I took the former statement to refer the kind of audience laughs that are played from tape in sitcoms. There are, of course, no such laughs in Firefly.
He wrote about spaceships, and Shepards, and whores, Stood up to the network, and gave 'em what for Fox canceled his program, and that was their loss The creator of Firefly, the man they call....Joss! -The Bedlam Bards
More like "It's like Seinfeld, except you don't want to see all the characters die in a fire." I'm in.
On my first run though, I really wanted Jayne to bite it, at least until he had his little forced epiphany.
I think it really can be a bit of an acquired taste. I watched a couple of episodes on its original run and I didn't much care for it. I subsequently bought the show after hearing so much praise on it. After that, it was pretty much bam, said the lady. It is my favorite show and I adore it.
It's been a while since I watched firefly last. I only vaguely remember plots. I remember all of the characters. It "got good" for me about twenty minutes into the pilot. I liked the characters and the dialogue. Wasn't more difficult than that.