Tru Calling

Tru Calling
Intertitle
Genre	Supernatural drama
Created by	Jon Harmon Feldman
Starring	Eliza Dushku Zach Galifianakis Shawn Reaves A.J. Cook Jessica Collins Benjamín Benítez Matthew Bomer Jason Priestley
Opening theme	"Somebody Help Me" by Full Blown Rose
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	26 plus original pilot (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	43 minutes
Production company(s)	Original Film Oh That Gus!, Inc. 20th Century Fox Television
Broadcast
Original channel	Fox
Original run	October 30, 2003 (2003-10-30) – March 11, 2005 (2005-03-11) January 21, 2008

Tru Calling is an American television supernatural drama series that was shown on the Fox Network from 2003 to 2005. Created by Jon Harmon Feldman, the series was produced by Original Film, Oh That Gus!, Inc., and 20th Century Fox Television.

The show starred Eliza Dushku as Tru Davies, a woman who works at the city morgue. In the course of her job, the bodies of dead people start talking to Tru, asking her for help. Tru then finds herself reliving their last day alive, trying to keep their death from happening.

Premise

Tru Davies (Eliza Dushku) is a young woman who intended to go to medical school after graduating from college. When her internship with a local hospital falls through, Tru takes an unexpected job with the city morgue. While working there, a dead woman asks for her help and Tru suddenly wakes up to find that the day has restarted and finds herself compelled to stop the death, which may be the result of anything from suicide to murder. In the course of the re-run day, Tru often takes the opportunity to rectify various personal situations involving her family and friends.

Supporting characters in the series include Harrison Davies (Shawn Reaves), Tru's irresponsible younger brother (who becomes a loyal asset to Tru by the end of the first season), and Davis (Zach Galifianakis), her socially-challenged but loyal friend, confidante, and supervisor at the morgue.

As the series progresses, it is revealed that several years earlier, Davis had a fateful encounter with Tru's mother (who was, apparently, the last person to receive the "calling" before her daughter).

Supporting characters present in only a portion of the series included: Meredith Davies (Jessica Collins), Tru's older sister; Lindsay Walker (A. J. Cook), her best friend in the first season; Luc Johnston (Matthew Bomer), her love interest in the first season; and Gardez (Benjamin Benitez), her former co-worker at the morgue. The character of Meredith was inexplicably written out of the series in the middle of the first season and never mentioned again. Characters would speak about their family history as though Meredith had never existed.

Jack Harper (Jason Priestley), a counterpart to Tru's character, is introduced midseason as a foil. He is there to make sure fate gets its way and introduces a philosophical aspect to Tru's endeavors: should she be saving the lives of people who may have been intended to die? In the second season, Tru and Jack compete to get to a person first — she to save them and he to restore the order of fate and maintain the balance of the universe as he understands it. It is eventually revealed that Tru's father had played a similarly antagonistic role to Tru's mother, eventually terminating her by hiring a hitman. The series was canceled before Tru or Harrison finds out about their father, though it was revealed that he intended to tell Harrison and attempt to get him on their side.

The final episode contains a number of cliff-hangers: (1) Tru's season two romantic interest, a fellow medical student named Jensen, begins to remember reliving an occurrence he and Tru had together from the negated timeline where he was killed, causing him to obsess over death. (2) Although initially highly antagonistic to Jack, Tru invites him to a Christmas party with her, hinting he may in time become an ally against her father. (3) Carrie, the new psychologist at the morgue, who is revealed as an agent of Jack's working to seduce and subvert Davis, learns the truth about Tru from Davis; Davis has yet to tell Tru about this. (4) Jack, talking to Tru's father, hints he is still intent on killing Jensen, despite having failed to seal his fated death in a previous episode.

Episodes

Twenty-six episodes were produced before the series was canceled. Neither Fox nor CH in Canada aired the final episode due to its Christmas theme.^[1] The final episode was shown on TV in the United States on January 21, 2008 when it aired as part of a marathon on Sci Fi Channel.

