "The Kitchen Sink", Whedon and Mendel collaborated on cutting down the script to a size film-able under his budget constraints.[12] All nine principal cast members from the television series were scheduled to return for the movie, but Glass and Tudyk could not commit to sequels, leading to the death of their characters in the second draft of the script.[13] The tightened script and a budget Mendel and Whedon prepared were submitted to Universal on a Friday and on the following Monday morning, Stacey Snider, then head of Universal, called Mendel to officially greenlight the movie.[14]

Universal planned to begin shooting in October 2003, but delays in finishing the script postponed the start of shooting to June 2004.[4]

Filming[edit]

Diamond Ranch High School served as the location of the planet Miranda.

Principal photography for Serenity was originally estimated to require 80 days, lasting a typical 12 to 14 hours each, with a budget of over $100 million. Unwilling to approve of such a large budget, Universal Studios wished to shoot abroad to minimize production costs. However, Whedon, reluctant to uproot his family, insisted that filming take place locally and maintained that it was possible for a local production to cost fewer days and less than half the expected budget.[15] On March 2, 2004,[11] the film was greenlit for production with a budget of under $40 million.[16] At the project's completion, the film spent $39 million,[2][15] considered low for a science fiction action film featuring heavy special effects.[16][17]

Serenity was filmed over a period of 50 ten-hour days,[15] beginning June 3, 2004, and ending September 17, 2004.[18][19] The film was primarily shot on Universal Studio sound stages with locations throughout Los Angeles.[16] The sequence where the crew is pursued by Reavers after a bank robbery was filmed along the Templin Highway north of Santa Clarita. The shoot typically would have lasted 30 days, but the production completed filming the sequence in five days. Pyrotechnics were shot at Mystery Mesa, near Santa Clarita, over a period of three days rather than a typical two weeks.[15] The scenes on the planet Miranda were filmed at Diamond Ranch High School in Pomona.[20]

The production expected to save money by reusing the Serenity ship interior set from the Firefly television series, but the set was not available. Instead the ship was rebuilt, using DVD images of the television series as a guide. Construction was completed over 14 weeks on Universal Studios' Stage 12 by 23 supervised crews working independently but in coordination with one another. Universal was concerned about the extra cost but were satisfied when it was completed in just 14 weeks, according to executive producer David Lester.[15]

Visual effects[edit]

As the budget for the film was considerably smaller than for the TV series, practical special effects were used as much as possible: if a computer-generated imagery (CGI) composite was required, as many tangible sets and props as possible were constructed to minimize the use of computer effects.[21] The most technically challenging scene was the mule skiff chase.[21] For budgetary reasons, a gimbal and CGI, much like those used in the pod race in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, were quickly ruled out.[15] Instead, the crew fashioned a trailer with a cantilevered arm attached to the "hovercraft" and shot the scene while riding up Templin Highway north of Santa Clarita.[15] Zoic Studios, the company that produced the graphics for the series, had to perform a complete overhaul of their computer model of Serenity, as the television model would not stand up to the high-definition scrutiny of cinema screens.[22][23]

Musical score[edit]

Main article: Serenity (soundtrack)

In pre-production memos, Whedon described his vision for the score as "spare, intimate, mournful and indefatigable". Just as the landscape and speech drew from elements of the Western, he wished the same of the musical style and instrumentation. However, he did not want to step too far into Western clichés to "cause justified derision" and hoped the score would also draw from Chinese and other Asian musical elements. He wanted the musical elements "mixed up, hidden, or it's as much a cliché as the western feel. We don't want to be too specific about culture or time. We want to be comfortable enough with the sounds not to let them take us out of the story, but not so comfortable that we begin to be told where the story is." Music was to draw heavily on what could be carried, and he highlighted four instruments: voice, percussion, woodwind, strings particularly guitar. He cautioned against vocal orchestration, believing there to be only two voices in Hollywood and wishing to avoid both, and advised moderation in woodwind, feeling wind instruments to be "either too airy or too sophisticated".[24]

Universal Studios wanted a composer with experience scoring films, ruling out Firefly's composer Greg Edmonson. Whedon first thought of Carter Burwell, of whom Whedon was a huge fan. However, Whedon later felt that Burwell was not the right choice because as the film changed, the needs of the score changed as well.[25] Burwell found working on the project difficult as it required he work "opposite" to his usual approach.[26] The production would have continued with Burwell, but his other obligations left him little time to compose an entirely new score for Serenity.[25] Burwell was dropped from the project a few weeks before the scheduled February 2005 recording.[26]

David Newman was recommended by Universal's music executives when Whedon requested a composer capable of "everything" and "quickly". Whedon's instructions to Newman for the ship Serenity's theme was something homemade and mournful, evoking the idea of pioneers who had only what they could carry. Whedon wished the theme to let viewers know they were now home. River Tam's theme was played on a uniquely shaped, square, antique piano that was slightly out of tune. The piano reminded Newman of River and composed a "haunting, haunted, vaguely eastern and achingly unresolved" theme that Whedon felt proved Newman's understanding of the film's musical needs.[27]

The score was performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony under Newman's direction.[27] The official soundtrack was released September 27, 2005.[28]

Release[edit]

Serenity had its world premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival on August 22, 2005.[29][30] The premiere sold out,[29] and the festival arranged for two more screenings on August 24, which sold out in twenty-four hours,[31][32] and in the "Best of the Fest" line-up on August 28.[31] The film was theatrically released September 30, 2005.[2]

Serenity was originally released on traditional film prints. Because the original 2K digital intermediate scans were readily available, the film was chosen by Universal Pictures to test conversion to a Digital Cinema Distribution Master of the film and to "test the workflow required to create a [Digital Cinema Package]." Serenity became the first film to fully conform to Digital Cinema Initiatives specifications, marking "a major milestone in the move toward all-digital projection".[33]

Marketing[edit]

In April 2005, Universal launched a three-stage grassroots marketing campaign. A rough cut of the film was previewed in a total of thirty-five North American cities where the Firefly television series received the highest Nielsen ratings. The screenings did not bear the name of the film and relied on word-of-mouth within the fanbase for promotion. All screenings sold out in less than twenty-four hours, sometimes in as quickly as five minutes.[34] The first screening was held May 5, 2005, in ten cities.[35] The second screening on May 26 increased the number of cities to twenty. In the twenty-four hours following the announcement of the second screening, the Firefly fanbase launched trial and error efforts to uncover the theaters holding the screenings, leading the event to be sold out before the official listing was released.[36] The third screening on June 23 was held in thirty-five cities.[37] A final screening was held at Comic-Con International, followed by a panel with Whedon and the cast.[34]

Session 416 [edit]

Session 416, also known as the R. Tam Sessions,[38] are a series of five short videos anonymously released by Whedon through various websites and message boards as viral marketing.[39][40][41] The first video, bearing the title card "R. Tam, Session 416, Second Excerpt", was released on the iFilmwebsite on August 16, 2005.[39] By September 7, 2005, all five videos had been released.[40]

The series grew out of Universal executives' request that Whedon supply content for an online viral marketing campaign (though a representative from Universal Studios denied knowledge of the videos' origin).[39] He decided to explore events before the film and the television series.[41] The clips were filmed with a "tiny" crew in a single day and are shot in grainy, low quality, black-and-white.[41][42] They were later included on the Collector's Edition DVD.[42]

The videos, sequenced out of chronological order, depict excerpts of counseling sessions between River Tam, played by Summer Glau, and her unnamed therapist, played by Whedon, while she is held at the Alliance Academy.[40][41][42] They follow her change from shy and sweet child prodigy to the mentally unstable girl of the television series.[43]

Home media[edit]

Serenity was released on Region 1 DVD, VHS and UMD on December 20, 2005.[44][45] The DVD ranked #3 in sales for the week ending December 25, 2005.[46] Bonus features on the DVD version include audio commentary from Whedon; deleted scenes and outtakes; a short introduction by Whedon for advance screenings; a hidden featurette on the creation of the Fruity Oaty Bar commercial; and three featurettes on the Firefly and Serenity universe, special effects, and the revival of the television series to film.[47] Region 2 releases included an additional making-of featurette,[48][49] and Region 4releases included additional extended scenes, a tour of the set, a feature on cinematographer Jack Green, and a question-and-answer session with Whedon filmed after an advance screening in Australia.[50]

Serenity was released on HD DVD on April 18, 2006, the first Universal Studios film released on the format.[51] In January 2007, it became the first full-resolution rip of an HD DVD release uploaded to the BitTorrent network after its title key was ripped from a software player and released online.[52]

A 2-disc Collector's Edition DVD was released for Region 1 on August 21, 2007. It included the special features on the Region 4 disc, except the question-and-answer session; Session 416, a documentary on the film; and a second commentary with Whedon and actors Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, Summer Glau, and Ron Glass.[53] The film was released on Blu-ray on December 30, 2008, adding to the special features a video version of the cast commentary, picture-in-picture visual commentary, two databases of in-universe material, and a digital tour of Serenity.[54] Serenity was released on 4K UHD Blu-ray on October 17, 2017.[55]

Reception[edit]

Box office[edit]

Despite high anticipation, Serenity performed poorly at the box office. Although several pundits predicted a #1 opening,[56][57][58] the film opened at #2 in the United States, taking in $10.1 million on its first weekend, spending two weeks in the top ten, and closed on November 17, 2005 with a domestic box office gross of $25.5 million.[2] Movie industry analyst Brandon Gray described Serenity's box office performance as "like a below average genre picture".[59]

Serenity's international box office results were mixed, with strong openings in the UK, Portugal and Russia, but poor results in Spain, Australia, France and Italy. United International Pictures canceled the film's theatrical release in at least seven countries, planning to release it directly to DVD instead. The box office income outside the United States was $14.9 million,[2] with a worldwide total of $40.4 million.[60]

Critical reception[edit]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 82% based on 187 reviews, with an average rating of 7.15/10. The site's critical consensus states: "Snappy dialogue and goofy characters make this Wild Wild West soap opera in space fun and adventurous."[61] On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 74 out of 100, based on reviews from 34 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[62] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[63]

Ebert and Roeper gave the film a "Two Thumbs Up" rating.[64] Roger Ebert, in his review for the Chicago Sun-Times, gave the film three out of four stars, commenting that it is "made of dubious but energetic special effects, breathless velocity, much imagination, some sly verbal wit and a little political satire". "The movie plays like a critique of contemporary society", he observed, also stating that in this way it was like Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four.[65] Peter Hartlaub in the San Francisco Chronicle called it "a triumph", comparing its writing to the best Star Trek episodes.[66] Manohla Dargis of The New York Times described it as a modest but superior science fiction film.[67] Science fiction author Orson Scott Card called Serenity "the best science fiction film ever", further stating "If Ender's Game can't be this kind of movie, and this good a movie, then I want it never to be made. I'd rather just watch Serenity again."[68]

