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Title: Dead Zone and 4400 cancelled


Phillip Culley - December 19, 2007 09:39 PM (GMT)
Looks like the USA networks have gone for a mass culling and axed both the 4400 and Dead Zone, despite the current seasons finishing several months ago!

prophecy girl - December 20, 2007 10:35 AM (GMT)
QUOTE
Scott Peters, creator of USA Network's The 4400, announced on the show's official forum that the series has been canceled.

"It's with great sadness that I pass along to you the information I've just received: The 4400 has been canceled," Peters wrote on Dec. 18. "We've had a great time bringing you this story and submersing you in the lives of all these incredible characters. Thank you especially to the folks on the board here whose tireless devotion to the show is nothing short of remarkable."

Cast member Jacqueline McKenzie posted her own reaction to the news on her MySpace.com page. "I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone here for writing those petitions!" she said, referring to a fan campaign to save the show. "I know I speak for all the cast: We really appreciate the support and dedication of our fans! Thank you!"

Peters, who is also an executive producer, said that he broke the news to cast member Joel Gretsch. "We had a great talk about what we all accomplished and how much we'll miss our family that is our crew and our cast ... and our fans," Peters wrote. "But at least we got to go out with a bang! I had an awesome time directing the last episode. I think I got to make almost every single cast member cry (on camera). How much fun was that?"

Peters helmed the final episode of the series, "The Great Leap Forward," which aired on Sept. 16, 2007. The show ran for four season on USA


sci fi wire

:unsure:

BouncyCastle - December 20, 2007 10:43 AM (GMT)
Well that's me buying the DVDs of 4400.

Crichton Kicks - December 20, 2007 11:04 AM (GMT)
Mixed news this one.

The last seasons of both shows were relatively poor, and a mere shadow of their former selves at their height.

That being said, killing them now, so long after their seasons have already wrapped is less than ideal.

Perhaps they'll get a TV movie/mini series to wrap up all of the loose ends.

BouncyCastle - December 20, 2007 01:23 PM (GMT)
Doubtful though, isn't it? When networks cancel, they really cancel - normally leaving us poor viewers up in the air with regard to resolving storylines.

Crichton Kicks - December 20, 2007 01:43 PM (GMT)
Indeed. I don't really hold out too much hope. Best bet would be a direct-to-dvd movie by the studio rather than the network.

The alternative is that they could be picked up by the likes of Sci-Fi. I don't think that The Dresden Files is coming back, they cancelled SG1 last season and Painkiller Jane this year, and BSG ends next year. That leaves them with Eureka and Atlantis. There's a gap there. Tin Man is likely to get a series committment given its impressive numbers for the mini series, so it's difficult to judge how receptive they'd be to picking up either The 4400 or The Dead Zone.

Personally, I believe both are pretty much dead at this point.

little pixie - December 20, 2007 02:51 PM (GMT)
Thats a shame. Imo, they were both still watchable. :(

prophecy girl - December 20, 2007 06:16 PM (GMT)
they probably cancel now because they think no one will react (well actually, there is a petition about it but at the moment there is only 253 signatures for the return of the 4400)

Fangy and grrr - December 20, 2007 06:34 PM (GMT)
I thought the last season of The 4400 was a bit of a return to form so this is a shame. :(

Darris - December 25, 2007 11:51 PM (GMT)
To be honest the last season of The 4400 wasn't up to par in comparasion to the others. I am not that bothered its been cancelled.

prophecy girl - January 14, 2008 11:14 AM (GMT)
QUOTE
Fans of USA Network's canceled SF series The 4400 are mounting a mail-in campaign to persuade network executives to reconsider their decision.

Inspired by successful fan mailings of peanuts (to save CBS' Jericho) and Tabasco sauce (for The CW's Roswell), fans will ship sunflower seeds, a favorite of 4400 character Dr. Burkhoff (Jeffrey Combs), in a coordinated mailing daily for a week, starting Feb. 1.

