A Writer's Life

Rejected Bond Theme Songs

Over the years, a number of major artists have recorded Bond themes that were rejected by the producers. You can find out about many of these "lost" songs in the excellent BBC documentary JAMES BOND'S GREATEST HITS. Here are a few of the rejected Bond theme songs, starting below with Johnny Cash's rejected THUNDERBALL theme played against the THUNDERBALL main title sequence:

Here is Alice Cooper's rejected theme for THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN. He's interviewed on the "James Bond's Greatest Hits" documentary and is pretty pissed off that his theme was tossed in favor of Lulu's awful theme:

Here is Dionne Warwick's MR. KISS KISS BANG BANG, another rejected THUNDERBALL main title theme. Shirley Bassey also recorded a version of it. Both versions are available on the Best of James Bond CD collection:

Here is Julie Roger's rejected theme for YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, which is also available on the Best of James Bond CD collection. She's interviewed on the "James Bond's Greatest Hits" documentary and talks about her disappointment at being passed over:

Here is Blondie's rejected theme to FOR YOUR EYES ONLY:

Here is St. Etienne's rejected theme for TOMORROW NEVER DIES. She's also interviewed in the documentary and isn't a fan of Sheryl Crow's theme:

Here's Pulp's rejected theme for TOMORROW NEVER DIES (which they retitled "Tomorrow Never Lies" for their album). They're also interviewed in the documentary.

Here is Phyllis Hyman's rejected theme for NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN. Hyman isn't interviewed but Lani Hall and Herb Alpert, who did the final theme, do appear and admit that their winning song wasn't very good.

The Name is Moore, Roger Moore

Here's a very good TV interview with Roger Moore to promote his memoir "My Word is My Bond."

Specs Appeal

I don't have the time to gamble on writing a book on spec right now, so I decided to put together a book proposal instead. In fact, that's how I sold MY GUN HAS BULLETS back in the early 90s to St. Martin's Press. 

I've just  finished writing the sample chapters. It's about 35,000 words and, dramatically speaking,  the narrative equivalent of the first act of a three-act movie. It sets up the characters, the stakes and the obstacles ahead. In other words, everything is set in motion. 

Over the next day or so I'll write up a punchy, broad-strokes outline of the rest of the novel. I don't know if the sample chapters are any good, or if my agent will think that the idea is marketable, or if any publisher in this economy will buy the book, but I am as satisified with it  and pleased with myself for meeting my personal deadline of Dec. 1 to get the package done.

Now I'll set those characters aside (if I can) and concentrate on writing my next MONK book.

WGA Slapped Down by NLRB

In April, I chastised the Writers Guild of America for sending out a letter to the membership that instructed us to ostracize the 28 writers who went "financial core" during the strike. I thought the letter was incredibly wrong-headed, reprehensible, and probably unlawful. I said, in part:

"[WGA President Patric Verrone's] letter, and his rallying cry to scorn those writers, harkens back to one of the darkest chapters in entertainment history for writers -- the blacklist.  In my view, Patric is asking us to engage in that same, despicable behavior... to exclude these writers from work opportunities because of their political views. While I strongly disagree with what those writers did, I resent the Guild asking me to blacklist them because of it.

[...] I hope the NLRB slaps the WGA with stiff sanctions for this. For the first time since I joined the WGA, I am ashamed of my Guild and its leadership. The WGA Board needs to apologize for what they have done."

Now Variety reports that the National Labor Relations Board has determined that the WGA acted illegally and has ordered a full hearing into the matter before an administrative law judge in the next few months.  Unfortunately, the WGA continues to defend their embarrassing conduct and poor judgment in this matter.

This Is A Very Bad Sign

Publisher's Weekly reports the scary news that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, a major NY publisher, has ordered editors to stop acquiring new manuscripts.

Josef Blumenfeld, v-p of communications for HMH, confirmed that the publisher has “temporarily stopped acquiring manuscripts” across its trade and reference divisions. The directive was given verbally to a handful of executives and, according to Blumenfeld, is “not a permanent change.” 

Blumenfeld, who hedged on when the ban might be lifted, said that the right project could still go to the editorial review board. He also maintained that the the decision is less about taking drastic measures than conducting good business.

“In this case, it’s a symbol of doing things smarter; it’s not an indicator of the end of literature,” he said. “We have turned off the spigot, but we have a very robust pipeline.” 

