Bionic Woman (2007 TV series)

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Bionic Woman
Format	Drama Action/Adventure Sci-fi
Created by	David Eick based on a character created by Kenneth Johnson, suggested by the novel Cyborg by Martin Caidin
Written by	Laeta Kalogridis Treena Hancock
Starring	Michelle Ryan Miguel Ferrer Molly Price Lucy Kate Hale Will Yun Lee Chris Bowers Mark Sheppard
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	8 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	David Eick Laeta Kalogridis Jason Smilovic
Location(s)	Vancouver, BC
Running time	42 minutes (without commercials)
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Picture format	480i (SDTV), 1080i (HDTV)
Original run	September 26, 2007 – November 28, 2007
Chronology
Related shows	The Bionic Woman The Six Million Dollar Man
External links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Bionic Woman is an eight-episode American science fiction television drama created by David Eick, under NBC Universal Television Group, GEP Productions and David Eick Productions that aired in 2007. The series is a re-imagining of the original television series, The Bionic Woman, created by Kenneth Johnson and based upon the novel Cyborg by Martin Caidin, and retains its forebear's premise while taking on a more contemporary setting.^[1] David Eick also serves as executive producer alongside Laeta Kalogridis and Jason Smilovic.

The series revolves around bartender Jaime Sommers,^[2] who is saved from death after receiving experimental medical implants. While adjusting to her new bionic powers and raising a rebellious younger sister, Jaime agrees to work for the Berkut Group, a quasi-governmental private organization that performed her surgery.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 2.1 Main characters 2.2 Recurring characters 2.3 Announced characters 2.4 Casting 2.5 Crew 3 Production 3.1 WGA strike 4 Broadcast history 4.1 United States Broadcasts 4.2 International broadcasts 4.3 Pre-air release 5 Reception and ratings 5.1 US ratings 5.2 Australia ratings 5.3 UK ratings 6 DVD release 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Plot

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Main article: List of Bionic Woman (2007 TV series) episodes

Bartender Jaime Sommers struggles to make ends meet in San Francisco, California, while serving as a surrogate mom to her teenage sister. Nearly killed in a car accident, Jaime is saved by a cutting-edge operation—performed by her boyfriend, Will Anthros—that leaves her with advanced bionic prosthetics and implants with extraordinary new strength, among other artificially enhanced gifts. Now, however, Jaime must figure out how best to use her new abilities while embracing her new bionic identity.

The website for the UK newspaper Daily Mail published photographs from the pilot film that reveal that in addition to a bionic ear, Sommers will receive a bionic eye like that of Steve Austin, along with her bionic legs and bionic right arm.^[3] Clips from the pilot episode posted on the show's official preview webpage also reveal that she will have a bionic ear and be injected with nanomachines called anthrocytes that heal her body at a highly accelerated rate.^[4]

Johnson has confirmed on his website that he is not involved with the new Bionic Woman series.^[5] Since the rights to The Six Million Dollar Man and Cyborg are held by other parties, the characters of Oscar Goldman and Dr. Rudy Wells from the original franchise have been replaced by new creations and it has yet to be seen whether they or the character of Steve Austin will appear in the new series. The new version of Sommers is outfitted with a bionic eye; this is a piece of hardware established by Martin Caidin in his original novel as being given to Austin and used in the subsequent TV series (the original Jaime Sommers did not possess one).

[edit] Cast

[edit] Main characters

• Jaime Sommers (Michelle Ryan) is a bartender who is involved in a near fatal car accident and becomes the Bionic Woman.
• Jonas Bledsoe (Miguel Ferrer) is a member of the Berkut Group.
• Ruth Treadwell (Molly Price) is Bledsoe's second in command.
• Jae Kim (Will Yun Lee) is a specialized operations leader with the Berkut Group, and was romantically involved with Sarah Corvus.
• Becca Sommers (Lucy Kate Hale) is Jaime's high school-aged sister.
• Will Anthros (Chris Bowers) is Jaime's boyfriend; he performs the operation that gives her the bionic implants, but is shot and killed by Sarah Corvus soon after.
• Anthony Anthros (Mark Sheppard) is the father of Will Anthros and one of the original developers of the bionic implants. He escapes prison at the end of the first episode.

[edit] Recurring characters

• Sarah Corvus (Katee Sackhoff) is the "first Bionic woman" and a nemesis of Jaime. Corvus' bionics are malfunctioning; she believes that Jaime's newer bionics may be the key to repairing hers. Jaime has mixed feelings about Corvus.
• Antonio Pope (Isaiah Washington) is an advisor in the Bionics program described as an "outsider with a mysterious agenda" with the power to either help Jamie or bring her down.^[6][7] Pope was shot and killed by a former colleague/lover at the end of Episode 7.
• Nathan (Kevin Rankin) is one of the Bionic team members.

[edit] Announced characters

• Bruce McGill was to play an as-yet-unnamed character who is a high ranking operative in the Bionics program.^[8] McGill's character had not yet appeared on the series by the time the WGA strike halted production.

