"V"

[prophecy girl]

The two iconic images everyone has from the 1980s version of V are the massive spaceships hovering over Earth's major cities and the seemingly human aliens who turn out to be reptiles. Those also happen to be two things that were never supposed to be in the original miniseries.

Instead, the early version of V featured a fascist takeover over of the U.S. with no aliens in sight. "What it was really about was power and people in power," V's creator, Kenneth Johnson, told Variety.

When then NBC head Brandon Tartikoff read the first draft of the alien-less script, he didn't think people would get the concept, so Johnson introduced the idea of visitors from another world. Although they didn't have the money or the tools to turn V into the massive sci-fi epic that the new script called for, that didn't seem to matter to the audience.

"It's funny, when you go back and look at my original V miniseries, there are a lot fewer special effects than people remember," Johnson said.

[prophecy girl]

There's been a big shakeup at ABC's V, which debuts tonight: Scott Peters, who has been the guy running the show for last several months, has been replaced by Scott Rosenbaum, a former executive producer of NBC's Chuck.

Peters (The 4400) has been the guy shepherding the reboot project, which stars his 4400 alumnus Joel Gretsch and even shoots at the same studio in Vancouver, Canada, where 4400 shot.

Here's how The Wrap reported it:

Peters will retain an executive producer credit on "V." But Rosenbaum, an executive producer on "Chuck" (and "The Shield"), will now be at the helm.
The showrunner shift had been anticipated in Hollywood circles for weeks, since ABC and Warner Bros. TV made the joint decision to halt production on the series in order to get scripts in shape. According to USA Today, which broke the news of the shuffle, Peters was removed from his post last Thursday.


Meanwhlie, Chicago Tribune columnist Maureen Ryan notes that another V executive producer/writer, Jeffrey Bell (Harper's Island, Angel), is expected to leave. Peters is expected to remain on the V staff and write for the show.

The show has undergone some upheaval: The original pilot was tweaked to redo the final fight scene and now features a sci-fi element, a floating alien device called a "seeker," as well as amped-up action.

The first of four V episodes airs tonight. After four eps, the show will take a hiatus until March.

Does the hiring of Chuck's Rosenbaum suggest that ABC wants a lighter touch on this material? The original series had its campy moments: Are they looking for the same kind of thing? What do you think?

[willowroolz]

Well I've just 'acquired' it, so we'll see what it's like

[prophecy girl]

Ratings predictions for V: 9.25 million viewers and a 3.2 adults 18-49 rating. (tvbynumbers)



ABC’s V premiered with a preliminary 5.0 rating for adults 18-49 and averaged 13.9 million viewers, exceeding most expectations

link

This post has been edited by prophecy girl on Nov 4 2009, 06:46 PM

[prophecy girl]

This is a strange story even by Internet standards. In her (reasonably positive) review of ABC's new series V, Chicago Tribune columnist Maureen Ryan used an aside to chastise ABC's other sci-fi shows, Lost and FlashForward, then went on to slag Syfy's Stargate Universe:

(And let's face it, we sci-fi fans are a frequently disappointed lot. ABC hasn't quite managed to quite recapture the magic of "Lost" with any of its subsequent genre-flavored offerings. "FlashForward" still seems like a show that is more about its concept than its characters. And the other notable fall genre offering, Syfy's "Stargate Universe," is a boring, poorly plotted, lamentably sexist mess.)
It seems SGU executive producer Brad Wright read the review of V, saw that his own show was being slammed and left a comment defending his series while calling Ryan petty:

Maureen, I find people who write "I have no axe to grind" are often the ones most likely to grind axes. Taking the time to slam SGU in your review for "V" is not politically tinged, it's just petty. I really wish you hadn't given up on our show so quickly. I was surprised, considering your past (occasional) support of the franchise. You can't have seen a finished version of "Darkness" or "Light" because the weren't even closed to being finished at the time of your review. I don't know what the network sent you. SGU seems to be a love it or hate it sort of show. You obviously fall in the latter camp, but fortunately there are enough viewers and reviewers who think SGU is neither boring, poorly plotted, or sexist to keep us on the air long after "V" is just a letter in the alphabet again.

