Trivia: Had the show continued, Joss Whedon contemplated giving James Marsters a cameo in an episode reprising his role of Spike from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel." It would have been a very quick "blink-and-you'll-miss-it" part, showing Spike sitting at a bar drinking and telling Mal "Nothing ever changes..." as he passes by.
The Message - S1-E15
Trivia: The funeral music heard at the end of "The Message" was written by the show's composer right after the series got cancelled. The theme was actually inspired by his sadness that the show was ending.
Trivia: One of Joss Whedon's inspirations for the series was the historical Civil War novel "The Killer Angels" by Michael Shaara. The book was also the basis for the 1993 movie "Gettysburg."
Trivia: Executives at Fox took issue with nearly every aspect of the series during production, and caused a great deal of trouble for the creators. For example, Fox attempted to meddle with the story and characters, including attempting to force creator Joss Whedon to rewrite the characters Wash and Zoe so they wouldn't be married. Fox also disliked several of the episodes and aired them completely out of order (including airing the pilot last), making the plot extremely difficult to follow. Episodes were also frequently delayed for sporting events and shifted around, making it hard for fans to watch the series. Finally, Fox attempted to deceptively market the series as a "wacky" and "twisted" sci-fi comedy as opposed to marketing it as the sci-fi drama with comedic elements that it actually was. These are often cited among the many factors that contributed to its early cancellation. However, despite these factors, the series ended up becoming a massive cult hit among sci-fi fans.
Trivia: Since 2009, Nathan Fillion has reunited with at least four of the show's cast members on Castle: Adam Baldwin, Gina Torres, Summer Glau, and Richard Burgi.
Trivia: Rebecca Gayheart was initially cast as Inarra, but was replaced after one day of filming as she reportedly didn't have enough chemistry with the rest of the cast. Morena Baccarin was cast two days later and reportedly started filming that same day to make up for lost time.
Trivia: Neil Patrick Harris reportedly auditioned and was considered for the role of Simon. He later went on to play the titular character in "Firefly" creator Joss Whedon's "Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog."
Chosen answer: One of the premises of the show is that the two major Earth societies that survived, and ultimately merged, were the Chinese and Americans. As a result the common language includes much Chinese. Clothing, signage, and building designs also have a heavy Chinese influence.