Friday 31 August 2012

Great Milestones In Televised Nudity

As regular readers of this blog will be aware the Parents Television Council has recently released their annual report about the state of American television, and (spoiler alert) things are terrible. Que escandalo! In tribute to their glorious anti-nipple jihad, Nerve's Alex Heigl has taken a look back at some of the pioneers who made it possible for such debauchery to invade US prime-time...



1964: Gilligan's Island is cool with cleavage, less so with navels

The real battle on Gilligan's Island was fought in the hearts and loins of viewers and concerned Ginger and Mary Ann. But an equally vicious war waged behind the scenes over the amount of skin the pair could show. In the 1960s, the belly button was one of the prime battlegrounds of decency, and so despite Ginger's cleavage-baring outfits, she and Mary Ann were barred from showing their navels. Promo shots exist with navels bared, but on-air, there were a lot of high-waisted shorts and one-piece bathing suits on that extended three-hour tour.

1965: I Dream of Jeannie plugs Barbara Eden's belly button

The story of a meek, submissive genie and her dominant master, I Dream of Jeannie remains a perfect piece of candy-colored '60s camp. Of course, despite all the skin exposed by Barbara Eden's outfit, the show was still subject to the puritanical whims of the Powers That Be. For starters, the only reason censors were cool with the show intimating that the main characters lived together was because it was established that Jeannie slept in her bottle. (Like a good woman.) The pesky navel thing popped up again, too, but the show's creators took a more direct route than a high waistline: they filled Eden's navel with a flesh-colored cloth plug.

1966-67: Star Trek and the "Theiss Titillation Theory"

William Ware Theiss was the costume designer for the original run of Star Trek, and his censor-skirting costumes like the ones from "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" and "Who Mourns for Adonis?" inspired something called the "Theiss Titillation Theory." It states that "the degree to which a costume is considered sexy is directly proportional to how accident-prone it appears to be," and proves that sometimes when it comes to nudity, less is more.

1973: PBS aims to make plays less boring with breasts

PBS became the first network to intentionally reveal a woman's breasts and nipples with its serialized version of Bruce Jay Friedman's play Steambath. The series positions a steambath as the afterlife; future Hulk Bill Bixby as God; and Valerie Perrine as... the above lady. Perrine was shown from the side taking a shower, and the scene was so daring at the time that only a few PBS affiliates deigned to carry the show. Steambath ultimately ended up showing a few bare male buttocks as well, but it's Perrine's scene that remains a touchstone in TV nudity.

1976: Captains and the Kings fails to account for TV-set variances, with sexy results

Occasionally technical ineptitude yields... erotic results. Beverly D'Angelo (best known as Chevy Chase's wife in Vacation) made her debut as Miss Emmy in the NBC miniseries Captains and the Kings, and one of her love scenes involved a matte cut placed carefully just above her nipples. But the crew failed to account for variances in new television sets across the country, and so the morning after the scene premiered, they received a panicked call that one half of the country had seen more of D'Angelo than the other half. Surprisingly, there were few viewer complaints, though producer Jo Swerling Jr. recalls that NBC's Broadcast Standards warned them "not to cut it that close in the future."

1976: Live from New York, it's Jane Curtin's bra

On Weekend Update, Jane Curtin played the uptight foil to Dan Akyroyd's smarmy conservative, which was why she got such a shocked laugh when she ripped her top open during a debate over whether or not she was sexy enough to fill Chevy Chase's shoes as the Weekend Update anchor, exclaiming, "Get a load of these, Connie Chung!" (Never breaking from her trademark dry delivery.)

1987: Playtex uses real women (and, by extension, real breasts) in advertisements

Prior to 1987, mannequins were the only acceptable form upon which to drape bras in advertisements. Anything other than their cold, unfeeling flesh was naturally assumed to start riots. So you can imagine just how shocking it was when, in 1987, Playtex decided to run an ad that featured real live ladies wearing their products. They were only allowed to air the promo during daytime programming, when it was assumed fewer impressionable young minds would be watching.

