Articles About Roswell's Cancellation


Here are a few articles from various sources about Roswell's cancellation and final episodes.
Sorry, I didn't save who posted them













Roswell Soap Opera Weekly Update

"Roswell--- Creator Jason Katims gave fans all they wanted in this fantastic finale. Each moment induced cheers or tears: Max and Michael's touching reconciliatory hug, Max's heartfelt marriage proposal to Liz, the many farewells, and the unforgettable, tense graduation ceremony. As Max and Liz bounded down the chapel steps and into the van (sporting a "Thank you for visiting Roswell" bumper sticker) with their now-fugitive friends for an uncertain but hopeful future, Liz said, "I'm Liz Parker, and I'm happy." Surely, every viewer felt the same"


The rating was a 10.

Roswell article in San Diego Union-Tribune
Touched by a Series
Roswell


My favorite aliens are leaving the TV world and heading to the land of cancellation.  I'm already bummed. But I imagine I'll be sadder when I watch the series finale. The program about three teen-age aliens was on my do-not-miss list during its three-year run because I could relate to the "My So-Called Life" aspect of being an outsider in your own world.  The aliens - Max (Jason Behr), his older sister Isabelle (Katherine Heigl) and their friend Michael (Brendan Fehr) - realize that they're not like other teens and decide to keep their mysterious origins quiet.  The secret is exposed when Max saves the life of an earthling, Liz Parker (Shiri Appleby), after she's shot amid a robbery attempt. Liz keeps the secret and falls in love with Max.


The chemistry between the two actors was great, and the story lines were mostly riveting and suspenseful.  But what I'll miss most is the show's self-discovery aspect. It was fun to tune in to see what powers the three developed each week. And to help unravel the mystery of where they were from, and what their purpose on Earth was.


But I'm glad they'll be ending on a high note. Beam them up Scotty, they're ready to go home.
- JERRY McCORMICK

Fresno Bee: Roswell Mention

Greg Bentley.
"Roswell ends its earthly visit"  Three years of struggles finally come to an end. Those struggles were the efforts to keep the series on the air. The WB launched the show 3 years ago, a write-in campaign gave the show a second year & UPN gave it one more year.  Roswell has one of TV's strongest young ensemble casts-Shiri Appleby, Jason Behr, Katherine Heigl, Majandro Delfino, Brendan Fehr & Nick Wechsler-made this "X-Files" meets "Dawson's Creek" a weekly rocket blast of fun. The show centered on 3 teens from another world who have grown up in Roswell & it delt with the emotionally charged issue of what it feels like to be different.


Loyal fans will want to lift a glass of hot sauce in honor of the aliens odd culinary taste.
It's an awful cosmic joke that "Roswell" will end after only 3 years & "The Bachelor" and "Survivor" thrive.











Roswell Review in Times-Picayune

By Renee Peck, TV Focus Editor
Earthlings and aliens alike bid farewell to UPN in the series' final episode. "Graduation" involves both literal and figurative commencement exercises for the "Roswell" teens. As the government closes in on them, the youngsters must make major decisions about their futures. There's one new plot twist, but most of the episode is devoted to resolving romantic storylines.


Of course, if we told you more, they'd have to kill us. Also, we were told we'd be inundated with Tabasco bottles if we gave anything away. And just one of those little suckers lasts an extra-terrestrial's normal lifetime.


A hint, however, for fans: "Roswell's" ending leaves plenty of room for new beginnings. So keep sending in that Tabasco.

Roswell Article in LI Newsday (NY)
The teen aliens who had a world of chances are taking off tonight
By Kate O'Hare
TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES
May 14, 2002


In the brutal world of prime-time television, first chances are won at the cost of many therapy sessions, while second chances are about as common as fur coats at a PETA convention.
In any realistic scenario, "Roswell" never should have gotten on the air, and never should have been renewed, let alone snagged from the jaws of death by a different network. As described by its stars and producers, it's "the little show that could."


But all dreams, especially the Hollywood kind, eventually must end, and "Roswell," having run out of chances - if not devoted fans - bids farewell tonight at 9, at least until it pops up in reruns on Sci-Fi Channel this fall, but that's another story.


