That's All She Wrote: Journeyman Is Dead
Thursday January 3, 2008
Kevin McKidd as Dan Vassar.
© Mitch Haaseth/NBC Photo
Sadly I must report that not only was I right about Journeyman being vulnerable, but that – so far from being saved by the strike – production for the show has been permanently shut down and Journeyman will not be back, this year or next.
I have it on excellent authority that shortly before Christmas the sets were taken down and destroyed, which effectively cancels the show for good as of Dec. 21. As my colleague Rachel Thomas already reported, NBC passed on its option for the "back nine" to complete the first season. Fans now targeting Fox, on whose lots Journeyman was being filmed, to pick up the show are unlikely to be successful: Fox is said to be uninterested.
How would the show have ended? We won't know until everyone has been officially released from their contracts. But at least the show's creators were able to wrap things up before the end: the last episodes, broadcast in December, brought the show full circle, with Dan witnessing the passing of the gift to himself (and learning he is the last of the travelers apart from Livia), Livia getting married, Jack becoming supportive, and Katie (while still unsettled) discovering some self-reliance.
Journeyman was one of the best and most interesting new shows of the season, and canceling a quality show knowing you're going to have trouble filling slots in the fall is inexplicable. It even had cool opening credits, something you don't get much these days. (Compare the graceful and atmospheric credits for Journeyman with, say, the profoundly stupid opening credits for Bionic Woman, which seem to involve Jaimie busting out of a shower stall.)
More importantly, the show avoided obsessing on the mechanism of the fantasy, or the random problems of Dan and Livia's charges, and concentrated on how traveling disrupted and transformed the lives and personalities of Dan and everyone around him. This made for compelling stories about reasonably complex, interesting people you'd want to spend time with in real life. I like Chuck, for example, but I'd rather scrub my toilet than spend a night at a pub with any of its characters. Dan, Livia, Katie, Jack, and Hugh are people I'm going to miss.
Fans will and should continue to fight to save this show, but the odds just got a lot worse. Save Journeyman campaigns can be found here and here.
Comments
Keep fighting people please dont stop this show is too good to be let go. Do whatever you can to bring this show back please lets not let it die
Most definitely! If ever I saw a program worth fighting for THIS is the one. I’m not giving up, not by a long shot.
This is one of those shows worth saving. The writing, the acting, the caliber of the show were all of such high quality. Just like Mark Wilson, we’re all going to miss these characters.
If you agree, comment here, send that rice-a-roni, keep sending those letters to NBC and FOX. Visit the Journeyman sites and see what else is being done. Let them know that you want to see more of this terrific show.
We will not stop fighting! Save Journeyman! Ratings were low because how late it has started and not enough advertising. Bionic woman had more advertising and that show is garbage!
Well said.
I’m still sending my box of rice-a-roni. Who knows.
We should keep fighting for this show. I’m so tired of being fed mindless reality show junk and shallow dramas.
This show is worth fighting for.
Don’t lose hope people! The execs noticed our efforts, let’s keep at it.
If you DVR or Tivo a show, you won’t be counted by advertisers. We need a change in the whole ratings system or figure out how advertisers can be seen while people dvr their shows.
This is ridiculous!
Im sending my Rice a Roni!!!
What disappointing news. That said, I will not be deterred. The emails to Fox and Rice A Roni will still be sent!
I kind of do not understand it myself. You would think that a scondary network (aka cable) might would want to pick it up. I truly think this is one show that just needed a little more of a chance to collect viewers. It had *4 million viewers” that all must have been very loyal to follow the show through NBC’s erratic programming. I am greatful that i was witness to one of the truly TV’s great shows. Time will prove this wright and it will become a legend.
Thanks for the update nonetheless.
It’s a shame the show was cancelled – it was one of the very few my husband and I enjoyed watching. What’s going to get axed next? Pushing Daisies?
Just please don’t replace it with a Gossip Girl/O.C./Beverly Hills 90210 hybrid. Then I’ll be forced to run screaming from my TV and throw the remote control into oncoming traffic.
The comments here and on every Journeyman site show why we need to still fight for this show – just look at the thousands of comments on the nbc site. Journeyman is unique, it had quality and depth. It didn’t need violence and sex to make a great story. Viewers felt loyalty to it. People who don’t normally watch a lot of tv came out of the woodwork for ti. There are so many reasons. Stand up for quality television!
I’ll be watching Journeyman on nbc.com this coming Monday January 7th at 10pm. Journeyman fans are planning a simultaneous streaming event at 10 pm EST.
