The original V series that aired back in the 80s was basically about the threat of Communism and Soviet Russia, so I anticipated that ABC’s remake would have some sort of political undertone as well. What suprised me in the pilot was the apparent target of the show’s political undertone: President Barack Obama.

The episode opens with the standard TV pilot mechanism of briefly showing us a a minute or so of each of the characters we’ll come to know over the course of the series. We have the handsome newscaster who is not taken seriously and wants to get ahead, the single mom FBI agent, a priest and a man with an obviously shadowy background trying to make a fresh start in life.

Um, remember when ABC announced an ambitious plan for airplanes to be decorating the skies above major landmarks with giant red “V”s to market the upcoming mini-series V?

In case you haven’t figured it out, and way after the fact, it’s being reported that it just isn’t happening.

“Why not?”, I hear you asking.

It seems this promotional effort would pollute the air and since Disney, who owns ABC, declared that they would cut fuel emissions by 2012, this marketing plan didn’t gel with that environmental ideology.

ABC has made available the first 9 1/2 minutes of V and we have it for you here at Screen Rant.

In the video they try to tie into the emotions one might have felt when JFK was shot or on September 11th.  They ask you where were you when these events happened – and where were you this morning.  Meaning, the morning that the visitors arrive.

If you live in California, you might have an issue or two as the ground shakes with the arrival of the ship.  The first of 29 ships that arrive on Earth.

Check it out after the break and let us know what you think!

In a couple of weeks ABC Television will air its remake of the 80s sci-fi hit V. Audiences are all crossing their fingers and hoping that this remake is much better than the past couple of attempts by television studios (Knight Rider, Bionic Woman). Right now, all hopes of success are resting on the shoulders of one vaguely known actress: Morena Baccarin. If you look at all of the marketing leading up to the November 3rd premiere one face sticks out looking down on the city on the bottom of a huge inter-galactic spaceship and it’s Anna (Baccarin).

[Update: View a list of where and when you can catch the V skywriting campaign]

ABC is headed for the skies to market their newest sci-fi offering, V, a remake of the popular 80s television series.

Starting this Friday, ABC will be having skywriters create the letter V over 26 undisclosed landmarks.

This will happen a few times a day over the landmarks until the series premiere on November 3rd.  I am presuming it won’t happen over each one a few times a day, but heck, I’ve been surprised before.

ABC’s ‘V‘ is slated for a November 3rd premiere and for curious fans of the original series, it can’t be soon enough to see what ABC has done to it in this latest incarnation.

Yet you may wish to temper your complete enthusiasm for the first season of ‘V‘ because ABC is (as they put it) splitting up the season.

Yes, you read that right.  ABC is splitting up the season.  They’re going to run the first 4 episodes in November, leaving the 4th episode as a sort of cliffhanger. This will then set the stage for a mid-season return.

Maybe.

Those tuning in to see the series premiere of ABC’s Flashforward will be able to view, for the first time, an amazing new promo for V.

Or, you could watch it below. It’s your choice. (Watch it now!)

Not sure if you’ve been following or heard the news, but there were some legal rumblings in regards to what ABC’s new take on their remake of V was going to be.

The issue was that the Writers Guild (WGA) couldn’t decide of V was a remake or not.

Warner Bros. had recently taken the stance that V wasn’t a remake.  If it were deemed to not be a remake, Ken Johnson, the original creator wouldn’t see his name in the credits of this new version or get any royalty payments based on the new series.

Just a brief update on this Monday: Plan your prime time with the 2009 TV Fall Schedule; Smallville is getting another new guest star; A certain “Foxy” lady might be kicking off SNL this year; Learn how to catch up on all the NBC shows you missed last year (for free!); and speaking of NBC, how about a first-look photo of Jim and Pam getting married on The Office?

And as a bonus (because I love you) I let you know about the government’s “Cash for TV Clunkers” program.

Let’s get to it!

