Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

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Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Genre Created by Starring Countryoforigin Language(s) No. of seasons No.ofepisodes Production Runningtime Broadcast Original channel Pictureformat Original run Chronology Precededby External links Official website IMDb profile TV.com summar

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is an American science fiction television series produced by Warner Bros. Television and C2 Pictures, spinning off from the Terminator series of films. It revolves around the lives of the fictional characters Sarah and John Connor, following the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The series premiered on Sunday, January 13, 2008[1] on the U.S. television network FOX. Executive production for the series is provided by Terminator 2 and Terminator 3 producers and C2 Pictures co-presidents, Mario Kassar and Andrew G. Vajna, C2 Senior Vice President James Middleton, David Nutter, and Josh Friedman, who is also writing.[2] FOX has announced on their web site that the series has been renewed for a second season[3] and will air Monday nights at 8:00 EDT[4] starting September 8.[5]

Contents [hide] 1 Production 1.1 Development 1.2 Casting 1.3 Filming 2 Plot 2.1 Back story 2.2 Summary 3 Characters 3.1 Main characters 3.2 Other characters 4 Release 4.1 Promotion 4.2 Broadcast information 5 Critical reception 5.1 United States schedule 5.2 U.S. Nielsen ratings 6 DVD and Blu-ray release 7 References 8 External links

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[edit] Production

[edit] Development

On November 9, 2005, Variety reported that a television series based on the Terminator franchise was being produced by C2 Pictures, which produced Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, in association with Warner Bros. Television. The Fox Broadcasting Company also joined the project by making a commitment to the pilot with Josh Friedman set to write the pilot and to serve as an executive producer for the series. Among the executive producers were C2 Pictures' Andy Vajna, Mario Kassar and James Middleton.[6] The series, initially titled The Sarah Connor Chronicles, focuses on the character Sarah Connor who is on the run with her son after the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Regarding the character Middleton said, "She has the weight of the world on her shoulders and also has to raise a teenage son who may be the salvation of humanity." Friedman commented that the series would contain fewer action sequences due to the smaller budget of television in contrast to feature films.[6] Fox Broadcasting greenlit production on August 28, 2006, after Warner Bros. Television hired David Nutter to direct the pilot.[7] The series was among seven new TV shows picked up by Fox on May 13, 2007 for its 2007-08 television season.[8] In a June 20, 2007 interview, Friedman said the show would avoid the "Terminator of the Week" plot device and that Sarah, John, and Cameron (an advanced Terminator model sent from the future to protect them) will have other threats than just Terminators. Skynet would also come into play as the series progresses. Furthermore, Friedman stated that the events of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines occur in an alternate timeline from that of the TV series.[9] In addition to having planned the entire story arc for the first season, Friedman has a rough idea for the plot of the following three seasons.[10] At the 2007 summer Television Critics Association press tour, Fox Entertainment Chairman Peter Liguori said that a certain aspect of the pilot, involving a Terminator posing as a teacher attacking John at school, was to be changed following the shooting at Virginia Tech.[11] Although the shooting remained in the series premiere, a scene showing students dealing with the aftermath as FBI Agent Ellison surveys the damage was removed.[12] At the 2008 press tour, the show's cast and crew promised season two would be less serialized than the first.[13]

• Casting

The casting process of the series took 16 weeks during which the producers auditioned actors not only from America but also from Australia, Canada, and England. Over 300 actresses auditioned for the role of Sarah Connor, the heroine of the Terminator series.[citation needed] Series creator Josh Friedman described the actress he was looking for was someone "who embodied that spirit and who was believable in that role and not just some glammed up, Hollywood, actressy thing." After a friend recommended English actress Lena Headey for the role, Friedman watched her audition tape, and thought she was "a tough, tough woman."[9] Headey was officially cast on November 7, 2006.[14] On December 7, 2006, the actor cast in the role of 15-year-old John Connor was announced to be Thomas Dekker.[15] Dekker's management threatened to pull him from the NBC series Heroes to ensure that his character Zach would not be gay, believing that it would threaten his chances of getting the role of John.[16] Regarding the Terminator films, Dekker says, "They are like my favorite films when I was younger. So it's very ironic that I'm getting to do this. And I know for the younger generation and for myself, John was equally important to me as Sarah was, and I know a lot of the people that I hear from really, really care about John."[17] The remaining two principal cast members of the series, Richard T. Jones and Summer Glau, were announced in January 2007[18] and February 2007[19] respectively. Jones likens his character, an FBI agent, to that of Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive. Moreover, he is allowed to improvise a few lines to provide "a little bit of comic relief" to the show.[20] Unlike Dekker, Glau had not seen the Terminator films prior to being cast as Cameron Phillips, whose role in the series was initially kept concealed but was later revealed to be a Terminator sent from the future to protect John.[21] Friedman had previously wanted to cast Glau in a pilot he wrote four years prior to The Sarah Connor Chronicles but she was already committed to Serenity.[9] Glau stated that she felt "intimidated" by the role because the character has both human and robot characteristics.[22] The role of Cromartie, a Terminator sent back to kill John Connor, first went to Owain Yeoman, who appeared in the pilot.[23] The trade press reported on September 24, 2007, that Garret Dillahunt has joined the show in that same role.[24] In April 2008 it was announced by FOX that Brian Austin Green would be a series regular in the show's upcoming second season.[25] Garbage lead singer Shirley Manson was announced as being cast as series regular Catherine Weaver, CEO of Cyberdyne, for the second season.[26] In June 2008, it was announced that All My Children star Leven Rambin had been cast as series regular Riley, a new school friend of John's, for the second season.[27] During the Sarah Connor Chronicles panel at Comic-Con 2008, executive producer John Wirth revealed that a major character would die in the second season. The cast members on the panel seemed surprised with the announcement. Wirth joked that with the addition of new cast members in the second season, it would be "easier" to kill one out of nine characters, as opposed to one of only four from the first season.[28]

