Joan of Arcadia
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| Joan of Arcadia | |
|---|---|
 Joan of Arcadia intertitle |
|
| Format | Drama |
| Created by | Barbara Hall |
| Starring | see below |
| Opening theme | "One of Us" |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 45 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
Barbara Hall |
| Running time | approx. 45 min. |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | CBS |
| Original run | September 26, 2003 – April 22, 2005 |
| External links | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
Joan of Arcadia is an American television fantasy/family drama, which aired on Fridays, 8-9 p.m. ET/PT on CBS from September 26, 2003 until April 22, 2005. It is shown in syndication with episodes airing in high definition on HDNet.
On initial release, the show was a favorite with critics and won the prestigious Humanitas Prize, the People's Choice Award, as well as being one of the few television shows to be nominated for an Emmy Award in the first season, for Best Dramatic Series. The title alludes to Joan of Arc while Arcadia is a fictional city in Maryland.
Contents |
[edit] Premise
Joan of Arcadia is about a teenage girl, Joan Girardi (played by Amber Tamblyn), who sees and speaks with God after promising him that she will do anything he asks if he will spare her brother's life after a car accident. God appears in the form of various people such as small children, teenage boys, elderly ladies, transients, passers by, etc. Joan is asked by God to perform tasks that often appear to be trivial or contrary, but always end up positively improving a larger situation.
One of the more obvious effects of Joan's actions occurs when she is asked to take a reclusive bully to the school dance. While both her mother and the assistant principal object, Joan follows through with God's task. At the dance, it is revealed that the bully has a bottle of alcohol with him, but Joan convinces him not to open it. Despite this, the assistant principal later reaches into his jacket, finds the alcohol and expels him. Joan later finds out from God that, while this turn of events seems rather bleak, it was the lesser of two evils: in an alternate timeline, he shot over a dozen students and teachers with a handgun, before turning the gun on himself.
The series starred actors Joe Mantegna and Mary Steenburgen as Joan's parents Will and Helen, Jason Ritter as her paraplegic older brother Kevin, and Michael Welch as her younger brother Luke. The family relationships and plot situations were written more realistically than other shows with spiritual themes.[citation needed] Various story-lines that spanned multiple episodes dealt with the consequences of Kevin's accident, Will's job as a police officer, Helen's career as an art teacher, and Luke's aspirations to be a scientist. No specific mention of any "true" religion is ever made, and God quotes Bob Dylan, Emily Dickinson and the Beatles rather than any scripture or verses.
While Joan of Arcadia was one of the highest rated new shows of the 2003-2004 TV season, its ratings declined in the second season, in spite of continued critical acclaim. The show was cancelled by CBS on May 18, 2005. Only two episodes from the second season were repeated by CBS; "No Future" and "The Rise and Fall of Joan Girardi." The network pulled any remaining reruns from its schedule. Near the end of the second season, a menacing character was introduced to the series, an amoral "tempter", seemingly destined to cause a significant amount of conflict in the show's characters. The show's cancellation left that premise unexplored.
Several online fan sites were created in response, in an effort to have the show reinstated. While in its first season, it had a wide variety of fans demographically.[citation needed] Its controversial cancellation, along with other similar moves in the media, such as cancellations of Third Watch, American Dreams, and Judging Amy, produced an outcry from many Americans who felt that their entertainment tastes and demands were being completely ignored.[citation needed] Many fans believe that the network meddled with the show in the second season in an attempt to attract younger viewers, but only succeeded in alienating some of its audience. Fans also questioned the decision to air it on Friday evenings when the desired demographic segment is smaller than on other nights.[citation needed] Despite their efforts, Ghost Whisperer took over the show's Friday time slot in September 2005. After the show's cancellation, props such as pieces of Adam's artwork and Joan's signature messenger bag and costume pieces belonging to cast members were sold on eBay. Grace's trademark leather jacket was not included as the jacket was brought in by actress Becky Wahlstrom from her own teenage years. [1]
[edit] Theme Song
The opening credits roll with the song "One of Us" by Joan Osborne, a hit single in the United States from her 1995 album Relish:
- What if God was one of us?
- Just a slob like one of us
- Just a stranger on the bus
- Trying to make his way home (repeated)
This was not the original version of the song, but was re-recorded by Osborne (with a noticeably less rough quality) specifically for the show. To fit the lyrics of the song, Joan first meets God as a teenage boy riding to school on the bus with her (although they don't actually speak to each other at the time).
[edit] Trivia
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- In a 2002 episode of The Twilight Zone, Amber Tamblyn (as Jenna) is sent to a place called Arcadia as a punishment for being a nonconformist.
- Scenes of Arcadia's skyline and other outdoor scenes were actually the city of Wilmington, Delaware. Arcadia itself is set in Maryland.
- Tamblyn's former General Hospital co-star Kimberly McCullough guest starred in at least 9 episodes.
- Although she plays a girl who communicates with God on the show, Amber Tamblyn is an agnostic in real life.[citation needed]
- Grace Polk's House is number 616, the number of the beast
- In three episodes, David Dorfman appears as Rocky Tardio. Both Dorfman and Amber Tamblyn appear in the film The Ring by director Gore Verbinski.
- The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, a movie that Tamblyn starred in, takes place in Bethesda, Maryland, the same state that the fictional city Arcadia is in.