Based on a series of young-adult novels by Melinda Metz, who later joined the show as a staff writer, "Roswell" was shepherded to the screen by Jonathan Frakes ("Star Trek: The Next Generation"), an occasional guest star, his producing partner Lisa Olin and "My So-Called Life" producer Jason Katims.


The show began life as "Roswell High," a pilot for Fox, which passed. With the title trimmed to "Roswell," it found a home on The WB, which liked the idea of orphaned aliens passing as ordinary high-schoolers in the New Mexico town made famous by reports of a UFO crash in 1947.


Also attractive was the show's romantic element, in which lead teen alien Max, played by the broody, dark-eyed Jason Behr, risked exposure to save the life of fellow student Liz, played by the perky, dark-eyed Shiri Appleby, because he was totally in love with her.


This led to Liz and her best pal, Maria (Majandra Delfino), finding out about the aliens, which in turn led to lots of romantic complications, including Maria falling for Michael (Brendan Fehr), an alien, and previously clueless Alex (Colin Hanks), his human pal, who finally got a clue and a serious crush on Max's sister, Isabel (Katherine Heigl).


Then there was scheming alien temptress Tess (Emilie de Ravin) and Isabel's eventual husband, lawyer Jesse (Adam Rodriguez).


The potboiling blend of science-fiction, romance, teen angst and action-adventure hooked fans of all ages. They were loyal and true, and even staged massive campaigns to keep the show alive, but they never showed up in large enough numbers to make The WB happy. The show hopped time slots and suffered long hiatuses during its two seasons there, and at the end of its second season, the end seemed seriously nigh.


But, just as the bell began to toll, in swept UPN, which had just shelled out major bucks to liberate "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" from The WB, and had high hopes that "Angel," "Buffy's" spinoff, would follow. This hope dashed, UPN put out a hand to "Roswell," in hopes of re-creating the young-adult-oriented Tuesday night that "Buffy" and "Angel" long had provided for the WB.


Little did anyone know that the slot chosen for Roswell - Tuesday at 9 p.m. - would become the biggest traffic jam in recent TV history, with the WB's "Smallville," ABC's "NYPD Blue," CBS' "The Guardian," Fox's "24" and NBC's "Frasier" and "Scrubs" elbowing for viewership. Even with "Buffy" as a lead-in, "Roswell" got nailed.


"Honestly," Katims says, "the biggest disappointment to me is that we didn't do better in this Tuesday time slot on UPN, because I felt it was a chance for us to really resurrect the show. We really just got crushed."


When the formal cancellation announcement came in April, no one really was surprised. Katims and fellow producer Ronald D. Moore, who recently was hired to write Sci-Fi Channel's "Battlestar Galactica" miniseries, collaborated on a finale, "Graduation," that they hope will leave the faithful with a warm feeling inside, especially those pulling for Max and Liz, the ultimate star-crossed lovers.


"There's definitely closure for Max and Liz," Katims says. "At the end of the episode, our characters essentially are - I'm not sure, I'm just thinking as I say this whether I should say this - at the end, there's a sense of them going off together as a group, leaving Roswell, but being together.


"I like the image of that ending, because it gives you the sense that these characters are still out there somewhere."











Roswell mention in Standard Examiner

In Tuesday, May 14th, 2002 issue of the Standard Examiner, Northern Utah's newspaper, was a small mention of tonights series finale of Roswell. It has a small season one picture of Max and a caption that says:


ROSWELL - The sci-fi series developed a following that was big in terms of enthusiasm but small in terms of numbers. After three seasons, it ends tonight with Max (Jason Behr), Michael (Brendan Fehr), and the rest of the gang riding off into the sunset - or some alien equivilent. Katherine Heigl and Shiri Appleby also star.











Say Farewell to Roswell - TV guide 

With UPN's Roswell signing off tonight (at 9 pm/ET), TV Guide Online called creator Jason Katims to do a postmortem on his teen sci-fi sudser. Or is it more of an alien autopsy? Either way, we find out what went wrong - and whether space stud Max and Earth girl Liz (Jason Behr and Shiri Appleby) still have a future. - Daniel R. Coleridge TVGO: We're so sure Liz's dire premonition - that her alien pals will be killed by the Feds - comes true. What really happens? And why is Liz suddenly psychic?