[edit] Filming

The pilot episode was primarily filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The principal photography started on January 24, 2007 and took approximately one month to complete.[29][23] Subsequent episodes in the series are filmed in the backlot of the Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, California, where the set was previously used by Gilmore Girls to depict their fictional town, Stars Hollow.[30]

• Plot

• Back story

At the end of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Sarah, John, and the Terminator successfully destroy the T-1000 and the arm and computer chip from the first Terminator. The Terminator, at its own request, is then destroyed in order to eliminate any future technology that could be used to create Skynet. Sarah and John, now wanted fugitives, must also face the reality that other enemies from the future could be after them. However, they were only able to delay "Judgment Day" from 1997 to 2011.

[edit] Summary

See also: List of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles episodes The pilot episode is set in 1999 and introduces Sarah Connor, her son John, and Cameron, a Terminator that has been re-programmed to protect John. They are being pursued by a Terminator sent back through time to assassinate John (Cromartie) and FBI Agent James Ellison, who believes Sarah is a deranged criminal (based on the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day).[31][32] Sarah is romantically involved with an EMT named Charley Dixon, but ends her relationship with him to stay on the run. During the pilot, Sarah, John, and Cameron make a temporal leap to the year 2007. Cromartie suffers extensive damage while trying to kill them, but his head follows them through time, repairs his endoskeleton and artificial flesh, and continues his search for John. Seeing how John is frustrated with their life of running, Sarah resolves to go on the offensive against Skynet. But the world in 2007 proves complex: they find Skynet has sent additional Terminators back in time to support its own creation, and the resistance movement has sent back its own fighters to interfere. As they seek out an intuitive chess computer called The Turk, which may be a precursor to Skynet, they forge an alliance with Derek Reese, resistance fighter and uncle to John.

• Characters

• Main characters

• Sarah Connor (Lena Headey) is a major character in the Terminator series. She is the mother of John Connor, who will one day become the leader of the human resistance. She is seen as a deranged fugitive by the authorities, who do not believe her story about the Terminators.
• John Connor (Thomas Dekker) is Sarah's son. The future leader of the human resistance, he is only fifteen years old at the beginning of the show, turning sixteen in the season one finale.
• Cameron Phillips (Summer Glau) is a Terminator sent back from the year 2027 to protect John Connor. Her model and exact capabilities have not yet been revealed.[33] She can mimic human mannerisms better than the T-800 model, and consume food, a first for terminators.[21][34]
• James Ellison (Richard T. Jones) is an FBI agent pursuing Sarah Connor. As he collects inexplicable evidence he begins to question whether Sarah is truly deranged.
• Derek Reese (Brian Austin Green) is a Resistance fighter sent to the past by the future John Connor. He is the older brother of Kyle Reese and biological uncle of John. He knows Cameron in the future, but still does not trust her. He is recurring in the first season but becomes a regular in the second season.
• Cromartie (Owain Yeoman,[23] then Garret Dillahunt) is a Terminator sent back in time to kill John Connor in the pilot episode. He is shown to take damage to his biological covering, revealing his metal endoskeleton. After he finds a new biological covering in the episode "The Turk", he continues his search to kill John.[24] He is recurring in the first season, but becomes a regular in the second season.[35]