The action by the highly leveraged HMH may also be as much about the company's need to cut costs in a tight credit market.as about the current economic slowdown.

While Blumenfeld dismissed the severity of the policy, a number of agents said they have never heard of a publisher going so far as to instruct its editors to stop acquiring.

I Should Be Appointed Secretary of State Because My Mom Had Her Picture Taken With Gerald Ford

You know how much I like to trash publishing scams. Well, now my brother Tod is jumping into the fray with an expose of BK Nelson Literary Agency and their, um, "qualifications":

I can't think of a better reason to sign with BK Nelson other than she was associated with a law firm that, uh, had a partner whose daughter married Paul McCartney. If anyone can think of a stranger biographical note in an agent's bio, please, forward it to me. It's pretty much the equivalent of me saying you should buy my books because I once worked at a staffing service that sent temps to Disney (which was founded by Walt Disney).

Major Brilliant

I have been loving writer/producer Earl Pomerantz's brilliant and hilarious blog posts about the development of his sitcom MAJOR DAD. Here's an anecdote he shared about working on the pilot with then-CBS President Kim LeMasters:

Here’s something somebody told me I said once about how TV networks behave: “The first thing they say is the last thing they say.” What did I mean by that? I meant this.

During the “casting approval” process, the president of CBS, Kim (a man) had strongly objected to the casting of Shanna Reed as our leading lady. Universal insisted. We got Shanna Reed.

It is now the night before the filming. What is Kim’s primary “note”, besides that the show doesn’t “ring true” to the spirit of the Marine Corps?

“I can’t tell you what to do,” he began, before telling us what to do, “but if I were you, I would close down production and look for another leading lady.”

TV Main Title of the Week

The Audience for Canadian Shows is Tiny

It doesn't take many viewers to make a show #1 on the CBC in Canada. The series THE BORDER was the highest rated "off-ice" Canadian series last week with 765,000 viewers. The guest appearance of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA's Grace Park is credited with the spike in viewership. According to the TV Feeds My Family blog, there are YouTube videos that are getting bigger audiences than most Canadian series.

The rest of CBC's week went like this: Air Farce Final Flight: 710,000, Dr. Who: 701,000, Rick Mercer Report (repeat): 637,000, Heartland: 625,000, The Tudors: 567,000, Fifth Estate: 526,000, Nature of Things 486,000, Little Mosque on the Prairie: 464,000, This Hour Has 22 Minutes (repeat): 428,000 and, dwindling well below sustainability, Sophie: 280,000.

Among the other Canadian-produced fare last week, CTV's So You Think You Can Dance Canada waltzed off with 1,160,000 viewers (another 888,000 watched the results show Thursday night). Next was ol' reliable Corner Gas at 1,066,000. Global's The Guard was down to 385,000. Well back, making Sophie look like CSI, was Degrassi: The Lost Generation at 222,000 viewers--across Canada. There are more people in Saskatoon!

UPDATE: The previous headline on this post ("The TV Audience in Canada is Tiny") was miss-leading so I have changed it to more accurately reflect what I was trying to say. American shows draw the lion's share of episodic TV viewers in Canada as they do in many European countries.

Mr. Monk is Slightly Less Miserable

The first reviews of MR. MONK IS MISERABLE have started coming in. Publishers Weekly was lukewarm ("This one's likely to divert only die-hard fans of the TV show"), Harriett Klausner loved it (and you know how rare that is), and Mark Baker at Eopinions gave it a rave, so naturally he's the one I'm gonna quote here:

"Those familiar with the TV show know that it is as much comedy as mystery.  That holds true here as well.  I was laughing pretty hard at many things over the course of the book.  There is a sub-plot introduced in the second half that fans of the TV show will especially find hilarious.  It may have been my favorite part of the book, in fact. As any fan of the TV series know, when Mr. Monk is Miserable, we benefit."

In other MONK book news, the German edition of MR. MONK GOES TO GERMANY came out yesterday and I'm told it is already getting lots of press. The translator of the book tells me that the entire first printing sold out before publication to the people of Lohr, where the book takes place.

My Quotable Family

Coming from a family chock full of writers and journalists means we all know how to give a good quote to a reporter. My Uncle Stan Barer, a University of Washington regent, was asked by the Seattle Post Intelligencer to comment on the severe funding cutbacks the university is facing from the state.