Katims: Are all these couples going to stay together or not? That's what the meat of this episode is. The finale nostalgically hearkens back to the show's beginning - so Liz has certain powers she's not in control of, as a result of Max having healed her [gunshot wound] in the pilot. Max and Liz fell in love then, and now, they essentially decide to be together in a permanent way.


TVGO: Which we won't spoil by giving away. So, Roswell spent two seasons on WB, then was axed after just one on UPN. Why?


Katims: Personally, the toughest blow for me is that from day one on UPN, our numbers were way too low. The writing was on the wall even then, although the network liked the show and, frankly, gave it their best shot. We just wound up in a highly competitive timeslot. Unfortunately for us, Smallville did incredibly well. Plus, other unexpected [successes] like The Guardian took some of our audience. We just did not hold enough of our lead-in audience [from Buffy the Vampire Slayer] - that was a great disappointment for me.
TVGO: The show has had trouble balancing its sci-fi and soapy aspects. Looking back, what might you have done differently?


Katims: I would've stayed with the Skins as antagonists - and not gone off on things like the whole storyline about alien DNA. And in the second season, the mythology of the show became very complicated and the audience started to get lost. I think that's what people got frustrated with more than the soap-opera element of the show. It is a soap opera!
TVGO: Is there any truth to fansite buzz about Roswell coming back as a TV movie or feature film?


Katims: Over the last few months, there have been murmurings, but there is nothing planned. First, you'd have to establish enough [public] interest to do it. Then, you'd have to assemble all the actors at the same time, which could prove difficult - it's an extremely appealing cast, and they're all going on to other things. It's unlikely, but not impossible.

ROSWELL THAT ENDS WELL - NEWSDAY

The teen aliens who had a world of chacnes are taking off tonight.

In the brutal world of prime-time television, first chances are won at the cost of many therapy sessions, while second chances are about as common as fur coats at a PETA convention.

In any realistic scenario, Roswell never should have gotten on the air, and never should have been renewed, let alone snagged from the jaws of death by a different network. As described by its stars and producers, it's "the little show that could."

But all dreams, especially the Hollywood kind, eventually must end, and Roswell, having run out of chances - if not devoted fans - bids farewell tonight at 9 (WWOR/9), at least until it pops up in reruns on Sci-Fi Channel this fall, but that's another story.

Based on a series of young-adult novels by Melinda Metz, who later joined the show as a staff writer, Roswell was shepherded to the screen by Jonathan Frakes (Star Trek: The Next Generation), an occasional guest star, his producing partner Lisa Olin and My So-Called Life producer Jason Katims.

The show began life as Roswell High, a pilot for Fox, which passed. With the title trimmed to Roswell, it found a home on The WB, which liked the idea of orphaned aliens passing as ordinary high-schoolers in the New Mexico town made famous by reports of a UFO crash in 1947.

Also attractive was the show's romantic element, in which lead teen alien Max, played by the broody, dark-eyed Jason Behr, risked exposure to save the life of fellow student Liz, played by the perky, dark-eyed Shiri Appleby, because he was totally in love with her.

This led to Liz and her best pal, Maria (Majandra Delfino), finding out about the aliens, which in turn led to lots of romantic complications, including Maria falling for Michael (Brendan Fehr), an alien, and previously clueless Alex (Colin Hanks), his [sic] human pal who finally got a clue and a serious crush on Max's sister, Isabel (Katherine Heigl).

Then there was scheming alien temptress Tess (Emilie de Ravin) and Isabel's eventual husband, lawyer Jesse (Adam Rodriguez).

The potboiling blend of science-fiction, romance, teen angst and action-adventure hooked fans of all ages. They were loyal and true, and even staged massive campaigns to keep the show alive, but they never showed up in large enough numbers to make The WB happy. The show hopped time slots and suffered long hiatuses during its two seasons there, and at the end of its second season, the end seemed seriously nigh.

But, just as the bell began to toll, in swept UPN, which had just shelled out major bucks to liberate Buffy the Vampire Slayer from The WB, and had high hopes that Angel, Buffy's spinoff, would follow. This hope dashed, UPN put out a hand to Roswell, in hopes of recreating the young-adault-oriented Tuesday night that Buffy and Angel long had provided for The WB.

