Tag Archives: Prison Break

Upfronts: Preview FOX’s fall and midseason schedules, including new ’24’ & ‘Prison Break’

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FOX followed NBC out of the gate in presenting its next programming slate for the 2016-17 TV season. In total, the now American Idol-less network is showcasing 8 new dramas, 3 new comedies, 2 new reality series, and a live musical. Of the 13 new shows, four will premiere this fall and the remainders will air in midseason or later. Sound familiar? NBC is playing up stability in the fall, too, debuting only three new series early on and saving the rest for next year. Unlike the other networks, however, FOX shares its fall and midseason schedules at the Upfronts, so we have a clearer picture here as to when benched series will see the light of day.

This fall, FOX’s schedule is unmistakable. Gotham and Lucifer open Monday. Brooklyn Nine-Nine and New Girl provide a comedic launchpad for Ryan Murphy’s fun horror fest Scream Queens on Tuesday. On Wednesday, new drama Lethal Weapon is paired with broadcast juggernaut Empire. Thursday sees crime procedural Rosewood leading into the final season of Bones. Another new drama based on a popular film franchise, The Exorcist, gets the Friday-at-9 slot following Hell’s Kitchen, where it will go head-to-head with NBC’s Friday night genre fare, Grimm. Animation Domination Sunday includes the return of Bob’s Burgers, The Simpsons, Family Guy, and at 8:30 a new half-hour sitcom, Son of Zorn, which is an eccentric live action/animated hybrid from Phil Lord and Chris Miller (The Last Man on Earth). A live presentation of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, starring Laverne Cox (Orange is the New Black) and Victoria Justice (Victorious), will air sometime in October, just in time for Halloween.

Perhaps the most anticipated new series next season, the exciting return of 24 and Prison Break, are being saved for midseason premieres. In 24: Legacy, Kiefer Sutherland’s Jack Bauer is out and The Walking Dead‘s Corey Hawkins is in as the new lead. Typically FOX announces midseason premieres as we get closer to winter, but the new 24 is a special case because it has snagged the coveted post-Super Bowl slot; it will premiere Sunday, Feb. 5 immediately following the big game, and then it will fall into its regular Monday-at-8 timeslot the day after. The next chapter in Prison Break is being billed as a six-episode event series and it will air Thursdays-at-9 leading out of Rosewood come early 2017; the entire gang is back and it looks incredible. Other new series being held for midseason include dramas APB with Justin Kirk (Tyrant), MLB-backed Pitch from EP Dan Fogelman (Crazy, Stupid, Love), racially charged Shots Fired, and Lee Daniels’ Star, plus comedies The Mick with Kaitlin Olson (It’s Always Sunny) and fun time-traveller Making History with Adam Pally (Happy Endings). Reality series Kicking and Screaming and My Kitchen Rules come later, too. And for all your Sleepyheads out there, Sleepy Hollow will return to Friday next year.

Update (5/20): FOX has made some tweaks to its upcoming schedules, just days after announcing them at the Upfronts. Baseball drama Pitch will now premiere in the fall (alongside the new MLB season, so that makes sense), and this pushes Bones to winter. And that, in turn, pushes Prison Break to spring, when it will air on Tuesday instead of Thursday. Got it? Good. The fall and midseason schedules below have been updated to reflect these changes.

Jump after the break to view the full fall schedule and preview FOX’s new fall and midseason series with video clips and descriptions. Continue reading Upfronts: Preview FOX’s fall and midseason schedules, including new ’24’ & ‘Prison Break’ →

Fox: Jack Bauer is out in new ’24: Legacy’ & the brothers are back in ‘Prison Break’ revival

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When people ask me what shows turned me on to television in the first place, my go-to is and always will be: 24, Prison Break, and Lost. These are the pivotal franchises that made me fall in love with the box in my living room, and, well, the rest is history. Fast-forward so many years later, and two of the three are making major comebacks and I couldn’t be more excited.

Let’s start with 24. It debuted on Fox way back in 2001 and lasted for eight seasons and a TV movie. And then just last year, it resurfaced with star Kiefer Sutherland for limited event series 24: Live Another Day. Now, the network wants it to return again, but this time with an even bigger twist. In addition to forgoing the 24-episode format and skipping around some hours of one chaotic day, the newest incarnation of 24 bids farewell to Sutherland’s iconic hero Jack Bauer and introduces a new lead to save the day. That actor hasn’t been cast yet, but Fox says they are looking to fill the role with an African American actor.

