For Your Perusal: Other Sci-Fi/Fantasy Shows Slated for Fall

POSTED BY: Pandora
UPDATED: Tuesday, June 18, 2002 00:27
VIEWED: 9230
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PANDORA

Monday, June 10, 2002 10:20 PM

Birds of Prey. (WB) Batman spinoff with a disabled Batgirl, the spawn of Batman and Catwoman, and 'the Black Canary'. I don't make this stuff up, people, I just report it. Based on a couple of one-shot comics and a trade paperback, the show's being produced by the fine folks who brought you Smallville.

http://thewb.com/News/Special/0,8341,52997||,00.html

Dinotopia. (ABC) Based on the ABC miniseries of the same name. Is anyone else reminded of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, or is it just me?

http://abc.abcnews.go.com/primetime/movies/dinotopia/index.html

That Was Then. (ABC) One of many shows this season based on nostalgia, one of two based on a grown-up taking over his own teenage body to relive his misspent youth. Oy.

http://abc.abcnews.go.com/primetime/preview/that_was_then.html

John Doe (FOX) An amnesiac knows everything except for who he is. According to the Entertainment Online (i.e., Tonight) blurb, he could be a "government agent, and extraterrestrial, or perhaps just a regular John Doe with a bout of Amnesia." The Pretender? Hmmm...

http://www.fox.com/schedule/schedule_2002.htm

Do Over. (WB) The other show about reliving misspent youth in one's own youthful body. This one's a sitcom instead of an hour long drama. Woo.

Haunted. (UPN) Near death experience allows the oldest brother from Party of Five to see dead people. Hilarity -er- mystery solving- ensues.

http://www.upn.com/shows/fall_preview_2002/haunted.shtml

The Twilight Zone. (UPN) Now this one, I'm actually excited about, despite the fact that it's on UPN. Forest Whitaker, or that big black guy from the Crying Game (also the lion from Zoobilee Zoo) hosts the one hour show, which basically does what the first one did.
http://www.upn.com/shows/fall_preview_2002/twilight_zone.shtml

The Dead Zone (USA) Based on the book by Stephen King, starting nerdy kid from the Breakfast Club (Anthony Michael Hall, if you insist) and Ezri 'the pixie replacement for Jadzia' Dax (drool). Looks like typical USA fare, if that means anything.

http://www.usanetwork.com/series/deadzonenet/dznews.html

Odyssey 5. (SHO) Astronauts go back in time to save Earth from the apocolypse. Starring RoboCop and some other people. It starts on June 21st at 10pm.

http://sho.com/o5/

Night Visions. (SCIFI) Another episodic type show telling scary stories with famous people in them- it premieres this Friday, which is pretty cool. It's hosted by Henry Rollins, which is even cooler, because he's the loveliest of punk/intellectual/poet/hardass dudes!

http://www.scifi.com/nightvisions

That's about it...

If there are any more, let me know! I like to know what's out there...

Pandorissima

"Logic is a wonderful thing, but it doesn't beat actual thought." -Terry Pratchett, the Last Continent

ZICSOFT

Tuesday, June 11, 2002 1:30 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Pandora:
Birds of Prey. (WB) Batman spinoff with a disabled Batgirl, the spawn of Batman and Catwoman, and 'the Black Canary'.

I've nothing against comic books. I own a complete set of Battle Angle Alita, and I'm buying Fray as fast as it comes out. But revisionist Batman????? Somebody needs to get a life!

Quote:

Dinotopia. (ABC) Based on the ABC miniseries of the same name. Is anyone else reminded of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, or is it just me?

I don't think the dinosaurs in Lost World knew how to talk!

Quote:

That Was Then. (ABC) One of many shows this season based on nostalgia, one of two based on a grown-up taking over his own teenage body to relive his misspent youth. Oy.

Oy indeed! A psychiatric syndrome as a premise for a TV show!

Quote:

John Doe (FOX) An amnesiac knows everything except for who he is. According to the Entertainment Online (i.e., Tonight) blurb, he could be a "government agent, and extraterrestrial, or perhaps just a regular John Doe with a bout of Amnesia." The Pretender? Hmmm...

