I watched Firefly in its first run and bought the DVDs…
I can count the number of Buffy/Angel episodes I have seen on one hand.
Jayne had some great lines:
“Time for some thrilling heroics.”
“You know what the chain of command is? It’s the chain I go get and beat you with ‘till you understand who’s in ruttin’ command here.”
Mal: “You’ve only got to scare him.”
Jayne: “Pain is scary.”
Someone on the DVD commentary (Joss, I think) was saying that even though Jayne was meant to be a mean SOB, he turned out to be a lovable and popular character. Even in the pilot they show some of his compassionate side. I loved the shot of him kneeling outside the infirmary, peeking inside.
Don’t forget: “If wishes were horses we’d all be eatin’ steaks!”
My husband and I watched (I think) all of the Firefly episodes that aired, and we thought it was quite original, well-done, and had a lot of potential. We have seen Buffy and Angel once or twice, but not really by choice.
Love firefly,
cant say I have sat thru a whole buffy episode and never have seen Angel.
In fact I knew so little of Buffy when I was talking to my friend James about how great a show, he mentioned in passing Joss has that touch.
When I got him to elaborate, turns out James finally admits to having an acting part on Buffy. When he told me the character all I could think of was The Billy Idol looking guy?
how clueless about buffy is that?
I had never seen any of Buffy or Angel before watching Firefly.
I don’t follow fantasy or magic much. Plus the premise of the shows bothered me a little - There are monsters and vampires killing off people every day but 1. Nobody seems to notice and 2. Buffy and her friends who do know what’s going on don’t do what they can to get the public to clear out of the town. 
However, after watching Firefly I gave Whedon’s other shows a try and have become a big fan. I found the same qualities I love in Firefly (great writing and dialog, creative non-formulaic stories and great characters) in Buffy and Angel.
Eric
Started watching Firefly from the DVD about 3 days ago, after never having seen any episodes on TV. A lot of fun. And I’m not a Buffy or Angel fan.
(A note to people out there who have seen the episodes on TV. The DVD has 3 (I think) episodes that were never aired, because of the cancellation. Worth renting the DVDs to see those episodes.)
For the record. Watched a handful of STNG, Never watched a full episode of Babylon, Buffy, Xena, Angel etc. Watched the first Star Trek when I was a kid but didn’t obsess about it. Enjoyed Star Wars, Empire, and Jedi but didn’t obsess about them either (other than having a crapload of the figures when I was in elementary school). My wife generally hates TV and actively dislikes Buffy. My wife and I don’t really watch much TV and use it as a monitor for DVDs most of the time.
A friend of mine is a big Buffy/Angel fan. He kept raving about Firefly, how great it was, and the tragedy of how it was handled so poorly by Fox. He leant me Bushwhacked, The Train Job, and Our Mrs. Reynolds. Once the episodes got into my hands I felt obligated to watch them. To say I was under impressed would be near accurate: “Woo Hoo, cowboys in space, sounds like a real fun-fest”
So we watch The Train Job. Eh. Sucked a lot less than I expected. I didn’t want to turn it off.
Watched Bushwhacked. OK show. I’m still not sure what the big deal is.
Watched Our Mrs. Reynolds. Wow. OK now the wife and I are upset this show was cancelled. I committed to buying the DVD set.
We’ve now watched all the episodes and join the legion of those fans who’re really pissed off that the show was cancelled.
Yep, I watched every episode of Firefly, but never once saw Buffy or Angel. I’m glad I got the DVDs, too, since they not only have the extra three episodes, but they are in the correct order as well!
I’m a big fan of both Buffy and Angel (although, to be truthful, I only discovered these shows about a year and a half ago). However, I must admit that, until a few weeks ago, I had never heard of Firefly. When was it on the air? In what time slot? On what network? Who knows, perhaps if I’d known about it, I might have become a fan, and I might have been that one more viewer they needed to avert cancellation.
Yep, I saw nearly every episode of Firefly. Never watched a single Buffy or Angel episode. I didn’t need a Whedon fan to “pimp” the show to me.
I see the show’s genesis as similar to Chris Carter’s “Lone Gunmen” series. Carter has one wildly successful show, so the network gives him a bit more leeway in producing his other ideas. Unfortunately Fox didn’t give “Millenium” much of a chance, and “Lone Gunmen” even less of a chance. Carter will be lucky if anyone wants to produce one of his shows again. It was probably a similar thing with Joss Whedon-- the network decided to green light Firefly, probably thinking, “he’s got some other hits; maybe the name recognition will carry it.” Then a month later, they have a “WTF were we thinking” moment and decide to let the show atrophy into nothing.
