Mon 22 Jun 2009
Bryan Fuller Quits HEROES
Posted by Nick C under HEROES, NBC
[48] Comments
If all of you were wondering why earlier this week I stated it would be the last season of HEROES… this is now official so this would be why I’m stating that. Can Tim Kring save the show?
No.
Final Update: Confirmed to me by Tim Kring. Fuller is gone, and will be working solely on a new show for NBC.
48 Responses to “ Bryan Fuller Quits HEROES ”
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[...] friend Nick C is reporting that Bryan Fuller has quit Heroes, and Nick doubts Tim Kring can save the show. [...]
Why? They didn’t let him add a character that is either dead or talks to the dead? Since that is the his only theme that he re-ashes in every show, I can see it being reason to quit.
S., no offense but Fuller has provided far more TV than DEAD LIKE ME or PUSHING DAISIES. His career is far much more than that.
He quit the show for the same reason any sane person would: You don’t want to be known as the show runner of a once hit series’ last horrible season. As long as Kring is making him write absurd crap, he doesn’t want to be involved is my guess.
They’re probably frantic over at NBC right now. The show is doomed. I mean its been doomed for a while, but with Fuller at least they could have (maybe) laid it to rest gracefully. If he stays gone this will be a disaster. I’ve never seen a show drop from such heights so quickly.
Any idea, Nick, as to what prompted him to just give up? It had to be something insurmountable–other than the plot of the show, as it stands right now of course.
ah..nevermind with my question, Nick. Just saw your answer above!
Pull it and put Chuck on for a full season!
But seriously, they need to go with Fuller over Kring. Look at Pushing Daisies and early Heroes. Now look at recent Heroes. Who should NBC go with to run the final season of the show? I think it’s pretty obvious.
Brian Fuller is over rated, and pretentious creator of pretty fluff with no depth, that uses death to make is stories edgy. His only other credits are Wonderfalls, where inanimate (dead) objects come to life, Star Trek Voyager, The Amazing Screw-ne Head, and a remake of Carrie for TV.
The last 2 are not his concepts, but he picked them, and the first has Zombies, and the second a lot of death.
You could argue that Star Treck Voyager has less to do with death and ressurection, at least explicitly, but considering that it died the year he was made co-producer, it is not too far.
I could see him leaving because he would not want to be attached to yet another project’s death.
S, if he’s over rated what does that make Kring?
The fact that Fuller is better than Kring is not something any writer would brag about. I can only think of 2 guys that can give Kring a run for his money in a crappy writer contest are Jon Cowan & Robert L. Rovner, that are a mush making machine. They take a show with distinct characters and turn them all to mush.
S, I don’t think either of those guys had as much to do with the fall of CROSSING JORDAN as Kring.
Nick, I have a serious question for you though you may think it sounds stupid…how successful do you think a fan campaign to get NBC to pick up Pushing Daisies would be?
I know, I know, you think I’m nuts, the actors have moved on, Chi McBride is now on Human Target, but I’m seriously asking this. NBC could pick it up and give it a good, solid push and put Bryan Fuller back on the project and it might not be a solid hit but it’ll probably do well enough and NBC will probably even take that at this point.
shelly, the show was a total failure. We’re not talking about a show that was treated poorly. ABC gave it the golden treatment and the result was that the show debuted to amazing numbers, but it bled viewers nearly immediately. The writing was on the wall when the strike hit. If not for the strike I think it would have been canceled after one season.
Nobody wants that show. It has no viewers. It didn’t connect with audiences and it had more than a fair chance.
I understand the fans that liked it loved it, but it was given a fair shake and it couldn’t get viewers. It had a cushy time slot even imho.
Do their histories on other shows really matter at this point? Just the fact that Fuller quit furthers the perception of perpetual chaos on that show.
It’ll be THE topic about that show at Comic-Con, when what the show really needed was everyone there talking up how great the next season would be. As it is the story about having no panel, then a small panel, then a small panel with some actors, is just weird.
Crossing Jordan is not their only crime, and Kring gave them really good characters that they turned to mush in the last season. They are responsible for the mush fest that was Summerland. and for the mushification that has happened in second half of Private Pratice, where they are the producers on set, since Shonda Rhimes was having another season of hell on the set with GA.
Around episode 8 of S2, PP got rid of Marty Noxon, that was trying to make PP look more like Mad Men, and was handed to those 2, that are trying to make Summerland goes to the doctor. The episodes of the second half Shonda was more hands on, the cross-over episodes, are good, but the rest of the second half of the season is mush. Cowan & Rovner are not only bad writers, but they are lazy, when they are not repeating medical cases from the first half of the season they are ripping of other shows.