1993-on: NYPD Blue shows buttocks, in flagrante and otherwise

NYPD Blue broke barriers to primetime nudity in its very first episode, and continued to do so repeatedly, to the point where it became a joke. That said, the show apparently inspired L. Trent Bozell to start the Parents Television Council, so maybe having a nagging, sanctimonious watchdog group is the price we paid for so much sweet, sweet Dennis Franz ass.

2002: C.S.I. allowed to show a breast, provided it's attached to a dead person

Perfectly illustrating our national hypocrisies over sex and violence, C.S.I.'s first episode with the "partial nudity" warning, "Slaves of Las Vegas," ran in 2002. The caveat? The nudity was of a woman's exposed breast — during her autopsy. I guess they did it to avoid getting "nipple and dimed" by the FCC. Yeaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!

2004: Janet Jackson's totally not-planned wardrobe malfunction

It was the breast heard 'round the world. The areola of rock n' rolla. The... time when Janet Jackson's boob popped out. At the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show, Justin Timberlake was incongruously singing, "I'm gonna have you naked by the end of this song," and then he pulled open Jackson's Matrix-esque top to reveal a lovely... metal... pasty thing, instead of the tasteful red bra she no doubt meant to expose instead. The whole thing was famously chalked up to a "wardrobe malfunction," but it ushered in a new era of FCC pissiness, as well as a still-ongoing series of lawsuits.

2011-2012: Pixelated nudity is the new frontier of offense

The PTC has been able to claim a 6300% increase in full-frontal nudity on primetime television in the past year, largely thanks to the relatively new phenomenon of pixelating full-frontal nudity. Everyone from Howie Mandel (in America's Got Talent) to Krysten Ritter (in Don't Trust the B--- in Apartment 23) has been donning a flesh-colored bodysuit to fake-nude their way to ratings gold, and the PTC is pissed, claiming (probably rightly) that such tactics only draw more attention to the censored area. Proponents claim that it's as much a visual gag as the classic black bar, and shouldn't be considered indecent. Moral poison or just a cheap grab for ratings? Either way, it's working.
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Friday 24 August 2012

Cover Your Eyes!

Much like real parents, writes AV Club's Sean O'Neal, the Parents Television Council continues to walk into the nation's rec rooms and shriek upon discovering that bras are off, leading to an awkward, embarrassing-for-everyone lecture that's once again been conveyed in its annual report on TV nudity. In short, everyone is going to get pregnant and have to drop out of school and miss prom, because the last year has seen a shocking 6,300-percent rise in depictions of full-frontal nudity, an increase that is tantamount to the networks replacing all commercials with lusty, lingering close-ups of nipples and scrotums, basically.

According to the results of research analysis by the PTC, there were a total of 64 cases of people going au naturel on the five major networks - CBS, NBC, FOX, ABC, and the CW - in the 2011-12 season. The Daily Mail reports that figure stands in remarkable contrast to the single instance of full-frontal nudity over the same time period the year before. Perverts may argue that, in the realm of regular, society-destroying dirty boobies and dangly bits, there was only a 407-percent increase of incidents, bringing us only 407 percent closer to total moral decay, reasons O'Neal. But most troubling of all, the PTC insists— in a tone of voice that lets us know it loves us and this is for our own good— is the rise in usage of blurring or pixilation that "could be perceived to be a closer simulation of complete frontal nudity, given that the viewer is seeing all flesh tones," and which could influence impressionable young people to begin experimenting with sex and Photoshop.


The slow trend from Buck Rogers to 'buck naked' began in the '90s with shows like NYPD Blue, but has become old-hat for current titles like The Office, Two and a Half Men, The Bachelor, and Don't Trust the B ---- in Apartment 23, all cited in The PTC study. In all, the analysis recorded 76 incidents of 'full nudity' on 37 shows during the 2011-12 prime-time network lineup. During the prior season, or from 2010-11, PTC notched just 15 instances on 14 shows. The study, which tracked TV shows from September 1 to May 31, drew the distinction between full nudity and full-frontal nudity.


