Dear TV Studios:
There was once this television show. You may remember it, although it is fairly obscure, called "The Twilight Zone". It was successful enough to spawn a mediocre rip-off show, "The Outer Limits".
What was interesting about these shows is that each episode stood alone, and told a self contained story about the weird and implausible. There were no recurring characters, no standing cast. Just the TV equivalent of a short story.
AND THEY WERE GOOD.
*ahem*
If one approaches "Global Frequency" from that standpoint, one is likely to produce a successful, if cultish, show. Obviously, slavishly obeying the source material is a mistake, but at the same time, changing the format of the source material is a bigger mistake. Keep the format, change the stories to fit within the 45 minute timeslot. Let Miranda Zero be our Rod Serling, and let Aleph be the audience's stand-in- she's our point-of-view character.
Focus on getting hot writing talent and up-and-coming acting talent to build the episodes. Take some risks.
Sadly, the main reason we don't get more anthology shows (especially sci-fi ones) is that it's cost-prohibitive to come up with different actors, sets, and FX every week. That, and TV executives think we're all too stupid to understand a show that doesn't have a "star" or "character continuity."
It's far easier to film another sitcom about nasal-voiced idiots who never leave their living room.
Of course, if they remained close to the previous Global Frequency pilot, you'd have 4 main characters, and a reusable "hub" set, so it wouldn't be any more of an anthology series than Dollhouse, Warehouse 13, or Fringe.
I do have one condition... and that is every week, the show's writers must present Warren Ellis with a bottle of 16-year-old single malt Irish whiskey and three cases of Red Bull, and then base their episode around whatever f***ed up premise he manages to scribble down on a cocktail napkin before passing out.
Only thus, may we receive true television enlightenment.
@bluehinter: That should either be a short featurette at the end of every episode or better yet, an entire show unto itself. Every episode could start with an opening monologue from Ellis, sitting in a plush velvet armchair wearing nothing but a nasty robe and smoking a pipe that has 2 lit cigarettes stuffed in the end. Also, stupidly hot Japanese-American glamgoths maybe.
Please! Just give me something worth watching on American TV! I loved the pilot, even if they did wuss out and insert what would have been two reoccurring characters other than Miranda Zero and Aleph.
Hopefully with the moderate success of Fringe and Supernatural they'll actually give this show the chance it deserves!
This is FANTASTIC news. Global Frequency is a near perfect fit for the TV model and the fact, and alleged reason, it was spiked the first time round was a huge disappointment. Hope it makes it.
@Alasdair5000: Agreed. The single biggest challenge in adapting GF is that there's a new main character in every story, but I'd think you could have Miranda Ziro, Aleph, and a recurring field operative and then throw guest stars on the frequency. I've never seen the original pilot, so I may be reiterating ideas it already took up.
I'll be honest; half the reason I want this series is so I can get a nice clip of someone saying "You're on the frequency" for my phone's ringtone.
@Darklighter: "The single biggest challenge in adapting GF is that there's a new main character in every story"
I think it would be great to throw in big stars every so often, it won't happen, but I can dream
@Darklighter: You and me both:) I seem to remember the plan with the original pilot was to have the two leads as core agents and mission specific GF agents being brought in as and when. Apparently, they even got as far as building models for the Parkour runner/dirty bomb episode
@tralfaz23: Alias guest stars included Quentin Tarantino, Ethan Hawke, Djimon Hounsou, Roger Moore, Christian Slater and Angela Bassett, so it's not without precedent to throw big stars in every so often on this kind of show.
Personally, I'd be gutted if they did away with the new-main-character-per-story format -it's the core concept! Even if they had to adapt it so that it was a new main character per story arc or per season, rather than per episode, they shouldn't adjust it too much. If they need characters to focus on, give us more info on Zero and Aleph!
