Journeyman (TV series)

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Journeyman
Intertitle
Genre	Science Fiction Drama
Created by	Kevin Falls
Starring	Kevin McKidd Brian Howe Gretchen Egolf Moon Bloodgood Reed Diamond Charles Henry Wyson
Theme music composer	Amanda Ghost, James Dring, Jody Street
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	13 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Kevin Falls Alex Graves
Running time	42 mins. (approx)
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Picture format	480i (SDTV), 1080i (HDTV)
First shown in	USA
Original run	September 24, 2007 – December 19, 2007

Journeyman is a 2007 American science fiction television drama created by Kevin Falls for 20th Century Fox Television which aired on the NBC television network.^[1] It stars Kevin McKidd as Dan Vasser, a San Francisco reporter who involuntarily travels through time. Alex Graves, who directed the pilot, and Falls served as executive producers.^[1]

The show premiered on September 24, 2007, airing Mondays at 10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.^[1][2] The initial order from the network was for 13 episodes, all of which were produced prior to the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike by screenwriters. However, the series suffered from low ratings,^[3] and NBC allowed its option for a full season order to lapse by the December 11, 2007, deadline for renewal. According to trade reports, such an action effectively means the series has been cancelled.^[3] As of April 2, 2008, the show has officially been cancelled by NBC.^[4] The final episode of Journeyman aired on Wednesday, December 19, 2007. All 13 episodes of the show are available via Hulu^[5].

Contents 1 Plot 2 Fictional cosmology 3 Cast and characters 4 Main crew 5 Production 6 International broadcasters 7 Reception 7.1 U.S. ratings 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Plot

The series centers on Dan Vasser, a newspaper reporter living with his wife Katie and young son Zack in San Francisco. For an unknown reason, one day he begins jumping backward in time. He soon learns that each series of jumps follows the life of a person whose destiny he seems meant to change. Dan's jumping affects his family life and his job, and instills suspicion in his brother Jack, a police detective. While in the past, Dan reconnects with his ex-fiancée, Livia, whom he had believed was killed in a plane crash but is actually a traveler like him.

[edit] Fictional cosmology

Dan's "shifts" through time occur seemingly at random. The only indication he has to an oncoming jump is a feeling in his head which varies from right before he jumps to several seconds of warning. Dan appears to have no control over the shifts. The first jump is several decades into the past; through a series of jumps, he jumps nearer to the present, usually years at a time.

The jumps manifest themselves with a small blue flash and a ripple as Dan appears to vanish from the present, and appear instantly in the past. He is missing from the present for a period of time unrelated to the period he spends in the past. His disappearances and reappearances are rarely witnessed by anyone else; it is unclear if this is a factor in his jumps, or merely coincidence. Dan does not arrive in the same location he departed, but instead arrives near the person who he is supposed to help. His jumps are typically restricted to the area he leaves from, usually keeping him in the San Francisco area. Dan is also trying to figure out the mechanics of his travels. He has questioned a physicist who seems to have known his father in the past, and has discussed the possibility of tachyon particles being able to cause time jumps. It is now clear that the scientist is aware of Dan's travels, as well as those of others like him. It has also been discovered that those born around the time of a rare passing comet have this ability.

Dan's journeys appear to each have an innate purpose, which is not always apparent to him, but involves positively changing the destiny of a certain person. Likewise, fate seems to conspire against him if he tries to alter other events beyond his current charge. Alterations Dan makes to the timeline affect the present and the memories of everyone in it. His own memories, however, are unaltered, and he recalls events as they originally occurred before his interference.

Dan is not alone in his tendency to time-travel. His ex-fiancée Livia, thought to have been killed in a plane crash, actually traveled back to her "home time", 1948, from where she jumps forward in time. Dan meets Livia on his jumps into the past, as she jumps into her future to offer her experience and assistance with Dan's missions. As revealed in the episode "Perfidia", there is at least one other person who also jumps through time.

[edit] Cast and characters

• Dan Vasser (played by Kevin McKidd) is a reporter for the fictional newspaper the San Francisco Register. Dan is the main protagonist of the series, who finds himself jumping through time, unable to stop or control the jumps. He has a son, Zack, with his wife of 7 years, Katie — his brother's ex-girlfriend. Dan was previously engaged to Livia Beale before her disappearance and supposed death in a plane crash. Dan is a recovered gambling addict.

