Firefly Facts

* Joss Whedon originally cast Rebecca Gayheart as Inara.

* After Fox canceled the series, Joss Whedon cast Adam Baldwin, and Gina Torres on "Angel" (1999/I) and Nathan Fillion on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (1997). All three played villains.

* Chinese phrases are often inserted into the English dialogue (sometimes to get away with saying things that the censors wouldn't allow them to say), and the ship has some signs in Chinese.

* The two-hour episode "Serenity" was originally intended as the pilot for the show. The network (FOX) however, decided not to air it, citing that they wanted an episode with a more action-packed feel to it. With exactly one weekend to write a new pilot, executive producers Joss Whedon and Tim Minear wrote "The Train Job", which did appear as the first episode of the show. A slightly retooled version of "Serenity" was later showed as an 'origins' episode after Firefly had been canceled.

* On the DVD Commentary on "War Stories", Alan Tudyk pointed out that despite the way Zoe and Wash were constantly portrayed, with Zoe being taller than her husband, Wash, Alan is in fact taller than Gina Torres. He is 6', she is 5'10''.

* In the episode "Trash" when Saffron looks out the window of her husband's estate, Jubal Early's ship can be seen flying past (he had been following Serentiy since Ariel).

* Joss Whedon had cast Summer Glau before Firefly - she originally appeared as a Prima Ballerina on the "Angel" episode "Waiting in the Wings". Whedon remembered her from this and contacted her about the part of River.

* In the original conception of the show, Joss Whedon was only going to have five main characters on the ship. Throughout the development process, the character list got upped to nine.

* The part of recurring character Badger, who appeared in several episodes of Firefly including "Serenity" and "Shindig", was originally intended to be played by creator and executive producer Joss Whedon himself (according to Joss's DVD commentary for the episode "Serenity.") In the end, actor 'Mark Sheppard' was cast in the part instead.

* In one episode, Inara asks whether a carved wooden statuette in a trading post is supposed to be a duck, and Kaylee replies that it's a swan. There is a Chinese proverb that says, "A badly painted tiger looks like a dog; a badly carved swan looks like a duck." (The meaning of the proverb is that it's better not to do certain things than to do them badly.)

* The Alliance's full title is the "Anglo-Sino Alliance". Joss Whedon intended the Alliance to be the merger of the USA and China, the last of the world's superpowers. (This is why many characters on the show sometimes speak Chinese.) The Alliance flag, seen in the original pilot episode, is a blending of the US and Chinese flags.

* The entire interior of Serenity (and some of its exterior) was built full-scale and almost completely contiguous, split across two soundstages - one stage for the upper deck and one for the lower deck, shuttle docks and hold. No "stock" corridors or redressed sets were ever used for Serenity's interiors.

* The cast preferred to use the ship's lounge instead of a green room or other accommodations when waiting between shots.

* "Firefly" was the first production to make extensive - almost exclusive - use of CGI sequences designed to look like footage filmed with handheld cameras, with effects such as shake, pans, zooms, manual focusing and so on.

* One of the few American science fiction series to depict one of the realities of space travel - namely that there is no sound (explosions, rocket noises) in the vacuum of space. Some critics noted that viewers have become so used to associating sound with space travel that the lack of sound effects rendered the scenes dull.

* Fans of "Firefly" and "Enterprise" (2001) once helped each other out: Firefly fans helped petition UPN to renew Enterprise for a 4th season, and Enterprise fans did the same for Serenity (2005), the Firefly motion picture. Both petitions were a success.

* The character 'Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds' was ranked #18 in TV Guide's list of the "25 Greatest Sci-Fi Legends" (1 August 2004 issue).

* At the very beginning of the actual pilot episode ("Serenity"), the Alliance ship that comes upon the Serenity is named the "Dortmunder". In several of Donald Westlake's comic crime novels, the leader and planner of the group is named Dortmunder. The captain of the Serenity is referred to as a "genius planner," as is Dortmunder. And, as in Westlake's novels, the best-laid plans nearly always go astray.

* In the episode "Shindig", as the crew begin to wander through the streets of Persephone, a ship with an oval front section followed by two square sections lands in the background. This ship is the Starlight Intruder from the Star Wars graphic novel series "Dark Empire".

* The episode "Bushwhacked", a passenger log on a computer screen is seen briefly. The entry on the screen reads as: "Passenger 4352 - Schultz, Sharon I received a communication regarding the shipment and have been apprised of the situation awaiting us upon arrival at the docking bay as well. I have been assured that every precaution has been taken to insure the safe arrival and expedient dispersion of said materials. All is under control. Will contact representative upon arrival. Passenger 4399 - Robinson, Johann Today, my darling, for the first time I regret embarking on this journey"

* The garbled line Mal speaks to Simon in the episode "Safe" as they are about to burned at the stake is "Your talent for alienating folks is near miraculous," to which he responds "Yes, I'm very proud."

* In keeping with the idea of fusion between the American and Chinese cultures, during the funeral in the episode "Heart of Gold", the predominant color is not black, but white; the Chinese color of mourning.

* In the pilot episode "Serenity" the gun that Mal is seen manning in the opening flashback, sports the very distinctive Weyland-Yutani logo at the top of its display. Weyland Yutani is the "Company" from the Alien movies, and is also, like the Alliance, a Sino-American operation.

* Joss Whedon originally thought up the premise of the show with his friend Tyler Lovelly, who was not interested in pitching the show, so only Whedon was involved in production.

* In the episode "Ariel", the emergency vehicle that the crew refurbishes and uses to smuggle Simon and River into the hospital is a Russian Mil Mi-24 Hind helicopter without the rotor blades.