I am a BIG Firefly fan. Unfortunately, despite being a big fan of Joss Whedon in the first place, I didnt jump on the Firefly gig when it first came out. Since then, I have seen the collected DVD set, and the movie. I love this show. I hate that it was cancelled. That being said, there is still a fan following more passionate than Trekkies (well Trekkies NOW anyways) and they have their very own convention in California. Until last minute it gets cancelled with no reason given.
Word comes from Burbank, Calif., that passionate fans of the Joss Whedon TV show Firefly from all over the world have ponied up money to help pay to carry off “Flanvention,” the fan convention that was scheduled to begin Friday but was abruptly canceled Thursday.According to Corey Bridges, the executive producer at Multiverse Network, who was in town for Flanvention, people had come to Burbank from all over the place, only to find when they arrived that the event had had the rug pulled out from under it.
But never to be told they can’t have what they want, the show’s fans, known as “browncoats,” scrambled and found a way to make it work.
Now this is only half of the story. Big convention for fans of the show, gets cancelled, and the guy who is running it is now the most hated man in the Verse.
The fans rally together and decide to hold their own replacement gig at another location. Just a bunch of people hanging out to talk about Firefly.
BUT WAIT! Over at Whedonesque we are told:
There’s no simplier way of putting this. Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, Mark Sheppard, Jonathan Woodward, Christina Hendricks and Adam Baldwin have all turned up and are partying with fans at the hotel bar into the night at the cancelled convention Flanvention.
The Amazing thing about this is that these actors are not even getting PAID to be there. The Convention was cancelled, no refunds issued, and talent wasnt paid to appear. Many of those cast members who DID appear were not even scheduled to be at the convention. Alan Tudyk (Wash) had a scheduling conflict and declined an appearance, but he couldnt resist when he heard that these fans were shafted.
These guys just SHOWED UP anyways. Now THIS is how fans need to be treated. The cast of Firefly are dedicated to their fans in a way that sets an example that makes other stars look bad for ignoring those who MADE them famous.
There is even a Livejournal post from one of the attendee’s showing pictures of the event. She tells about how the cast members brought memorabilia that they salvaged from the set and were just giving this stuff away as “prizes”. She posted all the event pictures Here
I tip my hat to the crew of the Serenity. They have my respect, and just bolstered my fandom.
I can’t wait for the MMORPG to be released!!
If you love FIrefly you can’t catch a break! I hope whoever decided to cancel the con was fired and thrown out into the street naked!
Again, while I never got into the series…Jaysmack, the primary reason the series failed was network politics. Fox mishandled the show. Even I will concede that.
Hasn’t been the first time a network has treated a show like dirt, and it won’t be the last.
Serenity was good, but needed better marketing, if not a different release date.
Considering that Firefly barely made one season, clearly I wasn’t alone in panning it. And you can lose the superior tone with your jab about “attention-spans.” It says nothing about your appreciation of good media, rather it means you’re easily amused. Well I’m not. Firefly got canned not because people like me didn’t have the “attention-span” to watch it, rather because it was a lousy show. NOBODY was watching it! Or do you believe increasingly low ratings are a sign of success? The movie bombed because not even the so-called “fans” turned out to see it. Get mad at me if you want, but keep in mind I wasn’t the only one who didn’t waste my time on some galactic western. Like most viewers I’ve got plenty patience, but not with a show that isn’t going anywhere.
I really love it when people make snap judgements of a series after only watching half of one episode. Like you know ANYTHING about the series that you didnt watch.
Ok, so the first episode didnt get your wee little attention span right from the get go. Really its your loss that you cant watch a show before passing judgement on it.
I didnt really get INTO Battlestar Galactica until I really WATCHED it for 2-3 episodes. Its being hailed as the best thing on TV .. ever.
I hated Serenity, sheer pointless tedium. I saw Firefly on DVD when I checked it out from the library. That’s a half-hour of my life I’ll never get back -I say half-hour because I stopped watching half-way through the first episode. “Never again.” At least I didn’t waste any money on it. I’d have gone postal.
