96 replies to this topic

[mara]

I never saw Early Edition during it's original run on CBS (I think it was up against something else I already watched). Sometime in the past couple of years, I caught a repeat when CBS was running it after midnight once a week, and I was hooked. Eventually those late-night repeats disappeared, so I'm very happy that PAX is re-running it. Airisu ITA with your sum-up of Gary's appeal; he's very cute when he's harried. I watched last night's "Lt. Hobson, USN" repeat, and that little "Yeah, I see it, what do you want me to do about it?" line he throws at the cat about the Paper being in the garbage can out of his reach from the jail cell cracked me up to no end.

One thing I really appreciate about the show is that it's spiritual in a non-denominational way. I'm not religious, and if Early Edition had hammered "God sends the Paper" into every show, I probably would have gotten sick of it. But since they let it stay an unsolved mystery, I can enjoy it probably just as much as someone who's ultra-Christian and watching it certain that baby Jesus sends Gary the paper.

I just hope there's a dvd eventually. Columbia Tristar is the rightsholder, and, so far they haven't really gotten into releasing their multi-season shows on dvd, and they're not licensing them out to other companies to do it for them, so I'm not holding my breath. (I work at a distributor, and kept bugging our acquisitions dept. to get EE, but once I heard it was Columbia Tristar I just had to give up and move on to begging for other shows.)

[clearwaves]

I remember Early Edition!!! I think I watched the show from beginning until end. It was one of the few shows that I watched every episode. I liked it because it was light-hearted. But I guess at the end the show kind of burned out of good ideas and didn't have alot of characters to work with. I still watch the occasional old episodes on PAX...

One of my favorite episodes is the hilarious one in the first season where Chuck was suppose to deliver a baby according to the paper. Another favorite is when Gary was getting the chance over and over again to save Marissa from being hit by a car.

One of the weirder ones was the episode "Fatal Edition" where Gary was accused of a reporter's murder. Reminds me of the Fugitive movie.

Ah, those were times on Saturday nights.

Edited by clearwaves, Jan 8, 2004 @ 1:57 PM.

[mara]

Another favorite is when Gary was getting the chance over and over again to save Marissa from being hit by a car.

Yeah, that Groundhog Day episode was good. I like the episodes with Gary's parents, they're always good for a laugh. I just watched last night's PAX repeat, the one where Gary's mom got ripped off by a con man.

I think 'Fatal Edition' was one of the first ones I saw - it was a two-parter, right? I'd seen part 1, which ended with things looking pretty grim for Gary, and then for some reason never got to see part 2, so I started watching the repeats regularly to try to come back around to those episodes.

As far as how the show ended...was the last episode the one where Gary remembered that he'd met Lucius Snow when he was a child, that the paper had chosen him back then, and he passed on the initialed penknife to a little girl who'd be the next to get the paper? At least they gave it some kind of closure and didn't just go off the air without any ending (or with the always-awful 'oops, we got canceled on a cliffhanger' episode).

[Add It Up]

Why didn't they use the lottery picks to make a lot of money? I know their was an excuse, but I don't remeber

[muchsarcasm]

Why didn't they use the lottery picks to make a lot of money? I know their was an excuse, but I don't remeber

Gary never though it'd be right to use the paper for personal gain. He thought of it as kind of a responsibility. Then in one episode he meets a guy who gets the NY Daily News. He actually used it to win the lottery but he uses that money to hire a crew to do all the same types of things that Gary does in person.

was the last episode the one where Gary remembered that he'd met Lucius Snow when he was a child, that the paper had chosen him back then, and he passed on the initialed penknife to a little girl who'd be the next to get the paper?

I think you're right. It didn't really explain everything, but it was a nice way to end the series.

[Lxndr]

The excuse was, basically, "it's wrong and evil to use the paper like that." More or less just a cop-out from too-straight-edged Gary.

Though before McGinty's he was using the horse-races to win enough money to pay his bills, which was amusing to say the least.

This is my first time going through the episodes, actually, which is why I'm sad I missed Lt. Hobson. A mar on my otherwise perfect run.

[mara]

I don't think it was just Gary's cop-out though -- whenever Chuck tried to use the paper to get rich it would generally backfire on him, and the New York paper stopped appearing to the guy who got it there because he used it for gambling too much.

Mostly it was just Gary's good-guy-ness, I agree, but the paper did seem to protect itself from exploitation for greed or evil purposes.

