Bionic Woman

We at WatchingBionicWoman.com have been pretty critical of Bionic Woman but our support for the writers of BW and all members of the WGA has been unwavering.    When we talk about BW and Jaime Sommers, we often refer to Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a model for what we would like the show to be and do:  be about a kickass female lead told in a creative, unique and consistent way.  Also Buffy had great action sequences. 

Of course most of the credit for the awesomeness that is Buffy rests with her creator, Joss Whedon.  Whedon is both a writer and producer and knows both sides of the Hollywood coin.  As such, Whedon knows that without writers there is nothing for actors to say. 

Sadly, journalists have been some of the worst critics of the writers and WGA, despite the fact they are themselves writers and unionized.  Like most things published lately in the New York Times, the WGA strike has been slanted against the writers and framed as an affront to the studios.  Whedon has taken the opportunity to respond to the NYT and offer his thoughts:

Reporters are funny people. At least, some of the New York Times reporters are. Their story on the strike was the most dispiriting and inaccurate that I read. But it also contained one of my favorite phrases of the month.
“All the trappings of a union protest were there… …But instead of hard hats and work boots, those at the barricades wore arty glasses and fancy scarves.”
Oh my God. Arty glasses and fancy scarves. That is so cute! My head is aflame with images of writers in ruffled collars, silk pantaloons and ribbons upon their buckled shoes. A towering powdered wig upon David Fury’s head, and Drew Goddard in his yellow stockings (cross-gartered, needless to say). Such popinjays, we! The entire writers’ guild as Leslie Howard in The Scarlet Pimpernel. Delicious.
Except this is exactly the problem. The easiest tactic is for people to paint writers as namby pamby arty scarfy posers, because it’s what most people think even when we’re not striking. Writing is largely not considered work. Art in general is not considered work. Work is a thing you physically labor at, or at the very least, hate. Art is fun. (And Hollywood writers are overpaid, scarf-wearing dainties.) It’s an easy argument to make. And a hard one to dispute.
My son is almost five. He is just beginning to understand what I do as a concept. If I drove a construction crane he’d have understood it at birth. And he’d probably think I was King of all the Lands in my fine yellow crane. But writing – especially writing a movie or show, where people other than the writer are all saying things that they’re clearly (to an unschooled mind) making up right then – is something to get your head around.
And as work? Well, in the first place, it IS fun. When it’s going well, it’s the most fun I can imagine having. (Tim Minear might dispute that.) And when it’s not going well, it’s often not going well in the company of a bunch of funny, thoughtful people. So how is that work? You got no muscles to show for it (yes, the brain is a muscle, but if you show it to people it’s usually because part of your skull has been torn off and that doesn’t impress the ladies – unless the ladies are ZOMBIES! Where did this paragraph go?) Writing is enjoyable and ephemeral. And it’s hard work.
It’s always hard. Not just dealing with obtuse, intrusive studio execs, temperamental stars and family-prohibiting hours. Those are producer issues as much as anything else. Not just trying to get your first script sold, or seen, or finished, when nobody around believes you can/will/should… the ACT of writing is hard. When Buffy was flowing at its flowingest, David Greenwalt used to turn to me at some point during every torturous story-breaking session and say “Why is it still hard? When do we just get to be good at it?” I’ll only bore you with one theory: because every good story needs to be completely personal (so there are no guidelines) and completely universal (so it’s all been done). It’s just never simple.
It’s necessary, though. We’re talking about story-telling, the most basic human need. Food? That’s an animal need. Shelter? That’s a luxury item that leads to social grouping, which leads directly to fancy scarves. But human awareness is all about story-telling. The selective narrative of your memory. The story of why the Sky Bully throws lightning at you. From the first, stories, even unspoken, separated us from the other, cooler beasts. And now we’re talking about the stories that define our nation’s popular culture – a huge part of its identity. These are the people that think those up. Working writers.
“The trappings of a union protest…” You see how that works? Since we aren’t real workers, this isn’t a real union issue. (We’re just a guild!) And that’s where all my ‘what is a writer’ rambling becomes important. Because this IS a union issue, one that will affect not just artists but every member of a community that could find itself at the mercy of a machine that absolutely and unhesitatingly would dismantle every union, remove every benefit, turn every worker into a cowed wage-slave in the singular pursuit of profit. (There is a machine. Its program is ‘profit’. This is not a myth.) This is about a fair wage for our work. No different than any other union. The teamsters have recognized the importance of this strike, for which I’m deeply grateful. Hopefully the Times will too.

