New Fan! (Where the hell have I been?) by Melsy

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

New Fan! (Where the hell have I been?)

POSTED BY: MELSY
UPDATED: Friday, October 14, 2005 06:18
SHORT URL:
VIEWED: 4628
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Wednesday, October 12, 2005 2:50 PM

Hey, just found this site in my google of Firefly. I'm glad there is such a dedicated fan base for this film/series. My husband and I went to see Serenity last weekend, we'd never heard of Firefly before - just saw the Movie Trailers.

We loved it, found out it used to be a series and went straight to Best Buy, plopped down our 40 bucks and bought the DVD!!!

We watched the pilot "Serenity" and the Train Job episode. We are HOOKED!! But as there are only a few episodes we are going to watch only 1 per month so we can drag it out as long as possible... hopefully there will be another movie by the time we finish (though I doubt we will have the self restraint to only watch 1 per month).

You know my husband and I just sat there after the first two episodes and talked about how much we really enjoyed the show... Totally refreshing I have just two questions (well many, but I won't go into all) how the hell does such a quality, unique show like Firefly get on the air without us knowing about it and how the hell does it get cancelled with all the BS shows on TV these days????? TV is such crap these days we don't watch much of it. Okay, that's my little rant. I don't know where the hell I was when this was on the air, but sure did miss a great show, thank God for DVD!

Thanks!

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Wednesday, October 12, 2005 2:58 PM

GOPHERMUNCHER

It was on for only 11 weeks, and on friday nights. Poor advertising and broadcast schedules with lots of rescheduling is probalby why you didn't hear about it.

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Wednesday, October 12, 2005 3:03 PM

STAKETHELURK

Welcome! Glad to have more browncoats on board. The series just keeps getting better as you watch it (my favorite episode is actually the last one, “Objects in Space”).

If you want a sequel, though, be sure to recommend Serenity to all your friends and maybe see it again (if you want to). We’re kinda on the bubble financially, so we need all the help we can get for sequels.

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Wednesday, October 12, 2005 3:09 PM

DREAMTROVE

There are few fans of quality left.

Tonight at 8:00

Primal Survival

Plot: Spider Monkeys seek to mate with the cutest other monkeys which speedo clad men and women with round buttocks talk in an incomprehensible california suburbanite speech. Take a look through our 8 simulcast cameras at the plastic jungle created in an unused aviary at the San Diego Zoo.

No, seriously guys. Quality programming is in trouble because it costs money to produce, and brainless mops will watch whatever.

But it's okay to watch episodes more often than that, because you can rewatch them

If you run out you have all of buffy, which admittedly isn't firefly, but it is Joss.

And firefly will be back in fall of '06, just in time for out biblically-mandated withdrawal from Iraq.

Or so says I.

I could be wrong.

I'm not exactly quaking in my stylish but affordable boots, but there's definitely something unnatural going on, which does not tend to lead to hugs and puppies.

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Wednesday, October 12, 2005 3:13 PM

MELSY

Quote:
Originally posted by Gophermuncher:
It was on for only 11 weeks, and on friday nights. Poor advertising and broadcast schedules with lots of rescheduling is probalby why you didn't hear about it.

That might explain it, I think we may have been watching Star Trek... (which wasn't all that great)

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Wednesday, October 12, 2005 3:20 PM

MELSY

Quote:
Originally posted by StakeTheLurk:
Welcome! Glad to have more browncoats on board. The series just keeps getting better as you watch it (my favorite episode is actually the last one, “Objects in Space”).

If you want a sequel, though, be sure to recommend Serenity to all your friends and maybe see it again (if you want to). We’re kinda on the bubble financially, so we need all the help we can get for sequels.

Already done, I'm a walking billboard! I'm even lending out my DVDs.

Thanks for the welcome!

I'll be lurking here and there on this site, I'm not a posting kinda person, but I'll be back to check things out and see what's going on.

