It's a rare, disturbing sight to watch a television show torn to pieces -- literally.While on my set visit for Stargate Universe at Bridge Studios in Vancouver, I stayed with the main press tour. It took us from the main stage holding the massive set of the starship Destiny across the expansive lot to a series off small office buildings housing the show's costume shop and editing bays.
The route took us past the sound stage that once housed the production for ABC's Defying Gravity. Of course, the ambitious prime time sci-fi drama was canceled early this fall season. So, the cast and crew were long gone.
The sounds coming out of that distant sound stage were strangely tragic. There was the grinding of band saws, the pounding of sledgehammers and the growling of large cranes -- all working together to tear the show's elaborate sets to pieces.
The workmen engaged in destroying the sets were just doing their job without ceremony. But it was sad watching the end result of a lot of human imagination and hard work turning to debris. When the crane raised a claw-full of wood and Styrofoam out of the sound stage over to a waiting dumpster, I could clearly make out elaborately detailed set dressing ripped to tangled strips of wasted effort.
It just served to remind me that every time you see a show canceled amongst the TV Squad headlines, that's people out of work and dreams of steady work destroyed.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
10-22-2009 @ 5:10PM
winfolife said...
I thought perhaps, one of the cable channels would pick up the show, wishful thinking on my part. ABC didn't have a vested interest and I suppose neither did Canada or Britain. Hopefully the finale will leave the viewrs satisified. If the British version is on DVD,I will watch it.
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10-22-2009 @ 6:21PM
The Deej said...
They've been showing the rest of the season on Space in Canada, but without the funding that ABC provided the money just isn't there to keep producing it.
10-22-2009 @ 5:13PM
bsgfan2003 said...
Really too bad. It started slow, but these final episodes have been very good.
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12-12-2009 @ 3:44PM
DaveA said...
It is just like the original Star Trek, canceled before people caught onto it. Too bad, as I thought is was severly under rated and sorry, Sanctuary is much lower grade as is Startgate Universe. To this Sci Fi watcher, it was a very sad day to see Defying Gravity not be renewed. They had a gem, and blew it. Damn, I so wanted to see what happened when they collected all those things.
12-12-2009 @ 4:28PM
bsgfan2003 said...
DaveA, here's the scoop on what would have happened.
http://www.cliqueclack.com/tv/2009/10/29/how-defying-gravity-would-have-progressed-straight-from-the-creator/#more-35013
10-22-2009 @ 6:46PM
winfolife said...
Deej- I have been watching the remaining episodes on another site since the USA can't access the Space web site.
I was referring to the British show," Space Odyssey: Voyage To The Planets". The American docudrama on the Science channel was shortened and had a different ending.
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10-24-2009 @ 11:10AM
Rachel said...
It is a shame. I've finished the season using channel 131. The last few episodes have been great!
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10-24-2009 @ 12:40PM
Darth.U said...
This show was one of the best I've seen in a decade but I assume there wasn't enough extrovert and exaggerated hart breaking drama in it for modern plastic tv.
Those kind of decissions are the reason why I switched from cable to sat TV, why I refuse to pay for that frakk any longer and why I even switch off my TV for a couple of minutes when they broadcast commercials.
If a lot more people would do the last thing in my list as well I think it would have an effect in some way bacause the channels have to report the amount of viewers ot commercials in order to cash in on them.
A nightclub dj ones said to me, it's the people who decide what is played with their feet (dancing).
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10-24-2009 @ 4:04PM
mangababe said...
"It just served to remind me that every time you see a show canceled amongst the TV Squad headlines, that's people out of work and dreams of steady work destroyed."
I couldn't have said it better. I've really enjoyed Defying Gravity, it's one of the more intelligent shows in a while. ABC didn't do it any favors by running it as filler, DG deserved a fair chance to gain an audience, as it just continued to get better after the 8th episode.
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10-24-2009 @ 5:18PM
tferraro said...
USA Networks should have taken this fledgling series under it's wing and kept the mission in flight. It has done so much to promote light hearted shows with only In Plain Sight as its benchmark drama. Even SyFy could have been the alternate venue to continue this 6 year mission instead of yet another Stargate.
Why in the 21st century can we embrace every aspect of fantasy imitating reality imitating fantasy except for the not too distant future of human kind itself is beyond me. But then again we continue to enjoy the conveniences of technology in our everyday lives and yet still complain when money is spent to further our technologies to push humankind further and beyond our present day bonds.
