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NBC, CBS Claim Top Thursday Spot
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) Fast National ratings for Thursday, Jan. 27, 2005 A night of reruns on CBS Thursday helped NBC tie Eye network in households and win the younger demographic it really cares about. NBC and CBS each averaged a 10.4 rating/16 share for the night, with NBC holding a slight edge in total viewers, 15.9 million to 15.6 million. ABC finished third with a 5.2/8, followed by FOX, 4.1/6; UPN, 3.3/5; and The WB, 2.0/3. Among adults 18-49, the demographic advertisers covet, NBC scored a strong victory with a 7.2 rating. CBS was second at 4.9. FOX took third with a 2.8, beating ABC's 2.4. UPN averaged 1.7 and The WB 1.0. A repeat of "Joey," 6.7/11, and the start of a 90-minute "Apprentice," 8.2/13, gave NBC the lead at 8 p.m. CBS plugged in a "Without a Trace" rerun for the banished-to-Saturday "Wickedly Perfect" and finished second. ABC's "InStyle Celebrity Weddings" special was third at 6.0/9, beating "The O.C.," 5.2/8, on FOX. "WWE Smackdown!" on UPN was fifth at 3.2/5. The WB went with the movie "Home Fries." CBS grabbed the top spot at 9 p.m. with a "CSI" rerun, 14.0/21. "The Apprentice" improved to 10.7/16 for NBC. ABC held onto third with a repeat of "Extreme Makeover." "Smackdown!," 3.3/5, moved into fourth, ahead of FOX's "Point Pleasant," 3.0/5. The WB's movie trailed. At 10 p.m., "ER" put NBC back in front with a 13.0/21. Another "Without a Trace" repeat posted a 10.1/16 for CBS. ABC's "Primetime Live" came in at 4.7/8. |
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New Jersey town gets ready for its closeup
POINT PLEASANT, N.J. -- The streets are tree-lined, and mostly quiet. The breezes that blow in off the Atlantic Ocean? Heavenly. Even the teenagers are nice, insists Eric Hansch, who sees more than his share of them in his Atomic CDs record store when school lets out. ''They're the politest kids you'll ever meet,'' he said. Point Pleasant, indeed. The question around here these days: What the devil was Fox thinking, bringing Satan's offspring ashore in such an idyllic place? Sure, the network's new series ''Point Pleasant'' is just fiction. But still. ''It's evil,'' said Barbara Stancel, a 60-year-old lifelong resident. ''I'm not happy about it.'' The one-hour drama centers on pretty blond Christina Nickson, who turns up one day on the beach in Point Pleasant, N.J., and soon begins raising hell -- wherever she goes, storm clouds gather, candles blow out, cars explode in flames. The reason soon becomes clear: She's the devil's daughter. ''Point Pleasant,'' which premiered last week and airs at 8 p.m. Thursdays on WFLD-Channel 32, is filmed in Southern California but set here. Why here? Why not Hell, Mich.? Or maybe Devils Slide, Utah? Better yet: Satan's Kingdom, Vt. They're real places, too. ''It's such an evocative name for a spooky show,'' said Marti Noxon, executive producer. ''It wasn't just the name of the town. It was the fact that it was this beautiful coastal place to show that really bad things can happen in sunny places.'' In the pilot, Christina (Elisabeth Harnois) falls off a cruise ship and floats into shore, where she's rescued by a lifeguard and taken in by a local family. Then her wicked ways begin to manifest themselves. Bad things happen. The network has ordered 13 episodes and hopes the series -- Noxon alternately describes it as "Rosemary's Baby" meets "Peyton Place," or "Twin Peaks" meets "The Omen" -- will catch on. If so, there's a chance producers would film on location in the real Point Pleasant, she said. So far, their only contact with Borough of Point Pleasant officials was to ask permission to use the borough seal in the filming. Borough officials wrote a letter asking if they'd get any money if they consented to it. ''We never heard back from them after that,'' said Mayor Martin Konkus. Producers might find more than geegaws if they came looking for material in the real Point Pleasant. Turns out things go bump in the night here, too. Ghosts reportedly haunt the Westside Tavern, a 19th century building where owners and customers alike have reported falling glasses, broken windows -- and poltergeists. Local lore has it that someone named Captain John locked his teenage daughter, Elsie, in a closet, and now both of their ghosts make their presences known in the building. Nearby, at Delicious Bagels, owner Tony Pontecorvo suspects his strip-mall store is haunted. For the first two years after he and his brother, Wade, bought the place, each would faintly hear men's voices about 2 a.m., as they worked together preparing bagels. ''Neither of us wanted to admit we were hearing those voices, but we finally did,'' said Pontecorvo. But Point Pleasant has never been home to cults, devil worship or anything else remotely supernatural, according to police chief Raymond Hilling. For one thing, there's been only one murder in the last 15 years, he said. ''We have our issues, but nothing satanic,'' he said. Like many people here, he welcomes the idea of a TV show based in Point Pleasant, N.J., even if it's in name only. ''It's pretty cool that there's going to be a show about Point Pleasant,'' said Hunter Knolmayer, 14, eating a hot dog outside a convenience store. He plans to watch it. So does the Rev. David A. Kaiser, pastor of the First Assembly of God Church, even though he worries about Hollywood's obsession with evil and the impact of shows like ''Point Pleasant'' on young people. ''I'm kind of dreading it, to tell you the truth,'' said Kaiser. ''I don't want to watch anything that glorifies the devil. But I kinda have to. I have to know what's in it, just to converse with other people and tell them what I believe.'' |