Little did anyone know that the slot chosen for Roswell - Tuesday at 9pm - would become the biggest traffic jam in recent TV history, with The WB's Smallville, ABC's NYPD Blue, CBS' The Guardian, Fox's 24 and NBC's Frasier and Scrubs elbowing for viewship. Even with Buffy as a lead-in, Roswell got nailed.

"Honestly," Katims says, "the biggest disappointment to me is that we didn't do better in this Tuesday time slot on UPN, because I felt it was a chance for us to really resurrect the show. We really just got crushed."

When the formal cancellation announcement came in April, no one really was surprised. Katims and fellow producer Ronald D. Moore, who recently was hired to write Sci-Fi Channel's Battlestar Galactica miniseries, collaborated on a finale, Graduation, that they hope will leave the faithful with a warm feeling inside, especially those pulling ofr Max and Liz, the ultimate star-crossed lovers.

"There's definitely closure for Max and Liz," Katims says. "At the end of the episode, our charaters essentially are - I'm not suire, I'm just thinking as I say this whether I should say this - at the end, there's a sense of them going off together as a group, leaving Roswell, but being together."

"I like the image of that ending, because it gives you the sense that these characters are still out there somewhere."









ROSWELL BLASTS OFF FOR THE LAST TIME - ZAP2IT



First and foremost, Roswell has always been a love story.

Setting aside aliens in human form, evil FBI agents, evil Air Force personnel, befuddled parents (only Buffy's mom was denser than these folks), vicious foes in borrowed skins and even all that blither-blather about everybody feeling alienated in high school, the beating heart of Roswell is the beating hearts of its teen lovers, especially the doe-eyed duo of alien Max and perky Liz.

So when contemplating the big finale, which airs May 14 on UPN, writer/producers Jason Katims and Ronald D. Moore decided to feel the love - big time.

Oh, there's plenty of danger in the closer - with secrets popping out and the government hot on the trail of the teen aliens - but who cares? The important questions are:

Does Max propose to Liz? (Oh, yes, but as for the answer, you'll have to tune in.)

Does Maria hear the "l"-word from her beloved "space boy" Michael? (Yep, but then he rides away.)

Does Jesse reconcile with his alien bride Isabel? (More or less, kinda sorta, but there's lots of hugging.)

And, does ex-sheriff-turned-country-music-wannabe Valenti finally get a job, for heaven's sake? (Fear not, bills will be paid.)

By the way, if you thought slayer Buffy's pals were the Scooby Gang, wait'll you catch the van in this one.

Featuring a return to Liz's voice-over narration (missed that when it went away), Graduation is a big, warm, green alien fuzzy with an ending that could spark a whole new series of teen novels, like the ones the show is based on.

Nothing is assured, nothing is resolved completely, but a good time is had by all and the ending brims with hope. Not a bad way to close a show that beat the odds to ven survive for three seasons.

Farewell, Roswell. See you this fall in reruns on Sci Fi.









ROSWELL CANCELLED? Teenmag.com



While there has been no official announcement yet, the rumours of Roswell's cancellation seem to be growing daily.

Teenmag.com had this to say:

...Might as well get the bad news out of the way upfront: the demise of Roswell is official. Sources at UPN say the production company gave up its space where the show was filmed, and that - along with the news we got a couple of weeks ago about the fact that the show's sets had been torn down - means it's definitely over. Now, I've gotten a couple of e-mails from you all, asking about the rumours that the show might move to another network. I've heard those rumors, too, and the most persistent one is that the show would like to move to the Sci-Fi Channel on cable. Here's what I can tell you about that: it's true that Roswell's producer, Jonathan Frakes, has confirmed that he and the other show producers have tried shopping it around to other networks. But what everyone seems to want to ignore is the fact that the cast members - as I've been telling you for months now - just don't want the show to continue. As for whether that will ultimately be a fatal glitch in the plan to move it to yet another network (remember, before UPN cancelled it, it had been cut loose by The WB at the end of last season), remains to be seen. As it stands right now, however, the series finale on UPN is scheduled for May 14 and will find the Roswell pals contemplating their future as they prepare for their high school graduation. New episodes of the show, by the way, are set to return to UPN on April 23.









GO HOME, UPN TELLS ROSWELL ETs, The New York Daily News, 11.04.02



Fans of the sci-fi drama Roswell will soon bid the cult favourite farewell.

