NBC's 'Bionic Woman' Does NOT Bring Home The Bacon

NBC:: NBC's 'Bionic Woman' Does NOT Bring Home The Bacon
Nope. Didn't like it. Liked the bionic. Liked the woman. Bored to death by the story and the "formula." I read they are "reworking" the pilot. Let's hope that means they are COMPLETELY RE-IMAGINING THE WHOLE DAMN THING. Producers, do less of what everybody else has been doing (including Battlestar Galatica) and more of it's own story and style. Don't be afraid to include some science, we're not all idiots and your core audience isn't going to be stupid. The others won't watch anyway.

Take a look at CSI and Numb3rs - TV execs were howling - "TOO MUCH MATH!" or "TOO MUCH SCIENCE, NOT ENOUGH BLOOD!" (yeah, they scream those things). Now Numb3rs does get bogged down with some math scenes, but part of the charm is that you don't get that anywhere else...even if it is "TV math." (TV Math = New Math with a side of Pinkberry) (What's New Math? Who knows, they didn't even know what it was when they were trying to teach it)

I'm gonna give Bionic Woman ONE more chance...cause I can get my robots next season on The Sarah Conner Chronicles. That pilot was smoking! It left you wanting more...and a good thing too, cause..."It'll be back."

NBC Revisits, Reimagines 'Bionic Woman'

Michelle Ryan - Jaime Sommers, The New Bionic Woman

GLUED TO THE TUBE

July 20, 2007

Here's another great-idea-that's-not.

NBC's fall remake of "Bionic Woman."

Make that "reimagining," if you want to echo the nomenclature of the same company's new-and-much-improved "Battlestar Galactica" series unreeling on its Sci Fi cable sibling. That current drama is intelligently adult, thematically ambitious, steeped in moral dilemmas, and much truer than ABC's 1970s original to the darkness of its concept's core premise (a civilization nuked by its own robots must battle that run-amok handiwork in order to survive).

So now, this fall, NBC and that same Universal production studio present us with a new "Bionic Woman" that, likewise, tries to be more adult than its '70s ABC predecessor. That family fave's simplistic good-vs.-evil adventures starred Lindsay Wagner as the injured body rejuvenated by a couple of high-tech limb implants giving her superpowers, as signified by some belovedly el cheapo slo-mo/eerie-sounds effects designed to make her normal-looking persona seem extra strong/fast/cool. NBC's new "modern" remake starring British babe Michelle Ryan is certainly more advanced technologically in terms of what it depicts medically/physically and how it's rendered cinematically. The storytelling has also evolved, into something much darker, in both tone and look, than its kid-friendly predecessor. This take is definitely more morally ambiguous. And certainly "complex."

Which is not a good word to see a writer put in quotes.

This "Bionic Woman" is a mess. Its pilot hour - currently being reworked - is simultaneously bland, frantic, dreary, in-your-face and way too hardcore sci fi to succeed on a mainstream broadcast network. What critics have seen so far is bereft of the subtle humor or fancifulness that might lure the casually surfing fan. Meanwhile, it piles on way too much contrived detail about its bartender heroine and the professor boyfriend who's secretly inventing bionic technology for a mysterious organization that resuscitates his dying gal pal who's then horrified by the "improvements," yada yada yada.

If that wasn't disappointing enough, the show's producers came to NBC's part of TV critics' press tour this week and proudly informed us they'd essentially dumped anything about the show that was the least bit intriguing. They also detailed a litany of added elements that absolutely reeks of network interference, research testing and ancillary revenue/promotional opportunities.

Heaven forbid anyone consider actual entertainment value.

The deaf younger sister being raised by the bionic woman in the original pilot, played by profound teen actress Mae Whitman ("State of Grace," "Arrested Development," "Thief"), is now gone. She's been replaced by the less textured but, yes, cuter performer Lucy Hale, as a character "reconceived" to "help us get more traction as we move into episodic," in the bionic terminology parroted by executive producer Jason Smilovic. This new sister will now be a (gee, we've never seen this before) computer hacker. And oh yes, the siblings' parents will be "activists back in the day who were very keen on saving the world," said Smilovic (NBC's "Kidnapped"), "but sort of neglected their own children."

