MIRROR IMAGE NEWS RELEASE - January 30

Mirror Image -- When the unique marks of a known serial killer are left behind at a murder scene, it is up to Ellison and Sandburg to find out how they got there -- since the suspect is incarcerated in a maximum security mental hospital, on The Sentinel airing WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11 (9:00-10:00 p.m., ET/PT) on UPN.

Starring are Richard Burgi as Jim Ellison; Garett Maggart (cq) as Blair Sandburg and Bruce A. Young as Captain Simon Banks.

Guest starring are Lisa Akey as Cassie; Ben Cardinal as Dan Wolf; Brion James as Chapel; Anthony Ulc as Harris; Colin Cunningham as Dr. Burke; Jen Jasey as Alex; Daniel Boileau as Robert; Andre Benjamin as Reggie; Mike Dopud as O'Doyle; and Ben Derrick as Bellini.

Tony Westman directed from a teleplay by David H. Balkan.

(Thanks Barbara)

SOUNDTRACK FOR THE SENTINEL TO BE RELEASED - January 26

A soundtrack CD for The Sentinel will be released by Sonic Images in late February or early March.

For more detail visit the Sonic Images Website or contact them:

P.O. Box 69 16 26 West Hollywood, CA 90069 Phone: (213) 650-4400 Fax: (213) 650-1016

Email: sonicimages@sonicimages.com

UPN LOST AFFILIATES UPDATE - January 26

As regular readers of this page are aware, SOS has made a major target of the many stations who were losing The Sentinel due to the loss of the Sinclair group of UPN affiliates to WB. See the article in the December News section on which stations are affected.

In the last couple of weeks, the SOS campaign has had outstanding success making these local stations aware of the popularity of The Sentinel in their area, and as of this update, seven of the ten affected areas are getting UPN and The Sentinel back on their screens in one form or another. In a lot of cases, Paramount/UPN were already in negotiations to replace the lost stations, and in other areas, the fan campaign has really had an effect. 

UPN WORKING TO ATTRACT WIDER AUDIENCE - January 12

UPN Denies Turning Away From Black Comedies; Network Wants To Be 'All-Inclusive'

New United Paramount Network (UPN) President and Chief Executive Dean Valentine denies that the network is abandoning Black audiences and turning down projects featuring Black stars and producers. Valentine is making changes because he says that he wants UPN to be "all-inclusive" in its programming.

The four-year-old network that has featured programs starring and targeted to Blacks is seeking to attract all viewers regardless of color- a requirement that Valentine indicated not all of UPN programs meet.

"We are changing course," Valentine told the Los Angeles Times. "We're trying to become an inclusive network rather than narrowcasting to one group of people."

He added, "It doesn't mean that we want to abandon that group of people. It doesn't mean, 'Get lost, get out of here.' We're happy to have them; it's home. We just want to say to a bunch of other people, 'Hey, look, there's great programming here. Come watch us.'"

Come September, one thing Valentine said viewers can count on seeing is "a lot of new shows and new marketing."

UPN shows that Valentine was happy with include Moesha, Malcom & Eddie, Good News, and In The House,. "But the quality of all the shows can be improved," he continued to the Los Angeles Times.

Regarding his beliefs about UPN shows, Valentine added, "A number of the shows we have now are working for us and doing well. But we're interested in broadening and attracting as many people as possible. The new UPN will have some of the old UPN buried within it."

Source: JET Magazine, January 12, 1998, pg. 60

(thanks to Cynthia)

WB CATCHES UP WITH UPN - January 16

By Tom Bierbaum (thanks to Barbara)

NEW YORK (Variety) - For the first time in its history, television's WB netlet has tied rival UPN in season-to-date primetime Nielsen averages, and WB did it on the last night before it picks up the five stations from Sinclair Broadcasting that are scheduled to switch affiliations from UPN to WB this Sunday.

The Sinclair changeover should swing some additional viewership momentum away from UPN and to WB, though that boost may be offset in part by WB's expansion next week to Tuesday, which may prove to be a drain on the netlet's weeklong averages.

With a half-point edge in Wednesday results this week, WB improved its season- to-date average to a 3.0 rating, 5 share, matching UPN's season-long tally. In the key adults 18-49 demographic, UPN still holds a season-to-date edge, with a 1.7 rating to WB's 1.6, but WB is closing the gap, up 23% this season vs. UPN's 15% drop.

In total viewers, WB has actually inched past UPN during the past week, now averaging 4.34 million for the season vs. UPN's 4.33 million.