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New Jersey bedeviled by new television show
So the Devil's daughter washes up on the Jersey Shore... stop me if you've heard this one before. I speak of Point Pleasant, Fox's new drama about Satan's spawn settling down in the Garden State. If you caught a few minutes of the show's first two episodes in the last week, you may have thought you stumbled onto another slick TV series featuring fast-talking teenagers strutting their angst at beach bonfires. Only in Point Pleasant, the star wears a teeny-weeny black bikini. This is a sign that she's a bad girl. Because everyone knows the only other people who wear black at the beach are self-conscious grown-ups (like me) in one-piece bathing suits. There are no thunder thighs in Point Pleasant. Even the local Catholic priest is a hottie. His looks will surely come in handy as he leads a righteous battle to save Christina's soul and keep her from following in her father's footsteps. She doesn't know yet that she's the daughter of the prince of darkness and his virgin bride. Once Christina figures it out, she'll have a difficult decision to make. If she's really a Daddy's girl, there will be hell to pay in New Jersey. Point Pleasant's plot is almost as wild as the legend of the Jersey Devil: The hunky town lifeguard spies a young woman floating in the waves as a storm descends on an idyllic Jersey Shore community. He rescues her and immediately falls under her spell. The town doctor and his wife, still grieving a daughter who died in a surfing accident, bring the stranger into their home without so much as a call to DYFS or the runaway hotline. Christina is happy to have a family. Her father's a busy businessman, at least that's what he told her. And her mother? All Christina knows is that her grandfather once worked at the Catholic church in nearby Ocean Grove. Maybe fate swept her into Point Pleasant for a reason? Like any teenager, Christina is prone to self-analysis. For starters, there's that weird Satanic symbol etched onto her iris. Christina always thought it was a birthmark, but now, she's not so sure. Then there's the fact that whenever she gets stressed out or jealous, the object of her ire catches on fire. And what's with the attractive man - grown-ups will recognize him as Jake from Melrose Place" - following Christina around town? "It's OK that you like it when bad things happen," he tells her. "Somebody hurts you, they get hurt." Leave it to Fox - the network to thank for The Littlest Groom, a reality show about dating dwarves - to find another way to offend innocents across the land. The programmers could have plopped Beelzebub's baby down in Idaho, Arkansas or any fictional locale. Instead, they chose New Jersey, already home to an unhealthy inferiority complex thanks to pollution, politicians and The Sopranos. Why not add evil incarnate to the list of what ails us? To confuse matters, filming actually takes place in San Diego. That's little comfort to the Jersey viewers flooding Fox's message board with complaints about the network's devilish depiction of Point Pleasant. "Couldn't they do this somewhere else... how about Seaside?????" asked an outraged "myhometown13." "Seaside? Satan has better taste for his daughter than that!" fired back someone named Sam. "Kuru25" made a list of all the ways Hollywood got Jersey wrong: "No one calls vacationers summer people. They're 'Bennies!!!' " "Beach bonfires aren't allowed." "And when did our water become so clear? Oh wait... it HASN'T!!!" Point Pleasant Mayor Marty Konkus' pet peeve? Probably the lighthouse in the opening sequence - a scenic cliche the town doesn't have. Konkus, for one, is thrilled by how good-looking his town turned out on the tube. Not that anyone asked about casting, but he could see George Clooney playing the mayor. Unlike his constituents, Konkus isn't holding Fox's feet to the fire. "It is a work of fiction, after all." |
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Page off to 'Pleasant' start
