VR.5

VR.5
VR.5 DVD cover
Format	Science fiction
Created by	Jeannine Renshaw
Starring	Lori Singer Michael Easton Will Patton Anthony Head David McCallum Louise Fletcher Tracey Needham
Country of origin	USA
No. of episodes	13 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	44 min (approx.)
Production company(s)	Samoset Productions
Distributor	Rysher Entertainment
Broadcast
Original channel	Fox
Original run	March 10, 1995 – May 12, 1995

VR.5 is an American science fiction television series first broadcast on the Fox network from March 10, 1995 to May 12, 1995. Ten of its thirteen episodes were aired during its original run. The title of the show refers to the degree of immersion the protagonist experiences in virtual reality.

Plot

Prior to the events of the series, Sydney Bloom (Lori Singer) was the daughter of Dr. Joseph Bloom (David McCallum), a computer scientist who was working on developing virtual reality. His wife Nora Bloom (Louise Fletcher), a neurochemist, was also involved in the project. Sydney's father, and her sister Samantha (Tracey Needham), died in a car accident.

Now Sydney is a telephone lineworker and computer hobbyist. One day she accidentally discovers that she can enter an advanced type of virtual reality, where she can interact with other people. Her actions in the virtual world have an effect on the real world. She subsequently agrees to use her abilities to help a mysterious secret organization called the Committee. She receives her covert assignments from Frank Morgan (Will Patton), and later from Oliver Sampson (Anthony Head). Sydney's friend Duncan (Michael Easton) advises her and helps her when he can.

The show frequently uses inconsistencies in continuity and a distinctive color scheme as clues to suggest what is actually happening at various points throughout the series.

Cast

• Lori Singer as Sydney Bloom
• Michael Easton as Duncan
• Will Patton as Frank Morgan (episodes 1-4)
• Anthony Head as Oliver Sampson (episodes 5-13)
• David McCallum as Joseph Bloom
• Louise Fletcher as Nora Bloom
• Tracey Needham as Samantha Bloom

^[1]

Production

The show's visual effects for when characters were inside virtual reality were created by shooting on black-and-white film and then manually adding color to each image. This effect took four weeks to create for each episode and added to the cost of the show, which was about US $1.5 million per episode. While distributor Rysher Entertainment never confirmed it, the high cost of the production, coupled with a difficult time slot, contributed to the show's commercial failure.^{[citation needed]}

Music

The music for VR.5 was created by composer John Frizzell.^[2] The opening theme music came to Frizzell in a dream.^[3] Dee Carstensen and Eileen Frizzell provided the vocals in the opening theme.^[4] The music supervisor of the series was Abby Treloggen.^[5]

Episodes

Availability

VR.5 no longer airs on any broadcaster in the world (the last broadcast took place on Radio Television of Serbia in 2008) and there are currently no commercial reproductions of the series available. Virtual Storm, an online community, lobbied Fox to develop a movie featuring the cast and crew of VR.5, but the project was dropped after the scripting stage.^[6]

In 2014, the series aired on CBS Drama in Europe.^[7]

References

External links

• VR.5 at the Internet Movie Database
• VR.5 at epguides.com
• VR.5 at TV.com
• VR.5 FAQCenter Episode Guide