Monday, April 30, 2007

The Best SF TV Series You'll Never See

SunJournal.com - Superb sci-fi anthology series gathers dust on shelf: "I have seen the future. Well, at least I've seen what may be the best futuristic anthology series since the glory days of 'The Twilight Zone' and 'The Outer Limits.'

It's called 'Masters of Science Fiction,' and it's a stunning collection of grand stories, relevant themes, mesmerizing performances and riveting dialogue. Intrigued? You should be. This is the kind of series that could have been submitted for Rod Serling's approval - and would have won it.

I've seen all six of the completed episodes, but it's possible you won't get that chance. 'Masters of Science Fiction' appears to be stuck in a time warp that's keeping it out of the prime-time universe.

The series was announced last August as a midseason replacement for ABC, but it has yet to be scheduled by the network of 'Dancing With the Stars' and 'Desperate Housewives.' And we're fast running out of weeks for the 2006-07 television season, which comes to a close in late May.

Will we see this brilliant series before the calendar says June? It's unlikely. We're heading into the all-important May sweeps period, when ratings determine what local stations can charge for advertising."

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, ABC always seemed to be intent on running it in summertime. I'm not sure why this is suprising to the reviewer in question...though there has been a remarkable amount of foot-dragging on ABC's part. If they eventually give up on it, it's likely to appear on Showtime, where its sibling series MASTERS OF HORROR has been chugging along for a few years.

Anonymous said...

ABC already struck out, from their point of view, with an intelligent fantasy series, DAYBREAK, in the LOST slot during that bore's hiatus...that might well've given them pause. Given the lack of network support for anthology series, again I'm surprised that the reviewer can find anything remarkable about the lack of scheduling of the series during the "regular season."

Unknown said...

Reviewers have to fill the space, I guess. I hope somebody picks this one up. Rumor has it the Joe Lansdale and Neal Barrett collaborated on a script.