TALK STORY

Now and Again

POSTED BY: JUMPY
UPDATED: Wednesday, June 16, 2004 10:22
SHORT URL:
VIEWED: 5766
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Tuesday, June 1, 2004 6:00 AM

JUMPY


I dont know if it's been mentioned here but I just remembered another great show I loved which got cancelled (in fact by FOX i think). Now and Again. It was on commercial television here in Australia a while back but only just came out on cable/ satellite Pay TV.

It was an intelligent, funny and interesting show same as firefly. Anyone else really like it?

__________________________
There's no show I'd rather see, than the one with Serenity.
You can't take the sky from me...

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Tuesday, June 1, 2004 6:21 AM

SOULOFSERENITY

The Man They Call Soul...


Finally!! Someone who liked that show!

I loved it when it was on, and the cliffhanger ending to the SERIES really pissed me off. They so need to conclude that somehow.

______________________

But if your hand touches metal, I swear by my pretty floral bonnet, I will end you.

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Tuesday, June 1, 2004 6:55 AM

ECGORDON

There's no place I can be since I found Serenity.


I believe it was originally on NBC. And guess what? It was on Friday night.

Does that seem right to you?


wo men ren ran zai fei xing.

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Tuesday, June 1, 2004 10:27 AM

LASHER99


Now and Again was originally aired on CBS and was one of my 3 favorite series of all time (Firefly and Brimstone being the other two). It actually had decent ratings while it aired despite being on Friday night @ 9. It was cancelled, rumor has it, because of issues between the producer (Carron) and the head of CBS (Moonves). Apparantly, Carron did could not (or would not) keep the series within the meager budget that CBS funded. It came down to renewing Now and Again or City of Hope (a hospital drama based in an urban ghetto). Despite City of Hope having much lower ratings, it was the one renewed. It didn't last the following year. As you can tell, I was one of those who tried to get it back on the air. Even a two hour wrap-up movie would have been nice. So Fox is not the only station know to screw over a good show. Unfortunately, there are no DVD plans in the works.

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Tuesday, June 1, 2004 3:47 PM

JUMPY


Yep, that really, REALLY bites. It was really just a fantastic show. I guess that's how these things go though, which is upsetting. lol the last episode was on yesterday and I really just wish I knew what the hell happens!!



__________________________
There's no show I'd rather see, than the one with Serenity.
You can't take the sky from me...

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Tuesday, June 1, 2004 5:25 PM

DARKARCHON


Just wanted to put in my 2 cents worth. Thought, "Now and Again" was o.k., but "Brimstone" was very cool. Would liked to see more of that show. Thought Glover was a great Devil.

-Dark

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Tuesday, June 1, 2004 6:29 PM

BIKISDAD


Please forgive my ignorance, but was this show the one about the insurance exec. who was killed by a subway train and then brought back to life as a sort of "super-man" by the government? If it was, then I also really liked it, but I'm not sure I'm connecting the correct show and title.

Apathy on the Rise. No One Cares.

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Tuesday, June 1, 2004 8:09 PM

JUMPY


Yep u got it nailed bikisdad that's the show.

__________________________
There's no show I'd rather see, than the one with Serenity.
You can't take the sky from me...

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Wednesday, June 2, 2004 2:29 AM

BIKISDAD


Oh, good. I always wondered what happened to that show. It seemed like they were just getting going - doing a good job of setting up an ongoing story, then nothing. So, network politics. Well, that explains a lot.

Apathy on the Rise. No One Cares.

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Wednesday, June 2, 2004 2:35 AM

JUMPY


Yeah. Sheesh I would have really liked a DVD release. I mean if yu've got a show that goes for a while its probably going to be on TV for a little even if its just reruns. But you could be considerate with good, cancelled shows (whoo hoo for firefly getting a DVD) for people.

I even remember all these cartoons I saw as a kid like Samurai Pizza Cats (hey it was cool at the time) that will probably never again see the light of day. Its really just a big shame.

__________________________
There's no show I'd rather see, than the one with Serenity.
You can't take the sky from me...

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Wednesday, June 2, 2004 2:36 AM

JUMPY


(double post sorry)
__________________________
There's no show I'd rather see, than the one with Serenity.
You can't take the sky from me...