The fans have also organized an online petition, which has more than 6,000 signatures to date.

USA canceled the show in December, after four seasons. The final episode, "The Great Leap Forward," aired on Sept. 16, 2007.


sci fi wire

BouncyCastle - January 14, 2008 12:04 PM (GMT)
I liked The Dead Zone, but Five treated it abysmally, and then it suddenly appeared on Four at 2 in the morning.

What the hell was that all about?

prophecy girl - January 14, 2008 05:50 PM (GMT)
well at least they showed the last season (better than the treatment of season five angel <_< )

BouncyCastle - January 15, 2008 03:20 PM (GMT)
Oh don't get me started on that.

It cost me a fortune, as I ended up buying the DVDs for all five seasons of Angel.

I'd never really watched it before, but when Spike went into it, I thought I'd watch S4 to play catchup, then Five decided they'd not had enough viewers, so they didn't bother with the final season.

I'm not suprised they had low figures - did you see what time they aired it? :ph43r:

little pixie - January 15, 2008 04:36 PM (GMT)
QUOTE (BouncyCastle @ Jan 15 2008, 03:20 PM)
I'm not suprised they had low figures - did you see what time they aired it? :ph43r:

Was that another show in the Daft O`clock timeslot ? :rolleyes:

prophecy girl - January 15, 2008 07:15 PM (GMT)
yep, the usual 2-3 am (with a bit of around midnight at least once without much warning) <_<

not sure they knew what the show was about, they probably bought it because they thought it was the similar to buffy (young audience and also probably to annoy BBC or they thought) and got a huge surprise

Crichton Kicks - January 15, 2008 08:59 PM (GMT)
It all started with Millennium when ITV bought it.

They thought it was just another version of The X Files. Imagine their surprise when it became clear that it was a case of 'serial killer of the week' and gruesome/gory deaths abound! :lol:

prophecy girl - January 16, 2008 09:47 AM (GMT)
:lol: the first episode of millenium was pretty clear of what's was coming in the rest of the season :fear:

i thought that whoever was in charge of buying TV series for a channel would at least watch the pilot episode of said tv serie but obviously not :rolleyes:

BouncyCastle - January 16, 2008 01:31 PM (GMT)
QUOTE (prophecy girl @ Jan 15 2008, 08:15 PM)
yep, the usual 2-3 am (with a bit of around midnight at least once without much warning) <_<

not sure they knew what the show was about, they probably bought it because they thought it was the similar to buffy (young audience and also probably to annoy BBC or they thought) and got a huge surprise

It was quite funny. Near the end of S4 (I used to tape it, because of the ridiculous hour it was shown), it suddenly dawned on me that there were no commercial breaks.

They actually showed the whole episode without a single advert break.

Excellent! :thumbsup:

prophecy girl - January 16, 2008 04:55 PM (GMT)
:lol: i notice that too, i suppose the channel thought there was not enough audience to have adverts in the middle (especially at 2.30am <_< )

star_fury - March 13, 2008 03:57 PM (GMT)
It's a shame although I can't say I'm particularly bothered but it would have been nice to see everything tied up.

I'm not sure what season's I saw last. What series were shown by Sky One and the sci-fi Channel last year? Was that the last series or is there one more?

little pixie - March 13, 2008 04:31 PM (GMT)
I think we`re up to date with The 4400 via SKY . :)

A few days ago, TVShowsonDVD had some info on the final Dead Zone season and I wasn`t sure if I`d seen it on Sci-Fi.... So I looked it up on IMDB and managed to majorly spoil. :rolleyes:

Haven`t seen anything about a UK showing of the last season. :unsure:

star_fury - March 17, 2008 05:19 PM (GMT)
Thanks Pixie. :)

little pixie - April 26, 2008 01:06 PM (GMT)
Grrr. :(

QUOTE
Ian: "I have been a great fan of The Dead Zone and know it has been cancelled in the States. Any idea when the last series will be on Sci Fi. It is long overdue. Thanks."

