Reed Diamond

Reed was born in Brooklyn and raised in Manhattan. Reed once considered a career on the force. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He then went on to study acting at Julliard, as did his Homicide: Life on the Street (HLOTS) co-star, Andre Braugher. Reed was a freshman at Julliard when his future HLOTS co-star Braugher was a senior. They had previously appeared on-stage together for Julliard production of Othello, with Andre as Iago and Reed as a servant.

Reed is divorced from Frederika Kesten, who co-starred with him in HLOTS episode # 48, “Justice, Part Two.” She played Janine, the ballistics expert. While filming Homicide, Reed fell in love with Michelle Forbes, better known as Dr. Julianna Cox, also formerly of HLOTS. After Reed and Michelle broke up, he dated Kristin Davis, of Sex and the City. As of 2007, Reed lives in Los Angeles with his wife, actress Marnie McPhail.

anceled shows whose lives might have been saved

While it’s easy to lose track of such things, given the carnage that happens in the TV industry in the month of May, it appears that 28 scripted shows have been pronounced dead for next season. Some of those clearly deserved their fate. Many should never have been written, produced or aired in the first place. But some of them clearly deserved better from their networks - a change in tone, tighter writing, a tweak to the premise.

Before these dramas and comedies are forgotten (”Are you sure it was called ‘Carpoolers’? It doesn’t ring any bells”), here’s a smattering of canceled shows and what could have been done to help them.

“Bionic Woman” (NBC): This was supposed to be the can’t-fail series of the fall. It was certainly the most hyped. Reimagined by David Eick (who has done a tremendous job with similarly reimagined “Battlestar Galactica”) and Jason Smilovic (who wrote “Lucky Number Slevin” and was an executive producer on the acclaimed but short-lived series “Karen Sisco” and “Kidnapped”), how could it not work? Easy: casting. British actress Michelle Ryan never breathed any life into this role, and her bad fit was magnified when Katee Sackhoff (”Battlestar Galactica”) was hired to play the first bionic woman gone bad. Infinitely more interesting, Sackhoff stole every scene she was in. This whole series imploded because they picked the wrong bionic woman.

“Journeyman” (NBC): Had NBC promoted this series over “Bionic Woman,” it might still be on the air. Unlike “Bionic Woman,” “Journeyman” earned a late groundswell of fans, which highlighted the series’ main problem - it was too confusing at the start. People couldn’t quite figure out the rules in this time-traveler series.

“Cavemen” (ABC): Although this vilified series was funnier than it got credit for, it wasn’t nearly funny enough to overcome the fact that making a sitcom out of an insurance commercial just rubbed everyone the wrong way. The original pilot tried to make connections to race, which was a misstep in a comedy but also had the unintentional outcome of seeming racist itself. A dumb, no-win idea from the initial pitch.

“Viva Laughlin” (CBS): Even the British version of this musical-murder mystery wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but at least it was daring and inventive (which, presumably, was why CBS tried to remake it). And yet - a musical on CBS? Is there even a need to dissect this further? OK, how about this: You need to sing it like you mean it. Either do a musical or don’t. Anything in between is lame (and canceled).

“Back to You” (Fox): Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton in a multi-camera, laugh-track-heavy old-school sitcom? Sounds great for CBS. The writing was mediocre, but it probably would have survived, and thrived, on CBS. It was a fully formed traditional comedy that could have easily been salvaged.

“Aliens in America” (CW): America’s fifth network had a good development season, but only “Gossip Girl” managed to thrill it; “Reaper” barely got renewed, and “Aliens in America” wasn’t given much of a chance. Too bad, because the comedy about a Pakistani Muslim exchange student coming to Wisconsin had loads of potential and a number of very funny episodes. Could the writing have been sharper? Sure. But the CW didn’t promote or nurture this series. Oddly enough, it would have worked swell on Fox.

“Cashmere Mafia” (ABC): In the battle to give women what they want, apparently “Lipstick Jungle” on NBC is the winner. That’s not much to celebrate - neither of these two “Sex and the City” wannabes were very good, and other than changing the title and firing the writers, there was little ABC could do with “Mafia.” But ABC prides itself on going after female viewers, which brings up a related show: “Men in Trees.” This series certainly deserved a better fate - it was a quirky, touching romantic comedy that ABC bungled starting the season before. Yanking it on and off the schedule and changing time slots all but doomed it. ABC had extra episodes of “Men in Trees” to work with during the strike but mishandled the opportunity, which foreshadowed its fate. Too bad, really, because the net couldn’t do any better - certainly not with dreck like “Women’s Murder Club.”