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Wednesday, June 2, 2004 2:54 AM

BIKISDAD


You're right. There seems to be no rhyme or reason for whether a show gets a dvd release or not (so especially Yay!!! for Firefly getting one). If you look at the long lists of shows on tvshowsondvd.com there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of correlation between how good a show was and whether it was released on dvd. There are a lot of good shows with no dvds and a lot of bad ones that do have dvds. This is especially true of older, pre-dvd technology, shows.

Apathy on the Rise. No One Cares.

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Wednesday, June 2, 2004 3:51 AM

JUMPY


Very true.

But I imagine that because there a lot more shows with a larger variety of genres in this particular era of television there are just going to be more and more good things that vanish quietly into the night.

Its especially sad that because Television guys seem to be becoming extremely impatient not only are short lived shows going to be axed but because of that a DVD becomes less likely and thus the show never gets the chance it deserves.

I think much more people are probably buying movies and shows for home since the release of DVDs. Maybe the TV boys and gals should put a little more effort into giving a show like Now and Again a go on DVD because it may bring in surprising results. Wait, isn't firefly going to be a movie now because of a successful DVD release?

There are certainly plenty of bad shows as you said bikisdad that were released and made a bit of money. Certainly Now and Again would at least do okay, I know plenty of people who watched it on TV and liked it.




__________________________
There's no show I'd rather see, than the one with Serenity.
You can't take the sky from me...

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Wednesday, June 2, 2004 10:19 AM

LASHER99


Jumpy,
Apparently the second season would have resumed six months later with Michael back in Dr. Morris' custody. I'd assume he did not tell Lisa or Heather who he really was.

DARKARCHON,
I have the synopses for the 6 unfilmed Brimstone episodes that would have constituted the complete first season. They would have been fantastic to see on tv. I can post them here if you want to see them.

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Wednesday, June 2, 2004 11:25 AM

DARKARCHON


Lasher...

Please do. I would be very interested in reading them to see what direction the show was headed when it was prematurely corpsified.

-Dark

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Wednesday, June 2, 2004 11:30 AM

FIREFLEW


Quote:

Originally posted by Jumpy:

I even remember all these cartoons I saw as a kid like Samurai Pizza Cats (hey it was cool at the time) that will probably never again see the light of day. Its really just a big shame./B]



Call me somewhat sad, but you can get depressed at just how many all of these great things - music, tv series etc. that just never will return. Well I get depressed at anything really. I mean, at the end of Firefly DVD I got depressed - there's nothing left!

I mean hell, even that Annie song, "Tommorrow" depressed me when I was young...

I'm sorry, I ramble. But yes, so many good things which get suffocated under a blanket of mediocrity.

Jayne: "Know what the chain of command is? It's the chain I beat you with till you understand who's in command."

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Wednesday, June 2, 2004 12:36 PM

ANNIK


Quote:

Originally posted by DarkArchon:
Just wanted to put in my 2 cents worth. Thought, "Now and Again" was o.k., but "Brimstone" was very cool. Would liked to see more of that show. Thought Glover was a great Devil.

-Dark



I read the review quickly, so I'm not sure if this is *actually* a follow-up show or if it is simply based on a similar series, but SPACE is supposed to start a new show called "The Collector" that is somehow related to/inspired by Brimstone.

Starts tonight (June 2), 19:00 MT.

Cheers,
Annik
... my sister's a ship. We had a complicated childhood.

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Wednesday, June 2, 2004 12:56 PM

LASHER99


Unfilmed Brimstone Episode outline as posted by creators (Reiff & Vorhis) on the official Fox board. All I can say is that they would have rocked.

Episode 114: RIVALS (Unfilmed)
Episode 14 pitted Stone with two dilemmas: an escaped damned Soul who is killing illegal immigrants and a beautiful kick-ass damned woman, late of the Irish Republican Army, who the Devil has brought back in order to test Stone. The Deal? Whoever sends this week's Damned Soul to Hell FIRST gets to stay on Earth and hunt the down the rest of the 113 -- whoever fails gets a one-way ticket back to Eternal Damnation! Zeke wins, but not before getting somewhat PHYSICALLY involved with the IRA woman, who proves to be almost his match in every way, shape & form.