UPN programmers have cancelled the three-year-old series, which has spent the season in the Nielsen cellar, averaging 3 million viewers each week.

Though the show was critically acclaimed, it had a difficult time attracting an audience.

UPN acquired Roswell last May from The WB, which shifted the show from Thursday to Monday after its first season in an attempt to generate better ratings.

When that failed, The WB ditched the series. UPN, which also picked up Buffy the Vampire Slayer from The WB, launched Roswell last October, airing it Tuesdays at 9pm.

The show revolves around a group of teenage aliens living in New Mexico.

It was created by Jason Katims and Ronald D. Moore, the executive producers, and is based on a popular book series, Roswell High, by Melinda Metz.

Yesterday, Katims promised a finale with unexpected twists.

"Ronald D. Moore and I had the fans very much on our minds when we were writing this final episode," Katims said. "We felt they deserved a great ending."

Indeed, Roswell fans have proved to be among the most loyal - and quirky - and viewers of a prime-time drama in years.

Two years ago, when Roswell devotees heard of The WB's plans to dump the drama, they peppered executives with e-mails and shipped bottles of Tabasco - the alien's drink [sic] of choice - to the network as a show of support.

The response was enough for WB executive to give the series another shot.

That campaign has continued, though not as fervently, among fans who have sent not only Tabasco but litres of peach Snapple - a favourite of series star Brendan Fehr - to UPN programmers.

But it seems no amount of Tabasco or Snapple could help float Roswell for another season.









FINALE ALL FOR THE FANS - ZAP2IT.COM



Jason Katims, executive producer of UPN's Roswell, has never let fan likes and dislikes dictate his writing, but the show's third-season - and series - finale on Tuesday, May 14 may be an exception.

"Normally, when I write," he says, "I try not to think too much about how the audience is going to respond. You just try to write the best story and hope that people are going to respond to it, because you'd drive yourself crazy [otherwise]."

"In writing this episode, I had very much the audience in mind, particularly the loyal fans of the show. I wanted to write something that I felt would be a satisfying ending for people who have been with the show since the beginning."

"I feel it certainly has a lot of story and twists and turns and all that, but what's more important to me, it has a lot of heart. We go back to what I think has been the central relationship of the series, which is Max and Liz."

For three seasons (two on The WB, one of UPN), Roswell has centered on the dangerous liaison between two teens - alien Max (Jason Behr) and human Liz (Shiri Appleby). Also in the mix since the beginning have been Max's sister, Isabel (Katherine Heigl), their alien friend Michael (Brendar Fehr) and Liz's best pal, Maria (Majandra Delfino).

"There's definitely closure for Max and Liz," says Katims. "At the end of the episode, our characters essentially are - I'm not sure, I'm just thinking as I say this whether I should say this, at the end, there's a sense of them going off together as a group, leaving Roswell, but being together."

"I like the image of that ending, because it gives you the sense that these characters are still out there somewhere."

Since its premiere, Roswell has lived on borrowed time, much of it bought and paid for by the dedication of the show's fans. Subjet to time-slot shifting and frequent hiatuses while on The WB, Roswell lasted through two season there, in part, because fans deluged the network with letters, e-mails and bottles of the aliens' beloved Tabasco sauce.

While the most loyal fans followed Roswell to UPN, the show still fell short. Even putting it after fellow WB expatriate Buffy the Vampire Slayer on Tuesday nights didn't keep ratings up in the competitive slot, ho,e to several top dramas, including freshman hits 24 on Fox, and Smallville on The WB.

"We just got crushed," says Katims, who cites the ratings drop as his biggest disappointment.

But the fans make him proud. "They are responsible for keeping the show on the air, which is amazing," says Katims. "Their campaigns for the show had a real effect. The other thing that I'm very moved by is they have joined together not only to be fans of the show, but also to do things. They've raised money for different charities."

"It makes you feel great. You feel like, in some way, you created this thing, and now it's doing some good out there. That's the thing I go to as the thing that's most meaningful to me, how these fans have responded to the show and how much it means to them. That really is humbling." Back to the top









DEATH BECOMES ROSWELL - THE SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER



The San Francisco Examiner recently took a look at how four series which are ending this season should end, and how they will end. Roswell was one of them (the others were Ally McBeal, Felicity and The X Files):

In memoriam: The drama about the trials and tribulations of teenage aliens living in Roswell, New Mexico was just not made for this world. Roswell was always weak in the ratings, and no one expected it to make it through its first season. But thanks to strong support from hardcore fans who never gave up on it, Roswell managed to survive a second season on The WB. And after the frog network killed the show, it was resuscitated by UPN. But the show's remission was not for long, and its low ratings finally caught up with it. Maybe UPN did the humane thing by pulling the plug.

