"Summerland" Pilot (2004)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Ian Toynton

Writers:

Lori Loughlin (writer)
Stephen Tolkin (writer)

TV Series:

"Summerland" (2004)

Original Air Date:

1 June 2004 (Season 1, Episode 1)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Ava Gregory is single and works as a fashion designer.Her life changes drastically when she finds herself...

Plot Keywords:

Television | TV Series Pilot | Surrogate Mother | Family Relationships | First Kiss

Cast

Lori Loughlin	...	Ava Gregory
Shawn Christian	...	Johnny Durant
Merrin Dungey	...	Susannah Rexford
Ryan Kwanten	...	Jay Robertson
Kay Panabaker	...	Nikki Westerly
Jesse McCartney	...	Bradin Westerly
Taylor Cole	...	Erika Spalding
Nick Benson	...	Derrick Westerly (as Nicholas J. Benson)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Philip Boyd	...	Tommy
Christa Campbell	...	Fashion Model
Kylee Cochran	...	Nichelle
Gerald Downey	...	Dr. Mike
Patrick Fabian	...	Ian Straub
Amanda Fuller	...	Tracy
Hugh B. Holub	...	Mailman (as Hugh Holub)
Brad Horne	...	Announcer
Frieda Jane	...	Lynn
Haley Joel	...	Christy
Kate Lang Johnson	...	Ogling Girl
Tyler Patrick Jones	...	Chris
Joseph Kell	...	Bob Westerly
Nathan Moore	...	Messenger
Glenn Morshower	...	Ted Westerly
Wil Myer	...	Zach
Cole Petersen	...	Chris
Ashley Rose	...	Beach Girl (as Ashley Rose Orr)
Jay Sefton	...	Minister
Chelsea Staub	...	Sharon
Steve Tom	...	TV Preacher
Megan Ward	...	Karen Westerly
Michael David White	...	Jake

Runtime:

USA:60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Argentina:13 | USA:TV-PG

Company:

Spelling Television

Quotes:

Johnny Durant: Hey Susannah, Ava your office called. You know that presentation you thought you were giving at three?
Ava Gregory: Oh, he's not doing this to us again.
Johnny Durant: Yeah. They moved it to nine.
Ava Gregory: Nine?
Susannah Rexford: Nine?
Johnny Durant: Nine o'clock lets roll it up girls!

Lame, contrived, cliché, and surely soon to be cancelled.

If you listen closely, you can catch subliminal advertising for another WB show "Smallville".

The oldest of the three children is referred to as "Kansas" at one point, and is even called "Man of Steel" while surfing. Where the relation there is, I have no clue.

A mix of "Raising Helen", "The OC", and "Everwood" and blended together in a really terrible mix, this has all the makings of another forgettable soon to be cancelled series like "Run of the House", "Glory Days", and "Hyperion Bay".

Don't remember "Hyperion Bay"? I just proved my point.

This mess stars the beautiful Lori Loughlin who plays a driven self-involved business woman whose sister dies. For what reasons? Not sure.

So naturally, the kids are given to the sister ala "Raising Helen". There's three kids. Three. Why not one or two? Who knows, but there's three and their one-dimensional characters with one-dimensional personalities played by terrible actors.

The supporting cast is just as bad. Loughlin's character is one-dimensional too, though she looks like she tries hard.

There's the obligatory Aussie stud, there's Loughlin's boyfriend character, and the token minority character. All clichés for a show that has no future.

The kids are spoiled, obnoxious, and predictable. The oldest son is brooding, blonde, and is learning to surf, stating in the pilot "I prefer surfing" though he lived in Kansas. Oh, and he has a love interest already who's given no introduction or set-up.

The middle child is a mother figure trying to fill in for her mother which would be tolerable considering she can't act or deliver her line to save her life. She's tepid, obnoxious, and spoiled.

The youngest child is worst of all. His lines are terrible, his delivery awful, and the pilot consists of he and another kid talking about death in a cornfield. A creepy and odd subplot considering the kid comes seemingly from nowhere.

The emotional scenes are intended to pull at our heart strings but they're just awful. At one point the youngest child has a nightmare calling out for his mother, the middle daughter reaches for him and he runs to Loughlin's character, she gets upset and runs off.

This made me laugh aloud, because it was such a badly done scene. She then proceeds to run to her room, turn up her music and cover her ears. Once again, comedic and ridiculous.

Then there's a hilarious scene in which the oldest son confronts the middle child who tries to control everyone and they begin fighting. It's so funny, and its sad because it probably wasn't meant to be funny.

This is a very contrived, pretty awful and annoying show without an original bone in its body. It's ashame because Lori Loughlin is a good actress and this will surely fall into the cliché pit falls with this terrible vehicle.

I'm sure we'll see a mean boyfriend of the love interest, some obligatory fighting, and even more bad acting from the children.

This is awful and unintentionally funny.

-1 out of 10.