USA Today film critic Claudia Puig wrote that "the characters are generally uninteresting and one-dimensional, and the futuristic Western-style plot grows tedious".[69] Derek Elley of Variety declared that the film "bounces around to sometimes memorable effect but rarely soars".[70]

Awards[edit]

Serenity won several awards after its release. It won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation—Long Form,[71] the Nebula Award for Best Script,[72]and the Prometheus Special Award.[73] The film was also named film of the year by Film 2005 and FilmFocus,[74][75] and it was determined by SFXmagazine to be the best science fiction movie of all time in 2007.[76] IGN Film awarded Serenity Best Sci-Fi,[77] Best Story,[78] and Best Trailer for the year,[79] and it won second for Overall Best Movie after Batman Begins.[80] The SyFy Genre Awards awarded it runner-up in the categories for Best Movie, Best Actor in a film (Nathan Fillion), and Best Actress in a film (Summer Glau), losing in all categories to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.[81] Serenitylater ranked 383 on Empire magazine's 500 Greatest Films of All Time and 90 of the 301 Greatest Movies of All Time as voted by the magazine's readers.[82][83]

Cultural impact[edit]

NASA astronaut Steven Swanson, an ardent fan of the series,[84] took the Region 1 Firefly and Serenity DVDs with him on Space Shuttle Atlantis' STS-117mission, which lifted off on Friday June 8, 2007. The DVDs currently reside on the International Space Station (ISS) as entertainment for the station's crews.[85]

On February 20, 2009, NASA announced an online poll to name Node 3 of the ISS; NASA-suggested options included Earthrise, Legacy, Serenity, and Venture.[86] At the March 20, 2009 poll close, 'Serenity' led those four choices with 70% of the vote. In the end, the poll was discarded and the node was named 'Tranquility'.[87]

Charity screenings[edit]

Beginning in January 2006, fans (with Universal's blessing) began organizing charity screenings of Serenity to benefit Equality Now, a human rights organization supported by Joss Whedon. By mid-June, 41 such screenings had been confirmed for cities in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and United States, and as of June 19, 2006, there were 47 scheduled screenings. The project was referred to as "Serenity Now/Equality Now" on the official website, but was often referred to in shortened form as "Serenity Now", and was coordinated through "Can't Stop The Serenity".[88] The name officially changed in 2007 to Can't Stop The Serenity (CSTS)

This has become a multi-venue event held each calendar year in various countries and cities and on various dates throughout the year. Funds raised by the events go to Equality Now (and other charities[89]).

Related works and merchandise[edit]

Comics[edit]

Main articles: Serenity (comics) and Firefly (Boom! Studios comics)

Universal Studios wanted to do an animated prequel to the Serenity film, but after Whedon and Brett Matthews wrote a story, Universal scuttled the project.[90][91] The story was rewritten into a three-issue comic book miniseries intended to bridge the gap between the television series and the film.[90][92][93] Serenity: Those Left Behind was released from July through September 2005 by Dark Horse Comics.[93][94][95]

After Those Left Behind, other comics of the series were also published.

Books[edit]

A novelization of the film was written by Keith DeCandido and published by Simon & Schuster under their Pocket Star imprint on August 30, 2005.[96] Titan Publishing published Serenity: The Official Visual Companion on September 1, 2005, and Titan Magazines released a one-shot souvenir magazine.[97][98]Margaret Weis Productions released the Serenity tabletop role-playing game based on the film on September 19, 2005.[99][100]

Trading card set and action figures[edit]

Inkworks issued a 72-card trading card set, including autographed cards and cards with swatches of costumes used in the film, on September 21, 2005.[101][102] The set won Diamond Comics' 2005 Non-Sports Card Product of the Year Gem Award.[103] Diamond Select Toys released five six-inch action figures initially featuring Malcolm Reynolds, Jayne Cobb, and a Reaver,[98][104][105] later adding River Tam,[106] Inara Serra,[107] and Zoe Washburne.[108] The line was deemed to be "disappointing" with the figure of Malcolm Reynolds particularly singled out; both won MWCToys' silver award for Worst Line and Worst Male Figure under twelve inches for 2005.[109]

Themes and cultural allusions[edit]

While the film depicts the Alliance as an all-powerful, authoritarian-style regime, Whedon notes it is not so simple. "The Alliance isn't some evil empire", he explains, but rather a largely benevolent bureaucratic force. The Alliance's main problem is that it seeks to govern everyone, regardless of whether they desire to belong to the central government or not.[110] What the crew of Serenity represent—specifically Mal and his lifestyle—is the idea that people should have the right to make their own decisions, even if those decisions are bad.[111]

The Operative embodies the Alliance and is, as Whedon describes, the "perfect product of what's wrong with the Alliance". He is someone whose motives are to achieve a good end, a "world without sin". The Operative believes so strongly in this idea that he willingly compromises his humanity in furtherance of it—as he himself admits, he would have no place in this world. In contrast, Mal is, at the movie's beginning, a man who has lost all faith.[112] By the movie's ending, Mal has finally come to believe so strongly in something—individual liberty—that he becomes willing to lay down his life to preserve it.[111][113]

Whedon has said that the most important line spoken in the film is when Mal forces the Operative to watch the Miranda footage at the climax of the film, promising him: "I'm going to show you a world without sin". Whedon makes the point that a world without sin is a world without choice, and that choice is ultimately what defines humanity.[111] According to Whedon, the planet "Miranda" was named for William Shakespeare's Miranda in The Tempest, who in Act V, scene I says: "O brave new world, / That has such people in't!"[113] A spaceship found on the planet Miranda carries the codename "C57D", a reference to the flying saucer in the 1956 film Forbidden Planet. The plot to Forbidden Planet is based on The Tempest and, like Serenity, features a character struggling with his subconscious.[114] The Alliance had hoped that Miranda would be a new kind of world, filled with peaceful, happy people, and represents the "inane optimism of the Alliance".[115]

The Fruity Oaty Bar commercial shown in the Maidenhead spaceport bar, which carried the subliminal message that triggered River Tam, is partially inspired by Mr. Sparkle, the mascot of a fictional brand of dish-washing detergent, who was featured in The Simpsons episode "In Marge We Trust".[116]Whedon mentions in a DVD feature that when the Fruity Oaty Bar commercial was being designed, he constantly asked the animators to redesign it and make it even more bizarre than the previous design, until it arrived at the version presented on screen.

Cancelled sequel[edit]

Fans had hoped that if Serenity had been successful, it might lead to either a sequel or a film trilogy.[117][118]

The first major sequel rumor began on December 1, 2005, when IGN Filmforce reported that Universal had expressed an interest in making a Serenitytelevision movie for broadcast on the Sci-Fi Channel. It was expected that commissioning of a television sequel would be contingent on strong DVD sales of Serenity.[119] In a January 2006 interview, Whedon doubted the chances of a sequel.[120] On October 1, 2006, Whedon posted a comment to the Whedonesque.com website, debunking a rumor that he was working on a sequel.[121]

In an interview at the 2007 Comic-Con, Whedon stated that he believes hope for a sequel rests in the sales of the Collector's Edition DVD.[122][123] In an August 2007 interview with Amazon.com prior to the Collector's Edition DVD release, Whedon stated, "It's still on my mind, I mean, but I don't know if mine is the only mind that it's on." He later said, "You know, whether or not anybody who's involved would be available at that point—everybody's working, I'm happy to say—is a question, but whether I would want to do another one is not a question."[124]

Firefly (TV series)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Firefly
The word "Firefly" against a parchment background written in a golden illuminated flowing cursive script
Genre
Created byJoss Whedon
Starring
Theme music composerJoss Whedon
Opening theme"The Ballad of Serenity" performed by Sonny Rhodes
ComposerGreg Edmonson
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes14
Production
Executive producers
ProducerBen Edlund
CinematographyDavid Boyd
EditorLisa Lassek
Camera setupSingle-camera
Running time43–45 minutes
Production companies
Release
Original networkFox
Picture formatNTSC
Audio formatSurround sound
Original releaseSeptember 20 –
December 20, 2002
Related

Firefly is an American space Western drama television series, created by writer and director Joss Whedon, under his Mutant Enemy Productions label. Whedon served as an executive producer, along with Tim Minear. The series is set in the year 2517, after the arrival of humans in a new star system, and follows the adventures of the renegade crew of Serenity, a "Firefly-class" spaceship. The ensemble cast portrays the nine characters who live on Serenity. Whedon pitched the show as "nine people looking into the blackness of space and seeing nine different things."[1]

The show explores the lives of a group of people, some of whom fought on the losing side of a civil war, who make a living on the fringes of society as part of the pioneer culture of their star system. In this future, the only two surviving superpowers, the United States and China, fused to form the central federal government, called the Alliance, resulting in the fusion of the two cultures. According to Whedon's vision, "nothing will change in the future: technology will advance, but we will still have the same political, moral, and ethical problems as today."[2]

Firefly premiered in the U.S. on the Fox network on September 20, 2002. By mid-December, Firefly had averaged 4.7 million viewers per episode and was 98th in Nielsen ratings.[3] It was canceled after 11 of the 14 produced episodes were aired. Despite the relatively short life span of the series, it received strong sales when it was released on DVD and has large fan support campaigns.[4][5] It won a Primetime Emmy Award in 2003 for Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series. TV Guide ranked the series at No. 5 on their 2013 list of 60 shows that were "Cancelled Too Soon".[6]

The post-airing success of the show led Whedon and Universal Pictures to produce Serenity, a 2005 film which continues the story from the series.[4] The Firefly franchise expanded into other media, including comics and a role-playing game.[7][8]

Premise[edit]

Backstory[edit]

The series takes place in the year 2517, on a variety of planets and moons. The TV series does not reveal whether these celestial bodies are within one star system, only saying that Serenity's mode of propulsion is a "gravity-drive". Re-runs start with Book or Captain Reynolds providing the backstory. Book's narration runs as follows:

After the Earth was used up, we found a new solar system, and hundreds of new Earths were terraformed and colonized. The central planets formed the Alliance and decided all the planets had to join under their rule. There was some disagreement on that point. After the war, many of the Independents who had fought and lost drifted to the edges of the system, far from Alliance control. Out here, people struggle to get by with the most basic technologies. A ship would bring you work. A gun would help you keep it. A captain's goal was simple: Find a crew. Find a job. Keep flying.[9]

The film Serenity makes clear that the planets and moons are in an extensive system, and production documents related to the film indicate that there is no faster-than-light travel in this universe. The characters occasionally refer to "Earth-that-was", and the film establishes that long before the events in the series, a large population had emigrated from Earth to a new star system in generation ships:[10] "Earth-that-was could no longer sustain our numbers, we were so many." The emigrants established themselves in this new star system, with "dozens of planets and hundreds of moons", and many of these were terraformed, a process that was only the first step in making a planet habitable. The outlying settlements often did not receive any further support in the construction of their civilizations. This resulted in many border planets and moons having forbidding, dry environments, well-suited to the Western genre.

