SerenityMovie.net

[jeremy]

Time to test out your Firefly / Serenity fandom knowledge. We're working on a cool interactive timeline for the DVD on our documentary "Done The Impossible". We are trying to get an accurate timeline for all the real world events (non-story) around the rise and fall and rebirth of Firefly. Here is what I have so far, it's very incomplete since it's only the stuff I remember or that I experienced myself. There have been many other events I know I'm missing, plus some of my info below is spotty. Please help me fill correct and fill out the information below by posting your additions or corrections either below. Thanks - Jeremy

December 2001 - Gail Berman the newly appointed Fox TV executive orders 13 episodes of Firefly, part of a $20 million deal with Joss. Gail was an executive producer on Buffy and was the person who originally convinced Joss to create a TV show out of Buffy. The two were good friends at the time.

winter 2002? - News of the various actors to be involved in Firefly leaks onto the internet.

spring 2002? - Fox gives Mutant Enemy a record breaking $8 million to create the pilot. Production starts on Firefly. [anybody know the actual first day of production?]

spring 2002? - Actress originally hired to play Inara, Rebecca Gayheart, is fired. Morena Baccarin is hired in her place and starts filming the day after her audition.

May 2002 - Fox TV rejects original 2 hour pilot 'Serenity', claiming it was too slow and too long. Somehow forgetting they originally ordered and paid for a two hour pilot. Joss and Tim Minear scramble to create a 'new' pilot 'The Train Job'. While simultaneously addressing all feedback on 'Serenity'. TV network never looks at updated 'Serenity'.

May 14, 2002 - Fox formally announces Firefly at the 2002 TV "upfronts". However, very cheap to produce reality TV makes a big showing across the board at the 2002 upfronts.

summer(?) 2002 - First known Firefly Fan site: www.fireflyfans.net goes live. [actual date anyone]

August(?), 2002 - Official Fox Firefly website goes live, including it's message board, now known as the "OB" or original board. At the time of this publishing, millions of messages have been exchanged on 'the OB' and it remains the most popular Fox TV message board, in spite fact that Fox doesn't even link to it anymore.

summer 2002 - Fox starts airing a few ads for Firefly. It's already obvious that Fox doesn't 'get' the show. It airs a truly horrible teaser featuring the song "Walking on the Sun" by Smash Mouth. Insiders now say that Sandy Grushow Chairman of Fox Television Entertainment Group didn't get the show and wanted to kill it as quickly as possible. Poor marketing was a good start.

September 20, 2002 - Fox airs the first episode of Firefly. Nielsen rating 4.1/8, and comes in #1 in the very important demographic of 18-49 year old adults.

September 27, 2002 - 'Bushwhacked' airs. Nielsen rating: ??

October 4, 2002 - ' Our Mrs. Reynolds' airs. Nielsen rating: ??
At this point Fox has started playing the episodes out of their originally intended order, with the exception of "Ariel" and "War Stories" they never played the episodes in correct order again.

October 11, 2002 - Firefly is pre-empted for baseball.

October ??, 2002 - Many of the Firefly cast begin posting messages to the fans on the Official Firefly message board now known as "The OB". Adam Baldwin and Chris Buchanan continue posting to this day.

October 18, 2002 - 'Jaynestown' airs. Nielson rating: ??

November 1, 2002 - 'Shindig' airs. Nielson rating: ??

November(?) 2002 - Joss's wife Kai, writes to Joss Whedon "cheerleader": Kiba Rika asking what can be done to bring up the ratings for Firefly. Kiba contactes her friends Allyson and Kristen to start a Firefly save-the-show campaign "Firefly: Immediate Assistance". They start collecting donations for a Variety ad. They also organize a write in campaign to Fox and the Firefly advertisers. Details at:
http://emahollywood.com/firefly.html

November 8, 2002 - 'Safe' airs. Nielson rating: ??

November 15, 2002 - 'Ariel" airs. Nielson rating: ??

November 22, 2002 - Firefly is pre-empted so fox can run an Adam Sandler movie re-run.