All journalists should be supporting the WGA strike and stop treating one group of writers as though they are bad people for trying to provide for their families.

As the strike stretches into weeks and months, and when are favorite shows are in reruns, or worse, canceled, it will be too easy to blame the writers and forget that it is the studios’ greed that has brought us to where we are.  Never forget that and never blame the WGA for the mess.  The blame will always rest with the studios.  Always.

WatchingBionicWoman.com is a written blog about a remake of a 1970s television show.  Without Martin Caidin writing his novel, Cyborg, there would not have been a Six Million Dollar Man, the eventual spin off The Bionic Woman starring Lindsay Wagner nor the re-imagined Bionic Woman staring Michelle Ryan.

Without writers, there would not be a bionic universe.  Period.  Zilch. Nadda.  This is why when bloggers and journalists treat fellow writers with disdain and disrespect, I can’t help but wonder what a sad Hobbesian world we find ourselves.

Margie summed up nicely why all writers must support the WGA strike:

Fair pay for good work is an issue that effects everyone, not just Hollywood writers: if you do work that allows someone else to make profits, you should be paid. It is the basic foundation of our capitalist economy, the concept that created a booming economy for the past two centuries. But there will always be companies that want to boom while their workers go bust, and as workers we should support them today because tomorrow it could be our pay that they are trying to erode. So I support the writers’ attempts to earn eight cents of every $20 DVD that is sold, even if it means I may not see Michelle Ryan and Katee Sackhoff beat each other up again.

Roco at Bionic-Blog asked his readers where they stand on the strike.  For every writer, regardless where their words are published, I hope they start supporting the WGA and refuse to write any more articles that are completely biased against the decent, hardworking writers of the WGA.

Feeling confused why the WGA strike is happening?  Check out this video.  It is short, sweet and highlights the ridiculous greed of the studios.

The Los Angeles Times suggests the Bionic Woman writers use their time on the picket lines to rethink some of the more annoying aspects of the show, and come back with more action and less Becca.

Berkut Group prez and actor Miguel Ferrar was all over the gossip blogs this weekend, after his cousin George Clooney mentioned him in an upcoming W magazine interview.  George revealed that Miguel was the man who taught him about prostitutes, but the story is not quite as scandalous as it sounds.  Apparently the two were driving around L.A. in a Porsche shortly after young George came to town … "We pulled up at the stoplight, and all of these girls came over, and they were like, ‘Hey, do you want to party?’ I looked at Miguel and I said, ‘Chicks love me, man! I’m on fire here!’"  Miguel is also the source of a recent OK! magazine story reiterating Clooney’s vow to never marry again. 

Someone else to add to the list of people who think that casting Isaiah Washington was a mistake:  Steve McPherson, the head of ABC, was recently quoted in the New York Times as saying network exec Ben Silverman was “clueless or stupid” in the way he negotiated to bring IW to BW.

A lot of bloggers have been laughing about the iPhone scene in The List, as it seems guest star Callum Keith Rennie was holding the phone upside down for at least half of the scene where he is threatening to kill Tom while negotiating the price of his life with Jaime.  Some of them wonder if the error was on purpose, given NBC’s well-documented dispute with Apple.

Michelle Ryan has gotten some press recently for expressing a desire to break into movies, which she may be able to do sooner rather than later depending on what happens with the strike.

WatchingBionicWoman.com supports the Writers Guild of America strike and we find it disappointing the studios and producers refuse to pay tv writers decently for their work.  Unfortunately, the WGA strike has shut down Hollywood and the strike, so short into the tv season, will leave many shows with a truncated season.  This includes BW.

According to the Ausiello Report at TV Guide.com. 

