Browncoats discussion

I was a big fan of Buffy and Angel, but didn't hear about Firefly until it was already off the air. And, I'm ashamed to say that "a western in space" sounded a little strange to me. So I didn't rush out and buy the DVDs when they came out, even though the series was highly recommended to me by other Buffy/Angel fans. I wasn't sure I would like them enough to own them. I was curious to see it, though, so checked out the DVDs from my library. I started falling in love with Wash and his dinosaurs and was completely hooked by the end of that first episode.

I never saw it on t.v. either. I hadn't even heard of it, although, funny enough, "Space Western" would have sucked me right in if I had! After all, Star Trek was "Wagon train to the stars".
I had the flu, was in bed for 2 days, and the Sci-Fi channel had an all day marathon. 8 episodes, I think. I sent my son to GameStop that night, after I called and found out they had it used on DVD. I watched the rest of the series the next day and have loved it since!
I still get a thrill seeing it on t.v. when the Sci-Fi channel does their thing. I don't know why. I can, obviously, watch whatever episode I want, whenever I want, there's just something about it actually being on the tube.

i just found the collection on a shelf and i didn't know what it was so i decided to watch it and i loved it immediatly

I was a huge Joss Whedon fan with Buffy & Angel. (I also had a huge crush on Nathan Fillion from Two Guys & a Girl...) When Firefly aired, it was hard to keep up with where it was on the FOX line up as they kept switching the timeslot. Ultimately, when it was released on DVD, I snapped it up to see the unaired episodes and I have been in love ever since.
:)

I wasn't a Buffy or Angel fan at all. I actually started watching the series when my boyfriend at the time introduced it to me. I instantly fell in love with the series and with Wash :)

Strangely enough, I knew nothing of Firefly's existence. I saw the movie Serenity, absolutely loved it, and desperately wished for more. It wasn't until a year or two later through an Amazon recommendation that I found out that there was an ENTIRE series that preceded the show. I think there was a light shining down from the heavens and a choir of angels involved . . .

Amanda wrote: "I think there was a light shining down from the heavens and a choir of angels involved . . "

LOL - love that, Amanda!

I had watched Buffy, which is alright. I loved Angel. My parents told us about another TV show by Joss Whedon, but I had never heard the name or what it was about. Then my mum got it from netflix and we all watched it. It was hilarious, especially the bloopers for the movie Serenity. My favourite character has to be River but I love the whole crew. Wash is funny. River also kinda reminds me of Dru from Buffy and Angel except for the fact that she isn't evil or a vampire. XD

I started loving Joss Whedon after Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, and then started getting into Buffy and Angel. A friend of mine told me I had to watch Firefly, so I did, and I loved it.
Fun fact: All of this was in the past year. :D

Wow, Emily! So you're very new to the Whedonverse! Which show is your favorite?

Probably Buffy, with Firefly right after. I'm only on season two of Angel so far, and I kept missing Dollhouse. I watched all seven seasons of Buffy this spring/summer, and I'm getting my mom and sister into it. :)

I was aware of Firefly and thought it looked interesting but never got round to watching it. Then we watched two episodes in a university lecture and was hooked.

I had never heard of Joss and my brother said, "Hey want to watch this TV show, it's a sci-fi, western." I gave in and watched about half of the pilot and got bored. Then he said, "I have a movie if you don't like this show." And he popped in Serenity, and I was like, wasn't this what we were just watching? I liked the movie and a few weeks later I found myself with an urge to watch the show. He loaned me his DVD's and I've been a fan ever since.

The first time I went to my now-husband's apartment, I teased him mercilessly for owning the first two seasons of Buffy on DVD. He shrugged and said, "Laugh if you want, but it's a really good show." I watched it and loved it. When Angel came along, I didn't want to watch it because it could not possibly be as good as Buffy. But I actually liked it MORE. Then I heard about Firefly, after it had already been canceled, and I didn't want to watch it because it could not possibly be better than Angel. We got the DVDs, and watched them in order. After the second episode, I declared it my favorite Joss show--any show--of all time, and started back at the first episode so I could really soak it up. Now I'm worried to try Dollhouse, as it can't possibly be as good as Firefly...

LOL, I love that Beth. I felt the same way about Firefly. I wasn't sure I wanted to watch it at first, but it soon became my top favorite Joss show. I haven't felt that way about Dollhouse yet. I like it and feel like it is worth watching, but it hasn't jumped over Firefly, Buffy, or Angel as a favorite yet.

That's so funny, Luann! I'm glad I wasn't the only one who was skeptical at first. Good to know that Dollhouse hasn't replaced Joss' other shows as your favorite. I've heard that from a couple other people too. I'm still going to check it out, because I love too see all the Buffy/Angel people back in action, but my expectations are not super high.
BTW, watch Ordinary People sometime if you want to see a really young Adam Baldwin. His character has a bit of Jayne in him! :) Depressing movie, though.

The older movie that I remember Adam Baldwin from is My Bodyguard. I just checked, and it came out the same year as Ordinary People (1980). He was VERY young then! But memorable.

