124 Fun Facts About Firefly

What name does Jayne Cobb give his favourite gun?

Vera is Jayne's prized rifle, taken from the best of six men who once came to kill him; in 'Our Mrs. Reynolds' he offers to swap her for Mal's unexpected bride.

What do Firefly's characters call the whole system of settled worlds they live in?

The 'verse, short for universe: by 2517, when the series is set, humanity has left Earth for a new star system and terraformed its planets and moons into homes.

How many episodes of Firefly were produced?

14 episodes were made, but Fox aired only 11 of them, and out of their intended order, before cancelling the show in December 2002.

Which Firefly episode did Fox broadcast first, in place of the intended two-hour pilot?

The Train Job went out first because Fox felt the two-hour pilot was not strong enough to open with; the real pilot, 'Serenity', finally aired last, as the series finale.

Which three episodes never aired during Firefly's original Fox run?

Trash, The Message and Heart of Gold never reached American screens in 2002; Fox had also scrambled the running order, opening with the second episode and holding the two-hour pilot until last.

What unusual live cargo does Serenity haul to a frontier buyer in the episode 'Safe'?

A herd of cattle fills the cargo bay, taken on at the end of 'Shindig' as a smuggling job; the sale turns into a gunfight in which Shepherd Book is badly wounded.

In 'The Train Job', what does the cargo Mal's crew steals for a crime lord turn out to be?

Medicine: the crates hold a drug that a mining town needs for a wasting disease, so Mal hands them back and returns the crime lord's money, making a dangerous enemy.

Morena Baccarin, Firefly's Inara, went on to play Vanessa in which superhero film series?

Deadpool: Baccarin plays Vanessa, Wade Wilson's girlfriend, across three films; she won her Firefly role only as a late recast, after the pilot had begun shooting.

What rank did Mal Reynolds hold in the Unification War, years before captaining Serenity?

Sergeant Malcolm Reynolds led a platoon of Independents through the war's last great battle; Zoe served under him as a corporal and still calls him 'sir'.

What nickname do fans of Firefly, and the Independents in the show, go by?

Browncoats, named for the Independents' brown uniform coats, lost the Unification War to the Alliance; fans adopted the name and campaigned to revive the show.

Which language is spoken as a common second tongue in the Firefly universe?

Mandarin Chinese is everyone's second language because the Alliance grew out of a union of American and Chinese power; the crew mostly use it to swear.

Which actress plays first mate Zoe Washburne?

Gina Torres plays Zoe, Mal's wartime corporal; when a crime lord offers to free one captive, Mal or her husband Wash, she picks Wash before he can finish the offer.

Pilot Wash decorates his console with what?

Wash keeps plastic dinosaurs on Serenity's console and acts out scenes with them in the pilot ('Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!').

In the 2005 film Serenity, what kills the pilot Wash right after 'I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I...'?

A Reaver harpoon crashes through the windscreen moments after Wash has wrestled the crippled ship to a landing, killing him at the height of his best flying.

Inara Serra's profession, a licensed and respected courtesan, is called what?

Inara is a Companion, a Guild-trained courtesan from the planet Sihnon; she rents one of Serenity's shuttles and Mal mockingly calls her 'Ambassador'.

Which actor plays the mercenary Jayne Cobb?

Adam Baldwin plays Jayne, a hired gun so plainly out for himself that the crew is stunned to find a whole town singing ballads in his honour.

Jayne Cobb's famous orange-and-yellow knitted hat was made for him by whom?

His mother knitted it and posted it to him: the hat turns up in the ship's mail in 'The Message', and Jayne wears it with pride while the rest of the crew smirk.

In 'Jaynestown', Canton's mudders hail Jayne as a hero for supposedly doing what?

Robbed the rich and gave to the poor, or so the mudders' ballad has it; in truth Jayne's getaway craft was hit and he dumped the stolen money to stay in the air.

In which episode does Jayne sell out Simon and River to the Alliance?

In 'Ariel', Jayne tips off the feds during the hospital heist; afterwards Mal nearly spaces him through the airlock and Jayne begs him not to tell the crew.

Ship's mechanic Kaylee Frye is played by whom?

Jewel Staite plays Kaylee, who lands the job in a flashback by fixing in minutes the engine that Serenity's own mechanic had failed to get running.

Mal compares Kaylee's frilly pink ball gown in 'Shindig' to what?