Those programs that are either highly efficient (Friday Night Lights) or have entered the season with a backlog of episodes (Men in Trees, Law & Order: SVU) will be in originals well into the new year. But series with tighter production schedules (i.e., nearly every half-hour comedy) will go dark almost immediately.

Apparently, BW only has two original episodes left to air.  I wish the studios would bargain in good faith and pay the people responsible for the scripts that get filmed the same as everyone else in Hollywood!

The writer’s strike can’t be good for Hollywood executives.  After all, show business is just that, a business, and lost profits are never the way to shareholder’s hearts.  Unfortunately, greed and incompetence prevent studio executives from realizing that without paying talented writers, there are no scripts to be filmed and put on the air.  As a result, can BW survive a long drawn out strike?

Via superheroflix:

We all knew that the WGA strike could be trouble for most of our favorite shows, and we now are having it confirmed. According to an article in The Vancouver Sun which details the economic impact the Writer’s Strike will have on the economy of Vancouver, The Bionic Woman is one of the shows which could be shut down if the strike is not resolved quickly: Bruce Scott, secretary treasurer of the Teamsters Local 155 whose members work in the film and television industry, said between five and six U.S. television shows are going to run out of scripts starting anywhere from the middle of the month to next January. He named The Bionic Woman, Reaper and Men in Trees as three of them. Tracey Wood, director of industrial and external relations for the B.C. branch of the Canadian Film and Television Production Association, said the television series The Bionic Woman is on the verge of shutting down because it has no stockpiled scripts. The sci-fi series is shooting at Vancouver Film Studios. She estimates this show alone employs about 100 local people. With less than a dozen episodes shot, a production shutdown could mean that if The Bionic Woman goes off the air, we may never see it return.

I wonder if stories like these are placed by the studio executives to put pressure on the writers of particular shows.  By making the strike about specific people and unemployment for a region, studio executives could try to to deflect criticism for their greed and attempt to shift the blame for the strike onto the writers. 

BW has survived so much already, I suspect it will survive the strike too.

However, will it survive the downturn in the ratings?

If you are a television fan, you have probably read countless articles and blog posts this week talking about how these greedy writers are going to kill your favorite shows. Bionic Woman is definitely going to be shutting down production soon, if it has not already due to the strike, and temporary darkness has already come to the sets of countless other shows.

But keep the faith, friends, and don’t buy in to the misrepresentations of those who would have you believe that these writers are selfish elitists, marching for rich paydays at the expense of hardworking Americans who just want to come home after a long day of work and watch Lost.

In fact, the opposite is true. These are folks are simply trying to get paid for the work that they do. Period. And the studios are expecting them to work for free. It’s that simple.

Right now the writer’s are caught in a bizarre contractual loophole that states that everything that ends up on the internet is a mere “promo.” This means Writer’s Guild of America members are currently not being paid for anything that ends up on the Internet … even while ads are sold around those episodes (an advertisement in the middle of a “promo” - how strange), even while studios are building business models around the recognition that more and more people are watching television on the internet, even while everyone recognizes that it will be the portable internet and not the heavy and unportable television that delivers our entertainment in the decades to come.

As one writer put it, they are not marching for more rights … they are really just trying to maintain the status quo and the basic concept that an honest day’s work leads to an honest day’s pay. Don’t believe the hype that this is about greed, folks. We are talking about simple compensation for work well done, and companies trying to profit off of that work without paying for it.

The concept of being fairly compensated for labor is an issue close to my heart, and it should be close to yours too. The writer’s strike involves issues that are relevant to all of us, because in the past few decades big companies have been doing more and more to ensure that they do not have to pay workers in every industry for their labor. This is an issue I feel passionate about personally and one that I have written about professionally, as that link indicates (it cites to a law review article I wrote about payment issues in the construction industry).

Fair pay for good work is an issue that effects everyone, not just Hollywood writers: if you do work that allows someone else to make profits, you should be paid. It is the basic foundation of our capitalist economy, the concept that created a booming economy for the past two centuries. But there will always be companies that want to boom while their workers go bust, and as workers we should support them today because tomorrow it could be our pay that they are trying to erode. So I support the writers’ attempts to earn eight cents of every $20 DVD that is sold, even if it means I may not see Michelle Ryan and Katee Sackhoff beat each other up again.