Indeed, in nearly all of the suspiciously specific number of "76 incidents of full nudity in 37 shows," the various sin-mounds were covered in hot, fleshy pixels, rather than the old-timey chastity belts of black bars that once prevented everyone from imagining what the human body looked like naked. As proof, notes O'Neil, the PTC has not only compiled this treasure trove of links to blurry naked people on the TV with all the non-naked stuff cut out—like a porn loop for those with a digital distortion fetish— it's also provided meticulous descriptions of many other incidents that you should now imagine being read aloud in your mother's voice, so that you'll never find anything sexy ever again.

The networks used various techniques to blur character's sex organs from the audience's view, the study showed. The numbers exclude any animated nudity or suggested full nudity in which a person is assumed to be nude on the top, but a portion of their body is blocked by a conveniently-placed table or sofa, for instance. However, the study did include scenes in which individuals are completely unclothed and only the sexual organ is blocked from the viewer.

The study focused on prime-time, broadcast television, including network specials, but excluding news and sports. Surprisingly, the study stated that almost 70 per cent of the scenes showing full nudity during the 2011–12 study period were on shows that aired before 9pm and as early as 7pm. In comparison, a half of the full nudity scenes recorded aired after 9pm the previous year.

Of the five major networks, NBC actors most often appeared in the buff, with the study recording 37 occurrences of its characters going nude during the 2011-'12 prime-time season. Second was ABC with 24 recorded instances, while CBS came in third with eight cases of full nudity. Fox and the CW brought up the rear, so to speak, with three and four instances, respectively.

And just in case you think pixilated butts and boobs are all anyone has to write alarmist press releases about, the PTC has also compiled this helpful show-by-show indecency guide, which will tell you exactly what's wrong with series like New Girl ("Sex is the show’s main problem, with many prolonged references to sex and anatomy"), Happy Endings ("Language includes 'ass,' 'slut,' 'bitch,' 'douche,' 'hell,' and 'skank'), and Community ("Foul language includes the words 'ass,' 'hell,' 'douche bag,' 'piss,' 'crap,' and 'damn'), and also tell you why none of this is "cool" like your friends say.

In an effort to stave off our "douche"-laden descent into moral turpitude, the PTC has asked that you write your congressperson and call on them to help combat the threat of blurred nudity, in between all that stuff about the economy and war. It's also instituted a new rule that everyone's hands have to be visible at all times in the TV room. And they better not be pixelated. By way of example, and in light of the findings, PTC president Tim Winter sent a letter to congressional members asking them to urge the Federal Communications Commission to move forward in clearing the backlog of 1.6 million unadjudicated indecency complaints. In their analysis, PTC also found trends towards more full-frontal nudity, full nudity at earlier hours of the evening, and a clear failure on the part of the TV networks to use their content ratings system to warn parents. The following are excerpts from PTC’s letter to congressional members:

"In 2006, Congress passed the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act in response to growing outrage from the American people over the broadcast networks’ abuse of the publicly-owned broadcast airwaves. Yet since that time, we have seen a concerted effort on the part of the networks to constantly push the outer limit of what may be considered appropriate for the broadcast medium.

"Contrary to what executives from NBC, ABC, and CBS told you in 2004 and 2005, and contrary to what attorneys for the networks recently argued before the Supreme Court, they are not acting in the public interest; they are aggressively pursuing a dangerous agenda to completely obliterate any remaining television taboos.

"During prime time hours across all broadcast networks, use of the bleeped or muted f-word increased from 11 instances in 2005 to 276 instances in 2010 – an increase of 2,409%... It’s not just the language that’s getting coarser. PTC research has found a staggering increase in the frequency and explicitness of pixelated nudity on the broadcast networks during primetime hours.

