Firefly 10th Anniversary: Browncoats Unite Page #4

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And he looked at me,

and he said, "I don't have good news."

And he just said, you know,

that they'd pulled the plug and this is it.

This is the last episode.

And, yeah.

"I wanted you all to know immediately."

I couldn't sleep that night.

I thought, "this is gonna be the worst,

going back to work,

knowing we're canceled.

It's going to be the worst.

Everyone's gonna be dragging their asses.

Everyone's gonna be down."

And it was completely the opposite.

It was like we know we have...

what was it, three or four days left?"

- Yeah.

- And that's all we had left.

It was like everyone was gonna

make the absolute most of it.

And it was joyous, like

we were gonna milk it.

We were like, "to hell with it.

What are they gonna do, cancel us?!"

Minear:
There was a little bit of that.

Molina:
And it was Christmas time.

Yeah, it was.

- Merry Christmas.

- You're canceled.

[Laughter]

I thought I was gonna die.

Minear:
In the scene in "The Message,"

when y'all were sitting around the table

and bursting out laughing,

telling stories about

the supposedly dead guy,

we had been canceled the day before.

So, you were having an Irish wake,

but you were really playing

the moment of what was happening

in our lives at that time.

In post, Greg Edmondson, the composer...

the musical piece that's

during that funeral,

he was writing that for

saying goodbye to the show.

[Somber music plays]

Fillion:
The impending

doom was always there,

and I kept telling people,

"don't worry, guys. Don't worry.

We're making a great show.

It's a great show, and people know it.

We're not gonna get canceled."

[Laughing] Oh, no!

I'm going, "buddy, hey. Bank on it."

[Laughter]

Right after we got canceled,

we still had a few days

where we were all going like,

"we're not dead. We're not dead.

We'll go on. We are mighty."

And, "damn it, we will not die."

I'd been in lots of shows

that had been canceled,

and that's it, you know?

You're done.

And Joss was like, "nope. Nope. Nope.

I'm gonna find a place for us.

And even if we're doing

puppet theater in Sherman Oaks,

that's what we're gonna do."

I had a good day.

You had the Alliance on

you. Criminals and savages.

Half the people on the ship

have been shot or wounded,

including yourself.

And you're harboring known fugitives.

We're still flying.

That's not much.

It's enough.

When did you notice after the cancellation

that "Firefly" had these fans

and they were vocal about it?

Baldwin:
Oh, it was there from the get-go.

10 years ago,

the Internet wasn't as obviously as big

as it is now, but they were out there.

And they kept us in the air, too.

So without the fans,

I don't think it would have

had the energy that it did.

It happened very quickly and right away.

And I was a little overwhelmed.

A little overwhelmed

because so much of it

happened after the fact.

It kept growing after we were off the air.

All:
[Chanting] Bring back

the show! Bring back the show!

I think there's just this phenomenon

of having a show, you know, be canceled

because it didn't have an audience

gain an audience after it's dead,

have this incredible fan base,

have these people who

believe in it so much,

who would, you know,

stay so committed to it was

just... it was remarkable.

Baldwin:
Joss was saying,

"okay, I want to get it back.

I want to get it back up in the air."

I thought, "no. He's not. How is he?

That's never been done.

It's never been done.

Nobody makes a movie.

Nobody makes a feature film

out of a failed television show.

That's just not done."

There was the button from

the episode of "Out of Gas."

I gave it to Joss.

When your miracle gets here,

you just pound this button once.

It'll call back both shuttles.

And it turned out it was at a good point

because he was fighting

for the movie to get made,

and I didn't know it,

but he was hitting a lot of road blocks.

And so I gave him the button

and wrote it out on a card and said,

"look, just hit this

button, and we'll all come."

When your miracle gets here.

Yeah, when your miracle

gets here. Yeah, right.

I was shocked when we

found out about the movie.

And it was just such a

weird, giddy vibe in the room

to hear the characters come back.

I couldn't believe we got it back.

It was two weeks into

filming I finally realized,

"we're gonna do this."

If I were a betting woman,

I would have lost serious money.

See, never bet against Joss.

Just note to self.

Never bet against Joss Whedon.

One of the reasons why universal

had some confidence in it

is that they saw this ground

swell of support for this show,

this sort of phenomenon

that was happening largely on the Internet,

but just around the country

and around the world,

this sort of brown-coat

nation that was forming

and wanted to keep the

memory of "Firefly" alive.

Maher:
Well, the came to comic-con

midway through shooting "Serenity,"

and I remember Morena was

standing right next to me.

And I turned to her,

and I was like, "holy"...

And she's like, "I know. Crazy, right?"

And I was just like... I

mean, literally, I felt like

the cheering was making

my face go like whoosh!

You know, it was remarkable.

That was my first.

Alan, when did you first

notice brown-coat nation?

How did that affect your life?

I think it was then. It was then.

And then there's also other conventions

other than the Comic-Con convention.

There's one in London, and Nathan said,

"you're gonna love it,

and you should come."

And I went and met these

fans for the first time ever,

and it was... they were very enthusiastic,

to the point where...

the movie had already come out,

and I have a line in there about,

"I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."

And I die.

Spoiler alert.

So, I wrote, "I'm a leaf on the wind,"

and handed the head shot that

this girl had asked me to sign.

"I'm a leaf on the wind,"

and handed it to her.

And she went... [Mock crying]

[English accent] How could

you write this on my picture?!

[Laughter]

[Normal voice] And I'm

like, "get her another one.

Get her another one."

She was really upset.

Minear:
Wow. It was still too sore.

Like, they couldn't get

over the fact that Wash died.

There's nothing like a Sci-Fi fan.

Like warm honey.

[Laughs]

Pour it all over you.

They made it possible. They really were...

they're the ones that

made the movie possible.

I get recognized for this show

more than anything I've ever done daily.

Daily. It's the weirdest thing.

I don't know. People just connect to it.

And they get it, you know?

They've found something that they love,

and they find like-minded individuals

that love it, as well.

And they save up all their money,

and they go to these

conventions to see each other.

And all these friendships and

relationships have been born

because of this little show.

Do you know what it means?

It means we weren't wrong.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

I mean, 'cause the truth

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