TALK STORY

HBO Cancels Deadwood

POSTED BY: RKLENSETH
UPDATED: Saturday, June 24, 2006 03:00
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Saturday, May 27, 2006 3:57 PM

RKLENSETH


Another TV shame....




http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,19013,00.html



Quote:

"Deadwood", RIP? by Gina Serpe
May 12, 2006, 8:45 AM PT


Al Swearengen may be riding off into the effin' sunset a little sooner than expected.

HBO has confirmed that it will not pick up the contract options for Deadwood cast members, indicating that the upcoming third season of the cuss-happy western may be its last.

According to Variety, the ensemble's contracts will expire on June 11, the date of the third-season premiere, and while technically this makes any cancellation news premature, the chances of the show being resuscitated at this point are unlikely.

The decision to allow the contracts lapse means that the show's two leads, Ian McShane and Timothy Olyphant, as well as the stable of supporting players, have no further obligation to the critically adored show and are free to pursue other acting gigs.

The news comes just three weeks after series creator and executive producer David Milch spoke to the Boston Globe and offered a decidedly different take on the fate of the show, which is set in the outlaw mining camp of Deadwood in the late 1870s.

"There's a time when creative and commercial intentions coincide," Milch told the newspaper. "Then they diverge. If a series is successful, the commercial interest is in keeping it on, even after the creative interest is in ending it.

"With Deadwood, my intention is to end at the end of the fourth season. I can't speak for anyone else, but that's where I'm getting off the bus."

While Variety suggests that HBO may reverse itself and pick up Deadwood for one more season, Milch is already working with the cable network on a new project, John from Cincinnati. Barring any last-minute negotiation hitches, work is expected to begin soon on a pilot episode to the show, which is described as a "surf noir."

Still Deadwood's apparent demise is a bit puzzling. Yes, the second-season premiere drew 2.8 million viewers--3 million fewer than the series premiere--but it still ranked as one of HBO's better performers last year.

The show has proved a critical favorite, as well. At last September's Emmy Awards, the show racked up five trophies out of 11 nominations; McShane took home the 2005 Golden Globe as Best Actor in a Drama Series; the American Film Institute named the show one of the Top 10 TV programs of 2005; and the series took home a Peabody Award for excellence in media and television.

In any event, the third and likely final 12-episode season kicks off June 11.




Oh, and play Cantr II at www.cantr.net.

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Saturday, May 27, 2006 4:42 PM

CHINDI


I am in mourning... sigh. After Firefly this was one of the best, most intelligent and well acted shows on TV...

is this country really one of only lowest common denominators???

**turning up my Deadwood CD where Wu speaks to Al...*

CHindi news is NOT shiny

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Saturday, May 27, 2006 4:49 PM

GROOSALUGG


Great. 3 weeks after taking a chance on the S1 DVDs at the library and becoming an instant fan, I hear this...


Al: "Who?"
Wu: "Wu?!"
Al: "Not Wu--who?!"
Wu: "Co--" (well, you know... )

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Saturday, May 27, 2006 5:16 PM

RKLENSETH


Quote:

Originally posted by Chindi:
I am in mourning... sigh. After Firefly this was one of the best, most intelligent and well acted shows on TV...

is this country really one of only lowest common denominators???

**turning up my Deadwood CD where Wu speaks to Al...*

CHindi news is NOT shiny



I completely agree. And the bad thing about it is that Deadwood was HBO's second highest rated show next to the Sopranos. But the thing is that HBO wasted all of their money on Rome and now don't have enough to continue funding the show.

But there is still hope; David Milch, the show's creator, is trying to raise some money to at least continue the story for a few more episodes so that they can tie up the loose ends. Hopefully HBO at least gives him and the fans of the show the diginity and respect of that since Season Three is already made and they can't tie up loose ends now for those 12 episodes.

Oh, and play Cantr II at www.cantr.net.

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Saturday, May 27, 2006 5:32 PM

WEREALLJUSTFLOATING


I just finished watching the second season on DVD, and I love it. It's sooo good! At least HBO doesnt operate under the same economic model as the networks do, so all hope is not lost. Some of the fans paid for a very articulate ad in Variety recently stating that they are very disppointed with HBO's decision, and will reconsider their subscription.