"The networks have made it abundantly clear they have no intention of respecting either the broadcast licenses they’ve been granted or the public in whose interest they are licensed to serve. Therefore the American people, whose values are being assaulted on a nightly basis, must insist that the Federal Communications Commission vigorously enforce broadcast decency laws, as mandated by the Congress and affirmed by the Supreme Court.

"We call on you to give the FCC your full support for decency enforcement; to urge the FCC to move forward with all due haste in clearing the backlog of 1.6 million unadjudicated indecency complaints; and to give the FCC the tools it needs to ensure enforcement actions are meaningful and appropriate… Because Our Children Are Watching."
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Thursday 23 August 2012

TV Audiences Relax Views On Sex

There has been a decline in concern about the amount of sex, violence, nudity and swearing on television, new Ofcom figures show. A report in today's Telegraph states that the attitudes of UK TV viewers have become more relaxed in general, yet a significant proportion of people are still concerned by what is shown, with 19% of adults, questioned in 2011, offended by something that they had watched in the past 12 months.

Ofcom's annual survey found that 25% of adults are unhappy with the amount of sex on the small-screen, down from 36% in 2005. More than a third (36%) say that there is too much violence, down from 56%, and 37% are concerned about the amount of foul language, a drop from 55% in 2005. The figures also show a fall in the level of concern since 2010, when 30% said that there was too much sex and 43% were concerned by violence and language. The Regulator's report also found that 77% of UK adults, up from 64%, believe that the 9pm TV watershed, designed to protect younger audiences, is set at the right time. Only 12% think that the watershed is too early.


Around half (55%) of the adults questioned said that the standard of TV programmes has remained consistent over the previous 12 months. The proportion saying that standards have declined is at 31%, down from 40% in 2005, but only 12% said that there has been improvement in the last 12 months. Older people are more likely to feel that standards have declined (46% among those aged 65 and over), while the youngest (16-34) were more likely to feel that they had improved (18%).

When describing why standards had got worse, most cited more repeats (71%) and lack of variety (43%). Overall, three quarters (74%) felt the current levels of TV regulation were "about right" but Ofcom said that the take-up of new technology which changed viewing habits would raise new questions.

The report also found that TV is the main source of UK and international news for 76% of adults. Newspapers are the biggest source for 8% of adults, with 7% citing the internet and 5% radio. For local news, 53% say that TV is their main source, with 15% selecting newspapers, 10% radio and 6% the internet. Over half (59%) of adults, down from 66% in 2010, feel that TV is an "impartial" news source. Radio was seen as the second most impartial at 52%, down from 57% in 2010. Around a quarter of adults (24%) say that newspapers are impartial, a similar proportion to 2010. The research found that 34% of adults agree that broadcasters should be able to show programmes that scrutinise the lives of celebrities and politicians without consent.

When it comes to stories about the general public in the media, 19% say that consent is not needed but 63% disagree. Almost half (48%) of UK adults say that newspapers are the most intrusive media into the lives of people in the public eye, followed by TV (24%) and magazines (21%). Four in 10 (41%) thought that the internet was regulated but 51% of parents said that there was too little regulation of online content.

Research was conducted for Ofcom by the research agency BDRC Continental with a sample of 1,700 adults.
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Thursday 16 August 2012

Mastering Her Sex

Encouraged by the obvious online anticipation of the series, given the popularity of the search term "lizzy caplan sex," Showtime was very quick to pick up the one-hour drama Masters Of Sex for 12 episodes (a number you can likely go ahead and multiply by at least four, since it will air on Showtime) to begin filming in the new year.

Based on Thomas Maier's book 'Masters of Sex: The Life and Times of William Masters and Virgina Johnson, The Couple Who Taught America How To Love,' Lizzy Caplan will play Johnson to Michael Sheen's Masters, the '60s-era scientists whose research into human sexual behavior greatly influenced the sexual revolution that led to a more modern, liberated era where you can show people doing it on premium cable.