Not content to let the strange argument (hey, anyone want to actually talk about V based on this V review? Anyone?) end there, Ryan wrote another piece responding to Wright. It's pretty long, but the gist of it is that Ryan says, "If I seem passionate in my disappointment in Stargate Universe, that's only because, in my experience, people are more intensely disappointed by things they had high hopes for."

Yikes, no middle ground there. It remains to be seen if Wright will keep the V discussion Stargate Universe discussion going or this will be the end of it, but in the meantime it's a pretty entertaining read.

(SyFy)

[prophecy girl]

4 reasons why V's motherships don't make sense


article

[prophecy girl]

ABC’s V lost 23 percent of its debut audience, and its Adult 18-49 rating sank 29 percent — the lowest episode drop for a new series this fall. Meanwhile, NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles improved on their audiences from last week for CBS, and Los Angeles beat out Dancing With the Stars in total viewership despite a much-hyped guest performance by Susan Boyle in the ballroom. The CW’s Melrose Place scored a personal worst on Tuesday – Amanda Woodward will have a lot of things to whip into shape as Heather Locklear’s guest-star run begins next week.


link

[prophecy girl]

Morena Baccarin interviews on PopEater.com which covers 'V', Morena's new hairstyle, the likelihood of a Serenity sequel and working with Joss.

link

[prophecy girl]

Has V lived up to the hype?


article

[Darris]

I also aquired it - mainly as the new Stargate and Flash Forward have bored me already and I was looking for something else to watch.

I don't really remember the 80s version, I think it was on late? I have so far watched the first two episodes and its kept me gripped so far. Whether the next two episodes will do the same who knows?

[prophecy girl]

Wow, looks like ABC's V is definitely in trouble.

Last night's third episode saw ratings and audience drop significantly again, down 18 percent to 9.3 million (3.1 rating among adults 18-49), according to The Hollywood Reporter's Live Feed blog.

That after a precipitous 29 percent drop in week two from the blockbuster premiere.

We're going to go out on a limb and say that the lizard aliens won't be on Earth for very long. Remember, ABC is airing only four episodes now (the last one airs next week) and was planning on returning to the air next spring with the final episodes of season one.

We don't know, but we've always thought this was ABC's way of not committing to the production of the show before they had a good sense of which way the audience would go; as the production was slated to start up again next month or so, we're thinking they'll just go ahead and pull the plug once the four eps have aired.

It's kinda too bad. The show was starting to grow on us, and we love the actors and the franchise. And we were eager to see how a change behind the scenes was going to affect the direction of the show.

(scifiwire)

[prophecy girl]

Elizabeth Mitchell, formerly of Lost, plays FBI Agent Erica Evans on V. Ifmagazine interview

link

[prophecy girl]

Like an alien spaceship slowing for a landing, the ratings for ABC's V slowed their weeks-long decline last night for the show's fall finale, leaving a bit of hope for the show's fans that the alien-invasion saga would continue.

According to The Hollywood Reporter's Live Feed blog, the audience for the fourth and final installment of the year drew 9.2 million viewers and a 3.1 rating, matching last week.

This signal of potential stability—and the fact "V" is halting above the 3.0 watermark—makes it very likely that ABC will bring back the alien invasion drama in the spring. In fact, the network ran a promo at the end of the episode saying "V" will return in March, even as ABC's publicity department continues to say that no decision has been made.
Last week, we speculated that the show would not be back if the ratings continued to plunge. We're going to go out on a limb again and suggest that ABC will take a look at DVR viewing, which tends to bump up the numbers of sci-fi shows, and decide then whether it's worth bringing the show back.

V helped ABC edge out CBS for the win among the adult demographic, with CBS topping the night among total viewers.