In 'Shindig', Mal tells Kaylee the frilly pink gown in the shop window would make her look 'like a sheep walking on its hind legs', then buys it for her anyway.

Simon Tam gave up his career as what to rescue his sister River?

A trauma surgeon: Simon was a rising star at a Core-world hospital until he paid an underground group to smuggle River out of the Alliance's 'Academy', which made them both fugitives.

Which part of River Tam's brain did the Alliance's scientists damage?

The amygdala was stripped from River's brain, her brother's scan reveals, so she can no longer damp down what she feels: every emotion reaches her at full strength.

Ron Glass, who plays Shepherd Book, was best known for which earlier sitcom?

Barney Miller cast Ron Glass as Detective Ron Harris, the squad room's dapper intellectual, who is bent on making his name as a writer with his novel, Blood on the Badge.

On which world is Shepherd Book killed in the film Serenity?

Haven, a settlement that had sheltered the crew, is razed on the Operative's orders so that Serenity has nowhere left to hide; Book's death there drives Mal to his last stand.

Christina Hendricks guest-starred as which con artist who 'marries' Mal?

Saffron, played by Christina Hendricks, cons Mal as his blushing bride in 'Our Mrs. Reynolds'; when she returns in 'Trash', her wealthy mark turns out to be another of her husbands.

In the film Serenity, a TV advert for which product sends River into a fighting frenzy?

Fruity Oaty Bars: the cartoon jingle carries a hidden Alliance signal meant to flush River out, and it sets her fighting everyone in the bar, Jayne included.

Despite being cancelled after one season, Firefly won which award in 2003?

A Primetime Emmy for effects: Firefly won Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series in 2003, and strong DVD sales then helped revive the cancelled show as a feature film.

Fans fighting to save Firefly clubbed together to buy an advert in which show-business publication?

Variety carried the advert, paid for by fans who had organised online, shortly before Fox cancelled the show; the same fan support later helped win Firefly a feature film.

Which production company made Firefly?

Mutant Enemy is Whedon's own company, which made Firefly with 20th Century Fox Television; he drew and voiced its sign-off himself, a cartoon monster that lurches past growling 'Grr. Argh.'

Who plays the hacker Mr. Universe in the 2005 film Serenity?

David Krumholtz plays Mr. Universe, the reclusive hacker who can tap any broadcast in the system; the crew fights its way to his transmitter to expose the Alliance's secret.

Which actor plays the Operative, the Alliance assassin hunting River in Serenity?

Chiwetel Ejiofor plays the Operative, an Alliance agent who kills in the name of 'a world without sin' while admitting there will be no place in it for a man like him.

In Serenity, the crew learns the Reavers were created by an Alliance chemical experiment on which planet?

On Miranda, an Alliance calming agent made almost the whole population lie down and die; a tenth of a percent reacted the opposite way, turning savagely violent as the Reavers.

What was the name of the aggression-suppressing chemical the Alliance tested that created the Reavers?

Pax, Latin for peace, was pumped into the air to calm a colony's settlers; it calmed most of them into giving up on living, and drove a few to savage madness.

Which award did the 2005 film Serenity win in 2006 for best dramatic presentation?

The Hugo Award went to Serenity even though the film had struggled at the box office: it beat Batman Begins and a Harry Potter film to the 2006 prize.

Which comics publisher took over the Firefly licence from Dark Horse in 2018?

Boom! Studios took the licence in 2018 and launched a monthly series titled Firefly; Dark Horse had issued only occasional miniseries and one-shots, under the Serenity name.

In 'Shindig', what does Kaylee cheekily call Mal once he has dressed up for a society ball?

Captain Tightpants is Kaylee's comeback when Mal, turned out in a fine suit, reminds her that she is at the ball to make him look respectable.

Which novel about the Battle of Gettysburg inspired Whedon to create Firefly?

Michael Shaara's Gettysburg novel The Killer Angels made Whedon want to follow people who had lost a civil war and were now scraping by on the frontier.

Real fireflies are not flies at all but belong to which insect order?

Beetles: fireflies are soft-bodied beetles, and Europe's 'glow-worm' is one too, no worm at all but a wingless, grub-shaped female.

Which enzyme drives the light-making reaction in a real firefly's abdomen?

Luciferase is the enzyme, and biologists have borrowed it: its gene is spliced into other organisms' cells as a 'reporter' that glows when a gene of interest switches on.