So what attracted Caplan to the Showtime drama series, and just how far will it actually go? "It goes far. It goes crazy far!" reveals the Los Angeles born actress in a candid interview with Collider. "The explicit sex scenes were certainly not what drew me to it. There’s this strange thing about doing nudity on camera now, with the internet and everything. I’ve only done it on one other job, which was True Blood, and yet it seems like something that I do all the time. At least, people seem to think that. It was more that I was drawn to the character of Virginia Johnson, who I find to be the most fascinating woman. And a huge part of her personality and who she was, was a woman who was completely comfortable with her own sexuality, at a time where that was almost unheard of, in the Midwest during the 1950′s. It’s crazy that she even took lovers that she didn’t want to marry, eventually. That was her whole thing."


The process of getting the part was lengthy and complicated for Caplan. "John Madden directed it and he's this very fancy, amazing guy who did Shakespeare in Love," she told The Insider. "He really saw me in this part way before I actually saw myself in the role. Typically you're typecast in your comfort zone but this is so far outside that for me. This is a true period piece drama, but when I read the book this show is based on, the character and I are so alike, so I could really see myself in her. Plus, she's such a pioneer and a total badass. If I can raise awareness for what she did at this strange time in America, then sign me up!"

Which raises the obvious question of exactly what did Virginia Johnson do? "A lot of people are familiar with Kinsey – they did questionnaires asking people about their sexual preferences, which was ground-breaking at the time," she answers. "Masters & Johnson were research scientists – well, he was and she pretended to be. They would wire people to electrodes and heart-monitors to watch them masturbate and have sex [in hopes of figuring] out the science of an orgasm. People were adhering to Freudian ideas, which were so masculine and female sexuality was so far in the background. Masters & Johnson, combined with the sexual revolution, gave women power over their own bodies."

Pondering if it easier to perform sex scenes or watch other actors perform sex scenes, Caplan admits: "I get a weird kick of out shooting sex scenes because they're just so awkward. They're so uncomfortable that the situation makes me laugh. There's something sort of fun about it since you're usually doing it with a good looking co-stars, so, whatever, it's part of the job. I'll take it. So I thought watching other people pretend to have sex would be so easy, but I was so uncomfortable. It was so weird to watch other people because it makes you self-conscious and think about what you look like when you're shooting a sex scene. But I better get used to it because [Masters & Johnson] watched a lot of people do it. I mean, they observed over 10,000 orgasms."

Caplan says she knew going for the role that being comfortable with explicit material would be necessary because it’s just at the core of who this woman was. "It’s why she was so helpful to [Dr. William] Masters," she explains. "Why their studies were so successful was because she understood sexuality, more than he did. He understood science, and she understood the human element of it. And she’s such a complicated woman. It’s, by far, the most challenging part I’ll ever play. It has been the most challenging, up until this point. And the story is just amazing and riveting."

People will probably be tempted to say, 'Oh, they took it really far. It’s a cable show. Of course, they’re turning it into this overly sexualized thing,' thinks Caplan. "But, it’s based on a biography of the two of them and all of the stuff really happened. We’re not amping it up. It really was that strange, and they were doing it for this greater purpose. They really believed in the science of the project. I really believe in this project, so it’s like, 'All right, if I have to be on the internet naked for a few more years, then whatever.'"

In considering how she would crack the code as to who Virginia Johnson was, Caplan says she read the book extensively and picked up on little things peppered throughout that were pretty strange coincidences. "Just little tiny things that wouldn't be mind-blowing but that I started to feel sort of connected to her," she explains. "And there was something so brave to me about this woman who was so comfortable with her sexuality at a time where women weren't. They had no ownership over their own sexuality. And she was this twice-divorced woman with two kids and a nightclub singer and she sort of hustles her way into this hospital and becomes this doctor's assistant all by virtue of her own moxie and personality. And she becomes half of what is the most important sex researcher team that I think has ever been."