Now that you brought up Crossing Jordan, that was Kring being better than Fuller ever was, creating a show that got 6 seasons.
Ausiello just Tweeted this as if it was new news. What an ass. Can you please do a post about his video clips where he claims to have saved every show of the people he interviews. Nauseating.
S, Kring also created HEROES which has 4 seasons. Does that make either show better than DEAD LIKE ME? Nope. Better than PUSHING DAISIES? Maybe.
JT, all I could do was give the lead to Hibberd roughly 2 hours ago. I wanted Ausiello beaten too. Trust me, any lead I get goes to Hibberd.
I am totally shocked concerning these developments…
Hudson, I’m not…
I’ll write a detailed “WTF Does This Mean?” Article sometime soon.
Hudson, I wouldn’t be shocked, the show was doomed when they aired that finale and took the direction they took. No going back from that choice.
BTW, this site broke the news about an hour and a half before Herc posted, and about 5 minutes before he twitted there was a rumor. Notice I called it official from the start, since I heard about this news last week (but needed some kind of confirmation before I could go with it).
Well, I know this will probably be the last season of HEROES, and I was hoping it would go out with a bang rather than fading into obscurity. I’m sure Bryan would think HEROES is ruining his career and that may be a reason why he would quit, but he quit just like that, without even a sign or nothing. That is why I’m shocked.
Also, Ausiello is now reporting that Fuller has gone to create a new show for NBC.
JT, I agree with your thoughts Ausiello, I watched that video of him talking to Zach Levi the other day, and I was shocked to hear him tell Levi about how it feels that he saved his show, or something of that sort. I was like “Whaaattt”.
Hudson, well Universal reported that Fuller was working on a new show for them for the 2010/2011 season a while back when they signed him up as in house. He was basically on loan to HEROES.
As for Zach, he did a good job of not calling him a liar. Everyone knows that it was Subway and thus Alan Sepinwall.
Ausiello is a tool. He’s also reporting that Herc broke the news.
Thank god! This means that Fuller can go develop something *better*. Having him write for Heroes was a waste of his talent, imo.
Well, there goes Heroes down the drain. Hah, for a brief moment I thought perhaps he could recreate the glory days of season 1. Guess this is what comes from throwing dice on story lines.
And give it a rest with Ausiello, he is not god (nor would he claim it), he thought herc was was with it- and in the grand scheme of things this is a tiny irrelevant bit of news, now if you had pictures of Barack in ladies underwear or conclusive proof that “S.” posting here is really Tim Kring, then you would have a scoop! *g*
i wouldn’t bang the hammer on the nail in Heroes coffin yet. While Fuller was there, the creative should of been able to plan what this seasons arc was going to be so that storyline shouldn’t change much now that Fuller has left to create his own projects. The day to day stuff might change and get ruined along the way but overall the story and how they get there should be in place.
RickyG, my problem with Ausiello is the same as most he makes claims of exclusivity and other things when he didn’t even bother to check if someone else had the news. I also take offense to his smug nature that he saved CHUCK and other shows when he had literally nothing to do with it. He’s a smug, whiny little man with a very small opinion of himself who has to remind us all when he’s out to lunch with someone famous. It’s just sad.
Now the Barrack pic…
Rob, why leave? He quit. He has to give a nice sound byte because he still works for Universal, but he did quit. Do you really think HEROES was interfering with writing a pilot and bible that don’t have to be read/seen for 4 months?
RickyG, also Ausiello takes a swipe at me in his report about it. Like Fuller is going to tell him anything but the company line!
Nick, my point was that the story is there for the season by now so his leaving should have minimal effect on the story since it should be set in stone. Now, if he did quit because he wasn’t happy with the storyline which is probably the reason than yeh this year will probably be Heroes last. But, if that isn’t the case than his leaving should have minimal effect on the story for the season just the episode to episode details which he wasn’t involved with anyway.
Don’t forget he is working on shows to pitch for the pilot season and the Pushing Daisies comic book to launch for later this year too
Rob, he left due to creative differences. He won’t ever say otherwise while still under contract (and nor should he). However I can leak that just like I leaked his quitting.
He left because Tim Kring sucks.
than this season is doomed. i always felt the problem with Heroes is they want to make it more complex than it needs to be. They want to do what i call the LOST factor which is shock every episode like LOST did its first season. Instead of just doing what logically would be the next step they throw a twist just so people cant say that say it coming even if it doesn’t make any sense.
What’s sad is some of the commenters at Ausiello’s page are buying his “exclusive” report about Fuller saying he’s working on other projects and just can’t fit Heroes in, and they’re attacking Fuller for leaving, saying he has no work ethic.
Frank, well no surprise there… people are dumb.
