AS the writers strike is now over here's some new TV shows to look out for.
By ED LEFT
Source: SyFy Portal
Feb-18-2008
Here's a look at the new series coming to your screens in the next twelve months or so.
"Dollhouse" will air on Fox, was created and produced by Joss Whedon, and stars Eliza Dushku. It's about men and women imprinted with different personalities and skills for different assignments, and then having those personalities wiped clean when the assignment is completed.
When between assignments, they live like children in the Dollhouse, their dormitory/laboratory. They live with no memories of which they are, until Echo, played by Dushku, begins to remember.
I like the concept behind this show. If it was airing on a cable network, I think we'd have a winner. However, it will be airing on Fox.
Joss Whedon is a genre fan favorite, but let's face it, he hasn't really had a hit show. Although "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel" had long runs, they ran on minor netlets. Neither show would have lasted on a major network. "Firefly" did air on a major network, and it was a ratings failure.
Dushku previously starred in genre series "Tru Calling," and it also failed in the ratings. Combining Whedon, Dushku and Fox does not spell success. I think we'll only see the seven episodes contracted, if that.
"Fear Itself," a horror anthology from NBC, promises be much like Showtime's "Masters of Horror," providing 60-minute telefilms by name horror writers and directors. Anthologies don't work on network television anymore. This one is doomed before it starts.
"The Listener" is being produced by CTV in Canada, and has been bought by NBC to air this coming summer/fall. Paramedic Toby Logan, played by Craig Olejnik, has "the power to listen to people's most intimate thoughts."
With the help of his friend and partner Osman Bey (Ennis Esmer), they save lives and solve mysteries. Borrowing from "Heroes," they take the most lame of abilities and build a show around it. It could work, but it would depend on the strength of the writing and the acting.
Middleman" from writer-producer Javier Grillo-Marxuach of "Lost" fame, stars Natalie Morales as a struggling artist recruited by an agency to fight comic-book style villains. Matt Keeslay co-stars as Middleman, her superhero guide and mentor.
It's on ABC Family, so expect it to be pointed at the family crowd, and it will probably have a "Kyle XY" look and feel. It seems on ABC Family, cast and chemistry is the most important aspect. If they're likeable, the show will probably stick around.
"Sanctuary," the Web series picked up by the SciFi Channel, stars Amanda Tapping as Dr. Helen Magnus. Magnus runs the Sanctuary, which is a home to various creatures of myth and legend, who must be tracked down and protected. Dr. Will Zimmerman, played by Robin Dunne assists her in her quest.
It's cheap to produce, and airs on SciFi. It's a match made in heaven. It also has "Stargate SG-1" connections, which will bring in a ready-made audience. This show could have legs.
"Section 8" has been picked up by ABC for a six-episode order. The premise is a group of everyday people with "advanced neurological abnormalities" who work for a secret government agency. This sounds like a very thinly veiled "Heroes" homage. Or maybe it's more like "Misfits of Science"? We'll find out.
"True Blood" is brought to us by HBO, and is based on the Southern Vampire book series by Charlaine Harris. It features Sookie Stackhouse, played by Anna Paquin, a mind reading barmaid in Louisiana who falls in love with vampire Bill Compton, played by Stephen Moyer.
Vampires are no longer a secret, and can feed on a synthetic blood developed by the Japanese. It's HBO, so you know they will be spending some money on it. But I wonder if vampire fans will tune into another vampire series so soon after the demise of "Blood Ties" and the fate of "Moonlight" still up in the air.
"Wizard's First Rule" is a new first-run syndication series set to air this fall. Produced by Spider-Man director Sam Raimi, this series is based on the "Sword of Truth" book series by Terry Goodkind, and "follows the extraordinary transformation of woodsman Richard Cypher into a magical leader who joins with a mysterious woman to stop a blood-thirsty tyrant.
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Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 6:52 pm
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Quote:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon told fans that a spinoff project is still a possibility when asked about the raft of rumored spinoffs that never came to fruition after the show left the air nearly five years ago.
Asked about future Buffy TV or film projects, Whedon said, "My answer would be, like, there are so many stars that would have to align [for them to happen]. But, you know, there's a reason I worked with all of these people for so long. They're enormously talented. And clearly, from the comic, it's a story that I can't let go of. I think it would be really cool."
Whedon spoke as part of a panel at the William S. Paley Television Festival March 20 in Hollywood that reunited him with his Buffy cast members Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon, James Marsters, Emma Caulfield, Michelle Trachtenberg, Charisma Carpenter, Seth Green and Amber Benson and fellow producers Marti Noxon and David Greenwalt.
Once the cult hit Buffy went off the air, reports circulated that Whedon was variously developing a spinoff series that would feature the vampire Spike (Marsters) or a British show that would feature the character of Rupert Giles (Anthony Stewart Head). None came to pass.
Since then, Whedon and several of his writers and artists have picked up the story of Buffy Summers and her "Scooby Gang" in a series of comics for Dark Horse, characterized as "season eight" of the TV show. Whedon let loose a spoiler that Green's character, the werewolf Oz, would appear in a future issue of the comic.
TV Guide critic Matt Roush, who moderated the Paley reunion panel discussion, asked whether the comic--which has morphed and developed the Buffy mythology well beyond the show's season finale--would ultimately affect any Buffy spinoff TV shows or films.
"Hypothetically, if you could make things align, that would be fun," Whedon said, adding: "And it would be lovely to make it all tie in. But if I had to shoot down everything I'm doing in the comics because we were doing a project [and] I was filming with these actual people, I wouldn't lose a lot of sleep."
Before the panel discussion, fans screened the musical episode "Once More With Feeling." Whedon later said that he had just wrapped production on another musical project. "I literally drove here from wrapping the shooting on a little independent short of my own called Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, my next musical, starring Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day. And it's going to come out somewhere, at some point, possibly on a computer. We haven't figure that out yet. And it's awesome." Noxon admitted that she also has a small part.
Could Buffy wind up in musical form on Broadway? "I would love to take a Buffy to Broadway," Whedon said. "It would not be this ['Once More With Feeling']. This is an episode of television. ... You would have to start from scratch. I've spent some time daydreaming about it, because I'm me."
Would any of his Buffy cast be on board? Most raised their hands--with the notable exception of Gellar, who smiled, shook her head and said, "I'm out.
if they did get buffy sarah michelle would want alot more money to come back no doubt, all these scoobie doo movies and amauter horror film she is better in that role
what do they other think, is buffy a better slayer than a horror actress
I didn't like Buffy and those other shows they make based on the same ideas too much teenage vampire crap from Hollywood.
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