Show's strong debut may keep down-to-earth actor's star on the rise Los Angeles - The publicity for the new Fox drama "Point Pleasant" describes the character of Jesse Parker as the seaside town's golden boy, a well-liked, good-looking lifeguard who risks his life rescuing a beautiful stranger in a storm. Sam Page, the 1994 Whitefish Bay High School graduate who plays Jesse, is a tall, handsome Princeton University alumnus who, at 28, has a season of "All My Children" (as Trey) and a dozen episodes of "American Dreams" (as Drew) behind him, as well as a place on both People magazine's "Top 50 Bachelors" list and Us Weekly's tribute to "Daytime Drama's Hottest Men." Sounds pretty golden, no? "Oh, no," Page says, holding up a hand in protest. "If I ever thought about myself that way, I don't think I could go out there and audition anymore." Auditioning is something he won't have to do for a while. "Point Pleasant" debuted with solid ratings last week immediately following the season premiere of "American Idol." Though the numbers fell off during the second part of the two-night premiere, Fox has enough confidence in the series to have ordered 10 episodes, enough to take the drama through the spring. Page, who took a break from shooting last week to talk to critics at Fox's portion of the TV industry's winter preview marathon, had no theatrical ambitions in high school or college. It wasn't until he moved out to Los Angeles after graduation that he began taking acting lessons, and not too long after that, he began getting small TV roles. One of the first was as a high school student known only as "Stone Cold Fox Boy" in the now-defunct series "Popular." His "Point Pleasant" character is good-natured and down-to-earth, in contrast to Christina (Elisabeth Harnois), the young woman he rescues, who turns out to be the spiritually conflicted daughter of the Devil and a mortal mother. How down-to-earth is Page? One whole sentence of his eight-sentence Fox biography is devoted to his favorite football team. He is, according to the bio, "a rabid fan of the Green Bay Packers - negative opinions on this matter are neither appreciated nor respected." With "Everybody Loves Raymond" wrapping its ninth season in May, everybody would love to know if a rumored spinoff starring Brad Garrett as Ray's brother, Robert, is in the works. Everybody including Garrett, it seems. He would be open to doing a spinoff, but "all the rumors and the rumblings, I'm getting (them) second-hand," the actor told critics last week. "Supposedly there is a group of people out there talking about it, but they aren't talking to me. So what I think is they're probably looking for a Brad Garrett type." Phil Rosenthal, "Raymond's" co-creator and executive producer, agreed. "There's so many of those," he said of the 6-foot-8 actor with the basso profundo voice. "There are," Garrett said. |
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21/01/2005
Point Pleasant Ratings Source : Zap2It |
'Idol' Dips, but FOX Still Takes Wednesday
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) Fast National ratings for Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2005 "American Idol" didn't reach the heights of its Tuesday premiere on Wednesday, but it still did well enough to lead FOX to a ratings win for the night. FOX averaged an 11.0 rating/16 share in primetime to beat ABC, which held up pretty well in scoring a 9.2/14. CBS was third at 7.0/11, just edging NBC's 6.9/10. The WB took fifth with a 1.8/5, and UPN trailed at 1.5/2. The story was similar among adults 18-49, with FOX's 8.2 rating and ABC's 5.8 well ahead of the rest of the pack. CBS and NBC tied for third at 3.2. The WB averaged 1.1 and UPN 0.9. The second night of "American Idol" posted a 15.0/22, down from 17.0/25 in its first hour on Tuesday but easily winning the 8 p.m. hour for FOX. It didn't have much effect on the audience for "Lost," as the ABC series came in at 11.8/18. CBS was third with "60 Minutes." NBC's "SI Swimsuit Model Search" took a sizable hit, managing only a 3.0/4. A repeat of "Smallville" on The WB was fifth at 2.1/3, ahead of "The Road to Stardom" on UPN. ABC moved into the lead at 9 p.m. with "Alias," 8.7/13. "The King of Queens" and "Center of the Universe" averaged 7.6/11 for CBS, beating the 7.3/11 for "The West Wing" on NBC. The premiere of "Point Pleasant" on FOX, 7.0/11, lost more than half the "Idol" audience, but that's not out of line with what other shows have done in the post-"AI" slot. UPN's "Kevin Hill" and The WB's "Big Man on Campus" tied for fifth. "Law & Order" won the 10 p.m. hour for NBC with a 10.2/17 as it welcomed new cast member Annie Parrisse. A repeat of "CSI: NY" was second at 7.3/12. ABC's "Wife Swap" posted a 6.9/11. Third 'Apprentice' Gives NBC Thursday Win LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) Fast National ratings for Thursday, Jan. 20, 2005. The new "Book Smarts vs. Street Smarts" concept may have breathed a little new life into the "Apprentice" franchise. Although Thursday's third season premiere still lost to a repeat of CBS' "CSI," the reality show improved somewhat on the premiere numbers for its second season. Overall, NBC won the night with a 10.4 rating/16 share, a bit better than the 8.9/14 for CBS. FOX was third on the frame with a 4.3/7, beating UPN's 3.6/6 and the 3.5/5 for ABC. The WB trailed with a 2.5/4. NBC also scored among adults 18-49, doing a 7.5 rating in the demographic advertisers salivate over the most. CBS was second with a 4.2 rating and FOX was also in the mix with a 3.1 rating. Well