The programme was originally conceived in 1998, when writers Matthew Graham, Tony Jordan and Ashley Pharoah were sent on a break to the seaside resort of Blackpool by Kudos Film & Television, later best known as the makers of Spooks and Hustle, to come up with new programme ideas. Originally titled Ford Granada, after the popular car of the 1970s, the series was rejected by the BBC. “Back then, broadcasters just weren’t comfortable with something like that, something that wasn’t set in the real world and that had a fantasy element to it,” Graham later told SFX Magazine. The initial idea at this time was for a more humorous, pre-watershed series that overtly mocked the styles and attitudes of the 1970s, with comic actor Neil Morrissey envisaged as the central character.

Later, Channel 4 drama executive John Yorke picked up the script and it was substantially redeveloped, with the emergence of the double act between the two main characters, Sam Tyler and Gene Hunt. However, senior management eventually decided not to pursue the idea. “[Channel 4] people just said ‘It’s going to be silly’,” Graham later told the Radio Times. However, the series eventually attracted the attention of the BBC Wales Head of Drama, Julie Gardner, who in turn persuaded the overall Head of Drama at the BBC, Jane Tranter, to commission the programme from BBC Wales for BBC One. John Yorke left Channel 4 to rejoin the BBC and together he and Julie Gardner acted as joint commissioning editors on the show for its entire run.

The programme’s central character was originally to have been called “Sam Williams”, but Kudos felt that this was not striking enough and asked Graham to come up with an alternative surname. (This would later be referenced in the final episode of series two.) Asking his young daughter for her opinion, she suggested “Sam Tyler”, which became the character’s name. Graham subsequently discovered that his daughter had named him after Rose Tyler from Doctor Who (another BBC Wales production, for which he would later write the episode “Fear Her” and in which John Simm starred as The Master in Season 3). The initial geographical setting was to be London; this was then changed to Leeds, and finally to Manchester, as part of a BBC initiative to make more programmes in that city.

Download ‘Life on Mars’ Season 1 DVD

The American version of the hit BBC show, Life on Mars, ended only after Season 1, and as most people would agree with me, it was not the kind of ending we had been expecting. But now that the show is over, the stars of the show have moved on with their careers. Most of them are busy with on or the other new project. But I just thought to take a look at the guiding factors in the lives of these well known stars. And as I looked into the lives of two prominent cast members, I learned that it was the love of their wonderful families, which mattered the most to them.

Actor Jason O’Mara, who played the role of Detective Sam Tyler, in Life on Mars, has realized that family is what life is really about. Jason married, actress Paige Turco, whom he met on the sets of The Agency in 2002, and the couple has a son named David.  Jason feels that his priorities in life have changed and it’s not about him anymore, as now it’s his family that comes first. The actor wants to devote quality time to his family and wants to be around for his wife and son. He feels that parenting is all about being present for your child and listening to him.

And he is not the only one from Life on Mars, who thinks like that. His co-star on the show, actress Gretchen Mol, who played the role of Annie Norris, shares similar kinds of thoughts. Gretchen, who used to start weeping at the thought of getting pregnant, when she was in her 20’s, is learning more about parenting, as she tends to her 14-month old son, Ptolemy. The actress, who is married to director Kip Williams, feels that parenting cannot be learned from books. She admits to relying on instinct and dealing with a situation, as and when it presents itself, in the best possible manner and according to her judgement.

Well, while these actors are busy with their careers and family, we can enjoy their great work on Life on Mars by downloading all the episodes of Season 1 from this website, or even watching them online here.

The Life on Mars finale was well, unexpected, to put it mildly. I’ll be discussing that, Smallville
and some of the week’s other TV events so consider this a spoiler warning. 

Allow me to summon the wisdom of Roger Ebert and say I hated, hated, hated the ABC Life on Mars ending. The British version gave fans more satisfying closure and it had the hero commit suicide at the end.

