US
Haven is a supernatural drama television series loosely based on the Stephen King novel The Colorado Kid. The show, which deals with strange events in a fictional town in Maine named Haven, is filmed on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, Canada, and is an American/Canadian co-production. It stars Emily Rose, Lucas Bryant, and Eric Balfour, whose characters struggle to help townspeople with supernatural afflictions and protect the town from the effects of those afflictions. The show is the creation of writers Jim Dunn and Sam Ernst.
The one-hour drama premiered on July 9, 2010, on Syfy. The series was the first property to be produced for Syfy Pay channels around the globe, excluding Canada and Scandinavia. On October 12, 2011, it was renewed for a third 13-episode season, which began airing on September 21, 2012. On November 9, 2012, it was renewed for a fourth 13-episode season.
Viva La Bam was an American reality television series that stars Bam Margera and his friends and family. The show was a spin-off from MTV’s Jackass, in which Margera and most of the main cast had appeared. Each episode had a specific theme, mission, or challenge which was normally accomplished by performing pranks, skateboarding, and enlisting the help of friends, relations and experts. Although partly improvised, the show was supported by a greater degree of planning and organization.
The Killing is an American crime drama television series based upon the Danish television series Forbrydelsen. Set in Seattle, Washington, the series follows the various murder investigations by homicide detectives Sarah Linden and Stephen Holder.
Generation Kill is a British-American television miniseries produced for HBO, based on the book of the same name by Evan Wright about his experience as an embedded reporter with the U.S. Marine Corps’ 1st Reconnaissance Battalion during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It was adapted for television by David Simon, Ed Burns and Evan Wright. The series premiered on July 13, 2008. It was produced by Andrea Calderwood.
The adventures of a late-20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J. Fry, who, after being unwittingly cryogenically frozen for one thousand years, finds employment at Planet Express, an interplanetary delivery company in the retro-futuristic 31st century.
The Adventures of Tintin is a French-Canadian animated television series based on The Adventures of Tintin, a series of books by Hergé. It debuted in 1991, and 39 half-hour episodes were produced over the course of three seasons.
DuckTales is an American animated television series produced by Disney Television Animation. Based on Carl Barks’ Uncle Scrooge comic book series, it premiered on September 18, 1987 and ended on November 28, 1990 with a total of four seasons and 100 episodes. An animated theatrical spin-off film based on the series, DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp, was released widely in the United States on August 3, 1990. The voice cast from the series reprised their roles for the film.
The series is a dramatization of the Duck universe comic series created by Carl Barks. The viewer follows the adventures of Scrooge McDuck and his three grandnephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Important secondary characters, that often take part in the adventures, include Donald Duck, Scrooge’s pilot Launchpad McQuack and butler Duckworth, the inventor Gyro Gearloose, and the nanny Mrs. Beakley and her granddaughter Webby. The most notable antagonists in the series are the Beagle Boys, the witch Magica De Spell, and the industrialist Flintheart Glomgold. In a typical story, the villains are after McDuck’s fortune or his Number One Dime; another common theme is a race after some sort of treasure. Although some stories are original or based on Barks’ comic book series, others are pastiches on classical stories or legends, including characters based on either fictional or historical persons. The series is known for its many references to popular culture, including Shakespeare, Jack the Ripper, Greek mythology, James Bond, Indiana Jones, and Sherlock Holmes.
Firefly is set in the year 2517, after the arrival of humans in a new star system and follows the adventures of the renegade crew of Serenity, a “Firefly-class” spaceship. The ensemble cast portrays the nine characters who live on Serenity.
Quack Pack is an animated television series made by The Walt Disney Company, featuring Donald Duck and his nephews. The show debuted on September 3, 1996 as a part of the Disney Afternoon programming block. The series ran one season with 39 episodes.
Set in the fictional small town of Tree Hill, North Carolina, this teen-driven drama tells the story of two half brothers, who share a last name and nothing else. Brooding, blue-collar Lucas is a talented street-side basketball player, but his skills are appreciated only by his friends at the river court. Popular, affluent Nathan basks in the hero-worship of the town, as the star of his high school team. And both boys are the son of former college ball player, Dan Scott, whose long ago choice to abandon Lucas and his mother Karen, will haunt him long into his life with wife Deb, and their son Nathan.