The pilot's cast did include Asian-American actor Will Yun Lee (also compelling in FX's short-lived "Thief"), who plays a canny "operative" eager to put the bionic babe's skills to mission-executing use. But maybe Lee's welcome presence wasn't on-its-face diverse enough. Or sufficiently publicity-friendly.

NBC's new program chief Ben Silverman made a point of announcing at press tour that the "Bionic Woman" cast has added Isaiah Washington, the gay-slur-dropping "Grey's Anatomy" dumpee, as another party interested in tapping those bionic abilities. Said Smilovic, quoting directly from the press tour cliche book, "We just found the best actor for the role."

Maybe "Bionic Woman" will prove me wrong - among its backstage leaders are veteran "X-Files" writer Glen Morgan, plus David Eick, who oversaw production on the "Battlestar Galactica" re-think that proved everybody wrong - but the whole project seems to represent all the worst instincts of network TV today. From its "brand" reliance to the shoehorn-in-another-angle character mix, from the one-from-Column-A-and-Column-B casting to the latest-tech-toys fixation - it adds up to precisely the sort of synthetic stench that's driving broadcast viewers away to HBO, Showtime, FX, TNT and other enterprising outlets who've realized viewers still value actual human resonance.

One after another during the initial cable days of this press tour, series creators extolled the joy of working with channels that support their idiosyncratic vision and let them execute it without constant micro-management. And then the old-line networks started lumbering up on stage to present slates of Frankenstein monsters pieced together from everything except singular inspiration and authentic soul.

Maybe these TV execs should go back and watch James Whale's inspired 1931 "Frankenstein" film and its sequels, which, coincidentally for the "Bionic" folks, were produced by their very own Universal studio. In the meantime, let me give away that cautionary tale's memorable ending.

The brilliant scientist's oh-so-meticulously constructed monster ends up burning the whole house down.

Diane Werts - Copyright © 2007, N ewsday Inc.

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/ny-ettube5298290jul20,0,6989487.column?coll=ny-tv-columnists

Bionic Woman (2007 TV series)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bionic Woman is an upcoming American science fiction television drama created by David Eick, who also serves as executive producer alongside Laeta Kalogridis, Jason Smilovic, and Glen Morgan. Michael Dinner directed the pilot.

Produced by Universal Media Studios, GEP Productions and David Eick Productions, the series is currently scheduled to air on Wednesday nights at 9:00/8:00c premiering on September 26, 2007 on NBC, following Deal or No Deal. The show will also be broadcast on Channel Seven, E! and ITV2 in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom respectively.^[1][2][3]

The series is a re-imagining of the original The Bionic Woman (1976–1978) television series, dropping the leading "The" from the title.^[4] The pilot episode was leaked on the internet and available for download on popular torrent sites on July 27, 2007. ^[5]

Production

Genesis

The original series was created by writer Kenneth Johnson as a spin-off of The Six Million Dollar Man television series, which in turn was based upon the novel Cyborg by Martin Caidin. Caidin subsequently received a special credit on the original The Bionic Woman series, even though the character of Jaime Sommers was not his creation.

The first mention of a revision of the Bionic Woman series occurred in August 2002 when a story in The Hollywood Reporter indicated that the series would be produced by "Team Todd", sisters Jennifer Todd and Suzanne Todd. The story quoted Suzanne Todd as saying "We are going to take advantage of the fact that what seemed beyond the realm of reality back when they did the original show – some of the things in terms advancement in prosthetics and in replacement limbs – are real in true life now. I think the idea that they exist in the world today and people make use of them – not in a superhero way the way that Jaime does – is going to allow us to do something really interesting and very different than the old show."^[6] It was later reported that the USA Network was considering airing the series, with Jennifer Aniston being in consideration for the lead role.^[7][8] However, no series eventuated at that time.

