Tim Minear-related stories
Posted Jul 1st 2009 1:11PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
Ordinarily I do not do a fanboy squeal when I hear of an attempt at a science fiction program revamp of an old series, but this one has
Battlestar Galactica potential. Tim Minear (
Angel,
Firefly) is taking on a
remake of Alien Nation for Sci Fi or SyFy or whatever they're calling themselves.
The original television series on Fox was one of the cases where the spin-off actually exceeded the quality of the movie it was based on. The only mistake that was made was taking the show off the air after one year (although it did spawn a set of television movies).
Tim Minear is a good choice as showrunner since he's used to sci fi shows that rely on characterization. I have to give props to Sci Fi for this decision. Hopefully it will last longer than its predecessor and be leaps and bounds better than their attempted remake of
Flash Gordon.
Posted Apr 10th 2009 9:39AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Industry, Programming, OpEd, Reality-Free, Dollhouse
Since
my article was posted yesterday, there have been some new developments regarding the unaired 13th episode of Dollhouse that Felicia Day twittered about.
Producer
Tim Minear cleared it up on Whedonesque in which he explained that the original pilot Fox had Joss scrap for a new one counted as one of Fox's 13-episode order. As a result, squeezing the budget a little, they created a 13th "coda" episode to the season which supposedly Fox won't air.
I hope Tim Minear is correct, although his response sounds a bit like spin to me. Joss and company certainly have experience with coda episodes (see the 4th season of
Buffy for an example). Perhaps Joss himself will be writing and directing this one?
Unless there is an official announcement by Fox that the series has been renewed, I'm reticent to think of it as anything but a thirteen episode mini-series. I hope Fox proves me wrong.
[via
Ain't It Cool]
Posted May 30th 2008 9:02AM by Brett Love
Filed under: Industry, Reality-Free
As Roger Daltry once sang, "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss." Tim Minear has signed a new seven figure deal that will keep him at 20th Century Fox TV for another two years. His job will continue to involve working on existing shows while developing new drama projects. He's now been at 20th for over a decade, counting among his credits The X-Files, Strange World, Angel, Firefly, Wonderfalls, The Inside, and Drive. Currently he is working as a consulting producer on Joss Whedon's upcoming Dollhouse.
Continue reading Tim Minear gets a new deal
Posted Apr 28th 2008 7:44AM by Brett Love
Filed under: Programming, Casting, Reality-Free
I suppose most people would lead with the fact that Jay Mohr has signed on to Ed Yeager's untitled comedy pilot for CBS. After all, Jay does have that regular gig on Ghost Whisperer. In a nutshell, Mohr and Paula Marshall play a couple that has recently divorced, after fifteen years of marriage. The funny is scheduled to arrive as we watch Mohr's character try to juggle his ex-wife, their two kids, and his new girlfriend, played by Jaime King.
That's all well and good. For me though, the far more interesting bit is Paula Marshall's involvement. I find her career fascinating. She's been on a bunch of great shows. The Wonder Years, Seinfeld, Nash Bridges (don't laugh, Nash was very successful), Spin City, Sports Night, Just Shoot Me, Nip/Tuck, and Veronica Mars, to name a few. Yet, for whatever reason, whenever she gets a starring gig, it all seems to go to hell. See Cupid, Snoops, Hidden Hills, and Out Of Practice. I don't get it. I like everything she's ever done, but it just doesn't work. So, I don't have high hopes for this production. However, it does offer a thought. It's quite possible that Paula was all set to star in a great new show for Tim Minear. Unfortunately, the sheer power of their combined abilities to kill shows sent the series itself back in time, canceling itself before the idea even came to be.
Posted Aug 28th 2007 2:02PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Industry, Pickups and Renewals
Tim Minear's next project will be at ABC. The network just won a lengthy bidding war with Fox for Minear's new show,
Miracle Man. Minear created it with Emmy winning producer Todd Holland, who also created
Wonderfalls with Minear.
Miracle Man "centers on a disgraced former televangelist, a man of no faith, who finds that God is using him to perform real miracles and change lives, starting with his own", according to
The Hollywood Reporter.Continue reading Tim Minear lands pilot at ABC
Posted Jul 12th 2007 4:20PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Programming
Fox
has announced that the final two episodes of
Drive will be on the show's
MySpace page starting on Monday, July 16th. The network had originally scheduled those episodes for air on July 4th, then bumped them to July 13th, then flat-out took them
off the schedule, much to the frustration of the few surviving fans of
Drive.
After you watch the last two episodes, which will likely not provide any sort of closure, check out
this post from Isabelle detailing what the producers wanted to happen to the story if the series had lived on. Unfortunately, the producers don't say who would've won... maybe even they didn't know yet.
Posted Jul 11th 2007 12:43PM by Isabelle Carreau
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Cancellations
Executive producers Tim Minear and Craig Silverstein were kind enough to spill the beans on what would have happened on
Drive if FOX hadn't canceled the series.
Many fans were left wondering as only four of the six produced episodes aired earlier this year. FOX had planned on airing the two remaining episodes this summer but
decided against it earlier this week.
Continue reading What would have happened if Drive had lived on
Posted Jul 2nd 2007 11:01AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Industry, Programming
The last two episodes of FOX's Drive - remember that show? - were scheduled to air this Wednesday, July 4, but the network has changed its mind and has shifted them to Friday, July 13 instead. Ooooooo, Friday the 13th.
The first episode, "The Extra Mile," will air at 8pm, and then the series finale, appropriately titled "Rear View," will air immediately after at 9pm. The press release is actually calling this episode a "season finale," so there's no word on whether we'll get a real closure to the series or whether they'll be a lingering questions answered (on the DVD, no doubt). Bones will be pre-empted that night but will return the following week.