[edit] Casting

The pilot starred Michelle Ryan, Miguel Ferrer, Molly Price, Will Yun Lee, and Mae Whitman.

On June 27, 2007, TV Guide reported that Mae Whitman was being replaced in the role of Jaime's sister. An NBC spokesperson confirmed this, stating, "The decision was purely creatively driven. It is very common to change storylines, characters, actors after the initial pilot is shot." Also, the sister character will not be deaf, as reportedly an NBC executive requested that the character's hearing be restored. Lucy Hale was later cast as Whitman's replacement in July 2007.^[9][10] In announcing the recasting, it was confirmed that the deaf trait of the character had been dropped.^[11] Instead, Hale's version of the character is depicted as a rebellious teen and budding computer hacker.

Katee Sackhoff was cast as Sarah Corvus, the first Bionic Woman, and her character subsequently appeared in the first three regular episodes of the series, with more appearances expected. Sackhoff has compared the role to Number Six, a character in Sackhoff's concurrent series, Battlestar Galactica which, like Bionic Woman, is filmed in the Vancouver, British Columbia area.^[12][13] Isaiah Washington has also been confirmed to appear in at least five episodes of the series, making his first appearance in "Paradise Lost", the show's first post-pilot episode.^[6]

Sackhoff is joined by fellow Galactica co-stars Aaron Douglas as a prison guard and Mark Sheppard as Will Anthros' father Anthony Anthros.

As Ryan is from England and naturally speaks with received pronunciation, she affects an American accent for her role as Sommers.^[14] One notable exception to this occurs in the episode "The Education of Jaime Sommers", when Jaime assumes the guise of a British exchange student, allowing Ryan to use a variation of her natural accent.

[edit] Crew

David Eick, Laeta Kalogridis, Jason Smilovic and Michael Dinner originally served as executive producers and writers. Dinner also directed the pilot but exited his post as executive producer in June 2007.^[9] Glen Morgan, writer and producer on The X-Files, Space: Above and Beyond, and Millennium, joined the production team of Bionic Woman as an executive producer in May, only to leave four months later,^[9][15] citing creative differences.^[16] In September, Friday Night Lights executive producer Jason Katims joined the show as a consultant.^[16] Katims ran the writer's room until late October, when Sopranos veteran Jason Cahill was hired as the new showrunner.^[17]

[edit] Production

The first mention of a revision of the Bionic Woman series occurred in August 2002 when a story in The Hollywood Reporter indicated that the series would be produced by Team Todd: sisters Jennifer Todd and Suzanne Todd. The story quoted Suzanne Todd as saying:

We are going to take advantage of the fact that what seemed beyond the realm of reality back when they did the original show – some of the things in terms advancement in prosthetics and in replacement limbs – are real in true life now. I think the idea that they exist in the world today and people make use of them – not in a superhero way the way that Jaime does – is going to allow us to do something really interesting and very different than the old show.^[18]

It was later reported that the USA Network was considering airing the series, with Jennifer Aniston being in consideration for the lead role. However, no series was produced at that time.^[19][20]

On October 9, 2006, NBC Universal announced that it was bringing the project back with new producers and reportedly, a radical reworking of the original concept. The series would be written by Laeta Kalogridis (creator of the WB series Birds of Prey) and produced by David Eick. Eick commented on the new series saying, "It's a complete reconceptualization of the title. We're using the title as a starting point, and that's all. It's going to be a meaningful departure [from the original]."^[21]

On January 3, 2007, The Hollywood Reporter reported that the series one-hour pilot was given an official greenlight by NBC.^[22] On May 10, 2007, NBC announced that they had given an early pick-up to Bionic Woman for their fall 2007 schedule.^[23]

As the rights to Steve Austin from the Six Million Dollar Man series, of which the original The Bionic Woman was a spin-off, and the rights to the novel Cyborg by Martin Caidin, on which effectively both original TV shows were based on are held by other parties, the new series currently excludes any elements from these sources.^{[citation needed]} Neither Johnson nor Caidin receive screen credit on the new series, unlike the original Bionic Woman.

[edit] WGA strike

Due to a strike by the Writers Guild of America, production of the series was halted in mid-November 2007,^[24] and the regular actors have been suspended on half-pay for a period of five weeks.^[25] The series has since aired all of the episodes that were completed before production halted.^[26] Some sites rumored NBC had canceled the show but an NBC Universal Media Studios spokesperson told the press that the show has not been cancelled and that production will continue when the WGA strike ends.^[27] An Associated Press story on Feb. 12 classified Bionic Woman as being "on the bubble" and as such despite the resolution of the strike predicted that the remaining episodes likely won't air until the fall of 2008, "if ever".^[28] According to a report on NBC's Feb. 13, 2008 announcement regarding initial series renewals, no announcement was made regarding whether Bionic Woman would return in the fall, but the report indicated that despite the earlier statement by NBC-Universal, production of the show's first season is considered to be concluded.^[29]

[edit] Broadcast history

[edit] United States Broadcasts

Bionic Woman premiered in the United States on the NBC network on September 26, 2007, airing on Wednesday nights at 9:00/8:00c. It attained NBC's highest midweek premiere ratings since the 1999 premiere of The West Wing, and was the second most watched program in its timeslot after ABC's Grey's Anatomy spin off Private Practice^[30] (though ratings declined in succeeding episodes).