Dubbed 24: Legacy, the tenth season in the ever-expanding counter-terrorism franchise serves as a reboot in that it doesn’t plan on incorporating familiar characters or settings. Jack and his right hand Chloe are off-limits this go-around. Here’s the official logline provided by Fox:

The pilot will feature an all-new cast of characters and retain the real-time, pulse-pounding, fast-paced format with split screens and complex interweaving storylines, with each episode representing one hour of an eventful day. The project will revolve around a military hero’s return to the U.S. and the trouble that follows him back – compelling him to ask CTU for help in saving his life, and stopping what potentially could be one of the largest-scale terror attacks on American soil.

“We wanted [the star] to be as different from Jack Bauer as possible, whether that’s an African American or a Latino actor,” elaborated Fox head Dana Walden at the Television Critics Association winter press tour. Co-head Gary Newman added, “As envisioned, the lead character would be diverse, so that will be our first effort in casting. As always, we’re going to cast the best actor we can find for the role. As you can imagine, bringing 24 back, we want to really try to create some distinction and make this feel different than Jack Bauer’s 24, so having a diverse actor in that lead role I think would be helpful in doing that.”

Another change coming to 24 is that the new hero will be sharing the day’s burden equally with a female co-lead. This female lead is a former head of CTU, and thus will serve as connective tissue to 24‘s past. Walden went on to briefly discuss Legacy‘s timely plot and how it plans on distancing itself from the 24 we know.

“It’s a new CTU, a new cast of characters,” she said. “It’s a completely different story in terms of the special ops groups that we’re focusing on. It’s a very contemporary feeling story about the potential to activate new sleeper cells in the United States and radicalizing Americans. It’s a whole new story. There are nods in the pilot to prior CTU agents, there are a couple photos that will feel reminiscent of the original, but no ongoing [returning] characters.”

Howard Gordon, Brian Grazer, Manny Coto, and Evan Katz, executive producers who worked on all previous seasons, return to EP Legacy. The pilot is on track to film this winter.

Update (1/18): Kiefer Sutherland responded to 24: Legacy at a Q&A panel hosted by TIFF Live and he had nothing but kind words to say about the series reboot. “I have said from the beginning that the real star of 24 is the idea, and I mean that wholeheartedly,” he gushed. “I have every faith they’ll do something cool and clever.” Later, when a fan asked about getting closure on Jack Bauer (at the end of Live Another Day he surrendered himself to the Russians), Sutherland admitted he doesn’t know if that will ever happen. “I have no idea if the [24] movie will ever happen, or Jack Bauer might end up finding his way into an episode one day and clarifying all of that, or ending all of that.” He promised he’d pass the sentiment along to 24 EP Howard Gordon the next time they meet. Watch Sutherland talk 24 here; the clip is cued up and ready to go.

Jump after the break to learn more about Prison Break‘s return. Continue reading Fox: Jack Bauer is out in new ’24: Legacy’ & the brothers are back in ‘Prison Break’ revival →

The brothers are back in ‘Prison Break’ event series at FOX

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Prison Break, the thrilling, edge-of-your-seat drama that ran from 2005-09, is making a comeback. Fox heads Dana Walden and Gary Newman made the announcement at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Beverly Hills this week. It will return to FOX as a 10-episode event series, just as 24 did with Live Another Day back in January. Plot-wise, information is scarce. All we know for now is that Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell are reprising their roles as brothers Michael Scofield and Lincoln Burrows, and series creator Paul Scheuring is back at the helm.

“I would describe it as a bit of a sequel, it picks up the characters several years after we left them in the last season of the show,” said Walden. “The brothers will be back. Some of the iconic characters from that show will be back. It definitely will address some questions that were set up at the end of the series and for a new audience. It’ll start after where we left the [brothers] in the final season.”

Spoilers follow. If you recall, prison breaker Michael Scofield perished in the series finale, “Killing Your Number.” He inherited a brain tumor that caused nasty nosebleeds from his mother, and despite receiving surgery from Big Bad General Jonathan Krantz (aka Pad Man) on The Company’s dime, the series flashed forward in its concluding sequence to Michael’s grave. Now, if you’re a true Prison Break fan, who know that there’s more to the story here. In the straight-to-DVD special Prison Break: The Final Break, it is revealed that Michael’s tumor was not the cause of his premature death. He actually ends up sacrificing himself (by way of electrocution) when he’s helping his wife Sara Tancredi escape prison.

Side note: If you haven’t watched The Final Break, I highly recommend you check it out. Though “Killing Your Number” did a fine job ending the series, The Final Break (which is two episodes tacked together: “The Old Ball and Chain” and “Free”) smooths some of the rough edges out by filling in many of the blanks left unanswered in the FOX-aired finale. Plus, you get to witness Michael and his merry band of escape artists execute yet another thrilling prison break.