Why do most fireflies flash?

To attract mates: a male flashes his species' own pattern as he flies, and a female watching from the grass flashes back when one catches her eye.

Female Photuris fireflies are called 'femme fatales' because they do what?

Mimic other species' flashes to eat lured males: the meal is armour too, since the female takes up her prey's defensive chemicals and hunting spiders then reject her.

Which US national park is famous for fireflies that flash in synchrony each late spring?

Great Smoky Mountains National Park's Elkmont woods fill each year with fireflies flashing in unison, and demand is such that the park rations viewing passes by lottery.

Firefly light falls in which range of colours?

Yellow to green to pale red covers it, and the shade suits the hour: North American species active at dusk tend to glow yellow, those that fly after dark green.

Whedon pitched Firefly as a crew 'looking into the blackness of space and seeing' what?

Nine different things: the pitch rested on the nine people aboard Serenity, a cast Whedon had grown from an original five.

In 'Our Mrs. Reynolds', how does Mal's new bride knock him unconscious?

A drugged kiss: her lips are coated with a narcotic, and with Mal out cold she heads for the bridge to steer Serenity toward a gang that strips ships for parts.

What do Firefly's characters call humanity's abandoned home planet?

Earth-that-was is how they speak of it: the old world was used up, so humanity crossed to a new star system and terraformed its planets and moons.

What special ability does River Tam turn out to possess?

Telepathy: the crew begins to suspect River is a 'reader' of minds after she shoots three gunmen dead with her eyes closed.

Which slang word does Firefly use to mean "cool"?

Shiny is the crew's word for good or cool: in the film Serenity, Jayne's rallying cry before a job is 'Shiny! Let's be bad guys.'

Which John Ford Western did Whedon cite as the model for Firefly's kind of drama?

Stagecoach, from 1939, throws a mixed bag of travellers together on a dangerous frontier crossing; Whedon wanted 'a Stagecoach kind of drama' for his own mismatched shipmates.

In 'Trash', what priceless antique does Mal's crew set out to steal from a collector?

A laser pistol: the crew gets the priceless Lassiter out of a collector's estate by dumping it into the automated rubbish disposal and picking it up in the desert.

What was Zoe Washburne's maiden name during the Unification War?

Alleyne: she fought as Corporal Zoe Alleyne under Mal, and years later her unshakable loyalty to her old commander still rankles with her husband, Wash.

Which actor plays pilot Hoban "Wash" Washburne?

Alan Tudyk plays Wash, a pilot and no fighter, who still picks up a gun and goes straight back in with the crew to rescue Mal from the torturer he has only just escaped.

Why did Jayne originally switch sides to join Mal's crew?

A bunk of his own and a bigger cut: in a flashback Jayne is holding Mal at gunpoint for another gang when Mal outbids them, and Jayne turns his gun on his own partners.

According to Whedon, Kaylee is what to Serenity?

The heart of the ship is how Whedon describes the sunny, trusting Kaylee: by his rule, if she believes something, it is true.

In Firefly's pilot, how does Simon Tam smuggle his sister River aboard Serenity?

Frozen asleep in a crate: Mal breaks open the sealed box in the hold and finds a naked, sleeping girl, the sister her brother had thrown away his career to rescue.

Which actress plays River Tam?

Summer Glau plays River, the frightened stowaway who turns out to be the deadliest fighter aboard: in the film she flattens a whole bar-room, Jayne included.

Which Firefly character's hidden past was finally told in a 2010 Dark Horse comic?

Derrial Book's past fills The Shepherd's Tale: the gentle preacher had been a rebel spy, planted inside the Alliance military long before the war began.

Which actor plays Firefly's smuggling middleman Badger?

Mark Sheppard plays Badger, the small-time fixer on Persephone; Whedon wrote the part meaning to play it himself before Sheppard was cast.

What phrase does River repeat about the mysterious agents pursuing her?

"Two by two, hands of blue" is River's chant about the blue-gloved agents, who kill with a handheld device that causes fatal bleeding from every orifice.

In what format did Whedon insist Firefly be filmed, against Fox's wishes?

He staged actors at the frame edges so scenes only worked in widescreen.

Which filming technique did Firefly use for nearly every scene aboard Serenity?