[clearwaves]

Why didn't they use the lottery picks to make a lot of money? I know their was an excuse, but I don't remeber

In the first episode of Early Edition (the pilot), Gary did use the paper to (I think it was the lottery or races) win some money and used to buy Marissa her seeing eye dogs.

[Warden]

In the first episode of Early Edition (the pilot), Gary did use the paper to (I think it was the lottery or races) win some money and used to buy Marissa her seeing eye dogs.

She had more that one? I thought she just had the German Shepherd. Wasn't Spike his name?

Also what time does PAX air EE ? I checked my local tv guide but mostly it just says paid programming. Plus it's not on my cable system. I have to use my tv's antennas.

[Quag]

Warden, I'm pretty sure EE is aired at 9E/8C.

[Warden]

I checked during that time but it just had a long infomercial. I'll try again at 7/6 CST on Monday. Thanks for the help Quag.

[Nflux Forever]

It doesnt air on Fridays, Just Monday through Thursday.

[mara]

I thought she just had the German Shepherd. Wasn't Spike his name?

Yep, just Spike. The writers hardly ever seemed to use him, though.

[Kuka]

I admit I didn't watch this one consistantly, but I enjoyed it when I could catch it.

Really missed Chuck when he left. Could have done without the Swanson & Son angle. Loved the chemistry between Gary and the cat... weird as that sounds.

Favorite of the later episodes was the one when he was repeatedly trying to save Marissa from being hit by a car. When he finally reached her and stood in the middle of the street holding on to her it was just so touching.

[Quag]

Favorite of the later episodes was the one when he was repeatedly trying to save Marissa from being hit by a car. When he finally reached her and stood in the middle of the street holding on to her it was just so touching.

When I read this the other day, I didn't remember this ep; but I saw it two nights ago--quite by accident--and remembered how much I loved this ep. It truly was a tender, touching moment when Gary rescued Marissa.

[small voice] I was always a big Gary/Marissa shipper [/sv]. On a non-TWoP board, that was verboten, VERBOTEN, I tell you; but to me it was no more far fetched than how most shows end up that have a male lead and a female lead. Though I don't think every relationship like this has to end up where the two people are lovahs, it happens so often (or at least the promise of it), that it was strange that there was nothing between Gary and Marissa--ever.

As refreshing as it was to have the two just be friends, it would have been nice if it had been explored just a little bit.

[Kuka]

Raise that voice Quag. You're not alone! Normally I'm not one to go seeking "ships" among characters because of how it sometimes changes the feel of the whole show when it happens. However, it might have been an adorable series finale revelation.

[Soleil]

You know what's funny? I actually started watching Early Edition because I heard a radio ad promoting Kristy Swanson's addition to the cast. Not sure why that was a draw for me -- it couldn't have been for her role as the movie Buffy -- oh, I remember -- it was because I loved The Phantom (with Billy Zane, yum). Right. Maybe I shouldn't have admitted that.

Anyway, loved the show and was sorry when it was cancelled. The show wasn't quite the same when Fisher Stevens left; somehow that Gary/Marissa/Chuck triangle just really worked. I liked Constance Marie's police detective a lot and I think I remember reading that she would have gotten together with Gary in the end, except CM was unavailable to shoot the finale. Darn!

One of my favorite episodes was the "Fatal Edition" 2-parter. I thought Kyle Chandler (who I had/have a crush on) did an awesome acting job there. However, like mara, I for some reason also missed the second part so to this day I have no idea who actually murdered the reporter and set Gary up. I don't get PAX so I don't know how I'm ever gonna see the end of that one.

[Kuka]

Soleil & Mara

Amazing. TWICE I missed the second part of that episode! What IS it about the second part of that episode that makes it so elusive? It would be easy enough to track down a recap, but now I'm on a quest. A quest to see the second part of that bloody episode!

[mara]

Soleil when I heard that Swanson had joined the cast, I was tempted to watch (and it was due to the Buffy movie), but that was back before I knew what a terrific show it was. So, it didn't actually get me to switch from whatever the competition was. As far as Fatal Edition part 2, TVTome sums it up. It's funny/sad that you & Kuka keep missing it -- though, in some ways I prefer part 1. I love Gary when he's desperate; the scenes in part 1 when he's in jail, when he meets up with Marissa in the alley are great. But I love how quiet and still he gets during that last scene when he's trying to convince Brigatti to help him. Kills me.

[Soleil]

Thanks for the link, mara, but for some stubborn reason I really just want to WATCH the second part.