Wednesday was a historic night for WB, as the netlet topped a firstrun episode of UPN's Star Trek: Voyager for just the second time and for the first time with rerun programming. Repeats of Sister, Sister (3.9 rating, 6 share, equaling Sister's WB record rating) and Smart Guy (3.7-6) beat Voyager (3.7-6) for that 8-9 p.m. hour, though Trek edged Smart 8:30-9 p.m. It was the lowest-rated firstrun Voyager ever.

It's been almost exactly three years that WB and UPN have been slugging it out, each trying to establish itself as the strongest new alternative in the highly competitive network-TV arena. WB premiered its first primetime schedule on Jan. 11, 1995, and UPN followed less than a week later on Jan. 16. For the three years since then, up until this past Wednesday, UPN had always enjoyed the higher season-to-date households rating. UPN led WB by 2.4 rating points at the end of the 1994-95 season, by 0.7 points for '95-96 and by 0.6 points for '96-97.

UPN started the current season with the edge, but as WB's Monday lineup blossomed into one of the strongest on either weblet schedule, WB has rallied, beating UPN four of the last five weeks in a row (plus a tie) in homes and the last three in a row in adults 18-49.

GARETT MAGGART Q&A INTERVIEW TV GUIDE ONLINE - January 14

This article comes from TV Guide Online's Sci-Fi News which is updated weekly. The interviews then move to their archive where you can still read the Richard Burgi piece.

GARRETT MAGGART AKA: Blair Sandburg on The Sentinel

Don't let his long hair and bookish habits fool you. Anthropologist Blair Sandburg has kicked butt on occasion. And those occasions are more and more frequent on the increasingly action-packed series The Sentinel (Wednesdays, 9 p.m./ET, UPN). Steeped in shamanic lore, Sandburg works with Det. Jim Ellison (Richard Burgi), the titular supercop with extraordinarily heightened senses. It's far from a desk job, but it's the grad-school thesis of a lifetime. We caught up with Garrett Maggart, who plays Sandburg, between takes on The Sentinel's Vancouver set. - John Walsh.

How did you land this role?

Actually, I was at my sister's wedding in New York, and they sent me the script. It was out of season. It was not during regular pilot season. I almost passed on it. I was like, "Well, I don't want to go flying back to Los Angeles right now." But then as it turns out, they had had to postpone the original audition two days. So I was able to go in, and fortunately they liked me from the start.

Do you have any idea what cinched it for you?

Well, I think what cinched it was that Malcolm Jamal-Warner was up for it or something, but wanted too much money. Well, that's what I heard, anyway.

Do you share your character's interest in anthropology?

I always have had, a little - you know, not enough to actually make me go to college and study. I mean, come on, you've got other things to do. Like golf. But actually, since I've been playing Blair I've done a lot more reading on it, just so I don't sound so green when I'm saying some of the terminology that they write for me. I'd like to at least sound like I know what I'm talking about.

Are you content being an actor? Do you see yourself writing, directing at some point?

Everybody I know tells me to write. I have never written. It stems from school. I'm extremely dyslexic. And I'm the worst speller in the world. So I've just always had this phobia of writing, of actually putting pen in hand. And I haven't yet found a computer with a spell-checker that works for me. So I've just never really written. But it's always in the back of my head to write.

And I do want to direct. But I don't think I want to direct The Sentinel. I see the directors that come in to do the show. It's a big show. Their backs are up against the wall from day one. The schedule is just incredible. I don't think that's for me. Not yet, anyway.

Has your dyslexia been a problem professionally?

It is a little bit of a problem. I'm an awful cold reader. I have to read a script once or twice and then just get into my head. But actually, my dyslexia has made me develop a good memory. You know how when you're a kid in school, you all take turns reading? I'd count out how many paragraphs it was until my turn, and I'd memorize it. And by the time it came to me, I wouldn't know what the story was about, but I would know what I was supposed to say because I would have it locked down to memory. So everybody thought I could read perfectly.

What drew you to an acting career?

Well, my father's an actor. His name is Brandon Maggart. He's one of those guys who's been in everything twice. He worked a lot on Broadway, and that's where I got the bug. I'd just sit in the wings and watch the plays - Hello, Dolly; Applause. And as a young kid I was hanging around with Lauren Bacall and Jerry Lewis and Carol Channing. It was pretty exciting, but it also seemed very normal to me, you know? I mean, that was my life, the only one I knew.

So you got the bug early on. Did you do a lot of high-school plays?

Well, actually, no, because it was what I knew I wanted to do for a career, and I didn't want to be a child actor. I didn't really see too many of them making the change to adult acting. I mean, of course there's the few that do it, and they're wonderful - Jodie Foster, Matt Dillon. But the norm was that you didn't make that leap.