Hand-held cameras shot almost the whole show, and the roughness was wanted: imperfect focus was left in, and even the computer-made space shots were given a hand-held shake.

Unusually for TV sci-fi, how does Firefly portray outer space during its exterior ship shots?

As silent: sound cannot travel through a vacuum, so outside the hull Serenity's engines, and any explosion, pass without a sound.

Who performed the theme song, "The Ballad of Serenity"?

Blues musician Sonny Rhodes sang 'The Ballad of Serenity'; Whedon wrote the lyrics and melody himself before the show was even picked up.

In 2010, Firefly's theme song was played to wake the crew of what?

A space shuttle: NASA beamed the theme up to Endeavour on 12 February 2010 as the morning wake-up call for astronaut Robert Behnken during mission STS-130.

Which actress was replaced as Inara Serra during the original pilot's filming?

Rebecca Gayheart left after filming began in March 2002; Whedon had shot her scenes in singles so she could be replaced, and Morena Baccarin was on set two days after auditioning.

Which future sitcom star read for the role of Simon Tam before Firefly was cast?

Neil Patrick Harris, once TV's teenage prodigy Doogie Howser, was in the running for Simon; he and Whedon finally teamed up in 2008 on Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

What did Whedon ask the actress cast as Kaylee to do for the role?

Put on weight was the request once she had the part, which she won by sending a taped audition from Vancouver and then flying to Los Angeles to read for Whedon.

Which company did Whedon partner with to make the 2005 film Serenity?

Universal Pictures bought the Firefly rights from Fox, which had cancelled the show, and gave Whedon's film the green light.

In Serenity, how many colonists does the crew find dead on a world the Alliance kept secret?

30 million colonists simply lay down and died after the Alliance dosed the air to keep them calm; a recorded report the crew finds on the planet tells the story.

At the end of the film Serenity, who takes the co-pilot's seat beside Mal?

River takes the seat and already knows how to fly; Mal tells her it is not maths that keeps a ship in the air but love.

Which prize did the film Serenity win for Best Script?

The Nebula for Best Script is voted by working science-fiction and fantasy authors, who chose Whedon's Serenity screenplay over a Battlestar Galactica two-parter.

In which city was Nathan Fillion born?

Edmonton, Alberta, briefly renamed its City Hall the Nathan Fillion Civilian Pavilion in August 2021 after a fan petition drew more than 27,000 signatures.

Nathan Fillion plays Officer John Nolan in which ABC crime series that premiered in 2018?

The Rookie's title is the joke: Nolan joins the Los Angeles police in his forties, making him the oldest rookie on the force. The show took Fillion back to ABC after Castle.

Which supernatural series did Joss Whedon create before Firefly?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer began as a 1992 film Whedon wrote that did ho-hum business; five years later he remade the idea as a TV series that ran for seven seasons.

Which Pixar film did Joss Whedon co-write?

Toy Story: Whedon was brought in to rework a script that wasn't working, and the result earned him a shared Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

Which crime lord commissions the hovertrain robbery in "The Train Job"?

Adelai Niska hires the crew to steal a cargo from a moving train; when Mal learns what it is, he gives it back and returns Niska's money.

What disables Serenity's engine in the flashback-heavy episode "Out of Gas"?

A blown compression coil kills the engine and, with it, life support, leaving the crew only a few hours of oxygen; the blast also badly injures Zoe.

Fireflies make up which scientific family?

Lampyridae takes its name from Lampyris, the genus of Europe's common glow-worm, whose wingless females shine from the grass on summer nights.

Which signalling molecule is thought to switch on a firefly's flash?

Nitric oxide, released on a nerve signal, is thought to briefly quiet the mitochondria in the light organ, letting oxygen reach the light-producing cells.

Firefly larvae are thought to glow as a warning to predators of what?

A bad taste: every firefly glows as a larva, and the light is thought to have begun as this warning long before adults put it to other uses.

Firefly light is called "cold light" because it lacks what?

Infrared and ultraviolet are both missing: only visible light comes out, so almost all the energy becomes light and the firefly's lantern gives off barely any heat.

Unlike most North American fireflies, the male 'blue ghost' of the Appalachians does what?

Glows without flashing: males drift low over the forest floor with a steady light that looks bluish-white from afar but green up close, searching for wingless females in the leaf litter.

Which South Carolina national park hosts synchronous fireflies each spring?

