- News Archive January 29 - 31 1999 -

SENTINEL SUPPORTERS ARE ON GUARD - Jan 31

Anyone walking into the lobby of the swank Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel in Pasadena, Calif., in the late afternoon of Jan. 8 would have been greeted by the sight of Richard Burgi, star of UPN's The Sentinel, posing for photo after photo with excited fans sporting Sentinel T-shirts and badges.

As part of the Television Critics Association's annual Winter Press Tour (an opportunity for networks and cable channels to show off their new product to a large assemblage of reporters), there was also an event for fans of The Sentinel, who are a large reason the show is back on the air.

After The Sentinel did not appear on UPN's fall schedule last year, dedicated fans, many of them communicating through the Internet, began a determined campaign to assure that the show would get a fourth season. They barraged UPN with letters, calls and e-mails, and even raised money to purchase ads in USA Today and Variety.

They were rewarded earlier this month by the show's fourth-season premiere on Jan. 18, actually a rebroadcast of the show's original pilot (in case we'd all forgotten what it's about). Last week, the third-season cliffhanger, "Sentinel,Too, Part One" aired. Monday, a string of eight new episodes begins with "Sentinel, Too, Part Two" the conclusion.

In both episodes, Star Trek:Voyager star Jeri Ryan plays Alex, the evil counterpart to Detective James Ellison (Burgi), a man whose experiences in the Peruvian jungle gave him radically heightened senses, which he uses to fight crime. In the cliffhanger, Alex apparently killed Ellison's partner, anthropologist Blair Sandburg (Garett Maggart). Now, Sandburg leads Ellison on an adventure into the jungles of Peru (sic - actually the action takes place in Mexico) (actually Vancouver, B.C., where the show is filmed), on a mission to sell nerve gas to drug lords.

Although fans no doubt are thrilled to have new episodes, Burgi and the show's creators, Danny Bilson and Paul DeMeo of Pet Fly Productions (Viper), have mixed feelings about the whole affair, as expressed in interviews conducted just as the show wrapped production last November.

"I just wish that the whole affair was handled better and there was some sense of understanding of the thinking of the network," Burgi says. "Well, we've proved ourselves, I think. Oh well, let's just go on. There's some strange contest that goes on, on the executive level, sometimes, that circumvents all rational thought and potential creative integrity. We're all befuddled as to what the real reason for it was, because it definitely wasn't about lack of viewership."

Although the ratings for The Sentinel, which airs Mondays at 8 p.m. (Channel 45), didn't light any fires by the standards of ABC, NBC, or CBS, in the UPN universe they far outdistanced most of the new shows that were put on the fall schedule in place of it.

"It feels like a stay of execution," Bilson says. It doesn't feel very alive. They gave us eight episodes, and they can kill us again. Our reruns did better than most of their premieres. You know, we can keep this, like, really superficial and positive, but we're getting abused.

"I don't understand, nothing makes sense to us except that it feels like discrimination for some reason. We have no idea why. Two plus two isn't equaling four."

Did UPN ever offer explanations for why the show was canceled or why it then was brought back for just eight episodes? "No," Bilson says. "They don't talk to us. We have no communication with UPN. Isn't it bizarre? It's the worst situation I've ever been in in 20 years in the business. I don't know what to say."

While producers fight the network wars, Burgi soldiers on to finish a last scene for "Sentinel, Too, Part Two." "This weekend, I have to go down and run amidst the crashing surf with Jeri Ryan, once more in a liplock."

Every job has its perks.

NEXT WEEK: Creativity and survival on Pet Fly's The Sentinel and Viper

(Thanks Suz)

NETWORK HEADS TACKLE THE ISSUES AT NATPE - Jan 30

A variety of network executives converged on New Orleans Monday to take part in a special session for the 36th Annual NAPE (National Association of Television Program Executives) Conference.

Included on the panel were Susanne Daniels (The WB), Larry Jacobson (FOX), Tom Nunan (UPN), Jeff Sagansky (Pax TV) and Mark Schacher (Tribune Entertainment), and agent David Tenzer (CAA).

A wide variety of topics were discussed, but panelists spoke frankly about the state of network television, from profitability to show development. The conversation was dominated by Daniels and Jacobson, but Nunan and Sagansky were actively participated as well.

The opening topic for the panel was a question involving NBC, and the net's attempt to force production companies to share ownership with the network. While the net eventually backed down from its demands, most of the executives on hand agreed that NBC's move was not surprising.

"I'm sorry that NBC has given up, frankly," said Daniels, who noted that her network benefits from the move because it forces suppliers to seek different outlets, including The WB.

Jacobson agreed ownership is a necessity for networks in the present marketplace, but that NBC took "too hard of a line." Meanwhile, Nunan, who once worked at NBC Studios (the net's in-house production company) defended the practice by saying, "A good idea is a good idea, no matter where it comes from."

However, Sagansky was the most blunt.

"It's done because it has to be done," he said, noting most primetime series have an average return rate of four percent. Networks, he claimed are being "held hostage by this ridiculous price structure."

Panelists also tackled the subject of talent, and if there's enough talent to go around. Daniels pointed out how The WB has looked to feature writers (Dawson's Creek guru Kevin Williamson, Felicity creators J.J. Abrams & Matt Reeves) to help bolster their shows, but she made sure to point out that an experienced show runner was needed to actually help the show operate smoothly.

