At the Threshold of an Era

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At the Threshold of an Era (Chinese:創世紀) was a Hong Kong epic drama series broadcast by TVB Jade Channel from late 1999 to early 2000, and was extensively promoted by TVB as its cross-milliennium epic. The series comprised of two parts, with a gap in between the airing.

The entire series took place in a continuing flashback, with one of the main characters pondering the trials and tribulations he went through while riding on a train in the "green city" he developed.

1 Premise
2 Speculation on Production
3 Cost
4 Cast
5 Trivia
6 External links

[edit] Premise

The drama documents the rise and fall of three entrepreneurs, who founded a construction company together to achieve the ultimate goal of developing a pollution-free city in Hong Kong. Vendetta and love serves as strong subplots throughout the series, with the vendetta between two families being the most prominent.

The stories covered a span of 20 years, from 1990 to 2010, and featured many technologies that came to age during this time, including the nascent internet, and a bulkier tamaguchi virtual pet device (shown as a device similar to GameBoy in the series), which was developed by one of the entrepreneurs before his entry into construction.

[edit] Speculation on Production

It was speculated that the show wasn't originally meant to become a cross-milliennium event, and was rushed into development and broadcast by TVB because of a slump in ratings.

In Hong Kong, TVB is the predominent TV station in terms of ratings, often receiving 90% viewing shares. During the summer of 1999, Taiwanese drama Princess Pearl, aired by rival broadcaster ATV, took away a significant portion of TVB's audience, and came out on top in the ratings battle during certain hours.

It is speculated, but never confirmed, that the managements of TVB drafted its top actors and actresses to perform in the series, and rushed the production into broadcast as a weapon against the resurgent ATV. Supporters of this theory point to the splitting of the series into two parts, with a gap in between the broadcast. Opponents of the speculation assert that ATV only had a one-off hit with Princess Pearl, and there were no other series afterward that could have retained the audience that eventually returned to TVB. The opponents also allude to the fact that even during the nadir of the entire crisis, TVB still retained a competitive edge in ratings, and would have been able to defeat ATV right after Princess Pearl concluded.

[edit] Cost

The series is one of the costliest ever produced in Hong Kong television history, totalling more than 100 million HKD (12.8 Million USD).

[edit] Cast

[edit] Trivia

The series was repeated during late night hours in the summer of 2005, and, to the shock of many analysts, drew impressive ratings. Traditionally, reruns only serve as fillers between new programmes, and was never expected to draw impressive ratings. TVB has since underwent a rethink into the philosophy of reruns, and is currently broadcasting more high-quality show during rerun hours.