Firefly stars crowdfunding a new comedy series the studios can't cancel (Update: Funded!)

Update: The first goal has been reached hours after the campaign began.

Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk once starred in a show called Firefly. It was great. It was canceled. This is brought up online about every five minutes or so. If you haven't seen Firefly, what are you doing here? Go watch it, it's seriously that good.

The two actors are now running an Indiegogo campaign to fund three 10-minute episodes of a comedy series called Con Man, which shows the odd and often funny life of people who have once starred in popular science fiction shows and now make appearances at conventions.

The whole thing seems a bit meta, but the pitch video is actually very funny already, and the two men clearly have strong chemistry.

"The series is a light-hearted take on the personalities, luminaries, and characters in the sci­fi community we are privileged to call ourselves members," the official page states. "Con Man is a way to share some of the surreal occurrences we have had, while telling the story of a guy learning to love and embrace his fans"

The video embedded above is filled with cameos and fun bits, a lot of fan service, and the page describes why they're going the crowdfunding route. Long story short: The studio system cancels genre shows with scary regularity, and crowdfunding allows them to be as geeky as they'd like without ceding creative control from the money people.

The campaign is asking for $425,000, and both stars say they've already invested some of their own money.

"The number may seem like a lot for initial three episodes, but the production costs are high and the series is demanding. This isn’t a living room sitcom, we need to put on a fake convention. Or two," the campaign explains. "Also we need to build a spaceship. It’s a big cast and our friends from the sci-fi community will be joining us. That means at LEAST paying SAG minimums or they wouldn’t be allowed to show."

The campaign has already raised $152,000, with 30 days left to go.