Wonderfalls was a television series on Fox, created by Bryan Fuller (Dead Like Me) and Todd Holland (Malcolm in the Middle) with executive producer Tim Minear (writer and director for Firefly and Angel).
The story centered around Jaye Tyler, played by Caroline Dhavernas, a smart girl working a dead-end job as a sales clerk at a Niagara Falls gift shop. Jaye is the reluctant participant in conversations with a variety of animal figurines — a wax lion, stuffed bear, mounted fish, and brass monkey, among others — which direct her via oblique comments to help people in need.
Originally scheduled to debut in the fall of 2003, the premiere of Wonderfalls was delayed until early 2004, possibly to avoid competition with the then-unproven, similar series Joan of Arcadia. When it finally debuted in February 2004, Wonderfalls received rave reviews from critics, but had trouble attracting viewers, with some dismissing the series as a ripoff of the now-popular Joan of Arcadia even though the two shows were created and produced at the same time. Coincidentally, both shows were based on the story of Joan of Arc.
Despite being cancelled after only four episodes (a fifth was advertised by the network but never aired), the show developed a loyal fanbase not unlike that formed following the cancellation of Firefly. A DVD set featuring all 13 episodes was released by 20th Century Fox on February 1, 2005. The DVD set includes commentary by the producers and cast members on half the episodes, a behind-the-scenes documentary, an examination of the show's visual effects, and one of the two music videos produced for the theme song, "I Wonder Why the Wonder Falls" by Andy Partridge.
Cast
Episodes
The pilot episode, "Wax Lion", received a higher Nielsen rating when it was repeated the Thursday after its premiere. The show was moved from a Friday night timeslot to Thursday after three episodes, but with little notice of the time change, and was cancelled after the fourth episode.
Télé-Québec announced that it would broadcast all thirteen episodes of the first season in Canada, dubbed into French. (Lead actress Caroline Dhavernas, herself French-Canadian, reportedly lobbied to be allowed to dub her own voice for this.) Another Canadian network, the religious-based Vision TV, began airing all 13 episodes in English starting on October 4, 2004. Other networks have expressed interest in airing all 13 episodes in the U.S. Immediately after the show's cancellation, its producers attempted to interest other networks, including The WB in picking up the series. If they had been successful, Wonderfalls would have been the first American series in history to change networks in the midst of its first season.
In addition, some episodes were shown in theatres in Los Angeles during the summer of 2004 in order to drum up support for the series. These episodes, many of them rough cuts without full effects and score work, were also released onto the Internet, aided by the producers themselves, who helped distribute them via the BitTorrent protocol.
D | Code | Name | Writer(s) | Director | Premiere
|
| 1 | 1.01 | "Wax Lion" | Todd Holland, Bryan Fuller | Todd Holland | 12 March 2004 | Fox
|
| 2 | 1.02? | "Pink Flamingos" | Aaron Harberts , Gretchen Berg | | 1 April 2004 | Fox
|
| 3 | 1.11? | "Karma Chameleon" | Tim Minear | Marita Grabiak | 19 March 2004 | Fox
|
| 4 | 1.13 | "Wound-Up Penguin" | Liz Garcia | Todd Holland | 26 March 2004 | Fox
|
| 5 | 1.02? | "Crime Dog" | Krista Vernoff | Allan Kroeker | 2004-07-23 | The Knitting Factory
|
| 6 | 1.05 | "Muffin Buffalo" | Aaron Harberts, Gretchen Berg | Craig Zisk | 2004-07-23 | The Knitting Factory
|
| 7 | 1.03 | "Barrel Bear" | Tim Minear, Bryan Fuller | Jamie Babbit | | Télé-Québec
|
| 8 | 1.04 | "Lovesick Ass" | Dan Fesman , Harry Victor | Todd Holland | | Télé-Québec
|
| 9 | 1.06 | "Safety Canary" | Liz Garcia, Alexander Woo | Peter Lauer | | Télé-Québec
|
| 10 | 1.07 | "Lying Pig" | Krista Vernoff, Abby Gewanter | Peter O'Fallon | 2004-07-25 | Comic-Con
|
| 11 | 1.08? | "Cocktail Bunny" | Bryan Fuller | | 2004-07-25 | Comic-Con
|
| 12 | 1.09 | "Totem Mole" | Dan Fesman, Harry Victor | Jeremy Podeswa | | Télé-Québec
|
| 13 | 1.11? | "Caged Bird" | Krista Vernoff | Michael Lehmann | | Télé-Québec
|
Fox aired the first four episodes out of sequence, although the episodes as a whole were produced in a different order than was intended for broadcast. The above list shows the episodes in the order in which producers intended them to be viewed.
Planned episodes
Although the series creators had intended for the 13 episodes of Wonderfalls to tell a standalone story (perhaps anticipating cancellation after the first season), apparently the writers were already thinking as much as two years ahead. According to an interview featured on the 2005 DVD release of the series, the producers revealed that they already had plans for the third season, which would have begun with Jaye being institutionalized with "Jesus Syndrome."
External links
