Firefly

Firefly is an American space western television series created by writer and director Joss Whedon, under his Mutant Enemy Productions label. Whedon served as 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 some people who fought on the losing side of a civil war and others who now make a living on the outskirts of the society, as part of the pioneer culture that exists on the fringes of their star system. In addition, it is a future where 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 as well. 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 United States and Canada on the Fox network on September 20, 2002. Despite high expectations for the Joss Whedon-led project, by mid-December 2002 Firefly had averaged only 4.7 million viewers per episode and was 98th in Nielsen ratings.^[3] It was canceled after eleven of the fourteen produced episodes were aired. Despite the series' relatively short life span, it received strong sales when it was released on DVD and has large fan support campaigns.^[4][5] It won an Emmy in 2003 for Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series. The post-airing success of the show led Whedon and Universal Pictures to produce a film based on the series, Serenity.^[4] The Firefly franchise expanded from the series and film to other media including comics and a role-playing game.

What a shame this series ended before it even really started. 

For anyone who is a fan of Joss Whedon you know how good this show was and could have been.  It only aired for one season and was canceled due to poor ratings. I know I am way late to this party, but Syfy is airing the entire (one season) series and it’s fabulous.  If you've not seen it I recommend you plan to rent the set, and watch it.  I’ve not seen the movie; Serenity, however I plan to rent it when the series ends. 

                                                        

Joss Whedon has an amazing ability for putting real characters into totally unreal worlds and circumstances.  That’s why they call it imagination I suppose.  Through the realistic use of characters and their natural dialogue he captures you and for a moment (in this case an hour) you suspend your disbelief and you are truly and simply entertained. Whedon produces magic with everything he does, and I am anxiously awaiting his next project.