Congaree hosts synchronous fireflies for about two weeks between mid-May and mid-June, a show so popular that the park hands out evening passes by lottery.

In Southeast Asia, boat tours watch thousands of fireflies gather on which riverside trees?

Mangroves: the larvae need the constantly damp ground beneath them, so adults mass on riverside 'firefly trees' such as the mangrove apple, drawing night boat tours in Malaysia.

Which toxins, chemical relatives of toad poisons, do most fireflies carry?

Lucibufagins are steroids related to the heart toxins of some poisonous toads; a jumping spider that grabs a firefly drops it, and after a few tries learns to leave them alone.

Some adult fireflies, like the European glow-worm, lack what body part?

Adults of some species, including the European glow-worm, have no functional mouth: they do not feed, living only long enough to mate and lay eggs.

Firefly larvae are fierce hunters that mainly prey on what?

Snails and slugs: a larva injects its prey with a paralysing, digestive fluid through hollow jaws, then drinks the liquefied remains.

Firefly populations worldwide are believed to be doing what?

Firefly populations are thought to be declining worldwide, with habitat loss, light pollution and pesticides among the main threats.

Where is the mud-farming town of Canton, the setting of 'Jaynestown'?

Higgins' Moon appears to belong to its magistrate, Higgins, whose indentured 'mudders' farm mud for ceramics and have raised a statue to Jayne, the 'hero of Canton'.

Which compound in a firefly's lantern is oxidised to produce light?

Luciferin was named in the 1880s by Raphaël Dubois, who showed the glow needs two ingredients: this heat-proof fuel and a heat-sensitive enzyme that burns it.

In 'Safe', the hill folk who kidnap Simon and River accuse River of being what?

A witch: the villagers tie River up to burn and Simon chooses to stand beside her, but Serenity swoops in as the fire is lit and Mal forces them at gunpoint to let both go.

In New Zealand and Australia, a "glow worm" is actually the larva of what?

Arachnocampa 'glow-worms' of New Zealand and Australia are fungus gnat larvae, true flies that dangle sticky silk threads from cave ceilings to snare insects drawn to their light.

Rapid hygiene tests use the firefly's light-making enzyme to do what?

Detecting ATP: the enzyme glows only when ATP, the energy molecule of living cells, is present, so the brighter the sample shines, the more microbes or residue remain.

Which planet is Mal Reynolds's homeworld?

Shadow: raised there on a family ranch with 'about 40 hands' to help, Mal left to volunteer for the Independents when the war came.

On which planet did the Independents lose the decisive battle of the Unification War?

Hera was the turning point: the Independents' high command surrendered after the battle there, leaving Mal's side beaten in body and spirit.

On which core planet did River and Simon Tam grow up?

Osiris was home to the wealthy Tams; when Simon was arrested there while searching for River, his father bailed him out and warned he would be disowned if it happened again.

The actress who plays River in Firefly made her television debut in which series?

Angel gave her a first television credit in 2002, in an episode directed by Whedon, who cast her in Firefly soon afterwards.

Which training of the actress who plays River shaped her fight scenes in Serenity?

Ballet: the film's trainers built a kung fu and kickboxing style around the way she moved as a dancer, and she performed nearly all of the fights herself.

Which actor plays Simon Tam, River's fiercely protective brother?

Sean Maher was no science-fiction fan and went in only to meet Whedon; hearing him describe the world of Firefly, Maher said, 'I almost fell off my chair.'

Ron Glass, who played the Christian preacher Book, followed which religion himself?

Buddhism: Glass belonged to the lay movement Soka Gakkai International, and said that what he brought to Book's Christianity was 'the humanistic point of view'.

Which bounty hunter boards Serenity in the episode "Objects in Space"?

Jubal Early slips aboard to collect the bounty on River, who rattles him by announcing over the intercom that she has melted away and become the ship itself.

Which Star Wars character did Tim Minear mention to Whedon, inspiring the villain of 'Objects in Space'?

Boba Fett: Minear only mentioned the name, and Whedon turned it into a bounty hunter who rambles about philosophy as he prowls the ship for his quarry.

Which book by Sartre informed the existential themes of 'Objects in Space'?

Nausea, which Whedon read in his youth, shaped the episode's idea that objects mean nothing in themselves: its heroine picks up a gun and sees only a harmless branch.

According to Firefly's theme song, what can't they take from me?

