'Can't
Stop the Serenity' charity weekend
Firefly,
the Joss Whedon-created FOX television show cancelled in 2002 after
only eleven episodes, is a bit of an anomaly. Part sci-fi, part-western,
the series followed a rag-tag group of “space-scavengers”
trying to eek out an existence on the far reaches of the galaxy. With
low-ratings, a Friday night death-slot and trigger-happy FOX as its
network, it had little hope of surviving. But this was Whedon, the man
behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer, who has one of the strongest
fan presences on the Internet. While the ensuing “Save Firefly”
campaign failed, that online community was ignited nonetheless, eventually
paving the way for a big-screen adaptation in 2005, Serenity.
While not the box-office blockbuster many hoped, Browncoats—as
Firefly/Serenity fans are know—remain just as
strong and passionate as they were in 2002, and will gather in over
40 cities worldwide this weekend for the annual Can't
Stop the Serenity charity event.
“Late
in 2005, a group of Browncoats were leaving one of the last big screen
showings of Serenity,” Anna Snyder recently told the
Portland
Mercury of how the fundraiser began.
“And (Portland Browncoat and blogger) the One True b!X was thinking,
‘Hey, maybe there’s a way we could get the movie on the
big screen again, just for fun.’ And that morphed into, ‘Well,
if we could do it to raise some money, that would be great.’ Which
then became, ‘Hey, let’s organize a charity screening and
let’s see if we can get other cities involved.’”
“Can’t
Stop the Serenity” raised $65,000 for Equality
Now—an international woman’s
right organization that Whedon is a strong supporter of—in 2006
and an additional $106,000 in 2007. The Pennsylvania
Browncoats have been a part of the
effort from the very beginning, and this year’s outing—which
features a screening of Serenity—takes place on Saturday,
June 21st, at the Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall (doors
open at 7pm). alterna-tv.com is proud to be among the sponsors.
—Anthony
Letizia (June 20, 2008)