• Other characters

• Charley Dixon (Dean Winters[36]) Sarah's former fiancé, who will be looking for her for a number of episodes. In the original pilot this character was named Burke Daniels and played by Tim Guinee.[12]
• Andy Goode (Brendan Hines) is a Caltech dropout who interned with Cyberdyne Systems and worked as an assistant to Miles Dyson. He creates an advanced artificial intelligence chess playing program, "The Turk", which Sarah fears could lead to the creation of Skynet. After "The Turk" loses a chess match against a Japanese rival computer, Andy is killed by Derek Reese. This is because of a confession that he made to Reese in an alternate future timeline about being the unwitting architect of Judgement Day.
• Carter (Brian Bloom) is a Terminator who was sent back to save large amounts of coltan, a substance used in the endoskeletons of Terminators. Cameron locks up this terminator in a military bomb shelter.
• Vick (Matt McColm) is a T-888 Terminator sent back in time to help create a traffic surveillance network that Skynet hopes to use in the future. An advanced infiltrator, Vick poses as the husband of the lead project manager, murders one of her political enemies and adapts his mission to attack a group of resistance fighters, including Derek Reese, when he finds one spying on her. Vick is deactivated and melted down by Cameron who secretly retains his CPU for future analysis.
• Cheri Westin (Kristina Apgar) is John's chemistry partner who seems troubled and shuns everyone who attempts to befriend her, including John. One classmate named Morris revealed to John that Cheri may have become dysfunctional after an unknown traumatic incident at the last school she attended.

• Release

• Promotion

Fox began their advertising campaign for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles on September 27, 2007, with a brief teaser which ran during primetime programs, consisting of an image of two red dots that lasted for a few seconds on screen before disappearing. The two red dots were revealed to be the eyes of the Terminators from the show in the second phase of the advertising campaign, which began two weeks later. Fox heavily promoted the show during the World Series by releasing the first 45-second preview for the show on October 27, 2007. The final phase of the campaign commenced in November 2007 with more broadcast information being added to the advertisements. Joe Earley, Fox Executive Vice President of Marketing and Communications, described it as the "biggest campaign for a new mid-season show in years."[37] Fox also created a promo music video based on Alter Bridge's single Rise Today, which currently can be viewed on Fox's website. The song was also featured in one of the promo trailers.[38] Later, Fox heavily pushed the series with frequent spots during the Super Bowl, which led to a modest ratings bump the following week.

[edit] Broadcast information

An extended cut[10] of the pilot was publicly screened for the first time on July 28, 2007, at the 2007 Comic-Con International convention.[39] Originally scheduled to premiere on January 14, 2008, the television broadcast of the show was rescheduled to commence on January 13, 2008, after Fox reorganized their broadcast timetable due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike.[1] As such, Fox's original intention to air Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles in the Monday 8:00PM Eastern/7:00PM Central timeslot as a lead-in program for 24 was also changed. The show was moved to the Monday 9:00PM Eastern/8:00PM Central timeslot with Prison Break as its lead-in program.[40] The series premiere in the United States was watched by 18.6 million viewers during its premiere time on January 13, 2008.[41]

• Australia: The series began on February 12, 2008. Episodes aired every Tuesday at 8:30PM, then later at 9:30PM and eventually at 10:30PM on the Nine Network.[42]
• Canada: For the first season, CTV aired the series on Mondays at 9 PM.[43] For scheduling reasons, CTV was going to send the series down to A-Channel, CTV's regional secondary channel.[44] However, CTV made a last minute decision to keep the series and the network sent down ABC's Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann instead, allowing Terminator to be broadcast nationally for the first season.[45] Despite good ratings, CTV will send down Terminator to the relaunched A.[46] The series also airs on CTV-owned sci-fi/fantasy specialty channel Space.
• United Kingdom: Virgin 1 in the United Kingdom aired the first episode on February 21, 2008, at 10:00PM.[47]
• The Philippines is also airing the show on the channels AXN and Crime/Suspense.

The series will also air on TV3 in Ireland from March 7, 2008,[48] RTP1 in Portugal, TF1 in France, and TVB Pearl in Hong Kong.[49] The series starting airing in India on March 11, 2008, on Zee Cafe every Tuesday.[citation needed] In Catalonia (Spain) the series began on March 27, 2008, airing every Thursday at 11:00 pm on TV3.[50] In Portugal the series began on April 20, 2008, airing every Sunday at 3:15 pm on RTP1. In Poland the series began on May 4, 2008, airing every Sunday at 10:00 pm on AXN. In Sweden the series began on May 5, 2008, airing every Monday at 10:00 pm on TV3. In New Zealand the series began on May 7, 2008, airing every Wednesday at 9:30PM on TV2. In Mexico the series began on May 6, 2008, airing every Tuesday at 10:00 pm, on the Warner Channel.[51] In Bulgaria the series began on June 15, 2008, airing every day from Monday to Friday at 10:30 pm on Nova Television.[52] In South Africa the series began on May 6, 2008, airing at 08:30 pm, on M-Net In Turkey the series will begin on September 14, 2008, airing at 9:00 pm, on CNBC-e In Singapore the series began airing on AXN Asia then on June 4, 2008 on MediaCorp TV Channel 5.[53] every Wednesday at 8:30pm. In Malaysia the series began airing on June 30, 2008 every Monday at 10:30pm on 8TV. In Andalusia (Spain) the series began airing on July 2, 2008 every Wednesday at 10:10pm on Canal Sur. In Czech republic the series began airing on July 3, 2008 every Thursday at 10:05pm on TV Prima[54]. Following the resolution of the WGA Strike, the Los Angeles Times printed a chart indicating the status of American network television series. The chart, reprinted by a number of other websites, categorized the series as "on the bubble", a term used to describe series in danger of cancellation.[55] The Hollywood Reporter stated that the show would likely return.[56] TV Guide then reported that "Fox has given producers the green light to start booking directors for next season's first three episodes".[57] Producer Josh Friedman has said his plans are to incorporate the unfilmed storylines from the remaining four episodes of season 1 into the start of season 2.[58] On April 20, 2008, Fox confirmed that the series would indeed receive a second season.[59][60]