"We take better care of our prisoners than of our students," UW Regent Stanley Barer said Thursday. "Maybe we ought to have prisoners stay here at night so that we can get the money."

How NOT To Get People to Watch Your Show

Insulting your viewers probably isn't the best way to get them to watch your show. But that didn't stop HEROES showrunner Tim Kring from laying the blame for the ratings decline of his show on serialized storylines and the limited intelligence of his audience. 

The engine that drove [serialized TV] was you had to be in front of the TV [when it aired]. Now you can watch it when you want, where you want, how you want to watch it, and almost all of those ways are superior to watching it on air. So [watching it] on air is related to the saps and the dipshits who can't figure out how to watch it in a superior way." 

A superior way? Why is it "superior" to watch the show on your iPod or your computer instead of on TV? Isn't it a TV show? How does the medium you choose to watch HEROES with make the stories and characters any more or less compelling?

I'm sure that heavy serialization is part of the problem with HEROES. But the bigger problem is that the show is a confusing, uninvolving mess that isn't compelling or entertaining enough to get the viewer to make the necessary commitment. At least not this viewer, one of the "saps and dipshits."

I watched all of season the "superior way" on my iPod on plane flights while traveling back-and-forth to Europe. And I really liked it. I saw the first four or five episodes of season two on TV. And gave up on the show.  I guess if I'd watched the season two episodes on my iPod I would have liked them. (Or is he saying the opposite, that TV is the "superior way" and other platforms are for saps and dispshits? He's not too clear. Either way, it's the stories and characters that matter, not whether you watch it on TV, a computer, or a DVR).

Now Kring is planning to make his stories less serialized...or not serialized at all. That could work, but I'm not sure that he's attacking the real problem, or as Time Magazine TV critic James Poniewozik puts it:

Yes, you can blame technology for siphoning all the smart viewers away from your series. You could try revamping your show so that it becomes the complete opposite of what it was conceived as. Or you could try, you know, not sucking. A story arc or two that doesn't inspire ridicule could go a long way with the saps and dips***s, is all I'm saying. [...]Whatever problems Heroes has, the fault lies not in its DVRs but in itself.

UPDATE 11-25-08: Poniewozik reports that Kring has apologized for his comments in an open letter to fans, which reads in part:

I was making the point that these platforms now offer a superior way to watch the show (without commercials, with extra content, commentary, at the audience's convenience, etc.) ... It was a boneheaded attempt at being cute and making a point. Instead, it turned out to be just plain insulting and stupid. I know now how it sounded, but I truly never meant to suggest anything bad about our audience. 

Unaired Batgirl Pilot

Here's an unaired pilot for a proposed "Batgirl" spin-off from BATMAN.

Unconvincing As Myself

Writer Joel Stein was working out at the gym when he was approached by producer Max Mutchnick (of WILL & GRACE) to audition for the starring role in an ABC sitcom pilot. The problem was, Joel wasn't an actor and had never acted before. 

Max insisted I come in, and even though I was well aware that I cannot act, I agreed. As soon as he sent me the script, I started figuring out how to deal with my upcoming money and fame. Within minutes, I pictured myself usurping Max's authority and threatening to leave the show unless they made the writing darker and artsier. This was despite the fact that the script was way better than anything I've ever written, none of which is at all dark and artsy. 

He did the audition but didn't get the part.

The part wound up going to Josh Cooke, who had the advantage of being an actor. And ABC didn't wind up putting it on the air anyway. But I still needed to find out how I did, so I called Max. "You're too cerebral," he said. "You thought about what you were doing. Actors are dumb for a reason. They don't think, they just be. It's like when you make love. You just have to do it." It's as if Max has been secretly talking to my wife.

Stein's story reminded me of the time I also was approached to act in a pilot...though I didn't know at first I was expected to perform in a part.  Let me explain...

Five years ago, a friend of mine at TVLand called me up to say they were doing a talkshow pilot called TV KITSCHEN starring Martin Mull & Fred Willard, who were brilliant in the classic talkshow spoof FERNWOOD 2 NIGHT.  My friend wanted me to be a guest and to talk about one of the worst unsold pilots ever. And if the series went, my "unsold pilot" report would be a regular feature.

