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It’s a holiday week, and a slow one for new releases. It’s telling, though, that during a “slow” week we still get 10 new TV releases new to DVD.
Stephen Cannell, who created “The Rockford Files,” and would eventually go on to “Tenspeed and Brownshoe,” “Greatest American Hero” and “The A-Team,” created in 1976 two short-lived period series. One was “City of Angels,” inspired by the 1974 success of “Chinatown,” which followed a Depression-era Los Angeles private detective named Jake.
The other was “Baa Baa Black Sheep,” a World War II series about extremely adept misfit Marine air unit in the Pacific theatre starring “The Wild Wild West’s” Robert Conrad.
One wonders what inspired Cannell and NBC to mount the “Black Sheep,” which lasted only 37 episodes; it hit the network grid two years after Nixon’s resignation (and four months after the release of “All The President’s Men”), when the nation wasn’t in a particularly patriotic mood. It was also carried what was, for the 1970s, a fairly old fashioned vibe; it was the sort of two-fisted war vehicle John Wayne would have felt comfortable driving, more akin to Cannell’s early work with Jack Webb than to the more sophisticated “The Rockford Files” Cannell launched two years before “Baa Baa.”
The new set contains the latter 12 of the first season’s 24 hours, three of which - “Trouble At Fort Apache,” “Devil in The Slot,” and the season finale “The Fastest Gun” (a “Devil” sequel that brought back English-speaking enemy ace Harachi) carry teleplays credited to Cannell himself.
The mocking but honorable Harachi, incidentally, was assayed by Byron Chung, who went on to embody Jin Kwon’s imperious boss and father-in-law on “Lost.”
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I am – Hercules!!
“I had a meeting with DC Comics last Monday and they want to do (Season 4) as a comic series," “Veronica Mars” mastermind Rob Thomas tells The Toronto Star.
DC’s move may have been inspired by Dark Horse Comics’ new “Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season Eight” title, which has been burning up the sales charts.
Thomas also offers his take on why The CW passed on another season of “Mars.” "At the end of the day [CW programming chief] Dawn Ostroff doesn't get to make the final call,” Thomas tells the Star. “Hers is an important voice in the room. But they're the little sister company of CBS. There was a pretty strong feeling that [CBS CEO] Les Moonves didn't want to do the show." CBS and Time Warner co-own The CW.
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"'Veronica Mars' is officially dead," according to a Monday email authored by series mastermind Rob Thomas.
“I think Dawn Ostroff genuinely would have liked to have continued on with a version of the show, but there was too much resistance around her,” Thomas told TV Guide’s Mike Ausiello Monday. “At the end of the day, it would've been kinder had the band aid simply been ripped off rather peeled away in than this agonizingly slow manner.”
Fans have already bought and paid for a huge half-ton shipment of Mars Bars and other candy slated to be delivered to The CW’s offices Thursday. Their hope was the foodstuffs would precipitate a "Jericho"-like resurrection of the series.
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“Veronica Mars” fans, encouraged by the success of the “Jericho” fans two days ago, have lost their frakking minds over the last 48 hours.
Not only do they appear to have bought up every Mars Bar in the United States – thousands of them - to send to Dawn Ostroff (programming head of The CW), they have also purchased thousands of Snickers With Almonds (which apparently replaced the defunct U.S. Mars Bars four years ago) and have moved on to palettes of marshmallows (because – get this – Veronica once referred to herself as a “marshmallow”). I gather 350 pounds of marshmallows were purchased yesterday, with more piling up.
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Yesterday, it cost $8.49 to ship a Mars Bar to The CW and its entertainment president, Dawn Ostroff (to entice them to greenlight the further adventures of Veronica Mars before June 15).
Today, thanks to the good people at The Indian Food Store, it only costs $1.79 to ship such a bar - IF you enter code “VERONICA” at checkout. (The same free shipping is available for wealthier "Mars" fans
if they want to order the 12- or 24-packs.)
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I am – Hercules!!
Should we, as one talkbacker below suggests, be sending Mars bars to The CW??
