Here are a couple of entries to the contest we ran in March asking people what their first memory of Firefly was.
First, from Randy of North Carolina:
I was a church pastor trying to decide which movie our youth group should see. The other counselor said, “Take the kids to Serenity, it is like Star Trek.” That was good enough for me, so we went to see this unknown movie. The memory stuck with me and I really liked the movie. About 6 months or so later I was at Best Buy looking at DVD covers. There was Serenity! I bought it and watched it at home. Looking at the special features was the first time I heard of Firefly the series. I immediately found it and bought it. I have been deeply in love ever since. I am so glad to be with people keeping this alive. This story and the characters are really wonderful! It has related to my life in so many ways. When Mal feels it is a success because Firefly is still flying that speaks volumes to me.
Tanya from Wisconsin:
I saw Serenity first, so my first memory of Firefly was seeing Wash and knowing in every episode that I saw, that he would eventually die. :'(
But I remember that the music was so beautiful and it was what really captured my interest. I liked sci-fi things like Star Wars but hadn’t really branched far beyond that. Firefly made me a true fan of sci-fi as well as show that are simply amazing.
The casting was also masterfully done. Jayne was perfect. I mean absolutely perfect. He was so one dimensional, but only because that was what Jayne was. But in Jaynestown, he really showed who Jayne was. Adam Baldwin was able to show the original Jayne (before joining the crew) and the person he had become. “And the stories!”
What are some of your first memories of Firefly?
Universal actually started making the behind the scenes stuff happen long before Serenity was ‘announced’. The only time Universal actually received material from fans was from a small number of people who wrote to them to say they would be boycotting the movie (I’m not kidding) because they had heard Alan and Ron weren’t signed to be in it. Chris B (I think it was) had to quietly email Fireflyfans.net and ask fans stop writing to Universal, they were just waiting for deals to be locked.