See my sig
When Firefly was first aired, it was on Fox. Fox aired the episodes in completely the wrong order, showing the pilot last
and there were three episodes they didn't air at all. I think that's why it never caught on and wasn't picked up for another season - the whole backstory is laid out in the pilot, which wasn't aired until the end, so everyone was confused.
The Sci-Fi channel has acquired the rights to air existing episodes of Firefly (but not, I believe, to produce new eps) and they're currently being shown on Fridays at 7pm Eastern time - all of them, in the right order. I've been watching, and everything makes a lot more sense now.
Looking forward to the movie. I will actually be setting foot in a theatre for this one.