As one of half of the team that will ultimately carry the show, Caplan says Michael Sheen is an actor she respects so much. "I refer to him as a real actor because he's like played Hamlet and is one of those trained actors," she laughs. "And it felt like the dynamic was already in place because I felt like this scrappy little comedy actress coming in and playing with this big gun. And that was how it was for the two of these people, so before we even started rolling it was like, 'Okay, whoever's casting this show is smart because they're setting up this like power situation like from the get-go.' And Michael and I have since become good buddies and we're gonna have a blast shooting the show. He’s so awesome and so game for everything that we’re going to have to do. We’re going to be really getting into some stuff, so luckily we get along with each other. It would be a nightmare, otherwise."

All of which explains why Masters of Sex clearly had to be on a channel like Showtime. "Yea. It's interesting still how male full frontal nudity is still taboo most of the time," she says. "I'm going to really push for Michael to show his parts on this show. As an actor, you just really admire the bravery of other actors to do that because it's weird not only for them to have to perform in front of a small crew, but to do it in front of other actors watching them. It's ridiculous."

And the craziest sex fact that she has learned as a part of this gig? "The craziest sex fact that I learned was that before Masters and Johnson kind of blew the lid off this, everybody considered the male orgasm to be the only important orgasm, the only one that mattered," she answers with incredulity. "It's all Freudian shit, like the virginal orgasm was the only one that counted and a clitoral orgasm was bullshit. And like people really lived their lives like that. That's crazy. I'm gonna have to say the word 'clitoral' so many times in the next year!"
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Sunday 12 August 2012

Transporter Finally Delivered

A first look at Cinemax's upcoming action series Transporter, starring Prison Break star Chris Vance, has finally come online, several months later than had originally been intended. Based on the successful film franchise of the same name created by EuropaCorp's Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen, this fast-paced series follows the adventures of professional transporter Frank Martin, an ex-Special Forces operator who can always be counted on to get the job done - discreetly. Operating in a seedy underworld of dangerous criminals and desperate players, his three rules are: Never change the deal, no names, and never open the package. Occasionally, complications arise and rules get broken.

The TV version has been written by Alexander Ruemelin, Joseph Mallozzi ,Paul Mullie, Carl Binder, and Steve Bailie, with Lost director Stephen Williams helming the pilot. Other episodes in the series feature Bruce McDonald (Degrassi: The Next Generation, Queer as Folk) and Andy Mikita (Stargate Universe, Sanctuary). Transporter also sees François Berléand returning as Inspector Tarconi, Andrea Osvart as Carla – a former CIA agent, handler and love interest for Martin – Delphine Chanéac in the recurring role of Juliette, a reporter who seems to know a lot about Frank's work, and Rachel Skarsten as Delia, the daughter of someone from Frank's past.


British actor Vance says it was a 'schoolboy's dream' to reprise the role that made lead Jason Statham a star. "You get to drive the fast cars, get in all the fights, get all the beautiful women," he told The Hollywood Reporter on his character in the 12-part TV series. Yet if playing Frank Martin seemed a boyhood dream come true, the actual Transporter production became more of a nightmare, with extensive delays, production and budget battles and a severe on-set injury that put Vance in the hospital last October and put the Transporter shoot on hold for months. Things were further complicated by Transporter's unique set-up. Made outside the network series system, the big-budget show was made as a co-production between Atlantique Productions in France and Canadian operation QVF with four national broadcasters on board: HBO Cinemax in the U.S., Canadian pay-TV operators TMN and Movie Central, RTL Television in Germany and France's M6.