off the pace were UPN with a 1.8 rating, ABC's 1.6 rating and the 1.5 rating for The WB. At 8 p.m., NBC started on top with "Joey" (8.2/13) and the first half-hour of "The Apprentice" (8.6/13). Second place went to CBS' "Wickedly Perfect," which edged the 5.0/8 for FOX's "The O.C.," though the FOX drama drew more viewers. UPN's "WWE Smackdown" had a 3.6/6 for fourth, better than the 2.8/4 for ABC's "life as we know it." The WB trailed with the first hour of the movie "Bring it On." CBS grabbed first for the 9 p.m. hour with the 12.2/18 for "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation." NBC's "The Apprentice 3" was second with a 10.4/15. UPN won a tight race for third with "Smackdown," while FOX's "Point Pleasant" and ABC's "Extreme Makeover" tied for fourth with a 3.6/5. The WB's movie had a 2.6/4 to finish sixth. NBC's "ER" closed the night with an easy win, doing a 12.6/20, better than the 9.2/15 for CBS' "Without a Trace," which more than doubled up the ratings for ABC's "Primetime." |
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Devil from the Deep Blue Sea Lands in 'Point Pleasant'
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) FOX's new supernatural drama "Point Pleasant," opens with a body splashing down into a rain-spattered, dark-blue ocean. It's a very spooky moment, somewhat muted by the rapid appearance of pouty-lipped, buff teens frolicking on a beach that purports to be in Point Pleasant, N.J., but is actually sun-drenched San Diego. We soon learn that the shapely body belongs to a girl who is the daughter of the devil himself. But, as Hamlet himself observed, "The devil hath power to assume a pleasing shape." To creator-executive producer Marti Noxon ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer"), the reference is more recent. "Not surprisingly," she says, "the agents of both good and bad, in fact, everybody, is really good-looking. We're operating on the principle from that great speech in 'Broadcast News,' that if the devil was somebody, it would be somebody really attractive." Delivered by Albert Brooks, the speech says, in part, "What do you think the devil's going to look like if he's around? Nobody is going to be taken in if he has a long, red, pointy tail. ... He will look attractive, and he will be nice and helpful." In "Point Pleasant," which premieres after "American Idol" on Wednesday, Jan. 19, then moves to Thursdays after "The O.C." starting Jan. 20, the devil's little girl is Christina Nickson (Elisabeth Harnois), a doe-eyed blonde who appears to wear, as Buffy once did, a cross necklace. After teen lifeguard Jesse (Sam Page) plucks her from the ocean during a storm, she is brought to the house of local doctor Ben Kramer (Richard Burgi), wife Meg (Susan Walters) and daughter Judy (Aubrey Dollar). While sinister forces in New York debate Christina's future and the unfolding of her latent dark powers, she discovers that her long-lost mother actually came from Point Pleasant and was a good, saintly woman. So the crux of the series rests on whether Christina takes after Dad or Mom, and the fate of the world may depend on her decision. Meanwhile, Christina's very presence has an unsettling effect on Point Pleasant, whose residents suddenly act in uncharacteristic ways. On hand to push that along is mysterious, charismatic Thomas Boyd (Grant Show), who insinuates himself into the lives of Christina and others. Through him, "the devil is trying to entice the ladies in the area," Burgi says. "He's seen briefly in the pilot as this guy who comes in and basically does the explaining-guy thing," Noxon says. "But Explainer Man quickly becomes one of the more important leads of the show, because he moves to Point Pleasant with the agenda of keeping Christina on track, developing her and developing her dark side." "There are undertones of disturbing, ominous portents," Burgi says. Also starring are Brent Weber, Cameron Richardson, Dina Meyer, Alex Carter and Clare Carey. According to Noxon, the idea originated with her fellow executive producer Dawn Parouse ("Tru Calling"). Noxon's nickname among "Buffy" fans was the Queen of Pain for her willingness to make characters suffer -- and apparently she's not alone in this proclivity. "Dawn is my sister in Queen of Pain-dom," Noxon says. "She is one dark mother. We really clicked. She has a very similar sensibility to mine. She came up with this concept after seeing 'The Omen II.' What she keyed into is this idea of a teenager who's becoming aware of this really dark lineage, and the idea that the teenager is not overtly bad or demonic or anything, so this revelation comes as a real surprise. "In 'Omen II,' there's not so much conflict, as he goes to the dark side pretty fast. Dawn's idea was, what if there was an equally good side to the character. What if there was a real duality between the 'Rosemary's Baby' of it and the mother?" Although the mother doesn't turn up immediately, Noxon says that she's not the only thing that can prevent Christina from following in her daddy's cloven hoofprints. "It's the 'Omen' paradigm," she says. "She's going