Then on October 9, 2006, NBC Universal announced that it was bringing the project back with new producers and reportedly a radical reworking of the concept.^[9] The series would be written by Laeta Kalogridis (creator of the WB series Birds of Prey) and produced by David Eick. Eick commented on the new series saying, "It's a complete reconceptualization of the title. We're using the title as a starting point, and that's all. It's going to be a meaningful departure [from the original]".^[9]

On January 3, 2007, The Hollywood Reporter reported that the series one-hour pilot was given an official greenlight by NBC.^[10] On May 10, 2007, NBC announced that they had given an early pick-up to Bionic Woman for their fall 2007 schedule.^[11]

The official NBC fall 2007/2008 schedule was released on May 14, 2007 and Bionic Woman will be on Wednesdays at 9pm (Eastern Time) starting September 26, 2007.^{[citation needed]}

It remains to be seen if the now-deceased Caidin or Johnson will be credited on the new version of Bionic Woman or if any references to The Six Million Dollar Man will be made. Johnson has confirmed on his website that he is not involved with the new Bionic Woman series.^[12] Since the rights to The Six Million Dollar Man and Cyborg are held by other parties, the characters of Oscar Goldman and Dr. Rudy Wells from the original franchise have been replaced by new creations and it has yet to be seen whether they or the character of Steve Austin will appear in the new series.

Casting

The series originally starred Michelle Ryan, Miguel Ferrer, Molly Price, Will Yun Lee , and Mae Whitman, with David Eick, Laeta Kalogridis, Jason Smilovic and Michael Dinner serving as executive producers and writers. Dinner also directed the pilot but exited his post as executive producer in June 2007.^[13] Glen Morgan, writer and producer on The X-Files, Space: Above and Beyond, and Millennium, joined the production team of Bionic Woman as an executive producer in May.^[14] On June 27, 2007, TV Guide reported that Mae Whitman was being replaced in the role of Jaime's sister. An NBC spokesperson confirmed this, stating, "The decision was purely creatively driven. It is very common to change storylines, characters, actors after the initial pilot is shot." Also, the sister character will not be deaf, as reportedly an NBC executive requested that the character's hearing be restored. Lucy Hale was later cast as Whitman's replacement in July 2007.^[13][15] In announcing the recasting, it was confirmed that the deaf trait of the character had been dropped.^[16]

Katee Sackhoff also stars in the pilot. It has been reported that she might star on the show in a recurring capacity, alongside her role on Battlestar Galactica, which, like Bionic Woman, is filmed in the Vancouver, British Columbia area. Sackhoff plays a villain named Sarah Corvus, the "original bionic woman". Sackhoff has compared the role to Number Six.^[17][18] Isaiah Washington has also been confirmed to appear in at least five episodes of the series.^[19]

Plot

Struggling to make ends meet as a bartender while serving as a surrogate mom to her teenage sister, Jaime Sommers figures that her life couldn't get any more difficult. She is terribly, terribly wrong. Nearly killed in a horrifying car accident, Jamie is saved by a cutting-edge operation -- performed by her boyfriend, Will -- that leaves her with extraordinary new strength, among other artificially enhanced gifts. Now, however, Jamie must figure out how best to use her new abilities while embracing her new bionic identity.

The website for the UK newspaper Daily Mail published photographs from the pilot film that reveal that in addition to a bionic ear, Sommers will receive a bionic eye like that of Steve Austin, along with her bionic legs and bionic right arm.^[20] Clips from the pilot episode posted on the show's official preview webpage reveal that she will also have a bionic ear and be injected with nanomachines called "anthrocytes" that heal her body at an exponential rate.^[21]

by Michael Patrick Sullivan, Contributing Writer

Following a presentation of the pilot for the new “Bionic Woman” series from NBC, stars Michelle Ryan (Jamie Sommers, the titular Bionic Woman), Katee Sackhoff (her predecessor, the evil Bionic Woman) and Mark Sheppard (father of Wil, Jamie's boyfriend and the doctor that gave her the implants after a horrific car accident), along with producers David Eick, Jason Smilovic and Glen Morgan talked about the show to attendees of the San Diego Comic Con last Saturday morning.