When a concept such is this is left to wither and die in many ways I am saddened and somewhat ashamed at the capitalistic short term profit oriented world we have become so accustom to.
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10-24-2009 @ 8:47PM
David Pen said...
It's just a set. If they built it once, they can build it again.
The most important thing right now is to let people know about the 13 episodes that were already produced. If those become popular, then the show might take off again.
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10-25-2009 @ 1:22AM
graill said...
Defying gravity being cancelled makes total sense seeing who is in charge of abc and making choices. Stupid is as stupid does. Time to check for another network.
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10-25-2009 @ 1:57AM
Anne said...
Thank goodness I'm Canadian. Just watched the end of the final episode, and it was a bittersweet yet satisfying conclusion to what appears to be not only the season, but the series.
At first, I felt the premise of the show mirrored too closely another recent series that didn't make it - Virtuosity or Virtuality it was called, or something similar. That didn't even make it to series, but instead was a mini-series or single event even, earlier this year.
But the more I watched Defying Gravity, the more I wanted to watch it. I found myself highly anticipating the next episode as soon as the current one was done. I found the characters well-developed and the relationships and interactions believable. The show really just got better as it went along, as you (the viewer) got more insight into the background, as well as being let in on the big, driving secret of it all.
I am sad to hear that it is almost certainly dead now. Defying Gravity turned out to be of a quality and caliber rarely seen on TV, and even more rarely appreciated by the networks.
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10-25-2009 @ 4:37AM
Jet Graphics said...
Defying Gravity, not unlike Kings, didn't insult the intelligence of the audience, and thus killed its commercial appeal. American TV audiences apparently cannot deal with subtlety, higher math, or complex storylines, unless there are car chases, gratuitous sex, and idiotic males saved by wise females... Sigh.
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10-26-2009 @ 7:09PM
stormcloud said...
@ Jet Graphics, Excuse me, but I'm pretty sure that at least 60% of Americans don't even know the show exists. Please don't clump us together when the 'audience' you're referring to is the 15% who waste their lives away watching TV so much that they actually heard about DG: ABC did hardly any advertising. The other five percent are the people who happened to be at the right place in the right time and found it by accident--and most of them love it, as you can read on the comments of this screen and several other articles about DG. But maybe none of you are American.
I felt a pang reading about the set getting destroyed :( I wish they would continue the show. I love it. It was relaxing and exciting at the same time! I watched the thirteenth episode only to ultimately realize it was likely the final episode. I felt like crying. Maybe people will rebuild the set elsewhere >:(
10-27-2009 @ 5:57AM
Mark said...
Sad to see it go especially considering the improvement in the episodes. Another good show lost to ignorance. Maybe I should get a lobotomy so I can enjoy the popular shows.
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10-25-2009 @ 12:05PM
Alec Peters said...
All the props & costumes will be auctioned off by Propworx early next year.
Alec
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10-25-2009 @ 12:17PM
zita said...
It's not the first time I write about my indignation over the end of Defying Gravity. If it were mediocre, ok, but it was a good show with many interesting storylines and great potential. And to end it after recovering the second artifact and leaving Zoe all burnt up... and too many questions left unanswered. I feel it like a personal insult, I don't know about the rest of you, fellow DG's watchers, and disgusted about how the showbusiness seems to be running these days. Let's hope both actors and writers realize that it wasn't their fault: they were great! Empty-headedness seems to be all too common at ABC headquarters... (not just there, unfortunately)
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10-25-2009 @ 2:35PM
Lewis said...
Its obvious that ABC cannot execute on a SciFi strategy. New SciFi shows require longer warm up periods to sync with the audience and adjust with audience feedback. The wait is longer but the payoff is higher: Passionate, commited audiences watching every show, movie and spinoff. This is not a typical stamped out sitcom, It takes different business intelligence metrics to establish a campaign. And ABC appears not equiped to execute on this kind of strategy.
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10-26-2009 @ 2:36PM
Pam said...
This show has been the best show I have ever seen. The acting is outstanding. The character build up has been refreshing. As far as here in America, I hadn't even heard of the show until someone told me about it and by then ABC was not airing it. I've watched it anyway. I look forward to it coming out every week. ABC did not advertise well, that's all I've got to say, because it is the best show I have ever seen. I am baffled. It's well written, great cast... I don't get it.
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