The show premiers Sunday, April 17th at 9pm!

JOURNEYMAN

Kevin Falls created Journeyman about time-travelling journalist Dan Vasser. The show lasted just 13 episodes but in an interview with Aint-It-Cool-News, Falls revealed where the show was headed:

Dan and his wife, Katie, were going to separate.  Jack (Dan’s brother) and Dan were going to live together and then Dan and Katie would get back together.

Livia (Dan’s time traveling ex-fiancée from 1948) was slated to die in episode 20. Dan was going to go back in time and save her in 21. In episode 22, Dan would come back to his house in the present and find someone else would be living there. Katie (his wife) and Zack (his son) would be gone and this time Dan would have no idea how to get his family back.

Ultimately, many of the people who Dan saved from the past were going to come together in a “Rube Goldberg-inspired climax” to play a part in saving Dan and his family in the present.

The show would eventually reveal that a massive organization was sending Dan and other travelers through time, with the intention of doing good.

Livia’s original goal was to get Katie and Dan together, but then the writers felt that Livia was keeping some secret from Dan that was huge and tragic.

Livia only went forward in time and Dan backward because they each had a specific and separate purpose.  One of the side affects was the fact that Dan and Livia would never be able to live in the same time.

Eventually, Dan would have encountered an elderly Livia in his present.

REAPER

Reaper was a modest hit on the CW, following slacker Sam catching escaped souls for the Devil. Creators Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters revealed to cliqueclack.com their plans for the show.

Short-term, they would have given Andi a job at the DMV with Gladys the demon. Sam’s friends, Sock and Ben, would always be normal humans – Sam’s moral compass and tether to the real world.

Long-term, the revelation of who Sam’s father was would have been proven to be his father that raised him, not the Devil. The premise was that his father was a demon who made a deal with the Devil to be able to marry Sam’s mother because they were in love. Sam’s father was not a demon because of this deal, but also not quite human, which is why he couldn’t die.

This is also why Sam was considered so special by the Devil. His powers came from the fact that he was part demon and was something special. The Devil tricked him into becoming a servant so that he could try to corrupt Sam because he was afraid of Sam’s potential.

Ultimately, the writing duo say they intended to end the show on a happy ending with Sam getting out of his contract and getting the girl.

TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES

Show creator Josh Friedman has repeatedly declined to speak about his plans for a third season of Terminator, saying he prefers the audience to create their own ending. But in an interview with io9.com, star Thomas Dekker revealed what he had been told about the plan.

The show ended with John Connor leaping forward to the Future War without his mother. According to Dekker, he would have met a future version of Sarah who had survived Judgement Day. He also said that his character of John Connor would have found himself torn between Alison, the human who his Terminator bodyguard Cameron was based on, and the actual robot version of Cameron.

A new character to the show would have been Danny Dyson, the son of Miles from the second movie, who was originally responsible for building Skynet.

More information came from James Middleton, one of the producers on the show. In an interview with SciFiWire.com, he said John Connor erased his existence from history by leaping into the future. This helps back up what Dekker said about the show.

CARNIVALE

Carnivale was a very ambitious HBO show set in the Depression-era Dustbowl, and followed Ben Hawkins, an avatar of Light and Brother Justin, an avatar of Dark, as they exhibited supernatural abilities and moved towards an inevitable confrontation between good and evil. The show was announced by creator Daniel Knauf as having a five-year plan but only lasted two.

A quick jump to wikipedia helps to reveal some of the plans, with links to many different interviews of Knauf and other writers.

Jonesy would not have died from Sofie’s gunshot and the third season was going to begin with him playing Major League Baseball and still being married to Libby. Sofie would be revealed to be something called the Omega, and she does bring her father, Justin, back to life, but still has some good in her. The third season would have centered on her internal battle between good and evil.

Justin would be alive, but have an inoperable chunk of shrapnel near his heart, from the anointed blade in the season two finale. He would have been weakened and his sister Iris and daughter Sofie would vie for control of his organization. Eventually, Justin would marry Sofie and possibly have a child.

Meanwhile, Ben’s wounds from the finale would require constant mending and he would lose some of his Vitae Divina powers. Ben would change and become similar to Management, but remain in love with Sofie, and their ultimate fates together would be uncertain.

