Firefly takes place in a multi-cultural future, primarily a fusion of Occidental and Oriental cultures, where there is a significant division between the rich and poor. As a result of the Sino-American Alliance, Mandarin Chinese is a common second language; it is used in advertisements, and characters in the show frequently use Chinese words as curses. According to the DVD commentary on the episode "Serenity", this was explained as being the result of China and the United States being the two superpowers that expanded into space.[11]
The show also features slang not used in contemporary culture, such as adaptations of modern words, or new words altogether. Written and spoken Chinese as well as Old West dialect are also employed, and "shiny" is frequently used in a similar manner as the real world slang "cool".
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About the show:
In the fall of 2002, a new TV show premiered on the Fox network. Set in outer space over 500 years in the future, "Firefly" successfully blended elements a western with science fiction. Sadly, after Fox aired episodes out of order and repeatedly moved the show to different days and timeslots, Firefly was cancelled after only 11 episodes. averaging 4.7 million viewers each week. The show's dedicated fanbase continued put on a postcard campaign to show support for the show, but met with limited success. Attempts to convince Fox to resurrect the show or to allow the show to be moved to another network failed. Firefly won many awards after it was canceled, including an Emmy award for outstanding special effects in 2003. Ongoing fan support convinced the network to release all 14 episodes (including 3 that were never aired) on DVD the following December. Universal Pictures brought the crew together again to continue the story as a major motion picture, released in 2005.
Every so often, fans put together a new effort to revive the show. In response to comments made by actor Nathan Fillion during an interview, where he said that if he won the lottery he would buy the rights and bring the show back, there was discussion of an effort to fan fund the purchase of rights and production of new episodes. The movement gained momentum, until it became clear that Joss Whedon and Nathan Fillion did not support the effort.
Many of the people involved with Firefly have moved on to successful new projects, such as Nathan Fillion starring in "Castle", and Joss Whedon directing the blockbuster movie "The Avengers". As such, it seems unlikely at this point that Firefly will ever return to the airwaves with the original cast.
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