Talk:Roswell (TV series)

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[edit] Title.

It's not a type of television — would be a better to move this article to Roswell (television series). -- Jeandré, 2004-08-07t19:46z

  • Agreed – see Wikipedia_talk:Naming_conventions_(television). The Roswell page pointed to Roswell (TV show) until recently. Not only was it made worse, no-one bothered to update the links that pointed to the old name. I plan to improve this article soon and I'll try to rename it too.  – Lee J Haywood 21:54, 13 Aug 2004 (UTC)
  • Renamed this article from Roswell (TV) to Roswell (TV series) – I'm now updating all the links to point to it.  – Lee J Haywood 08:40, 14 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Frakes starring

Jonathan Frakes directed several episodes and also starred in two episodes as himself, an actor well known for his role in Star Trek.

I know Frakes made at least two appearances, one in the Pilot and another in a 2nd or possibly 3rd season episode where Max auditioned as an alien. I wouldn't call that starring though... perhaps I'm missing something? -- SS 21:42, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Okay, I've changed it. According to Webster, starring can mean 'to perform outstandingly', but in my mind it was implied that he guest starred. But you're right - unless you knew who he was in the first place he's not a star of Roswell. The reason I put him on this page, by the way, is because his page links here, as does 'References to Star Trek'. Thanks.  — Lee J Haywood 18:51, 16 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Frakes is one of 5 people credited as "Executive Producer" on the pilot... I'll have to check the other episodes, but he may have been an executive producer for all 3 years. Two of the others are David Nutter (who directed the pilot), and Jason Katims.
Interestingly, the subtitles merely call his character in the pilot "emcee", and I didn't see him listed in the beginning or end credits (as an actor). So, unless someone mentioned that he was Johnathan Frakes (which is doubtful) we can't be 100% sure that he was playing himself in this instance. It is patently obvious however ;-)
As I was writing this, a light bulb went off in my head. Frakes's largest (on-screen) role on Roswell would have to be in "The Convention" (s1). Again, I didn't see him in any of the normal places actors are listed, but he was definitely playing himself in this episode. So that brings the Johnathan Frakes Roswell appearance count up to three.
-- SS 23:31, 16 Sep 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Spoiler warning

The spoiler warning was removed as unnecessary. After re-reading the spoiler guidelines, it's not obvious to me why this page doesn't qualify for the warning flag. The "basic premise" section contains specific spoilers for the pilot, followed by general spoilers for much of season one, yes? Looking at a few related series' pages, usage seems to vary--Buffy has the warning, while Star Trek and X-File do not. If there's another page that more completely explains when to apply spoiler warnings, that would be helpful for understanding how this works. -Cate8 July 9, 2005 05:30 (UTC)

When I wrote the original "basic premise" section I had tried to make it only cover the pilot episode without specifically revealing the plot. I think you're right, because this makes the unreasonable assumption that people have at least seen the pilot – which is going to be less and less likely to be true for future readers. I would have like to used the second spoiler template to refer the pilot, but you've pointed out vague references to what happens after it. I've restored the basic spoiler warning, thanks.   — Lee J Haywood 9 July 2005 08:39 (UTC)

>>>I gotta say that the first five minutes of the pilot episode TOTALLY hooked my wife on this show. It was a superb intro the the entire concept of the series.

[edit] Episode list

Other series pages appear to place episode lists on a separate "List of ____ episodes" page. Any reason to leave Roswell's episode on this page? Or should it likewise be broken out to a separate page? -Cate8 July 9, 2005 05:30 (UTC)

I'd say it depends on how much it might change in the future. It looks ugly at the moment and if you look at, for example, List of Star Trek: Voyager episodes then you'll see a page that looks better but also changes a lot as images for each episode are added. I vote for a separate page.   — Lee J Haywood 9 July 2005 08:39 (UTC)

[edit] Real Roswell High

Interestingly enough, there really is a Roswell High School in Roswell, NM. There is also a Roswell High School in Roswell, Georgia.

[edit] Australia broadcast

Wasn't Roswell screened on channel Nine in Australia? Yes Channel nine had the rights to Roswell, the comments on the problems with airing were not related to Prime but Channel nine. I watched most of the seasons missing one or two here and there. The pilot originally aired on Channel 9 at 8:30pm Monday night, it later moved to 9:30 and was up against Band Of Brothers I think. Later it moved to 10:30pm then 11:00pm.