“Canterbury’s Law” (Fox): This was a great character looking for a better show, smarter plots and an upgraded supporting cast. Julianna Margulies was wonderful in the lead, and the series looked like one of those rough, dark cable dramas that other superb actresses have turned into Emmy-nomination vehicles. But “Canterbury’s Law” had nothing but Margulies and her drinking, philandering lawyer part. Fox should have seen the weak areas and addressed them sooner.

“Miss Guided” (ABC): Not to pick on the alphabet net, but it did cancel more scripted series than anyone else and it has a woeful track record with sitcoms. So what happens when it gets one that’s funny more often than not? It gives up (same thing with “Notes From the Underbelly,” but why pile on?). The demise of this show might have something to do with ABC being unable to develop a culture of comedy - the show could have worked on NBC or Fox. But ABC certainly lacked patience as well. Writing can always be tightened. But sometimes you can’t loosen a wound-up and worried programmer.

Upfronts And The New 2008 Fall TV Season

I was wondering about all the news out and about regarding what’s coming up on television next season with regards to fantasy, sci-fi and action type shows, so I tracked down the announcements from various networks that distribute them to whet our appetites via the “upfronts“. EH? I know. You’re asking, “What’s an upfront“?

Upfronts are when networks publicly announce their new shows to the press and the advertising world. It’s during the upfronts that networks give advertisers the chance to get advertising time at a discount, versus paying premium dollar during the season. It could also be looked at as the time when advertisers hedge their bets with shows that look promising to them. Basically, get in on the action up in front of the new season. Sadly, it’s the driving force behind everything we love and love to hate about TV programming.

The upfronts can also give you some insight into the minds of the network execs and the trends they either think will happen or help actually develop. By trends I mean setting the mark. IE: After ABC’s Lost or Fox’s Prison Break became hot commodities, we saw a rash of similar type programs pop up in the ensuing seasons.

With that being said let’s go through the developments that have come out of the upfronts, where I focus on shows on the tube that you the Screen Rant reader might be interested in knowing about, with no particular order to the networks:

NBC:

New NBC shows:
My Own Worst Enemy, with Christian Slater as a spy who explores the duality of a man who is literally pitted against himself.
The Philanthropist (with David Eick as showrunner) about a rebel billionaire who uses his money, connections and power to help people in need.
Merlin - Yes, it’s based on the Arthurian legend.

Returning NBC shows
Medium,
Chuck,
Heroes,
All the Law and Orders &
Friday Night Lights. (With a disclaimer!)

Gone from NBC: Bionic Woman (Proof the system sometimes works!), Las Vegas & Journeyman. (Proof the system doesn’t always work.)

I got hooked on Friday Night Lights, and it’s been renewed for 13 episodes BUT the episodes will first air on DirecTV in the fall, and then on NBC in the winter. This is a great example of ratings being iffy, but DirecTV put up the money to continue producing the show, and NBC will reap the rewards by ‘rerunning’ them later. Is it me, or does The Philanthropist sound like Bruce Wayne? I’m just saying.

I don’t think too many people were sad to see Bionic Woman go back to the garage, but as we all know, none of us were happy to see Journeyman become a show of the past. Right Vic? But Las Vegas really upset the core fans because they pulled the plug on a cliff hanger. Way to go N-B-C. Of course I leave you with conflicting statements about the Neilsen system, but it is what it is - a fickle, money based, old school system. Of course, Journeyman’s curse was being put up against Heroes, where 3 other shows died trying to compete. Nice insight.
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The Sci-Fi Channel:

New to the Sci Fi Channel:
Caprica, a prequel of Battlestar Galactica.
Reruns of series including Lost and Jericho.
stunt-reality series Scare Tactics.
The Stranded, the first joint venture by Sci Fi and Virgin Comics.
Deputized, a comedy drama about an intergalactic police force.
Alice. Which is to Alice in Wonderland as Tin Man was to Wizard of Oz.
True Believer about a comicbook nerd who hires a down-at-heels superhero to become crime fighters.
Ghost Hunters International, a spinoff of Ghost Hunters, and
Mind Control With Derren Brown
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CBS:

Returning CBS Shows:
The Unit, Cold Case, Numb3rs, Criminal Minds, The Ghost Whisperer, all the CSI’s, NCIS, Without A Trace

CBS gave the boot to Shark, and eclipsed Moonlight.

New CBS shows:

Eleventh Hour: The latest from Jerry Bruckheimer about a scientific investigator working for the government to probe unsolved anomalies.
The Mentalist is about a man with innate ESP-like powers of deduction.
Harper’s Island is a murder mystery involving a group of friends who meet on an island near Seattle for a wedding.