Nunan sang a slightly different tune.

"All of us, I think, have loosened up considerably," he said, when referring to who could create a show.

Reality programming was also targeted. Jacobson's FOX was again noted for its reliance on the cheap form of entertainment (When Animals Attack), though he defended it jokingly, saying, "those animals are very expensive."

Sagansky said it was possible to reinvent the genre, as Pax TV did with its special Chicken Soup For the Soul, though, he joked, "I suppose we could have done 'When Angels Attack."

Nunan said another option was to explore other low-cost options. He noted UPN's midseason replacement Home Movies, which debuts in April, costs only a "fraction" of what the higher-profile Dilbert. Nunan said the show, created by Tom Snyder (Dr. Katz), is "phenomenal."

Finally, the panelists talked about current programming, and why it has been so difficult to find a new hit sitcom in recent years.

"What's funny is subjective and so varied," Daniels noted, "that it's difficult to create."

However, Daniels believes many the comedians quickly given their own show aren't given a chance to develop their material before getting it on the air. She suggested patience, but Sagansky didn't agree with that point.

"Patience is just an excuse for not canceling something that is bad."

The session's participants didn't solve any problems Monday afternoon, but appeared to have fun with one another. Jacobson and Daniels provided some of the day's most interesting exchanges, especially when Jacobson said that in the emerging digital arena, "The WB could be called FOX 2."

After the laughter subsided, Daniels retorted, "FOX could be WB 2."

However, Jacobson had the last laugh. When the panelists were mentioned as being emerging networks, Jacobson spoke up, noting FOX is anything but, routinely averaging second in the prime demographic of 18-49.

GIST TV FRONT PAGE FEATURE ON SENTINEL, TOO - PART TWO - Jan 29

SCI-FI Saving The Sentinel UPN—The Sentinel Mondays, 9 to 10 p.m. ET By Frank Lovece  "And now, the senses-shattering conclusion of The Sentinel!"  That's what its fans faced last spring, when the hour-long series about a police detective with super-enhanced senses was abruptly canceled mid-cliffhanger. You could almost hear them crying out, in time-honored comic-book fashion: "Noooooooooo!!!"  But this is real life, not comics. And the series' media-savvy audience had a weapon more powerful than repulsor rays or super strength: activism. After a telephone, letter and e-mail campaign that even raised money to buy support ads in USA Today and Daily Variety, fans helped convince UPN to bring back The Sentinel. The fourth season began Monday, Jan. 18 with a rerun of the pilot episode, followed a week later by part one of the third season's cliffhanger finale, guest-starring Star Trek: Voyager Borg-babe Jeri Ryan. The first new episode premieres Monday, Feb. 1.  "I think they tortured the network," says a beaming Danny Bilson, one of The Sentinel's two co-creators and executive producers. "I mean, I heard stories where they were jamming the phone lines and sending so much mail that ultimately [UPN] started turning the mail back."  "We had 1,500 e-mails in the first 48 hours of cancellation," marvels fellow executive producer Paul De Meo, who with Bilson had previously brought DC Comics' superhero The Flash to TV. "Having an audience that's vocal like that," says Bilson, "has been really great in the face of cancellation."  Series star Richard Burgi gives credit to both ends. "I'd like to think that one of the reasons it's back on is that the people who are running the network are flexible. And to be flexible in this day and age is a very necessary quality—to admit you've made a mistake and to look at something that's a good product and to support it as such."  The series stars Burgi (center) as police detective James Ellison, a former Army captain who'd been stranded 18 months in a Peruvian jungle. He adapted and survived with the unknowing help of some mystical science that gave him super-sensitive hearing, touch, taste, smell and sight, in a manner supposedly similar to that of ancient tribal sentinels who developed their senses to peak human degree. Ellison later discovered he'd had this latent ability since childhood. Now, living and working in (fictional) Cascade, WA, he's learned to focus his potentially overwhelming senses with the help of anthropology grad student Blair Sandburg (Garett Maggart, right above, son of actor Brandon Maggart). Bruce A. Young (left above) co-stars as police captain Simon Banks.  Jeri Ryan guested last May on the third-season finale, "Sentinel Too," as a heretofore unknown second Sentinel—one who, after awakening from a coma with unformed Sentinel abilities that Sandburg helped nurture, turned on her benefactor and killed him (or so we thought).  "It's a great group of people to work with, so we had a lot of fun cutting up on the set," recalls Ryan (left), whose skintight outfits as Voyager's sexy Seven of Nine helped turn her into a sci-fi icon. However, her evil Alexis Barnes was not, she laments, "a huge, huge, huge departure. I mean, she's obviously very different from Seven, but it's not a drastic enough departure to make it enormously fulfilling." Still, the actress quickly notes, "I don't mean to disparage the character at all. It was fun. And it was great fun being out of [my Star Trek] corset and catsuit, lemme tell ya!"  In traditional heroic-fiction form, the two sentinels face each other mano-a-mano in the long-delayed part two of "Sentinel Too." But for now and for the remainder of the eight new-season episodes so far, it's clear the show's fans have gone mano-a-mano with UPN—and everybody won.

(Thanks Karen)

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