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Wednesday, October 12, 2005 3:29 PM

DONCOAT

Welcome, Melsy (and Melsy's mister, too). The Browncoat cadre is always happy to have new recruits!

I was one who was lucky enough to find Firefly right off the bat (though I didn't start posting here until recently). I watched "The Train Job" the day it aired. But I know a lot of rabid science fiction fans who never even knew about it until it was already gone.

Why? Well, as you can imagine, we've been down this road a few times. To sum it up:

Fox did a terrible job promoting Firefly before it aired.
Fox aired Firefly on Friday night.
Fox showed the episodes out of order.
Fox preempted Firefly several times, sometimes for two or three weeks in a row, for baseball playoff games.
Fox gave no warning or reassurance that Firefly would be back when they preempted it. (I gave up on it, thinking it was cancelled after being preempted for weeks on end, only to find out it wasn't -- after I missed some episodes! And I was trying to watch every episode.)
Fox aired only 11 episodes of the 14 that were made.
Fox aired the pilot episode, 'Serenity', last.
Fox cancelled Firefly before they ever gave it a chance to gain an audience.

Do you start to detect a pattern here?

But we're not bitter. Oh no.

Still, there might have been a few reasons that weren't Fox's fault. For example: Firefly was a sharply imagined, smart show with great writing and acting -- it really succeeded in drawing you into a wholly believable other-world. No wonder it went right over the heads of most viewers weaned on such challenging fare as "Married With Children".

So where does that leave us? Well... in the company of thousands of people like you who "get it". It's up to us to make the suits (at Fox, Universal, or elsewhere) understand what a great thing they messed up, and give them no choice but to give Firefly/Serenity another chance.

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Wednesday, October 12, 2005 3:47 PM

MELSY

So this originally aired on Fox? I thought it may have been on the Sci-Fi Channel originally - limited distribution. But Fox had it on and screwed it up with preemptions???? They did that with 24 the first season. Unbelievable!

I don't think you have to be a Sci-Fi fan to enjoy Firefly/Serenity. Among the reasons I enjoyed it so was that it wasn't the sterotypical weird alien, techno gizmo sci-fi flick... that stuff really gets old and is a sure fire turn-off.

I haven't done my homework on this show yet, I am usually a research geek. Gotta find out everything about anything to satisfy my curiosity. I'm purposefully not reading a lot of posts and comments on the series because I don't want to find out what's on the episodes I've yet to watch. I'm really savioring the few episodes we have...

Thanks for the anwers to my queries... I'll be up to speed in about a years time if I stick to my plan :)

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Wednesday, October 12, 2005 3:58 PM

EMBERS

welcome!
Yeah, Firefly was pre-empted for Baseball most of the Fall, and then canceled in December...

it was a full year before the DVDs came out

(but we already knew that Universal was letting Joss make a movie, that had been announced that Sept)

don't bother dragging the DVDs out, instead: enjoy them and rewatch them,
many many times.

And then watch the movie many many times.

And read the comic books (series of 3 published by Dark Horse, called 'Serenity')

and have you watched the pre-quel videos?:
http://www.session416.com/mirrors
or
http://www.hittarivertam.nu/

enjoy! (and welcome)

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Wednesday, October 12, 2005 4:13 PM

DREAMTROVE

RANT
I have a serious concern about the sci-fi channel. They cancel everything good, they monkeyed with farscape, and they seem to totally kill everything they inherit. To wit, Outer limits and SG-1 which both took serious dives after appearing on the sci-fi channel. I'd be much more comfortable with HBO, or Shotime, Beyond, any of hte smaller networks, WB, UPN, or some sort of renegotiation with FOX. Major Network TV always sucks, so I would scratch off ABC CBS and NBC since I can't remember a program that appeared on any of those channels which didn't suck
EOR

Anyway, I'm aware, beggers can't be choosers, I just think some thought should go into this. We don't want to begin a program to aggressively lobby a channel which might exert an undue amount of executive control over Joss, forcing him to produce a mediocre product.

Let me give a very pertinent example.

