Terra Nova Cancelled

[YoshiKart64]

After extended negotiations it seems FOX has decided against picking up it's CGI heavy, dinosaur themed show Terra Nova for a second season. It'll be interesting to see which dramas the network does actually decide to keep though, as all of its new ones have had a soft premier season.

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/03/05/fox-cancels-terra-nova/123109/
http://www.deadline.com/2012/03/fox-cancels-drama-terra-nova-series-being-shopped-to-other-networks/

 

[Joelist]

Maybe SyFy can pick it up and blend it with another show, like one of their reality series...

 

[OMNI]

is that the one were they somehow go back in time to play with the dinos? if so great news..

 

[Overmind One]

LOL, I saw this coming.

After extended negotiations it seems FOX has decided against picking up it's CGI heavy, dinosaur themed show Terra Nova for a second season. It'll be interesting to see which dramas the network does actually decide to keep though, as all of its new ones have had a soft premier season.

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/03/05/fox-cancels-terra-nova/123109/
http://www.deadline.com/2012/03/fox-cancels-drama-terra-nova-series-being-shopped-to-other-networks/

I saw this coming. The show was not going anywhere, and it was following along the same exact lines as Primeval did (a UK show). As soon as the son got involved, jumping through portals and such, it became just like it did with Helen in Primeval. Ultimately, they had to kill her off and close that story arc, and then they ruined it by shipping the other two main characters Abby and Connor. They ended with Season 5, but the show has not been officially cancelled. There could be a Season 6 but not with the original actors. I am guessing it will never be back. This show will not be missed. I got sick of it in the beginning, and saw too much of Jurassic Park in it.

 

[Overmind One]

Maybe SyFy can pick it up and blend it with another show, like one of their reality series...

Syfy has nothing to offer it. I think Sufu is the only channel still giving us old-style scifi-fantasy. The other channels seem to be experimenting with all of this cross-genre stuff like The Walking Dead. I hope they dont pick it up.

 

[Rac80]

awwwwwwwwwwwww we didn't get to see Barney eat anyone! BOOOOOOOO!!! I wanted some whining teens to get eaten! :ori:

 

[shavedape]

I think we all saw this coming before the show even aired. Remember all the production issues and the fact that the show premiere was set back so long? The giant cast, the location shooting, the sets, the numerous live-action scenes at various sets -- all of that = BIG MONEY to produce. They can squawk about the cost of CGI but the fact is that the cost of live-action scenes really jacked up the price too.

Oh well, no more angsty, moody teenage son and precocious daughter, boo hoo.

 

[Graybrew1]

Dammit. I thought this show was getting better. What crap are they going to replace it with is what concerns me. Each time they get a little bit worse. Thank God for Netflix Tv shows.

 

[Overmind One]

I think we all saw this coming before the show even aired. Remember all the production issues and the fact that the show premiere was set back so long? The giant cast, the location shooting, the sets, the numerous live-action scenes at various sets -- all of that = BIG MONEY to produce. They can squawk about the cost of CGI but the fact is that the cost of live-action scenes really jacked up the price too.

Oh well, no more angsty, moody teenage son and precocious daughter, boo hoo.

Meh, I thought it was getting better, but it was more like it was still hobbled by the angsty son and precocious daughter and the little girl. The whole "family unit" thing in these newer shows is not working. Somebody described The Walking Dead as The Waltons with zombies. This show is The Brady Bunch with dinosaurs. They ruined it by starting so many different threads, and the super angsty son who hates his father was over the top. Interesting but not enough to carry the show. Like you said, we saw it coming!

 

[Graybrew1]

Yes, not award winning but what is coming in it's place? We could really be going from the fat to the fire again.

 

[YoshiKart64]

Yes, not award winning but what is coming in it's place? We could really be going from the fat to the fire again.

With Alcatraz also failing to grab viewers its unlikely FOX will look to invest in sci-fi again anytime soon. This show was probably the death nail for big budget sci-fi on network TV which is a shame.

I just hope that Touch does well for Fox and Awake stays decent for NBC; those were by far the better unorthodox shows to premiere this TV season.

 

[shavedape]

For the record I didn't hate Terra Nova, but I simply saw the problems it had to overcome in order to be successful. The money, i.e. production costs, were just too prohibitive to make it work regardless of Spielberg's involvement.