to have a lot of power and try to drive the world into the crapper, ultimately. But a lot of the same values hold true that held true on 'Buffy,' that love and family are the only things that hold you together. "The relationships that she forges are volatile because they're emotional, but they're also the things that might save her. The family she lives with, and the people she cares about, become her support system." Christina does bear the mark of the devil: a whirligig symbol in the iris of one eye that looks like three sixes melded together. For what it's worth, the lines that talk about this, in which this "flaw ... on your iris" is explained as a "birthmark," are disturbingly similar to lines spoken by Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway in "Chinatown." But since the villain of that piece, John Huston, is dead, it's unlikely he'll show up in a cameo as the Prince of Darkness. In fact, Noxon says, it's unlikely Christina's father will make an appearance anytime soon, even though "Buffy" was populated by all sorts of demons. "I saw 'Legend,' and it just doesn't work," says Noxon, referring to a 1985 Ridley Scott fantasy in which Tim Curry played a big, red, horned Lord of Darkness. "In our show, although it's obviously genre, it's obviously big, and a lot of weird and woolly stuff happens, we want to keep it in the realm of the maybe-possible. In terms of tone, its model is closer to 'The X-Files' than 'Buffy.' "There's always going to be some way you can explain this stuff away in the real world. As soon as you have a guy with cloven hooves and a big tail, you laugh. We vow that there will be little, if no, latex." |
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'Point Pleasant' lacks key element
Fox's new "Point Pleasant" is the one thing a series about the teenage spawn of the devil shouldn't be -- dull. Adults Richard Burgi and Susan Walters are among the stars of this hourlong drama hoping to ride the "Desperate Housewives" wave, but it crashes before it ever reaches shore. More important, however, is the interchangeable cast of teenage characters trying their best to make Point Pleasant, N.J., the equivalent of the beaches of "The O.C." (That Fox series -- a much better one is set in California.) There's the usual triangular plotline (A lusts after B, but B only has eyes for C) suddenly complicated by the arrival of a stranger. And what a strange arrival it is. A pretty blond teenager played by Elisabeth Harnois is found floating in the ocean with no boat or parent in sight. Soon, odd and unpleasant things are happening in Point Pleasant -- power outages, gusts of wind, a teen queen saying yes when she had been saying no. We're not giving away any secrets by telling you that the floater, named Christina Nickson, has unusual parentage. "She's the child of darkness. She's under his protection. She's his child," says Grant Show early in Wednesday's premiere. We're not sure who Show is supposed to be, or even where he is when he delivers these "Omen"-ous lines. But we hope the former "Melrose Place" star is being paid a lot to pretend to be creepy. When not focused on lustful teens -- with occasional hints of adult hot flashes -- the hour is spent detailing Christina's blossoming powers. For instance, in a minor fit of jealousy involving the lifeguard who saved her, she causes an explosion at a gas station. Plus, she looks amazingly good for someone just plucked from the ocean. This is no Sissy Spacek version of Carrie in need of a makeover. Fox, never shy about copying a competitor or itself, apparently wants to cash in on the popularity of "Desperate Housewives" while maintaining "The O.C." demographic. ("Point Pleasant" will normally follow "The O.C" at 9 p.m. Thursdays.) But "Point Pleasant" lacks a key ingredient found in both of the other prime-time soaps: a nudge, nudge, wink, wink tone that demands the viewer share in the joke. "Point Pleasant" could use one of Seth's comic icebreakers from "The O.C." or one of Teri Hatcher's clumsy moves from "Desperate Housewives." Anything to make you forget lines like "Do you ever think things happen for a reason?" Instead, we get killer bees. Wait -- now I am giving away too much. But let me just add: Those bees are the best part of the show. |
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TV Show Raises Eyebrows in Namesake Town