I'm not sure of the specific figures, but I suspect there are more amnesiacs populating movies and tv shows than there are in real life!

Quote:
Do Over. (WB) The other show about reliving misspent youth in one's own youthful body. This one's a sitcom instead of an hour long drama. Woo.

Hey, if it's worth doing over, it's worth doing over and over!

Quote:

Haunted. (UPN) Near death experience allows the oldest brother from Party of Five to see dead people. Hilarity -er- mystery solving- ensues.

So is Bruce Willis dead or isn't he?

Quote:

The Twilight Zone. (UPN) Now this one, I'm actually excited about, despite the fact that it's on UPN. Forest Whitaker, or that big black guy from the Crying Game (also the lion from Zoobilee Zoo) hosts the one hour show, which basically does what the first one did.

And the second, and the third.

Quote:

The Dead Zone (USA) Based on the book by Stephen King, starting nerdy kid from the Breakfast Club (Anthony Michael Hall, if you insist) and Ezri 'the pixie replacement for Jadzia' Dax (drool). Looks like typical USA fare, if that means anything.

I find her accent unconvincing. Isn't it ironic that AMH grew up to play the kind of guy that used to beat him up in his teenage movies?

Quote:

Odyssey 5. (SHO) Astronauts go back in time to save Earth from the apocolypse. Starring RoboCop and some other people. It starts on June 21st at 10pm.

To quote our mutual friends: The End of the World? Again? Armageddon sick of it!

Quote:

Night Visions. (SCIFI) Another episodic type show telling scary stories with famous people in them- it premieres this Friday, which is pretty cool. It's hosted by Henry Rollins, which is even cooler, because he's the loveliest of punk/intellectual/poet/hardass dudes!

And any resemblance to Twightlight Zone, Tales from the Crypt, Outer Limits, etc., is strictly coincidental!

SHAMUS

Tuesday, June 11, 2002 10:18 AM

Nice overview. Thanks for taking the trouble, Pandora.

Nothings exceeds like excess.

PANDORA

Tuesday, June 11, 2002 12:48 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by shamus:
Nice overview. Thanks for taking the trouble, Pandora.

You're quite welcome... just another product of the experiment to see what happens when you take a chick who's used to being occupied by work and/or nonsense 90% of the time and put her in an environment in which all of her time is free.

This is the result of week 2.

Pandora

"Logic is a wonderful thing, but it doesn't beat actual thought." -Terry Pratchett, the Last Continent

ANNE

Tuesday, June 11, 2002 4:46 PM

FOX is remaking The Time Tunnel - A show about two young government scientists who travel through time.

If you're adding paranormal/speculative/mystery entries onto the list, FOX is also remaking The Witches of Eastwick as a weekly television show.

ABC will offer Miracles which is described as being about the Vatican's investigator of the paranormal who "after spending years debunking supposed miracles begins to losing his faith". (Presumably it will be restored as he comes across genuine miracles from time to time or something.)

NBC has their remake of Lost in Space listed as a potential midseason replacement.

The WB is apparently developing a show (midseason replacement, I think) set in The Land of Oz. The premise seems to be that a 20ish woman gets trapped in Oz and foments rebellion against the Emerald City. I find the entire concept scary.

(Edited because it needed it.)

HAKEN

Tuesday, June 11, 2002 5:47 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Anne:
ABC will offer Miracles which is described as being about the Vatican's investigator of the paranormal who "after spending years debunking supposed miracles begins to losing his faith".

Isn't this just Mysterious Ways with an X-Files twist?

Quote:
NBC has their remake of Lost in Space listed as a potential midseason replacement.

NBC has tried it before with Earth 2. I doubt it'll make it.

Quote:
The WB is apparently developing a show (midseason replacement, I think) set in The Land of Oz. The premise seems to be that a 20ish woman gets trapped in Oz and foments rebellion against the Emerald City. I find the entire concept scary.

This is Flash Gordon.

ANNE

Tuesday, June 11, 2002 6:14 PM

Quote:
Isn't this just Mysterious Ways with an X-Files twist?

In the same way that Mysterious Ways was just Touched By An Angel with an X-Files twist, yes.