"We had a decent budget so the actual shoot wasn't much different than a network shoot," Vance explained, "the big difference with this kind of international co-production is you have a lot more people involved in the decision making. You have the broadcasters in the different countries – all from different cultural backgrounds, with different markets and different needs - and they all have their own opinions. It took a long time to get everyone agreed on what we were shooting here. I mean the Transporter is really in the sweet spot of the action genre. You can't mess with it."

The high profile adaptation is supposed to be a game-changer as one of global TV's most ambitious projects. Following The Tudors, The Borgias, Combat Hospital and The Pillars of the Earth, Transporter is the latest in the new wave of high-end drama series financed and produced outside of the U.S. that aims to attract audiences both in Europe and North America. Even among this company, Transporter- with a reputed budget of $3.3 million an episode- is arguably the most ambitious. If it works, it could pave the way for a slew of internationally made English-language series, many of which are already in the pipeline.

Airing on Cinemax in the U.S., the success of Transporter is also key because unlike a miniseries like Pillars of the Earth, the show is a one-hour drama - the meat of any channel's schedule. In the U.S., cable outlets such as AMC and FX and pay-TV networks like Showtime, Starz and Cinemax are increasingly using original series to brand their networks. But drama is expensive, and often even successful U.S. shows - think Breaking Bad, Mad Men or Justified - have struggled to get on primetime in the big European markets.

Transporter's international model, in theory, solves those problems; even though the show is breaking a lot of rules, and there have been some considerable setbacks. In addition to the logistical headaches of making a European production in English, turning Toronto into Paris or Berlin and staying true to Besson's original vision while satisfying the show's multiple international producers, the departure of two showrunners early in the process cast a cloud of uncertainty around the future of the Transporter experiment. Weeks into the shoot, Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie abruptly left the production, citing "creative differences." British director Steve Shill (Dexter, Desperate Housewives) and veteran supervising producer Karen Wookey (Andromeda) came on board. The move effectively represented a retooling for a series with lots of working parts - multiple units, second units, fight units – and production on both sides of the Atlantic. Fred Fuchs, a Toronto-based executive producer on Transporter, said the series simply had to raise its production game to achieve the cutting-edge action/adventure scenes intended. "This is a hard show, and we brought in new people, not because of a problem, but because this is the nature of filmmaking. It’s not an exact science," he said.

"We'd just finished shooting the fourth episode [out of 12] and prepping the next two when we parted ways with the production," Mallozzi told The Hollywood Reporter without giving any details. "There was no drama, no big clash, no hard feelings, and no scandal," insists Klaus Zimmermann, whose French firm Atlantique is producing Transporter with QVF in Canada. Yet there certainly had been upheaval on the set, with the director of photography and the costume designer subsequently replaced, along with much of the electrical and transportation units.

The change in on-set leadership was key since Transporter was not using the traditional showrunner model of production. Under that model, a single showrunner - like David Chase on The Sopranos - acts as the creative driver. But on Transporter, the real star is the brand itself - a franchise whose three features have made a collective $238 million worldwide and continue to see top ratings when they air on TV across the globe. So the show's producers took what could be called the Marvel Studios approach. Instead of a showrunner's individual vision, everyone on Transporter was meant to be working to deliver a TV version of the film brand.

"In America, the rule is, 'One show, one showrunner.' But that wasn't the case for Transporter - it was a collective effort," says Zimmermann. "When you're working with a franchise, you have to protect the integrity of the brand. Showrunners may come and go, but the brand stays." Fuchs, the show's Toronto-based executive producer, adds that the show's unique sensibility only adds to the difficulty of translating it to the small screen. "The action is not typical action, there's a Luc Besson story style that we're trying to keep in the series," Fuchs says. Indeed, the Transporter/Besson brand is what the producers sold to the series' host networks, each of which put up about 25 percent to 30 percent of the show's budget. Crucially, Besson got behind the project personally, giving its producers full creative freedom for their small-screen adaptation. "I don't know how to make TV shows - I let the people who know how to do it take it on and hope they're doing their job," he insists.