Episode 115: DEADLINE (Unfilmed)
An episode with a BACKWARDS structure. A Reporter shows up on the scene just in time to witness Zeke sending a Damned Soul back to Hell, then tracks the story BACKWARDS in his attempt to find Stone and find out what's up...

Episode 116: ANGEL (Unfilmed)
Stone tracks down what he THINKS is a Damned Soul, but turns out instead to be a Rogue Angel bored with heaven, desperate to taste everything life has to offer -- including Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll, and murder! Stone has to figure out how to trick the bad Angel into going back to Heaven -- with a little help from someone who 'aint the Devil and prompts the Devil into yelling at the Heaven's: "He's working for me, not you!" Also in this episode, a mysterious woman shows up and starts asking questions about Zeke Stone -- it's ROSALYN!

Episode 117: PARTNERS (Unfilmed)
Stone tracks another Damned Soul, but this time the Devil shows up and wants to tag along on Stone's investigation! This one's personal for ole' Lucifer, 'cause this is the one guy who never broke, the one guy who never begged for mercy, who did his time in Hell defiantly, always telling the Devil to F-off. Who is this tough-as-nails Damned Soul? None other than a meek, mild-mannered CLERK who looks like he wouldn't hurt a fly! Lots of darkly comic antics with Stone showing the Devil how to be a detective, etc. Also more on Roz tracking down the husband she was sure was dead... until now.

Episode 118: INNOCENCE (Unfilmed)
Stone tracks down a Damned Soul who turns out to be none other than one of his relatives, a beloved Uncle from Stone's childhood who claims that he was innocent, that Somebody Up There made a mistake! Stone embarks on a bizarre quest -- not to hunt down this week's Damned Soul -- but to try to clear him and find the real bad guy...

Episode 119: BIRTHDAY (Unfilmed)
The Season Finale. Maxine finds out that Stone's birthday is coming up and tries to throw a a party for her loneliest hotel guest. Problem is she can't find any friends or relatives, except those that claim Zeke Stone has been dead for 15 years! Plus the return of ASH, the return of Zeke's CAT and a stunning cliff-hanger: Max brings a special, suprise guest to Zeke's Birthday Party -- a guest whose arrival was to serve as our season-ending finale -- his wife, ROZ!

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Wednesday, June 2, 2004 12:56 PM

LASHER99


Annik,
Gotta check that one out. Thanks. If I find out more info, I'll post here.

Edit:
Has a loosely similar premise, but there's no connection to Reiff and Voris.

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Wednesday, June 2, 2004 1:33 PM

ANNIK


Quote:

Originally posted by lasher99:
Annik,
Gotta check that one out. Thanks. If I find out more info, I'll post here.

Edit:
Has a loosely similar premise, but there's no connection to Reiff and Voris.



Thanks for the clarification. I don't have cable and hadn't heard of either series until browsing the local newspaper today and saw the review on it ... they both sound interesting. Quirky coincidence that someone mentioned it here.

I hope it's a good one, for those of you who get to see it.

Cheers,
Annik
... my sister's a ship. We had a complicated childhood.

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Thursday, June 3, 2004 12:24 AM

JUMPY


Quote:

Originally posted by lasher99:
Unfilmed Brimstone Episode outline as posted by creators (Reiff & Vorhis) on the official Fox board. All I can say is that they would have rocked.

Episode 114: RIVALS (Unfilmed)
Episode 14 pitted Stone with two dilemmas: an escaped damned Soul who is killing illegal immigrants and a beautiful kick-ass damned woman, late of the Irish Republican Army, who the Devil has brought back in order to test Stone. The Deal? Whoever sends this week's Damned Soul to Hell FIRST gets to stay on Earth and hunt the down the rest of the 113 -- whoever fails gets a one-way ticket back to Eternal Damnation! Zeke wins, but not before getting somewhat PHYSICALLY involved with the IRA woman, who proves to be almost his match in every way, shape & form.