I watched “Jericho,” but I loved “Veronica Mars.”
Now it looks like the former series’ “nuts” campaign has convinced CBS to reconsider its cancellation. From Wednesday morning’s Variety:
Hoping to take advantage of a devoted fan based -- and the new multiplatform era -- CBS is readying a plan to bring back the drama sometime next season. Net will likely order seven or eight episodes for broadcast.
Eye killed "Jericho" last month, leaving the show off its fall schedule and declaring it dead (Daily Variety, May 16). Normally, that would've been the end of things.
But fans of the show revolted, launching a massive online-based campaign to save the show. Their gimmick: Deluging the Eye's Gotham and L.A. HQ with bags of... nuts. Nearly 20 tons, at last count, according to a Web site tracking electronic orders for the nuts. Protesters even found the cell phone number of a CBS exec, flooding him with calls and forcing him to change his number.
“Mars” creator Rob Thomas wants to keep “Veronica” on, even going so far as to shoot a “presentation” (or mini-pilot) depicting the title character attending Virginia’s FBI academy several years in the future. (The “Veronica FBI” presentation will, by the way, be an extra on the show’s third-season DVD).
And Dawn Ostroff, who runs The CW’s entertainment division, is also said to be a huge “Veronica” fan.
From the May 18 edition of The Hollywood Reporter, published the day after the CW announced its “Mars”-less fall schedule:
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For those who missed Thursday’s news, “Veronica Mars” is cancelled; tonight brings its last two episodes. There’s talk that Veronica herself might pop up in a new CW project about the FBI academy, but I sense not a lot of us are holding our breaths..
Tonight’s installments are titled “Weevils Wobble But They Don’t Fall Down” and “The Bitch Is Back.” The CW says:
Weevil (Francis Capra) is arrested for selling fake debit cards to Hearst students, but claims he is being framed because of his criminal background, and asks Veronica (Kristen Bell) to clear his name. On Piz's (Chris Lowell) radio show, Keith (Enrico Colantoni) debates Vinnie (guest star Ken Marino, "Reno 911") about the upcoming election, while a tipsy Dick (Ryan Hansen) apologizes to Mac (Tina Majorino) for the way he has treated her in the past. Veronica and Piz make up after their argument about spending their summer apart, and a mysterious sex tape of the two finds its way to the internet. Jason Dohring, Percy Daggs and Julie Gonzalo also star. Jason Bloom directed the episode written by Phil Klemmer.
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I am – Hercules!!
Something interesting from The Hollywood Reporter’s Friday morning story on the Thursday CW upfronts:
At a news conference after the presentation, [CW entertainment president Dawn] Ostroff confirmed that "Veronica Mars" has solved her last case in her current incarnation but that no final decision has been made on a proposed new version of the series by creator Rob Thomas in which the title character, played by Kristen Bell, is at the FBI Academy.
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I am – Hercules!!
The CW announced its fall schedule Thursday, its first without “Veronica Mars.”
Instead, fall brings three new hourlongs, two new reality shows and a sitcom.
NEW HOURLONGS
* “Gossip Girl,” from writer-producers Josh Schwartz & Stephanie Savage (“The OC”), is about rich prep school teens on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
* “Reaper,” from writer-producers Michele Fazekas & Tara Butters (“Ed,” “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”), is about a guy who learns on his 21st birthday that his parents sold his soul, and now has to serve as Satan’s bounty hunter, chasing down souls fleeing Hell. Kevin Smith ("Clerks II") directed the pilot.
* “Life Is Wild,” from writer-producer Michael Rauch (“Love Monkey”), is about a blended New York family that finds itself uprooted when the veterinarian father takes a job inside a South African game preserve.
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I am – Hercules!!
Both the Hollywood Reporter and Daily Variety indicate that “Veronica Mars” will almost certainly not be on The CW’s fall schedule when the netlet announces it on Thursday.
From Variety:
The CW has officially greenlit three dramas and two unscripted magazine shows — and it's looking like the sun is going down on "Veronica Mars." … while nothing's official, people familiar with the situation said "Mars" was, indeed, canceled.