• Critical reception

See also: Pilot (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) The pilot episode received a rating of 11.1 from Nielsen Media Research on January 13, 2008. The mainstream press reviews were generally positive. USA Today gave the premiere episode 3 and a half stars out of four, calling the series, "smart, tough and entertaining."[61] The New York Times referred to it as "one of the more humanizing adventures in science fiction to arrive in quite a while",[62] while the Los Angeles Times declared the show "has heart and feeling" and "an almost Shakespearean exploration of fate vs. character" that features "plenty of really great fight scenes, and explosions, as well as neato devices developed in the future and jury-rigged in the present."[63] In addition, film industry journal Daily Variety declared the series pilot "a slick brand extension off this profitable assembly line" that showcases "impressive and abundant action with realistic visual effects and, frankly, plenty of eye candy between Glau and Headey."[64] Not all response has been positive, however. The Futon Critic, in a June 14, 2007 review of the pilot episode, declared that "it's actually far more ingrained into the Terminator mythology than you'd expect," but stated that "this installment feels less like a 'pilot' and more like an excuse to rearrange the deck chairs on the 'Terminator' franchise to potentially have a TV show."[32] One negative report from La Lámina Corredora reported that "the pilot feels too much like a cheap remake of T2."[65] Lena Headey's Sarah Connor has been criticized for not being as muscular as Linda Hamilton in T2.[66][67]

[edit] United States schedule

Season Timeslot Season premiere Season finale TV season Rank Viewers
(in millions) 1 2

Sunday 8/7C (January 13)	January 13, 2008	March 3, 2008	2007-2008	#30	11.4[68]
Monday 9/8C (January 14 - March 3)
Monday 8/7C (September 8 - )	September 8, 2008		2008-2009

[edit] U.S. Nielsen ratings

# Episode Air Date Rating[69] Share[69] 18–49 (Rating/Share)[69] Viewers (m)[69] Rank (timeslot) Rank (night) Rank (week)

1	"Pilot"	January 13, 2008	11.11	16	7.6/18	18.36	1	1	4
2	"Gnothi Seauton"	January 14, 2008	6.2	9	4.2/10	10.07	2	4	21
3	"The Turk"	January 21, 2008	5.3	8	3.6/8	8.65	3	4	TBA
4	"Heavy Metal"	February 4, 2008	5.5	8	3.5/8	8.84	2	4	26
5	"Queen's Gambit"	February 11, 2008	5.1	8	3.5/8	8.32	3	TBA	29
6	"Dungeons & Dragons"	February 18, 2008	4.9	7	3.2/8	8.1	3	8	26
7	"The Demon Hand"	February 25, 2008	4.4	7	2.7/7	7.12	TBA	TBA	TBA
8	"Vick's Chip"	March 3, 2008	4.7	7	3.0/8	7.75	2	8	35
9	"What He Beheld"	March 3, 2008	5.0	8	3.3/8	8.29	2	7	32

[edit] DVD and Blu-ray release

On May 22, 2008, Warner Home Video officially announced the DVD and Blu-Ray release for August 19, 2008.[70] The first season was released on August 11, 2008 in the UK.[71] The North American version was released on August 19, 2008.[72] The three-disc DVD set on Region 1 contains all nine episodes aired from the first season, commentary on select episodes, audition tapes for select actors, video of Summer Glau practicing for her ballet scenes, making of features, and deleted scenes for certain episodes. The Region 2 version has all nine episodes but has excluded all the special features apart from one deleted scene. The three-disc Blu-ray set on Region 1 (each being a dual-layer 50GB disc) contains all nine episodes aired from the first season (each episode encoded in 1080p, VC-1 compression with a 1.78:1 aspect ratio), commentary on select episodes, audition tapes for select actors, video of Summer Glau practicing for her ballet scenes, making of features, and deleted scenes for certain episodes.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official site on Fox (requires Flash)
• Official Wiki (uses some Flash)
• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles at the Internet Movie Database
• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles at TV.com