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EXCLUSIVE: There is a change at the helm of Fox’s midseason drama Alcatraz, from Warner Bros TV and J.J. Abrams’ studio-based Bad Robot. Co-creator/executive producer/showrunner Elizabeth Sarnoff is leaving the time-travel series, which will now be co-run by Jennifer Johnson and Daniel Pyne. Chase creator/executive producer and Lost alumna Johnson joined Alcatraz after the pilot as a consulting producer. Two months ago, she was quietly elevated to executive producer and co-showrunner alongside Sarnoff. Sarnoff, who wrote the version of the project that was picked up to pilot and then to series by Fox from an earlier incarnation by Steven Lilien and Bryan Wynbrandt, is now stepping down over creative differences, with feature writer Pyne (Fracture) coming in as an executive producer and co-showrunner alongside Johnson. His TV series credits include Miami Vice. Sarnoff is expected to receive an executive consultant title on the show going forward. The behind-the-scenes showrunner turnover was a factor in WBTV and Bad Robot’s decision two weeks ago to put filming of new episodes of Alcatraz on hold and do reshoots on some of the seven completed episodes instead. After completing some reshoots, the show is not filming at the moment, with the writers working on scripts and producers and directors prepping for additional reshoots as well as filming new episodes. Alcatraz, which features inmates from the infamous prison popping up in present day San Francisco, is slated to premiere in midseason in the Monday 9 PM time period, which also is being eyed for the new Kiefer Sutherland drama Touch. Fox is expected to announce premiere dates for its midseason series in the coming days.
TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.
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Awake on hiatus, Alcatraz on hiatus, the fall season a shambles…
Can we have a do-over, please?
Sounds like a mess…
Everything Bad Robot does is incomprehensible….
Show doesn’t have a chance.
Interesting. That concerns me a bit. I like the pilot, so I hope they don’t re-swizzle it too much.
But I’m confused. It’s Bad Robot. Everything they do goes straight to series because it’s always amazing. How is this possible? Please explain.
BAD ROBOT is J.J. Abrams’ production company. He’s also produced shows like ALIAS, LOST, FRINGE and the new series PERSON OF INTEREST as well as movies like CLOVERFIELD, STAR TREK, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 3, SUPER 8 and the upcoming MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL hitting the big screen and IMAX next month.
OH! That BAD ROBOT. Kevy, I think you forgot UNDERCOVERS, MORNING GLORY, SIX DEGREES, and WHAT ABOUT BRIAN. PS – Nobody watches FRINGE and PERSON OF INTEREST sucks. Can’t wait for M:I-GP on IMAX though. THX!
Ha! Agreed.
Except for Pers of Intch. That shit grows on you.
Fringe is excellent television.
Dan is being sarcastic (and spot-on).
What’s Fringe?
@Bob: That’s probably some series that’s on the fringe of cancellation.
How is that possible? Did you see Super 8 it super sucked. Maybe they decided to step in before it got that bad.
Last i checked creative differences was code for being fired.
And last I checked, bringing on a “Consulting Producer” after an ill-received pilot delivery was code for: somebody isn’t doing there job and we need to bring in a creative baby-sitter, who will most likely take over the show in a month’s time.
What’s an “executive consultant” credit? Never seen that one before. Do they mean Consulting Producer? Does she also have created by?
Executive consultant has been used before. But these are just titles and they don’t really mean anything specific. Liz probably had a contractual obligation for 2 years to serve full time as an EP, but she wanted out of it, so they compromised by negotiating her out of the producer title. And/or they wanted rid of her and she pointed to her contractual title, but didn’t want to be known as responsible for the show so she negotiated herself down.
Jennifer Johnson doesn’t need Daniel Pyne with her. She’s perfectly capable of running the show and she’s a class act.
Elizabeth Sarnoff is fantastic, talented and smart. What’s the story here?
What’s really going on?
And why is Pyne being added?
Something is very smelly.
Yes, something is smelly in that Sarnoff and Johnson are both repped at WME and Pyne is repped at CAA. Now go get Ari Greenburg his third cup of coffee.
SHE’S A CLASS ACT, AND INCREDIBLY TALENTED….HAS THE ABILITY AS WELL AS THE PEOPLE-SKILLS NEEDED TO WIN. ALCATRAZ IS FORTUNATE TO HAVE HER !!!
She’s awful and treats people badly. If she was that talented, she wouldn’t have been fired.