It aired on FOX, from Sep 2002 to Dec 2002, 8:00pm on Friday (that time slot was probably the biggest culprit for its demise). 12 episodes were shown; 3 never aired.
To answer the OP’s question, I’ve never seen one episode of Buffy or Angel.
Having said that, I watched the entire series of Firefly from a friend’s DVD boxed set and really enjoyed it.
Although, I still have no plans to watch Angel or any Buffy re-runs.
I’m a big fan of Buffy and Angel, so when Firefly came on the air, I downloaded it. My thought was ‘meh’.
However, during a slow spell as unemployed, with cold and crappy weather, and new hot connection to the Net, I decided to give it another chance. And I’m loving it. It’s clearly a Wheadon show, in the sense that the characters have more sides than normally in television, and that the lines between good and bad are blurred. While I couldn’t get Jayne at first, the flashback ep, where they showed all of them joining the crew, and the brief moments when the tough guy persona cracks, make him totally endearing.
Also, I think the bad guys with the diswashing gloves are an echo of ‘The Gentlemen’ which is a nice touch.
It had good production values, nice twists and a sense of humor that wasn’t Buffy or Angel, but more laconic and dry.
But mosty of all, it reminds me a lot of Heinlein, especially ‘Time enough for love’ and the story ‘The tale of the adopted daughter.’ This is what SciFi should be like. Not clean and glistening, with strange aliens. Also, I love that in space, there are no noises.
With the help of a (hit) movie, the show might get resurrected. One can only hope.
I’ve noticed all kinds of Heinleinesque aspects of Firefly. First, the whole notion of primitive frontier colonies was a staple of Heinlein’s (in “Tunnel in the Sky”, the hero rides off through an interplanetary gate on a horse, with twin knives on his belt replacing the usual twin handguns), as was using regular guns. All three of the main females are Heinlein archetypes - tough, smart, horny. Well, Kaylee isn’t tough, but she’s a good mechanic.
Even the ship itself, and the way the people live on it, is exactly what I would have pictured the Rolling Stones flying in. Slightly cramped, homey, with a lot of fun aboard mixed with hard work.
And there’s a strong libertarian ethos in the crew. They all march to their own drummer, and don’t really give a damn what authority thinks of them. Don’t have much use for bureaucracy and governments.
Yep. Heinlein would have loved the show.
Of course, you realise that “Heinleinesque” is generally a synonym for “utter dross” - which is what I thought of the show, incidentally.
River: I didn’t think you’d come for me.
Simon: Then you’re a dummy.
I’m almost finished with the DVD set, and I’m liking the show better than when it first aired; it has a richness that I didn’t notice during the run, but which is clear when watching the episodes IN ORDER, and one after another.
The relationship between Simon and River is just beautiful. You don’t see complicated sibling relationships like that often enough.
The unlikely friendship that formed between Jayne and Book was presented so subtly that I didn’t see it until now.
In both the pilot episode, “Serenity,” and the first aired episode, “The Train Job,” Kaylee complained to Mal that an engine part called a “compression coil” was about to fail and needed replacement. This is the same part that failed and endangered the ship in the later episode “Out of Gas.”
Nice casting: in the unaired episode “The Message,” an old army buddy of Mal and Zoe’s was played by Jonathan Woodward, who later had guest roles on both Buffy and Angel. And the unaired episode “Heart of Gold” had a madam character played by Melinda Clarke, who has also played dominatrix Lady Heather on CSI.
It was a flawed series, to be sure; the literal extreme to which Joss took the Western metaphor was EXTREMELY off-putting, and the plots had more handwaving over important details than I’d prefer (like, to name just one example, no one on board a train noticing a big noisy spaceship hovering overhead). But it was still ten times better than any Star Trek in at least twelve years, and had better characters and more honest emotion than any other show on TV, including Whedon’s other two series.
Did you also notice that Wash throws one away at the junkyard in Ariel?
Yeah, I noticed.
I used to watch BtVS with a group of friends every week - about ten in all, and when Firefly was on, I was the only one of us who was following it.
I have the DVDs, so now I’m slowly bringing everybody around. (When we’re not watching Smallville and Angel.) Anyway, I think the percentage of the Buffy/Angel audience watching Firefly seems to have been comparitively small, because, at least in my experience, a lot of the Whedon fans were too angry with Joss for allowing the total crap that was Buffy Season Seven to get on the air to follow his new darling.
I have never watched Buffy or Angel, and really have no desire to see either. But I am a major mark for Firefly and am hoping the movie gets made. I need to get the dvd set.