Synopsis[edit]

The show takes its name from the "Firefly-class" spaceship Serenity that the central characters call home. It resembles a firefly in general arrangement and the tail section, analogous to a bioluminescent insectoid abdomen, lights up during acceleration. The ship was named after the Battle of Serenity Valley, where Sergeant Malcolm Reynolds and Corporal Zoe Alleyne were among the survivors on the losing side. It is revealed in "Bushwhacked" that the Battle of Serenity Valley is widely considered to have sealed the Independents' fate.

The Alliance is shown to govern the star system through an organization of "core" planets, following its success in forcibly unifying all the colonies under one government. DVD commentary suggests that the Alliance is composed of two primary "core" systems, one predominantly Western, the other pan-Asian, justifying the mixed linguistic and visual themes of the series. The central planets are firmly under Alliance control, but the outlying planets and moons resemble the American Old West, under little governmental authority. Settlers and refugees on the outlying worlds have relative freedom from the central government but lack the amenities of the high-tech civilization that exists on the inner worlds. The outlying areas of space ("the black") are inhabited by the Reavers, a cannibalistic group of nomadic humans.[11]

The captain of Serenity is Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds (Nathan Fillion). The episode "Serenity" establishes that the captain and his first mate Zoe Washburne, née Alleyne (Gina Torres) are veteran "Browncoats" of the Unification War, a failed attempt by the outlying worlds to resist the Alliance. A later episode, "Out of Gas", reveals that Mal bought the spaceship Serenity to live beyond Alliance control. Much of the crew's work consists of cargo runs or smuggling. The main story is that of River Tam (Summer Glau) and her brother Simon (Sean Maher). River is a child prodigy whose brain was subjected to Alliance scientists at a secret government institution; she displays symptoms of schizophrenia and often hears voices. It is later revealed that she is a "reader", one who possesses telepathic abilities. Simon gave up a career as an eminent trauma surgeon in an Alliance hospital to rescue her, and they are fugitives. In the original pilot, "Serenity", Simon joins the crew as a paying passenger with River smuggled on board as cargo. As Whedon states in an episode of a DVD commentary, every show he does is about creating a family.[12] By the last episode, "Objects in Space", the fractured character of River has finally become whole, partly because the others decided to accept her into their "family" on the ship.[12]

Signature show elements[edit]

The show blends elements from the space opera and Western genres, depicting humanity's future in a manner different from most contemporary science fiction programs in that there are no large space battles. Firefly takes place in a multi-social future, primarily a fusion of Western and East Asian societies, where there is gross class inequality. As a result of the Sino-American Alliance, Mandarin Chinese is a common second language; it is used in advertisements, and characters in the show frequently curse in Mandarin. According to the DVD commentary on the episode "Serenity", this was explained as the result of China and the United States being the two superpowers that expanded into space.[13]

The show features slang not used in contemporary culture, such as adaptations of modern words or new words. "Shiny" is frequently used as the real world slang "cool", and "gorram" is used as a mild swear word. Written and spoken Chinese, as well as Old West dialect, are also employed. As one reviewer noted: "The dialogue tended to be a bizarre purée of wisecracks, old-timey Western-paperback patois, and snatches of Chinese."[4]

Tim Minear and Joss Whedon pointed out two scenes that, they believed, articulated the show's mood exceptionally clearly.[12] One scene is in the original pilot "Serenity" when Mal is eating with chopsticks, and a Western tin cup is by his plate; the other is in "The Train Job" pilot when Mal is thrown out of a holographic bar window.[14] The DVD set's "making-of" documentary explains the distinctive frontispiece of the series (wherein Serenity soars over a herd of horses) as Whedon's attempt to capture "everything you need to understand about the series in five seconds."

One of the struggles that Whedon had with Fox was the tone of the show, especially with the main character Malcolm Reynolds. Fox pressured Whedon to make Mal more "jolly", as they feared he was too dark in the original pilot, epitomized by the moment he suggests he might "space" Simon and River, throwing them out of the airlock. Fox was not happy that the show involved the "nobodies" who "get squished by policy" instead of the actual policymakers.[12][15]

Cast[edit]

Main article: List of Firefly characters

Main[edit]

Firefly maintained an ensemble cast that portrayed nine crew members and passengers of the ship, Serenity. These characters fight criminals and schemers, Alliance security forces, the utterly psychotic and brutal Reavers, and the mysterious men with "hands of blue"—who are operatives of a secret agency which is part of the megacorporation referred to in the DVD commentary only as The Blue Sun Corporation. The crew is driven by the need to secure enough income to keep their ship operational, set against their need to keep a low profile to avoid their adversaries. Their situation is incredibly complicated by the divergent motivations of the individuals on board Serenity, but the show's brief run hampered complex characterization.

All nine of the main characters appeared in every episode, except "Ariel", from which Book is absent.

  • Nathan Fillion as Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds – the owner and captain of Serenity and former Independent sergeant in the pivotal Battle of Serenity Valley. Malcolm grew up on a ranch and was raised by his mother and the ranch hands. In the Unification War, he fought as a platoon sergeant in the 57th Overlanders of the Independent Army, the "Browncoats". He is cunning, a capable leader, and a skilled fighter. Mal's primary motivation is his will for independence. While he is not above petty theft, smuggling, or even killing to maintain his free lifestyle, he is generally honest in his dealings with others, fiercely loyal to his crew, and closely follows a personal moral code. He is openly antagonistic toward religion as a result of his war experience.
  • Gina Torres as Zoe Alleyne Washburne – second-in-command onboard Serenity, a loyal wartime friend of Captain Reynolds and Wash's wife. Her surname during the Unification War was Alleyne.[16] She was born and raised on a ship[17] and served under Mal during the war as a corporal.[18]Described by her husband as a "warrior woman", she is a capable fighter who keeps calm even in the most dangerous situations. She demonstrates an almost unconditional loyalty to Mal. The only exception noted being her marriage to Wash, which the captain claims was against his orders.
  • Alan Tudyk as Hoban "Wash" Washburne – Serenity's pilot and Zoe's husband. Deeply in love with his wife, Wash expresses jealousy over his wife's "war buddy" relationship and unconditional support of their captain, most particularly in the episode "War Stories", in which he confronts Mal, even as a dissatisfied customer is torturing them. He joined pilot training just to see the stars, which were invisible from the surface of his polluted homeworld, and he joined Serenity despite being highly sought after by other ships. He is light-hearted and tends to make amusing comments, despite the severity of any situation.
  • Morena Baccarin as Inara Serra – a Companion, which is the 26th century cross between a geisha and a courtesan or mistress, who rents one of Serenity's two small shuttles. Inara enjoys high social standing. Her presence confers a degree of legitimacy and social acceptance the crew of Serenity would not have without her on board. Inara displays great dignity, civility, and compassion. There is strong romantic tension between her and Mal, who share many character traits, but each jokingly objects to the other's work as "whoring" or "petty theft", respectively. Both refuse to act on their feelings and try to keep their relationship professional.
  • Adam Baldwin as Jayne Cobb – a mercenary. He and Mal met when they were on opposite sides of a dispute; Mal, while held at gunpoint, offered Jayne his own bunk and a higher cut than his current employer, so Jayne switched sides and shot his then-partners. In the original pilot, "Serenity", he intimates to Mal that he did not betray him because "The money wasn't good enough." However, previously he had pointedly asked the Alliance agent whether he would be required to turn on the captain to help him. In "Ariel", he defends his actions in alerting the authorities regarding Simon and River by claiming he had not intended to betray Mal. He is someone who can be depended on in a fight.[19] He tends to act like a "lummox" who thinks he is the smartest person in space, but occasional hints of intelligence peek through this façade, giving the impression that he acts dumber than he is.[12] As Whedon states several times, Jayne is the man who will ask the questions that no one else wants to.[20] Even though he is a macho character, he has shown a particularly intense fear of Reavers, more so than the rest of the crew. Despite his amoral mercenary persona, he sends a significant portion of his income to his mother, again suggesting that there is more to his character than what he presents to the rest of the crew.
  • Jewel Staite as Kaywinnet Lee "Kaylee" Frye[21][22] – the ship's mechanic. In the episode "Out of Gas", it is established that she has no formal training, but keeps Serenity running with an intuitive gift for the workings of mechanical equipment. Jewel Staite explains Kaylee's character as being wholesome, sweet, and "completely genuine in that sweetness", adding "She loves being on that ship. She loves all of those people. And she is the only one who loves all of them incredibly genuinely."[23] She has a crush on Simon Tam. Kaylee is the heart of the ship: according to creator Joss Whedon, if Kaylee believes something, it is true.[12]
  • Sean Maher as Simon Tam – a trauma surgeon of the first caliber (top 3% in his class at a top core-planet institution), who is on the run after breaking his sister River out of a government research facility. In the episode "Safe", it is revealed that he and River had a privileged upbringing with access to the best education. In rescuing River over his stern father's severe objections, Simon sacrificed a highly successful future in medicine. His bumbling attempts at a romantic relationship with Kaylee are a recurring subplot throughout the series. At every turn, he seems to find a way to foil his attempts at romance unwittingly. His life is defined by caring for his sister.[12]
  • Summer Glau as River Tam – smuggled onto the ship by her brother. She is a brilliant, compassionate, and intuitive child prodigy. Experiments and invasive brain surgery at an Alliance secret facility left her delusional, paranoid, and at times violent, though her uncanny ability to seemingly sense things before they happen leaves questions as to where the delusions end and reality begins for her. The experiments seemed to have made her a psychic. The experiments also gave her a seemingly innate ability in hand-to-hand combat, and she is capable of killing or incapacitating several opponents with ease. She gets frequent fits of anxiety and experiences post-traumatic flashbacks of her time in the Alliance facility. Her mental instability and uncanny abilities, paired with several erratic and violent acts, are a recurring source of fear and doubt among the crew, especially with Jayne, whom she once slashed with a knife. Jayne frequently requests that River and Simon be taken off the ship.
  • Ron Glass as Derrial Book – a Shepherd (equivalent to a pastor). Although presented as a devout Christian,[24] Book has profound, unexplained knowledge about criminal activities, police corruption, and military strategy, tactics, and weapons. In "Safe", he was shown to have sufficient status in the Alliance to receive emergency medical treatment from an Alliance ship, with no questions asked. He is also proficient in hand-to-hand combat and the use of firearms. While objecting to violence most of the time, on a rescue mission, he joins the fight, stating that while the Bible is quite specific about killing, it is "somewhat fuzzier on the subject of kneecaps". Book is a moral guide for Mal and the rest of the crew, a voice of reason, conscience, and spirituality. At the same time, he seems to get along well with the amoral mercenary Jayne, with the two spotting each other while working out using a bench press. His hidden backstory would have been gradually revealed had the series continued but was instead explored in the 2010 comic book The Shepherd's Tale.

