I can see some similarities (mixture of high and low tech, cowboy motif, a group eeking out a marginal existence with a spaceship of questionable maintenence status), for sure, but IMHO claims that Firefly was a “massive ripoff” are overblown.
Still, Bebop has been influential. The sequence in “The Real Folk Blues part 2” where Spike shoots up a hi-rise lobby is very, very similar to the sequence in The Matrix where The Keanu does the same thing.
dropzone, I believe that the conventional wisdom is that the Bebop crew are loosely based on the characters in Lupin III, a very long-running Japanese cartoon that may have even influenced Speed Racer.
Personally, I prefer Bebop over Firefly, if for no other reason than Bebop has Yako Kanno doing the music. If you’ve only seen the movie, you’ve got to see the series for the music. The movie didn’t use “Tank!” for the opening or “The Real Folk Blues” for the closing, which was a fucking travesty. Kanno is a musical genius who was also supposedly the inspiration for the character of Ed. Yes, people really do act like that. Kanno is currently doing the music for Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, which is just now coming into its own after two seasons.