Side note #2: In 2007, there were whispers about a spinoff called Prison Break: Cherry Hill following a character named Molly and bringing the action to a female prison. Though that never came to fruition, producers managed to explore the concept in The Final Break as Sara finds herself in a prison that immediately gives off Litchfield vibes. In fact, Lori Petty of Orange is the New Black guest stars as an intimidating presence in the special. Looking back, it’s sort of eerie, isn’t it? Side notes, concluded.

So! How in the world is Michael Scofield back in the game for the upcoming Prison Break event series if he’s dead? Fox wouldn’t spill the plan, but the network says that Scheuring will figure a way around it.

“I don’t think [Sheuring’s] going to completely ignore what happened in [The Final Break], but what he pitched to us was a very logical and believable explanation in the world of Prison Break for why our characters are alive and still moving around the world,” said Walden. “For Paul, this is an opportunity to tell a story about these characters that he created. I would say to those fans that this is the pure vision of the creator of the show and it’s going to take a detour a little bit from where we left off, but it should feel very satisfying and eventized. I think that fans will be excited about seeing these characters back together again.”

In an interview with TVLine, star Dominic Purcell also reassures fans that all will be explained and make sense. “The thing that I have heard is completely brilliant, so people will be fine.”

In terms of who’s back for the ride outside of the brothers–there is but one that Walden mentions and he’s most definitely a fan favorite. “I’m very excited about T-Bag,” she said. Sounds like Robert Knepper will step back into the slimy shoes of Theodore “T-Bag” Bagwell. This marks the second time Knepper is bringing the wickedly fun inmate back to TV outside of Prison Break‘s original run. In 2011, T-Bag appeared in an episode of A&E’s Breakout Kings, a short-lived series executive produced by Prison Break EP Nick Santora. Are you excited for more of the one-handed, conniving slime ball? Hm, Pretty?

If you couldn’t tell by now, I’m a massive fan of this series. Prison Break will forever remain a seminal show for me–it was on during the days of 24 and Lost, when serialized stories ruled broadcast primetime and I was clinging onto them and discovering that this was my kind of TV. Though it wasn’t the type of show that won accolades for its vision and ensemble cast, it holds a special place in my heart for sweeping me off my feet and making me fall deep, down into the rabbit hole that is TV land. Its highly serialized nature, pulse-pounding cliffhangers and fun twists and turns hooked me from the start. It had its creative ups and downs (the season one “breakout” finale and the Sona season, respectively), but in the end it cultivated defined and well-rounded characters you cared about and I walked away from the final episode satisfied.

And now there’s more on the way and I couldn’t be more excited. At the Winter TCAs, Newman called it “the perfect event series” and I couldn’t agree more. With a limited 10-episode run, Prison Break can tell one of its classic, exhilarating stories without fluff or pause in the action. With Scheuring in the driver’s seat–who’s currently penning the premiere and plotting the series bible–I am completely confident that Michael and company will return in full form, ready to remind me where my love for TV all began.

[Via EW; Deadline; TVLine]

FOX renews ‘Gotham,’ ‘Empire’ & ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine,’ discusses futures of ‘X-Files,’ ’24’ & ‘Prison Break’ (!)

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Days after renewing animated sitcom Bob’s Burgers for a sixth season, FOX is expanding its security blanket over three more of its series. Freshman Gotham and Empire, as well as sophomore sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine, will be back next fall to unspool new episodes. And this renewal news shouldn’t really come as any sort of surprise: the Batman origin story and the hip hop soap opera both performed well out of the gate with popular pilots; in fact, Empire‘s ratings went up in its second week which these days is a rare feat indeed. As for the Andy Samberg laugher, that series is comfortably enjoying its new digs on Sunday nights stuffed between The Simpsons and Family Guy.

What about the fates of other FOX shows such as Bones and Sleepy Hollow? “We are in conversations on both,” FOX studio and network head Dana Walden told reporters at the Television Critics Association’s Winter Press Tour this week. “We’re at the end of our deal on Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz. We’re very hopeful Bones will return. We can’t announce it today because deals aren’t closed, [but] nothing will make us happier.”

As for Sleepy Hollow, Walden said the network is “going to wait a little bit longer” to renew it as creative calibrations are made behind-the-scenes. “We’re excited about some creative changes on the show and bringing it back to something that feels a little more episodic in nature, that has closure and doesn’t feel quite so serialized,” said Walden. In sum, the network would like the series to take the serialization down a couple pegs and “return the fun to it” that was rampant in season 1. That being said, worry not, Sleepy heads–Fox brass holds the show in a special place in their hearts and wants to see it grow. “We really love the show,” she added. “We love Tom Mison and Nicole Beharie. They have fantastic chemistry. We feel like it’s a really unique series.”