Due to the strike by the Writers Guild of America, production of the series was put on hiatus.^[31][32] Several media outlets have reported that Bionic Woman had been cancelled, although there has been no official confirmation from NBC.^[33] An announcement of series renewals by NBC on Feb. 13 did not indicate the fate of Bionic Woman, although it was reported that production of the season was considered concluded.^[34] The SyFy Portal blog on Feb. 20, citing a TV Guide column, suggested that the series cast and crew have been told that production has ended, although NBC has made no official announcement as to the series' fate as of that date and the blog author stressed that the news was only a rumor.^[35] David Eick, the series' co-executive producer, confirmed on March 19, 2008 that the series had been cancelled, though the network has still not officially announced it.^[36] The series was subsequently not included in the Fall 2008 schedule announced by NBC in early April 2008.^[37]

[edit] International broadcasts

In addition to NBC, the series is broadcast on Seven Network in Australia, E! in Canada, and in 2008 on ITV2 in the United Kingdom.^[38][39][40]

Country	TV network(s)	Series premiere	Weekly schedule	Status
United Kingdom	ITV2	March 11, 2008	Tuesdays 9:00pm	aired.
Australia	Seven Network	October 4, 2007	Thursday 8:30pm	Suspended due to 2007 Writer's Strike
Philippines	C/S on RPN	January 02, 2008	Wednesdays 8:00pm	aired
Ireland	TV3	January 9, 2008	Wednsdays 9:00pm	aired
India	Star World	February 12, 2008	Tuesdays 10:00pm	aired
Asia (except Philippines)	Star World	February 20, 2008	Wednesdays 10:00pm (HK/SIN) Wednesdays 9:00pm (THAI/WIB)	aired
Germany	RTL II	2008	-	announced
New Zealand	TV3	February 3, 2008	Sundays 9:30pm	aired
Denmark	TV3	January 7, 2008	Mondays 9:00pm	aired.
Sweden	TV6	March 9, 2008	Sundays 10:00pm	aired.
Iceland	Skjár einn	February 4, 2008	Mondays 9:00pm	aired.
Portugal	FOX	March 12, 2008	Wednesdays 9:30pm (reruns Sundays 4:05pm Tuesdays 11:50pm)	aired.
Colombia	CityTV	Coming Soon, 2008	Unknown	announced.

[edit] Pre-air release

On September 11, 2007, the series premiere was made available as a no-cost download on Amazon.com's Unbox service as well on the video on demand platforms of several national cable operators also at no cost.^[41]

[edit] Reception and ratings

The series met with mixed critical reception. Between the pilot episode and the 8th episode to air (when the Writer's Strike halted production at the end of Fall) 54% of the original ratings had been lost. Critic Michael Hinman of SyfyPortal.com referred to the show as "a disaster". ^[50]

[edit] US ratings

In the following summary, "rating" is the percentage of all households with televisions that tuned to the show, and "share" is the percentage of all televisions in use at that time that are tuned in.

Unless otherwise cited, the overnight rating and share information comes from Zap2It^[51] The following week, the numbers are updated with the final Nielsen numbers from TVWeek.com.^[52] Additional ratings information, including the 18–49 rating, comes from BroadcastingCable.^[53] Viewer numbers and rank numbers come from Google Groups.^[54]

[edit] Australia ratings

The first episode rated 1.6 million viewers, making it the most watched program of the night. Ratings began to dive with the third episode rating 1.2 million viewers. The fifth episode only rated one million viewers. Viewer numbers soon fell below one million. ^[55]

[edit] UK ratings

The premiere episode rated over 2.5 million viewers, ITV2's largest audience in its history.^[56] Since then, figures have dipped to around 900,000.

[edit] DVD release

DVD name	Release date	Ep #	Additional information
Volume One	March 18, 2008	8	Pilot Commentary with Executive Producer David Eick The Making of the Car Crash The Stunts Profiles Real Life Bionics

On January 30, 2008, Universal Home Video announced that the eight episodes produced prior to the writers strike will be released to DVD in Region 1 (North America) in a two-disc set on March 18, 2008. The set will also include interviews, behind-the-scenes featurettes, as well as a featurette on real-life bionics. The set has been dubbed Volume 1.^[57]

The pilot episode was released in the United Kingdom on Region 2 on April 7, 2008. A further Region 2 two-disc set containing all eight episodes from the show was released on May 12, 2008 entitled "The Complete Series". [2]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• NBC's Official Bionic Woman site
• Bionic Woman at the Internet Movie Database
• Bionic Woman at TV.com