• Katie Vasser (played by Gretchen Egolf) is Dan's wife and mother of their son Zack. Until recently, she was the only one in the present who knew about her husband's time-traveling. Katie was the long-time girlfriend of Dan's brother Jack. Since their break-up nine years ago, the two have remained somewhat distant; partly because Katie ended up getting pregnant by Dan and they married soon after. Before marrying Dan, Katie was a television reporter. In response to cutbacks at the Register, and Dan's traveling, Katie returns to television to ensure a stable income for the family.

• Olivia "Livia" Beale (played by Moon Bloodgood) is Dan's ex-fiancée who was presumed dead after a plane crash nearly ten years before the start of the series. It is revealed that she is actually a traveler from 1948 who jumps into the future. After not being able to jump home, she was stuck in Dan's present and adapted to life there, where she began a legal career and fell in love with Dan, only to finally jump back home while on the plane. In “Blowback” and in the final episode, “Perfidia”, she and Dan speculated that Dan was the target of her extended jump, and that her mission was to get Dan and Katie together (which was arguably a result of her supposed death). For unknown reasons, she now jumps to the same times that Dan visits, and offers him advice and assistance in his missions.

• Jack Vasser (played by Reed Diamond) is Dan's brother. Jack, a police detective, is dating Dr. Theresa Sanchez (Lisa Sheridan), but also has feelings for Katie (his ex). Jack forms a number of misconceptions about Dan's disappearances and apparent irresponsibility, refusing to believe his brother when Dan tries to explain the time traveling. Believing Dan has perhaps returned to his gambling vice, Jack uses his police resources to investigate Dan's life. Jack is finally convinced of Dan's time traveling when Livia meets with Jack to enlist his help in getting Dan out of a desperate situation.

• Hugh Skillen (played by Brian Howe) is the editor-in-chief of the San Francisco Register and Dan's boss and friend.

• Zack Vasser (played by Charles Henry Wyson) is Dan and Katie's son, who has seen Dan disappear, believing it to be magic. Dan often fears leaving his son as his father left him when he was Zack's age.

[edit] Main crew

Kevin Falls, Alex Graves, Joan Binder Weiss, J.R. Orci, Neal Ahern, Megan Mascena, Matt McGuinness, Paul Redford, David Hyman, Juan Carlos Coto, Tom Szentgyorgyi, Dana Calvo and Robert Ulrich (Casting Director).

[edit] Production

Exteriors of the Vasser family home were shot at Foy House, 1337 Carroll Ave., Angelino Heights, Echo Park, Los Angeles.^[6] At the end of episode ten the Innes House made famous as Halliwell Manor in the series Charmed can be seen next door to the south-east.

Episodes of the show were made available online,^[1] and NBC distributed the pilot on a fall-preview DVD at Blockbuster and other retail video-rental stores.^{[citation needed]}

United Kingdom's Sky One, Australia's Channel Ten^[7] and Canada's Global network^[8] acquired broadcast rights to the series.

When the show was not renewed for a full season, some Journeyman supporters initiated an attempt to revive production of the series by sending boxes of Rice-A-Roni (a product associated with San Francisco) to NBC, echoing the "Nuts" campaign which led to a second season of the CBS series Jericho.^[9] Journeyman creator Kevin Falls has acknowledged the campaign in his blog, saying "Your fight to save Journeyman has humbled and moved us. I'm certainly not going to tell you to stop now." However, Falls has also said that there are long odds against a revival, stating "Journeyman will likely not be getting a back nine order."^[10] As of April 2, 2008, the show has officially been cancelled by NBC.^[4]

[edit] International broadcasters

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2008)