Very much so.

On the other hand, I have to say I panned the concept of Mysterious Ways just for that reason before it debuted and found, to my extreme surprise, that MW was original, creative, and very watchable.

I also remember that the network found MW's success difficult to believe. By the time it debuted, they'd already signed a deal with PAX to repeat episodes on PAX and, IIRC, to move the entire show to PAX for first-run before long.

The network kept moving MW around, pulling it from the schedule, and putting it back again while they tried to wrap their brains around the idea that the program was doing two or three times as well as they'd expected.

Even now they seem to have settled it in on the Friday Kiss Of Death schedule, as though once they'd decided it was going to be a failure, they were determined to make it so on way or another.

HAKEN

Tuesday, June 11, 2002 6:16 PM

That was kinda fun.

Birds of Prey - It's Charlie's Angel for our generation.

Dinotopia - What can I say. Kids love dinosaurs.

That Was Then - Peggy Sue got married, except it's a guy.

John Doe - It's Pretender.

Do Over - Wonder Years with less pathos.

Haunted - All Souls with a cop.

The Twilight Zone - It's the new Outer Limits with no Sci-Fi. Note: anything Twilight Zone is cool in my book.

The Dead Zone - it has Ezri, nuff said.

Odyssey 5. - It's Time Cop with no Van Damn.

Night Visions - The Outher Limits with spooks.

J

Tuesday, June 11, 2002 7:47 PM

Thanks for that Pandora - and Anne.

On Anne's list - do you know where I could get more information - cast, creative team - on The Witches of Eastwick? I probably would have no interest in it - and it might just be FOX's version of Charmed, but I might like it.

And is Lost In Space a re-remake of the movie of the show, or a remake of the show that ignores the movie? (Dunno which would be better, but I'm curious.) I never saw the movie though, so I don't know what that would tell me.

On Pandora's list, I'm pretty disappointed. I thought I might be interested in Birds of Prey - had no idea what it was about, really, but it seemed like a possibility - but the network's description had the opposite of the intended effect. Sounds pretty lame. But if they can swing some kind of Burton Goth(ic/am) thing, who knows?

I'm also perplexed that the page for the new TZ wasn't trumpeting some stellar list of writers. A show like that really depends entirely on each and every script. This has been attempted a lot and always results in abysmal failure at worst and an indifferent medium-length run at best. The problem is that you can have a great Outer Limits ep like the one with Michelle Forbes and Amanda Plummer - and dozens of ridiculous cheesy wastes. The quality has to be kept even higher than in TV series because there's no continuity to carry you through slumps. But I'll probably give it a try if there's no scheduling conflict and hope it works.

So that's it - Firefly is the only new spaceship show on network TV this year? Even if it wasn't Joss, I think it would have caught my eye for that fact.

- I just took a closer look - BOP and TZ are both on Wed@9. Ah well - guess I can tape one until I make up my mind. Probably end up being neither of them.

NOVAGRASS

Wednesday, June 12, 2002 11:30 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Zicsoft:

I've nothing against comic books. I own a complete set of Battle Angle Alita, and I'm buying Fray as fast as it comes out. But revisionist Batman????? Somebody needs to get a life!

Well... if the comic book is any indication, it's not revisionist at all... however, with the liberties the Smallville crew (whom I loathe) took on the premise, it looks to be a bit too hokey to me. *sigh* And Black Canary, The Huntress, and Oracle are three of the most interesting characters in DC's library... Oracle's story is pretty fascinating, IMO (crippled Barbara Gordon.)

Tim Burton's Batman was very revisionist... as is the current comic book Batman (a revision of the Golden/ Silver Age Batman.) As is the animated series... which was very good, IMO.

The whole Huntress is the daughter of Batman and Catwoman isn't that far from the Earth-2 version of DC Continuity... on Earth-2, Batman and Catwoman married and had Helena, who became the Earth-2 Huntress.

Could it be that I have too much time on my hands? It very well could.

EDITED TO ADD: interesting review of BoP http://www.aintitcoolnews.com/display.cgi?id=12485

--Dylan Palmer, aka NoVaGrAsS--

... I guess it's a Joss thing...

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