Recurring[edit]

Despite the series' short run, several recurring characters emerged from the inhabitants of the Firefly universe:

  • Mark Sheppard as Badger – an established smuggling middleman on the planet Persephone. He provided jobs for Serenity on at least two occasions. In the DVD commentary for the episode "Serenity", it was revealed that this part was initially written with Whedon himself playing the role. Badger appeared in the original pilot "Serenity" and in "Shindig", with a return in the comic book series Serenity: Those Left Behind.
  • Michael Fairman as Adelai Niska – a criminal kingpin who has a reputation for violent reprisals, including severe, prolonged torture, against those who fail him or even irritate him. He appeared in "The Train Job" and "War Stories".
  • Christina Hendricks as "Saffron" – a con artist whose real name is unknown. She first appeared in the episode "Our Mrs. Reynolds" as Mal's involuntarily acquired wife. She has a habit of marrying her marks during her scams. She returns in the episode "Trash", where Mal jokingly addresses her as "YoSaffBridge", from the three of her aliases known within the show: "Yolanda", "Saffron", and "Bridget".
  • Jeff Ricketts and Dennis Cockrum as "The Hands of Blue" – two anonymous men wearing suits and blue gloves who pursue River, apparently to return her to the institute from which she escaped, as shown in "The Train Job", "Ariel", and the Serenity: Those Left Behind comic. They kill anyone, including Alliance personnel, who had contact with her, using a mysterious hand-held device that causes fatal hemorrhaging in anyone at whom it is aimed. River, during anxiety attacks or psychological meltdowns, has repeated the phrase "Two by two/hands of blue" in a way that resembles poetic meter. This suggests that River has had close experience(s) with them.

Episodes[edit]

No. [25]Title [25]Directed byWritten by [26]Original air date [25]Prod.
code [26]		U.S. viewers
(millions)
1"Serenity"Joss WhedonJoss WhedonDecember 20, 20021AGE794.16[27]
Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds and his crew aboard Serenity illegally salvage goods from a derelict ship. Because the Alliance marked the goods, and an Alliance ship spotted an obsolete Firefly-class freighter leaving the scene, Mal's fence Badger refuses to handle the goods. Mal has to sell elsewhere. To make extra money, the crew picks up passengers: Shepherd Book, Simon Tam and Lawrence Dobson. En route to the new buyer, Patience, Dobson turns out to be an undercover Alliance agent tracking Simon. Dobson attempts to arrest Simon, but he is taken prisoner. Simon reveals that his genius sister River Tam, hidden in his luggage, was experimented on by the Alliance and that he is trying to smuggle her to safety. Patience tries to rob Mal, but he takes the payment after a shootout. Lawrence escapes and holds River hostage, but Mal shoots him and offers Simon and River haven aboard Serenity.
2"The Train Job"Joss WhedonJoss Whedon & Tim MinearSeptember 20, 20021AGE016.20[28]
Crime lord Adelai Niska hires the crew to rob a train of unspecified goods. The crew can transfer the goods to Serenity flying above, but Mal and Zoe Washburne are forced to stay behind on the train. They learn that they have stolen medicine desperately needed by the locals. The crew argues whether they should deliver the goods to Niska. Ultimately, they decide to rescue Mal and Zoe first through subterfuge. Mal decides to return the medicine. However, Niska's thugs track them down. After killing some of them and capturing the rest, Mal and Zoe take medicine to those in need of it and refund Niska's money.
3"Bushwhacked"Tim MinearTim MinearSeptember 27, 20021AGE025.47[29]
The crew discovers a derelict ship that was attacked by Reavers and take aboard the sole survivor. Shortly after, an Alliance cruiser orders Serenity to dock to it. Simon and River hide to avoid capture. The rest of the crew are interrogated. Refusing to believe in the existence of Reavers, the Alliance's Commander Harken decides that the crew will be charged with attacking the ship and murdering its settler passengers. However, the survivor kills some of the Alliance crew and escapes back to Serenity. Mal convinces Harken to let him help find the survivor. Mal kills the survivor, saving Harken's life in the process, and the crew is released.
4"Shindig"Vern GillumJane EspensonNovember 1, 20021AGE034.28[30]
Inara Serra is hired by Atherton Wing, one of her regular clients, and accompanies him to a formal dance. Badger hires Mal to meet a contact at the same dance and try to set up a smuggling job. When Mal hits Atherton for the way he treats Inara, Mal finds he has unknowingly challenged Atherton to a duel with swords. Atherton is a skilled swordsman and duelist. Inara tries to teach Mal how to use a sword overnight. Despite all expectations, Mal wins the duel. The contact, who personally dislikes Atherton, agrees to hire the crew to smuggle cattle to the Rim.
5"Safe"Michael GrossmanDrew Z. GreenbergNovember 8, 20021AGE044.68[31]
The crew delivers cattle to the Rim, but Book is gravely injured when they are stuck in the middle of a shootout. At the same time, Simon and River Tam are kidnapped by locals while sightseeing in town. Mal chooses to leave the Tams behind to seek help for Book. Desperate, they turn to an Alliance ship. At first hostile, the Alliance officer they speak to provides medical aid after seeing Book's ID. Meanwhile, the kidnappers belong to a community in desperate need of an actual doctor, and Simon tentatively hopes he has found a haven for himself and River. However, the religious residents believe River is a witch and attempt to burn her at the stake. Serenity returns just in time to rescue the siblings. When Simon asks Mal why he came back, the captain tells Simon that he and River are part of the crew.
6"Our Mrs. Reynolds"Vondie Curtis HallJoss WhedonOctober 4, 20021AGE054.87[32]
After completing a job for a small settlement, during the ensuing celebration, Mal learns that he inadvertently married a young woman called Saffron, part of the payment. Although Mal insists they are not married, Saffron is determined to fulfill a subservient wife's role. Saffron is not what she appears to be. She later knocks Mal out, locks the ship into a course for murderous ship scrappers, and flees in a shuttle. The crew barely escapes.
7"Jaynestown"Marita GrabiakBen EdlundOctober 18, 20021AGE064.30[33]
The crew lands on a planet to meet a contact. Although Jayne Cobb insists he is wanted there, they are dumbfounded to learn that the locals revere him as a folk hero. Mal attempts to use Jayne's status as a distraction to move smuggled goods across town. However, Magistrate Higgins releases Jayne's former accomplice Stitch Hessian, whom Jayne abandoned years ago during a botched robbery and now seeks revenge. Stitch publicly confronts Jayne, revealing what the townspeople believe happened to be false. Stitch shoots, but a villager jumps in front of Jayne and dies. Jayne kills Stitch and urges the townspeople to stop viewing him as a hero. Serenity is "land-locked" by Higgins' order to try to capture Jayne. Higgins' 26-year-old son Fess, encouraged by Inara to stand up for himself after losing his virginity to her, as paid for by Magistrate Higgins, orders the unlocking of the ship, and Serenity departs.
8"Out of Gas"David SolomonTim MinearOctober 25, 20021AGE074.38[34]
An explosion in the engine room leaves Serenity with the engine and the life support system and its backup all out of commission. With only a few hours of oxygen left, Mal has the crew leave in the two shuttles while he remains aboard and hopes to contact a passing ship. In a series of flashbacks, Mal convinces Zoe, Jayne, Inara, Hoban Washburne, and Kaylee Frye to join his crew. In the present, Mal can hail a ship and secure the part needed to fix the engine, though he is shot by another crew when they prove to have less than pure motives. Mal's crew returns to Serenity in time to save his life.
9"Ariel"Allan KroekerJose MolinaNovember 15, 20021AGE084.49[35]
While waiting on the Core planet Ariel, Simon hires the crew to help him smuggle River into a local hospital for a thorough diagnostic. In return, he will tell them how to loot the hospital for valuable medicine. Once inside, Jayne attempts to turn in Simon and River for the reward. However, the Alliance officer arrests Jayne as well to keep the bounty for himself. The crew escapes, but Mal realizes that Jayne betrayed Simon and River. Mal arranges for Jayne to suffocate when Serenity leaves the planet's atmosphere but then lets him live.
10"War Stories"James ContnerCheryl CainDecember 6, 20021AGE093.85[36]
Angry that Zoe and Mal have an unshakeable bond as war veterans, her husband Wash demands to take her place on a seemingly routine mission. Mal begrudgingly allows Wash to go along. They are captured by Niska, out to restore his reputation after they failed to complete the robbery he commissioned in "The Train Job". Zoe has only enough money to ransom one of them. She unhesitatingly chooses Wash. The crew band together to rescue Mal.
11"Trash"Vern GillumBen Edlund & Jose MolinaJuly 21, 2003 (UK)[37]1AGE12N/A
When Saffron crosses paths with Mal again, she asks him to help her rob a precious antique weapon from a wealthy man. Once Mal and Saffron are inside, they are discovered, and it is revealed that the man is married to Saffron. Although the man seems initially oblivious, he is aware of Saffron's true nature and called the authorities. Mal and Saffron escape, but Saffron betrays Mal, stranding him naked in the desert, and tries to pick up the weapon. However, Inara gets there first. She leaves Saffron locked up in a storage container for the authorities, and the crew escapes with the weapon.
12"The Message"Tim MinearJoss Whedon & Tim MinearJuly 28, 2003 (UK)[37]1AGE13N/A
Mal and Zoe receive in the mail the body of Tracey, a comrade-in-arms who fought with them at the Battle of Du-Khang, and they attempt to honor his recorded wish to be returned home. However, a corrupt Alliance officer demands they turn over the body and the goods the soldier was smuggling. While searching the body for clues, they learn that Tracey is still alive and is smuggling organs. Tracey had double-crossed his employers, but they killed his new buyer. Mal is ultimately forced to kill him to protect the crew, and Book blackmails the officer into leaving. Mal and Zoe take Tracey's body home to his family.
13"Heart of Gold"Thomas J. WrightBrett MatthewsAugust 4, 2003 (UK)[37]1AGE10N/A
Nandi, an old friend of Inara's and a former Companion, runs an unlicensed bordello on a barren planet. The bordello is frequently patronized by Rance Burgess, a tyrannical ruler who keeps the community excessively poor so that he can govern it as a cowboy. Burgess, whose wife is infertile, believes a pregnant prostitute named Petaline is carrying his child. With Burgess promising to take the child once it is born, Nandi contacts Inara and asks her if the Serenity crew can help defend her establishment. Mal agrees, but upon arrival realizes that Burgess' cavalry is too powerful to fight and advises Nandi and her working girls to leave the planet immediately. Nandi refuses to lose her establishment to Burgess, and her resolve impresses Mal enough to encourage the crew to stay and fight Burgess. Nandi and Mal sleep together, and Petaline's child is born. Although Inara is outwardly pleased that Mal has put his intimacy issues aside, secretly she is heartbroken that her attraction is unrequited. With the help from the crew, Burgess's forces are defeated, and Petaline kills Burgess, but Nandi is killed in battle. Later, Inara confesses to Mal that she wants to leave Serenity.
14"Objects in Space"Joss WhedonJoss WhedonDecember 13, 20021AGE114.08[38]
River telepathically hears the crewmembers' innermost feelings. When she picks up a gun in Serenity's cargo bay (which she perceives as a tree branch), the others discuss if she's too dangerous to be kept aboard. Bounty hunter Jubal Early sneaks aboard the ship, intent on claiming the bounty set for River and Simon. Early incapacitates the crew and forces Simon to help him locate River, who has seemingly vanished. While searching the ship, Early recites existential philosophy, claiming to not be evil, simply incentivized to do what is necessary. River's voice appears on the PA system, claiming that River melted and fused with Serenity. Early is disbelieving, but the voice is omniscient, knowing extensive details of Early's delinquent behaviour. The voice muses that Early enjoys violence and is not merely incentivized to be violent. Secretly, the voice individually mobilizes the crew in a plot to force Early off the ship. Early realizes River has snuck aboard his own spacecraft. River tells him she will go willingly. Heading back to his craft to join her, Early is ambushed by Mal, who pushes him away into space – carrying out River’s plan. River is embraced by the crew. Early floats alone in space.

