What Could Have Been Done?

[Guest MissMarie]

Well, Mark Pedowitz contacted Frank Spotnitz about doing Night Stalker and because he is the President of Touchstone Television, it was assumed that NS was to be put on ABC. When it probably would've done better at Sci-Fi or some other affiliate.

Hey, sign the petition at petitionspot.com

[The Old Man]

Replies, reposted:

Posted by: ZeusFaber Jun 18 2007, 02:07 PM

QUOTE(HighPlainsDrifter @ Jun 16 2007, 08:55 PM) *

i am not even sure why Spotnitz chose ABC to carry Night Stalker. I know it was the original airing of the 70's version but with its tight regulations on content and wanting to slot it up against CSI there was no chance. Sometimes i think this series wasnt well planned out

Frank Spotnitz didn't get to chose what network it would air on. Touchstone Television held the rights to the property and were attached to develop it for ABC, then FS came in to run it. Unfortunately, showrunners don't get their pick of these kinds of things.

Posted by: HighPlainsDrifter Jun 18 2007, 08:51 PM

i guess to be technical Touchstone Pictures is now known as ABC Studios. Therefore Night Stalker still didnt have to be attached to ABC. Touchstone/ABC creates series for CBS(Amazing Race), Dirt(F/X), and Monk(USA). I guess the info i recieve about Night Stalker(2005) must be incorrect. I remember Spotnitz talking about being involved with the NS project. Wanting to bring this to life he helped out with the casting and writing.

Posted by: ZeusFaber Today, 11:19 AM

Yes, Spotnitz does all that, but he doesn't get to pick and choose networks and time-slots at an executive level. Touchstone has the rights to the property, and like you say they have existing development deals with ABC, therefore the basic concept of re-imagining the show and airing it on ABC was going to happen no matter who was hired to run it creatively (i.e. bringing it to life, writing it, casting it as you mention above). That person then became Frank Spotnitz.