What doomed "Mercy Reef" aka Aquaman TV show

[bryantlc]

I know this is old as dirt, but I recently downloaded and watched the Aquaman pilot through Xbox LIVE Marketplace. I actually thought it was a decent pilot and should have been give a fall 2006 pickup. What CW show's beat this out? What killed Aquaman? Maybe I was the only one who thought it had potential.

[DevdogAZ]

Maybe the CW wants to become more mainstream and didn't want to be viewed as the superhero fanboy network. I'm pretty sure the pilot was produced before the merger of WB and UPN.

[dswallow]

It was slated for the timeslot that One Tree Hill ended up in that season.

http://www.aquamantv.com/cwpage.jpg

[MasterOfPuppets]

Never saw it...not sure that I've ever watched anything on CW.
But alas, if I had to wager the farm...I'd say the fact that it was based on Aquaman is what killed the show.
Judging by the picture dswallow provided, that guy doe not appear to have Aquaman's wicked awesome mullet either.

[DevdogAZ]

It was slated for the timeslot that One Tree Hill ended up in that season.

http://www.aquamantv.com/cwpage.jpg
Wasn't this pilot just produced a year ago when the WB was still around? Wasn't OTH into it's first or second season already by that point? Was One Tree Hill originally not going to be picked up by the new network?

[terpfan1980]

I know this is old as dirt, but I recently downloaded and watched the Aquaman pilot through Xbox LIVE Marketplace. I actually thought it was a decent pilot and should have been give a fall 2006 pickup. What CW show's beat this out? What killed Aquaman? Maybe I was the only one who thought it had potential.

heh, funny you mention the show, and thanks for the quick positive comments about it as I've been wondering if it was worth the time to sit and watch it if I snagged it on the Xbox Live Market...

I've been close to pulling the trigger on it a few times and haven't yet, partly because I had heard it wasn't going to be done as a series (the pilot was made, but that was it) and partly because it seemed like something that should have had a greatly reduced price tag on it given it's dead-end nature.

Anyway, thanks to your comments I still might snag the show to watch at some point down the road when I'm searching for something to watch that won't take up too much time to get and view. :)

[BriGuy20]

My guess is that it would have been more expensive than just a drama and they didn't think they could make the money back internationally.

[cheerdude]

Watching "The Real World - Metropolis" sketch on Robot Chicken is all the reason that you need. :D

[dswallow]

Wasn't this pilot just produced a year ago when the WB was still around? Wasn't OTH into it's first or second season already by that point? Was One Tree Hill originally not going to be picked up by the new network?
The pilot was ordered by The WB then shortly thereafter The WB and UPN merged to become CW. In mid-May 2006 CW announced its fall schedule with no pickup for Aquaman. In late July 2006 the pilot appeared on iTunes.

One Tree Hill was a late renewal in 2006; it's probably pretty likely it came down to One Tree Hill or Aquaman. And considering 7th Heaven got renewed, it wouldn't surprise me that someone got really cold feet and started getting scared of taking chances vs. going with known quantities for the launch of CW.

[rkester]

I also DLed it off XBLive and liked it. Some of the effects were a bit cheesy but it had kind of a Buffy and Smallville vibe (obviously on the SV side since its same writers).

While I don't know why it was cancelled, it was done so by the same aholes who brought back 7thHeavn and killed off Everwood. So they have no taste obviously imho.

[gastrof]

I know this is old as dirt, but I recently downloaded and watched the Aquaman pilot through Xbox LIVE Marketplace. I actually thought it was a decent pilot and should have been give a fall 2006 pickup. What CW show's beat this out? What killed Aquaman? Maybe I was the only one who thought it had potential.


EVERYONE thought it had potential.

The WB had already given the series a green light, but then the "people at the top" made the decision to merge UPN and the WB.

As a result, the combined network would only have half the number of slots for its shows, and they were going to have enough trouble keeping existing shows going. Forget about bringing new ones in.

Let it here be added that I've heard new shows UPN had been planning weren't so easilly dropped...and of course it just so happened that the CW's programming dept. ended up headed by someone who was a hold-over from UPN.

How convenient.

R.I.P. Mercy Reef.

[gastrof]

...Judging by the picture dswallow provided, that guy doe not appear to have Aquaman's wicked awesome mullet either.

:confused:

[MasterOfPuppets]

:confused:

Hmmm...as not much of a comic book fan, I'd been lead to believe that Aquaman had a mullet at all times, as featured in the video game "Aquaman: Battle For Atlantis" that inspired X-Play's Golden Mullet Awards for bad video games.
GIS shows otherwise...sorry for the confusion.

This is clearly the single geekiest thing that I've ever written.

[BriGuy20]

Hmmm...as not much of a comic book fan, I'd been lead to believe that Aquaman had a mullet at all times, as featured in the video game "Aquaman: Battle For Atlantis" that inspired X-Play's Golden Mullet Awards for bad video games.
GIS shows otherwise...sorry for the confusion.

This is clearly the single geekiest thing that I've ever written.

Well, at least it's not as geeky as saying "well at least it's not as bad as Superman 64!", giggling, pushing up your glasses with your nacho-stained pasty white hands, and then going to paint your Warhammer 40k figurines. :D

[MickeS]

I'd say the fact that it was based on Aquaman is what killed the show.

:D :D :D