[via Pop Candy]
Posted Apr 25th 2007 6:20PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Cancellations, Drive
TV Guide is reporting that Fox has canceled
Drive, the new action series starring Nathan Fillion and created by Tim Minear. Even though it's not confirmed, it's pretty obvious that this is due to dismal ratings.
Drive had the old
Prison Break slot, but was only getting a fraction of
Prison Break's ratings. There are still two episodes left... hopefully Fox will put them up on the
MySpace webpage where all the other episodes can be seen. In the meantime, repeats of
House will run in that 8 pm time slot.
Sadly, this does not come as a surprise.
Continue reading Fox cancels Drive
Posted Apr 24th 2007 6:22AM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Drive
(
S01E04) Brett and I are sharing reviewing duties of
Drive and I have to tell you right away that I am not as in love with this show
as Brett is. I adore Tim Minear and almost everything he does, but I'm not completely sold on this series. Too many of the characters bother me. I find blondie Ivy extremely annoying, and I find Ellie (the soldier's wife) and Violet (the so-called high school Junior) to be over-actors. The reason I'm holding on is simple: Alex Tully. I was intrigued following the last five minutes of last week's episode when we found out that Tully used to be a bad ass bank robber.
Continue reading Drive: No Turning Back
Posted Apr 12th 2007 3:41PM by Isabelle Carreau
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Programming, Video, Drive
FOX's new drama
Drive, produced by Tim Minear (best known for his work on
Angel and
Firefly) and Ben Queen, may only premiere on Sunday but that doesn't prevent fans from watching the first minutes of the pilot
As part of the show's marketing campaign,
Yahoo! TV is airing the first 4 minutes and 38 seconds of the series.
Continue reading First four minutes of FOX's Drive on Yahoo TV
Posted Mar 26th 2007 11:02AM by Keith McDuffee
Filed under: FOX, Early Looks, Drive
When I first heard the general premise for
Drive, I instantly thought of
Cannonball Run.
The Cannonball Run is a movie a fondly remember watching time and again as a kid. Tons of money on the line, fast cars, hot women ... I mean hell, I was a hormone-filled kid somewhere between 10 and 13 years old when I first saw this flick, so cut me some slack.
While there is the obvious similarity with the whole race-around-the-country thing with
Cannonball Run, after watching the rough-cut first episode of
Drive I can start by telling you one way where the two differ:
The Cannonball Run was for pussies.
Continue reading Drive -- An early look
Posted Feb 19th 2007 5:29PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, FOX
Fox
is promoting the hell out of Tim Minear's new action series,
Drive. And now we finally have an official launch date (the folks over at
Drivefans.com already knew this). According to the official website, there will be a
2-night, 3-hour premiere on Sunday, April 15th at 8 pm and Monday, April 16th at 8 pm. According to
The Futon Critic, the permanent time slot for
Drive is on Mondays at 8 pm.
While I have high hopes for
Drive because A) it's being produced by Tim Minear and B) it stars Nathan Fillion, I also worry that it will be like many of Minear's other great shows that were canceled. Ahem...
Firefly. While I didn't see it, I hear great things about
The Inside, which Fox canceled in 2005. He was a "consulting producer" on
Standoff but I'm not going to hold that against him. In fact, Minear has had a project on television every year since 1999.
If you want to know more about the show, check out
Joel's story from the TCA.
Posted Feb 12th 2007 4:01PM by Brett Love
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, FOX, Video
Among the many complaints over how Fox handled Tim Minear's last two projects,
Wonderfalls and
The Inside, was that they didn't promote the shows well. Fortunately for his next series, that doesn't seem to be the case. I was watching NASCAR's big Bud Shootout this weekend and was happy to see a promo for the show. They also got spots during the Sunday animation block. Add in some showings during
Prison Break and
24 and I don't think there is much more that the network can do to let people know about the show.
In case you missed it, because you forgot to watch the big NASCAR race, you can view the new promo online. The
official site has yet to be updated, but that's the beauty of YouTube, right? I'm already sold on the show. With Minear at the helm, and Nathan Fillion, Kristin Lehman (pictured), Melanie Lynskey, Kevin Alejandro, and Taryn Manning, among others, on the screen, it looks fantastic. Decide for yourself though, the new promo is after the jump.
Continue reading Drive is getting a good push from Fox - VIDEO
Posted Jan 20th 2007 3:11PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, FOX, Industry, TCA Press Tour
Take a bunch of good-looking people, put them in cars and have them race across the country, and what do you get?
Drive, the latest series from Tim Minear, who's probably best known for his efforts on
Buffy and the cult favorite
Firefly. Right after Peter Ligouri gave his executive session, FOX decided to have the
Drive cast out on stage for a Q&A. And when I mean the cast, I mean the
entire cast; twelve actors, including Nathan Fillion, Dylan Baker and Melanie Lynskey. They were joined by Minear and his fellow executive producers, Ben Queen and Greg Yaitanes.
The most intersting thing about this series is that, while it shows ordinary citizens who are persuaded to participate in an illegal cross-country race for a $32 million prize, all the actors' in-car scenes will be shot in front of green screens. The challenge, according to Minear: "Could you make a show that takes place partially in moving vehicles that go across the country and not make it look bad?" He took a cue from
War of the Worlds, which had in-car scenes where the audience saw the environment from all angles, inside and out. The effects experts who did that effect also worked on
Drive.
Continue reading Firefly alums Minear and Fillion talk about Drive - TCA Report
Next Page >
Six Mad Men characters who are in limbo after the finale
Fact or Fiction: Big Bang, Brothers & Sisters and CSI
The TV Squad Podcast: Linda Purl talks about The Office, we talk spoilers, and more