Cast

Main characters

• Eliza Dushku as Tru Davies
• Zach Galifianakis as Davis
• Shawn Reaves as Harrison Davies
• Jason Priestley as Jack Harper (2004–2005)
• A. J. Cook as Lindsay Walker (2003–2004)
• Jessica Collins as Meredith Davies (2003–2004)
• Benjamin Benitez as Gardez (2003–2004)
• Matthew Bomer as Luc Johnston (2003–2004, recurring previously)

Special guest stars

Season two featured some recurring "Special Guest Stars", notably:

• Cotter Smith as Richard Davies (2004–2005)
• Liz Vassey as Dr. Carrie Allen (2005)
• Eric Christian Olsen as Jensen Ritchie (2005)

Guest stars

Tru's two medical school friends were also recurring characters in Season two:

• Lizzy Caplan as Avery Bishop (2005)
• Parry Shen as Tyler Li (2005)

Production

Tru Calling was created by executive producer/writer Jon Harmon Feldman and was filmed in Vancouver, Canada. Marty Adelstein, Neal H. Moritz, Dawn Parouse and R. W. (Bob) Goodwin are also executive producers.^[2] The pilot episode was directed by Australian filmmaker Phillip Noyce.

Reception

Tru Calling received mixed reviews from fans and critics. The series received two nominations at the 2004 Teen Choice Awards, "Choice Breakout TV Show" and "Choice Breakout TV Star – Female" for Eliza Dushku.^[3] Dushku was also nominated for a Saturn Award by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films at the 30th Saturn Awards for Best Actress in a Television Series.^[3]

Cancellation

After the first season finale, FOX almost cancelled the show. They opted to renew it for a second season because ratings in the middle of the first season improved and the show's main competitor, NBC's Friends, was ending. However, FOX cut short the episode order of the second season from 13 to 6 episodes. On the last day of filming the sixth episode, the cast and crew were told that the show had been cancelled. FOX felt that their new series Point Pleasant would work better following The O.C. than Tru Calling (though Point Pleasant itself was cancelled before finishing its 13-episode run). Initially, FOX had no plans to broadcast the episodes filmed for season two, but negative viewer response convinced them to show the episodes the following year. The sixth and final episode would never air on FOX due to that episode being Christmas-themed and would now not air in line with the Christmas season.

After the cancellation, Doris Egan (one of the show's writers) discussed the series mythology and plans they had had for the future story arc in four consecutive livejournal entries setting the premise of two opposing forces influencing humanity, one (presumably helping Jack) that refuses to interfere and allows humans to evolve at their own pace and the other which wishes to intervene and 'improve' things in a 'revolt against heaven' (presumably helping Tru).

Other plotlines would include Tru's boyfriend Jensen becoming more and more fascinated by death after her narrowly saving his life when he was fated to die. He would eventually become a serial killer and she would be forced to ask Jack for help in killing him to stop his reign of terror. Jack and Tru's father would cite this as justification for them stopping Tru from saving people, that she is messing with pre-destination. Harrison would discover that his father is in league with Jack but is torn in deciding whose side to take given what happened to Tru's boyfriend. Davis' fake girlfriend Carrie Allen who was arranged by Jack and Richard to divide him from Tru begins to genuinely care for him and a romance develops between them. However, he discovers that she really did kill her violent and abusive husband and must decide whether or not to turn her in. He also discovers that Tru's mother was supposed to be her mentor as Richard is to Jack but with her dead he now takes the role. Tru and Jack would find themselves beginning to experience other anomalies in reality allowing for more variations on the standard storyline (as was hinted in the last few episodes), including being able to take other people with them on the "rewinds" and explore parallel dimensions. Jack and Tru would become involved in a bank siege in which Jack and her father use a mysterious journal in order to pick which hostages will die. Afterwards Jack would begin a relationship with a beautiful motorcycle cop he meets during the incident and his feelings for her make him question the morality of his actions and his monk-like solitary existence. The last corpse to ask for Tru's help is that of her 12-year-old half sister. Tru succeeds in saving her, and when Jack attempts to stop her, he is killed by Tru's father, who cannot bear to let his youngest child die, whatever else he believes. The series would end on a cliffhanger with Jack's corpse in the morgue asking Tru to save him.

American ratings

Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of Tru Calling on Fox. The last episode was shown on the SciFi Channel.

Notes

Each U.S. network television season begins in late September and ends in late May, which coincides with the completion of May sweeps.

