TV Tyrant

Harper’s Island

April 20th, 2009 | by | harper's island

Apr
20

I was predisposed to liking Harper’s Island for a variety of reasons.

First, it was a good murder mystery in the vein of the finest Agatha Christie.

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Second, it was being exec produced by Jon Turteltaub, who was part of the team that brought us Jericho. Dan Shotz and Karim Zreik are co-exec producers – two names also known to every true fan of Jericho. Add to that a score by David Lawrence – he also scored … Jericho – and all that’s missing is Skeet. And Sprague, but she’s busy on 24 right now.

Whatever the case, I caught up with the first two episodes on Sunday and I was very pleased.

It’s creepy, it’s funny, it’s surprising. Absolutely everyone is a suspect until he or she dies, and they’ve thrown in a little supernatural bit with that little girl who seems to be communing with the dead.

Similar to Jericho, you have the prodigal daughter returning home after a self-imposed exile and the old friends who are thrilled to see her return.

I honestly can’t imagine how this could go past one season, but if anyone can figure it out, it’s this crew.

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We may finally get more Jericho!?!

January 16th, 2009 | by | jericho

Jan
16

A Jericho-fan friend e-mailed me yesterday with the great news — a Jericho feature film is in development by Jon Turtletaub’s production company, according to an interview with Turtletaub in iF Magazine..

Turtletaub, of course, was an executive producer/director on our favorite post-apocalyptic wrongly canceled TV show.

That means we might see these gentlemen together again, but this time on the big screen:

2007 Summer TCA Tour - Day 10

I’d pay $12 for that.

He said the cast would definitely return for it if it gets the big green light, and whatever the budget was, it would be bigger than the show had, so they could do wonders with it. Turtletaub told iF:

It would not require you to have seen the TV show, but it get into life after an event like this on a national scale. It would be the bigger, full on American version of what’s going on beyond the town in Jericho.

Sounds fan-frakkin’-tastic.

Re-runs are being shown on The CW on Sunday nights these days, and Turtletaub pointed out that those airings get more viewers than Mad Men, the critically acclaimed AMC show. He says that not to take away from Mad Men, which he called “brilliant,” but rather to point out the difference in expectations for ratings between cable and broadcast.

Turtletaub has a new horror/mystery series, Harper’s Island, which is set to premiere April 9 on CBS. It’s described thusly:

Scream meets 10 Little Indians. The central plot is a murder mystery. Friends and family attending a wedding celebration on a secluded island off the coast of Seattle begin dying one by one. The island was the scene of a famous murder 7 years prior.

I just might watch that, too. It’s different, at least. And Turtletaub’s work on Jericho earned some loyalty from me, even if CBS hasn’t.

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