Witchblade, Jake 2.0, The Chronicle, The Invisible Man? (1 Viewer)

[Rick P]

Whilst digging thru 'the big box' (read as 'the big closet') of things to do the transfer deed, I happened across these..

Witchblade (Warner I believe) - two season's on TNT and (IIRC) *MAY* have been done 16:9. I seem to remember A FEW episodes being shown LBX on TNT (and with TNT-HD coming on the air on sat/cable, may be fodder for it)

Jake 2.0 (Viacom?) - the late, lamented UPN (with 6 episodes still in the can) and

The Chronicle (Fox?) - quite good SciFi chanel show that was uncermoniously whacked when Vivendi infected the channel. Connected to Jake 2.0 by the creater Silvo Horta (even a few Chronicle jokes/references in Jake 2.0) and..

The Invisible Man (no clue) - another victim of the Vivendi regiem at SciFi...

any one heard even the slightest rumble of any of these coming out?????

 

[cole_b]

I'd be surprised if Paramount doesn't do anything with Jake 2.0. the fanbase is pretty solid, and there are plenty of people (like me) who didn't get to see the series when it was on, but got the promo (bah) disc they sent out and liked it. plus they've got a built-in sales feature: "contains never-before-aired episodes!" also, it's on UK television, and I think it's gotten good ratings over there.

 

[todd s]

Invisible Man came out in England in a very cool looking season box set.

 

[Rick P]

only the 1st season tho.. and I contacted Contender/Kult-TV and they aren't going to do the second season it seems.

 

[Daniel Kikin]

I'd love to see a Chronicle box set, another good show that got a quick hook from SciFi.

 

[Michael Sliger]

Warner really should treat Witchblade like they did with Babylon 5. A low-frills release of the pilot movie on DVD would give them the demographic numbers needed to assess the profitability of full season sets of the main series. I know I would pick up the movie and Season 1 (and could be coerced into buying Season 2 if it was presented in widescreen with some commentary tracks).

Still, it may not be Warner who is dragging their heels. Top Cow has screwed up a few of their front office decisions in recent years (effectively killing the Rising Stars feature film and delaying the final 3 comic issues by over a year by playing hardball). They may be asking a bit too much in licensing fees for these disks, but that is just speculation on my part.

I have never heard anything about a widescreen broadcast, but it does appear that at least part of the series was shot with HiDef cameras:

http://www.michelbisson.ca/pages/hidef.html

 

[Rick P]

I know some eps were shot wide.. I've got at least one ep on tape that was LBX'ed

 

[Steven.W.T]

I watched Jake 2.0 and The Chronicle.

Jake 2.0 was okay, it wasnt that good but it was getting better. Wouldve been nice to see where it couldve went if it wasnt cancelled.

I remember The Chronicle a few years back. It was just average, pretty funny if I remember correctly. The last few eps before it ended were really really good! Same with Jake 2.0, wouldve been nice to see where it couldve gone.

 

[Rick P]

I know someone who was on staff at "the Chronicle".. the story of it's screw-job by SciFi is enought to make you weep.. even more so was WHERE it was going... coulda been a lot of fun...

 

[Dan Rudolph]

Witchblade has had a pretty solid rating on TV shows on DVD for quite a long time and there's been nary a whisper, though WB does seem to be a lot tighter with their shows than say Fox or Columbia.

 

[CaptDS9E]

Chronicle was a excellent show which got one of the biggest screw jobs of all time. Too bad

capt

 

[Pete Battista]

I would like to check out all of these mentioned... especially Jake 2.0 (never did get my promo disc!:frowning: ) and Witchblade... I never had the chnce to see The Chronical or The Invisible Man.. but would love to check them out!

 

[Steven.W.T]

What screw up? I didnt hear about any. The SciFi channel is an evil channel. GRR!

They screwed Farscape also.

 

[todd s]

So what was the story behind Scifi's screwup of the Chronicle??

 

[Daniel Kikin]

I'm curious about the details too, and where was "The Chronicle" going story-wise (if your friend gave you any details you can divulge...)

 

[Rick P]

The Chronicle 'screwjob' -

This was one of the last shows commissioned by SciFi before Vivendi bought them. Then comes in Michael Jackson (not the gloved one) from the UK. He had a simple edict - "Science Fiction has no place for Spaceships, Aliens and COMEDY".

"The Chronicle" was a certified hit for SciFi, it was in come cases getting ratings BETTER that Farscape! The cast jelled well and the storys were great (my personal favorites, "Touched by an Alien" and "The King is Undead"). Some internal demographics got loose that showed it KILLING in the 16-34 male/female groups... It was big...

