Out here, people struggled to get by with the most basic technologies; a ship would bring you work, a gun would help you keep it. A captain's goal was simple: find a crew, find a job, keep flying.

I hate Fox. Seriously. Can I list the terrific TV shows they've let bomb. I can understand how a quirky show like Wonderfalls might fall through the cracks. It was excellent, but a little different. Someone didn't have a lot of patience for it or something. But Andy Richter Controls the Universe was a spectacular sitcom. If you ask me all this talk about the sitcom being dead after Friends and Frasier left us is just systematic of shows like Andy Richter's not being given a chance. Then this year, Arrested Development, the best comedy on TV was on the chopping block all season.

But now that I've gone back and watched the DVD's of Firefly I more frustrated about it then any of the others. The concept of Firefly is a bit odd - it's a western, in space. But it was a truly excellent show. The world concept was fantastic. The characters were diverse, well written, and well acted. The visual style was great. I love it. I can't stand that not only did Fox cancel it, it didn't even bother to air three completed episodes. And those episodes were very good as well.

I was not alone in my affection for this show. The season it was on there was a huge mobilization of fan support. They wrote letters, they sent postcards, they even took out advertisements thanking the shows creators and the companies that advertised during the show. It was remarkable. Yes, it still got canned.

The worst part is Fox even bungled promotion of the show. They showed the pilot episode as the season finale (yes, the pilot, where the backstory and characters are introduced) and instead jumped right in with a wacky, jarring train robbery episode. They played it on a dead TV night, Friday evenings, and did almost no promotion. Yeah, it didn't do so well in the ratings, I wonder why? It did have an incredibly loyal fan following though, and they've had many a mean things to say about Fox since.

There is some redemption in that they're making a feature film out of this. But the setup and the content was so wonderfully scupted for a serial story telling experience that it won't work as well in a nice, tight self contained two hours. Perhaps (as one of the producers wishes in the DVD commentary) the movie will trigger someone to get the TV show reinstated.

Look for Serenity (the name of the ship in the show) in April, 2005. Until then I highly recommend this series. It's tough to find in rental stores, but netflix has it, and maybe your local rental store will carry it if you ask them nicely.

I reminded of the final episode of Sports Night (another amazing and prematurely cancelled show, and the only other TV show DVD set I own.) At the end they had this none to subtle jab at ABC, the network that had cancelled them:

If you can't make money on Sports Night, you should get out of the money making business.

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