POINT PLEASANT, N.J. (AP) -- The streets are tree-lined, and mostly quiet. The breezes that blow in off the Atlantic Ocean? Heavenly. Even the teenagers are nice, says Eric Hansch, who sees more than his share of them in his Atomic CDs record store when school lets out. "They're the politest kids you'll ever meet," he said. Point Pleasant, indeed. The question around here these days: What the devil was Fox thinking, bringing Satan's offspring ashore in such an idyllic place? Sure, the network's new series "Point Pleasant" is just fiction. But still. "It's evil," said Barbara Stancel, a 60-year-old lifelong resident. "I'm not happy about it. Point Pleasant's known as a family town, and this won't do anything for Point Pleasant." The one-hour drama centers on pretty blond Christina Nickson, who turns up on the beach in Point Pleasant, N.J., one day and soon begins raising hell - wherever she goes, storm clouds gather, candles blow out, cars explode in flames. The reason soon becomes clear: She's the devil's daughter. "Point Pleasant," which is set here but is being filmed in Southern California, premieres 9 p.m. EST Wednesday. Why here? Why not Hell, Mich.? Or maybe Devils Slide, Utah? Better yet: Satan's Kingdom, Vt. They're real places, too. "It's such an evocative name for a spooky show," said Marti Noxon, executive producer. "It wasn't just the name of the town. It was the fact that it was this beautiful coastal place ... to show that really bad things can happen in sunny places." Point Pleasant, the place, wasn't sunny enough, though. The show's producers couldn't trust New Jersey's fickle weather climate to provide the sunshine and blue skies necessary for a show with lots of bikini-clad young women and buff lifeguards. So they took the name, planted a "Point Pleasant, New Jersey State Beach" sign on a San Diego beach and started filming. In the pilot, Nickson (Elisabeth Harnois) falls off a cruise ship and floats into shore, where she's rescued by a lifeguard and taken in by a local family. Then her wicked ways begin to manifest themselves. Bad things happen. The network has ordered 13 episodes, and hopes the series - Noxon alternately describes it as "'Rosemary's Baby' meets 'Peyton Place,'" or "'Twin Peaks' meets 'The Omen'" - will catch on. If so, there's a chance producers would film on location in the real Point Pleasant, she said. So far, their only contact with Borough of Point Pleasant officials was to ask permission to use the borough seal in the filming. Borough officials wrote a letter asking if they'd get any money if they consented to it. "We never heard back from them after that," said Mayor Martin Konkus. "Point Pleasant" the show makes no distinction between the Borough of Point Pleasant and neighboring Point Pleasant Beach, which separates it from the ocean. But the show's producers enlisted Jenkinson's Aquarium gift shop manager Linda DiSpirito to help with set design, flying her - and several boxes of merchandise from her Point Pleasant Beach gift shop - to California to meet with show designers. Producers might find more than gee-gaws if they came looking for material in the real Point Pleasant. Turns out things go bump in the night here, too. Ghosts reportedly haunt the Westside Tavern, a 19th-century building where owners and customers alike have reported falling glasses, broken windows - and poltergeists. Local lore has it that someone named Captain John locked his teenage daughter, Elsie, in a closet, and now both of their ghosts make their presences known in the building. Then there's the legend about bodies from an 1846 shipwreck being stored in the basement. A team of ghostbusters from New Jersey Paranormal Investigations combed the building in 2001, and concluded that it was haunted by at least three ghosts. New owner John Magee, who bought the place in November, believes the legends. He was working by himself late one night when a chair fell down and crashed through a window. Problem was that the table had stood so far from the window, the chair couldn't have fallen and reached the window - on its own. "I said, 'Mr. Ghost, if it's you, I'm a nice guy, I'm friendly, I don't want any trouble,'" said Magee. Nearby, at Delicious Bagels, owner Tony Pontecorvo suspects his strip mall store is haunted. For the first two years after he and his brother, Wade, bought the place, each would faintly hear men's voices about 2 a.m., as they worked together preparing bagels. They sounded as if they were coming from next door, but every time the brothers went looking, the rest of the building was empty. "Neither of us wanted to admit we were hearing those voices, but we finally did," said Pontecorvo. "This store gives me the creeps," said Wade Pontecorvo. But Point Pleasant (pop. 19,306) has never been home to cults, devil worship or anything else remotely supernatural, according to police Chief Raymond Hilling. For one thing, there's been only one murder in the last 15 years, he said. "We have our issues, but nothing satanic," he said. Like many people here, he welcomes the idea of a TV show based in Point Pleasant, N.J., even if it's in name only. "It's pretty cool that there's going to be a show about Point Pleasant," said Hunter Knolmayer, 14, eating a hot dog outside a convenience store. He plans to watch it. So does the Rev. David A. Kaiser, pastor of the First Assembly of God Church, even though he worries about Hollywood's obsession with evil and the impact of shows like "Point Pleasant" on young people. "I'm kind of dreading it, to tell you the truth," said Kaiser. "I don't want to watch anything that glorifies the devil. But I kinda have to. I have to know what's in it, just to converse with other people and tell them what I believe." |
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Thanks to SpoilerFix.com, we have the four first spoilers of "Point Pleasant".