Episode 115: DEADLINE (Unfilmed)
An episode with a BACKWARDS structure. A Reporter shows up on the scene just in time to witness Zeke sending a Damned Soul back to Hell, then tracks the story BACKWARDS in his attempt to find Stone and find out what's up...

Episode 116: ANGEL (Unfilmed)
Stone tracks down what he THINKS is a Damned Soul, but turns out instead to be a Rogue Angel bored with heaven, desperate to taste everything life has to offer -- including Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll, and murder! Stone has to figure out how to trick the bad Angel into going back to Heaven -- with a little help from someone who 'aint the Devil and prompts the Devil into yelling at the Heaven's: "He's working for me, not you!" Also in this episode, a mysterious woman shows up and starts asking questions about Zeke Stone -- it's ROSALYN!

Episode 117: PARTNERS (Unfilmed)
Stone tracks another Damned Soul, but this time the Devil shows up and wants to tag along on Stone's investigation! This one's personal for ole' Lucifer, 'cause this is the one guy who never broke, the one guy who never begged for mercy, who did his time in Hell defiantly, always telling the Devil to F-off. Who is this tough-as-nails Damned Soul? None other than a meek, mild-mannered CLERK who looks like he wouldn't hurt a fly! Lots of darkly comic antics with Stone showing the Devil how to be a detective, etc. Also more on Roz tracking down the husband she was sure was dead... until now.

Episode 118: INNOCENCE (Unfilmed)
Stone tracks down a Damned Soul who turns out to be none other than one of his relatives, a beloved Uncle from Stone's childhood who claims that he was innocent, that Somebody Up There made a mistake! Stone embarks on a bizarre quest -- not to hunt down this week's Damned Soul -- but to try to clear him and find the real bad guy...

Episode 119: BIRTHDAY (Unfilmed)
The Season Finale. Maxine finds out that Stone's birthday is coming up and tries to throw a a party for her loneliest hotel guest. Problem is she can't find any friends or relatives, except those that claim Zeke Stone has been dead for 15 years! Plus the return of ASH, the return of Zeke's CAT and a stunning cliff-hanger: Max brings a special, suprise guest to Zeke's Birthday Party -- a guest whose arrival was to serve as our season-ending finale -- his wife, ROZ!



These look really interesting Lasher. I don't quite understand what the basic premise of the show is though ie. Who is Stone? Why's he hunting down "Damned Souls"? And what are they? etc. care to explain a bit please?

__________________________
There's no show I'd rather see, than the one with Serenity.
You can't take the sky from me...

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Thursday, June 3, 2004 9:32 AM

LASHER99


Jumpy, here's a general synopsis of the show.

Zeke Stone was a cop. In 1983, his wife was raped. When the rapist went free on a technicality, Zeke killed him. Three months later he (Zeke) was killed in the line of duty and went to hell (we get all this in flashbacks during the series). Sixteen years later, after a rebellion in hell, 113 damned souls escaped to earth and the devil was forced to recruit someone to track them down and return them to hell (the devil having the power to persuade and corrupt, but not physically affect anything on earth). In return for successfully completing this mission, Zeke would be given a second chance at life. This is where the show starts with Zeke's return to earth. Like Now and Again, which was on CBS the following year, it is really a story about a man desperately in love with his wife and willing to do anything to get that life back.

Zeke was played by Peter Horton who was on the show thirty-something and the devil was played by John Glover. Like Firefly, this show was not promoted by Fox and had its schedule pre-empted and moved several times. It had fabulous writing and great actors. Again, like Firefly, this show had a darker undercurrent and really needed to be promoted and given time to grow. Each story improved as the season went on as the creators became comfortable with where they wanted to go with the series. They were given the green-light to make 13 episodes initially, that's why there is partial closure to the story, but partway through the season 6 more episodes were ordered. Just hours into shooting of the 14th episode, word came down that the show was cancelled.

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Thursday, June 3, 2004 11:49 AM

KARENKAY99


Quote:

Originally posted by bikisdad:
was this show the one about the insurance exec. who was killed by a subway train and then brought back to life as a sort of "super-man" by the government?



i was going to ask the same thing. i remember this show. i loved it! i think one of it's problems (like friday night wasn't enough) was the title. now and then. there was another show on at the same time with a similar title (once and again?) and i kept confusing it with the name of the show i liked.

nothing like a good title to captured the viewers interest (ie: buffy, the vampire slayer)

"They say the snow on the roof is too heavy. They say the ceiling will cave in. His brains are in terrible danger."