The pilot was well received by a capacity crowd that had lined up outside the cavernous Ballroom 20 long before the doors were even opened. Faces familiar to science fiction fans, particularly fans of “Battlestar Galactica” (also produced by Eick) elicited loud cheers for the gathered fans as the pilot was shown, specifically “Galactica's” Sackhoff. Michelle Ryan's initial appearance as the main character however went without such a surge.

Once the pilot was completed and the guests were introduced, attendees corrected their previous inaction with a loud and lengthy round of applause for the British Ryan.

Eick spoke first, talking about the impetus to make a new version of “The Bionic Woman” rather than “The Six Million Dollar Man.” “I think Universal Pictures is still pursuing ‘The Six Million Dollar Man' as a feature. I kept reading that Jim Carrey was going to do it,” said Eick, noting that that version of the project seems to have stalled out. “I think they're looking at that as a franchise of it's own.

“We were talking a couple of years ago, without a title,” continued Eick, “Could you do a show about a woman who is empowered and cover not just who she was at home or who she was at business, but both? This took several turns and we looked doing it as a sort of anti-hero like a Tony Soprano or [‘The Shield's'] Vic Mackey. ‘Are the rules different for girls?' sort of became the rallying cry.”

When that particular take bore no fruit, the producers continued brainstorming. “Could you do the story of a woman in a contemporary sense who is struggling both to realize her potential and an individual and as a professional of sorts? “ Eick asked, rhetorically.

Eick continued, “The title had been kicking around some of the other companies in Universal.” Eick said he had a conversation with an executive at Universal and came up with the idea to graft the story they had been developing to the concept of “Bionic Woman.”

Eick said the series will “tell the story of a woman discovers her potential as a hero while grows into a young, adult woman and find the ways and parallels in which one can come at the cost of the other.”

“What might we see in the first part of the season?” showrunner Jason Smilovic asked, prompting producer Glen Morgan to pipe in.

“She runs fast,” Morgan deadpanned.

“Really fast,” parroted Smilovic, getting a laugh.

“Jumps high,” Morgan said.

“Very high,” added Smilovic.

Smilovic continued, “It's basically a journey of self discovery. We'll see Jamie Sommers walk a fine line between being a human being and being a bionic woman and learning how to keep those two separate and how to get those two components to work together in tandem with one another. It's very important that the character learns….not to overwhelm her humanity. There are various people who are going to be pulling her in various directions. Some people are going to want her to be more of a machine and some people are going to want her to be more human. That's going to be a big part of our show.”

When asked what drew her to the character, Ryan said, “When I first read the script, I just loved the fact that it was a young strong, feisty, vulnerable woman. The character has so many layers it was almost like a journey of self-discovery.”

“It's a lot more fun,” added Sackhoff, who plays the villain in this series. “Starbuck, every time she does something, she's up against herself and she's got tremendous guilt,” she said, referring to her “Battlestar Galactica” character. “Sarah Corvis loves being evil. It was so much fun, I keep saying over and over again that the characters that I play are allowing me to not go to therapy.”

Asked about shooting the climactic melee on a rainy rooftop, Sackhoff said “I kept texting my manager, ‘I hate rain towers…and stiletto heels.”

“It was absolutely brilliant working with Katee. She has so much energy,” Ryan added. She also said that several critics noting sexual tension in the fight scene.”

“If they had their way, we'd have been wearing white t-shirts,” joked Sackhoff.

“I'm a really lucky guy, as an actor,” said Sheppard, when asked about his part as Dr. Andros. “I've had characters written for me to play that are just extraordinary. Anthony Andros has a very different agenda from most of the other people on the series. We'll just have to see how that works out.”