Maybe Firefly “needs a Battlestar Galactica-type makeover.” After all, Trek was declared “dead” after forty years, five incarnations and 11 movies. Firefly went belly-up after barely one season, and the movie BOMBED. Kinda says something about a show when it has THAT kind of performance.
Rodney,
I didn’t mind the concept of the frontier, or that they would go to that mentally, what I was commenting on was the need to make a show about the future and blatantly rip off the wild west, with the slang, and some of the outfits. when does the future emulate the past like that? where does the slang and attitude, and costumes, and the quick draws, and horses come into play from a time where it was necessary to have people like that?
whatever time that series took place it wasn’t the 1800’s, but the show excelled at making you believe that that “concept” of the wild west would exist in a time period where it wasn’t necessary to have people who say ” i reckon” and ladies and men to have wild west clothing
it’s prolly thinking too much on a show, but it turned me off none the less.
Being a fan of Firefly is tough. I caught on to the show before it was cancelled. I saw the movie (I loved It) and found out that there wouldn’t be sequal. Now a conventions happens and it’s cancelled too. Sigh. At least they got to hang with the stars.
I am a huge Firefly fan and I think that the cast has always supported the show and it’s fans. It’s really a great community to be apart of.
The whole point of the “Frontier show in the future” was that the human race had expanded into a NEW frontier. I think it was awesome that society stepped back to the same mentality as the frontier times. It makes total sense. The technology might have leapt forward, but the lawlessness of the new unpoliced frontier was very rough around the edges. In the civilized places we saw a more modern (futuristic) wear and behaviour
That and according to Firefly’s timeline EVERYTHING is in the past. Would you prefer that they wear silver bodysuits with pointy antenna hats?
Wow. Thats a huge surprise. Nice work though.
That’s a classy, CLASSY move by those actors. Fuck, why can’t they all be like that?
I agree with Darren. Though it was nice to see the actors still come out it’s disappointing to see that the event (which browncoats have been talking about for a year) was just canceled last minute. I’d want to know what the hell happened.
While I never got into the show, I did, surprisingly, like the “Serenity” movie. But that’s beside the point. This report both *angers* me on one hand, and on the flip side, pleases me.
First, the pleasing part, which is obvious. The actors and other talent casually hanging out with fans, and having a mini-impromptu convention of thier own, and then there’s the flow of suds, which speaks for itself. This was a classy move on the actors, a great idea by the fanbase and, the unsung heroes of this tale: whatever hotel this happened in, they must have the best staff in that state.
Now for some brief wrath, and disappointment:
Judging by the turnout, and even with the partcipation of *some* actors, these clowns just up and cancel the event at the last minute, and not even refunded people’s money or honor tix for another event/later date? Idiots! I don’t care if it was Browncoats, Jedis, Star Trekkers or the TimeCop Apperication Club. Even rained out baseball games for a losing home team gives out refunds or honors tickets for another event.
I bet the hotel lobby meet and greet was far more exiting, and everyone got an autograph. Plenty of napkins to go around…
Fucking amazing. This is just awesome. I love the show as well, and it broke my heart when I heard it was cancelled.
i couldn’t get into this show, I thought the whole “Frontier show in the future” was stupid. theres a reason people don’t talk like that anymore, or dress like there in the 1800’s….it’s called the past for a reason. people riding on horses, and saloon fights when theres an obvious technological leap of like 1000 years was too dumb
i saw serenity, and that was pretty decent once he took that influence out (sorta) and played up the villian (which was the best character in that movie) and the “reapers or reavers”
all and all, glad to see that the actors from the show respect that there fans who care about this show to still turn out for them
Better yet, a visit from the nice men from Blue Sun.
That’s remarkable. Kudos to the fans for still pulling off the meet, and kudos to the Firefly folks for showing up like that. Just goes to show you don’t mess with Browncoats :)
Somebody should send the Reavers after the dude who cancelled the thing in the first place though…
That is incredible.
What a group of realy awesome people.
Class act group of Actors. Yes it warrants a captial A.
I am very happy to see real people in the Hollywood ranks.
Joss W. picks them well.
Wow! Wish I could have been there. Firefly is one of the best sci-fi shows ever with an incredible fanbase and, even better, a cast and crew that loved the show and the fans.