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Thursday, June 3, 2004 12:20 PM

BIKISDAD


Yes, the show title didn't really stand out, did it? A lot of people probably didn't even notice that it was on because of that; and frankly, I don't remember the network promoting it very much when it was on.

Now, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a title that people would notice. Unfortunately, it probably drove as many away as it attracted. But, like Joss said, (I'm paraphrasing) if they can't get past the title, I don't want them as viewers - or something like that.

Apathy on the Rise. No One Cares.

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Thursday, June 3, 2004 5:23 PM

JUMPY


Quote:

Originally posted by karenkay99:
Quote:

Originally posted by bikisdad:
was this show the one about the insurance exec. who was killed by a subway train and then brought back to life as a sort of "super-man" by the government?



i was going to ask the same thing. i remember this show. i loved it! i think one of it's problems (like friday night wasn't enough) was the title. now and then. there was another show on at the same time with a similar title (once and again?) and i kept confusing it with the name of the show i liked.

nothing like a good title to captured the viewers interest (ie: buffy, the vampire slayer)

"They say the snow on the roof is too heavy. They say the ceiling will cave in. His brains are in terrible danger."




Haha you know what? I think that show is on one of our other FOXTEL Pay TV shows here in Australia and I always get tricked into thinking Now and Again is on.

So yeh you Karenkay you may have something there!

__________________________
There's no show I'd rather see, than the one with Serenity.
You can't take the sky from me...

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Thursday, June 3, 2004 5:27 PM

JUMPY


Quote:

Originally posted by lasher99:
Like Now and Again, which was on CBS the following year, it is really a story about a man desperately in love with his wife and willing to do anything to get that life back.



Thanks for that dude. Yeh just from what you've said and the episode descriptions as well I can sorta see how its got that similarity.

Lol except obviously with this guy out of hell and the devil helping him etc there's the chance that it doesn't have those light hearted moments Now and Again and firefly do. Does it?

__________________________
There's no show I'd rather see, than the one with Serenity.
You can't take the sky from me...

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Thursday, June 3, 2004 8:04 PM

DARKARCHON


Thanks for that Lasher. Really wish that show had kept going. Oh, and thank you Annik for the info...now all I gotta do is find it.

-Dark

"Two by two, hands of blue"

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Wednesday, June 16, 2004 9:32 AM

CYBERSNARK


Quote:

Originally posted by bikisdad:
Now, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a title that people would notice. Unfortunately, it probably drove as many away as it attracted. But, like Joss said, (I'm paraphrasing) if they can't get past the title, I don't want them as viewers - or something like that.

Someone once broke the title down like this:

Buffy: sounds vaguely silly, implying the presence of humour and whimsy.

Vampire: implying gothic horror and the occult.

Slayer: connotations not just of violence, but of the brutal and gorey kind.

The: Joss' utter inability to count.

-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

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Wednesday, June 16, 2004 10:22 AM

CARDIE


Now and Again was a fabulous show. I was deep into the fandom and went through all the angst with seeing it cancelled, especially wrenching because all signs had it on the path to renewal, and it was a real shock when it was cancelled. Then there were all the campaings to find it another network or get a wrap-up movie made. None of that happened, and with Eric Close and Dennis Haysbert now on very successful shows, I doubt there will ever be a proper wrap-up to the story.

There were apparently a number of things that caused its cancellation. There was a generalizeed feud between Paramount studios, who produced it, and CBS's Leslie Moonves, apparently a result of the CBS-Viacom merger. Glenn Gordon Caron also kept bringing in scripts and episodes way behind schedule, with budget overruns, and the location shooting in NYC had already made it very expensive for every rating point it brought in. Then ratings started to fall off somewhat after there were a lot of pre-emptions around Christmas and during February sweeps. It never recovered, despite being a big hit with the critics.

Caron and another N&A writer-producer, Rene Echevarria, are developing a series about a psychic for NBC.

Cardie

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