24 and Dollhouse shutting down production…
By fred | September 11, 2008
Funny thing: when I learned that two Fox series that wouldn’t be on the air until 2009 were shutting down production, I did not react the same to that news at all.
It looks like it’s pretty much the same thing going on in either case : either show won’t be on the air for months, each were ahead of production and thus had the luxury of being able to shut down production, in both case the request came from the creative minds behind the show who asked more time to work on scripts, and given said circumstances the network was happy to oblige.
And yet, to me, for one show it felt like this could be a good thing, while for the other one I couldn’t help but taking it as a bad sign of things to come… It might be me, and the way I feel for both series, but in all honesty I think there is, actually, somewhat of a huge difference in the two situations the shows are in.
The facts are these: 24 executive producer Howard Gordon asked to shut down production because he wasn’t very happy with a few scripts that were written, and he wanted to retool/rewrite them. “We had a couple of scripts that we weren’t happy with. We just couldn’t get this direction to work, and we found another one that we liked better, so we wound up retooling it. … Our feeling was this: We’re so happy with what we’ve done so far, and to the extent that we had that luxury [of time], we said, ‘Why not make it as good as we could?’”
As for Dollhouse, after having written and directed the original pilot (which will now air as second episode), Whedon also took care of the “new pilot”. Having directed two of the three episodes already shot, Whedon felt he didn’t had sufficient time to be in the writers room and tailor the upcoming scripts to his liking, and thus asked for more time to work on the next scripts before they go any further.
A fox rep said about this situation that they “have every confidence that [the extra time] will allow Joss to make the show the best it can possibly be. It’s very rare that you have a head writer who is also directing two episodes in a row. But we are happy that Joss is directing, because this is his vision.”
So in both cases, the creative minds behind the shows asked for more time to write on scripts, to ensure things would be the best they could be, and they had their wishes granted. But somehow I couldn’t help but feel like, while for Dollhouse this could be a good thing (not that it shut down production, but that they could have the time they needed to do want they want to do the way they want to do it), for 24 this might be a sign of trouble. (Doesn’t mean I’m not worried about Dollhouse - a Whedon-made sci-fi show on Fox…)
Why do I feel this way ? Of course, catastrophic last season of the show might affect my judgment, but here’s this thing : while I know Dollhouse had to change which episode would be the pilot, and I haven’t forgotten about Firefly, far from it, I (want to) believe Whedon when he explained that it wouldn’t affect the show in any way as it did Firefly, that he offered to do another episode as first one, not the network, and that it is a completely different situation.
On the other hand, this season of 24 didn’t had such a great start. After coming up with a first plan for the upcoming season, Fox rejected the scripts and writers had to start over from scratch. Unlike with Dollhouse, where the only concern was time : Whedon had a lot to do and not enough time to do it all, here it’s not that they needed more time, it’s that the written scripts didn’t work, and they had to - once again - find a new direction for the show to go in.
Now, I’m the first to say that not every delay is a bad thing, and it is best that they take their time to do things right, rather that rushing into unsatisfying things, but. But let’s not forget this isn’t the first time writers have to come up with a different direction for this season, and of course the dark shadow of last season’s mess is very much alive, adding to that how the show lost his co-creator/exec producer Joel Surnow this season, and they’re bringing back people from the dead… and one might wonder how exciting Jack’s future looks at this point…
Enough with the series 6 bashing. Okay the Bauer family stuff didn’t work that well, but they knew when to stop it short of soap opera - they could have had Jack being the father of Josh, or even Josh being the result of Philip Bauer raping Josh’s mother (two ideas they say did bounce around the writers room) but they knew when something wasn’t working and toned down on the drama.
As for the rest of the season, how different was it to any other day in Jack’s life? The show was bigger - nuclear bombs in the city/America on the brink of ww3 with China and Russia.
24 has had six excellent series. They reset the clock every series in the show and in the writters room. Okay they revisted a Palmer being de-presidented, but give them a fuckin break.
Everyone loves 24, and for valid reason. The show was and continues to try and be groundbreaking. Unlike shite shows like Heroes, they TRY and come up with new ways of telling their story.
The 24hour aspect seems to not only be their greatest asset but also their greatest hindrance.
This news that they’ve had to take a break in production only goes to show they’re trying to give 100%
Give them a fuckin break Fred
I understand you love the show, but I don’t think I did any such thing as a season 6 bashing.
And while it could have been worse, yes, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t bad ! And in all fairness, last season was bad, it really was, and not just because of the Bauer family drama. (I mean, having full episodes of Jack sitting somewhere waiting isn’t my idea of a great 24 hour for instance…)
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