ABC has announced the premiere date for their re-imagining of the 1980’s sci-fi series called V.

The airdate we can now all start looking forward to is Tuesday, November 3rd at 8:00 p.m., ET/PT.

Below is the press release description of ABC’s outline of the show:

V is a re-imagining of the 1980s miniseries about the world’s first encounter with an alien race. Simultaneously appearing over every major city in the world, the Visitors (or V’s) promote a message of peace. Through their generous offer to share advanced technology, the V’s build a following that may actually hide a more malevolent agenda, one that twists a very deep component of human nature — devotion.

When I first heard about ABC’s new take on the classic Sci-Fi invasion series called V, I thought to myself, “that would be great.”  My initial response response was to hope they would at least tread water with this show and give the Sci-Fi genre a decent foot hold in the ratings.

After watching the trailer for ABC’s V, I’m thinking it should do OK.  Well, I hope better than OK, but I hold myself in reservation when it comes to how ratings pan out for good sci-fi.

ABC is hitting us with a bunch of new shows for their upcoming 2009-10 season.

The new shows include Cougar Town, The Deep End, Eastwick, Flash Forward, The Forgotten, Hank, Happy Town, The Middle, Modern Family, Shark Tank and V.

While shows like Better Off Ted, Castle, Scrubs and True Beauty will be falling in line with other mainstays of the network like The Bachelor, Brothers & Sisters, Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy, Lost, Ugly Betty and others.

So what’s happening this week with some of our favorite television shows? I’ll fill you in on the vaporizing ratings for Dollhouse, The Sarah Connor Chronicles and others. I touch on some Supernatural & NCIS casting news and a season ending story development. I then sprinkle some CSI:NY bits and round it out with some Lily cast updates.

Let’s check it out.

It was a busy news week for some big shows and some other shows that aren’t so big… so let’s get on with the tidbits of news!

NBC’s Day One

NBC is pulling together a post-apocalyptic drama called Day One. It’s about a group of neighbors from an apartment complex after a catastrophic event. The cast includes David Lyons, Carly Pope, Adam Campbell and Thekla Reuten.

So will NBC give this a chance? They’ve nabbed Heroes ex-writer Jesse Alexander for the task of creating this little mini Jericho. Why do I call it that? It’s about a small band of survivors who strive to rebuild society and unravel the mysteries of the disaster than took place to force them into this situation.

Sources: Sci-Fi Wire, Hollywood Reporter

Another classic television series, V, is set to come to us re-envisioned and hopefully will be another nice dark hit like some other re-imagined series we all know and that I’m trying to resist mentioning.

Another Remake On The Horizon:
Do you remember V?  No, not V for Vendetta.  V the television series.

Well, in case you thought your fuzzy distant memories were nothing but that, think again gang.  Back in October of ‘08 ABC gave the green light to a remake (yes, yet one more remake) of the old show.  What?  You don’t remember V?  That’s fine.  Nothing to be ashamed of.

V was about rodent-eating lizard aliens that showed up on Earth and though they said one thing, they had their eyes set on our planet’s water.  It starred Marc Singer, Faye Grant, Jane Balder, Michael Ironside, Robert Englund & Lane Smith, to name a few.

It’s been said that the original series was an allegory for the Holocaust.

If you were alive in the early ’80s and had even the slightest interest in science fiction, chances are you were aware of V, a miniseries televised by NBC in 1983 and followed by V: The Final Battle and V: The Series the following year. The plot centred on an alien invasion, the human resistance movement and a strong Nazi/WWII allegory. It could even be argued that the basic story – minus the intelligent plot points – was directly ripped off in the generally woeful Independence Day.

For those who don’t remember, think reptiles in human disguise, mice and guinea pigs for dinner and/or smart red uniforms and I’ve found people usually recall the show from within the depths of their subconscious.

For those who do remember – and were fans – did you know a sequel miniseries is currently sitting in development hell?