To understand a bit more about the issues, take four minutes and watch the very well done You Tube video “Why We Fight” which explains the issues much better than I can. Or watch the very funny clip of the writers from The Office below, which explains the bizarre conundrum of studios labeling an entire episode of a show “a promo.”

If you are television fan then you know there is a writer’s strike going on around the country, one that is expected to affect many of our favorite shows.

While no official strike plan has been announced for Bionic Woman yet, many experts expect that Bionic Woman’s strong pedigree and key demographic numbers mean it will survive the strike and the trial by fire that is network sweeps.

Whether the strike will be a good thing or a bad thing for new shows like BW, however, is still a subject of debate … as with all things BW, only time will tell.

According to newspaper reports from Vancouver, Bionic Woman has shut down production due to the writer’s strike that is in progress as we speak. Some television shows had enough scripts to continue filming, but apparently Bionic Woman is not in that category.

One small bright side to this news is we may be seeing more of the Bionic Woman stars at various events, since they will not be tied up filming in Vancouver.

AfterEllen.com loves Katee Sackhoff, but advises even the most ardent Katee fans to stay away from Halloween: Resurrection. The 2002 movie features Katee and is apparently so bad the reviewer would rather “punch myself in the face with flaming fists” than see it again. Yikes! Speaking of Katee, someone recently managed to find more of her high school photos.

Roco at Bionic-Blog wonders about what would happen if Jaime stops having uninterrupted make out sessions with random guys and actually ends up having sex with one of them someday. If that liaison leads to more than she bargained for and she gets pregnant again, with the anthracites speed up her pregnancy? Will they move through her blood to make a bionic baby? Interesting thoughts.

Michelle Ryan and Jordan Bridges were recently spotted drinking beer at Koerner’s Pub, the official drinking spot of the University of British Columbia.

Speaking of Michelle, do you agree with this blogger about her being a lookalike for Nicole Kidman? She is certainly built more busty, which is apparently ackward because an English paper recently reported that Americans keep asking Michelle for the number of her plastic surgeon. Perhaps she should lay off the chocolate.

Miguel Ferrar will add his voice to the upcoming Justice League DVD, along with Lucy Lawless of Xena: Warrior Princess and Battlestar Galactica, Jeremy Sisto of Six Feet Under, David Boreanaz of Angel and Bones, Neil Patrick Harris, Brooke Shields, and Kyra Sedgewick.

Finally, bad news for Lucy Hale. Various commentators, including the Bionic Website, liked last week’s episode The Education of Jaime Sommers, mostly because of the absence of Jaime’s little sister Becca.

Sorry kids, no new Bionic Woman tonight.  Not sure why so soon in the fall season NBC is benching BW, but there is no new episode tonight.

Here’s the preview for next week’s new episode 1.06 “The List”.

The Bionic Woman has stumbled out of the gate, losing viewers week after week.  This despite a great premiere audience.  So many actors and staff have left the show, and we are only five episodes in, you have to wonder what is going on behind the scenes?  Is Washington to blame?

The latest news according to SyFyPortal.com is that,

Jason Cahill has been named the new showrunner for “Bionic Woman,” permanently replacing Glen Morgan who left just before the show premiered in what appears to be a move that could signal a full-season pickup by the network.

This is the first time that Cahill has acted as a showrunner following a few writing stints on shows like “The Sopranos,” “Profiler” and “Surface.” However, he will be working with a core team that includes executive producers Jason Smilovic and current “BGS” executive producer David Eick on the show.

Personally, I don’t care who runs the show, but I do wish there was more evidence of David Eick’s fingerprints on the show.  BW has turned out to be poor quality next to its Battlestar sibling.  However, I am beginning to wonder just how much creative input Eick has on Battlestar.  I presumed, apparently erroneously, Eick as executive produce of BW meant the re-imagined Jaime Sommers drama would be just as a great as Battlestar Galactica.  This thinking was wrong.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that Cahill will solve all the show’s many problems.  Of course, one of those problems is Isaiah Washington.  Until he’s finally gone, nothing will help the show.