Production[edit]

Origin[edit]

Whedon developed the concept for the show after reading The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara chronicling the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. He wanted to follow people who had fought on the losing side of a war, their experiences afterward as pioneers and immigrants on the outskirts of civilization, much like the post-American Civil War era of Reconstruction and the American Old West.[39] He intended the show to be "a Stagecoach kind of drama with a lot of people trying to figure out their lives in a bleak pioneer environment".[40] Whedon wanted to develop a show about the tactile nature of life, a show where existence was more physical and more difficult.[12] Whedon also read a book about Jewish partisan fighters in World War II.[39]Whedon wanted to create something for television that was more character-driven and gritty than most modern science fiction. Television science fiction, he felt, had become too pristine and rarefied.[41] Whedon wanted to give the show a name that indicated movement and power and felt that "Firefly" had both. This powerful word's relatively insignificant meaning, Whedon felt, added to its allure. He eventually created a ship in the image of a firefly.[12]

Format[edit]

During the pilot episode filming, Whedon was still arguing with Fox that the show should be displayed in widescreen format. Whedon filmed scenes with actors on the edge of both sides so that they could only be shown in widescreen.[12] This led to a few scenes on the DVD (and later Blu-ray) where objects or setups that were not visible in the original 4:3 broadcasts were displayed—such as the scene in the pilot where Wash mimes controlling the ship with a non-existent yoke. The Fox executives rejected the pilot, who felt that it lacked action and that the captain was too "dour".[14] They also disliked a scene in which the crew backed down to a crime boss since the scene implied the crew was "being nothing".[12] Fox told Whedon on a Friday afternoon that he had to submit a new pilot script on Monday morning or the show would not be picked up.[14] Whedon and Tim Minear closeted themselves for the weekend to write what became the new pilot, "The Train Job".[14] At the direction of Fox, they added "larger than life" characters such as the henchman "Crow" and the "hands of blue" men, who also introduced an X-Files-type ending.[14][15]

For the new pilot, Fox made it clear that they would not air the episodes in widescreen. Whedon and company felt they had to "serve two masters" by filming widescreen for eventual DVD release but keeping objects in-frame so it could still work when aired in pan and scan full frame.[42] To obtain an immersive and immediate feel, the episodes were filmed in a documentary style with hand-held cameras, giving them the look of "found footage", with deliberately mis-framed and out-of-focus subjects.[12][43] As Whedon related: "don't be arch, don't be sweeping—be found, be rough and tumble and docu[mentary] and you-are-there".[44] Computer-generated scenes mimicked the motion of a hand-held camera; the style was not used when shooting scenes that involved the central government, the Alliance. Tracking and steady cameras were used to show the sterility of this aspect of the Fireflyuniverse.[12] Another style employed was lens flares harking back to 1970s television. This style was so desired that the director of photography, David Boyd, sent back the cutting-edge lenses which reduced lens flare in exchange for cheaper ones.[12] Unlike other science fiction shows which add sound to space scenes for dramatic effect, Firefly portrays space as silent, because sounds cannot be transmitted in the vacuum of space.[45]

Set design[edit]

The spacecraft Serenity was digitally rendered by special effects house Zoic Studios. The shape was inspired by the shape of the firefly insect, and its tail section lights up in imitation of it.

Production designer Carey Meyer built the ship Serenity in two parts (one for each level) as a complete set with ceilings and practical lighting installed as part of the set that the cameras could use along with moveable parts.[43][46] The two-part set also allowed the second unit to shoot in one section while the actors and first unit worked undisturbed in the other. As Whedon recalled: "you could pull it away or move something huge so that you could get in and around everything. That meant the environment worked for us and there weren't a lot of adjustments that needed to be made".[46] There were other benefits to this set design. One was that it allowed the viewers to feel they were really in a ship.[43] For Whedon, the design of the ship was crucial in defining the known space for the viewer and that there were not "fourteen hundred decks and a holodeck and an all-you-can-eat buffet in the back."[47] He wanted to convey that it was utilitarian and that it was "beat-up but lived-in. Ultimately, it was home."[48] Each room represented a feeling or character, usually conveyed by the paint color.[47] He explains that as you move from the back of the ship in the engine room, toward the front of the ship to the bridge, the colors and mood progress from extremely warm to cooler. Besides evoking a mood associated with the character who spends the most time in each area, the color scheme also alludes to the heat generated in the ship's tail. Whedon was also keen on using vertical space; having the crew quarters accessible by ladder was important.[46] Another benefit of the set design was that it also allowed the actors to stay in the moment and interact, without having to stop after each shot and set up for the next.[43] This helped contribute to the documentary style Whedon strove for.

The set had several influences, including the sliding doors and tiny cubicles reminiscent of Japanese hotels.[46] Artist Larry Dixon has noted that the cargo bay walls are "reminiscent of interlaced, overlapping Asian designs, cleverly reminding us of the American-Chinese Alliance setting while artistically forming a patterned plane for background scale reference."[49] Dixon has also remarked on how the set design contributed to the storytelling through the use of color, depth, and composition, lighting, as well as its use of diagonals and patterned shadows.[49]

Their small budget was another reason to use the ship for much of the storytelling. When the characters did go off the ship, the worlds all had Earth atmosphere and coloring because they could not afford to design alien worlds. "I didn't want to go to Yucca Flats every other episode and transform it into Bizarro World by making the sky orange", recalled Whedon.[44] As Meyer recalled: "I think in the end the feel was that we wound up using a lot of places or exteriors that just felt too Western and we didn't necessarily want to go that way; but at some point, it just became the lesser of two evils—what could we actually create in three days?"[50]

Music[edit]

Firefly
Soundtrack album by 
Greg Edmonson, Joss Whedon
ReleasedNovember 8, 2005
GenreClassical, Country
Length60:15
LabelVarèse Sarabande
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic/[51]
SoundtrackNet[52]

Greg Edmonson composed the musical score for the series. He stated that he wrote for the emotion of the moment. A reviewer averred that he also wrote for the characters, stating: "Edmonson has developed a specialized collection of musical symbolism for the series."[53] To help illustrate the collection, the reviewer gave leitmotifs, or "signatures", various names, noting that "Serenity" recalls the theme of the show and is used when they return to the ship, or when they were meeting in secret; it was "the sound of their home". The slide guitar and fiddle used in this piece are portable instruments that fit the lifestyle of the crew: "the music they make calls up tunes played out in the open, by people who were hundreds of miles away yesterday. 'Serenity' conjures the nomadic lifestyle the crew leads and underlines the western aspect of the show."[53] Another emotional signature was "Sad Violin" used at the end of the Battle of Serenity Valley but also to set up the joke when Mal tells Simon that Kaylee is dead in the episode "Serenity". The most memorable use of "Sad Violin" is at the end of "The Message", when the crew mourned the death of Tracey. This was also the last scene of the last episode the actors shot, and so this was seen by them and Edmonson, as Firefly's farewell. To denote danger, "Peril" was used, which is "a low pulse, like a heartbeat, with deep chimes and low strings".[53] The reviewer also noted character signatures. The criminal Niska has a signature: Eastern European or Middle Eastern melodies over a low drone. Simon and River's signature was a piano played sparsely with a violin in the background. This contrasts with the portable instruments of "Serenity": the piano is an instrument that cannot be easily moved and evokes the image of "the distant house and family they both long for." The signatures were mostly established in the first pilot, "Serenity", and helped enhance the narrative.