Absolutely ridicolous, I will boycott NBC if they don’t bring this show back somewhere. I am going to send some rice-a-roni and I hope everyone else does too. This is very upsetting to hear the sets were destroyed, it just means we have to fight that much harder. Should we, in addition to the simultaneous viewing on 1/7/08 at 10pm on nbc.com of episode 1, schedule a simultaneous “call-in” to the studio where we all leave a message for someone about the show, we could simply call and say save journeyman or leave a message saying dan vasser called? I think this will help prove the point that we will not give up on our show.
JM is the BEST show this season!!! I’ll follow it where-ever it goes, if any network decides to pick it up.
Journeyman fans should not despair, This show being rescued will forever change the way exec. make decisions in NBC and other networks.. It is such a gem and so many of us have noticed it and our voices echo everywhere online.
Is there a fansite where people can let NBC know that there are a hellova a lotta people out there who aren’t as vocal, yet really are big fans of the show and want it to continue? C’mon! Didn’t they learn by now (after My So Called Life) how to really gauge the best shows? JM is one of the BEST out there in a LONG time. Writers should take their sweet arses over to the Sci Fi channel indeed. I don’t care WHO airs it, as long as it it’s produced and aired!
Oh my gosh, I am so disappointed! I loved this show! The plot got more and more interesting throughout the ’season’. I agree with previous poster, Bionic Woman is such a piece of garbage. Why do all the interesting and different shows get cancelled? Perhaps they are going to make another crime drama show instead? GAG. What can we do to get this show back on the air?
any chnace of it appearing on another network? Please?
NBC has proven over the years they do not have a clue. This is the same network that had to have a gun put to their heads to keep Seinfeld on the air. Then they wonder why they are number three and losing more viewers to cable by the day. Journeyman is one of the freshest ideas in sometime. American Gladiators or some type of Wrestling show better suits NBC. Journeyman is too much like right.
savejourneyman.net
go there, do some work, bring it back!
NBC Universal and their subsidiaries seem to have a track record for this type of behavior. Last year the Sci-Fi Channel quietly let the contracts for The Dresden Files expire without a peep and then quietly tore down the sets. Only months later did they finally mention something about the cancelation after the lead actor had already found another job.
Livia and the main male characters–great.
The wife Katie and the brother’s girlfriend and the newspaper editor? They’re what killed the show. It was just the worse textbook acting I’ve seen. Gag.
savejourneyman.net
Medium over Journeyman? Common! I dont think so!
But thanks Kevin Falls for the great show! We are trying are best to save journeyman.
this is bullshit we have onli got to episode 10 in the uk but now i found out its bein cancelled and that its onli goin up to episode 13. journeyman is one of the best shows in recent years its up there with lost prison break and heroes what are they playing at
How is the fight going to keep this show? There is nothing worth watching and this was it for me. I am so for keeping this show.
I miss it.. really upset that my favorite show is going to be cancelled.. I’ve had problems with my cable this past month.. couldn’t get NBC at all.. and tonight when I go to sit down and watch it.. it doesn’t come on!!!!!… So I searched the internet to see what was up.. and what a disappointment.. help save Journeyman.. best show on TV… It is a victum of a bad time slot.. and insufficient promotion.. people don’t know what they are missingggg…… hands up for Journeyman!!!!
The show is great, I would look forward to watching it when I got off work. My family also started watching it and guess what, we could not find it anywhere on air. That really stinks. The boniac women,seriouly should be discontinued. They take a classic and then ruin it. Journey Man is new and fresh, please bring it back.
and they put something stupid like…
“Wife Swap” on.
Journeyman is a great show
check it out again
Damn damn damn…The majority of shows with any real depth seem to get dropped before the really have a shot at catching there legs…Thank you HBO, SHOWTIME, SHOWCASE!!! In you there is hope of actually finding any durable well written TV…NBC good luck in the reality/sitcom race.
This is crazy! This is the stupidist decision ever! Journeyman is good quality television and has the potential to be a hit if NBC would just let it! This really bums me out, but I’m not going to stop! Saving this show and showing my support is worth all my time and effort! If NBC axes this show, I quit on them. NBC will become the worst and lamest network out there if they do this. NBC, I hope you’re listening!!
I’ve never fought for a show to be picked up… but now I will. This show is incredible. Hands down one of the best TV experiences I’ve had in a LONG time. Unfortunately, I didn’t hear about it until after the season was over. I want more Journeyman !!!
If you want to purchase episodes, iTunes has all of them for something like 24 bucks.
I am also sad to see this engaging show gone. I don’t know anyone in my life that was also into it. I think a lot of people expected to be a new Quantum Leap and weren’t ready to get into a complex and continuing story.
hey
its very reasonable point of view.
Good post.
realy gj
thank you