Neil: You may be in for a long wait. Sci Fi tell me they have "no plans" to air the final season of The Dead Zone.

prophecy girl - June 18, 2008 09:42 AM (GMT)
QUOTE
Hall Sums Up The Dead Zone

Anthony Michael Hall, who played psychic Johnny Smith in six seasons of USA Network's The Dead Zone, told SCI FI Wire that he looks back fondly on the show and feels that the last season did a good job of closing it out. The series ended a bit abruptly because production wrapped on the final season before producers knew that the show wouldn't return for a seventh season.

"The last couple of seasons, we just had to address the finales as if they might be the last, but in my gut I felt the [sixth-season] finale would be the last," Hall said during an interview to promote the just-released DVD set The Dead Zone: The Final Season.

"In terms of how the season went, I had a great time," Hall added. "We'd moved to Montreal, so suddenly it was an all-French-speaking crew, but I have to say they worked just as hard as the crew in Vancouver did for [the first] five years, and I thought they brought this sort of European sensibility. I thought the production values were solid."

Storywise, Hall added, he was happy as well, with a few reservations. During the last season, storylines focused less on Walt (Chris Bruno) and Bruce (John L. Adams) and more on Johnny's interactions with former love Sarah (Nicole deBoer) and his longtime nemesis, Greg Stillson (Sean Patrick Flanery).

"One of the decisions, and it was a network decision, [but] they wanted to get back to the original elements, the family issues, the stuff with Johnny and Sarah," Hall said. "We wanted to tie up the stuff with Stillson, so he was a factor. That led to sort of diminishing the other characters a little bit, Walt and ... Bruce. So it was difficult, because we were all a team for five years, and then suddenly the network decided to make some changes because they wanted to get back to the sort of nuts and bolts of the early season stuff. Overall, I felt good about it. It's always the challenge for the actor to make it come alive."

The Dead Zone concluded with an hour entitled "Denouement." "I thought the episode was good," Hall said. "If it was going to be the last season, that episode spoke to all those character and story issues. In that regard I felt good about it. I'm grateful. Six seasons is amazing. We did 80 episodes, which is like doing 40 movies about one story. It was a great experience."


scifiwire

prophecy girl - June 20, 2008 10:24 AM (GMT)
QUOTE
Anthony Michael Hall, who played psychic Johnny Smith on USA Network's The Dead Zone, told SCI FI Wire that there's talk about a movie and that he'd be open to one, but added that he wasn't particularly optimistic about the possibility. Hall starred for six seasons on the show.

"There's talk about it," Hall said during an interview to promote the just-released DVD set The Dead Zone: The Final Season. "I don't think we had the size of a cult following that, let's say, The X-Files did. You look at Sex and the City or The X-Files, these movies were done long after the shows pumped out their last episodes."

Interestingly, The Dead Zone had a previous incarnation as a 1983 feature film, which starred Christopher Walken as Smith. Some shots of the Dead Zone TV pilot appear to have been borrowed from that film, though the TV show introduced new characters and departed greatly from the movie's premise. Both TV show and movie were based on Stephen King's book of the same name.

In any case, Hall said that he remains grateful for his chance to do the show. "I would certainly be open to the potential for [a reunion feature]," he said. "I would never turn my back on what [the show's late producer] Michael Piller did for me. He gave me this incredible opportunity. When I look back at [my] career, I view him and John Hughes as almost guardian angels of my career."

Piller handpicked Hall to play Smith after watching him play Bill Gates in the cable-television movie Pirates of Silicon Valley. "He and his son, Shawn, were great partners, along with [co-executive producer] Lloyd Segan," Hall said. "These guys, we made it a family affair. ... So I was grateful for the experience, and I would certainly entertain it if they wanted to pursue a film. Am I optimistic about it? Not really, but I certainly wouldn't turn my back on the opportunity."


scifi wire




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