In every episode, the musical score intensified my experience of this intelligent, remarkable show. Using and combining all these signatures, Greg Edmonson brought out aspects of Firefly's story and characters that were never explicitly revealed in the other elements of the series.[53]

Whedon's use of music in his television shows has been regarded as "filmic", in that he has been argued to use it to remind viewers at "pivotal moments" of earlier events, resulting in a tighter continuity throughout the season.[54]

The musical score expressed the social fusion depicted in the show. Cowboy guitar blended with Asian influence produced the atmospheric background for the series. As one reviewer stated: 

Old music from the future—the music of roaring campfires and racous [sic] cowboys mixed with the warm, pensive sounds of Asian culture and, occasionally, a cold imperial trumpet, heralding the ominous structural presence of a domineering government. Completely thrilling.
—Steve Townsley[55]

The show's theme song, "The Ballad of Serenity", was written by Joss Whedon and performed by Sonny Rhodes. Whedon wrote the song before the series was greenlit, and a preliminary recording performed by Whedon can be found on the DVD release. The soundtrack to the series was released on CD on November 8, 2005, by Varèse Sarabande. Fox Music released a 40-minute soundtrack in September 2005 as a digital EP.[52] "The Ballad of Serenity" was used by NASA as the wake-up song for astronaut Robert L. Behnken and the other crewmembers of STS-130 on February 12, 2010.[56]

Track listing[57] (tracks 1–17 appear in both the digital and CD releases)
No.TitleLength
1."Firefly — Main Title"0:52
2."Big Bar Fight" (from "The Train Job")1:56
3."Heart of Gold Montage" (from "Heart of Gold")2:10
4."Whitefall/Book" (from "Serenity", "The Message")2:20
5."Early Takes Serenity" (from "Objects in Space")2:36
6."The Funeral" (from "The Message")2:36
7."River's Perception/Saffron" (from "Objects in Space", "Our Mrs. Reynolds")2:14
8."Mal Fights Niska/Back Home" (from "War Stories", "Shindig")1:54
9."River Tricks Early" (from "Objects in Space")3:30
10."River Understands Simon" (from "Safe")2:04
11."Leaving/Caper/Spaceball" (from "Trash", "Objects in Space", "Bushwhacked")2:39
12."River's Afraid/Niska/Torture" (from "Ariel", "The Train Job", "War Stories")3:21
13."In My Bunk/Jayne's Statue/Boom" (from "War Stories", "Jaynestown", "Bushwhacked")2:28
14."Inara's Suite" (from "The Train Job", "Serenity", "War Stories")3:29
15."Out of Gas/Empty Derelict" (from "Out of Gas", "Bushwhacked")1:50
16."Book's Hair/Ready for Battle" (from "Jaynestown", "Heart of Gold")1:59
17."Tears/River's Eyes" (from "Serenity", "Objects in Space")1:59
18."Cows/New Dress/My Crew" (from "Safe", "Shindig", "Safe")2:11
19."Boarding the Serenity/Derelict" (from "War Stories", "Bushwhacked")2:02
20."Burgess Kills/Captain & Ship" (from "Heart of Gold", "Out of Gas")3:26
21."Saved/Isn't Home?/Reavers" (from "Out of Gas", "The Train Job", "Serenity")2:55
22."Reavers Chase Serenity" (from "Serenity")3:22
23."River's Dance" (from "Safe")1:50
24."Inside the Tam House" (from "Safe")2:22
25."Dying Ship/Naked Mal" (from "Out of Gas", "Trash")2:10

Casting[edit]

(From left to right, top to bottom) Ron Glass, Summer Glau, Alan Tudyk, Sean Maher, Adam Baldwin, Jewel Staite, Morena Baccarin, and Nathan Fillion: eight of the nine main actors in 2005 (not pictured: Gina Torres)

In casting his nine-member crew, Whedon looked first at the actors and considered their chemistry with others. Cast member Sean Maher recalls, "So then he just sort of put us all together, and I think it was very quick like right out of the gate, we all instantly bonded."[58] All nine cast members were chosen before filming began; while making the original pilot "Serenity", Whedon decided that Rebecca Gayheart was unsuitable for the role of Inara Serra, and shot her scenes in singles so that it would be easier to replace her.[12] Morena Baccarin auditioned for the role and two days later was on the set in her first television show. "Joss brought me down from the testing room like a proud dad, holding my hand and introducing me", Baccarin recalled.[59]

Whedon approached Nathan Fillion to play the lead role of Malcolm Reynolds; after Whedon explained the premise and showed him the treatment for the pilot, Fillion was eager for the role.[60] Fillion was called back several times to read for the part before he was cast. He noted that "it was really thrilling. It was my first lead, and I was pretty nervous, but I really wanted that part, and I wanted to tell those stories."[61] Fillion later said he was "heartbroken" when he learned the series had been canceled. Fillion has called his time on Firefly the best acting job he ever had,[62] and compares every job he has had to it.[63]

Alan Tudyk applied through a casting office and several months later was called in for an audition, where he met with Whedon. He was called back to test with two candidates for the role of Zoe (Wash's wife) and was told that it was down to him and one other candidate. The Zoes he tested with were not selected (Gina Torres eventually received the role), and Tudyk was sent home but received a call informing him he had the part anyway.[64] His audition tape is included in the special features of the DVD release.

Gina Torres, a veteran of several science fiction/fantasy works (Cleopatra 2525, The Matrix Reloaded, Alias, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys), was at first uninterested in doing another science fiction show but "was won over by the quality of the source material".[65] As she recalled, "you had these challenged characters inhabiting a challenging world, and that makes for great storytelling. And no aliens!"[65]

For Adam Baldwin, who grew up watching westerns, the role of Jayne Cobb was particularly resonant.[66]

Canadian actress Jewel Staite videotaped her audition from Vancouver and was asked to come to Los Angeles to meet Whedon, at which point she was cast for the role of Kaylee Frye, the ship's engineer.[67] She was asked to put on weight for the role.[68]

Sean Maher recalls reading for the part and liking the character of Simon Tam, but that it was Whedon's personality and vision that "sealed the deal" for him.[58] Neil Patrick Harris also read for the part of Simon.[69] For the role of Simon's sister, River Tam, Whedon called in Summer Glau for an audition and test the same day. Glau had first worked for Whedon in the Angel episode "Waiting in the Wings". Two weeks later, Whedon called her to tell her she had the part.[70]

Veteran television actor Ron Glass has said that until Firefly, he had not experienced or sought a science-fiction or western role. Still, he fell in love with the pilot script and the character of Shepherd Book.[71]

Production staff[edit]

Whedon selected Tim Minear to be the show runner, who serves as the head writer and production leader. According to Whedon, "[Minear] understood the show as well as any human being, and just brought so much to it that I think of it as though he were always a part of it."[72] Many of the other production staff were selected from people Whedon had worked with in the past, except the director of photography David Boyd, who was the "big find" and who was "full of joy and energy".[73]

The writers were selected after interviews and script samplings. Among the writers were José Molina, Ben Edlund, Cheryl Cain, Brett Matthews, Drew Z. Greenberg and Jane Espenson.[73] Espenson wrote an essay on the writing process with Mutant Enemy Productions.[74] A meeting is held and an idea is floated, generally by Whedon, and the writers brainstorm to develop the central theme of the episode and the character development. Next, the writers (except the one working on the previous week's episode) meet in the anteroom to Whedon's office to begin 'breaking' the story into acts and scenes. One of the key components to devising acts for the team is deciding where to break for commercial and ensuring the viewer returns. "Finding these moments in the story help give it shape: think of them as tentpoles that support the structure." For instance, in "Shindig", the break for commercial occurs when Malcolm Reynolds is gravely injured and losing the duel. "It does not end when Mal turns the fight around when he stands victorious over his opponent. They're both big moments, but one of them leaves you curious, and the other doesn't."

Next, the writers develop the scenes onto a marker-filled whiteboard, featuring "a brief ordered description of each scene". A writer is selected to create an outline of the episode's concept—occasionally with some dialogue and jokes—in one day. The outline is given to showrunner Tim Minear, who revises it within a day. The writer uses the revised outline to write the first draft of the script while the other writers develop the next. This first draft is usually submitted for revision within three to fourteen days; afterward, a second and sometimes third draft is written. After all modifications are made, the final draft would be produced as the "shooting draft".

Costume[edit]

Jill Ohanneson, Firefly's original costume designer, brought on Shawna Trpcic as her assistant for the pilot. When the show was picked up, Ohanneson was involved in another job and declined Firefly, suggesting Trpcic for the job.

The costumes were chiefly influenced by World War II, the American Civil War, the American Old West, and 1861 samurai Japan. Trpcic used deep reds and oranges for the main cast to express a feeling of "home" and contrasted that with grays and cool blues for the Alliance.[75] Since the characters were often getting shot, Trpcic would make up to six versions of the same costume for multiple takes.[76]

  • For River, mostly jewel tones were used to set her apart from the rest of the Serenity crew. River had boots to contrast with the soft fabrics of her clothes, "because that's who she is—she's this soft, beautiful, sensitive girl, but with this hardcore inner character", recalled Trpcic.[77]
  • The designers also wanted to contrast Simon, River's brother, with the rest of the crew. Whereas they were dressed in cotton, Simon wore wool, stiff fabrics, satins, and silk. He was originally the "dandy", but as the show progressed, he loosened up slightly.[78]
  • For Kaylee, Trpcic studied Japanese and Chinese youth, as originally the character was Asian. Other inspirations for Kaylee's costumes were Rosie the Riveter and Chinese Communist posters.[79]
  • Inara's costumes reflect her high status and are very feminine and attractive.
  • Trpcic designed and created the clothes for the minor character of Badger with Joss Whedon in mind since he intended to play that part. When Mark Sheppard played the role instead, he could fit into the clothes made for Whedon.[80]
  • For the Alliance, besides the grays and cool blues, Trpcic had in mind Nazi Germany, but mixed it with different wars, as the first sketches were "too Nazi".[81] The uniforms of the Alliance soldiers are from the 1997 film Starship Troopers.[82]
  • In the commentary for the pilot episode, Whedon points out that "bad guys wear hats, good guys don't."

Unproduced episodes[edit]

Since the cancellation of the series, various cast and crew members have revealed details they had planned for the show's future:[83][84]

  • Alan Tudyk had the idea for an episode about a planet that is always day on one side and night on the other. On the night side, Jayne accidentally spills a type of pheromone on himself and the crew, which attracts many dogs. The crew is chased back to the ship by these dogs. There River uses her mind powers to domesticate the dogs.
  • Adam Baldwin wanted to make an episode in which Jayne goes up against Mal as captain of his ship.
  • Tim Minear revealed the secret of Inara's syringe, as seen in the pilot episode; she is infected with a deadly disease. There would have been an episode where Reavers gang-rape her. Because she injected herself with the syringe, all of the Reavers on the ship die.
  • According to Nathan Fillion, there was an episode in which the crew land on a dying planet. The inhabitants try to steal Serenity after explaining to the crew about their need to get off the planet. The problem is that unless they were to run into another ship along the way, with the extra passengers, Serenity would not have enough fuel and oxygen to make it to the closest destination. While everyone else is asleep, Mal takes the ship himself and discovers that help would never have arrived.

