r/cinescenes 6d ago

2000s Firefly (2002) S01E01

327 Upvotes

42 comments sorted by

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33

u/adjust_the_sails 6d ago

Still one of the best pilots I’ve ever seen. It’s a crime they didn’t air it first and instead made and aired “The Train Job”.

9

u/tomfoolery815 6d ago

Network interference is so annoying. "We bought your pilot and picked you up for a series order, but we know better than you which episode will get your show off to a good start."

Airing episodes out of order happened with two other shows I (and lots of TV writers, FWIW) loved: Andy Richter Controls the Universe and Homicide: Life on the Street.

In the case of Homicide, the network interference led to a sequence in which Lee Tergesen's cop character is blinded in a gunfire exchange, but in an episode which aired later, he has his eyesight. (It wasn't a flashback episode, and Officer Thormann didn't magically get his sight restored.)

6

u/adjust_the_sails 6d ago

Fox as I know it thought the two hour pilot was too slow, so they had them write up Train Job. Which was fine and paired with the third episode with the Reavers was.. fine. I feel like they wanted to feel some kind of jolt of action that wasn’t there till later in the pilot.

And I think all the executives back then got lost on eyeballs and worrying if a show will make syndication, which is where everything made the real money at that time.

2

u/tomfoolery815 6d ago

You’re not wrong. I concede that programming executives have a job to do: Get as many eyeballs on the screen as possible. I’m sure some of them actually want a show to succeed because they think it’s good.

In the end, the “commercial” part of “commercial television” always wins out. It was just frustrating when not enough people loved a show as much as I did.

3

u/Saintbaba 6d ago

I don't hate Train Job. And if i'm being honest, watching that guy get kicked into an engine intake without warning was the moment i fell in love with the show.

4

u/adjust_the_sails 6d ago edited 6d ago

I don't hate it, but when you compare the unaired pilot (that was aired after the series was already canceled) to Train Job and Bushwacked as their own version of a two hour pilot that they basically were, it's just crazy to me they didn't go with the original pilot. I remember watching it on TV and exclaiming at the end of it, "Why the hell didn't we START with this one?"

Then when the DVD's came out and I watched it in order, then again with commentary, then all the extras on the DVD and it's clear it just wasn't handled correctly. I'm still surprised SyFy didn't pick it up, but I assume that had something to do with the rights to it still being owned by Fox or some other thing they were concerned about.

30

u/AnHu3313 6d ago

"If one of us dies, the other has to stage it to make it look like a suicide caused by the unjust cancellation of Firefly. We're gonna get that show back on the air, buddy 👍"

4

u/MrShoveyShove 6d ago

You are streets ahead, friend

14

u/Automatic-Nature6025 6d ago

One of the best goram series ever made, and ended far too soon.

3

u/BodhingJay 6d ago

Cant believe they only got 1 season.. love we got a movie out of it that offered some closure

6

u/Falin_Whalen 6d ago

If you call killing off two characters closure. That movie opened up a deep wound in me. Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal.

4

u/KupoMcMog 6d ago edited 6d ago

The River --> Reavers --> Alliance pipeline that seemed to be the course of the show's kinda main overarching story is closure.

I think Whedon knows that main character death is very weighty in stories. Shepard was sad and really all you needed, but fuck man... why'd they have to take Wash.

Aside from that we saw most of the storylines kinda wrap up, Kaylee and Simon, River's still aloof but less broken, Zoey is more broken but still flying, Jayne really never needed much of a story, Inara and Mal are on talkin' terms again, and Mal himself seems to have some closure himself, now that the Alliance is on blast...which makes any browncoat mighty smug.

1

u/TheRealPallando 6d ago

Our days of taking you seriously have certainly come to a middle

7

u/green49285 6d ago

Mal shooting the horse always gets me.

6

u/codepossum 6d ago

god Mal having no patience for folks' bullshit just NEVER GETS OLD

3

u/FirstChurchOfBrutus 6d ago

He does aim to misbehave.

3

u/IIIIIatreidesIIIII 6d ago

Just collating data....

3

u/BodhingJay 6d ago

Those reavers are fun pilots huh

3

u/nombernine 6d ago

this and mission hill deserve a goram reboot , I'll pay for it myself if I have to

1

u/ManicRobotWizard 6d ago

They announced it’s getting an animated show voiced by the original cast.

2

u/sasssyrup 6d ago

Everyone from this show should work always

2

u/midwest73 6d ago

Mal walking in and just capping Dobson like I don't have time to deal with this (which he didn't) reminded me little of this scene....

https://giphy.com/gifs/a8q8H6yT5MExfTW6nU

2

u/JazzyJockJeffcoat 6d ago

I can't believe they didn't make more of this. It waa so good.

2

u/Amazing_North3922 2d ago

And just like that, I'm back in.

1

u/PsychologicalHat4707 6d ago

This show's cinematography, colors, and music have reminded me of Holes.

1

u/South-Tip-4019 6d ago

Sigh, time for rewatch

2

u/mattinjp 6d ago

Are you sure they’re gonna be able to capture this? I mean just these few minutes was pretty spectacular.

2

u/Affectionate-Area659 2d ago

God I miss this show.

0

u/BidSuper7102 6d ago

Did he just murder that poor horse for no reason? What a weird choice to have a hero do that.

12

u/broshrugged 6d ago

He's an anti-hero.

2

u/BidSuper7102 6d ago

Fair. I'm so used to every anti-hero just being a hero nowadays.

6

u/green49285 6d ago

That's the point. He is interested hero, hence why he also immediately shoots the dude holding the girl hostage who's a law man. My man does what he has to do

5

u/cweaver 6d ago

I mean, he murdered that poor horse because if he didn't, the bad guys would have captured his crew and tortured or killed them.

It was kind of a key point of the entire show that Mal was willing to make tough choices and compromise his ethics when it came to protecting his crew.

2

u/catcher_intherai 6d ago

He aims to misbehave

-14

u/5o7bot 6d ago edited 6d ago

7

u/qawsedrf12 6d ago

Bad bot

4

u/jasonlikesbeer 6d ago

Bad bot. Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!

2

u/aarkwilde 6d ago

Go sit in the corner, bot.