Until now, Dan has managed to keep his two sons far from each other. But the past and present collide sharply when Tree Hill’s basketball coach recruits Lucas for his team, much to the chagrin of Nathan and Daddy Dan. And the siblings natural rivalry only intensifies when they set their sights on the same girl, Peyton Sawyer. The residue of the past lingers far into the future for the residents of Tree Hill, even as a new generation is rising. Tree Hill follows the lives and loves of these two brothers, their friends and their family as they navigate high school, marriage, and finally… adulthood.
Weeds is an American dark comedy-drama series created by Jenji Kohan. The central character is Nancy Botwin, a widowed mother of two boys who begins selling cannabis to support her family after her husband dies suddenly of a heart attack. Over the course of the show, she and her family become increasingly entangled in illegal activities.
Dexter is an American television drama series. The series centers on Dexter Morgan, a blood spatter pattern analyst for ‘Miami Metro Police Department’ who also leads a secret life as a serial killer, hunting down criminals who have slipped through the cracks of justice.
Thanks to his police officer father’s efforts, Shawn Spencer spent his childhood developing a keen eye for detail (and a lasting dislike of his dad). Years later, Shawn’s frequent tips to the police lead to him being falsely accused of a crime he solved. Now, Shawn has no choice but to use his abilities to perpetuate his cover story: psychic crime-solving powers, all the while dragging his best friend, his dad, and the police along for the ride.
A down-to-earth account of the lives of both illustrious and ordinary Romans set in the last days of the Roman Republic.
The Jetsons is an American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera, originally airing in primetime from 1962-1963, then later as part of the weekday/weekend morning programming block called The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera, until 1987. New episodes were produced from 1984-1987 as well. It was Hanna-Barbera’s Space Age counterpart to The Flintstones. Reruns can be seen frequently on Boomerang.
While the Flintstones live in a world with machines powered by birds and dinosaurs, the Jetsons live in the year 2062 in a futuristic utopia of elaborate robotic contraptions, aliens, holograms, and whimsical inventions.
The original series comprised 24 episodes and aired on Sunday nights on ABC beginning September 23, 1962, with primetime reruns continuing through September 8, 1963. At the time of its debut, it was the first program ever to be broadcast in color on ABC-TV. In contrast, The Flintstones, while always produced in color, was broadcast in black-and-white for its first two seasons. Following its primetime run, the series aired on Saturday mornings for decades, starting on ABC for the 1963-64 season and then in future seasons on CBS and NBC.
The main theme of the series explores Sydney’s obligation to conceal her true career from her friends and family, even as she assumes multiple aliases to carry out her missions. These themes are most prevalent in the first two seasons of the show. A major plotline of the series was the search for and recovery of artifacts created by Milo Rambaldi, a Renaissance-era character with similarities to both Leonardo da Vinci and Nostradamus. This plot and some technologies used in the series place Alias into the genre of science fiction.
The adventures of the beautiful, enigmatic and always surprising Dr. Helen Magnus, a brilliant scientist who holds the secrets of a clandestine population called Abnormals – a group of strange and sometimes terrifying beings that hide among humans. Magnus seeks to protect this threatened phenomena as well as unlock the mysteries behind their existence.
Xena: Warrior Princess is an American–New Zealand supernatural fantasy adventure series that aired in syndication from September 4, 1995 until June 18, 2001.
The series was created in 1995 by writer-director-producer Robert Tapert under his production tag, Renaissance Pictures with later executive producers being R. J. Stewart and Sam Raimi. The series narrative follows Xena, as an infamous warrior on a quest to seek redemption for her past sins against the innocent by using her formidable fighting skills to now, help those who are unable to defend themselves. Xena is accompanied by Gabrielle, who during the series changes from a simple farm girl into an Amazon warrior and Xena’s comrade-in-arms; her initial naïveté helps to balance Xena and assists her in recognizing and pursuing the “greater good”.