Broadcast history[edit]

Firefly consists of a two-hour pilot and thirteen one-hour episodes (with commercials). The series originally premiered in the United States on Fox in September 2002. The episodes were aired out of the intended order. Although Whedon had designed the show to run for seven years,[85] low ratings resulted in cancellation by Fox in December 2002 after only 11 of the 14 completed episodes aired in the United States.[86] The three episodes unaired by Fox eventually debuted in 2003 on the Sci Fi Channel in the United Kingdom.[37] Prior to cancellation, some fans, worried about low ratings, formed the Firefly Immediate Assistance campaign whose goal was to support the production of the show by sending in postcards to Fox. After it was canceled, the campaign worked on getting another network such as UPN to pick up the series.[87][88] The campaign was unsuccessful in securing the show's continuation.[5]

The A.V. Club cited several actions by the Fox network that contributed to the show's failure, most notably airing the episodes out of sequence, making the plot more difficult to follow.[89] For instance, the double episode "Serenity" was intended as the premiere, and therefore contained most of the character introductions and back-story. Fox decided that "Serenity" was unsuitable for opening the series, and "The Train Job" was specifically created to act as a new pilot.[14] In addition, Firefly was promoted as an action-comedy rather than the more serious character study it was intended to be, and the showbiz trade paper Variety noted Fox's decision to occasionally preempt the show for sporting events.[86]

Fox remastered the complete series in 1080i high-definition for broadcast on Universal HD, which began in April 2008.[90]

On March 12, 2009, the series was the winner of the first annual Hulu awards in the category "Shows We'd Bring Back".[91]

The Science Channel began airing the series on March 6, 2011.[92] All episodes aired in the intended order, including episodes "Trash", "The Message" and "Heart of Gold", which were not aired in the original Fox series run. Along with each episode, Dr. Michio Kaku provided commentary about the real-life science behind the show's science fiction.[93]

Home media releases[edit]

A box set containing the 14 completed episodes (including those which had not yet aired in the United States) was released on region 1 DVD on December 9, 2003,[94] region 2 on April 19, 2004, and region 4 on August 2, 2004. The box features the episodes in the original order in which the show's producers had intended them to be broadcast, as well as seven episode commentaries, outtakes and other features. The DVDs feature the episodes as they were shot in 16:9 widescreen, with anamorphic transfers and Dolby Surround audio. By September 2005, its DVD release had sold about 500,000 copies.[95]

The series was re-released on Blu-ray Disc on November 11, 2008, comprising three discs; exclusive extras to the Blu-ray release include extra audio commentary from Joss Whedon, Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk and Ron Glass for the episode "Our Mrs. Reynolds", as well as an additional featurette, "Firefly" Reunion: Lunch with Joss, Nathan, Alan and Ron.[96] On September 19, 2017, the series was reissued on Blu-ray as a 15th Anniversary Collection. The set included new packaging that came with character cards and a fold-out map of the solar system in which the series is set.[25]

Firefly: The Complete Series
Set details:
  • 14 episodes
  • 4 disc set (3 disc Blu-ray)

Features:

  • Anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1 aspect ratio)
  • Dolby Digital 5.1 (DVD)
  • DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (Blu-ray)
  • Subtitles vary depending on region
Bonus features:
Release dates:Region 1Region 2Region 4
December 9, 2003
November 11, 2008 (Blu-ray)		April 19, 2004
September 19, 2011 (Blu-ray)[97]		August 2, 2004
December 3, 2008 (Blu-ray)

Reception[edit]

Critical response[edit]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the series has an approval rating of 77% with an average score of 7.8 out of 10 based on 44 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Firefly earns its audience's adoration with the help of Nathan Fillion's dry delivery, a detailed fantasy world, and compelling storylines – even if it doesn't stand with creator Joss Whedon's most consistent work."[98] Metacritic collected 30 reviews and calculated an average score of 63 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[99]

Many reviews focused on the show's fusion of Wild West and outer space motifs. TV Guide's Matt Roush, for instance, called the show "oddball" and "offbeat" and noted how the series took the metaphor of space operas as Westerns. Roush opined that the shift from space travel to horseback was "jarring", but that once he got used to this, he found the characters cleverly conceived and the writing a crisp balance of action, tension, and humor.[100]Several reviewers criticized the show's setting; Tim Goodman of the San Francisco Chronicle felt that the melding of the western and science fiction genres was a "forced hodgepodge of two alarmingly opposite genres just for the sake of being different" and called the series a "vast disappointment",[101] and Carina Chocano of Salon.com said that while the "space as Wild West" metaphor is fairly redundant, neither genre connected to the present.[102] Emily Nussbaum of The New York Times, reviewing the DVD set, noted that the program featured "an oddball genre mix that might have doomed it from the beginning: it was a character-rich sci-fi western comedy-drama with existential underpinnings, a hard sell during a season dominated by Joe Millionaire".[103]

The Boston Globe described Firefly as a "wonderful, imaginative mess brimming with possibility". The review further notes the difference between the new series and other programs was that those shows "burst onto the scene with slick pilots and quickly deteriorate into mediocrity ... Firefly is on the opposite creative journey."[104] Jason Snell called the show one of the best on television, and one "with the most potential for future brilliance".[105]

Tim White, writing for The Objective Standard, focused his review on the show's depiction of heroism. He concludes that "Firefly is not perfectly accurate in its attempts to depict the essential natures of heroism and villainy, but its successes are much more uplifting than its failures are problematic. It's also consistently funny, skillfully written, and passionately acted."[106]

Reviewers also compared Firefly to Whedon's other series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Chocano noted that the series lacks the psychological tension of Buffy and suggests that this might be attributable to the episodes being aired out of order.[102] MSN, on the other hand, pointed out that after viewing the DVD boxed set, it was easy to see why the program had attracted many die-hard fans. "All of Whedon's fingerprints are there: the witty dialogue, the quirky premises and dark exploration of human fallacy that made Buffy brilliant found their way to this space drama".[107]

Princess Weekes from The Mary Sue stated that she "really enjoyed" the series, but wrote that, "it lacks Chinese actors, so if it's going to be brought back, that's a really easy fix."[108] Writing for Syfy, Alyssa Fikse described the show as a "problematic fave", calling the lack of Asian characters in the show "negligent at best, racist at worst".[109]

Fandom[edit]

Example fan artwork produced by Susan Renee Tomb (widely known in the Browncoat community as "11th Hour") used as guerrilla marketing to promote sale of Firefly and SerenityDVDs.

Firefly generated a loyal base of fans during its three-month original broadcast run on Fox in late 2002. These fans, self-styled Browncoats, used online forums to organize and try to save the series from being canceled by Fox only three months after its debut. Their efforts included raising money for an ad in Variety magazine and a postcard writing campaign to UPN.[87][88] While unsuccessful in finding a network that would continue the show, their support led to a release of the series on DVD in December 2003.[5] A subsequent fan campaign raised over $14,000 in donations to have a purchased Firefly DVD set placed aboard 250 U.S. Navy ships by April 2004 for recreational viewing by their crews.[110]

These and other continuing fan activities eventually persuaded Universal Studios to produce a feature film, Serenity.[4] (The title of Serenity was chosen, according to Whedon, because Fox still owned the rights to the name 'Firefly'). Numerous early screenings of rough film cuts were held for existing fans starting in May 2005 as an attempt to create a buzz to increase ticket sales when the final film cut was released widely on September 30, 2005.[4] The film was not as commercially successful as fans had hoped, opening at number two and making only $40 million worldwide during its initial theatrical release.

On June 23, 2006, fans organized the first worldwide charity screenings of Serenity in 47 cities, dubbed as Can't Stop the Serenity or CSTS, an homage to the movie's tagline, "Can't stop the signal".[111] The event raised over $65,000[112] for Whedon's favorite charity, Equality Now. In 2007, $106,000 was raised;[113] in 2008, $107,219; and in 2009, $137,331.[114]

In July 2006, a fan-made documentary was released, titled Done the Impossible, and is commercially available. The documentary relates the story of the fans and how the show has affected them, and features interviews with Whedon and various cast members.[115] Part of the DVD proceeds are donated to Equality Now.

NASA Browncoat astronaut Steven Swanson took the Firefly and Serenity DVDs with him on Space Shuttle Atlantis's STS-117 mission in June 2007.[116][117][118] The DVDs were added to the media collection on the International Space Station as entertainment for the station's crews.[119][120][a]

A fan-made, not-for-profit, unofficial sequel to Serenity, titled Browncoats: Redemption, premiered at Dragon*Con 2010 on September 4, 2010. According to the film's creator and producer, Whedon gave "his blessing" to the project. The film was sold on DVD and Blu-ray at the film's website, with all proceeds being distributed among five charities.[122][123] The film was also screened at various science-fiction conventions across the United States, with admission receipts similarly being donated. All sales ended on September 1, 2011, one year after its premiere, with total revenues exceeding $115,000.[124]

Cult status[edit]

In 2005, New Scientist magazine's website held an internet poll to find "The World's Best Space Sci-Fi Ever". Firefly came in first place, with its cinematic follow-up Serenity in second.[125] In 2012, Entertainment Weekly listed the show at No. 11 in the "25 Best Cult TV Shows from the Past 25 Years", commenting, "as it often does, martyrdom has only enhanced its legend."[126]

Brad Wright, co-creator of Stargate SG-1 has said that the 200th episode of SG-1 is "a little kiss to Serenity and Firefly, which was possibly one of the best canceled series in history". In the episode, "Martin Lloyd has come to the S.G.C. [Stargate Command] because even though 'Wormhole X-Treme!' was canceled after three episodes, it did so well on DVD they're making a feature [film]".[127]

The follow-up film, Serenity, was voted the best science fiction movie of all time in an SFX magazine poll of 3,000 fans.[128]  Firefly was later ranked #25 on TV Guide's Top Cult Shows Ever.[129] The name for the Google beta app Google Wave was inspired by this TV series.[130]

In an interview on February 17, 2011, with Entertainment Weekly, Nathan Fillion joked that: "If I got $300 million from the California Lottery, the first thing I would do is buy the rights to Firefly, make it on my own, and distribute it on the Internet".[93] This quickly gave rise to a fan-run initiative to raising the funds to purchase the rights.[131] On March 7, 2011, the organizers announced the closure of the project due to lack of endorsement from the creators, with $1 million pledged at the time it was shut down.[132]

Joss Whedon, Tim Minear, and cast members Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, Summer Glau, Adam Baldwin, and Sean Maher reunited at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con for a 10th-anniversary panel. Ten thousand people lined up to get into the panel, and the panel ended with the entire crowd giving the cast and crew a standing ovation.[133]