And now for the juicy stuff. Walden and network/studio co-head Gary Newman shed a glimmer of light on the futures of classic FOX series like The X-Files, 24, and yes, even Prison Break. For more, jump after the break. Continue reading FOX renews ‘Gotham,’ ‘Empire’ & ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine,’ discusses futures of ‘X-Files,’ ’24’ & ‘Prison Break’ (!) →

TV Reminder: Robert Knepper reprises T-Bag tonight on ‘Breakout Kings’

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Prison Break fans, listen here: Robert Knepper will reprise Theodore “T-Bag” Bagwell, the slimy, handicapped villain from Prison Break, on tonight’s episode of Breakout Kings. In an interview with TVLine, Knepper shared his excitement about bring back the fan favorite everyone loved to loathe.

“Nick Santora – one of my favorite writers on Prison Break – wrote me an email right before we started shooting, saying, “You know what? I think this might be the best dialogue I’ve ever written for T-Bag.” And I’m here to tell you it was. It was all the familiar things you love to hate about T-Bag – the danger, the humor – but it was interesting to highlight him in this episode by saying, “Let’s try to get in his head a bit. Let’s figure out why he’s doing this.” And the pathos and emotion that comes out is just…. I could not have just jumped into this thing if I hadn’t had four years of basically getting ready for it.”

When asked why is escapes prison this time around he said, “There is a huge reason. I’m not going to give it away, because it’s so beautiful, and it’s such an incredibly important reason. I will tell you that he’s not escaping to escape. It’s not just, “I want to be free.” He has a very, very specific reason for doing it, and it will break your heart.”

Knepper’s four-episode guest stint on Breakout Kings begins tonight in “The Bag Man” at 10PM on A&E. Check out a handful of images in the gallery below.

[Images via IGN]

Robert Knepper to revive ‘Prison Break’ baddie T-Bag in upcoming A&E series ‘Breakout Kings’?!

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Well that’s the plan, according to Breakout Kings producers Matt Olmstead and Nick Santora.  The former Prison Break producers want veteran actor Robert Knepper to play Theodore “T-Bag” Bagwell in the their upcoming fugitive-themed drama.  According to various sources, EW’s Michael Ausiello reports that 20th Century Fox, the studio behind Break and Kings has “signed off on the [character] crossover.”  All there’s left to do is get Knepper on board to play the part again.  If my memory serves me right (of course it does!), T-Bag was voted by the Brothers Scofield and Co. in the Prison Break series finale and to be forced to go back to jail.  He’s scum, and that’s where he belonged.

Though both shows revolve around the life of fugitives, Breakout Kings has a slightly altered plotline.  It’s being described as “a new action-packed ensemble drama following an unconventional partnership between the U.S. Marshals’ office and a group of convicts as they work to catch fugitives on the run.”  I really hope Knepper bites the bait (former Prison Break producers are at the helm) and signs on to revive T-Bag for the new series.  T-Bag is a dark, flawed character with quick wits and a totally creepy attitude.  He’s definitely one of the best written villains in recent TV history, so to watch his character make a comeback would be beyond awesome.  Originially produced for FOX, the A&E series will premiere in 2011; 13 one hour episodes have been ordered.  Look after the break for the first teaser trailer.

[Via EW-AusielloFiles; Deadline] Continue reading Robert Knepper to revive ‘Prison Break’ baddie T-Bag in upcoming A&E series ‘Breakout Kings’?! →

Prison Break, the video game?

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While I am still mourning the series finale of FOX’s Prison Break, its name has popped up in the world of video games.  Publisher Deep Silver is set to make the Prison Break game for “next-gen consoles and the PC.”  There is no word on a release date.  I am not sure how I feel about a video game based on Prison Break, a coveted TV show of mine.  If it is done right and can shed some light on lingering mysteries of Season 1, I have no doubt it will have fans of the show flock to game stores to pick it up.  I will keep my head to the ground for this one.

According to Gamespot:  “Prison Break the game features a storyline that runs parallel with the first season of Fox’s TV series. The game follows Company agent Tom Paxton, who is sent to Fox River State Penitentiary to investigate why TV series protagonist Michael Scofield is doing time for bank robbery. The game incorporates a number of characters from the TV show and also depicts a number of climactic first-season events from Paxton’s perspective.”

[Via Gamespot]