Farscape. An awesome show. But also this.

Aeryn Sun + John Chrighton.

I don't dislike these characters. It's not my favorite match up, but that's not my point.

It was badly done. It was dreary. It was endless. It was Spelling-esque.

The whole reason for all of this focus on the soap opera aspect of the relationship for the show was sci fi channel demanded it. They scanned the boards, saw that most of the posters were aeryn john romos, and changed the storyline accordingly.

The romos are a web phenomenon, and in no way respresentative of the avg. viewing audience, no offence to the romos out there. (You know who you are- Mal+Inara is more important to you than the fact that River is an assassin or that the alliance is trying to brainwash the human race)

Which is a valid choice, to be a romo, but it's not the only choice.

It's a minor detail, but it much better not to have some TV exec. particularly Bonnie Hammer, making these calls and holding Joss to them.

If we do end up expending actual effort to revive the show, let's make sure that it is the solution which grants the most Joss freedom. The if Joss wants to send someone to the boards and here what we have to say he can, and if he wants to abandon the whole alliance story to focus on Spelling drama between Mal and Inara, he can, but at least it won't be a network exec with a wallet to his head saying you're going to follow this storyline.

No Power in the 'verse can stop me.

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Wednesday, October 12, 2005 4:28 PM

SIGGGY

Good to read the above posts. I've come new to it and been to the movie twice so far. I was introduced by a free DVD attached to my favorite movie magazine Empire here in Australia. I read their review and it said it was a little like Star Wars. I watched the train job first impressions were, no 5.1 surround sound,what the hell no sound in space and its a Western. The theme song came on and I was going whoa what the hell is this( I now love the theme) after getting to know the characters a little I decided it was a program I could get into. I have since bought the set and with my wife we are slowly moving through the set much like the original posters on this topic. The favorite thus far was the last we watched, Our Mrs Reynolds. My wife also liked Shindig a lot. The movie was great. I work in a hospital and will quite happily tell patients I saw a good movie called Serenity. I really want it to do well as I want it to continue the characters and situations are too good! I would also like them to remarket the set with 5.1 sound.

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Wednesday, October 12, 2005 6:29 PM

NOSADSEVEN

I second Embers's suggestion...don't bother spreading out your first viewing of the episodes so much. By all means, savor them, but don't worry that they are going to lose their flavor right away - they actually ripen a bit first. And, of course, when they eventually do start to fade, just watch them with someone who has never seen them before - brings the flavor right back!

Seriously, these episodes really really stand up to repeated viewings. I think there were at least two months where I didn't really watch anything but Firefly. I would put something else on and then part way through I'd realize that I'd rather just rewatch an episode. Also, I watched every episode on FOX in 2002 (frequently coming home to find I'd taped an hour of baseball), bought the DVDs the week they came out in 2003, and this many years later I still notice new little details. (There's even a thread dedicated to this phenomena "So you've seen each episode multiple times..." or something along those lines.)

I also recommend holding off on the commentaries until you are well acquainted with each episode. I think I jumped the gun on them a little bit, and will always wonder if I would've picked up on some of the details without them being pointed out.

Oh, and...Welcome!

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ain't. We. Just.

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Thursday, October 13, 2005 12:49 AM

DONCOAT

Quote:
Originally posted by dreamtrove:
RANT
The romos are a web phenomenon, and in no way respresentative of the avg. viewing audience, no offence to the romos out there. (You know who you are- Mal+Inara is more important to you than the fact that River is an assassin or that the alliance is trying to brainwash the human race)

So is it okay if I want to see Mal + Inara play out, but also want to know exactly how that firefly drive works?

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Thursday, October 13, 2005 4:07 AM

SMAUG

Hmmm... I didn't know there was a term for it.. : I guess I am a self-diagnosed "romo"..

I actually have a very long post I have been working on on my own insights into Mal and Inara..

.. When I am finished with it I will post it.. I don't know which message area to post it in.. it probbably doesn't belong in "general discussions". But I don't see a message area to specifically talk in depth about specific characters..