The sky: each verse gives something up, love, land, a place to stand, and ends on the one thing nobody can take; a demo sung by Whedon himself is on the DVD set.

In the pilot, Shepherd Book pays part of his fare with a small box of what, to Kaylee's delight?

Strawberries: Kaylee takes them eagerly, and in 'Shindig' she is so fixed on a bowl of them at a society ball that she barely hears Mal's instructions.

Which effects house created Firefly's digital spaceship shots and later worked on Battlestar Galactica?

Zoic Studios was founded in 2002 with Firefly as its first project, and later slipped a ship resembling Serenity into the background of Battlestar Galactica's 2003 miniseries.

What does Serenity's crew call the decoy buoys they launch to mimic other ships?

'Crybabies' are the decoy buoys Wash launches to fake a distress call from another ship, luring the Alliance cruiser away in the pilot; Serenity has no weapons of her own.

Which horror-comics artist drew concept designs for the Reavers in the film Serenity?

Bernie Wrightson's sketches struck Whedon as the work of someone who 'sure likes Bernie Wrightson a lot', until he was told they were by the man himself.

Whedon said every story needs a monster, and that in stories of the old West it was whom?

The Apaches, Whedon said; the Reavers let him keep that frontier terror without the racial element, since anyone who goes out into space and goes mad can become one.

Which Alliance agent, shot by Mal in the pilot, returns for revenge in the comic Those Left Behind?

Lawrence Dobson survived Mal's bullet at the cost of an eye and spends the comic obsessed with killing him, only to be shot dead by Mal a second time.

In the R. Tam Sessions, the viral videos made to promote Serenity, what does River use to attack her interviewer?

A pen: River asks to borrow it to write something down, then kills her therapist with it; the unnamed interviewer is played by Whedon himself.

In the film Serenity, how does Mal get his ship safely through a Reaver fleet?

Disguises it as one of theirs: Serenity slips through unnoticed, and on the way back Mal turns the trick around, provoking the Reavers into chasing him straight into the waiting Alliance fleet.

In which country did Firefly's three unaired episodes debut on the Sci Fi Channel in 2003?

The UK's Sci Fi Channel premiered them in the summer of 2003, months before American fans could see them on the DVD set released that December.

Who was Serenity's laid-back mechanic before Kaylee replaced him?

Kaylee got the job by pointing out Bester's repair mistakes and starting the engine herself.

Whose birthday is the crew celebrating when disaster strikes in "Out of Gas"?

Simon's party is cut short before he can blow out the candles; the episode then weaves three timeframes, including how Mal bought Serenity and gathered her core crew.

Which engine part does Mal bargain for with a passing salvage crew in 'Out of Gas'?

A catalyzer: Mal offers the salvagers anything in his hold for one; they shoot him and try to seize the ship, but he drives them off, fits the part while bleeding, and collapses.

In which video-game series does Nathan Fillion voice the trooper Edward Buck?

Halo's makers were Firefly fans: they first hired him and two co-stars to voice marines in Halo 3, then gave the trio starring roles in Halo 3: ODST.

What is the Japanese word for firefly?

Hotaru gives its name to 'Hotaru no Hikari', a song set to the tune of Auld Lang Syne that Japanese schools play at graduation and shops play at closing time.

North America's most common firefly swoops in a J shape as it flashes, earning which nickname?

Big dipper firefly: the male of Photinus pyralis dips, then lights up only on the upswing, drawing a glowing J at dusk over meadows and woodland edges east of the Rockies.

North America's 'winter firefly', active by day, is a firefly that has lost what as an adult?

Its light: the adult winter firefly has no lantern at all, moves about by day and finds others by scent, and spends the cold months on the trunks of trees.

A famous Japanese sword is named for fireflies because, legend says, they did what?

Repaired its flaws: in one telling, fireflies swarmed over the blade, chipped in a 1336 battle, and it was whole by morning; the real sword has been missing since World War II.

On which night of the week did Fox air Firefly during its original 2002 run?

Fox put Firefly in the Friday 8 pm 'death slot' in September 2002, pre-empted it for baseball, and sold it as an action-comedy rather than a character drama.

Which physicist provided real-science commentary when the Science Channel aired Firefly in 2011?

Michio Kaku introduced the science behind each episode; promoting the reruns, the show's star said that if he won $300 million in a lottery he would buy the rights to Firefly.