November 12th, 2008
Bryan Fuller Responds to Heroes Rumors
You may or may not have heard, but ever since mainstream critics began (in my opinion, very unfairly) targeting Heroes as a “troubled” show, they have been pushing to get former writer Bryan Fuller back onboard. The idea of bringing Fuller back has gathered steam in light of two events: the firing of producers/writers Jeph Loeb and Jesse Alexander and the fact that Fuller’s own show, Pushing Daisies, is currently on the bubble, with ABC having yet to decide if it will renew or cancel the quirky show. According to most media experts, the network is leaning towards cancellation, but that remains to be seen.
So what does Bryan Fuller have to say about it? IGN recently caught up to the writer/producer and asked him about his chances of returning to Heroes.
I spoke to Fuller to find out what the situation is for him with Heroes, and he explained, “Well, nothing is official, because I’m under contract with Daisies until the delivery of [Daisies' thirteenth] episode, which is in January. But I would very likely go back to Heroes and help them finish out the season and see where that takes me in the next stage.”
As for whether he’d return to Heroes as a consultant or a full executive producer, Fuller says, “I have no idea. I know I would love to work with them again. I think that particularly reading what I’ve read of the ‘Fugitives’ storyline, I would be very excited to go back to the show, because I think the ‘Fugitives’ storyline is actually great and it goes back to all of the wonderful things that made the first season so much fun. So there’s a lot of mixed emotions, because it’s like yeah, it would be great to go work with the people that I love again, but I want to continue working with the people that I’m loving here [on Daisies.”
I asked Fuller what he thought about all the criticism Heroes has received since he left the show, particularly recently, and he replied, “The show is kind of its own entity, so the stories that they’re telling, they’re telling in different chapters. So if a chapter might not be to your liking or to your taste, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the next chapter won’t be, because that’s kind of the idea – is to tell different chapters. That’s why the ‘Villains’ story is so different than ‘Fugitives’ or ‘Generations’ or ‘Genesis.’ So, they’re all so completely different that I think if you like the show, you’re going to find something to enjoy.”
To sum it up: yes, Bryan Fuller would love to return to Heroes, but only if Pushing Daisies is canceled by ABC. Bryan Fuller wrote the Heroes episodes “Company Man” and “Collision”.
So here are my own thoughts on this: Bryan Fuller is obviously a talented guy, and while “Company Man” and “Collision” were good episodes, they are nowhere near the genius that some TV critics apparently believe them to be. Or at least, they aren’t so mind-blowingly brilliant that just by having Fuller back would, automatically, “right the ship”. But since the decline in show quality was always a media creation from day one, I suspect getting Fuller back would help the show, if only to convince the same nagging critics that Heroes is back up to speed. They created the perception of a problem in the first place, so they can easily convince themselves that the show has been “saved” with the return of Fuller, who, in their eyes, is the savior. There’s nothing TV critics love more than being told they were right, and this would do it.
Below: A scene from the Heroes episode “Company Man”, written by Bryan Fuller. Is HRG holding the formula to saving Heroes?