Country	TV network	Weekly schedule (local time)	Start date	End date
Australia	Ten HD	Thursdays 10:30pm	December 4, 2007, via Network Ten	February 28, 2008
Canada	Global	Mondays 10:00pm
Ireland	RTE Two	Tuesdays 12:00pm
Norway	Viasat 4	Sundays 9:00pm	February 24, 2008
Denmark	TV3+ Denmark	Wednesdays 8:00pm	May 28, 2008
Thailand	True Series	Sundays 9:00pm	April 27, 2008	July 20, 2008
United Kingdom & Ireland	Sky1 / Sky3	Thursdays 10:00pm / Wednesdays 9:00pm	November 8 2007 / July 15 2009	February 14 2008 / TBC
United States	NBC	Mondays 10:00pm EST / 9:00pm CST	September 24, 2007	December 19, 2007
Singapore	Channel 5	Sunday 04:00pm	May 11, 2008
Spain	Fox TV	Mondays 10:20pm	May 19, 2008	August 4, 2008
Brazil	Fox TV	Wednesdays 10:00pm	May 28, 2008
Malaysia	TV2	Tuesdays 10:00pm	June 17, 2008
Sweden	TV3	Mondays 10:00pm	June 30, 2008	September 22, 2008
Portugal	Fox RTP1	Mondays 10:00pm Thursdays 12:00am	June 25, 2008 May 11, 2009
Croatia	RTL Televizija	Wednesdays 10:00pm	September 3, 2008
France	M6	Saturday 8:50pm	October 18, 2008	November 22, 2008
Iceland	Stod 2 Stod 2 Extra (Re-Run)	Mondays 9:50pm Tuesdays 10:45pm (Re-Run)	October 13, 2008 October 14, 2008	January 5, 2009 January 6, 2009
Turkey	TNT
Chile	UCV TV	Thursday 10:00pm	November 6, 2008
Italy	Italia 1	Wednesday 11.10pm	December 10, 2008	February 7, 2009
Russia	TV3 Russia	Monday to Thursday 7.00pm	January 19, 2009	February 5, 2009
Japan	Fox	Thursdays 9:00pm	April 9, 2009
Germany	RTL II	Saturdays 2:25pm [11]	April 25, 2009	May 30, 2009
New Zealand	TV3	Monday 11:30pm	September 7, 2009	November 30, 2009
Poland	Polsat	Saturdays 5:45pm	December, 2009
Finland	Sub	Tuesday 10pm	December 1, 2009

Network Ten in Australia aired the first 2 episodes on its main channel, but the show has since been moved to its secondary channel, Ten HD, a high-definition digital only multi-channel.

[edit] Reception

The series premiere, "A Love of a Lifetime", was watched by 9.2 million people, and received a 3.5/9 share.^[12] Mike Pearson of the Rocky Mountain News felt that Journeyman cannibalized past television shows Early Edition and Quantum Leap. In his opinion, the second episode was more coherent than the first.^[13] Tony Whitt of IfMagazine.com gave "A Love of a Lifetime" an A−, and felt that one aspect of Journeyman that was better than Quantum Leap was its love story. He also liked the acting in "A Love of a Lifetime" and called star McKidd "damn watchable."^[14] Karla Peterson of The San Diego Union-Tribune felt that "A Love of a Lifetime" was "a deft mix of supernatural wizardry and grown-up drama."^[15]

[edit] U.S. ratings

Nielsen ratings^[16][17]

#	Episode	Air Date	Rating	Share	18–49 (Rating/Share)	Viewers (m)	Rank (Overall)
1	"A Love of a Lifetime"	September 24, 2007	5.9	10	3.7/9	9.48	#43
2	"Friendly Skies"	October 1, 2007	5.2	9	3.3/8	8.39	#50
3	"Game Three"	October 8, 2007	4.5	7	3.0/7	6.94	#61
4	"The Year of the Rabbit"	October 15, 2007	4.5	7	2.9/7	7.00	#67
5	"The Legend of Dylan McCleen"	October 22, 2007	4.0	6	2.5/6	6.28	#72
6	"Keepers"	October 29, 2007	3.8	6	2.4/6	5.93	#71
7	"Double Down"	November 5, 2007	3.4	6	2.1/6	5.25	#80
8	"Winterland"	November 12, 2007	4.0	7	2.4/6	6.08	#70
9	"Emily"	November 19, 2007	3.8	6	2.3/6	5.75	#66
10	"Blowback"	November 26, 2007	3.8	6	2.5/6	6.21	#68
11	"Home By Another Way"	December 10, 2007	3.7	6	1.8/6	5.56	#62
12	"The Hanged Man"	December 17, 2007	3.1	5	1.6/4	4.36	#65
13	"Perfidia"	December 19, 2007	3.2	6	1.8/5	4.65	#58

[edit] References

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Journeyman

[edit] External links

• Journeyman at the Internet Movie Database
• Journeyman at TV.com

v • d • e Journeyman Production Journeyman · Episode list · Characters · Cast Main characters Dan Vasser · Katie Vasser · Jack Vasser · Zack Vasser · Hugh Skillen · Livia Beale