I remember that movie very well, Luann. I saw it in the theatres at the tender age of 10 (damn I'm old!). I went with my sister to see it 3 times...she was in love with Matt Dillon. Great movie. I own it on DVD. :)

Now I need to see it again! It's been too many years.

It's a bit slow here lately...

Can't quite remember how I got into it, but it was a long time after the show was off the air (ruttin' Fox!) I do have an excuse however, I don't live in US and it takes a while for shows to reach here, now it's easier, given the Internet and everything.

Still have the DVDs and Mal and company remain some of my favourite characters ever.

I just discovered Firefly recently. I have heard about it for years, but never got around to giving it a view.

I just finished episode four Wednesday, and I am planning on viewing episode five tonight. Great show. One of the best I have ever experienced.

Welcome, William! I'm just a little jealous that you are experiencing Firefly for the very first time! I remember that feeling - watching Wash play with his dinosaurs for the very first time and realizing, "I love this!!"

My brother had borrowed Firefly from a friend and it was sitting around at our place so one day I thought why not watch it. I have loved it ever since and I am ashamed to say that it is still sitting on my shelf.. Serenity just as good, loved every minute!!!

Welcome William! So good to see the Browncoats gaining more fans. :)


I transferred my DVDs into iPod format and now have all the shows and the movie on my iPod which I always have with me; so I can catch an episode when I'm waiting for something/someone. :D

Question: Does anyone own the Blue-ray? If so, how is it?

We recently bought the BD of Firefly. In my opinion, BD is almost always worth it. The sound quality is the finest that can be had with today's technology.

But the BD picture depends on your player and, most importantly, your television. We own a 42" Philips 50,000:1 dynamic contrast TV. So everything looks better on it, even regular DVDs.

That said, I've only noticed a marginal improvement in the BD of Firefly. Sure, it's crisper and brighter -- and certainly sounds better -- than the DVDs. But is it worth paying 2-3 times more for it? That's a call only you can make. If you have a TV that makes it worth it, and if you have a really good BD player, perhaps. Find them on sale via Amazon Marketplace, or watch for a good price on Amazon. Grab them when the price is in your comfort zone.

For us, being huge Firefly fans, it was a must-buy, even if the improvement isn't as striking as, say, with Gone With the Wind, the Wizard of OZ, or any of the James Bond movies.

Until Firefly, Buffy, and Angel are *remastered* the BD won't be tremendously rewarding. That's the key. For BD to be at its best, the original source material must be remastered and, if it's really old or worn, restored. Television shows are not usually remastered to BD-quality levels. And, to my knowledge, there are no plans to remastered Buffy, Firefly, or Angel.

So the improvement one might expect from the BD of Firefly will be incremental only. Not breathtaking like watching the BD of Gone With the Wind.

Bottom line: If you understand what you're getting, and are willing to pay the additional cost, the BD of Firefly is worth it.

Oh, I saw the BD of Serenity and I loved how it looked. Too bad I don't have a Blu-Ray player...

Well, I bought the Serenity BluRay today. I do realize I don't have a BluRay player yet, but I couldn't resist! It's to purty!

I'm going to have to order Firefly BluRays off of Amazon.com once I get a BluRay player.

Thanks for that analysis, Bill. That helps! I haven't gone the Blu-Ray route yet, but I'm sure I will eventually.

I was channel flipping and saw one of the episodes. I like it but didn't think anything of it until one of my friends shoved the boxed set into my hands. "You NEED to watch this!"

Welcome, Scott!

Have no idea how I missed it when it was airing but I missed Buffy and Angel too. My introduction to the world of Joss began with Firefly a little more than two years ago. I fell in love and am currently making my way through Buffy and Angel, gonna have seen them all by Sept b/c Alice and I are going to Dragon Con!! I love sharing Firefly with people I love and I will forever be in the debt of Alice, my friend, my Person (Grey's reference) and who I lovingly refer to as Mei Mei!

Welcome to the group, Casey! You've got some great TV ahead of you!

One of my friends loaned it to me and I have no idea why because it was way outside of my genre, I didn't like anything treky, I didn't know who Wheedon was, and I made fun of Buffy *collective gasp from readers**ducks down in her chair**(just the name, really buffy? who names their daughter buffy? please don't hate me! can I still be a browcoat?). It sat around on my tv stand forever collecting dust. Since I'm the type of person who would feel racked with guilt if I didn't at least give a little effort of watching/reading something that was loaned to me before returning, I put in the first disc. I was hooked, it had me, before the first disc ended, I had ordered my own set off of amazon (along with the move Serenity-which, I beat my friend to owning, I might add!), and have been a loyal fan ever since.