Liz Sarnoff is most definitely not “fantastic, talented and smart”
Abusive, insecure and demeaning is more accurate.
For years, Sarnoff took advantage of her cover by the equally insecure Lindelof and and abused every young writer at LOST — guess the karma bus just came round the corner, huh, Liz?
Absolutely true. Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Liz Sarnoff is a phony. She never wrote for Milch. On Deadwood she was an overpaid assistant. He wrote the scripts and she got the credit. That’s how she got her name. She’s no show runner.
Heard the same thing. She just got really lucky having a Milch as a mentor, but decided instead of passing it on, she would be nasty and competitive with any new writer she crossed paths with. Ultimately in this business, if she were a brilliant writer how badly she treats people might not matter, but she’s not, so it does.
J.J. Abrams is running one of the more brilliant Hollywood scams. He gets credit for shows over which he has very little involvement.
He sprinkles his magic dust over them and turns them into hits.
HA! That’s funny.
His name is the “foot in the door” at the networks for the true producers. No name, no pick up.
Classic 80′s Spielberg.
Nice. Nice.
Very smartly played sabotage by j Johnson and her agents. Oh, I guess they didn’t care about Liz no matter how much they say they care
Cant say this sounds promising..
Liz Sarnoff is a writer. Jennifer Johnson is a note-taker. Which, of course, is why WB fired Sarnoff and elevated Johnson.
And who are you, a person who comments on articles?
By the way, TV is a collaboration. No notes, no TV. So if by note-taker you mean she knows her job, then yeah.
TV is a collaboration. No notes, no TV. So if you mean that Johnson knows her job, then yeah.
I concur! Chase was amazingly bad, no need to ruin someone else’s name.
Did you see the last 5 eps of Chase? Show really found its feet, only be axed by a network that lost its own footing long ago.
J Johnson is lovely and v. competent. I do, however, think writers who come in to take over for other writers – particularly when it’s the creator of the show – at the behest of the studio should … well, feel slightly ashamed. It’s professional cannibalism, and ultimately, must be some bad karma.
Here, here. Very nice usage of ‘at the behest of the studio’ and ‘slightly ashamed’. At the end of the day, do you say no to a promotion when you know they have to give it to *someone* and the pink slip is already in the mail to the person being replaced? Odd predicament and a bit of a conundrum.
You are wrong on two counts. Sarnoff is a CO-creator. She “came on” and rewrote the pilot first. And second of all, when a valuable asset like a network pick-up is at stake, studios need someone they can count on to help out. They have a stable of “assignable” writers under contract whom they turn to in precisely these situations. According to your logic, if someone like Sarnoff doesn’t work out for whatever reason, then the studio should just eat their massive investment and close up shop? That would cut hundreds out of a job – talk about cannibalism.
Liz didnt create the show, she added her name to the first script wrtitten by the two original writers
Elizabeth Sarnoff was way overrated coming into this, thanks to her Deadwood credits — I say give the original creators a shot – -they’re pretty damn good writers and had the idea that got Fox and BR excited in the first place. If Sarnoff’s so great she should create her own show.
Ummm. Sarnoff is the original writer.
Nice work reading the article. She is clearly not the original writer.
UMMMM. No she’s not. She came on and did a rewrite and from the sound of it Fox didn’t like it very much which is why she left.
She was not. A pair of other writers wrote the original pilot. She rewrote it when she came on as showrunner and got co-creator credit.
The original writers are Steve Lilien and Bryan Wynbrandt. They created the show with Liz Sarnoff and all worked on the pilot together. Does anyone know if theyre still on the show?
The show is “not filming at the moment”… “writers are working on scripts”… Nellie, Nellie, Nellie. This means it’s cancelled.
Wrong. Re-tweaking. FOX happy.
Kudos to Johnson for getting fired off Lost then rehired by the same folks to run Alcatraz.
First of all, everyone got fired after the first year of Lost. And if you knew anything about TV, you would know being hired and fired off shows means nothing about the talent or the relationships of the people involved.
Sarnoff is getting exactly what she is due. She’s nasty, mean-spirited, and highly insecure. Don’t know if the show will be a success, but it will at least be a much nicer place to work.
I agree. She is all those things, on top of just being a so-so writer. Maybe people are catching on.
sarnoff will be fine, guys. she’ll go work on her friends show on ABC. the one with snow white and a bunch of bad CG.