November 21, 2002 - Fox orders two more episodes.

December 6, 2002 - 'War Stories' airs. Nielson rating: ??

December 9, 2002 - Fan financed ad appears in Variety.

December 11 (?), 2002 - Whedon optimistic on Firefly's chances

December 12, 2002 - Fox TV cancels the show.
It's never been publicly disclosed, but most assume that Gail fought for the show and Joss, but at this point she was still pretty new on the job and eventually had to give in to Sandy's demands that the show be canceled. Joss and Gail have not spoken since.

December 12, 2002 - Twentieth Century Fox (the production company) tells Joss he can shop the show around.

December 13, 2002 - 'Objects in Space' airs. Nielson rating: ??

December 14, 2002 - Fans organize massive write in campaign to get UPN to pick up Firefly.

December 18(ish?), 2002 - Fan campaign organizers, Kiba and Kristen are invited to the set of Firefly.

December 20, 2002 - Fox finally airs the original pilot 'Serenity'. Which ends with the ironic lines: "Mal: We're still flying. Simon:That's not much. Mal: It's enough." Fox never aired another episode. Three unaired episodes were to be completed anyway.

January 12, 2003 - UPN passes on Firefly.

January 15, 2003 - ABC, CBS, NBC and SCI FI channel all turn down Firefly. Syndication unlikely due to cost.

January 22, 2003 - Fans visit with Mutant Enemy and Fox about saving the TV show by releasing it direct-to-DVD. Mutant Enemy likes the idea, but say's it's hands are tied. Fox simply states they want to wash their hands of the show. Fox says there probably isn't a big enough market to even justify releasing the DVDs, but they are thinking about it.

February 4, 2003 - Fans collect more than 1,600 coats an other items for charity.

February 18, 2003 - Gina Torres guest stars in Angel.

February or March 2003 - Firefly set is torn down permanently.

March 10, 2003 - Nathan Fillion guest stars on Buffy.

March ??, 2003 - Uber fan Lux Lucre runs into Adam and Nathan(?) at a bar and sits down for drinks.

March ??, 2003 - First Las Vegas Firefly Shindig. Adam Baldwin sends a copy of the full length Firefly gag reel to Lux Lucre, who shows it at the shindig. Gag reel "leaks" on to the internet (from another source).

April ?? 2003 - Fans attend filming of new TV pilot "Alligator Point" starring Nathan Fillion.

April 15, 2003 - Joss starts to spread rumors of a possible shift of focus to getting a Firefly movie made. Announces Fox will be making a DVD boxset to be released in December.

June 10, 2003 - Movie rumors continue to swell on the internet; "Adam Baldwin" announces "We will see a FF movie! Within 18 months!?".

July 17, 2003 - Joss confirms that he's writing a movie script for Firefly.

July 18?, 2003 - Joss answers Q&A about Firefly at Comic Con. He tells everybody to keep the faith. Nathan Fillion is in the audience.

July 22, 2003 - The Firefly DVD boxset debuts at number 2 on Amazon.

September 4, 2003 - The Hollywood Reporter breaks the news that Universal Pictures has acquired the movie rights to Firefly.

September 19, 2003 - The Firefly DVD boxset reaches number 1 on Amazon and remains in the top 20 for two months.

September 21, 2003 - Firefly episode 'Serenity' wins an Emmy award for best special effects.

December 9, 2003 - Movie still in limbo.

December 9, 2003 - Firefly is released on DVD.

December 21, 2003 - LA Comic Book and Science Fiction convention re-unites most of Firefly cast. Including: (?)

December 24, 2003 - New fan site FireflyMovie.com dedicated to guerilla marketing goes live.

January 10, 2004 - Firefly superfan and all-around great guy Lux Lucre (Kerry Pearson) dies. Adam Baldwin later names his gun in Serenity "Lux".

January 11, 2004 - Firefly DVDs sell "really well" and Fox orders "Significant re-orders".