The end: In the series finale for Roswell - airing at 9pm May 14 - Max pops the question and Liz develops the ability to see the future just in time to see that the government plans on killing the teenage aliens at their high-school graduation. (How convenient.) This leads to some very difficult decisions for the gang. Should they stay or should they go?

But wouldn't it be cool if ... All the teen aliens of Roswell moved to Sunnydale to help Buffy and the scoobies on Buffy the Vampire Slayer in their never-ending fight against evil. Or better yet, maybe Roswell could move to the Sci-Fi Channel. I mean it wouldn't be the first time the cult fave switched networks.









ET Online: 'Roswell' Wraps Up

May 13, 2002
by Paulette Cohn, ET Online Staff


After three years and two networks, "Roswell" is coming to an end on Tuesday, May 14 at 9 p.m. on UPN. ET spoke to the show's executive producer/creator JASON KATIMS, who told us that to him the show's hook was its Romeo-and-Juliet-like relationship between Max and Liz.


Based on the Roswell High series of novels by MELINDA METZ, "Roswell" is a combination of sci-fi and teen angst set in a small town in New Mexico. Created for FOX, "Roswell" beamed over to The WB before finishing its third season on UPN.











Reluctantly, we bid farewell to 'Roswell'

By KEN PARISH PERKINS
Star-Telegram TV Critic


You have to wonder if the creators of Roswell, which exits Tuesday after three quiet seasons, view the out-of-the-gate success of Smallville with a sense of longing and envy, or even downright dread. Smallville is the series that creators David Nutter and Jason Katims wanted to make, and did, for a handful of episodes while on the WB.


Like Smallville and its focus on Clark Kent as a teen trying to make sense of the world, Roswell slyly used a similar escapist fantasy - the space ship that reputedly crashed in Roswell, N.M., in 1947. But it still gave the network's young audience what it really craved: stories of love, lust, identity and teen angst.


Sharp writing elevated the series above the strained concept. Max (Jason Behr), his sister Isabel (Katherine Heigl) and best bud Michael (Brendan Fehr) survived the crash in a suspended state, awakening in 1983 and looking like normal children. All three were adopted and hid (up until now) their true identities from their adopted parents, who have cameos in Tuesday's finale. (The parents were never much of a factor, but the fact that Max and Isabel landed in a stable, middle-class home while Michael contended with life in a trailer with an abusive father gave the series a simmering realistic edge).


But the strength of those early episodes rested on the oh-so-sweet courtship of Max and Liz (Shiri Appleby), whose lives intertwined when Liz was shot and Max brought her back to life by placing his hand over the gunshot wound. From there Max and Liz tiptoed through love, fear and misunderstanding, trying to figure out what Max was and who Liz was when she was with him.


The two nursed their mutual crush while scheming to prevent a suspicious sheriff and later a host of villains from discovering the truth, all the while providing the classic television tease: a love forbidden by extreme circumstances. (Think Angel and Buffy on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Max and Logan on Dark Angel.)


Audiences can be notoriously fickle, but based on the early episodes, Roswell looked like a winner; it seemed to have the potential to build as viewers caught on to what the producers were trying to do.


But they never did. My theory is that Roswell suffered the cruel blow of network re-creation by committee. The WB panicked too early and insisted on drastic changes in tone and story, opting out of the romantic aspects of the series for more sci-fi. (Nutter, a former X-Files producer, and Katims, whose background included the terrific My So-Called Life, probably conceded just to keep the series on the air.)


Roswell's core audience became frustrated and bolted, and just as the WB was to cut its losses after a low-rated second season, in rode UPN, which figured that by packaging the series with its acquisition of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it could reach a larger audience. It didn't.


This isn't to say that Roswell didn't have its built-in problems. Writers never quite knew what to do with Heigl's character and seemed compelled to pair everyone up, with no relation to story progression. Behr played Max with such restraint, he looked as if his face was frozen. I often wanted someone to slap him out of it.


