This article is on the fictional revolutionary group. For the Nazi stormtroopers sometimes called "brownshirts" see Sturmabteilung.

Browncoat is a slang term from the science fiction Western TV series Firefly (and its big-screen "sequel", Serenity) for a member of the Independent Faction, which lost to the Alliance in the Unification War; and a nickname for fans of the series.

Fictional meaning

In the stories, Browncoats were named after the simple, brown leather trench coats they wore as uniforms. The simplicity of their gear was greatly due to the fact that technology and resources were scarce on the Outer Planets. Conversely, the Alliance's soldiers were called "Purple bellies", because of the purple tinted body armor they wore on their chests.

Fans

The nickname for fans of the fictional Firefly series was floated first on the Official Firefly Forum and spread to other fan sites and eventually adopted by Joss Whedon.^[1][2]

The original fans first organized to try to save the series from being cancelled by Fox Broadcasting Network. Their efforts included raising money for an ad in Variety magazine and a postcard writing campaign to UPN. While unsuccessful in finding a network to pick up the series, support for the show led to a release of the series on DVD in December of 2004. The strong sales of the DVDs have been largely attributed to word of mouth by Browncoats. Ultimately enough interest was shown to convince Universal Studios to take on the production of a feature film. This feature film, Serenity, had numerous early screenings to existing fans in an attempt create buzz and increase ticket sales when it was released widely.

Many comparisons have been made between Browncoats and Trekkies. Both television shows were canceled and subsequently turned into movies due to strong fan bases. Both groups also have an associated language: where Trekkies have Klingon, Browncoats have Mandarin Chinese mixed with a future form of English, new words and ones recalling the Old West. One example is "gorram", which is a modified form of "god-damn".

Fans are also sometimes known as "flans".

Quotations

• "Firefly went on the air a few years ago and was instantly hailed by critics as one of the most cancelled shows of the year. It was ignored and abandoned, and the story should end there. But it doesn’t, because the people who made the show and the people who saw the show—which is roughly the same number of people—fell in love with it a little bit too much to let it go, too much to lay down arms when the battle looked pretty much lost. In Hollywood, people like that are called unrealistic, quixotic, obsessive. In my world, they’re called Browncoats." — Joss Whedon, "Joss Whedon Introduction", Serenity DVD [1]

References

• Firefly: The Complete Series (2003) DVD, UPC 024543089292
• Serenity (2005) DVD, UPC 025192632723
• Done the Impossible: The Fans' Take of Firefly & Serenity (2006) DVD

External links

• Browncoats.com fan community, an unaffiliated Firefly resource site.
• Browncoat board, a forums site set up when the Universal forum was closed down.
• Fireflyfans.net
• BigDamnBoard.com, a directory of Firefly/Serenity related sites, including local Browncoat groups from all over the world.
• WhedonWiki
• FireflyWiki
• Chonin, N. (2005). "When Fox canceled Firefly, it ignited an Internet fan base whose burning desire for more led to Serenity". SFGate.com. Retrieved January 22, 2006.