I like The Unit - It spins special ops, the politics behind them and the stress on the members’ families and how they deal with the dynamics of it all. I was pretty upset when they dropped both Shark and Moonlight. I liked both these shows, and CBS was quoted as saying cutting Moonlight was a tough decision but they had to make room for new shows… I hate rhetoric. Eleventh Hour, being a Bruckheimer production, sounds like they’re playing the X-files fan base with the Bruckheimer afficionado. A cheap rip off of some other efforts? Who’s to say. The one surviving show that surprised me is Numb3rs. I thought sure all that mathematical math-a-ma-jig stuff would confound people, but they use it to accent the police investigations and mix it in nicely.
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ABC:

Returning ABC shows: Lost & Pushing Daisies

ABC shows Out: Cavemen was buried in the cave it came from. (There is a God!)

New ABC shows: Life on Mars - This is based on a BBC series that revolves around a modern-day detective who finds himself transported back to 1973 after a car crash and is still a detective. My only hope for this show is that it’s executive-produced by David E. Kelley and produced by David E. Kelley Productions in association with 20th Century Fox Television.

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FOX:

Returning Fox Shows: 24, Bones, Cops, Prison Break, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, ‘Til Death

Shows that have been booted by Fox: K-Ville & New Amsterdam is old news.

New Fox Shows: Dollhouse (Midseason); Fringe. (But because of us at Screen Rant, you already knew this!)

New Amsterdam was such a refuse-laden show that it should have been called old-cliche written every other line-damn and deserved to be booted, but K-Ville was a very unique cop show that took place in New Orleans and interlaced character development with the aftermath of Katrina. It had a lot of material potential because of this, but somehow did not get a chance to explore this beyond one season.
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TNT:

Returning TNT shows: Their wildly popular shows - The Closer with Kyra Sedgwick and Saving Grace, featuring Holly Hunter.

New TNT shows: Delta Blues, executive produced by George Clooney is about a Memphis cop/Elvis impersonator who lives with his mother.
Leverage is about a former insurance investigator who builds a team of thieves, hackers and grifters and they become a modern-day Robin Hood gang.
The Genie Chronicles follows a female newspaper reporter who discovers a magic lamp and we follow both her and the genie as different people discover and use the lamp’s power to make wishes come true.
Technophobia is about an American town where technology is advancing at a frightening pace.

Haven’t we seen Robin Hood type shows in the past? The Genie Chronicles sounds a wee bit hokey to me, but a cool title! And what’s with Technophobia? My first impression is that It sounds like another Eureka, which may be a nice way to pay homage to a show they think is doing well.
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USA:

The only things of note for returning shows on USA are Burn Notice and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. I’m a conistent, across the board fan of L&O, but Burn Notice, about a CIA operative who’s been blacklisted by his own agency took me by surprise and I’ve enjoyed the show where Bruce Campbell is making a stab at a reasonably solid TV role, versus some of his classic roles of the past.

Sources: Memles, Memles, Writersdigest

A show with potential were it not cancelled so soon

‘Journeyman’ is one of those shows which was slow to start but did eventually find its feet and deliver an interesting idea that posed many possible stories to explore. As it was, morons at NBC (the American television company which produced it) decided to cut short the endless possibilities that the show never had the chance to portrayed by cancelling it after the first season. Yet another potentially good show cancelled to, no doubt, make way for more rubbish reality shows which seem to be endlessly churned out these days.

The show revolved around Dan Vasser, a journalist who lives with his loving wife Katie and their young son Zack. He lives a busy but normal life until the day when he steps into a taxi and ends up suddenly finding himself back in time, circa the 1960s. As the show progresses we learn that Dan has the ability to jump back and forward in time, with the goal of altering events for the better. He is guided slightly by Livia, his thought-to-be dead former girlfriend who he finds out faked her death because she too has time travelling abilities.

Initially, it was hard to like anyone but Dan and Livia. While these two came across as fairly likable characters who carry the show well, Katie Vasser came across as a nagging irritation who seemed to think preserving her precious normality was more important than saving people’s lives while Dan’s cop brother Jack was depicted to be bitter and childish to allow his jealousies to cloud his realisation that there was something else going on with Dan rather than believing him to be unhinged. However, towards the end of the season, Katie and Jack were fleshed out and became easier to relate to as they accepted Dan’s abilities.

‘Journeyman’ walked a fine line between being a time travelling sci-fi show, the 2007 version of ‘Quantum Leap’, and being a drama that portrayed the difficulties in maintaining a normal family life in the face of a troublesome, hectic ‘job’. It would have been interesting to see how Dan and Katie preserved their life as the years passed or even how their son coped if he found out the full truth when he was older. The show also dealt with interesting story lines such as Dan accidentally changing his own future so that he had a daughter instead of a son, leaving him with painful dilemma of having to erase her to get his son back.