March 2, 2004 - Firefly movie gets and official green light. Movie title will be 'Serenity' much to the chagrin of the creators of a certain Firefly movie poster.

April 6, 2004 - It's confirmed that all the original cast will be in the movie.

June 4, 2004 - Serenity rolls film.

June & July 2004 - Thanks to Chris Buchanan, a few enterprising fans manage to get themselves invited to the set to be extras in the movie. A few sneak onto the set without invites.

June 23, 2004 - Universal's official movie site goes live.

July 25, 2004 - Cast shows up at Comic Con, shows clip from the movie. Audience goes crazy, cast a bit surprised by the size and intensity of this up and coming fandom.

August 26, 2005 - Serenity wraps.

September 2, 2004 - Nathan, Adam and Jewel show up to Dragon Con.

November 22, 2004 - Universal pictures decides to delay the release of Serenity 5 months.

December 14, 2004 - Browncoats "crash" the test screening of Serenity. Universal execs are blown away by the fan response and energy. (They throw out what turned out to be rather unscientific results.)

February 5, 2005 - The Serenity novelization is also announced, written by Keith R. A. DeCandido.

February 13, 2005 - Serenity comic books confirmed.

February 18, 2005 - Joss, and several cast members show up to Wonder Con 2005. Fans raise over $2,000 for charity in the name of Firefly & Serenity.

March 18, 2005 - Joss and several cast members show up to Wizard World 2005.

March 18, 2005 - Joss is signed to be the Writer/Director of Wonder Woman. Dashing hopes of a quick sequel to Serenity.

April 4, 2005 - The book "Finding Serenity: Anti-Heros, Lost Shepherds and Space Hookers in Joss Whedon's Firefly" is published.

April 27, 2005 - Universal releases the trailer for Serenity. Serenity hits #1 on the Yahoo buzz Index.

April 29, 2005 - World's first Serenity only con is held in London. The idea for this documentary was born at that con.

May 7, 2005 - Universal and Joss decide to prescreen the movie an unheard of 5 months ahead of release. The cast spread out across the nation and attend screenings with the fans. Universal was so worried they may not fill theaters that they actually ran ads in local newspapers. The screenings sold out in mere minutes. Over the next 5 months, Universal slowly expanded the pre-screenings to more and more cities and countries.

June 4, 2005 - The Firefly DVD box set re-enters the top 20 on Amazon.com, and as of the publish date of this documentary, it has not left it. Firefly is the only DVD in their top 20 than is more than one month old, and it is 24 months old!

June 21, 2005 - World's first Firefly / Serenity podcast "The Signal" releases it's first episode. The podcast goes on to create and release a total of 17 episodes in it's first season. Due to it's interesting content and high quality production values, it hits number one on Podcast Alley and Podcast pickle in September.

July 13, 2005 - First issue of Serenity Comic Book released.

July 14, 2005 - Comic Con 2005, most of the cast plus Joss and Chris show up. Fans create amazing fan table and raise over $12,000 for Joss's favorite charity, Equality Now. Universal and Joss show the finished version of Serenity for the first time. Joss finished editing literally 24(?) hours earlier.

July 22, 2005 - Sci Fi channel (owned by NBC/Universal) begins airing Firefly re-runs ahead of it's critically acclaimed and very popular series Battlestar Galactica.

July 24, 2005 - Firefly fan documentary "Done the Impossible" is announced. Producers pledge a percentage of profits to charity.

August 22, 2005 - Serenity world premiere held in Edinburgh England. Entire (?) cast in attendance.

August 24, 2005 - Mysterious viral video shows up on internet. Video stars Summer Glau as River and Joss Whedon. Thought to be Joss's attempt at guerilla marketing. Universal seems to be unaware of it's existence.

September 22, 2005 - Serenity Red Carpet premiere and after party. Universal shows it thanks to the Fans by inviting the leaders of the all of the various fan efforts (and several hundred of their closest friends) to walk the Red Carpet, and to attend the screening and after party. Universal pulls all the stops for the premiere and after party.

