Firefly

The premise of the show Firefly, according to creator Joss Whedon, was "nine people looking into the blackness of space and seeing nine different things".  In a future where humans have left an overcrowded Earth and colonized new star systems, political and ethical problems remain pretty much the same as always.  Much like those of the post-American Civil War Reconstruction era, many of the characters in the show were on the fringes of society, losers of a war that they'd had little stake in.

Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds, portrayed by Canadian actor Nathan Fillion, is a military veteran of a conflict between the powerful Alliance and a group of worlds that had tried to secede.  He bought his Firefly-class spaceship and named it Serenity after a battle which he and his first mate had barely survived.  The other crew members are fugitives or mercenaries, all with their own reasons to dislike the Alliance, and they support themselves by smuggling or running cargo.

The show blends space opera and Western genres, and is different from many other science fiction shows in that there are few space battles.  Instead, the focus is on the politics and culture of the region, with liberal use of the Chinese language and made-up words.  As one reviewer wrote: "The dialogue tended to be a bizarre purée of wisecracks, old-timey Western-paperback patois, and snatches of Chinese."

Aired on Fox from September 20th to December 20th 2002, the show was initially successful, but Whedon and his team came into frequent conflict with Fox executives.  Fox wanted a lighter tone to the show, particularly to Captain Mal's personality as he was thought to be too dark.  Another issue was the fact that the entire point of the show was seeing the struggles of the downtrodden; instead Fox wanted to see more of the actual policy makers.  Another blow was that many of the episodes were aired out of sequence, confusing viewers.

The show was cancelled after only 14 episodes, and a fan campaign to have it renewed or picked up by another network was unsuccessful.  However the fan support was instrumental in the release of the series on DVD in December 2003, as well as persuading Whedon to further develop the concept into a feature film.  The same cast reprised their roles for the film Serenity in 2005.