If it had ended about 30 seconds before it did, I would have loved it. Sam and Annie find a love so strong it doesn’t matter he’s trapped over three decades in the past. I mean, mad props for that. I wouldn’t go back in time to marry Cleopatra or Helen of Troy if I had to surrender my Buffy DVDs, Xbox 360 or indoor plumbing to do so.

That’s not to mention how little I would trust myself not to do a Biff Tannen and bet on every sporting event in the 30 years up to 2009. But unfortunately, Life ended in a mishmash of as many sci-fi cliches as the writers could cram in there. Gene Hunt (who turned out not to be Gene Hunt) is Sam’s father? The whole thing was a simulation/dream? And don’t get me started on his character being named “Major Tom.”

Seriously, the “it was all a dream” plot device is considered to be the low watermark of TV writing. People are still blasting and lampooning Dallas for it and how long ago was that? In an interesting side note, at least Michael Imperoli can say it was not the least satisfying series finale he’s ever been involved in. After all, it didn’t just fade to black at the end.

And God bless NBC for trying to do something to fix Heroes. I think it reminds them of happier times when their network wasn’t in complete meltdown. Perhaps changing the net name to En Bee Cee will get the young kids to watch again. It’s not a sci-fi related development per se, but it’s also going to be interesting to watch NBC battle its Boston affiliate over Jay Leno.

Apparently this affiliate recognizes Leno in primetime as the surrender move that it is. Thus, they’re looking for other ways to program the hour. NBC is threatening to remove their affiliate status and the right to show NBC programming. Wait, the punishment for not showing Leno is not being forced to show the rest of NBC’s failure-laden lineup? That’s like saying “We were going to send you on a dream date with Joan Rivers, but now we’re not going to. That’ll show you, WHDH! I’m sure the prospect of never again getting to air ratings winners like Crusoe and My Own Worst Enemy will have them quivering.

I watched Chuck for the first time, and yes only because of Tricia Helfer’s guest stint. As much as I miss Battlestar Galactica, I promise that trick is not going to work every time. So far, I’ve enjoyed Chuck and I was already watching Burn Notice, another show Helfer has guested on. But I warn NBC Universal, The Biggest Loser now hosted by Tricia Helfer or Law and Order:
Caprica Six Unit will not lure me in. Actually, I’m lying. I would totally watch that second show.

On Smallville, we learned that Clark Kent is Jesus and Doomsday is Judas, or something to that effect. DC has never shied away from the potential religious connotations of Superman. Darkseid crucified Superman in the comic books. But is all this leading to the death of Chloe? I think she’s one of the most important characters on the show and if they’re going to go there, her death had better be meaningful. Maybe Clark fails to save her because he can’t fly and that’s what triggers the ability? Just throwing out the ideas. I’ve always thought the ability to fly at superspeed negated the need to run at superspeed.

After all, for a character that is a touch slower than The Flash I never thought Superman made proper usage of that speed. Go ahead, count the number of times you’ve seen Clark duck. No, not run away at super speed but actually duck at the speed he’s capable of moving at.

I guess that would make for crappy fight sequences overall. I read an interview in which a comic writer talked about how hard it was to write for The Flash. If you fire a gun at him, he has time to go search Central City, find a bulletproof vest and come back before you can pull the trigger. It has to be hard to write for these superpowered characters. That’s why the “meteor freak of the week” got old and we’re seeing other DC characters brought in.

If CW really wants a Smallville follow-up show, a live-action Justice League would be a fun romp. I understand that Tom Welling probably wouldn’t want to be involved. Supes can just be referred to in episodes. It would have action, the young, pretty people that CW loves to show and soap opera drama between Green Arrow, Black Canary and whoever else shows up.

Josh Appelbaum and Scott Rosenberg—executive producers of ABC’s recently canceled time-jumping series Life on Mars – offered SCI FI Wire a few exclusive thoughts on how the show will end its run on Wednesday with the series finale, “Life Is a Rock,” at 10 p.m. ET/PT. (Spoilers ahead!)