@Paul_Is_Drunk: Very few film adaptations cast the people the author imagined when he was writing. Dan Brown imagined Harrison Ford as Robert Langdon, he even describes him as "Harrison Ford in a tweed jacket" or something like that. Ron Howard cast Tom Hanks. Tom Hanks is a great actor but he is a far from Harrison Ford as I am from the Grand Canyon. Warren Ellis is an excellent writer. He should know that describing something as "So Weird" doesn't actually convey any information. There are probably a dozen different interpretations of what he meant in the minds of just those people who read this particular post. #red
@Presidentpez: If you get the chance read the original book written by Brian Garfield. Where the movie plays for laughs, the book is deadly serious. The basic plot idea is so good it works either way, although I think the book is far better.
As for me I'm going to watch some episodes of James Munro's 'Callan' (with Edward Woodward') to get in the mood for 'Red'. #red
@Presidentpez: It helps to be very very old (like me). I saw it in the theater with the future Mrs. Overclock (who I do not think was even a.k.a. Dr. Overclock, Medicine Woman yet). #red
@Im_your_Huckleberry: The proper usage is "She's one over 50 Dame I'd like to see naked". When the woman has a formal title, it's best to use the formal title in the formal wet dream.
@Jassen: She is 23 days younger than me, which is a lot easi..
I mean, 7/24/81 is easy to remember. 7 is a holy number indicating perfection, 24 is the number of episodes of the first season of Terminator plus the number of episodes of Firefly, and the Arabic numerals for 81 are visible in the left palm of the human hand, which is the hand that..
I am seriously looking forward to this. Out of all the writers tackling the transhumanist angle, W.E. piques my interest the most. I love the idea of nanotechnology as a force. It can stand for so much more. Ellis almost always gravitates towards nanotechnology. Shit, even his Justice League episode was about the Atom shrinking himself to stop an "unstoppable" nano-alien mass.
In short: count me in.
EDIT: Is it redundant to refer to the Atom as shrinking himself to save the day or can I just say he saved the day and people can assume it was on an atomic level?
There is always something moral about his writing too. I find with Garth Ennis or Morrison an ambiguous ethic that Ellis avoids by being a bastard, moreover a bastard with a heart, which is what makes his take on transhumanism a little more likeable. He still emphasizes the human.
For example, with Transmet, Spiders attitude toward the digitized personalities is almost contemptuous mainly from a moral standpoint. #blacksummer
@Jeremy Tapsell: You know, I have never thought of Morrison in that light. He really is ambiguous, isn't he... Can you guess what I am going to ponder all day?
For years I confused Warren Ellis with Bret Easton Ellis. Took me years to realize they were not the same person. A stupid mistake, especially when you start saying things like, " I can't believe the American Psycho guy wrote Transmetropolitan!"
I know what you mean. I always thought that Brett Easton Ellis and Brett Ratner were the same person!!
"What? The guy who wrote American Psycho directed Rush Hour? No way!!"
Re Morrison; not that I judge Him in anyway for that! It is mainly just a point of difference I notice when comparing the two.
Its probably because he's Scottish. #blacksummer
11/18/09
Oh, and no SyFy Channel or FOX. This show would be dead after 13 episodes if either channel picked this up.
11/18/09
There was once this television show. You may remember it, although it is fairly obscure, called "The Twilight Zone". It was successful enough to spawn a mediocre rip-off show, "The Outer Limits".
What was interesting about these shows is that each episode stood alone, and told a self contained story about the weird and implausible. There were no recurring characters, no standing cast. Just the TV equivalent of a short story.
AND THEY WERE GOOD.
*ahem*
If one approaches "Global Frequency" from that standpoint, one is likely to produce a successful, if cultish, show. Obviously, slavishly obeying the source material is a mistake, but at the same time, changing the format of the source material is a bigger mistake. Keep the format, change the stories to fit within the 45 minute timeslot. Let Miranda Zero be our Rod Serling, and let Aleph be the audience's stand-in- she's our point-of-view character.
Focus on getting hot writing talent and up-and-coming acting talent to build the episodes. Take some risks.