But even being a "romo"

I see Mal and Inara's story within firefly 'verse as the story of how they come together.. not the story of them being together. Actually as much as I would love to see them come together.. and I have so many ideas of how that could happen that are beautiful, tragic, and even funny..

But I am afraid that if they ever do become one.. that one of them will die. Joss you basterd!!!

But I hope that never happenes because if one of them dies.. so will the other. And I don't mean physcially dead.. the romos out there will understand

Although my primary interest lies with Mal and Inara..like DonCoat.. I could also talk all night about what River is.. or how do Reavers pilot ships.. or would Jayne ever really betray the rest of them for for enought money, or what is Book's backgound.. or will we see the operative again.. etc. etc...

it's just an incredibly deep universe.

And Melsy.. I am torn between wanting to gobble up every single episode in one sitting.. but like you am battling to spread them out so that I can savor each and every one.. and know that I still have more to watch!!!

Smaug..

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Thursday, October 13, 2005 5:28 AM

SHAOLIN

I'm right there with you Melsy. Last Friday afternoon my husband and I went to see Serenity. It is the first time we've been to a movie theater since our daughter was born last year. I hadn't even seen any advertising of Serenity, but since we both like scifi we plopped down our well earned cash...and was it ever worth it. We both loved the movie.

I kinda remembered something about a TV show called Firefly, so I googled it and also found this site. I knew I was hooked and needed more Firefly ASAP. So we did exactly what you did and went to Best Buy and bought the DVDs. However, we don't have your willpower and have already watched several episodes.

I totally agree that this show/movie is truly a gem. I hope that the powers that be will let Firefly grace our TV and/or movie screens again in the future.

Carry on the good work brown coats (or is it Browncoats?)!

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Thursday, October 13, 2005 6:56 AM

BROWNCOAT1

May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one.

Welcome Melsy! Glad to have you with us!

Glad you enjoyed the movie & that you picked up the DVD for the series. You will love it!

There are other things out there for purchase if you are interested. There is a 3 issue limited comic series by Dark Horse Comics, a movie magazine, the "Serenity Visual Companion", action figures of Mal & Jayne, trading cards, and a plethora of fan made apparel & other goodies.

Again welcome & we look forward to talking to you.

__________________________________________

"May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one."

Richmond, VA & surrounding area Firefly Fans:

http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/richmondbrowncoats/

http://www.richmondbrowncoats.org

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Thursday, October 13, 2005 7:04 AM

DREAMTROVE

don,

no reason to twist my words. I was simply saying that because of romos strong influence on the farscape boards, bonnie told henson and co that they had to replace their season three story line with a romo one. This is just wrong, from a creative perspective.

Romos are stronger on boards than in the general audience becuase romos tend to spend a lot of time online. But even if it were what the fanbase wanted, it's not ultimately their, or our, call. It's Joss' and that's how it should be.

On telepathy, ants release neurotransmitters through their antennae. It's the same process that is used elsewhere in their brains, the NTs are released by brain cells, but instead shoot out the antennae and are picked up by other ants. This is much closer to telepathy than it is to "smell-based signals" as it is often portayed.

Some species of jellyfish have parts capable of functioning independent of one another. Each part has it's own neural ganglion, and can do what it pleases, but they are all more or less connected within the jellyfish, or that's how I understand it. This is different from the light based communication they use with other jellyfish, which as you said is not telepathic, it's just alien.

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Thursday, October 13, 2005 9:19 AM

MELSY

Quote:
Originally posted by embers:

and have you watched the pre-quel videos?:
http://www.session416.com/mirrors
or
http://www.hittarivertam.nu/

enjoy! (and welcome)

Thanks for the links! I'll devour them in between DVDs.

Okay, what's the story behind these scenes? Are they really prequel's or screen tests or what? I'm sure everyone else knows so no need to go into it here, maybe you can email me privately.

