Posted: Nov 7th 2004, 9:32 am
Now available for pre-order at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... 0006GAO18/ for $27.99
Release date: February 1st
Release date: February 1st
For more info: http://mtr.org/exhibit/screen_upcoming.htmMarathon Screening
Falling for Wonderfalls
Including the Unaired Episodes!
NY-only: Saturday and Sunday, January 29 and 30, 2005, at 12:30 p.m.
Despite critical acclaim, Wonderfalls -- a dramedy about an underachieving college graduate who works in a Niagara Falls gift shop and begins to hear inanimate objects speak to her -- was canceled after only four episodes. Fans rallied unsuccessfully to save the series that has been called smart, funny, and unique. Newcomer Caroline Dhavernas plays Jaye, whose meddlesome family and meaningless job push her to the edge of a life crisis.
The Museum will present a marathon screening of all thirteen episodes of the series, including nine that never aired. Wonderfalls will be released on DVD in February, a tribute to supporters who worked to keep it alive.
Tim Minear, executive producer of Fox's canceled Wonderfalls series, told SCI FI Wire that the upcoming DVD set will include nine previously unseen episodes, in the order they were meant to be seen, which tell a full story. "Wonderfalls has a very specific arc, which ends at episode 13, so people will feel like they've had a complete experience," Minear said in an interview while promoting his upcoming Fox series, The Inside. "[We wrote it as a complete show] in the event only 13 got made and it went to DVD. So that was the plan. That was a conscious plan."
Wonderfalls centers on Jaye Tyler (Caroline Dhavernas), a college graduate in a dead-end job as a souvenir clerk at Niagara Falls, who begins to hear inanimate objects talking to her. The show completed 13 episodes before it even premiered on Fox in March 2004, but was canceled after only four episodes aired.
But Minear said that fans of the critically acclaimed series will finally get a chance to see the entire series. "There are a lot of commentaries, extras, Andy Partridge's full music video [of the quirky theme music], behind-the-scenes [featurettes]," Minear said. "Great graphics and art on the actual package itself, and the DVDs. We actually had to go in and switch out some of the songs, because [they were] too expensive. But we got great alternative music that really ... kept the integrity of what we needed to do musically."
Minear also held out hope that the DVD set will sell well, allowing Wonderfalls to repeat the experience of his last, canceled series, Firefly. That show sold so well on DVD, despite being canceled by Fox in its first season, that Universal Pictures gave the green light to a movie, Serenity, based on the show.
"Maybe you'll see Wonderfalls: The Movie in a theater near you," Minear said. "I know it's something [series co-creator] Bryan Fuller's thought about." Wonderfalls: The Complete Series DVD hits stores on Feb. 1.
FANS SNATCH UP WONDERFALLS DVD
Success of axed show surprises execs
By Susanne Ault
The Fox network killed the fantasy/sci-fi TV series Wonderfalls after four episodes, so the show's early success on DVD is surprising, to say the least.
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment shipped almost 100,000 units of Wonderfalls to retail for its Feb. 1 bow, and the studio already has sold through about 25,000 copies.
"It's totally surprising," said Bryan Fuller, Wonderfalls co-creator/co-executive producer. "I ordered 50 copies off Amazon.com myself to get it going. I was hoping it would do well, but honestly I didn't think that many people knew about it."
In fact, the title ranked as an Amazon Top 20 seller. And a number of bricks-and-mortar retailers were taken off guard and ordered additional units last week.
"We brought in a cursory amount of it because we didn't know what to expect with its lack of TV exposure," Tommy K's CEO Frank Slugaski said. "It's selling very well though. The only way you can gauge whether a [canceled] show will do well is check Web sites, go into chat rooms, but that's very time-consuming."
Tommy K's was scrambling to order more units last week, Slugaski said.
Although Wonderfalls was a blip on TV screens during its April-May run, it had the makings of a cult DVD title. The involvement of co-executive producer Tim Minear stamped the series with a fantasy/sci-fi pedigree from his past work on Angel and Firefly, and the genre is famous for cultivating voracious Internet fan bases.
Fox sensed the Internet love from http://www.savewonderfalls.com, which fans created after learning of the show's impending demise last spring. Via the site, Fox staged its first live Webcast DVD launch Feb. 1.
Nearly all the Wonderfalls cast participated in the event either from New York or Los Angeles.
"Actors do want to support a show because it will further its longevity," Fuller observed. "But after the show is dead and gone, it's weird to get people to turn out."
Hundreds of people logged onto the Webcast. The group included such key consumer cheerleaders as E! Online TV blogger Kristin Veitch. In another boost, the Museum of Television and Radio in New York hosted a Wonderfalls marathon the weekend before the DVD launch.
Retailers are aware of the wild popularity TV on DVD sets can have, regardless of the fate the shows might have suffered at network hands. Family Guy, another Fox network cast-off, went on to sell more than 3 million units over various Fox disc titles, leading the studio to slot fresh Family Guy episodes to air in May.
"It's part of a growing trend that will likely grow further, where we'll see good quality programming getting a second life that didn't have it in all the years before DVD," Virgin DVD product manager Chris Anstey said. "The strange thing about Wonderfalls is that when we were first solicited, it wasn't immediately recognizable. But I asked around the office and people said they really loved the show. That gave me some good info."
Few shows that have been cut off as quickly as Wonderfalls have since enjoyed life on DVD. But Anstey noted other relatively speedy TV to DVD transitions outperformed retail expectations, including Freaks and Geeks, My So-Called Life, The Ben Stiller Show, Firefly, Greg the Bunny and Mr. Show.
"When you have a work that is not available, it makes folks ravenous to get their hands on it," Amazon.com DVD editor Doug Thompson said. "This has led to the great interest and sales on DVD with canceled series like Wonderfalls, The Family Guy and Freaks and Geeks to name a few."
New Regency Prod., a sister movie unit to Wonderfalls' Regency Television production company, hopes to develop a Wonderfalls feature film with Fuller and co-creator/co-executive producer Todd Holland. But it's unlikely there will be fresh TV episodes a la Family Guy, as contractual differences between actors and voice talent make reunifications trickier with live-action series.
"But the Family Guy thing is interesting," Holland said. "I'll be curious to see if those same [DVD] people show up on a weekly basis to watch it on TV. These people didn't have to tune in every day. TV on DVD might be changing the way we watch TV."
Holland also would want to make extra sure that the Fox network would handle the show with care.
"I'd want to know they were committed," he said. "I don't want to be heartbroken twice."
Let's see - MSCL was cancelled in 1995 and the Pilot/Dancing in the Dark/Guns & Gossip DVD was released in 2000. That's relatively speedy?Few shows that have been cut off as quickly as Wonderfalls have since enjoyed life on DVD. But Anstey noted other relatively speedy TV to DVD transitions outperformed retail expectations, including Freaks and Geeks, My So-Called Life, The Ben Stiller Show, Firefly, Greg the Bunny and Mr. Show.
Pop Question: What's your favorite TV show to watch on DVD?
E-mail your answers to me by March 11, and I'll share some next week. This week's prize: Five readers, picked at random, will Click here for complete giveaway rules.