It sounded like fun. So I picked a pilot, the horrific TARZAN IN MANHATTAN (Tarzan befriends a cab driver named Jane and teams up with her Dad, a private eye played by Tony Curtis, to fight crime). The idea was that I'd screen some clips and chat about the show with Mull & Willard. I'm pretty comfortable being on camera, and in front of a studio audience, so I wasn't too nervous about it.

Two days before shooting a script arrived at my house...and I discovered that TV KITSCHEN shared more in common with FERNWOOD 2 NIGHT than its two stars and talkshow format.  It was an entirely scripted show, written like a sitcom, and I had dialogue to memorize.  I would be, in effect, playing a character named "Lee Goldberg."  

The problem was that I'm not an actor and I would have to hold my own with Mull & Willard, who are not only professional actors, they are comic geniuses. I was terrified. 

I quickly called up the producer, who convinced me not worry, that it would be fun, and that all I had to do was be myself...as long as I stuck to the script, of course. 

My fear was outweighed by my curiosity. What would it be like to act? Besides, I knew I was perfect for the part. Even if it was a disaster, it would be a memorable experience. So I decided to do it. I spent the next two days running my lines with my wife and my writing staff on MISSING, trying to say them naturally, as if I was me just being me. I was a very unconvincing me. 

The shooting day arrived.  The set looked like the kitchen in a suburban home with a few TVs scattered around it. I was greeted warmly by my friend, the writer/producer, who immediately took me over to the director, Ted Lange, who is best-known for playing the bartender on THE LOVE BOAT. Lange immediately decided I was dressed all wrong for the part and sent me to wardrobe, where they tried to make me look like a college professor. I suggested that a cardigan sweater might be a cliche and that it wasn't something I felt that Lee Goldberg would wear. We had a short discussion about the Lee Goldberg character and I won the cardigan battle. 

I was then sent to make-up, where I met Fred Willard, who I'd met before when he did a guest-shot for me on DIAGNOSIS MURDER. Much to my surprise, he remembered me and the episode and we had a very nice chat. He also told me not to be nervous because he and Mull weren't going to stick to the script anyway.

I spent the next several hours sitting in the bleachers (the studio audience, really a bunch of hired "extras," had already left after recording their reactions, applause and laughter) watching them shoot. Each time Mull & Willard deviated from the script, Lange made them do it again, as written. As a writer, I appreciated it. But as an objective third party, it was obvious that the improv stuff was much better than what was on the page and played more naturally, too. And Mull clearly knew it. His discussions with Lange were getting more and more tense. Don't get me wrong, Mull was polite and professional, but his anger and frustration were clear.

Then it came time for my scene. We did a rehearsal, where I was stilted, awkward, and horrible. At least, I felt that I was. Lange had no notes on my "performance," just instructions regarding blocking  (where I would be and when and where the cameras would be). Mull & Willard were very nice. While they lit everything, I chatted with Mull & Willard, who expressed to me their frustration with the script, and then we discussed unsold pilots that they had done, FERNWOOD 2 NIGHT and other stuff.

When it came time to shoot, I felt much more relaxed with them and the scene played much better (from my POV) than I thought it would. And I know it was because of the chat we had. Our "fictional" conversation became an extension of the one we were having off-camera. They put me completely at ease. I've often wondered if they did that on purpose or if things just worked out that way.

I saw the pilot a few weeks later and didn't cringe with embarrassment when I saw myself. I wasn't great, but I wasn't awful, either. I would have preferred to be myself rather than play myself, but all things considered, the bit played okay. 

But the pilot didn't get picked up and with it the likelihood of me developing a cult following and my own wildly successful LEE GOLDBERG SHOW spin-off died as well. 

Oh well.

Dreams Coming True

Illustrating Stories has posted an interview with my sister Linda Woods, who shares a frequent lament I hear from writers...

"The challenge for me is balancing the business side of my career with the creative side. There doesn't seem to be enough time to ever get caught up!" 

On the other hand, like many writers I know, she also talks about how lucky she is to be doing what she loves.

"I'm really fortunate that a lot of my creative dreams have come true already. There have been many moments in my career when I have thought OK, I CAN DIE NOW! "

That has been so true for me and for my brother Tod, with whom I've enjoyed many of those "dream come true moments"  chatting together with one of our literary idols. I'm so glad that it's happening for Linda, too.

