CraveOnline.com film movies tv and humor

Production Shuts Down On FlashForward

Filming scheduled to resume on Nov 30

Posted by Bryan Jones on November 24th, 2009 - Comments

Yesterday news broke that ABC has shut down production of their fast-falling drama, FlashForward. The shut down comes just a month after original co-showrunner Marc Guggeneheim departed and David Goyer stepped up as the sole showrunner. The move also comes after last week's ratings low for the series, bringing in only 8.1 million viewers.

However, if you're a fan of the show and concerned, ABC says don't be. According to a rep for the network, small hiatuses like this were built in to the schedule for the show. “They started production early so that they could have the luxury to do this,” says the rep. “They want to maintain the high quality of the show, and this gives the writers the opportunity to do so.”

FlashForward isn't the only ABC show that seems to be dealing with these production shutdowns. The network's new series V was given a month-long production shutdown recently to improve the direction of the show, and earlier this week Cougar Town shut down production so that star Courtney Cox could deal with personal issues.

Production will resume for FlashForward Monday after only a six day break. FlashForward airs its mid-season finale on Dec. 3.

Source: Ausiello

About the Author:
Bryan Jones (aka AstroJones) is a Human Resources Professional by day, and a web designer and writer by night. Bryan is a hard core television & movie fan and also writes for MovieOvermind.com, Hyper Mosaic FlashForward site, & Walter's Lab. Bryan lives in Norman, Oklahoma with his wife and three daughters. You can keep updated on all of Bryan's writings by following him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/astrojones2 or on Facebook.

Amazon.com Widgets

Sam McPherson

Gave me quite a scare there...

webdiva

ABC is using these "production shutdowns" as a preprogrammed strategy for dealing with sinking shows without actually calling them that. This extremely liberal use of euphemisms suppposedly allows the network to save face and think it's actually fooling anyone when in fact, given the slumping ratings, it isn't folling anyone except possibly itself.

FlashForward as grossly rewritten by its production company's hacks is nosediving because they tried to force a science fiction story about scientists and the consequences of what they do into a bad clone of Lost, which is purely an exaggerated fantasy. And they did this because ABC is trying desperately to come up with something to capture Lost fans with while it still can. This was the wrong thing to do with FlashForward, which had a sufficiently intriguing concept and set of dilemmas in the original plot to make for decent drama and susspense without any doctoring. But no: ABC and the director insisted on the severe reworking of the premise and setting, and this is the lousy result.

Of course, now with the ratings nosediving, it's a near-perfect opportunity for those of us who were aghast at what ABC did with Robert J. Sawyer's book to fairly say "we told you so, nitwits." If ABC wants a Lost clone, it should start by admitting that and write a new series accordingly, instead of taking a fascinating sci-fi premise, gutting it of nearly everything that made it interesting, and passing it off as an original effort. Predictably, the result isn't making Lost fans happy, and it certainly pissed off sci-fi viewers and those who appreciated Sawyer's novel. Way to go, meatheads.