24 Years Ago, the Best Cult Sci-fi Show of the 2000s Premiered With the Wrong Episode (& Was Cancelled After 1 Season)

It has been 24 years since a cult sci-fi masterpiece TV show premiered, and its uneasy start caused it to struggle from the very beginning. By 2002, Joss Whedon was one of the most popular showrunners for genre television, creating both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff Angel. Both of those shows were clearly part of the emerging urban fantasy genre, and for his next series, Whedon wanted to do something different, so he created a show that was almost unidentifiable in terms of genre, combining space opera science fiction with the Western genre. However, there was one big problem. Fox screwed over the series from the start.

On September 20, 2002, Firefly aired its first episode on Fox, but the problem is that the episode that aired was actually the second one, and things only got worse from there.

Fox Sabotaged Firefly By Airing the Episodes Out of Order

Firefly is a Western sci-fi space opera series that takes place in the year 2517, and it follows a ship called the Serenity, flown by Captain Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion), a man who fought for the Browncoats on the losing side of a recent civil war. In Episode 1 (“Serenity”), the Serenity picks up passengers, Shepherd Book (Ron Glass), Simon Tam (Sean Maher), and River Tam (Summer Glau). By Episode 2 (“The Train Job”), the three newcomers are trying hard to get used to the ship’s original crew as they take on a new job to rob a train.

The problem is that the first episode that Fox aired was “The Train Job,” so the reason the crew was trying to get along made no sense because the episode where they met hadn’t aired yet. In fact, the actual Firefly premiere episode didn’t air until December 20, following the 10th episode. What was even worse was that the series ended up airing most of the episodes, including the pilot, out of order. This confused viewers, and the ratings collapsed because the confusing storyline didn’t make sense in the way Fox aired the episodes.

There were 14 episodes filmed, and Fox only aired 11 of them before cancelling the series based on the low ratings. This was all Fox’s fault, as the series was good enough to be a hit, but Fox’s releasing the episodes out of order eliminated several important things. The actual premiere was two hours and introduced all the characters. The second episode had them already introduced, so there was no reason to repeat that, which meant the audience jumped in and had no idea who anyone was or what they were doing. It also didn’t help because Fox advertised it as an action-comedy and not the character study that it was.

The episodes aired out of order, starting with the first episode, “Serenity,” which was aired as the 11th episode. “Our Mrs. Reynolds” was the sixth episode, and it aired as the third episode. The fourth episode, “Shindig,” was aired as the sixth episode. The eighth episode, “Out of Gas,” was moved to the fifth episode position. “Safe,” the fifth episode, was moved to the seventh episode. It was all so confusing with Fox rearranging the episodes without rhyme or reason and destroying the show’s continuity. By the end, fans had to wait for the final three episodes.

Firefly Finally Received Its Recognition Thanks to Home Video

Fox ruined any chance of Firefly succeeding on television during its original run. However, the network realized the error of its ways in 2003. On December 9, 2003, the box set was released with all 14 episodes, including the three unaired ones, and it put them in the correct order. The box set also included commentaries, outtakes, and other features. The original DVD release sold around 500,000 copies, and it became an instant success. In 2011, the Science Channel began to air the series on TV again and showed it in the order the episodes were intended.

Since that time, there have been countless lists that rank the shows that never should have been cancelled, and Firefly is on almost all of those rankings. The reception for the series after the DVDs were released and everyone realized how great the show really was helped Whedon get a chance to make a movie that continued his story. Serenity was released in 2005. The franchise also became such a huge cult favorite that a fandom was built around it and the idea of the Browncoats. It was also adapted into comics, novels, and more.