[edit] CFD notice

Removed cfdnotice, cfd has completed. --Kbdank71 16:22, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Season 4 Petition

I believe that this Roswell Season 4 Continuation Petition should be linked to somewhere on the page: 75.5.29.9 00:31, 27 August 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Trivia section

this part of the trivia section needs to be deleted/modified

There are two version of the series finale: One that ran 43 minutes (the aired version) and one that ran 82-minutes. When it became apparent that the series would not return for a fourth season, the producers wrote the season-finale as two episodes and filmed it on the budget of a single episode hoping that UPN would air it. But UPN wasn’t interested in a 2-hour affair and they never aired the 2-hour version of the episode, which was since supposedly disappeared. The additional footage included a sex scene between Max/Liz, Isabel finding out that she is pregnant, Maria and Michael getting married at city hall, as well as a scene with the parents discovering the pod chamber – and the final scene was supposedly Max, Liz, Isabel, her daughter, Maria, Michael, and Kyle standing on a cliff over-looking the grand canyon starring up into the stars.

These are rumors, most likely created by the fans. These things shouldn't be considered encyclopedic especially without a source in order to verify that what is written is really the truth. The only thing confirmed by official resources is that the finale of season 3 was longer than what we saw. Writers had to cut it in order to make it a regular episode. There're some web sites with cut scenes taken from the original scripts (but these sites aren't official) and as for "Graduation" the only cut scene available is the one about M&L's decision to make love when he proposed her. I will try to modify that part with only the confirmed informations. However, if someone has a valid source that confirms what i quoted here, he will be able to write these things again. --*Josephine85* (talk) 12:29, 23 November 2007 (UTC)

I'll do that one better, Josephine: I've pulled the entire Trivia section and put it below. None of the material can return until it is properly cited and converted into prose. trivia is trivial, and we don't use it.
Trivia
 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • When it became apparent that the series would not return for a fourth season, the writers wrote a longer episode for the finale of the series trying to summarize what they wanted to create into the season four that they didn't get. However, the UPN wasn’t interested into a longer episode and writers had to create a regular episode cutting part of what they wrote for the finale, still trying to summarize what they intended to do into a fouth season. [1]
  • The television series was based on the Roswell High series of books created by author Melinda Metz under editor Laura J. Burns. The pair eventually joined the show in the 3rd season as staff writers. The episode "A Tale of Two Parties" marked their television-writing debut.
  • Despite being set in New Mexico, the series was filmed entirely within Los Angeles and its surrounding districts. Most of the exterior shots were filmed in the city of Covina, California[2].
  • The alien pod chamber (disguised as a rock formation of distinctive slanting rocks) are actually Vasquez Rocks, located outside of Los Angeles.
  • One notable quirk was the aliens' favorite condiment, Tabasco brand hot sauce, which they liberally sprinkled on nearly every meal. It was finally explained in the third season that when the aliens came out of the pods, for the first few months they couldn't smell or taste anything except for strong flavors such as Tabasco sauce. Although their sense eventually matured, they kept the Tabasco habit. The Tabasco sauce connection was later highlighted by fans who sent thousands of the tiny bottles to network executives along with pleas to save the show.
  • Delfino—who was pursuing a musical career off-screen — sang several times on the series, including the Phil Collins single "In the Air Tonight" and the gospel classic "Amazing Grace."
  • Jonathan Frakes, an actor well known for his role in Star Trek: The Next Generation, was an executive producer, and directed several episodes. He also appeared in the pilot episode as an MC, then as himself in two other episodes, "The Convention" and "Secrets and Lies."
  • Another link with the Star Trek franchise occurs in the third season episode "Secrets and Lies" in which Max auditions for a role in Enterprise while staying in Los Angeles.
  • Yet another link to Star Trek was the guest appearance of J.G. Hertzler as teacher Mr. Lafeber in the episode "Ask Not." Hertzler is best known for his work in various Star Trek roles, most notably as the General/Chancellor Martok of the Klingon Empire in Deep Space Nine.
  • Show creators went to great lengths to ensure accuracy between the show and the real town of Roswell, New Mexico. License plates on cars, driver's licenses, and even state seals were used in the series.
  • Native American actor Michael Horse plays deputy Owen Blackwood in the first episodes of season 1. He was deputy Hawk in the series Twin Peaks and sheriff Charles Tskany in an episode of the X-Files.
  • In the pilot episode, Maria tells best friend Alex that Liz sat next to Pam Troy, whom she openly hates. Pam Troy is a character that was also referenced in Jason Katims's other hit, My So Called Life.
  • The Tabasco that the aliens loved so much was actually tomato juice. The actors originally tried to tough it out with Tabasco but soon could no longer handle keeping up with the addiction and tomato juice was switched in.

- Arcayne (cast a spell) 14:56, 23 November 2007 (UTC)