Firefly is an
American science fiction television series created by writer/director
Joss Whedon, creator of
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and
Angel, under his
Mutant Enemy Productions. Its naturalistic future setting, modeled after traditional
Western movie motifs, presents an atypical science fiction backdrop for the narrative. Whedon served as
executive producer, along with
Tim Minear.
Firefly premiered in the
United States and
Canada on the
FOX network on
September 20,
2002. It was
cancelled after only eleven of the fourteen produced episodes were aired. Despite the series' relatively short life span, it received strong sales when it was released on
DVD, and has impressive fan support campaigns. It won an
Emmy in
2003 for "Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series". The post-airing success of the show led Whedon and
Universal Pictures to produce a film based on the series, titled
Serenity after the fictional
Firefly-class
spaceship featured in the show. The series is set in the year 2517, after humans have arrived at
a new star system, and follows the adventures of the renegade crew of
Serenity, a
Firefly-class spaceship. The
ensemble cast portrays the nine characters who live on
Serenity.
Phonevision, also known as station KS2XBS, was an experimental television station in Chicago, Illinois, owned and operated by Zenith. It was the world's first pay television station. Zenith originally occupied the VHF Channel 2 frequencies since 1939, using this as an experimental station while they tried to perfect "PhoneVision".