A tenth anniversary special, Browncoats Unite, was shown on the Science Channel on November 11, 2012. The special featured Whedon, Minear, and several of the cast members, in a discussion on the series' history.[134]

According to Reason's Julian Sanchez, Firefly's cult following "seems to include a disproportionate number of libertarians". The story themes are often cautionary about too-powerful central authority and its capacity to do bad while being considered by the majority as good. The characters each exhibit traits that exemplify core libertarian values, such as the right to bear arms (Jayne, Zoe), legal prostitution (Inara), freedom of religion (Book), logic and reasoning (Simon), and anti-conscription (River).[135] Joss Whedon notes this theme, saying "Mal is, if not a Republican, certainly a libertarian, he's certainly a less-government kinda guy. He's the opposite of me in many ways."[136]

Podcasts[edit]

The Signal is a Firefly and Serenity-focused podcast developed by fans of the Joss Whedon property. Hosted by Kari Haley and Les Howard,[137] The Signal is a fan-driven podcast dedicated to Joss Whedon's short-lived TV series Firefly (2002) and its film Serenity (2005). Initially created as guerrilla marketing to promote Serenity,[138] the podcast features discussions about the franchise's role-playing game, fan fiction as audio dramas, and interviews (e.g. with PJ Haarsma,[137] Jane Espenson,[139] and Marc Gunn).[140] Haley and Howard described the podcast's purpose as "[doing] whatever we can to see that more new Firefly is created in any format."[138]

In early 2006, Mur Lafferty described the show as "PG-rated", about an hour long, and publishing an episode every two weeks.[138] That December, The Signal released a compilation album of filk music that had previously featured on the podcast: Songs from the Black; the album featured music by Luke Ski, Lich King, and Greg Edmonson.[141]

In 2006, The Signal received a People's Choice Podcast Award in the categories of "TV & Film" and "Best Produced"; it received the former again in 2008.[142]  The Signal was awarded the 2007 Parsec Award for "Best Fan Podcast",[143] and in the category of "Best Speculative Fiction Fan or News Podcast (Specific)", it won the 2010[144] and 2012 Parsecs.[145] Writing for Maximum Fun, Ian Brill praised The Signal as surprisingly professional with well-produced segments, though he unflatteringly compared Haley and Howard to Whedon's character Xander Harris: "They say mildly clever and cutesy things to each other and then sound tremendously satisfied with themselves while saying it."[137]

Awards[edit]

Firefly won the following awards:

  • Emmy Award: Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series, 2003
  • Visual Effects Society: Best visual effects in a television series, 2003 (episode "Serenity")
  • Saturn Award: Cinescape Genre Face of the Future Award, Male, 2003 (Nathan Fillion)
  • Saturn Award: Saturn Award for Best DVD Release (television), 2004
  • SyFy Genre Awards: Best Series/Television, 2006[146]
  • SyFy Genre Awards: Best Actor/Television Nathan Fillion, 2006
  • SyFy Genre Awards: Best Supporting Actor/Television Adam Baldwin, 2006
  • SyFy Genre Awards: Best Special Guest/Television Christina Hendricks for "Trash", 2006
  • SyFy Genre Awards: Best Episode/Television "Trash", 2006

The series was also nominated for the following awards:

  • Visual Effects Society: Best compositing in a televised program, music video, or commercial, 2003
  • Motion Picture Sound Editors, USA, "Golden Reel Award": Best sound editing in television long form: sound effects/foley, 2003
  • Hugo Award: Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form, 2003 (episode "Serenity")
  • Hugo Award: Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form, 2004 (episodes "Heart of Gold" and "The Message", which at that time had not been shown on television in the USA)
  • Golden Satellite Award: Best DVD Extras, 2004

Ratings[edit]

At the time the series was canceled by Fox, it averaged 4.7 million viewers and ranked 98th in Nielsen ratings.[3]

In popular culture[edit]

The cancellation of Firefly is a running gag in the CBS sitcom, The Big Bang Theory, which ran from 2007–2019. The character Sheldon Cooper is a fan of the show. When he and Leonard Hofstadter discuss their roommate agreement, they include a passage in which they dedicate Friday nights to watching Firefly, as Sheldon believes it will last for years. Upon its cancellation, he brands Rupert Murdoch, the owner of Fox, a traitor.[147] During the show's second season, in episode 17 ("The Terminator Decoupling"), Summer Glau appears as herself, encountering Sheldon, Leonard, and their friends on a train to San Francisco. When Raj tries to hit on her, he says that although he is an astrophysicist, she was actually in space during the shooting of Firefly. Glau chides him for believing this, and Raj backtracks, saying, "Those are crazy people!"[148] In season 8, episode 15, Raj and Leonard recognize Nathan Fillion in a café and insist on taking a selfie with him, though he denies being the Firefly star.[149]

On the NBC comedy Community, the characters Troy and Abed are fans of the show. They have an agreement that if one of them dies, the other will stage it to look like a suicide caused by the cancellation of Firefly, in the hopes that it will bring the show back.[150]

In the 2003 Battlestar Galactica miniseries/pilot, a ship resembling Serenity appears in the background of the scene with Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell).[151] Serenity is one of several spaceships inserted as cameos into digital effects scenes by Zoic Studios, the company responsible for digital effects in both Firefly and Battlestar Galactica.[151]

The webcomic xkcd commented on Firefly's conspicuous absence of Asian characters in the 2009 comic "Well". When a character drops a coin into "The Uncomfortable Truths Well", it responds, "For a universe that's supposed to be half Chinese, Firefly sure doesn't have any Asians."[152]

Critics have drawn comparisons and parallels between Firefly and the anime Outlaw Star.[153][154]

The television series Castle, where Fillion plays the lead character Richard Castle, has made ongoing homages to Firefly. Castle has props from Firefly as decorative items in his home, has dressed up as a "space cowboy" for Halloween ("You wore that five years ago", cracked his daughter), speaks Chinese that he learned from "a TV show [he] loved", and has made rapid "two-by-two" finger motions while wearing blue surgical gloves. He has been humorously asked if he has ever heard of a spa known as "Serenity", and Firefly catchphrases such as "shiny", "special hell", and "I was aiming for the head" have been used as punchlines during various dramatic scenes in Castle. He has worked a murder case at a science fiction convention with suspects being the cast of a long-cancelled space opera that only ran for a season, and has had direct and incidental interaction with people portrayed by Firefly cast members.[155][156][157]

Con Man, a 2015 comedy web series created by Tudyk and co-produced by Fillion, draws on the pair's experiences as cult science fiction actors touring the convention circuit.[158][159] Though it is not autobiographical, the show's fictional Spectrum echoes Firefly and Tudyk's and Fillion's roles reflect their own Firefly roles. Staite, Torres, Glau, Maher, and Whedon made guest appearances. Maher played himself as a former Firefly actor.[159][160][161]

Media franchise[edit]

Main article: Firefly (franchise)

The popularity of the short-lived series served as the launching point for a media franchise within the Firefly universe, including the feature film Serenity, which addresses many plot points left unresolved by the series' cancellation.

Additionally, there are two comic-book mini-series, Serenity: Those Left Behind (3 issues, 104 pages, 2006), Serenity: Better Days (3 issues, 80 pages, 2008) and a one-shot hardcover Serenity: The Shepherd's Tale (56 pages, 2010), along with the one-shots Serenity: Downtime and The Other Half and Serenity: Float Out in which Whedon explored plot strands he had intended to explore further in the series. The comics are set, in plot terms, between the end of the TV series and the opening of the feature film. The two mini-series were later published in collected form as hardcover and paperback graphic novels. A six-issue series titled Serenity: Leaves on the Wind began in January 2014 and the series takes place after the events of the film.[162] A six-issue series titled Serenity: No Power in the 'Verse began in October 2016 and the series is set about 1.5 years after Leaves on the Wind.[163] In July 2018, Boom! Studios announced that they had acquired the comic book and graphic novel publishing license to Firefly with plans to release new monthly comic book series, limited series, original graphic novels, and more.[164]

In July 2014, the release of the video game Firefly Online was announced that planned to have the cast reprise their roles.[165] Although never officially cancelled, there have been no updates about the game's release since March 2016.[166]

In January 2018, Titan Books announced that they would begin publishing original canon Firefly novels.[167] Seven books have so far been released.

In January 2020, Fox's entertainment president Michael Thorn said that a revival series was considered, decided that since The Orville was on the air it wouldn't make sense to have two space franchises at the same time.[168]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ At the time the DVDs were transported to the International Space Station, the cost of putting a pound of payload in Earth orbit was $10,000.[121]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Brioux, Bill. "Firefly series ready for liftoff". jam.canoe.ca. Archived from the original on July 15, 2012. Retrieved December 10, 2006.
  2. ^ Whedon, Serenity: Relighting the Firefly, DVD extra
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b "Fox Squashes 'Firefly'". E! Online. December 13, 2002. Archived from the original on April 30, 2010. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Russell, M.E. (June 24, 2006). "The Browncoats Rise Again". The Daily Standard. Retrieved July 16, 2006.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b c Chonin, Neva (June 8, 2005). "When Fox canceled 'Firefly,' it ignited an Internet fan base whose burning desire for more led to 'Serenity'". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved November 9, 2006.
  6. ^ Roush, Matt (June 3, 2013). "Cancelled Too Soon". TV Guide. pp. 20–21.
  7. ^ "Serenity". Dark Horse Comics. Retrieved June 29, 2011.
  8. ^ "Review of Serenity Role Playing Game". RPGnet. Retrieved June 29,2011.
  9. ^ Tickle, Glen (September 27, 2013). "Late to the Party Recap: Firefly Episode Two "The Train Job"". The Mary Sue. Retrieved July 2, 2019.
  10. ^ Serenity Blu-ray databanks
  11. ^ The film adaptation explains how the Reavers came to exist in the Firefly universe.
  12. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Whedon, Firefly: the complete series: "Serenity" commentary
  13. ^ This Sino-American heritage is illustrated by labels on crates in the episode "The Train Job", consisting of a Chinese flag superimposed over a United States flag.
  14. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Whedon, Firefly: the complete series: "Train Job" commentary, track 1
  15. ^ Jump up to: a b Whedon, Firefly: the complete series: "Train Job" commentary, track 7.
  16. ^ Whedon, Serenity: The Official Visual Companion
  17. ^ Shooting script for "Heart of Gold", in Firefly: The Official Companion, Volume 2, p. 169.
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