1x01 - Pilot In a church, Christina meets Father Thomas. She tells the priest that she is looking for information about her... 1x02 - Who's Your Daddy? Father Thomas is worried about Father David's whereabouts (he hasn't slept at the church nor ate breakfast and he never... 1x03 - The Lonely Hunter There is a meteor shower occuring tonight. It's said that it is bad luck and that sailors even cancelled their trips... 1x04 - Last Dance Terry goes to a Medical Supplies store to buy a tank of indetermine gas. What is this for: His father or something... |
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27/12/2004
Source : Fortean Times |
RETURN TO POINT PLEASANT
In 1978, journalist RICK MORAN was asked to test his theory that journalists are better equipped to investigate paranormal mysteries than those seeking to prove or disprove them. The subject of the challenge was the series of events enshrined in John Keel’s book The Mothman Prophecies (1975). With a small group of fellow researchers, he set out for Mothman’s stomping ground, but did not reckon on the Men in Black. In 1978, I had just finished a round of radio and television talk shows, playing counterpoint to Jay Anson, then promoting his notorious book The Amityville Horror (1977). Anson claimed that the house was infested with demons, but his chief proof amounted to nothing more than that the haunting had attracted a visit from the Psychical Research Foundation (PRF). Asked to address the staff of the PRF on the Campus of... |
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19/12/2004
Source : Zap2It |
FOX, NBC Double Up on Midseason Debuts
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) FOX's supernatural drama "Point Pleasant" and NBC's sitcom "Committed" will both get some extra exposure when they premiere in January. FOX will likely test the ability of "American Idol" to boost the ratings of shows around it when "Point Pleasant" debuts after "Idol" on Wednesday, Jan. 19. The show, about a mysterious young woman (Elisabeth Harnois) whose father, unknown to her, is Satan, could hardly be more different in tone than the musical talent search that precedes it. The network has, however, enjoyed ratings bumps in the past with shows airing after "American Idol," including "24," which also serves a very different audience than the kid- and teen-friendly "Idol." "Point Pleasant" will move into its regular home -- 9 p.m. Thursday, following "The O.C." the next night. NBC's "Committed," meanwhile, will air twice a week for the first two weeks of its life. The comedy, about two off-kilter New Yorkers (Jennifer Finnigan and Josh Cooke) who meet by accident and fall in love, will debut in its regular time period at 9:30 p.m. ET Tuesday, Jan. 4. The show will also join NBC's Thursday lineup for two weeks, following "Joey" on Jan. 6 and 13. "Will & Grace" will move to 9 p.m. ET Thursday for those two weeks before returning to its regular spot when the third edition of "The Apprentice" debuts Jan. 20. |
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17/12/2004
Source : Zap2It |
'Buffy' Vet Lands at 'Point Pleasant'
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) Adam Busch, who played the nefarious geek Warren Meers on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" -- and was seen most recently as acerbic court bailiff Steve Dixon in the short-lived FOX series "The Jury" -- returns to FOX in time for February sweeps. Busch (also the frontman of the band Common Rotation) has signed on for at least three episodes of the new supernatural drama "Point Pleasant," executive-produced by former "Buffy" exec Marti Noxon, whose last FOX series, "Still Life," never aired. "Point Pleasant," however, is set to premiere after "American Idol" on Wednesday, Jan. 19, then airs Thursdays after "The O.C.," starting Jan. 20. Busch begins in the show's third episode, playing Wes, an apprentice working with the mysterious and charismatic Thomas Boyd (Grant Show). Boyd has come to the seaside New Jersey town of Point Pleasant to insinuate himself into the life of teenage Christina (Elizabeth Harnois). The daughter of the Devil and a mortal woman, Christina washed up on the shores of Point Pleasant, which has become the battleground for her soul and those of its inhabitants. In other genre casting news, Billy Zane has signed on to a three-episode guest stint on The WB's "Charmed," which begins on Sunday, Feb. 13. He plays Drake, a poetry-spouting demon that made a deal with a sorcerer to become human for a year, and now his time is almost up. There's also talk that Phoebe (Alyssa Milano), who was once married to the half-demon/half-human Cole (Julian McMahon), may like the looks of Drake as well. Also, Ben Browder, star of Sci Fi Channel's "Farscape" series and miniseries, has signed onto the upcoming ninth season of Sci Fi's successful "Stargate SG-1." It's still unclear whether current lead Richard Dean Anderson will return for season nine. The remaining season-eight episodes of "Stargate SG-1" start airing on Friday, Jan. 21, at 8 p.m. ET. It's followed by new episodes of the freshman hit "Stargate Atlantis" and the first regular season of "Battlestar Galactica," which premiered as a miniseries in 2003. |
