Wednesday, May 19, 2010

First to Die, Alternate Ending and Cancel!

I wonder what it's like to be a TV actor who dies in the first 10 minutes of a new show. Particularly if it ends up being a hit like "Lost," it must be like that drummer who left the Beatles mere days before they went global phenom. For example, lots of people died in the first episode of "Lost." Actor Greg Grunberg was among them--uncharacteristically, but fortunately for him he immediately hit gold with "Heroes." Maybe the rest of those those guys should start a club, "Actors Who Came Thaaaat Close to a Hit." They could call it AWCHIT for short.

Recently I started watching Happy Town, a murder mystery/paranormal mix, in which the opening scene features a very familiar character actor (always remember the face, never the name!) being killed. I remember thinking "man, if this series takes off, that will suck major for him." He need not worry, after 3 episodes ABC is dropping it--to be honest, it was a little uneven though the cast was pretty smart.

Speaking of "Lost," apparently a number of alternate endings were made, probably to minimize the chance of spoiler leaks. I don't like that because they are sure to end up on the DVD collection, and like so many other disc Special Features, we will be left wondering what the original intention REALLY was. After all, once you have options, you can do audits, field tests, and so on to "pick" the end; and really, there should be one ending to anything--love it or not.

Bummer, so much of my enjoyment of life these days is commercial TV. Though I have HBO I rarely watch it, and I'm trying out NETFLIX but finding that much of the content is sub-standard indie fare. No, for catharsis, mostly I look forward to the handful of TV shows I follow. I am one of those people who start up with a show and quickly decide if I'm going to commit or not. Sadly, my commitment often means cancelation. Liked Flash Forward, it's canx'd (and likely no planned ending), hate "V," but that's coming back. ABC hasn't figured out that anything that follows "Lost" is going to look better than it really is.

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