There were several other logistical challenges connected to the production - not least of which was the balancing act of trying to satisfy four broadcast co-producers across two continents. Sources indicated the four partners - RTL in Germany, France's M6, HBO/Cinemax in the U.S. and HBO Canada - received a private screening in Toronto in late September last year that got mixed reviews, underlining the need for creative improvements. At the time a spokesperson for M6 denied this, adding that the network was planning for media visits to the shoot to quell any rumours of on-set turmoil. Takis Candilis, CEO of Atlantique parent company Lagardere, also denied that there were any problems with the Toronto screening, adding that "everyone is happy" with how the show is turning out.

By mid October production had been halted due to an on-set injury sustained by star Chris Vance. Injured while filming an action sequence on the Toronto set, producers of the series decided to suspend filming to provide ample time to recover. "We wanted to ensure Chris’ return to peak physical condition before putting him back in front of the camera to continue shooting this fast-paced, action-packed series," said showrunner Steve Shill in a statement. With Vance's recovery taking considerably longer than anticipated, the camera would not roll again until earlier this year.

Whatever Transporter's on-set headaches, the international financing model is already catching on. The first season of Canadian/U.K. production Combat Hospital aired on ABC and Global in Canada this year. Atlantique is in talks with Fox about a possible franchise project set in ancient Egypt. Starz and BBC Worldwide, which teamed up for the new season of BBC's aliens-among-us series Torchwood, have entered into a multiyear partnership to develop, produce and distribute original drama series. Germany's Tandem Communications - producers of Pillars of the Earth - have four long-running series projects in development, including the sci-fi crime drama The Sector, which they are developing with Ridley and Tony Scott's Scott Free shingle. Like Pillars, The Sector will be made using the traditional showrunner model, and Simon Mirren (Criminal Minds) has been tapped to fill that role. Tandem co-head Rola Bauer says that in the end, how a show gets made is less important than what, in the end, it delivers.

"Showrunner or not, the production model isn't as important as getting the voice right," Bauer says. "Transporter is obviously a great brand, and it's very important that they respect that brand. As long as they respect it and deliver the quality that fans of the film franchise expect, everyone will be happy. I hope all the international models work," she adds, "because it will open doors for all of us. Broadcasters in the U.S. know they can't keep putting all the money up for their own series."

Now back home in Vancouver, Mallozzi is optimistic - and diplomatic - about Transporter's future: "There are a lot of talented people working on the show. I'm confident that it will be great and do well." Viewers in North America will be able to judge whether Transporter's producer collective got it right early next year, when the series debuts on HBO Cinemax and HBO in Canada. European audiences have the first say, however. The series pilot premiered on Germany's RTL, drawing an impressive 4.01 million total viewers for a 17 per cent share of the 14-49 demographic. Those aren't blowout figures for RTL - Germany's leading commercial network - but should prove sufficient if the show can hold – or better build on - its initial audience. France's M6 bows the show in primetime next month.

Because of Transporter's complex financing structure, the series has to work in all four of its backing countries to guarantee a second season. The eyes of the international industry are on Transporter, the most ambitious of a slew of new English-language drama series partially or entirely financed outside the U.S.. These series – such as Atlantique's Parisian cop procedural Jo starring Jean Reno and Jill Hennessy; Tom Fontana's British-Canadian-U.S. period drama Copper or Crossing Lines, a European-style Criminal Minds from Germany's Tandem Communications, France's TF1 and Sony Pictures Television International – have long been the buzz of the international TV market.

"If it works, if the channels can make money with these series, I think you will see this model being used more and more," Vance said. "It’s becoming harder to finance television because, frankly, the audience expects more – so to get the budget you need, you have to find ways to spread the risk. It just makes sense to do shows this way. As long as you can make them work for the audience."

Initially, at least, Transporter seems to have worked for the German audience. The coming months will tell whether the ambitious action series works as well worldwide.
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