That’s All She Wrote: Journeyman Is Dead

[In yesterday's post, in the course of discussing the fate of shows on hiatus thanks to the ongoing writers' strike, I noted that only Journeyman was at risk for cancellation, thanks to disappointing ratings (and despite the fact that some of the blame for this falls on the unexpectedly weak performance of its lead-in, Heroes). NBC was particularly concerned that Journeyman consistently lost viewers not just from its lead-in but within its own hour. Nonetheless I thought the catastrophic impact of the strike on pilot season might resurrect this show for next year.

Sadly I must report that not only was I right about Journeyman being vulnerable, but that – so far from being saved by the strike – production for the show has been permanently shut down and Journeyman will not be back, this year or next.

I have it on excellent authority that shortly before Christmas the sets were taken down and destroyed, which effectively cancels the show for good as of Dec. 21. As my colleague Rachel Thomas already reported, NBC passed on its option for the “back nine” to complete the first season. Fans now targeting Fox, on whose lots Journeyman was being filmed, to pick up the show are unlikely to be successful: Fox is said to be uninterested.

How would the show have ended? We won’t know until everyone has been officially released from their contracts. But at least the show’s creators were able to wrap things up before the end: the last episodes, broadcast in December, brought the show full circle, with Dan witnessing the passing of the gift to himself (and learning he is the last of the travelers apart from Livia), Livia getting married, Jack becoming supportive, and Katie (while still unsettled) discovering some self-reliance.

Journeyman was one of the best and most interesting new shows of the season, and canceling a quality show knowing you’re going to have trouble filling slots in the fall is inexplicable. It even had cool opening credits, something you don’t get much these days. (Compare the graceful and atmospheric credits for Journeyman with, say, the profoundly stupid opening credits for Bionic Woman, which seem to involve Jaimie busting out of a shower stall.)

More importantly, the show avoided obsessing on the mechanism of the fantasy, or the random problems of Dan and Livia’s charges, and concentrated on how traveling disrupted and transformed the lives and personalities of Dan and everyone around him. This made for compelling stories about reasonably complex, interesting people you’d want to spend time with in real life. I like Chuck, for example, but I’d rather scrub my toilet than spend a night at a pub with any of its characters. Dan, Livia, Katie, Jack, and Hugh are people I’m going to miss. Let’s Download Journeyman Episodes