11/18/09
Sadly, the main reason we don't get more anthology shows (especially sci-fi ones) is that it's cost-prohibitive to come up with different actors, sets, and FX every week. That, and TV executives think we're all too stupid to understand a show that doesn't have a "star" or "character continuity."
It's far easier to film another sitcom about nasal-voiced idiots who never leave their living room.
Of course, if they remained close to the previous Global Frequency pilot, you'd have 4 main characters, and a reusable "hub" set, so it wouldn't be any more of an anthology series than Dollhouse, Warehouse 13, or Fringe.
11/18/09
Only thus, may we receive true television enlightenment.
11/18/09
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11/18/09
I would totally get cable, just for that.
11/18/09
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11/18/09
Not so much on the Michelle Forbes tho. She kicked ass on the leaked pilot, but True Blood has ruined her for me for a little while...
You know, we get the viewing public used to some Warren Ellis, maybe we can get Transmetropolitan next...
(seems unlikely :-)
11/18/09
//They basically nailed their Hunter Thompson parody in Venture Bros.
11/18/09
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11/18/09
Hopefully with the moderate success of Fringe and Supernatural they'll actually give this show the chance it deserves!
11/18/09
11/18/09
I'll be honest; half the reason I want this series is so I can get a nice clip of someone saying "You're on the frequency" for my phone's ringtone.
11/18/09
I think it would be great to throw in big stars every so often, it won't happen, but I can dream
11/18/09
11/18/09
Personally, I'd be gutted if they did away with the new-main-character-per-story format -it's the core concept! Even if they had to adapt it so that it was a new main character per story arc or per season, rather than per episode, they shouldn't adjust it too much. If they need characters to focus on, give us more info on Zero and Aleph!
11/05/09
Ellis is relatively successful but I'm sure he sees this as a big step forward. And big steps are trippy.
Hence, the "so weird." #red
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As for me I'm going to watch some episodes of James Munro's 'Callan' (with Edward Woodward') to get in the mood for 'Red'. #red
11/05/09
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/Check #red
11/05/09
And for the next poll on io9 : Which over 50 sci-fi chick is the most do-able, a poll that Summer Glau (in any incarnation) cannot win. #red
11/05/09
@Im_your_Huckleberry: The proper usage is "She's one over 50 Dame I'd like to see naked". When the woman has a formal title, it's best to use the formal title in the formal wet dream.
The picture here is from this summer.
11/05/09
11/05/09
11/05/09
I mean, 7/24/81 is easy to remember. 7 is a holy number indicating perfection, 24 is the number of episodes of the first season of Terminator plus the number of episodes of Firefly, and the Arabic numerals for 81 are visible in the left palm of the human hand, which is the hand that..
Yeah, I looked it up.
11/05/09
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11/03/09
In short: count me in.
EDIT: Is it redundant to refer to the Atom as shrinking himself to save the day or can I just say he saved the day and people can assume it was on an atomic level?
11/03/09
There is always something moral about his writing too. I find with Garth Ennis or Morrison an ambiguous ethic that Ellis avoids by being a bastard, moreover a bastard with a heart, which is what makes his take on transhumanism a little more likeable. He still emphasizes the human.
For example, with Transmet, Spiders attitude toward the digitized personalities is almost contemptuous mainly from a moral standpoint. #blacksummer
11/04/09
For years I confused Warren Ellis with Bret Easton Ellis. Took me years to realize they were not the same person. A stupid mistake, especially when you start saying things like, " I can't believe the American Psycho guy wrote Transmetropolitan!"
Just saying... #blacksummer
11/04/09
I know what you mean. I always thought that Brett Easton Ellis and Brett Ratner were the same person!!
"What? The guy who wrote American Psycho directed Rush Hour? No way!!"
Re Morrison; not that I judge Him in anyway for that! It is mainly just a point of difference I notice when comparing the two.
Its probably because he's Scottish. #blacksummer