It Won’t Be Baaaaaaack: “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” Canceled (But Here’s a Resistance Video From John Connor!)
by Kara Swisher
Posted on May 19, 2009 at 12:04 AM PT
Big, giant and prolonged sigh–as well as a cranky-old-lady shake of the fist–to our distant cousins over at the Fox television network, who dinged BoomTown’s favorite sci-fi show, “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles,” today.
I am officially in a Summer Glau funk, with major gadget withdrawal.
After much fake agonizing over the fate of “Sarah Connor,” Fox programmers finally stuck a fork in the series after two seasons. Loosely based on the movie franchise, the show garnered a passionate fan base online and off, but not enough to merit being renewed.
It’s ironic since the latest film in the cyborg-versus-man epic, “Terminator Salvation,” will open this Thursday.
It is the next blockbuster in a tech-heavy summer movie season, following the boffo reception that the new “Star Trek” has gotten (next up: “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”).
But the arrival of “Terminator Salvation,” with its noisy, Armageddon-is-nigh theme, could not save the more thoughtfully dark “Sarah Connor.”
Thank goodness, then, for YouTube and a very pissed-off and half-naked young actor named Thomas Dekker, who plays a teenage savior of humanity, John Connor, in the TV series.
In this perfect online video clip he did himself, the real-life (and very wild-eyed) Dekker calls Fox’s viewer comment line to express his support for the show in no uncertain terms:
Full disclosure: News Corp. (NWS) owns Fox, as well as Dow Jones, which owns this Web site.
Comments
I’m so tired of good shows getting canceled. I’m just tired of it. I’m going to not start watching shows anymore until their series finale or something, because I am just fed up with it.
Posted by Bjorn Tipling at May 19th, 2009 at 12:58 amTelevision executives are so out of touch with reality. They give shows five episodes and then cancel them if they don’t dominate. They don’t give them a chance to build up a fan base. Maybe if they put some effort up-front into producing quality TV shows instead of rehashing tired old formulas, they might have more success?
They also keep moving shows around and trying to compete with the biggest shows on competitor’s channels. Meanwhile we lost track. Rather than developing shows that would appeal to people who would not watch the competitor’s shows in those time slots, they put unrealistic expectations on shows that are safe bets.
No, that would take thoughtfulness on their part, and that’s obviously in short supply in the executive suites of the TV industry.
Posted by Eric Welch at May 19th, 2009 at 8:33 amAs the producers of Family Guy have mentioned several times, the Fox Executives don’t have the best track record.
I knew Terminator was in trouble when it was moved to the Friday death slot.
Posted by Ken Okel at May 19th, 2009 at 11:55 am