Adam Baldwin is a character that I’ve liked for a long time. The character of Animal Mother in Full Metal Jacket made an impact to be sure, with him having some very quotable lines. I’ve liked him in everything I’ve seen him in, especially in Firefly. So catching his presentation was a must for myself (Lepidus as well).
There were many “Browncoats” (fans of the Firefly sereis) in the crowd, as one might expect. They were supposed to sing the song “The Hero of Canton” from the episode “Jaynestown.” In case you haven’t heard the song, here’s the clip from the episode where the song is sung.
These fans of the series who were supposed to sing this song completely and utterly FAILED! So as they are struggling and the rest of us are squirming uncomfortably, we hear Adam’s voice come over the speakers in Jayne-style, telling the crowd, “You gotta be kidding me!” He voiced his sentiments on the singing again before coming out. He apparently knew the words of the song because as the struggle to finish the song went on, he was singing the words.
There’s no doubt that Adam was the best presenter on Saturday. He was very funny and had the crowd laughing frequently, all without putting down fans or anything like that. (He did joke about drinking with fans after he got to Denver. I guess he was down in the bar last night.) When he cited Firefly as one of the highlights of his career, I believed it. While he clearly remembered all of his previous works, his speaking of Firefly contained a real fondness of not only the show, but the fans as well. He even visited a fan-run message board from time-to-time and his favorite thread was the nitpickers thread. He was amazed by what fans knew. He teased the fans as being nuts, but included himself in that category. He even throws Firefly references into his current series, Chuck.
His favorite episode of Firefly was not “Jaynestown,” but “Out of Gas” and “War Stories.” He liked the villain character of Niska a lot.
Apparently, $3-million is what prevented more Firefly from being produced. As I understood it, had the movie made that much more money in its theatrical release, the TV series would have been brought back. I got the impression that should something come up with the series again (another movie or TV series), he would be back in a flash if at all possible.
While there were many questions about Adam’s career (including his voice actor work), it wasn’t until near the end of the presentation that anyone asked him about Chuck, at which point he received three questions about that series.
The hour passed by rather rapidly and some fan won an autographed copy of the Serinity movie at the end of it. I like Adam even more as an actor now.