Hmmm. With vague answers like that, maybe it wasn’t such a bad time to end the show.

The event takes place in San Diego from July 22nd-26th. If you’re attending the Con and plan to go to any of the panels, let us know what you learn. We’d love to have some TVZ reporters there.

photo credit: Lord Jim

Wednesday, July 22:

6-9 p.m.: WB Pilot Preview Night

Thursday, July 23

TBD: Burn Notice, Legend of the Seeker, Psych

5-6 p.m.: Dexter

Friday, July 24

TBD: Caprica, Eureka, Spartacus: Blood and Sand and Stargate Universe.

11:45 a.m.-12:45 p.m.: Flash Forward

1-2 p.m.: The Big Bang Theory

2:15-3 p.m.: 24

2:15-3:15 p.m.: Past Life

3-3:45 p.m.: Bones

4-6 p.m.: Dollhouse (including Epitaph One screening)

Saturday, July 25

TBD: Heroes, Sanctuary and Warehouse 13

10-11 a.m.: Chuck

10:15-11:15 a.m.: Eastwick

11 a.m.-12 p.m.: Lost

11:15 a.m.-12 p.m.: Family Guy

12-12:45 p.m.: The Cleveland Show

1-1:45 p.m.: Futurama

1:30-3 p.m.: Glee (including new episode screening)

1:45-2:30 p.m.: The Simpsons

2:45-3:45 p.m.: V (including full pilot screening)

4-5 p.m.: Fringe

4:45-5:45 p.m.: Human Target

6-7 p.m.: Vampire Diaries

7:15-8 p.m.: MythBusters

Sunday, July 26

10:00-11:00 a.m.: Dr. Who

10:30-11:30 a.m.: Smallville

11:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m.: American Dad

11:45 a.m.-12:45 p.m.: Supernatural

1-2 p.m.: Ghost Whisperer

2:15-3:45 p.m.: Torchwood and Being Human will be a shared panel.

photo credit: fatalfarm

HBO’s new original mini-series based on McCullough’s book attempts to do the same, but in its commitment to absolute authenticity, it stumbles a bit. Make no mistake, it’s a remarkable achievement, but what worked so well in the book — a contemporary take on an American legend — is hard to pull off on television.

Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney are both incredible in their portrayal of John and Abigail Adams — once can sense the vast amount of research that went into their performances. But by striving for complete authenticity in many ways they create a chasm of inaccessibility between the characters and the audience. 18th Century Americans — paticularly New Englanders — were resourceful, smart and moved by the injustice of British rule over the colonies. But emotionally, the were distant and formal in their interactions with one another. Giamatti and Linney nail it, but the audience must take time to acclimate before becoming emotionally involved in the mini-series.

This is not to say that I wasn’t moved by some of the key points in the first two episodes — Adams’ successful defense of British soldiers accused of massacring “innocent” American civilians, the horrific tar-and-feathering of a Tory sympathizer, George Washington’s earnest desire to help the besieged Bostonians, or (spoiler!) the grand political maneuvers necessary for unanimous adoption of the Declaration of Independence. But it took some work to get there.

There’s a delicate balance between authenticity and accessibility. Rome successfully conveyed a nearly alien culture while making its lead characters completely likable and sympathetic. No matter what, the audience always knew what Vorenus, Pullo, Antony, Brutus, Cato, Caeser, Octavian, etc. were feeling and thinking. But with John Adams, we have to guess, because very little of the characters’ inner lives (thus far) has been conveyed to the audience. The only exception is Tom Wilkins’ delightful portrayal of Benjamin Franklin, who was not only brilliant, but possibly the first modern American.

I think it’s important to note, however, that many of the background details are correct. Personal hygiene, costumes, etc. are all a far cry from the lavish spectacles we usually get in films and mini series set during the era. And the scale of conflict is quite small when compared to modern day — a sharp contrast to overblown spectacles like Mel Gibson’s dreadful film, The Patriot.

All and all, John Adams is a great mini-series for history buffs and fans of McCullough’s book. However, casual viewers may find the world of John Adams a bit too inaccessible to endure seven hours of it.

It’s for this reason that I give John Adams a respectable score of 3/5.