The 1980 miniseries “V” was a huge hit (40 share) when it first aired. The story centered on what appeared to be human aliens coming to Earth in an armada of spaceships acting as humanity’s saviors in very troubled times. However, the aliens turned out to be lizard-people with a two-part agenda — using humankind as the main course in their culinary dishes, and stealing Earth’s vast water supply. The program spun-off into a weekly series which did well at first but soon began dropping off in the ratings.
Now ABC is ready to resurrect and update the franchise by hiring “The 4400’s” co-creator Scott Peters to do a rewrite of the SF series. Peters will also executive produce “V” with Jace Hall of HDFilms.
“Whenever I mention ‘V’ to anybody, they still have a lot of good memories about the original movie and series,” Peters told Variety. “Everybody has that imagery of their uniforms, or the visitor eating a hamster. It’s a science fiction icon and too good to pass up.”
This updated version will center on Erica Evans, a Homeland Security agent with an aimless son who’s got problems, according to the trade paper. When the aliens arrive, her son becomes enamored with them and attaches himself to them — causing tension within the family. As in the original “V,” several storylines will unfold simultaneously. The crux of the storyline will deal with what happens when the masses have blind faith in their leaders, something that has happened in the past with Nazi Germany, and, if not diligently watched, could easily happen again, especially during difficult social and economic times.
Some of the stuff from the old series will remain. For instance, the opening scene in this new series will again show an enormous army of spaceships hovering over the world’s major cities (ala “Independence Day”). The visitors will again say they’ve come to help Earth, but they really have an ulterior motive that would destroy all life on the planet.
Warner Bros. TV will assist ABC in the production end of the new show. Warner was also the main element behind the original showing over 20 years ago. Kenneth Johnson, the original writer/director/producer of the 1983 series and a past guest on Slice of SciFi, will not be directly involved with this television remake.
There is no room for medicority here. It will either be amazing, or awful.
Love Love Love V! I worry that it will probably suck though. The book they put out earlier this year was pretty good so we will just have to wait and see.
V was a good idea that was badly done. Hopefully they will get it right this time.
Fantastic news! Have been waiting for V to return for years…
Wasn’t sure of Kenneth Johnson’s idea of ignoring everything from The Final Battle and the (trashy) weekly series, and bringing characters back from the dead…
Glad the franchise is to be restarted, as with Battlestar Galactica. A real shame Kenneth Johnson won’t be involved though.
Hope they keep the Final Battle theme tune it rocked!!!
Is this different than the other ABC alien series “The Return”? Or did they replace “The Return” with this, something that’s more familiar? It just seems weird that ABC could possibly have two similar alien-encounter TV shows.
Why do TV and movies insist on remaking old shows? The new ones are NEVER as good as the old ones. Producers and directors don’t seem to realize that part of the charm of theoriginal programs were the stars themselves. They remade Get Smart, but without Don Adams, what have you got? Nothing. I can’t imagine V without the original cast.
Someone please bring back MOONLIGHT!
This is just another Stephen King like tale without having to pay Stephen King-like money. And just like the radio industry is always playing the same hits over and over all day, TV loves to play it safe. Yet, if any TV exec would visit a good SciFi book store and just feel out the universe of excellent writers putting out original work, they would find a gold mine. Mainstream is so dead and media providers just don’t realize it.
I remember V fondly as a kid. I think this will be another moment where those of us who remember the original will line up (or in this case, sit on our sofas) to see it before the younger crowd does, just like the movie “Lost In Space.”
From what I remember, “Lost In Space” didn’t do so well because we (again, those of us who watched the original) didn’t like it much. We wanted the original looking Jupiter 2, or the original Robot, etc.
Technology has come a long way since the original V. I bet if they stick to the basics and don’t try to impress us with technological wonder the series my survive those of us from the 70’s/80’s.
Good Luck ABC!
In France, all tv & news on the web are spreading the trailers are awful, cold, without interest since everybody knows the storyline.
A future ABC failure counting on a limited budget & a basic fan support which is not appreciating even with the cameos announced this new remake.
A launch of a tv serial with a “great pilot” journalists already judged as bad with the trailers and style presented and forthcoming reduced money on episodes.What a tragedy…