Voighted

I loved this line in the LA Times review of 24:

"Meanwhile, back in the states, a senator so vile that he is played by Jon Voight is funding the rebels."

Speaking of 24, it's amazing to me how many former showrunners they have working under Howard Gordon in their producing ranks, which includes Steve Kronish (THE COMMISH), Brannon Braga (STAR TREK),  Evan Katz (THREE), Manny Coto (ODYSSEY FIVE) and Alex Gansa (DAWSON'S CREEK),  who is Howards former writer partner from their days on BEAUTY & THE BEAST and X-FILES. It just shows how hard it is to find a job in TV these days that Howard could get such an A-list roster of talent.

I Am Developing a Very Intimate Relationship with my Keyboard

Sorry I have been largely absent from the blog this week...I've been concentrating most of my energy on researching my next MONK book and writing the "sample" chapters of a stand-alone crime novel. 

My goal is to give my agent a good, representative chunk of the standalone book -- about 25-30,000 words -- and a breezy outline of the rest after Thanksgiving so she can shop it around while I work on my next MONK (that's assuming that she thinks the spec chapters and the premise of the standalone are any good).

I've had a couple of pilot pitches over the last two weeks -- neither of which panned out. But in both cases I met with executives who were new to me, so I see the experiences as a plus. It's always good to make new contacts. 

Speaking of which, I attended a seminar on Tuesday night sponsored by MediaXChange and CapGemini that explored the future of TV drama. Attendees included studio execs, showrunners, broadcasters, media consultants, and web pioneers. It was a very thought-provoking evening that I enjoyed a great deal. They also circulated an interesting report on the Future of Television that you can download here.

They are The Champions

Variety reports that Guillermo Del Toro and Christopher McQuarrie are teaming up to write United Artists' movie version of the 1960s UK series THE CHAMPIONS, which starred Stuart Damon as one of three spies who develop super powers after crashlanding in the Himalayas and being rescued by a secret civilization. Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner will produce. 

TV Main Title of the Week

The Mail I Get

I get a lot of interview requests from students doing papers and reports. I usually answer their questions. But this request, which came on Tuesday night, was an exception:

I am a student, who is writing a report on Science Fiction Novelists. I would really appreciate it if you responded ASAP, considering the fact that my paper is due Wed (tomorrow).  Can I ask you these questions? If they are too personal, I completely understand. But, they MUST be included in my paper.

• What is your salary?
• What is your typical day like when working?
• What college is recomended for writers/science fiction writers?

Also, it would be very helpful if you could tell me where I could contact other writers ASAP.

I told him that a) I don't write science fiction novels, b) he shouldn't have waited until the last minute to contact the writers that he needed to talk to and c) that no, I wouldn't give him any contact information so that he could impose on my friends.

Huh?

I just received the Canadian DVD release of my movie FAST TRACK: NO LIMITS...but I don't understand the teaser line on the cover:

Fast...Furious...No Limits. If Time is Money, What's Your Quarter Mile?

What does that mean? How is that supposed to entice me into renting/buying the DVD?

The movie is now also available on DVD in China,  Japan , Australia , Thailand and Spain... as well as many other countries (but not yet in the U.S.). You can also find DVDs of FAST TRACK on Ebay.

The name is Geek, Lee Geek

I'm sitting in the Habit burger joint after seeing the first showing of the new Bond film. I am order #007...how's that for fate?

I don't see why the critics have been so hard on this movie...I liked it. I just wish there was more of the Bond theme and less frenetic cutting of the action sequences.

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Worse Ratings Are Worst Enemy's Worst Enemy

Variety reports that NBC has canceled MY OWN WORST ENEMY after the series notched its worst ratings yet this week. The Christian Slater spy drama will halt production after wrapping their ninth episode, which they are shooting now. 

Meanwhile, ABC is mulling whether or not to pick up PUSHING DAISIES, though showrunner Bryan Fuller vows to continue the show as a comic book if the ax falls.

“The idea would be to finish out the season’s story arcs in comic books,” Fuller said during a “Inside the Writers Room” night at the Paley Center for Media Tuesday evening.  The comic would likely be publshed by DC because “Daisies” is produced by DC’s corporate sibling, Warner Brothers.  

The purpose of the comic book series would be “to satisfy the fans and ourselves, to finish up the stories we’d love to tell” and to “clear the slate for a movie” Fuller said.

