Firefly

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) Just in time to stir up some advance hype for the movie based on it, the cult series "Firefly" is returning to television.

The Sci Fi Channel has picked up the rights to Joss Whedon’s "space Western" — including three episodes never aired on TV — and will begin airing it Friday, July 22. It will air at 7 p.m. ET, leading into the cable network’s lineup of original series — the two "Stargate" shows and "Battlestar Galactica," which open their new seasons the previous week.

"Firefly’s" Sci Fi debut will come about two months before the scheduled release of Universal Pictures’ "Serenity," a feature film based on the series written and directed by Whedon ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer"). Universal and the Sci Fi Channel are both part of the NBC Universal media conglomerate. Sci Fi picked up the show from Twentieth Television, a News Corp. sibling of the FOX network, where "Firefly" first aired, and 20th Century Fox TV, which produced the series. Click Here Set 500 years from now, "Firefly" follows the crew of a small, vagabond transport ship called the Serenity. Captained by Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion), Serenity and its crew are perpetually on the run from the totalitarian Alliance, and Mal often resort to taking extralegal jobs to keep the ship flying.

The show also stars Gina Torres ("Alias," "Angel"), Adam Baldwin ("The Inside"), Morena Baccarin, Alan Tudyk ("Into the West"), Sean Maher ("The $treet"), Summer Glau ("The 4400"), Jewel Staite ("Wonderfalls") and Ron Glass ("Barney Miller"). All of them are reprising their roles in "Serenity."