'John Doe' Shelves Episode After NASA Tragedy
02-05-03, 10:15 AM
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'John Doe' Shelves Episode After NASA Tragedy
http://tv.zap2it.com/news/tvnewsdaily.html?30011
Tue, Feb 4, 2003 09:04 PM PDT
by Kate O'Hare
Zap2it, TV News
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - "The irony is," says "John Doe" executive producer Brandon Camp, "there's all this buzz right now about reality programming, and yet it's the scripted fare that's too real or too emotionally raw oftentimes."
Camp and production partners Mike Thompson and Mimi Leder support FOX's decision to pull the "John Doe" episode originally scheduled to air Friday, Feb. 7, at 9 p.m. ET, in the wake of the destruction of the space shuttle Columbia as it reentered Earth's atmosphere last Saturday, which resulted in the deaths of the crew.
The episode, "Illegal Alien," begins with an astronaut falling out of the sky and being accidentally killed. Information-overloaded amnesiac Doe (Dominic Purcell) and police pal Detective Hayes (John Marshall Jones) investigate what appears to be some sort of government conspiracy.
"It was very much of a mutual decision," Camp says. "We have this episode that revolves around this mysterious appearance of an astronaut in a forest outside of Seattle, and there are all these whispers of a connection between the astronaut and John Doe throughout the episode."
"Although we've got this really cool, action-packed sweeps episode on our hands, there really wasn't a moment's hesitation about pulling the episode on our end."
"Don't get me wrong -- the episode is in no way offensive, nor does it demean NASA or the space program. But nonetheless, we do have a through-line in the episode that revolved around an astronaut, and we felt it was probably wise to be respectful of the situation."
Replacing "John Doe" is a second episode of the high-energy police action show "Fastlane," which airs regularly at 8 p.m. ET. While another episode of "John Doe" could conceivably have been completed to air on Feb. 7, Camp isn't sure that would be the best way to go.
"We have another episode that could be ready," he says, "but then our subsequent episodes start to tailspin, in terms of getting those ready in time. We're talking with the network now. They had some schedule preemptions for other stuff that they were going to do on Friday night that would preempt both 'Fastlane' and 'John Doe.'"
"Now they're talking about trying not to do that, or maybe we'll do a double-'Doe' night. There's all kinds of talk right now, nothing is specific."
At this point, Camp just wants to reassure confused fans. "You know you're in trouble when your die-hard fans don't know when the show's on. It feels like it's 'Fastlane Friday,' because if you look at the ads that were airing last night, FOX is pumping it with everything they can."
"To someone who doesn't understand what has happened and why we have been moved it creates fear and paranoia for our fans. That's why we were really pushing FOX to get the word out in terms of why they did this, why we did this."
This seems like overkill to me. It's about an astronaut and government conspiracy, not about NASA and the shuttle disaster.
Chris
Tue, Feb 4, 2003 09:04 PM PDT
by Kate O'Hare
Zap2it, TV News
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - "The irony is," says "John Doe" executive producer Brandon Camp, "there's all this buzz right now about reality programming, and yet it's the scripted fare that's too real or too emotionally raw oftentimes."
Camp and production partners Mike Thompson and Mimi Leder support FOX's decision to pull the "John Doe" episode originally scheduled to air Friday, Feb. 7, at 9 p.m. ET, in the wake of the destruction of the space shuttle Columbia as it reentered Earth's atmosphere last Saturday, which resulted in the deaths of the crew.
The episode, "Illegal Alien," begins with an astronaut falling out of the sky and being accidentally killed. Information-overloaded amnesiac Doe (Dominic Purcell) and police pal Detective Hayes (John Marshall Jones) investigate what appears to be some sort of government conspiracy.
"It was very much of a mutual decision," Camp says. "We have this episode that revolves around this mysterious appearance of an astronaut in a forest outside of Seattle, and there are all these whispers of a connection between the astronaut and John Doe throughout the episode."
"Although we've got this really cool, action-packed sweeps episode on our hands, there really wasn't a moment's hesitation about pulling the episode on our end."
"Don't get me wrong -- the episode is in no way offensive, nor does it demean NASA or the space program. But nonetheless, we do have a through-line in the episode that revolved around an astronaut, and we felt it was probably wise to be respectful of the situation."
Replacing "John Doe" is a second episode of the high-energy police action show "Fastlane," which airs regularly at 8 p.m. ET. While another episode of "John Doe" could conceivably have been completed to air on Feb. 7, Camp isn't sure that would be the best way to go.
"We have another episode that could be ready," he says, "but then our subsequent episodes start to tailspin, in terms of getting those ready in time. We're talking with the network now. They had some schedule preemptions for other stuff that they were going to do on Friday night that would preempt both 'Fastlane' and 'John Doe.'"
"Now they're talking about trying not to do that, or maybe we'll do a double-'Doe' night. There's all kinds of talk right now, nothing is specific."
At this point, Camp just wants to reassure confused fans. "You know you're in trouble when your die-hard fans don't know when the show's on. It feels like it's 'Fastlane Friday,' because if you look at the ads that were airing last night, FOX is pumping it with everything they can."
"To someone who doesn't understand what has happened and why we have been moved it creates fear and paranoia for our fans. That's why we were really pushing FOX to get the word out in terms of why they did this, why we did this."
This seems like overkill to me. It's about an astronaut and government conspiracy, not about NASA and the shuttle disaster.
Chris
I was looking forward to this episode too (not because of the shuttle tragedy, but because it looked interesting from the preview last week).
02-05-03, 10:46 AM
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Whoo Hoo!!
We can ALWAYS use more Fastlane!!
FASTLANE FRIDAY -- YEAH BABY!!
We can ALWAYS use more Fastlane!!
FASTLANE FRIDAY -- YEAH BABY!!