“Ausiello is a tool. He’s also reporting that Herc broke the news.”
You wouldn’t seriously expect him to give credit to a blog that made a whole post about him being a douchbag would ya?
If it were up to me, Heroes would have not returned after last season. The show had so much potential after its first season and it was all squandered. Fuller just jumped from a sinking ship and I hope information on his new shows come out soon. Overall, unless Heroes somehow jumps in the ratings, there’s really nothing to justify keeping the series past a fourth season.
Pere, did I call him a douche-bag? Hmmm… I know I cracked fun at him, but can’t remember if I did that. Heck, that was one of the most popular posts here!
Oh I don’t know if you specifically called him that, that’s just how I remembered it. Possibly the wrong cuss word, I apologize ;P
“Frank // June 22, 2009 at 5:16 pm
What’s sad is some of the commenters at Ausiello’s page are buying his “exclusive” report about Fuller saying he’s working on other projects and just can’t fit Heroes in, and they’re attacking Fuller for leaving, saying he has no work ethic.”
What the hell are you talking about? Attack Ausiello all you want, but stop putting words in our [the ew.com posters'] mouths. Most of us are either apathetic (if somewhat puzzled) about his exit, or applauding it, so he could escape the sinking ship that Heroes has become and focus on other projects. Only one poster ridiculed Fuller of his recent exit, but the rest of us were fine with it, no matter how much this would hurt Heroes.
Wow I’m so glad I’m not the only one that thinks Ausiello is a smug git! I was just discussing the same thing the other day, right before he posted that Zach Levi vid.
Well I’m really glad that Fuller has left Heroes is all I can say he’s totally wasted on that show. I remember last year when all the Heroes fanboys and girls were touting Pushing Daisies dimise because they wanted Fuller back to “save their show” Ha!
Supposedly Fuller will still be staying on HEROES as a Producer.
yes!!!!
Ever since i started reading Ausiello always thought he just reporting and “getting exclusive scoops” just so he could get famous or something in that general area.
I’m glad Fuller left heroes because, honestly, that show was already doomed the moment they ruined all of their characters. Sad but true.
Hudson, they likely have to keep him listed and paid as a Producer, but he is no longer at HEROES and hasn’t been.
Nick, Ausiello took a swipe at you in his very short piece about this? By crediting Herc? Honestly, he’s probably not even aware of this blog. Whatever you are in the outside world, in the blogosphere you are, at least for now, a small fish.
Jack, Ausiello knows about the blog, because he updated his site with the comment about how it wasn’t about creative differences like some were saying. Besides Herc and I, we were the only ones with anything on it.
I stick by the truth: he left upset with the way things were going.
This is depressing, Heroes could have been saved by Fuller, I agree that he saved the last part of season three (his episode kinda gave faith) but with him gone its only a matter of time before Kring goes all crazy with shit overlly complicated (and no-character developing stories). I also don’t get why Matt Parkman is going back to Los Angles as a cop, like he does everytime. Maybe he should actually change a bit.
But I cant wait to see what Fuller comes up with, I loved Pushing Daisies and his work on Heroes so I can only assume that his project will be magnificant.
This is pretty much disastrous for Heroes and NBC as a whole because despite budget cuts they’re still sinking a lot of cash into Heroes and with Kring still running things (and apparently so badly that Fuller is running for the hills) its hard to see how Heroes is going to be anything but a giant black hole for them in the Fall.
Nick may be able to answer this but how much truth is there to the rumours I’m hearing that Fuller wasn’t particularly happy with NBC’s decision to put the show on the fall schedule rather than midseason as had originally been planned? I was under the impression from the little I’ve heard on the situation that Fuller was intensely aware of how much work needed to be done on the show and knew they’d need longer than they’d get with the fall return.
As it is I’m surprised without being surprised by this news if that makes any sense. Its not surprising that Fuller wants no part of a show that Kring’s not going to let him save but its somewhat surprising to me that NBC didn’t insist on Fuller having more creative control over the show given that Kring’s direction clearly hasn’t worked and that this isn’t the first time Kring has run a show into the ground with his poor creative decisions and general incompetence.
On a wider note I’d guess that Fuller’s new shows aren’t so much a line but more that they were created and being developed purely so Fuller could get the hell out of dodge.
Alex, I doubt Universal contracted Fuller purely to work on Heroes. Studios make overall deals so they get first pick of anything their talent comes up with that they think they can make money off.
I didn’t say or suggest Fuller was hired purely to work on Heroes, although that was the primary thing NBC Universal wanted out of him for the immediate future. My point was I suspect Fuller has become much more focused on these new pilots purely to get him the hell out of dodge. If he were happy with how things were panning out on Heroes he wouldn’t be developing new shows right now.