Roush on Bionic Woman, Journeyman and Miguel Ferrer
Question: Are you surprised the network didn't ask for a two-hour pilot for
Bionic Woman rather than a one-hour pilot? I thought that both
Journeyman and
Bionic Woman left a lot unexplained in terms of development. We barely know much of Jaime's life before the auto crash. I would have wanted five or ten more minutes of the pre-bionic Jaime. Also maybe five or ten more minutes of when she is held in the secret lab. Plus, we don't know much about the other characters, like Jonas Bledsoe (
Miguel Ferrer). Instead they have to premiere
Deal or No Deal and
Life. Couldn't they have waited a week to premiere
Life?
— Paul
Matt Roush: These days, I'm almost surprised when a network orders up a full pilot at all, let alone a two-hour treatment. As a cost-saving measure, some networks are moving toward buying projects (like CBS' anemic
Moonlight) based on presentations rather than full pilots, figuring they can tweak, recast and refine along the way to the premiere. For NBC to invest in a two-hour movie pilot probably was too much to ask, although I guess they're looking at the
Knight Rider movie as an "event," regardless of the series outcome. Ordering
Bionic Woman at all was a bit of a risk, and without benefit of hindsight regarding its impressive first-week ratings, I don't blame them for launching their first Wednesday lineup intact. Besides, I don't think the problem with
Bionic Woman's pilot was too little time for exposition. All of that can come as the series develops. The problem for many who tuned in was that what they saw wasn't entertaining enough. As you'll see in the following comments.
