'Pushing Daisies' was honored with an award from the Casting Society of America, winning an Artios Awards, the Hollywood Reporter says || James Cromwell, who played Zefram Cochrane in 1996's 'Star Trek: First Contact,' broke his collarbone in a fall off his bicycle last weekend, Yahoo! News reports. He's expected to fully recover. || ABC's 'Lost' will return to Wednesday nights starting Jan. 21. A clip show will run at 8 followed by a two-hour premiere. || All of the Star Trek movies could be coming to Blu-Ray as early as next year, Digital Bits says. Paramount had supported HD-DVD, but has conceded defeat to Blu-Ray, and is now moving to the format || SciFi Channel's 'Warehouse 13' has completed its creative staff with the likes of Jack Kenny, David Simkins, Drew Greenberg, Stephen Scaia, and others || 'Pushing Daisies' was honored with an award from the Casting Society of America, winning an Artios Awards, the Hollywood Reporter says || James Cromwell, who played Zefram Cochrane in 1996's 'Star Trek: First Contact,' broke his collarbone in a fall off his bicycle last weekend, Yahoo! News reports. He's expected to fully recover. || ABC's 'Lost' will return to Wednesday nights starting Jan. 21. A clip show will run at 8 followed by a two-hour premiere. || All of the Star Trek movies could be coming to Blu-Ray as early as next year, Digital Bits says. Paramount had supported HD-DVD, but has conceded defeat to Blu-Ray, and is now moving to the format || SciFi Channel's 'Warehouse 13' has completed its creative staff with the likes of Jack Kenny, David Simkins, Drew Greenberg, Stephen Scaia, and others ||

'Life On Mars' Diverges From Original After Premiere

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By MICHAEL HINMAN
Source: SyFy Portal
Oct-08-2008

It's hard for fans of the original "Life On Mars" to see anyone in the role of Sam Tyler than the great John Simm, but the ABC run of the show that premieres Thursday night will only spend a single episode on the same track as the original.

After that, the American version of the show will take a life of its own.

"I think once you see the episodes roll out, the pilot is definitely the one episode that we had to stick close to the story of the BBC version because it sets up the story," said Jason O'Mara, the new Sam Tyler in the ABC series. "But once episodes 2, 3 and 4 come along, even though there are elements there form the original, it starts to go in a different direction."

"Life on Mars" focuses on Sam Tyler, a cop from 2008 who suddenly finds himself stuck in 1973. He can't figure out what he's doing there, or how he got there, but he takes on the role of a cop there, and is constantly trying to get back in touch with his own time.

The new "Life On Mars" had struggles right out of the gate. David E. Kelley, who brought fans the like of "Ally McBeal" and "Boston Public," left the show after the pilot as part of his agreement to give one more year to his critically acclaimed "Boston Legal" series. ABC then gutted the cast of the pilot, which included "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" alum Colm Meaney, and replaced all the actors with bigger names to surround O'Mara like Harvey Keitel and Michael Imperioli from "The Sopranos" fame.

While that might cause one to question a network's commitment to a particular show, executive producer Josh Appelbaum says that's not the case with "Life on Mars."

"Thanks to the support of our two studios, which is Twentieth Century Fox Television and ABC Studios, we have a really generous budget," Appelbaum said. "They're really behind the show. The network is behind the show. I think you'll find that we have not really scrimped on anything."

The show might be American, but its star O'Mara is not. A native of Dublin, Ireland, O'Mara had to pick up a New York accent rather quickly, since he would be a cop on the streets of 1973 New York.

Doing a New York accent quickly conjures memories of gangsters or the like, but O'Mara wanted his accent to be far more real.

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