Trouble in paradise or just business as usual? Joseph Adalian at The Wrap reports:
ABC's buzz-heavy new fall drama "V" is taking a two-week creative hiatus.
Warner Bros. TV has decided to temporarily shut down production on the alien invasion series, with filming scheduled to halt next Wednesday, a studio rep confirmed exclusively to TheWrap. Because "V" doesn't premiere until Nov. 3, the move won't impact scheduling of the series or ABC's ability to air the six episodes it's planning for the fourth quarter.
The studio wouldn't discuss the specific reasons behind the move, saying only that the shutdown was designed to boost "V" in the long-term.
WBTV wants to "take advantage of our November premiere to maximize creative opportunities and deliver the audience the best show possible," a Warners spokesperson said.
People familiar with the decision indicated the hiatus was put in place so that writers would have time to beef up future scripts and bring them in line with the quality of the pilot, which has been getting good buzz from bloggers and critics since a successful screening at Comic-Con last month.
This sort of thing likely happens more than I'm aware of, but the last time I remember hearing something like this was last fall for Dollhouse. FOX made similar comments at the time and noted it didn't impact the schedule because Dollhouse wasn't launching until the winter. Warner Bros. and ABC are in the same spot with V more or less. Since it's not airing until November, a two-week shutdown in August and early September shouldn't impact the schedule at all.
There’s only one reason a show takes a hiatus like this. I’m sure the episodes were coming out so great the network was afraid the viewers would lose their minds seeing how incredibly great the episodes were. And then the viewers wouldn’t settle for anything less than the incredibly great episodes V was making, which would cause problems for all the other shows that couldn’t live up to the greatness that was coming out of V.
Definitely news worthy of concern for those looking forward to the show.
Sounds like trouble. Would 2 weeks really make that much of a difference that all the later scripts will be better?
With Dollhouse’s schedule, it was to shoot a new pilot and redo what only made sense in the context of the original pilot (I believe). Let’s hope it’s not the same situation at ABC.
Makes some sense to me. V was originally listed as a mid-season replacement, which would typically means a January or later launch. They were probably expecting post-Lost, to be honest, and I would save it for then if only because of the Elizabeth Mitchell connection (she has a lot of Lost fans). Suddenly they get a much earlier date and have to ramp up production. Maybe it was not coming out as planned, so they shelved it for a bit.
Or may it was crap. Who knows.
officegurl wrote:
:-)
“There’s only one reason a show takes a hiatus like this. I’m sure the episodes were coming out so great the network was afraid the viewers would lose their minds seeing how incredibly great the episodes were. And then the viewers wouldn’t settle for anything less than the incredibly great episodes V was making, which would cause problems for all the other shows that couldn’t live up to the greatness that was coming out of V.”
Yeah, it must be the reason for sure!
I had always thought this show was going to be bad and do awfully in the ratings. Alien invasion in a tv show never works.
don’t forget that their was always the issue with V of whether it was going to be a mini-series event or 6 episodes with a chance for a full season pick up. this 2 week hiatus could be based on the decision of deciding of how to finish writing it as an event with a conclusion or leaving it more open for a full season/future.
Not a big deal at all. I would rather have the writers re-focus and come out with good scripts then produce rushed hack jobs.
Well, I think the problem is the subject matter. I’m still not sold on the sci-fi genre being that popular. They saw that Lost had a widespread appeal -just like heroes in the first season- and are trying to replicate that success.
But I don’t think it will work. Even heroes, it is sci-fi but it’s strongly character-based. I think what was appealing of that show were the different personalities of the characters, rather than the special power each of them had.
Someone could object that last year Fringe had a lot of success, so sci-fi still works. But Fringe was presented like the new x-files (even if I disagree) and I think that it helped it not to be seen as only a sci-fi show.
All in all, I’m not convinced that V and Flash Forward will have the expected success,IMHO.
@r0ckmypants: Dollhouse didn’t take a two-week hiatus to shoot a new pilot. Shooting a new pilot was decided in July, before the show went into production of the first season. The two-week hiatus referenced here happened – I think – between shooting the second and third episode, in September, and was described as a move to polish up future scripts and get the show to a place the network and the producers wanted it to be.
Didn’t 24 also have such a timeout last year?
Anyway, I don’t think this is a big deal.
Uh-oh, Dollhouse was mentioned twice in two new articles on the site. Brace yourselves!
So that’s how long it takes to cast for the roles of the hulking but innocent man-child with mystical healing powers and the wiseacre midget prostitute with a heart of gold and a mysterious past.
I have to reiterate that the November scheduling simply screams “We know, like Knight Rider & Bionic Woman before it, that V will get massive initial nostalgia numbers (during sweeps) before ratings fall off a cliff.”
The hiatus could be simply be financial: Everyone knows that it will be a miracle if the show gets a back order, so they’ve shut down production until they can get costs per episode in line (since, again, there will be no second batch of episodes to earn their development money back).
It could be a good or bad sign. It’s hit-or-miss with these things.
Dollhouse? There were creative problems early on, and the early episodes suffered. However, the hiatus for Brothers & Sisters was the best thing that ever happened to the series.
Right, Dan. The original pilot for Brothers & Sisters was universally trashed, so they took a break, refocused, brought on Sally Field, and got a critically acclaimed series out of it. Well, until last season, anyway.
Dollhouse took additional time and still consistently sucked. (Makes me wonder how much worse it was to begin with!) I hope V doesn’t follow that pattern.
I’m looking forward to “V” much more than I am “Flash Forward” so I hope this is nothing serious.
Bruce, same here. Have zero interest in Flash Forward but I’m very interested in V and hope whatever’s going on, it gets worked out.
Speaking of, I’ve been catching up on the 1988 Mission Impossible tv show remake with Jane Badler and I just remembered that she was in V. I wonder if she’d ever consider make an appearance on the new V remake? But then, I’m not even sure if she’s still acting.