Scanner : bionic woman

TV Gets Back to What It Does Best: Canceling Shows

Bryan Christian — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 19:06:00 GMT

Now that the Writer's Strike is over, it's time to figure out what shows are coming back and when. We got a couple of links to pages here and here with hints, and heard something on NPR yesterday, and while we haven't done a case-by-case comparison, we'll summarize what we know:

-- Lots of shows -- particularly sitcoms -- are going back into production now, and will be burning off already shot episodes or shooting a handful more to be shown through May or beyond. Big names include: 30 Rock, Battlestar Galactica, The Office, My Name is Earl, Lost, and a few other shows you probably first saw on iTunes.

-- Gossip Girl -- which all of us Scanner bloggers just realized means nothing to us but has a fairly dedicated following, we hear -- will return with new episodes aired through the summer, so just like we did with 90210 and The OC, expect us to "get way more into it than we thought" around June.

-- No 24 and no more Heroes, Life, Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money, Moonlight, Private Practice or Chuck for the year; they will likely all be relaunched or continued next fall.

-- Cancelled or iffy: Bionic Woman, Cane, Life is Wild (which, like... huh?), Friday Night Lights, Prison Break, One Tree Hill, Reaper, Back to You, and ER, which we imagine NBC has been looking for an excuse like this to unload since Noah Wyle left.

-- Producer Bill Lawrence is negotiating for time to wrap up Scrubs. Bill: let it go.

Antonio Pope: October 3 - November 14, 2007

Bryan Christian — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 14:01:00 GMT

Should we gloat about totally calling Isaiah Washington getting offed on last night's Bionic Woman? Probably not. If this Writers Strike goes on much longer, Bionic Woman is pretty high on many people's list of shows most likely to get canned as a result, which takes most of the fun out of it. Frankly, we've kind of lost interest in the show. It suffers badly from endless retooling, mixed-up tones, a clumsy sense of humor, etc.

Still. Let Washington's fate be a lesson to us all: Mess with the Velvet Mafia, you're eventually gonna get a unicorn head in your bed.

Rehab to Redshirt: The Isaiah Washington Story

sarahhepola — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 13:30:00 GMT

Do we swear to eventually quit going on about Bionic Woman? Eh, perhaps. We were a little iffy on the Gilmore-ish aspects of episode two, and the show didn't exactly hold on to its boffo premiere numbers, so maybe it's out of our hands anyway.

But for those who did tune in: Anyone else totally surprised to see former Grey's Anatomy star and accidental GLAAD spokesman Isaiah Washington turn up as Antonio Pope, Jamie's new supervisor? We'd heard he'd been added to the cast; it's him being practically snuck on the show that's a little surprising. There was hardly a mention of him in the commercials or on the website. He's not even listed on the IMDB page (though his stunt man is).

Now, normally, smuggling a hateful semi-star back on to primetime would bug us. But in this case, we'll give it a pass. Why? Because with all this hush-hush, we figure the term for it ain’t "comeback" or "second chance": It's "redshirt." Our guess is "Antonio Pope" is dead well before February sweeps.

Vindication? Who knows? We're just hoping for a bionicized T.R. Knight cameo.

— Scanner correspondent Bryan Christian