It's been a few years since I watched Fatal Edition part 1, but I can still recall all those moments where Kyle Chandler just blew me away. Gary was always kind of a cute curmudgeon to me, but in FE I really saw the edgier sides of him: his elusiveness when that reporter was challenging him, the cracking disbelief in his voice when he says to Marissa in jail, "I'm about to be arraigned," and OF COURSE that last scene where he goes to Brigatti's house. I love that whole part when Brigatti trains her gun on him, ordering him not to move, and he quietly challenges her on it. There is a brief moment where he looks almost sinister, and then it fades as he turns away and leaves. Good, good stuff.

[mara]

but for some stubborn reason I really just want to WATCH the second part.

No problem, I figured you might feel that way.

And, I agree with all of your comments about Kyle's dramatic chops in FE. Another favorite dramatic scene of mine is in the episode "Fate", the one where Gary sees his own obituary in the paper. He's got a big crying scene towards the end, but that's not what kills me. It's the scene earlier on, when Marissa and Erica confront him about the letter he left behind the bar, and he's just sitting at his desk staring at the paper. He plays the scene with that same quiet intensity as the Brigatti standoff.

[Hawkwild]

Just happy there's a thread for this show. I've never been able to watch it consistently, but always enjoy finding it when it's on. It's just a clever premise, with good performances and, well, a cat bringing the morning paper. I mean, how can you not like a show where the cat brings the morning paper. Well, tomorrow morning's paper, I guess, but still. It's a cat.

Oh, and Kyle Chandler is SO dorkalicious. I wish they would find him another show to do. One that doesn't get cancelled after half a season.

[Erin679]

Oh, and Kyle Chandler is SO dorkalicious. I wish they would find him another show to do. One that doesn't get cancelled after half a season.

I love watching Kyle Chandler on EE, but I don't know if I could handle him on another show. In my eyes he will always be cute, sweet Gary, so I don't think I could watch him on a show where he had a completely different personality than Gary's.

Just a quick question...how many seasons were there of Early Edition?

[Miss Kubelik]

Erin679, there were four full seasons. And if you've never seen Kyle Chandler on the early-nineties drama Homefront, you're in for a real treat. He plays a rookie on the Cleveland Indians right after World War II and he gets to do a lot of fun romantic comedy scenes in addition to the heavy drama and whatnot. His personality is somewhat like Gary's although maybe a little more aw-shucks, puppyish at the beginning. He became more peevish in S2. I very highly recommend it. If you have the GoodLife network (which I do not) they are supposedly re-running it.

Early Edition,right. Loved it. I watched the show from nearly the beginning and always enjoyed it. I liked how the clues about the paper's origins-- the Cat (the cat never had a proper name did he? And didn't the NYC paper come with a pigeon?), Lucius Snow and the like-- were sprinkled like breadcrumbs throughout the run of the show, the mystery built slowly.

This is to clear up something from a few pages back, but as I remember, it was the second to last episode, and not the last, that showed Gary meeting Lucius when he was a kid and Gary passing the future responsibility to the little girl. The last episode was a time-travel episode where Gary went back to the Roaring '20s and got involved with bootleg and gangsters (McGinty's was supposed to have been a speakeasy back in the day). He meets a flapper (Laura Leighton), they fall in love, he has to go back to the future a la Marty McFly, but a girl who looks just like the flapper walks into the modern McGinty's and I guess we're supposed to assume they live happily ever after. A good enough episode but I wish the last two episodes had been reversed. 'Twould have made more sense, imho.

Quickly-- loved the parents, crusty old Det. Crumb, Fish's voice-overs at the end of each episode (and at the beginning, how did that go? I used to know it by heart. Yes, sad, I know. Er, high school was a slow time for me...), the guy who thought that Gary had a Superman complex. Finally, am I imagining an episode where Gary and a homeless man (Luis Guzman?) are trapped in some building and the homeless guy dies at the end? Is there singing? Please tell me I'm not crazy.

Edited by Miss Kubelik, Jun 22, 2004 @ 7:02 PM.

[mara]

Finally, am I imagining an episode where Gary and a homeless man (Luis Guzman?) are trapped in some building and the homeless guy dies at the end? Is there singing? Please tell me I'm not crazy.

The Luis Guzman episode is The Quality of Mercy. I think you're confusing it with Fate where the homeless guy dies at the beginning of the episode, when Gary attempts to get the homeless guy off of the roof of the burning building by crawling across a ladder to the adjacent building -- he convinces the guy to crawl across, even though the paper is still saying he will die, and the homeless guy falls off of the ladder and dies. The next day, Gary sees his own obituary in the paper, which says he will die in an abandoned building when the roof collapses on him. I think we discussed it several pages ago, some fine acting by Kyle. (You're on your own with the singing, it's not ringing any bells for me, sorry.)