Here's hoping the third season isn't the last, because this show is up there with the best of TV IMO, and the Sopranos is nearly over, at least that's what they keep telling us. I really enjoyed Rome too, but I think Deadwood has won me over, it's just got so much heart, even though it's so gritty and ugly and violent at times, it still retains a lot of humanity, and all the characters are three dimensional, as on Firelfy.

I've only seen the first few episodes of the latest season of the sopranos, as we're a bit behind here in Ireland and we had to go without last week for the bloody Eurovision!!! If you don't know what that means count yourself lucky:)

I can't wait to see how the third season of Deadwood opens, I hope Cy gets what's coming to him - he has almost no redeeming qualities for me. I can see why the show is such a costly one to produce, you can see how much detail they put into the costumes and sets and make up. The HBO official site has some very interesting features on the production of the show, and David Boyd even did the cinematography for some of the early episodes, so there's a nice Firefly parallel for us!!! I think the show is one of the most beautifully shot shows on TV at the moment.

Apparently David Boyd turned down an offer to do 6 more episodes to tie the season up, maybe he felt that wouldn't be enough. I'd be happy with it though!! Hopefully he'll change his mind.

We're still flying.

That's not much.

It's enough.

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Saturday, May 27, 2006 5:45 PM

MONKSDAD


It cost hbo over 5 million per episode for deadwood, i say replace it with a low budget (in tv show terms) sci fi show, like uhm i dont know umh, it will come to me.....

"And I think calling him that is an insult to the psychotic lowlife community."

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Saturday, May 27, 2006 7:33 PM

GROOSALUGG


Quote:

Originally posted by werealljustfloating:
...and David Boyd even did the cinematography for some of the early episodes, so there's a nice Firefly parallel for us!!!



There's also someone working on it (I think he wrote at least one of the S3 episodes) named Zack Whedon, who's imdb page claims he's 'related' to Joss Whedon. Can't be a son--brother or nephew, mayhap?

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Saturday, May 27, 2006 9:14 PM

CALHOUN


Quote:

XeroGravityAdvanced wrote:
Saturday, May 27, 2006 19:46
Good! Deadwood was a stupid, gay show for retards.



Were that the case XeroGravityAdvanced you would be its number 1 fan!..

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Friday, June 23, 2006 12:00 PM

WEREALLJUSTFLOATING


Quote:

Originally posted by Groosalugg:
There's also someone working on it (I think he wrote at least one of the S3 episodes)
named Zack Whedon, who's imdb page claims he's 'related' to Joss Whedon.
Can't be a son--brother or nephew, mayhap?




You're right, as far as I know, he's one of Joss' younger brothers. Although it ages since I read this (it was a Joss interview anyway)
I don't remember where exactly it was I learned this fact. Sorry, otherwise I'd link to the relevant article.

I do remember reading it, maybe a year ago, and wondering: why would he work for this Milch guy when he could get a job with his big brother?

But now that I've seen Deadwood I can totally see why he'd want to work for Milch. That guy is a poet of a writer, IMO he's up in the same leagues as Joss.

So what do you all think of the new season? I love it, especially the promise of bloody fighting between Hearst and the camp, especially Swearengen - "I'm having mine served cold" is my new favourtite quote of his.

We're still flying.

That's not much.

It's enough.

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Friday, June 23, 2006 9:33 PM

PHOENIXROSE

You think you know--what's to come, what you are. You haven't even begun.


I heard that they're going to do a small run to wrap everything up. I think it was going to be basically two movies; two-hour episodes, anyway. I'm pretty sure.

**********************************

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Saturday, June 24, 2006 3:00 AM

WEREALLJUSTFLOATING


Yep you're right, that's the plan. It's not as good as a full season, but I'm happy, as at least now there'll be some resolution to the story. I'd say it won't be made until next year though, as Milch has another series in developement at the moment, a surfer-noir drama, again for HBO.

Read about it here:

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117944621?categoryid=14&cs=1&s=h&p=0

We're still flying.

That's not much.

It's enough.

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