It was noted to a negative audience reaction that the part of Jamie's deaf sister, Becca, played by Mae Whitman, had been rewritten and recast. Lucy Hale will now play Becca as a non-deaf “budding hacker” who may be able to reconnect Jamie and herself with their parents.

The producers also made it clear that such relics of the original series as Fembots, Sasquatch and brainwashing women with shampoo would be left to the original series where they belong, but would not be opposed to having Lindsay Wagner, the original Jamie Sommers, appear on the show.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=11481

"The Bionic Woman", a 2-hour NBC TV pilot starts shooting March 19 in Vancouver. Executive producers are David "Battlestar Galactica" Eick, Bruno Heller and Laeta Kalogridis. Director is Michael Dinner from a screenplay by Kalogridis and Heller.

According to the casting breakdown, the production is still looking for series' regulars including:

"'Jonas Bledsoe', 50s-60's, forceful and not above lying to get what he wants. He is the ruthless leader of the secret government agency that turned 'Jaime' into a 'Bionic Woman'. Though furious with Eric for wasting $50 million worth of classified, illegal technology on "some girl," Jonas decides to use Jaime to track down and retrieve the other Bionic creations who escaped.

Topping his list of fugitives is insane, deadly 'Sarah Corvus', whose violent break-out and subsequent revenge streak haunts Jonas to this day.

After using unscrupulous means to manipulate Jaime into joining his organization, Jonas agrees to her terms and we get the feeling he will treat her with respect and honesty from now on.

'Dr. Eric Masters', 27-31, good-looking, sexy, likeable and devoted, he is Jaime's supportive boyfriend of two months who already knows she is the one. As a young prodigy (finished college at age 15 and became a surgeon at 22) he's a genius in his field - bionics - and the only one capable of performing the illegal, complex surgeries the government has been experimenting with.

When Jaime nearly dies in a car accident, Eric doesn't hesitate using bionic surgery on her, even though this means going against his superiors and breaking every rule in the book. His innovative behavior and past deeds make him a target of deadly Sarah Corvus.

'Jae Kim', early-Mid 30's, handsome, skilled, wiry and lithe. He is a Field Leader who is second in command to Jonas. He can't believe Jonas is even considering making Jaime a field agent, but feels compelled to prove Jaime's skills to her, which he does by attacking her with a knife. She handily deflects him, stunned by her own abilities.
*MARTIAL ARTS TRAINING IS A PLUS.

'Ruth Treadwell', 50s, tough, very smart with a "don't mess with me" vibe. She's head of intel and logistics for Jonas. She explains to Jaime that her bionic surgery also endowed Jaime with built-in programming for split-second reflexes and combat training, and advises Jaime to stop thinking and just be. Because she's respectful, reassuring and straightforward, we get the feeling we can trust Ruth.

'Becca Sommers', 15. Jaime's younger sister. She's a pretty teenager determined to hide her looks under a tough, sarcastic, resentful demeanor. It's clear Becca misses her mom and blames Jaime for not spotting the signs of her mom's disease sooner. Still, beneath her brave, spiteful exterior lies the heart of a vulnerable girl who really does love, and need, her big sis. Her dad took off years ago, and when Becca was 11 her Mother died leaving Becca in Jaime's care."

"EastEnders" actress Michelle Ryan has landed the lead role in the 'reconceptualization' of the classic TV series. The 22-year-old Taurus beauty, who played 'Zoe Slater' in the BBC soap for five years, will portray 'Jaime Sommers', the tennis professional whose body is rebuilt with super-human, electronic parts following a parachuting accident.

"It's a complete reconceptualization of the title," said Eick.

"We're using the title as a starting point, and that's all...it's using the idea of artificial technology as a metaphor for what contemporary women sometimes feel is necessary, to do everything that needs to be done".

http://vancouverfilm.blogspot.com/2007_02_24_archive.html