So ponders Jim Cramer of CNBC’s “Mad Money.”  Via Newsday.com:

The other night Jim Cramer, the never-robotic host of “Mad Money” on CNBC, confessed that he loves the new “Bionic Woman” partly because of “the stock opportunities it showcases.” As baby boomers’ bodies break down, they’ll need spare parts. So, he says, consider companies like Alcon (ACL) that are in the business of “building bionic women and $6-million men.”

Or it could be that General Electric, which owns NBC and CNBC, has put out a memo to all its employees: start promoting Bionic Woman.

Jaime Sommers was named as one of the Top 100 Greatest TV Characters of All Time by Bravo TV in a recent special. The show mentioned both Lindsay Wagner’s classic Bionic Woman, shown in this clip from You Tube, and Michelle Ryan’s more modern version.

Other characters on the list included Lucy Lawless’ Xena, Warrior Princess, Robin Williams’ Mork from Mork & Mindy, Michael J. Fox’s Alex P. Keaton from Family Ties, Leonard Nimoy’s Mr. Spock from Star Trek, Roseanne Barr’s Roseanne, Jerry Seinfeld and the entire cast of Seinfeld, Sarah Michelle Geller’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Homer Simpson. Oh, and the Million Dollar Man, Steve Austin, too.

The controversial choice for Number One was Caroll O’Connor’s Archie Bunker, who beat out such icons as Lucille Ball from I Love Lucy and James Gandolfini’s Tony Soprano. Number Two was Jackie Gleason’s Ralph Kramden, who presumably would want to send Caroll O’Connor “To the Moon!”

Jaime Sommers, Bravo, list, Lucy Lawless, Xena, Robin Williams, Mork & Mindy, Alex P. Keaton, Family Ties, Michael J. Fox, Star Trek, Leonard Nimoy, Spock, Roseanne, Sarah Michelle Geller, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Homer Simpson, Million Dollar Man, Steve Austin, Lindsay Wagner, Michelle Ryan, Lucille Ball, I Love Lucy, Caroll O’Connor, Archie Bunker, James Gandolfini, Tony Soprano, Jerry Seinfeld, Seinfeld

Bionic Woman has won praise for casting Will Yun Lee from folks who want to see more Asian Americans on TV, particularly after episode two’s sexy scenes between his character and the blonde Sarah Corvus played by Katee Sackhoff.

Defamer slams Isaiah Washington for boasting that he was more popular than Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton combined. Perhaps Isaiah will run for President in 2012?

Roco at Bionic-Blog has found a music montage set to Breathe Me, the song that was playing while Jaime cried in the bathtub during the pilot.

Click here to watch Lucy Kate Hale talk about the love/hate relationship Jaime and Becca have and how she hopes it will mature as the season progresses.

The second episode of Bionic Woman got mixed reviews. If you missed it you can catch up with a detailed recap here.

Prefer to read about Bionic Woman in Spanish? Check out Bitacora Bionica!

Bionic Woman, Spanish, Isaiah Washington, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Breathe Me, Jaime Sommers, Sarah Corvus, Katee Sackhoff, Will Yun Lee

Classic fans of The Bionic Woman should not hold their breath for Lindsay Wagner, the original Bionic Woman, to appear on the new version on NBC. Bionic Woman executive producer David Eick mentioned in an interview that played on the Bionic Angels radio show that he has never met Lindsay, and the appearance is not in his plans.

If David ever changes his mind, Lindsay should be easy to find. She is still active and is snapped several times a year at industry events and parties. The photo above was taken in August at the Academy of TV Stunts Peer Group Party at the Academy of Arts & Sciences in North Hollywood.

Or perhaps there is a compromise solution. One night when Michelle Ryan’s Jaime Sommers comes home late and finds Becca has fallen asleep in front of the television (again), maybe one of Lindsay’s infomercials for the Sleep Number Bed could be playing in the background.

Bionic Woman, Lindsay Wagner, David Eick, Bionic Angels, Sleep Number Bed, Jaime Sommers