Book Worming

My brother Tod does an amazing impersonation of KCRW's Bookworm host Michael Silverblatt. His impersonati0n is SO good, it's even amazing in print:

Silverblatt: Tod, I am struck by the power in your prose, the way words tumble from the page like mercury, like Jupiter, like Pluto, once a planet, but no more a planet, now just a bit of stardust, like your words, floating, inexorably, through, time. And yet, I find that your words are also like play-dough, in that when I eat them I find them at first...salty...yet...plain...and I found myself yearning for...bite...verve...only found in the works of people like Rilke, like Rick Springfield, whose girl, while Jessie's, was, in fact, no longer, like Pluto. Yes?

Me: I'm just happy to be on the show, Mike.

His account of his trip to the Vegas Valley Book Festival is pretty funny, too.

Reusable Man-Tits

The Smart Bitches Who Love Trashy Books bloggers have caught Harlequin using the same cover image over and over again:

"In a failing economy, it becomes essential to any business to recycle and to seek alternative means to cut costs. Such as? Stock imagery! Hey, when you find a hot image with expansive man-titty, you work that for all it is worth. "

Or you just change the heads.

My First Time

You can watch the SPENSER: FOR HIRE episode "If You Knew Sammy," the first produced teleplay by me & William Rabkin, here. It's absolutely free and features future movie star William H. Macy in a supporting role, which he would reprise in our sequel episode, "Play it Again, Sammy" (which was a back-door pilot).

Vanity Press Trickery

The wonderful Writers Beware blog led me to this excellent list of tricks vanity presses use to con desperate, and gullible aspiring writers into believing that they are "real" publishers...which also double as rationalizations the suckers use to convince themselves that they haven't been swindled. Among them, the myth that if a publisher doesn't accept all submissions (eg. Tate), and pays a token advance (eg. PublishAmerica), they aren't a scam.

2. Misconception: Vanity presses don’t pay advances.

While vanity presses are supported primarily by the money that writers pay them, the less-than-honest vanities try to pass themselves off as real publishers. One way to do so is to pay advances (or claim to do so).

Now, how to be an advance-paying publisher and still make a profit from writers? Well, the advances could be very low. For instance, $1 per author, non-negotiable. The publisher could also pay – or claim to pay – advances to some authors but not others. Maybe you’ll get it, maybe you won’t.

They can afford to pay you the $1 or the $100 because they know they will make it all back in the money they make off of you and your family buying copies of your own book...which, in fact, is their actual business. They make are in the "selling books to authors" business.

Rebooting the Reboot

The rebooted KNIGHTRIDER is getting a reboot. Half the cast -- Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Yancey Arias and Bruce Davison -- has been let go and the concept is being tweaked to make it closer to the original series. Showunner Gary Scott Thompson says:

 "We're moving away from the terrorist-of-the-week formula and closer to the original, making it a show about a man and his car going out and helping more regular people, everymen."

TV Main Title of the Week

The Writing on the Wall

The once-hot HEROES has cooled considerably. The ratings are declining, producers are getting fired, and now Bit-Tech reports that Ubisoft has abruptly canceled plans for a HEROES game.

Though no official information was ever given out on the game or why exactly it has been cancelled, speculation is that Ubisoft is responding to declining interest in the show, which is now in the third series. Though the show proved phenomenally popular in the first series, the second series came to an abrupt end thanks to the writers strike and the third season has struggled to get positive reviews.

I wonder how much longer NBC will stick with the show, which reportedly costs well over $4 million an episode.

UPDATE: The New York Times reports on NBC's attempts to save HEROES from sliding any further.

The impetus for the firings came from the top, according to two people close to the production who spoke on the condition of anonymity. (These and others close to the show were not authorized to speak on the record.) They said that Jeff Zucker, president and chief executive of NBC Universal and Mr. Silverman’s boss, was greatly upset by an Entertainment Weekly cover story two weeks ago that said some of this season’s developments were “jump-the-shark preposterous” and concluded that the series “may no longer be a pop-culture phenomenon.”

[...]Yet on Friday, Entertainment Weekly also reported that Bryan Fuller, one of the lead writers in the first season of “Heroes” who left to create “Pushing Daisies” for ABC, is considering a return to “Heroes” if ABC fails to extend “Pushing Daisies” beyond the 13 episodes it has ordered for this season.