LOL, Tina. I'd say your friend knew you pretty well! Or at least knew you would have to give it a chance before you gave it back and then you would be HOOKED. :)

That's really one of the beautiful things about Joss Whedon's shows - on the surface Firefly can be described as "a western in space" but it's really about much more than that. The same goes for Buffy. It's really much more than a girl with a fluffy-type name who kills vampires. So I'll just throw that out there in case you want to check out some episodes of Buffy sometime. :)

I hadn't heard of Firefly until I started watching Castle. I said something about really liking Nathan Fillion to one of my friends after I also watching White Noise 2 and Slither so she recommended me watch Firefly. Now, Firefly is one of my favorite TV shows of all time!

Beth wrote: "That's so funny, Luann! I'm glad I wasn't the only one who was skeptical at first. Good to know that Dollhouse hasn't replaced Joss' other shows as your favorite. I've heard that from a couple othe..."

Adam Baldwin is in Ordinary People? Who does he play? That is seriously one of my favorite movies of all time!

How I got into Firefly? Well, I first realized that sci-fi is a rather wondrous genre when I fell in love with Doctor Who. I decided to try out some more science fiction, and Firefly seemed to come up quite a bit as one of the best shows out there. So I watched it on Netflix, and I loved it.

Hi, Craig. Welcome! I'd heard of Mosquito, but never watched it. Thanks for the link! Very funny!!

Hi Craig! I've heard of the fan film, but never seen it, thanks for the link. glad you liked Firefly! :)

Craig wrote: "Anastasia wrote: "Hi Craig! I've heard of the fan film, but never seen it, thanks for the link. glad you liked Firefly! :)"

Hi Anastasia, One of the biggest kicks about it was when some of the B..."
I did a presentation a while ago that focused on the power of the audience, used Firefly as one of the examples of how the audience/fans can have an effect on media. My research focuses on how the audience is and has always had the power . Otherwise why would the big wigs care about ratings? Which come from the audience in the first place. But we all know how Fox screwed over Firefly.

Craig wrote: "Yes Anastasia, I Grrr at Fox.
Guess Firefly didn't fit into someone's corporate tick-box. Such a shame.
Your presentation sounds interesting. As audience we need to recognize our power and make o..."

it's for uni (I'm in the process of finishing a second bachelor's), but I tend to sneak in Firefly references into my work stuff too. I actually have a 'thing' where I have to work in a reference to one of my favourite shows in anything I do. (reports, presentations, essays.) You can read up on the power of the audience on my blog if you want to, i've done a few posts on the subject.

and i agree, lucky to have seen Firefly on DVD first. in the proper order, not the order FOX shown it in.

I met a group of people two years ago who introduced me to the glorious Joss Whedon. My life will never be the same again. Dr. Horrible came first, actually, then Buffy (my very, very favorite), Angel, and Firefly/Serenity. Firefly took the longest for me to get into, as I wasn't a sci-fi fan (yet) and yes, the idea of a western in space definitely seemed strange to me. But Joss' ability to make you care about the characters, and feel every sort of emotion throughout the show is what hooked me.

P.S. Because I saw Dr. Horrible before Firefly, it was very hard to take Nathan Fillion seriously. :P

I watched the "first two" episodes to air on Fox and found them ok at that time. Then NY ball games kept interrupting it and/or cancelling the show. Certainly I was having trouble getting it to record properly on VCR.

Then it was cancelled, and I had seen about 4 of them completely.

So I thought that would be it until I saw the dvd set for sale. It had been out for about a year already, but I bought it and found that the order I had seen it was not correct. It did make a bit better sense on the DVD I must say.

Always like Kaylee and Capt. Reynolds.

And yes, I had seen several seasons of Buffy and Angel, so I was well aware of Joss's work.

Did see Serenity twice on opening night / weekend,

Aqua wrote: "Because I saw Dr. Horrible before Firefly, it was very hard to take Nathan Fillion seriously. :P ..."

Interesting!! I first saw him as the evil Caleb on Buffy, but the two characters seemed so different that I didn't have a hard time separating them in my mind.

Rachel (aka. Kaiserin Sisi) wrote: "Adam Baldwin is in Ordinary People? Who does he play? That is seriously one of my favorite movies of all time!"

Adam plays one of Conrad's high school friends, Stillman. He's so very young!

Hi all!
Firefly was my first exposure to the amazing Joss Whedon. My dad really liked the series when it was on the air and when Serenity came out he took me to see it in theaters. I hadn't seen Firefly at that point and was only about nine years old at the time so I was incredibly confused and the reevers terrified me. But soon afterwards we watched the show together and I absolutely loved it. We own the box set and I've watched all of the episodes at least ten times. The abrupt ending breaks my heart every time I finish the short, half-season, and though I also own Serenity and have seen it many times as well and think it is an amazing movie, it just doesn't satisfy and give the kind of closure I wanted with the TV show.
Just last year I started watching Buffy and Angel (I finished them both in three months) and am now just as obsessed with them as I am with Firefly. I was also a fan of Dollhouse when it was on the air and have watched the short series several times since and I like Doctor Horrible too. Basically, I'm a fan of anything and everything Joss Whedon, and I'm psyched to be a member of this group!

Hi Miranda! Welcome!

Hi Miranda! Welcome to the group! :)