September 24, 2005 - Serenity Fan Fest held at Universal Studios.

September 29, 2005 - Fans all around the country buy out theaters for midnight showings of Serenity.

September 30, 2005 - Joss and the fans accomplish the impossible; Serenity opens in the United States selling out in many theaters Friday and Saturday nights.


Notes:
I'm missing quite a bit in 2004. But my brain is tired and I can't think of what.

Other unknowns:
Awards and related dates (saturn, others)?

Sometime in 2003 or 2004 - The OB is frozen, no new posts allowed. Several weeks later, after thousands of fans flood other Fox message boards, the message board is brought back to life, it continues to run to this day, nobody knows for sure who's paying the bills. [dates please...]

Which episode of Angel did Adam first show up in, what was the date of it's first airing?
_________________
Keep Flyin!
Check out our Firefly fan documentary Done the Impossible
Join us for Browncoat Cruise 2007

[Guest]

[Marc]

[jax]

[jeremy]

Thanks! Keep em coming...
_________________
Keep Flyin!
Check out our Firefly fan documentary Done the Impossible
Join us for Browncoat Cruise 2007

[Guest]

Have you tried Browncoats.com?
I know they had a timeline going, as these things occured.
Best of luck.
Damnitgirlie

[Emperor Chris]

http://home.insightbb.com/~wahoskem/firefly1.html

That site has Neilsen ratings for each episode

June 3, 2004 seems to be the first day of shooting for Serenity according this article: http://www.movieweb.com/news/news.php?id=4081

http://firefly-(television-series).foosquare.com/
A list of awards and nominations can be found near the bottom of the page.

[Emperor Chris]

In case that last link doesn't work the awards listed are:

Firefly won the Emmy for Outstanding special visual effects for a series

The pilot episode, "Serenity", won the Visual Effects Society's Best visual effects in a television series award, and was nominated for Best compositing in a televised program, music video, or commercial. It came second in the 2002 Hugo Best dramatic presentation, short form category; and was nominated for a Golden reel award by the Motion Picture Sound Editors, USA in the Best sound editing in television long form: sound effects/foley category.

Nathan Fillion won the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA's Cinescape genre face of the future award, male for his portrayal as Mal.

The DVD won the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films' 2004 Saturn award for Best DVD television release; and was nominated for a Golden satellite award in the Best DVD extras category.

"The Message" came 2nd and "Heart of Gold" 4th in the 2003 Hugos' best dramatic presentation, short form category; Despite not being shown on television in the USA.

[Duncan]

You list the Firefly DVD release as July 22 2003, and again on December 9th. Huh?

Great list, Jeremy!

[jax]

[slgn*]

No one official (20thC, ME, etc.) has come forward with these numbers but I've always thought the dvd sales are interesting benchmarks. Since we'll never know for sure what those numbers are I'd suggest listing it as "[date]: it is reported in [this reliable news source] that Firefly sold X dvds." IF you're interested in including that info...

Maybe better sources can be found than what I list below. I had trouble finding the original 2004 articles about the 200,000. And unfortunately, some of the Serenity 2005 articles mentioned that old number and not the more recently published tally. Whatever folks come up with, I'd just stick to quoting reputable sources (newspapers or magazines and not random websites).

Date: Spring, 2004 (March, 2004?)
FF sells 200,000 dvds
Source: Snyder, Gabriel. "'Firefly' feature alights." Variety. New York: Mar 22- 28, 2004. Vol. 394, Iss. 6; p. 14.

[rmwarnick]

You might want to mention the first release date Universal announced for "Serenity" was April 22, 2005.

For added detail I would mention the three pre-screening dates: May 5 (20? cities), May 26 (35 cities), and June 23 (35 cities).
_________________
"Just remember, they tried to kill us...they did kill us...and here we are. We have done the impossible, and that makes us mighty."

[theonetruebix]

[slgn*]

In Fred Topel's interview of Joss (at Slither premiere), the Serenity dvd is noted as selling 4 million copies.