The show is a spin-off of the television series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys; the saga began with three episodes in Hercules where Xena was a recurring character originally scheduled to die in her third appearance. Aware that the character of Xena had been very successful among the public, the producers of the series decided to create a spin-off series based on her adventures. Xena was a successful show which has aired in more than 108 countries around the world since 1998. In 2004 and 2007, it was ranked #9 and #10 on TV Guide’s Top Cult Shows Ever and the title character was ranked #100 on Bravo’s 100 Greatest TV Characters. Xena’s success has led to hundreds of tie-in products, including, comics, books, video games and conventions, realized annually since 1998 in Pasadena, California and London.
Baloo the Bear stars in an adventurous comedy of love and conflict with his friend Kit Cloudkicker. Rebecca Cunningham and her daughter Molly purchase Baloo’s failing company and Baloo must fly transport runs to clear his debt while dodging Don Karnage and his sky pirates.
The series centers on Ryan Atwood, a troubled youth from a broken home who is adopted by the wealthy and philanthropic Sandy and Kirsten Cohen. Ryan and his surrogate brother Seth, a socially awkward yet quick-witted teenager, deal with life as outsiders in the high-class world of Newport Beach. Ryan and Seth spend much time navigating their relationships with girl-next-door Marissa Cooper, Seth’s childhood crush Summer Roberts, and the fast-talking loner Taylor Townsend. Story lines deal with the culture clash between the idealistic Cohen family and the shallow, materialistic, and closed-minded community in which they reside. The series includes elements of postmodernism, and functions as a mixture of melodrama and comedy.
Ichabod Crane is resurrected and pulled two and a half centuries through time to unravel a mystery that dates all the way back to the founding fathers.
Aladdin is an animated television series made by Walt Disney Television which aired from 1994 to 1995, based on the original 1992 feature. It was animated at the Slightly Offbeat Productions Studios in Penrose, Auckland, New Zealand. Coming on the heels of the direct-to-video sequel The Return of Jafar, the series picked up where that installment left off, with Aladdin now living in the palace, engaged to beautiful and spunky Princess Jasmine. “Al” and Jasmine went together into peril among sorcerers, monsters, thieves, and more. Monkey sidekick Abu, the animated Magic Carpet, and the fast-talking, shape-shifting Genie came along to help, as did sassy, complaining parrot Iago, formerly Jafar’s pet but now an antihero. Jafar, having previously been destroyed in the second movie, returns in only one episode which also serves as a crossover with Hercules: The Animated Series.
Many of the films’ stars provided the voices of their TV counterparts, with the notable exception of Dan Castellaneta filling in for Robin Williams in the Genie role. Unlike The Little Mermaid spinoff series, this series does not feature any musical numbers.
The series originally aired concurrently on the syndicated The Disney Afternoon block and on Saturday mornings on CBS. Disney Channel reran the series in the late-1990s until it was replaced by their pre-teen lineup. The show was later shown on Toon Disney, but has since been removed.
Drugs: A multi-billion-dollar industry that fuels crime and violence like no other substance on the planet. Turning cartel leaders into billionaires, the illegal drug industry also provides vital income to hundreds of thousands of poor workers across the globe. While some users sacrifice their lives to an addiction they can’t escape, others find drugs to be their only saving grace from physical or emotional pain almost impossible to overcome. Where should the lines be drawn in this lucrative industry?
Breaking Bad is an American crime drama television series created and produced by Vince Gilligan. Set and produced in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Breaking Bad is the story of Walter White, a struggling high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer at the beginning of the series. He turns to a life of crime, producing and selling methamphetamine, in order to secure his family’s financial future before he dies, teaming with his former student, Jesse Pinkman. Heavily serialized, the series is known for positioning its characters in seemingly inextricable corners and has been labeled a contemporary western by its creator.
Deadwood is the story of the early days of Deadwood, South Dakota; woven around actual historic events with most of the main characters based on real people. Deadwood starts as a gold mining camp and gradually turns from a lawless wild-west community into an organized wild-west civilized town. The story focuses on the real-life characters Seth Bullock and Al Swearengen.