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29/10/2004
Source : Zap2It |
'Melrose' Star Show on 'Point' for FOX
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) Grant Show, a former resident of "Melrose Place," is moving to a new locale. Show has signed on to FOX's midseason series "Point Pleasant," a supernatural soap opera from former "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" scribe Marti Noxon. He'll play a guy whose presence casts a shadow over the seaside town of the title. The show's original pilot didn't include Show, and the character he'll now play was a minor one. With him on board, the role will expand significantly, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "Point Pleasant" centers on a young woman (Elisabeth Harnois) with strange abilities who washes up on the beach, much to the chagrin of the community. She has a connection with Show's character, although not necessarily a positive one. FOX ordered 13 episodes of the show in September after passing on it during the spring development season. A second script from Noxon helped change the network's mind. Show played Jake Hanson on "Melrose Place" for five seasons. More recently, he's done guest-starring arcs on "Six Feet Under" and "Strong Medicine" and starred in the NBC movie "Homeland Security" and Lifetime's "Sex and the Single Mom." He's set to begin work on a sequel to the latter film later this year. |
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12/03/2004
Source : APP |
Point Pleasant to be setting for devilish Fox TV show
Looking for something familiar on television next year? You may not have to look much farther than Fox Broadcasting Company. Fox announced earlier this week that "Point Pleasant," a television drama about a 17-year-old New York girl who washes ashore at the New Jersey beach town of Point Pleasant, will premiere next month. The show will be one of two new series aired by the network in January. Fox's announcement, which was made Tuesday, comes six months after the network announced it would not show the pilot during its 2004-05 fall season. Yet Fox publicist Todd Adair said yesterday the network had a change of heart after receiving a second script and, in September, ordered 13 additional episodes of the series, described by the network as a mix between "90210" and "The Omen." The show will premier at 9 p.m. Jan. 20 after "The O.C." Although it is unclear whether Fox is depicting Point Pleasant, which does not have an ocean beachfront, or Point Pleasant Beach, which does, the show is set on the Jersey Shore. Yet the basis in fact stops there. The show, which was created by John McLaughlin and Marti Noxon, the former executive producer of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," is being filmed in San Diego. Adair said Fox has no plans to film in New Jersey. According to Fox, "Point Pleasant" is the story of Christina Nickson, a mysterious New York City teen who, after a strange boating accident, is rescued by Jesse Parker, a local lifeguard she shares an attraction with. Yet, according to Fox's plans for the show, the attraction between Jesse and Christina doesn't sit well with Paula, Jesse's girlfriend, who does what she can to keep her boyfriend. After rescuing her, Jesse brings Christina to the Kramers, who invite her to stay with them while she searches for clues to her past and attempts to find her mother, who was from Point Pleasant but who Christina never met. Yet what Christina doesn't know is that her presence in Point Pleasant is having a profound effect on the town's residents -- awakening repressed feelings, unlocking secret desires and heightening emotions. But if you think Christina may be modeled on yourself or someone in your school, think again. Instead of simply learning about her family, Christina eventually learns that although her mother was normal, her biological father was the Devil. |
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