How about in college?

Well, in college I just took the normal drama courses. I didn't major in it because, again, I knew it was what I wanted to do. So I just used college to get other information. I mean, the last time I checked I didn't see anybody making a living doing Julius Caesar. So I got an associate's degree, mainly to appease my mother, and then I started acting.

Started acting or started bartending?

It's funny. I didn't know that people had other normal jobs. I thought everybody had a night job until they booked a show. I just figured everybody was a bartender or something. I didn't know that there were actually stockbrokers and mechanics. This had just been my life for so long, and this was what I had always known that I wanted to do. I moved to L.A. in '88, got a night job and started going on auditions.

When you auditioned for The Sentinel, did they tell you how physical the work would be?

No, they just lucked out with Richard [Burgi] and me. Richard is very athletic. And I was sort of a jock in high school. When I was a kid, all I did all day long was play football and baseball. And I was just a happy surprise for the producers because they just saw this long-haired kid, probably thought I'd never even seen a football before. So when they started talking about stunts I said, "Oh, I'm fine with that." And they were a bit surprised, but it's worked out well. Since they don't have to use a stuntman very often, they can do fewer setups. It makes filming go much more quickly.

WE VOTE GARETT INTO PEOPLE'S ONLINE TOP 10!!! - January 8

Congratulations to everybody who got behind the online voting for PEOPLE Magazine's "97 Most Intriguing People of '97" for your dedication and persistence. Today Garett Maggart was voted one of PEOPLE Online's Top 10 Most Intriguing People of '97.

As PEOPLE Magazine only offered to print a picture and info on the Top 10 vote winners, the majority consensus amongst The Sentinel's net fans was to all get behind one of our "boyz" and concentrate on voting them into this very competitive list.

It's great to see that persistance pay off. PEOPLE magazine were even responsive to fan feedback and changed the spelling of Garett's name after they had originally gotten it wrong.

Garett is officially reported as a "tough-guy hunk" for his place in the Top 10. You can go have a look at this phenomenon for yourself at PEOPLE's Results Page (site no longer exists) while it lasts, or we have saved off Garett's Page for posterity.

Congratulations also to Richard Burgi, who made Position #36 on the list with 287 votes, beating out fellow prime time heroes like David Duchovny, Hercules' Kevin Sorbo, Mel Gibson and Brad Pitt.

Bruce Young even made the Intriguing People list at #93, beating out traditional luminaries like Oprah Winfrey and Julia Roberts.

The Top 10 results were:

AUSSIE CAMPAIGN - WE MADE THE COVER!!! - January 5

Intensive campaigning by the Australian fans this week has put The Sentinel on the cover of the major national TV guide, TV WEEK.

Well okay... it's just a little picture of the cast of The Sentinel with the quote, "Which show is TV's best kept secret?" But that leads to a full page article which begins, "WATCH THIS SPACE - Is The Sentinel about to become the new hit cult TV series?"

The article goes on with some early press material and a guide to Who's Who in the cast. 

SPOTLIGHT ON THE SENTINEL

TV WEEK (National TV Magazine) - January 3-9

"Thanks to all the fans of the Seven/Prime series The Sentinel, who write to us on a regular basis.

We receive dozens of letters each and every day, and we want you to know that we are still trying to set up an interview. It shouldn't take too long, so hang in there. In the meantime, here's a photo of the cast (at right) to keep you going, and it that's not enough, here is The Sentinel's fan club address:

The Cascade Quarterly
c/ Cindy Shannon
4951 Cherry Avenue #239
San Jose, CA 95118 USA"

(Yep, Cindy's newsletter got a mention too)

SENTINEL STANDS TALL

TV WEEK (National TV Magazine) - December 27 - January 2

The Sentinel - Seven/Prime, 9:30pm

Richard Burgi (left) stars as Jim Ellison in the American police series, The Sentinel.

Detective Ellison has hypersensitive senses, meaning he can see, hear, taste and feel better than the average man.

"It's a fantastic role to play," says Richard, who is best known for his daytime soap roles (in Another World, As The World Turns and Days of Our Lives).

Set in the fictional town of Cascade, Washington, The Sentinel is big on special effects. Creator Danny Bilson says: "We were looking to create a series that was in the vein of a Die Hard or Lethal Weapon."

Local fans continue to receive letters from Channel 7 acknowledging that they are giving the series a better publicity push this time round, and we are being treated to a major promo campaign during primetime. In addition, reader's letters sections of every major newspaper for the last month have featured viewer letters praising the show.

Channel 7 reports that The Sentinel is rating strongly for them at the moment, as is supported by the move to the Double episodes.

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