The producers also ruminated on why the show failed to find a larger audience, the differences between their version and the original BBC show on which it’s based and the new pilot they’re filming in Toronto right now. Following is an edited version of our exclusive interview with Appelbaum and Rosenberg.

I know a lot of people are upset that Life on Mars is airing the series finale. When did you guys find out about the cancellation?

Appelbaum: We had two endings [for the first season]. We had an ending for the series finale and the season finale in mind, and we asked if we could shoot both. And that would give us a little more time, and you can see a couple more air dates and how the ratings were. But we really got a sense that things were looking grim. So we said, “What do you think?” Because we had done this show called October Road prior, and it got canceled before we could wrap up some pertinent questions. And we didn’t want to have that happen again. So we asked, and word came back that “We have good news and bad news. The good news is they will let you shoot a series finale. The bad news is they will only let you shoot a series finale.” So it was quietly devastating.

Tell us about the final episode …

Rosenberg: Basically, this episode was always going to be the season finale, so we just switched things up towards the end. But we always wanted it to culminate with him and his parents. … Amongst our favorite things that we did was always with his father and his mother. Every time we went to that well, it really worked for us. You’ll realize when you see it Wednesday night at 11:00, you’ll see that the whole theme of the entire 17 hours was all leading up to this. It was all about what we deal with in episode 17.

Of course, you guys knew what the ending was in the original BBC series Life on Mars. And you had to make a decision about whether or not to do the same thing. Is this the same ending you originally planned?

Rosenberg: Different ending than the BBC ending, for sure. But we did know from the first week that the writing staff was assembled, and we were all sitting around trying to figure out “Where is this going?” We kind of came up with a notion of where we wanted to end it. … When you see the ending in this, whether you love it or hate it—and I’m sure some people are going to love it and some people are going to hate it, as they do with series finales—it’s very honest. Meaning we’ve been laying in clues, building up to what this ending is for the past 17 hours. For sure.

Knowing the ending to the BBC series, which is very sad, I have to ask this: Do you think American audiences can take the same sort of ending as British audiences?

Rosenberg: I think that they probably … I don’t know. … That’s a really good question. I mean, who knows? They certainly didn’t take the series. That thing was a huge hit there, and, God knows, ours wasn’t. Who knows what they could or couldn’t take? We’ll never know, because ours is so different from theirs. It really is. It’s not that we were worried about what they could or couldn’t take. It’s just that we had planned to be on for years and years. And anybody with Wikipedia could go look up Life on Mars BBC and find out what the ending is. You know? So we always said from the beginning that we had to do something different. And we just followed the pattern. We never did anything that we couldn’t explain in the wrap-up. We never diverged.

The BBC did a spinoff called Ashes to Ashes. Did you ever have any plans to do that as well?

Rosenberg: In our dream world, if this had been big hit, it would have been fun to have spun it off, if the original creators were interested. In this world, now, … they don’t do many spinoffs of failed TV shows [laughs].

Well, you certainly have some loyal fans. There were petitions, etc. How gratifying was that?

Rosenberg: It was great. We always say that. We’ve done these two shows, which have had an incredibly loyal fan base. Which is so amazing. But at the same time, it would be nice just to have a hit [laughs].

What do you think it was? The hiatus?

Rosenberg: The hiatus didn’t help. I think, at the end of the day, it was the wrong show for the wrong network. A little bit of not enough science fiction for the science fiction people, not enough of a cop show for the cop-show people. The bottom line about the show was that it was like nothing else on television. It was so uniquely original, and those things usually have to be given time. In this world that we live in now, there is very much a box-office mentality to television now. If you don’t come up with huge numbers from the gate, you don’t last too long.

Appelbaum: It’s also, and this is a more pedestrian answer, but the title is a tricky one as well. The title and how it reflects on what the show is. I mean, you see that title come up on your TiVo, and you think, is it a Discovery Channel documentary? A flat-out science fiction show? A space-station show? So it might have confused audiences as to what we were offering.