Hey, Soleil and Kuka if you're still reading the thread "Fatal Edition" should be coming around again on PAX in July. I'll try to give you a heads-up when my Tivo has it in the to-do list.

ETA -- "Fate" will be on PAX this Thursday.

Also, I was watching an old Incredible Hulk episode the other day, and who should be playing the villain but Lucius Snow. Looking quite handsome, in a bad-guy way.

Edited by mara, Jun 22, 2004 @ 10:40 PM.

[MissL]

One of my favorite episodes was the "Fatal Edition" 2-parter. I thought Kyle Chandler (who I had/have a crush on) did an awesome acting job there. However, like mara, I for some reason also missed the second part so to this day I have no idea who actually murdered the reporter and set Gary up. I don't get PAX so I don't know how I'm ever gonna see the end of that one.

soliel The Fatal Edition 2 parter is now on PAX. The first part was tonight and the second part should be tomorrow. I love those episodes. Still get teary for poor Gary. I just love Kyle Chandler.

Thought I'd give you a heads up if you get PAX.

[clearwaves]

Wow been a long since there was a post here. Well here goes. Fatal edition was a good episode but it didn't help that the show was going to get cancelled at the end of the season. I wish the show would have had a nice series finale just for some closure.

[mara]

I've stopped watching the PAX repeats now that I've seen every episode at least once -- I want to give myself some distance from the show so that I'll enjoy the eventual dvds.

As for closure, while it didn't air as the finale, I thought "Time" was a beautiful episode, and it gave me closure. Though it would have been nice if we'd had a chance to see Gary happily married; I know there was that time-travel/dream-sequence episode toward the end where he got the girl, it wasn't as satisfying as it would have been to have him hook up with Brigatti.

[Aunt Shelley]

Apparently, PAX is also done with Early Edition. My TV Guide says they will start a bunch of their own reality shows next week in EE's time slot. Does that suck or what? I have been trying to get every episode on tape. I think PAX has run through them twice and was about halfway through the third time, but between me messing up and them skipping shows, I still had about four to go. I would love to have it on DVDs. Although, I probably still have the complete series on tape somewhere from the original CBS airing.

I read somewhere that there were 90 episodes and the one listed as the final was about a leprechaun at McGinty's, so the idea of series closure just wasn't there. I also agree that Kristy Swanson's character was a weak point in the show, but I must admit that I felt no one was good enough for Gary. Jealous?...yeah. Kinda like I never cared for any of Macgyver's girfriends either.

Anyway, I LOVE this show and am glad to see it show up on TWoP. But here's a question... how does he fit entire newspaper pages in his back pocket, much less RUN without them falling out?

[mara]

Aunt Shelley - the last episode of the original broadcast run was Luck o' the Irish but there were no leprechauns as far as I recall, just the usual sort of Lucky Charmsy Irish shenanigans. But, although CBS chose to air that one last, it wasn't meant to be the finale according to tvtome.

Tvtome thinks that Time was meant to be the finale, and I agree. It gets the closest as any episode to the mystery of the paper, and has that beautiful message from Lucius Snow :

Dear Gary. By the time that you read this, you will have a whole lot more questions than I've got answers. I can start by saying that I wasn't the first to get the paper and that I doubt that you will be the last. And that any debt you feel you owe me has been paid a thousand times full. In this, you have found your gift and I know that you serve it with honor.

We are the messengers between time and it's keeper. You, of all people, know just how precious life is. So somewhere between the pages of our newspaper, Gary Hobson, find time to live it.

And then the next episode "Everybody Goes to Rick's" had Gary meeting a woman who seemed to be destined to be the love of his life. Which seemed to fit nicely with "Time" - though it was too quick of an introduction for me to care much about the girl in question, it was at least fan-wank-able to imagine that he did get to finally hook up with someone.

But here's a question... how does he fit entire newspaper pages in his back pocket, much less RUN without them falling out?

Heh. I always assumed that the costume department had sewn newspapers into the back pockets of pants for running scenes. But do you mean how it was actually supposed to stay in if it were real-life instead of TV? ....well, it's a magic paper after all. If it wanted to stay close to Gary's ass (and, who could blame it?) it could.

I would love to have it on DVDs.

[deep throat] All I can say without getting myself in trouble is, don't stress too much about PAX or vhs, just have patience. [/deep throat]