TedStixon

Trivia: Alan Tudyk had pitched an idea for an episode where his character Wash, who was essentially the comic relief, would be revealed to be covered in prison tattoos, implying him to be quite a badass warrior. But it would then humorously later be explained that he actually accidentally got imprisoned due to his own mistake, and had a good time there, where he would entertain other inmates by telling stories with shadow-puppets. And he just got the tattoos on a lark while imprisoned.

TedStixon

Objects in Space - S1-E10

Trivia: Just an interesting thing to note. The villain of the episode is an unhinged character named "Jubal Early," and is played by Richard Brooks. Six years earlier in 1996, Brooks starred in the film "The Crow: City of Angels," where he also appeared as a similarly unhinged villain... with the remarkably similar name "Judah Earl." Just a fun, odd coincidence.

TedStixon

Trivia: At first Nathan Fillion insisted on doing all his own stunts. However, he discovered his stunt double wasn't being paid since he wasn't technically working, with Fillion doing all the stunts himself. Fillion felt bad for having taken his work, so he began using his stunt double from then on.

TedStixon

Trivia: Early on, there were only meant to be five main characters on the crew. Over time, this increased to nine.

TedStixon

Trivia: Reportedly, Mal was originally written with "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" alum Nicholas Brendon in mind, but it quickly became clear that there simply wouldn't be enough time for him to star in both series simultaneously.

TedStixon

Trivia: Had the show continued, Joss Whedon contemplated giving James Marsters a cameo in an episode reprising his role of Spike from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel." It would have been a very quick "blink-and-you'll-miss-it" part, showing Spike sitting at a bar drinking and telling Mal "Nothing ever changes..." as he passes by.

TedStixon

Trivia: Every time Malcolm is riding a horse, no matter what planet he's on, it's always the same horse - a horse called "Fred."

TedStixon

Trivia: In an odd bit of studio meddling that shows how much the network didn't understand the series, Joss Whedon was given the contradictory note that Mal should be a more upbeat, positive character... and that he should also shoot and kill more people.

TedStixon

The Message - S1-E15

Trivia: The funeral music heard at the end of "The Message" was written by the show's composer right after the series got cancelled. The theme was actually inspired by his sadness that the show was ending.

TedStixon

Trivia: One of Joss Whedon's inspirations for the series was the historical Civil War novel "The Killer Angels" by Michael Shaara. The book was also the basis for the 1993 movie "Gettysburg."

TedStixon

Trivia: DVDs of "Firefly" and its follow-up movie "Serenity" were brought up to the international space station in 2007 by astronaut Steven Ray Swanson, who is a massive fan of the series. They are reportedly still a permanent fixture in the space station.

TedStixon

Safe - S1-E7

Trivia: This episode features the first credited role of future star Zac Efron. Efron plays the young version of Simon in flashbacks.

TedStixon

Trivia: Rebecca Gayheart was initially cast as Inarra, but was replaced after one day of filming as she reportedly didn't have enough chemistry with the rest of the cast. Morena Baccarin was cast two days later and reportedly started filming that same day to make up for lost time.

TedStixon

Trivia: Neil Patrick Harris reportedly auditioned and was considered for the role of Simon. He later went on to play the titular character in "Firefly" creator Joss Whedon's "Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog."

TedStixon

Trivia: Executives at Fox took issue with nearly every aspect of the series during production, and caused a great deal of trouble for the creators. For example, Fox attempted to meddle with the story and characters, including attempting to force creator Joss Whedon to rewrite the characters Wash and Zoe so they wouldn't be married. Fox also disliked several of the episodes and aired them completely out of order (including airing the pilot last), making the plot extremely difficult to follow. Episodes were also frequently delayed for sporting events and shifted around, making it hard for fans to watch the series. Finally, Fox attempted to deceptively market the series as a "wacky" and "twisted" sci-fi comedy as opposed to marketing it as the sci-fi drama with comedic elements that it actually was. These are often cited among the many factors that contributed to its early cancellation. However, despite these factors, the series ended up becoming a massive cult hit among sci-fi fans.

TedStixon

Serenity (2) - S1-E12

Question: Something I've always wondered: I haven't quite read all of the comics, so this may be addressed in them given they are considered canonical, but is Patience ever mentioned again? I kind of always assumed she was likely killed by the Reavers since they were still near the planet surface at the end of the episode, but obviously that was never confirmed.

TedStixon