Eliza Dushku to star in FOX pilot...

[Guest areacode212]

Sounds like the chances of the spinoff happening are getting lower.

 

 

http://tv.zap2it.com/news/tvnewsdaily.html?30307

 

Dushku, Padalecki to Star in Pilots

Tue, Feb 25, 2003 11:45 AM PDT

 

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - The good news for fans of Eliza Dushku and Jared Padalecki is that they might have regular roles on TV come fall.

 

They just might not be on the shows where viewers are accustomed to seeing them.

 

Dushku, who's played rogue vampire slayer Faith on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and its spinoff, "Angel," has agreed to star in an untitled drama pilot for FOX. Padalecki, Dean on "Gilmore Girls," has taken the title role in The WB's "MacGyver" pilot, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

 

John Feldman, creator of the FOX pilot, says he had Dushku in mind when writing his lead character, a young woman who discovers she can go back in time and relive a day in order to save lives.

 

"Onscreen and off, she is smart, strong, beautiful and embodies all the characteristics that are imperative to the character," Feldman says.

 

Dushku will play Faith on three episodes of "Angel" beginning Wednesday, March 5, and is also slated to appear in several "Buffy" episodes later this season. There has been talk of a possible Faith spinoff for UPN, but it apparently has yet to advance past the talking stage.

 

Padalecki, meanwhile, is staying in The WB fold with "MacGyver," an update of the 1980s series. He will play the nephew of the original MacGyver -- played by Richard Dean Anderson on the ABC show -- who's brought into his uncle's Phoenix Foundation, a think tank/crime-fighting organization.

Edited March 3, 2003 by areacode212

[Guest Cavi]

I'm actually glad about this. I don't want a spinoff of any sort (nor do I want a Season Eight).

[Guest Steve J. Rogers]

Maybe Eliza knows something bad may happen to her character at the end of Buffy

[cawthon777 0]

NO! I do not approve! Blasphemy!

 

UPN is anti-Buffy. Les Moonves recently said that if it were up to him, they wouldn't have picked the show up for Season 6.

[Guest El Satanico]

Someone at the top of UPN wanted to kill their only show that gets ratings outside of Smackdown?

 

Haysoos TV execs truly are idiots

[Guest LaParkaMarka]

THis sucks ass. I was so looking forward to a Faith spinoff. What a bunch of garbage.

 

I'm going to go and cry now.

[Guest El Satanico]

Well it is a pilot for a Fox drama...it's no guarantee that it'll be picked up or last a whole season. So you can still keep a sliver of hope alive.

 

However I personally don't see the point of a spin off when he has Angel he could focus on if he wants to continue doing tv.

[cawthon777 0]

However I personally don't see the point of a spin off when he has Angel he could focus on if he wants to continue doing tv.

No guarentee at this point that Angel will live on beyond this season either.

 

I don't get why UPN is so anti-Buffy. The crap shows like Abby or Sisters or Random Stupid Show that Caters to the Stereotypical Black Audience gets more advertising than Buffy.

 

UPN has made the argument that the Buffy ratings have gone down and that's why it's worthless. Yeah, forget about quality programming. Forget about believing in your product.

[Guest red_file]

Hmm, I seem to remember the idea for this pilot sucking when it was a show on UPN; something about a secret government agency that would send a guy back in time a few days to stop something from happening.

 

A Faith spinoff would've been awesome, but any Eliza on my screen is good.

[Guest El Satanico]

However I personally don't see the point of a spin off when he has Angel he could focus on if he wants to continue doing tv.

No guarentee at this point that Angel will live on beyond this season either.

 

Yeah I know that. I was just saying IF Whedon wants to continue doing a TV show it wouldn't make any sense to do another spin off when he already has a good spin off show in Angel.

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

That show sounds pretty phat, I look forward to it. However, I was hoping for "McGuyver," not "MacGyver." Eliza making bombs out of bubble gum and a nickel would be awesome.

[Guest areacode212]

However I personally don't see the point of a spin off when he has Angel he could focus on if he wants to continue doing tv.

No guarentee at this point that Angel will live on beyond this season either.

 

I don't get why UPN is so anti-Buffy. The crap shows like Abby or Sisters or Random Stupid Show that Caters to the Stereotypical Black Audience gets more advertising than Buffy.

 

UPN has made the argument that the Buffy ratings have gone down and that's why it's worthless. Yeah, forget about quality programming. Forget about believing in your product.

Yeah, Buffy (and Smackdown, for that matter) probably would've been better off on Fox, which has both a wider audience and a better promo department than UPN. Even when it was on the WB, the promo spots for the show made it seem like something special. The UPN commercials make Buffy come off like just another part of their ultra-lame lineup.

 

I remember reading somewhere that one of the main reasons they brought Buffy to UPN instead of Fox was because Fox owns a bunch of UPN stations, including the 3 top markets (NYC and 2 others), and also because they didn't want to be seen as a corporation that "steals" one of their successful shows and places it on their own network.

 

Well, if this unnamed pilot falls through (it sounds like a cheesy Quantum Leap ripoff), maybe we still have hope for a midseason replacement, which would be sort of appropriate. It wouldn't be so bad if Angel (assuming it survives) carried the Buffyverse for half a season, then was joined next Spring by a Faith show.

[Guest SP-1]

I believe that UPN Time Travel show was . . . 7 Days? Soemthing like that? I kind of liked it, myself.

[Guest converge241]

*heart flutters*

 

i am soo watching this show

[Guest Sassquatch]

Eliza is young so she can stand to be in a few bombs here and there since she has an incredible level of charisma for a female her age along with some looks that could kill to boot.

 

A "Faith" spin-off would have been nice but at the current moment, I'll take what I can get with Ms.Dushku in it.

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

Fox is just as bad as UPN.

[Guest areacode212]

At least Fox has more affiliates, as well as a ton of mega-popular reality shows during which they can advertise their other shows. If a show like Buffy got regular promo spots on Joe Millionaire or American Idol, chances are its ratings would be higher than it would be on UPN, whose most popular show (Smackdown) is struggling in the ratings.

[Guest Cavi]

Even when it was on the WB, the promo spots for the show made it seem like something special. The UPN commercials make Buffy come off like just another part of their ultra-lame lineup.

That is so true! I have been saying that ever since the second episode of Season Six. The promos over the summer and fall of 2001 for the premiere were pretty decent, but after that, they usually weren't that great. Most of them made the show out to be this wacky, goofy program. Of course it is just that at times, but not every other ep should be promoted as such.

 

The WB promos were really quite good. They would put the big episodes like "Hush" over as these mega events. Nowadays, just compare the movie-like promo of Angel's "Rain of Fire" to some of the UPN stuff. Major difference.

[Guest red_file]

I believe that UPN Time Travel show was . . . 7 Days? Soemthing like that? I kind of liked it, myself.

That was the one. I found it disappointing, though I must admit that I didn't watch much of it, so my opinion has little to back it up. It just seemed like an interesting premise that wasn't used very skillfully. But, again, I really only watched a few episodes, so whatever.