.. and in one of his first acts.. before the 4th episode aired.. Herr Jackson CANCELLED the show. But it was a 'double secret' cancellation. Only the 'top' knew, the rest of the ogranization knew they had a hit... you may have seen the ads on the "Hit SciFi Original Series".. sold the same way to advertisers.. much praise to the crew/writers/producers....

BEFORE the final two episodes were written (which were to set up the next season) they were ASSURED they were gonna get the pickup (remember 'double secret cancellation').. so they set up the events in "Hell Mall" and "A Snitch in Time" with Grace and Louis.... and if you've seen those two then you know Rena Sofer was leaving the series.
. We have a great cliffhanger, we have the entire cast in danger... left blowing in the wind...

.. as were the cast/crew. Delay, stall, "getting budgets in order", stall, delay. Finally it comes down to when they expected to be getting ready to pick up production, they had been strung along for 4 months.... 6 (or so) scripts were WRITEN for next season to get them out of this mess.

THEN and only there were they told... "never mind.. you're cancelled". This AFTER the cliffhanger HAD AIRED.

No chance to tidy things up, no chance to resolve things... just a royal "screw you" to the cast/crew/fans.

Damn you SciFi, Damn you Vivendi...

WHERE THEY WERE GOING:

OK, this is from discussions with my friend.. I'm still trying to get my hands on some of the second season outlines/scripts...

Well, first off, Grace was gone into the past with Louis.. circa 1945-46. Rena Sofer wanted to go on to other things ("Friends", "Coupling") and that gave Silvo the chance to stir the pot. Donald, Wes, Tucker and Sal would have basically gone 'underground' (the Archives) till they could get Garabaldi and the NYPD off their butt. They would get help from a girl named Zoe(?).. a graduate jounrnalism student that would show up with all the right answers at all the right times... over two or three episodes she would be seen to be brilliant, a smartass and a equal foil to Tucker, Wes AND DONALD. She would also be somewhat smitten with Sal. Finally after Gariabaldi is derailed and they get back to the business of the paper, she would make some off comment to the effect "Mom was right about you all..."

You guessed it... Zoe is GRACE AND LOUIS'S DAUGHTER. Her mother had groomed her to be a reporter and she had spent time learning EVERTHING about The Chronicle, Donald and everything else... and since Grace knew when SHE left.. she had Zoe ready to step in and take her place... unfortunately Grace left JUST BEFORE the 'raid'.. so Zoe really had her hands full!

Ahh.. what could have been... thankfully I've got recordings from the Canadian airings (no SciFi contamination) under the ORIGINAL title "The Chronicle: News from the Edge". What's even more interesting (and would make a great 'extra' is the original version of the pilot ("The Brooklyn Bloodsucker") that was pitched to NBC... same basic story, but with some significent details and a different actor/makeup for Sal/PigBoy...

I had heard that had Jake 2.0 made it to second season, that in at least one episode.. Jake would be the subject of investigation by a tabloid newspaper... a reporter and his photographer following him around in a red PT Crusier.... but that was just a rumor.. but still....

*sigh*

 

[David_Blackwell]

Let's see.

TNT aired every episode in Full Frame and then they showed every episode in widescreen (at least all of season one and the pilot), so I assume the episodes would be presented in widescreen on DVD. I have the widescreen version of the pilot taped off of TNT (and one of the episodes taped in widescreen).

Jake 2.0 has 4 episodes that remain unaired (production halted after episode 16).

I would love to see Jake 2.0, Witchblade, and I-Man make it to DVD. I heard rumors a couple of years back about Warner releasing the pilot and then season one to DVD, and then nothing became of the rumors.

 

[Steven.W.T]

Wow, I didnt know Scifi did that to The Chronicle. So the season finale played as the series finale? It was really good and I thought it was a true series finale. I just assumed they wanted a cliffhanger ending. It just shows that the channel does not care about its fans.

I thought the way they cancelled Farscape was bad, The Chronicle is worse. With Farscape the channel told all the fans that the show would have another two seasons after the third season. I think it was like two days before the season finale for season 4 wouldve wrapped they told the cast and crew about the cancellation. Too late to close the show off.

Farscape is coming back though. Miniseries, I'll make sure you all watch.

 

[Daniel Kikin]

Thanks Rick, like Steven said, wow. I didn't realize it was so bad either, I thought SciFi cancelled the series, even with the decent-good ratings b/c they were moving in a "different" direction at the time. I guess it's not too surprising in the end, since Henson wasn't notified about Farscape's cancellation until the day before they filmed the end of Season 4.

 

[CaptDS9E]

Yeah chronicle got royally screwed over as mentioned. I remember checking out the ratings and it was doing very well for a sci-fi channel show. Everyone expected it to be renewed, and then the cancellation out of nowhere. I remember reading a post by the creator about what happened. Very sad

capt