Fans of the series will find solace in a finale that ties up loose ends, even though the episode is something of a mess. The premise surrounds Liz and her newfound premonitions (lifted from Charisma Carpenter's Cordelia on Angel). She can "see" all their deaths, and it seems the bad guys are closing in.


As they do, the characters bicker about what to do and how to do it, deciding eventually to simply high-tail it out of Roswell.


I have to admit that I checked out of this series long ago, catching up with it shortly after hearing that UPN was scrapping it. That I was able to tune in and pick it right up says something about both the simple-mindedness and stagnation of the scripts.


Longtime fans are bound to feel a sense of loss Tuesday, and not just because they're saying farewell to these characters. The door will officially close on a promising series that should have been truly great but never was.











This one from tvguide.com's season finale article:
Roswell, UPN, Tuesday, May 14, 9-10 pm/ET): . . .We're not saying anything mean because Roswell fans scare us a little.

IT'S THE END: ROSWELL CANCELLED



The news will hardly come as a surprise, but now it's been confirmed - Roswell has been cancelled.

According to a UPN affiliate, the finale episode, which airs on 14 May, will "present shocking plot twists and resolve many of the distinct romantic - and emotionally moving - storylines that have been the trademark of the fan-obsessed series."

"I would like to thank Twentieth Century Fox Television, UPN and especially our fans whose combined efforts helped get us a third season for Roswell," said executive producer Jason Katims. "[Executive Producer] Ronald D. Moore and I had the fans very much on our minds when we were writing this final episode. We felt they deserved a great ending."

Writing to the "Producers, Cast and Crew of Roswell," Jason Katims had this to say:

"I have been informed that tomorrow morning UPN will be putting out a press release announcing that our final episode of the season will be the UPN 'Series Finale.' Obviously, this means that barring the unlikely event of another network change, Roswell will not be returning for a fourth season.

"I am writing to let you know that this is about to happen and to once again thank you all for your invaluable contributions to the show. I am very proud of the work we have done on Roswell and am honored to have had the opportunity to work with, and get to know, all of you."

I wish you all the best of luck in the future and sincerely hope we get the chance to work together again soon.

Although there is a fan-campaign to get the US Sci-Fi Channel to pick up the series for season four, with most of the cast keen to move on, this is almost certainly doomed to failure from the outset.









KATIMS REFLECTS ON ROSWELL - SCI-FI WIRE



Jason Katims, executive producer of UPN's teen alien series, Roswell, revealed to Sci Fi Wire the regrets he has about the show, which ends its three-year run this year, with just two more episodes to go. "We were always trying to find the right balance between the science fiction and relationship aspects of the show," Katms said in a frank interview. "And ... it's very much a show that sort of skewed one way or the other in different episodes, and I was sort of fine with that. But sometimes I felt like the show got off too much into too complicated of a sort of mythology ... and became too serialised, particularly in the second season. ... It just got out of hand."

Katims added, "At the beginning of that season, we introduced the Skins as [Max's] adversary. And looking back at it, I wish that we had just stayed with the Skins and used that as the running adversary throughout that season. If we had, they might have even stayed in for the third season. But we dropped it and just moved on, and I think that I would have done that differently. I think ... we went on to other things, and I think ... things became so complicated that it was hard to keep up with it. So that was what I would have done differently, definitely."

But Katims added that he remains proud of the series, though it struggled to find an audience through its first two years on The WB and its last on UPN. "The things that I'm happy with about the way that it's turned out is I feel that we have used the metaphor of the show - of these aliens hiding in plain sight and living as humans, but being outsiders - and ... we've used it as a metaphor for growing up and coming of age. And by this third season we were dealing with much more adult themes. ... One of these aliens was entering into a marriage, another one had a child, and the other one was trying to figure out what he was going to do for work and deal with the neurotic relationship that he was in. So they have grown up a lot. But I think that ... we did stay with the basic theme of what this show always was, which is about how in a way we're all outsiders, and we're all living as outsiders with secrets, and I think that that was always the strength of the show."

Roswell airs its final two episodes at 9pm ET/PT May 7 and May 14.







Articles Main




Encyclopedia Main
 		Back to Main

Contact