[edit] Episodes
[edit] Season 1: 2003-2004
| # | Title |
|---|---|
| 1 | Pilot |
| 2 | The Fire and the Wood |
| 3 | Touch Move |
| 4 | The Boat |
| 5 | Just Say No |
| 6 | Bringeth It On |
| 7 | Death Be Not Whatever |
| 8 | The Devil Made Me Do It |
| 9 | St. Joan |
| 10 | Drive, He Said |
| 11 | The Uncertainty Principle |
| 12 | Jump |
| 13 | Recreation |
| 14 | State of Grace |
| 15 | Night Without Stars |
| 16 | Double Dutch |
| 17 | No Bad Guy |
| 18 | Requiem for a Third Grade Ashtray |
| 19 | Do The Math |
| 20 | Anonymous |
| 21 | Vanity, Thy Name Is Human |
| 22 | The Gift |
| 23 | Silence |
[edit] Season 2: 2004-2005
| # | Title |
|---|---|
| 1 | Only Connect |
| 2 | Out of Sight |
| 3 | Back to the Garden |
| 4 | The Cat |
| 5 | The Election |
| 6 | Wealth of Nations |
| 7 | P.O.V. |
| 8 | Friday Night |
| 9 | No Future |
| 10 | The Book of Questions |
| 11 | Dive |
| 12 | Game Theory |
| 13 | Queen of the Zombies |
| 14 | The Rise and Fall of Joan Girardi |
| 15 | Romancing the Joan |
| 16 | Independence Day |
| 17 | Shadows and Light |
| 18 | Secret Service |
| 19 | Trial and Error |
| 20 | Spring Cleaning |
| 21 | Common Thread |
| 22 | Something Wicked This Way Comes |
[edit] DVD Releases
| Season | Discs | Release Date | Episode # | Additional Information |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | May 10, 2005 | 23 | Deleted Scenes, Audio commentaries by the Filmmakers and Cast Behind-The-Scenes Featurettes: The Creation of Joan of Arcadia and Joan of Arcadia - A Look at Season One God Gallery |
| 2 | 6 | November 28, 2006 | 22 | Audio Commentaries on selected episodes A Look at Season 2 featurette The Making of Queen of the Zombies A Tour of Joan's High School Common Thread Table Read |
[edit] International
- In Argentina, the show was shown on Sony Entertainment Television
- In Australia, the first season was shown on Foxtel's Arena on Wednesday evenings at 7.30pm
- In Austria, the show was shown on ORF 1.
- In Belgium, the show was shown on La Une and La Deux.
- In Bulgaria, the show was shown on Nova Television and BTV
- In Brazil, the show was shown on Sony Entertainment Television
- In Canada, the show was shown on CTV.
- In Chile, the show is shown on Chilevisión and Sony Entertainment Television
- In Costa Rica, the show was shown on Sony Entertainment Television
- In Croatia, the show was shown on RTL Televizija.
- In Costa Rica, the show was shown on Sony Entertainment Television
- In Ecuador, the show is shown on Teleamazonas.
- In Finland, the show was shown on Nelonen (TV4), the Finnish title was "Joanin Salaisuus" (meaning "Joan's Secret")
- In France, the show was shown on 13ème Rue et TF1.
- In Germany, the show was shown on ProSieben. The German title was "Die himmlische Joan" (meaning "Heavenly Joan"). Only Season 1 has aired so far.
- In Hungary, the show is shown on RTL Klub. The Hugarian title was "Isteni sugallat" (meaning "Divine inspiration").
- In Indonesia, the show was on Global TV (Indonesia).
- In Ireland, the show was shown on RTÉ Two.
- In Israel, the show was shown on Channel 3.
- In Italy, the show is shown on Italia1.
- In Mexico, the show is shown on Cadena tres and Sony Entertainment Television
- In Netherlands, the show was shown on RTL 4 and RTL 8 (reruns beginning June 2).
- In New Zealand, the show screens on TV3 at 2:00pm on weekdays.
- In Norway, the show is shown on TV3 Saturdays 11:10 am and on ZTV on Sundays 9:00pm.
- In Peru, the first season is shown on Frecuencia Latina at 2:00am and Sony Entertainment Television
- In the Philippines, the show was shown on ETC Entertainment Central and on QTV-11 (the show was taken off the air on the latter channel due to low ratings, but the show was a modest success on the former.)
- In Poland, the show was shown on Polsat.
- In Portugal, the show is shown on RTP1- Saturday, 3:30pm - and Sony Entertainment Television, and the Portuguese title is "A Missão de Joan" (meaning "Joan's mission")
- In Romania, the show is broadcast on PRO Cinema
- In Russia, the show was shown on STS (Russia)
- In much of Latin America, the show is shown in Sony Entertainment Television.
- In Singapore, the show was shown on Channel 5.
- In Slovakia, the show is shown on Markíza.
- In Spain, the show was shown on Canal+ Spain and now is shown in Cosmopolitan
- In South Africa, the show was shown on SABC 3.
- In South Korea, the show is shown on Christian Broadcasting System.
- In Sweden, the show was shown on TV3.
- In Switzerland, the show is shown on TSI 1 the national channel in Italian.
- In Thailand, the show was shown on True Series.
- In Ukraine, the show was shown on Novy Kanal
- In the United Kingdom, the show was broadcast on LIVING and the second season is currently being broadcast on E4.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