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Tonight’s installment is titled “I Know What You’ll Do Next Summer.” The CW says:
Veronica (Kristen Bell) passes her exam to be an official Private Investigator, while Piz (Chris Lowell) lands an interview with Apollo Bukenya (guest star Nelsan Ellis, "The Inside"), an African student at Hearst who wrote a book about his years as an orphan child-soldier in Uganda's rebel army. Veronica is hired by an African man, Kizza (guest star Babs Olusanmokun, Law & Order: Criminal Intent"), to help prove that he is Apollo's father, but her investigation leads to information that might expose Apollo's story as a fake. Meanwhile, as the election for Sheriff nears, Keith (Enrico Colantoni) is faced with a crime spree in Neptune. Parker (Julie Gonzalo) comes to Veronica for advice about Logan (Jason Dohring) after learning he planned to spend the summer surfing with Dick (Ryan Hansen). Percy Daggs, Francis Capra and Tina Majorino also star. Nick Marck directed the episode written by Jonathan Moskin and David Mulei
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I am – Hercules!!
TV Guide's Michael Ausiello says the Clarice Starling version of "Veronica Mars" - the one that would be set years in the future at the FBI academy in Quantico, Va. - is garnering more interest over at The CW. The show would strip off all of Veronica's supporting cast and perhaps even assume a new title. "FBI Girl"? "Veronica Fed"?
“Mars” mastermind Rob Thomas pitched the FBI fourth season to the network last Wednesday, along with a proposal for Veronica's sophomore year at Hearst College (which obviously would not leap years ahead).
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What’s it called?
“Un-American Graffiti.”
Who’s responsible?
Teleplay is credited to John Enbom (“Mars, Bars,” “Papa’s Cabin”).
What does The CW say?
“Veronica (Kristen Bell) is hired by a Middle Eastern restaurant owner to find out who has been vandalizing their business with ethnic slurs. While investigating the case, Veronica and the restaurant owner are attacked in a drive-by shooting. When a drunk teenager stumbles from a bar and gets hit by a car, Keith (Enrico Colantoni) orders his deputies to conduct surprise ID checks in all the area bars. While doing his own surprise search, Keith catches Piz (Chris Lowell) and Wallace (Percy Daggs) using fake ID's provided by Veronica. Meanwhile, Logan (Jason Dohring) decides to throw a birthday party for Parker (Julie Gonzalo).”
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“Passionate (if small) audiences have helped save shows such as Arrested Development and Veronica Mars in past years,” wrote Gary Levin in his April 12 “Save Our Shows” piece in USA Today, “though Mars' luck has run out.”
Each year around this time, Levin talks to the networks and divides their scripted series into three categories:
1) “Renewed or almost,”
2) “On the bubble,” and
3) “Gone or nearly dead.”
“Mars” falls into that third category.
Others on that doomed list include “Studio 60,” “Raines,” “Standoff” and “Close to Home.”
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I am – Hercules!!
E! Online has posted its “Save One Show” poll questionnaire. Apparently five of the winners of the last six polls got renewed.
Cast your ballot here.
Voting closes April 6. Results are posted April 13.
The first of the last five hours of “Veronica Mars’” third season airs May 1. The final five titles are:
3.16 Un-American Graffiti
3.17 Debasement Tapes
3.18 I Know What You’ll Do Next Summer
3.19 Weevils Wobble But They Don’t Go Down
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E!’s Kristin Veitch stuck up two stories within hours of each other Thursday night.
The first, posted at 6:26 p.m., was headlined “Exclusive! Veronica Canceled”
The second, posted at 10:11 p.m., featured a headline with different punctuation: “Veronica Mars: Canceled? Here’s What I Know …”
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There’s no official word from The CW, but E!’s Kristin Veitch says she has heard from several sources that “Veronica Mars,” my pick for the best TV series of 2006, will not be back for a fourth season.