The Wire is an American television crime drama series set and produced in and around Baltimore, Maryland. Each season of The Wire introduces a different facet of the city of Baltimore. In chronological order they are: the illegal drug trade, the seaport system, the city government and bureaucracy, the school system, and the print news media.
Despite only receiving average ratings and never winning major television awards, The Wire has been described by many critics and fans as one of the greatest TV dramas of all time. The show is recognized for its realistic portrayal of urban life, its literary ambitions, and its uncommonly deep exploration of sociopolitical themes.
Chuck is an American action-comedy/spy-drama television series created by Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak. The series is about an “average computer-whiz-next-door” named Chuck, played by Zachary Levi, who receives an encoded e-mail from an old college friend now working for the Central Intelligence Agency; the message embeds the only remaining copy of a software program containing the United States’ greatest spy secrets into Chuck’s brain.
An irreverent look at the conflict, chaos and humor that defines teenage life through the eyes of 15-year-old Jenna Hamilton whose life begins to change when a simple accident becomes an epic misunderstanding and is blown way out of proportion. Narration in the first-person voice of Jenna’s blog posts captures the humor within the struggles and experiences everyone can relate to from their formative years.
The story of an inner-city Los Angeles police precinct where some of the cops aren’t above breaking the rules or working against their associates to both keep the streets safe and their self-interests intact.
Set in Springfield, the average American town, the show focuses on the antics and everyday adventures of the Simpson family; Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie, as well as a virtual cast of thousands. Since the beginning, the series has been a pop culture icon, attracting hundreds of celebrities to guest star. The show has also made name for itself in its fearless satirical take on politics, media and American life in general.
The Sopranos is an American television drama created by David Chase. The series revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads. Those difficulties are often highlighted through his ongoing professional relationship with psychiatrist Jennifer Melfi. The show features Tony’s family members and Mafia associates in prominent roles and story arcs, most notably his wife Carmela and his cousin and protégé Christopher Moltisanti.
In Victorian England, the young and beautiful Alice tells a tale of a strange new land that exists on the other side of a rabbit hole. Thinking Alice insane, her doctors aim to make her forget everything. While Alice is ready to put it all behind her, she knows this world is real. In the nick of time, the Knave of Hearts and the White Rabbit save her from a doomed fate. Together, the trio tumble down the rabbit hole to Wonderland, where nothing is impossible.
With the Ancients’ city of Atlantis discovered in the Pegasus Galaxy by Stargate Command, Dr. Elizabeth Weir and Major Sheppard lead a scientific expedition to the ancient abandoned city. Once there, the team not only find themselves unable to contact Earth, but their explorations unexpectedly reawaken the Ancients’ deadly enemies, The Wraith, who hunger for this new prey. Now with the help of newfound local allies like Teyla Emmagan, the Atlantis Team sets about to uncover their new home’s secrets even as their war of survival against the Wraith begins.
Drawn from interviews with survivors of Easy Company, as well as their journals and letters, Band of Brothers chronicles the experiences of these men from paratrooper training in Georgia through the end of the war. As an elite rifle company parachuting into Normandy early on D-Day morning, participants in the Battle of the Bulge, and witness to the horrors of war, the men of Easy knew extraordinary bravery and extraordinary fear – and became the stuff of legend. Based on Stephen E. Ambrose’s acclaimed book of the same name.
Airwolf is an American television series that ran from 1984 until 1987. The program centers on a high-tech military helicopter, code named Airwolf, and its crew as they undertake various missions, many involving espionage, with a Cold War theme.
The show was created by Donald P. Bellisario. The first three seasons star Jan-Michael Vincent, Ernest Borgnine, Alex Cord, and Jean Bruce Scott. After the original series was cancelled, a fourth season, with an entirely new cast and on a much smaller budget, was filmed in Canada for the USA Network.
The show’s distinctive musical score, which was originally orchestral-based and shifted to more synthesizer-oriented arrangements early in the second season, was composed and conducted mainly by Sylvester Levay. Udi Harpaz conducted the scores for many later second and third season episodes.