International syndication

Season two of Tru Calling first aired in New Zealand on TV3 beginning February 4, 2005, with the final episode shown on March 11, 2005, in Croatia, the following March; and, after nearly a year-long hiatus, in the U.S. beginning March 31, 2005. In Ireland and the United Kingdom, the second season began October 12, 2006, on Sky One.

The complete series also aired in Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Pakistan, Iceland, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Portugal, Singapore, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

DVD releases

The Complete First Season
Set details				Special features
				Bonus Featurettes:[7] "Finding The Calling: The Pilot "The Tru Path: Season One" Evil Comes Calling: A Late Season Twist" Selected Episode Commentary Deleted Scenes "Somebody Help Me" Music Video by Full Blown Rose
	North America	United Kingdom	Australia
Episodes	20	N/A	20
Aspect Ratio	1.78:1		1.78:1
Running Time	880 minutes		880 minutes
Audio	English (Dolby Digital Surround)		English (Dolby Digital Surround)
Subtitles	English, Spanish, French		None
No. of Discs	6		6
Region(s)	1 (NTSC)		2, 4 (PAL)
Rating	Not Rated		M
Release dates	November 30, 2004[7]		August 9, 2005

The Complete Second Season
Set details				Special features
				Bonus Featurettes:[8] Making-Of Featurette
	North America	United Kingdom	Australia
Episodes	6	N/A	6
Aspect Ratio	1.78:1		1.78:1
Running Time	264 minutes		264 minutes
Audio	English (Dolby Digital Surround)		English (Dolby Digital Surround)
Subtitles	English, French, Spanish		None
No. of Discs	2		2
Region(s)	1 (NTSC)		2, 4 (PAL)
Rating	Not Rated		M
Release dates	November 15, 2005[8]		August 9, 2005

The Complete Series
Set details				Special features
				Bonus Featurettes:[9] Selected Episode Commentary Deleted Scenes 4 Featurettes "Finding The Calling: The Pilot" "The Tru Path: Season One" "Evil Comes Calling: A Late Season Twist" "Tru Calling: Opposing Forces" "Somebody Help Me" Music video by Full Blown Rose Easter Egg: Zach Galifianakis' audition tape
	North America	United Kingdom	Australia
Episodes	26	26	26
Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	1.78:1	1.78:1
Running Time	1094 Minutes	1094 Minutes	1094 Minutes
Audio	English (Dolby Digital Surround)	English (Dolby Digital Surround)	English (Dolby Digital Surround)
Subtitles	English, French, Spanish	English, Swedish	None
No. of Discs	8	8	8
Region(s)	1 (NTSC)	2, 4 (PAL)	4 (PAL)
Rating	Not Rated	15	M
Release dates	August 12, 2008[10]	June 27, 2005[9]	October 24, 2006

International broadcast and remakes

Flag	Region/Country	Network/Channel	Native title of the show/remake	English title of the show/remake	Type: Original version/Remake	Original airing date	Info	Official website(s)
	Russia	TV-3	“Я отменяю смерть” Russian pronunciation: “[Jа otmenʲaʲu smert′]”	“I Revoke the Death”	Russian version (adaptation)	October 9, 2012 — present	The series was premiered on October 9, 2012 on TV-3 channel broadcast via Reproduction Films studio. It airs four days a week — from Tuesday to Friday, at 19:00 (UTC+04:00).	1. “I Revoke the Death” webpage(Russian) at TV-3 channel(Russian) official website(Russian); 2. Discussing of “I Revoke the Death” television series section(Russian) at TV-3 channel(Russian) official forum(Russian); 3. Official promo video clip (trailer) of “I Revoke the Death” television series(Russian) at official channel(Russian) of TV-3 channel(Russian) at YouTube video hosting service; 4. Official promo video clip (trailer) of “I Revoke the Death” television series(Russian) at the official fanpage(Russian) of TV-3 channel(Russian) at Facebook social networking service; 5.1. Promo pictures(Russian) and 5.2. Actors of “I Revoke the Death” television series meeting with journalists(Russian) photo albums at the official fanpage(Russian) of TV-3 channel(Russian) at Facebook social network; 6. Official fanpage of “I Revoke the Death” television series(Russian) atVK social network.

References

External links

• Tru Calling at allmovie
• Tru Calling at the Internet Movie Database
• Tru Calling at TV.com