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Thursday, October 13, 2005 9:44 AM

MELSY

Hi Shaolin. Our experiences mirror each other, I wonder how many others are doing the same thing? We didn't know anything about it either and I almost changed my mind at the box office and was thinking of buying two tickets for Jodie Foster's Flight Plan. I was standing there thinking... 'do I really want to plop down 20 odd bucks for another weak Sci-Fi film... cuz they all end up disappointing us.' I stuck to my guns and the gamble paid off!

So now I am curious, does anyone know the demographics of Firefly fans? Who is/was the target audience? Are we a good mix or do we lean more on the younger, middle age, or older crowd; new generation of Sci-Fi fans, old Sci-Fi (we're talking original Star Trek, Twilight Zone stuff) or ??? And has your fan base grown significantly since the release of Serenity?

And don't lose hope on a revival... with all the new "Sci-Fi" based network shows this year the wolves are out looking for meat to fill a niche!

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Thursday, October 13, 2005 9:51 AM

EMBERS

Quote:
Originally posted by Melsy:
Okay, what's the story behind these scenes? Are they really prequel's or screen tests or what? I'm sure everyone else knows so no need to go into it here, maybe you can email me privately.

no reason for privacy, a lot of people
(and most of the newbies) haven't watched these yet,
so they always bear mentioning:

these were done long after 'Firefly', in fact after 'Serenity' was done filming...
Universal was trying to come up with more ideas for 'guerilla' marketing and Joss told them:
'well...I've got this idea...'

So Joss Whedon wrote, directed and played the interviewer w/Summer Glau as River (naturally)
and set these up as pre-quels...
the history of what happened to River at the Academy before she was busted out of there

they are not spoilers in any way,
although there is one very tiny hidden foreshadowing for the movie
(not enough to be a spoiler, but definitely a tie in for those who have seen the movie).

aren't they the coolest thing ever? LOL

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Thursday, October 13, 2005 3:47 PM

HOWARD

Hi there!!

No do it the other way. Watch them all at once!!Then start again. Another movie in 12 months?
Keep dreamin' cowboy!

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Thursday, October 13, 2005 3:47 PM

HOWARD

Hi there!!

No do it the other way. Watch them all at once!!Then start again. Another movie in 12 months?
Keep dreamin' cowboy!

THAT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!!

JOSS IS MAKING DUMBASS WONDER WOMAN.

If there are any more SERENITY movies it'll be at least two and half years.

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Thursday, October 13, 2005 4:59 PM

GROOSALUGG

Quote:
Originally posted by Howard:
JOSS IS MAKING DUMBASS WONDER WOMAN.

If there are any more SERENITY movies it'll be at least two and half years.

And what, he was supposed to sit around, twiddling his thumbs and doing nothing in the meantime on the possible chance that the BDM would be a big enough hit that a sequel would be greenlighted in October? Guy's gotta work, dude.

Anyway, welcome, Melsy. If you become as big a fan as the rest of us (sounds like you already are!

), I'll give you much props if you can ultimately stick to the 'one-a-month' idea. Originally I was going to do one a week, but gave up on that by the end of "Serenity," and just plowed through em all in two weeks, one per night.

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Thursday, October 13, 2005 5:35 PM

KAYLEEWANNABEE

Hey, welcome to the 'Verse!

One a MONTH?! Don't do that to yourself. You deserve more Firefly than that.

I watched 'em all (plus commentaries) over one weekend to get ready for the Serenity sneak preview in June. My precious DVDs are now in the hands of some soon-to-be Browncoats, who, so far, love the series. :)

-----
It's my job to incite powerful yearning in the hearts and loins of my clients. No, silly, I'm not a Companion...I'm a marketing copywriter. (So actually I'm more of a whore than a Companion.)

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Friday, October 14, 2005 6:18 AM

IMALEAF

Because FOX is dumb, they dumped another show this year that had Adam Baldwin. It was pretty good.... they never know what they have till the DVD sales

~~River: Bible's broken. Contradictions, false logics. Doesn't make sense. ~~~

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