If they had scaled the production back and didn't have so many story lines going on they might have been able to make it work. After all, Stargate was quite successful and it had a "big" feel to it while still being fairly reasonable to produce. There's no reason the premise of Terra Nova couldn't have worked if it had been done right instead of becoming bloated and unwieldy.

 

[Bluce Ree]

I liked this show better as it progressed and thought it had become quite fun to watch near the end. But, in the great tradition of all things Fox, as soon as a show starts to find its momentum they cancel it. Remember Sliders? Fox dumped it in the 3rd season after TPTB started mucking it up with the 3rd season's story line then SciFi picked it up and proceeded to completely put it out of its misery.

SciFi of yesterday would probably pick up this show in a heartbeat. Today? Not so much unless they can morph it into a reality show or dino wrestling.

 

[shavedape]

I liked this show better as it progressed and thought it had become quite fun to watch near the end. But, in the great tradition of all things Fox, as soon as a show starts to find its momentum they cancel it. Remember Sliders? Fox dumped it in the 3rd season after TPTB started mucking it up with the 3rd season's story line then SciFi picked it up and proceeded to completely put it out of its misery.

SciFi of yesterday would probably pick up this show in a heartbeat. Today? Not so much unless they can morph it into a reality show or dino wrestling.

Yeah it's a shame that SyFy isn't picking up any of the shows that are dropped by the networks. I think Terra Nova, given some changes, could have met the qualifications for a SyFy channel production. Oh well.

 

[YoshiKart64]

To be fair to Fox, ratings are ratings. The current president wasn't really a fan of Terra Nova either, saying it failed to find its 'voice'. To be honest it seems like he understood the reservations that many viewers had about the series. New producers and writers were apparently contacted in an effort to show that Season 2 would be better but he decided against renewing it.

Fair play to the man though, he's always honest about the position he's in. The best example is Fringe - the Fox of old wouldn't have given that a 4th (or maybe even 3rd) season.

 

[SciphonicStranger]

I think BBCA should pick this one up and try to scale it back to make it work. They are pretty much the new science fiction channel so it might be a good fit.

 

[heisenberg]

I can't see another network picking up this show in the near distance future. The show is just too damn expensive to make. I think the pilot episodes were like 20 million dollars or something. The American subsidiary of BBC would probably be one of the last companies to blow their big chunk of their budget on this show with the uncertainty of the economy is looming.

It's times like this, that make me think, we need another star trek on TV

 

[SciphonicStranger]

Well, it appears there is no home for Terra Nova on Netflix.

http://www.deadline.com/2012/03/fox-drama-terra-nova-a-no-go-at-netflix/

 

[Overmind One]

How was that supposed to work?

Well, it appears there is no home for Terra Nova on Netflix.

http://www.deadline.com/2012/03/fox-drama-terra-nova-a-no-go-at-netflix/

I understand that 20th TV wanted to CONTINUE the series on Netflix, not just air the existing episodes. How could that ever work? Netflix does not have an ad-supported framework. It relies on membership fees and DVD rentals/sales. How would Netflix recoup any significant investment in such an expensive and overdone series like Terra Nova? the numbers would have scared me away too if I was Netflix.

There needs to be a think tank formed OUTSIDE OF THE INDUSTRY so that these media houses know what will fly and what wont. Waiting out there unmaterialized, are millions of great ideas. Many of those ideas when realized will generate BILLIONS of dollars and motivate millions upon millions of people to watch it. These media houses all seem to be playing :hit or miss" with these shows, and we never hear of them before they are already well into production and too far in to change direction. Look at SGU. They had the entire first season in the can by the end of the first month of airing, with no way to change the show after the audience reaction to the show clearly indicated immediate change was needed. Fail was unavoidable.

This show had potential, but the premise to me was all wrong. I could buy the whole portal to the past thing, even though modern physics might smirk at it. But then the whole "angsty son who figures out how to make the portal go both ways but is psychotic" thing ruined it for me. I had already seen that in Primeval with Helen. This show wont be missed, but I did think that the end of season 2 was getting good. . I dont see any of the media houses picking this one up.

 

[SciphonicStranger]

They never had a season 2 - just a season 1.

I'm sure there are a lot of complicated numbers involved in bringing any show to Netflix. As a current subscriber I would love to see more original content there.