Rosenberg: That’s why our new show is called Pizza and Girls! [laughs]

Appelbaum: You’ll know exactly what you’re getting when you tune in [laughs].

Download “Life on Mars” Episodes Free

Season: 1    Episode: 17    First Aired: 4/1/2009        Prod Code: 1ANY17

In the series finale, Sam Tyler receives a phone call that presents him with three tasks he must perform so he can return to his life in the future, he must weigh his alternatives and decide whether to stay in 1973 or go home.

Writers: Scott Rosenberg
Director: Michael Katleman
Stars: Harvey Keitel (Lt. Gene Hunt), Jason O’Mara (Detective Sam Tyler), Gretchen Mol (Annie Norris), Jonathan Murphy (Detective Chris Skelton), Michael Imperioli (Detective Ray Carling)

Download “Life is a Rock” Episode Free

Season: 1 Episode: 14 First Aired: 3/11/2009

Sam, Annie, and Ray go undercover on a Pan Atlantic flight to investigate the murder of a flight attendant. Sam and Annie are in for a surprise when they pose as a couple at a swingers’ party.

Writers: Bryan Oh, Adele Lim
Director: David Petrarca
Stars: Jason O’Mara (Detective Sam Tyler), Gretchen Mol (Annie Norris), Jonathan Murphy (Detective Chris Skelton), Michael Imperioli (Detective Ray Carling), Harvey Keitel (Lt. Gene Hunt)

(Click to Enlarge)

“Life on Mars” may have found out its short-lived fate on ABC, but the show moves on. On March 11, the series which is employed from its British version, will return with “Coffee, Tea or Annie” where the cast go undercover.

When Valerie Palmer, a Pan Atlantic air hostess turns up dead, Annie volunteers for a dangerous undercover mission, posing as the murdered woman to help solve the second in a possible series of brutal homicides. Annie, Sam and Ray, working one of Valerie’s flights covertly, uncover an unlikely suspect.

Then, an invitation to a lurid swingers’ party leads to an evening full of sensational surprises – not just for Annie and Sam, attending undercover as a couple, but Lieutenant Hunt also arrives with a special guest to mix it up. Juicy sexual escapades bring the swingers’ party to a fever pitch, but will the murderer be revealed? Finally, Annie confronts Hunt with the courage of her convictions about her future at the 1-2-5.

ABC have decided to wrap up the series for one season only. It will run through the 17th episode with a finale where Tyler’s return to the present time is explained. A brand new series “The Unusuals” will take over on April 8.

Download “Life on Mars” Episodes

LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) — ABC is pulling the plug on its freshman drama “Life on Mars” after 17 episodes.

The series nevertheless will continue to air on Wednesdays at 10:00/9:00c through its finale on April 1. The network had previously announced “The Unusuals” will assume the slot on April 8.

A modest 5.5 million viewers tuned into the show’s most recent broadcast, including a 2.0 rating among adults 18-49 – tying its worst numbers to date. “Mars” opened to a 3.8 rating in the key demographic on October 9.

Said downturn came despite a consistent lead-in in “Lost” – which matched its season premiere numbers (5.1 rating) on February 18.

Josh Applebaum, Andre Nemec and Scott Rosenberg – along with Jane Featherstone and Stephen Garrett of Kudos Productions – were the executive producers of the series.

Despite the cancellation, the trio are already at work on a new project for the Alphabet – the two-hour drama pilot “Happy Town,” about the inhabitants of Haplin, Minnesota, who had enjoyed a seven-year peace after a series of kidnappings until it is hit by another crime.

Amy Acker, Dean Winters, Geoff Stults, Jay Paulson, John Patrick Amedori, Lauren German and Robert Wisdom are among its co-stars. Gary Fleder, who helmed the pilot to “Mars,” is on board to direct.

Download “Life on Mars” Episodes