The E! story would seem to render moot a Friday-morning Hollywood Reporter story detailing "Mars" mastermind Rob Thomas' proposed plan to skip ahead several years, get all Clarice Starling with the show and have season four deal with Veronica's freshman year at the FBI Academy. The Reporter story even says Thomas "is filming a trailer" for the FBI version of "Mars" that will be presented to The CW.
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“I just remembered I need to return ‘Caged Heat’ to the video store.”
I am – Hercules!!
Another stellar episode last week, which began with Veronica in county stir and ended with Veronica’s daddy running the entire sheriff’s department.
Tonight brings the last new “Veronica Mars” installment until late April, and the installment that concludes the Dean O’Dell storyline. Have we seen the last of Mars Investigations? The CW says no:
Veronica catches Tim Foyle (guest star James Jordan, "Without A Trace"), breaking into Mars Investigations. Meanwhile, Keith questions Mindy O'Dell, finally making her believe that Hank Landry killed her husband, and Keith arrests Landry in the middle of a class. Later, Wallace notices Logan and Parker enjoying a nice lunch together.
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Last week’s installment, with the smelly, narcissistic Logan Echolls charged with caring for the 11-year-old sister of Dick Casablancas’ new squeeze, was a five-star affair. Teleplay for that episode was credited to Rob Thomas’ fellow “Cupid” vet Joe Voci.
The CW says of tonight’s installment:
Without any evidence to hold her, Sheriff Lamb releases Veronica from jail. Josh (guest star Jonathan Chase), makes contact with Veronica and insists that he is being framed for his father's murder and, though Veronica has sympathy for him, she doesn't know if she believes him. Keith learns that the coach's wife, Kathleen Barry (guest star Tracey Needham), hired Vinnie Van Lowe (guest star Ken Marino, "Reno 911") to find out if her husband was having an affair. Meanwhile, Logan joins Mac and Parker on a Valentine's Day scavenger hunt. Percy Daggs, Francis Capra, Ryan Hansen and Chris Lowell also star.
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As Valentine’s Day approaches, Sheriff Lamb tosses Veronica Mars in stir. This is what The CW has on the second “Veronica Mars” of sweeps:
No sooner has Wallace rejoined the Hearst basketball team, when the basketball coach, Tom Barry (guest star Matt McKenzie), is found dead. The coach's widow, Kathleen Barry (guest star Tracey Needham), hires Keith to investigate the murder of her husband and to clear her son, Josh (guest star Jonathan Chase), who is Sheriff Lamb's prime suspect. Logan is wallowing in self-pity after his breakup with Veronica, so Dick invites two girls over to cheer Logan up, but Logan gets stuck entertaining Heather (guest star Juliette Goglia), who is only 13 years old. Keith and Veronica discover that the alibis given by Mindy O'Dell (guest star Jamie Ray Newman, "E Ring") and Professor Landry (guest star Patrick Fabian, "Joan of Arcadia") do not match. Francis Capra, Tina Majorino, Chris Lowell and Julie Gonzalo also star.
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Last week’s "Galactica"-immersed Beauty and the Comic-Con Geek episode? One of the series’ best ever, which is saying something.
In tonight’s installment, titled “There’s Got To Be A Morning After Pill,” Veronica’s investigation on behalf of a promiscuous classmate leads her to both a famous televangelist and a newfound witness in Keith’s O’Dell investigation.
Also? Veronica dumps Logan for the 11th and final time. Will the series last long enough for Piz to make his move? After tonight, eight episodes remain for the season, and there’s no word yet about a second year at The CW.
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Last week DJ Piz got his heart broken when the title character fled back to the arms of two-fisted movie-star spawn Logan Echolls.
Here’s what we know about tonight’s “Veronica Mars” 3.11:
* It’s titled “Poughkeepsie, Tramps and Thieves.”
* There’s a geek trying to track down the girl of his dreams.
* The episode focuses on call girls!
* We learn Dean O’Dell was pranked the night he died.
* E!’s Kristin Veitch says there’s more comedy involving Keith and Lamb.
9 p.m. Tuesday. The CW.
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