Back in the early Noughties, writer Warren Ellis created the twelve issue mini-series Global Frequency for DC Comics. It concerned the titular semi-secret organisation, created to deal with the kind of immediate, potentially catastrophic crisis-es that most of the world's governments had neither the imagination or foresight to plan for, let alone deal with. While some members of the Global Frequency were highly-trained and/or experts in their chosen field - such as ex-soldiers, marksmen, scientists, etc - many more were ordinary people living perfectly normal lives, who just happened to have a particular skill or talent, or know a certain piece of information, that might prove to be vitally important should a certain situation occur. In which case their phone would ring and they'd suddenly find themselves with an hour or less in which to save the world. Over the course of those twelve issues, the Global Frequency dealt with malfunctioning next-generation weapons systems, experimental cutting edge super-science gone horribly wrong, and the accidental activation of forgotten Cold War-era doomsday devices, amongst other things.
A pilot episode for a proposed TV series about the Global Frequency was produced in 2005, with Michelle Forbes playing the organisation's founder & leader Miranda Zero (having read the initial comic book series when it was originally published, I can confirm that the fabulous Forbes is perfect casting for the role), but the network decided not to commission it. There was a time when it was common practice to make full length pilot movies, so even if a series wasn't greenlit at least there was still a ninety minute made-for-TV film that would usually be broadcast and/or released on VHS. But from the early Nineties onwards, as a cost saving measure the networks decided to just make 45 minute-long pilot episodes instead, and those that failed to progress to a full series are often never seen by the general public.
However, the Global Frequency pilot was leaked on-line, became readily available as an illegal download, received universally positive reviews and swiftly gained a sizeable following. The pilot's fanbase hoped that it's popularity on-line would cause the network to reconsider it's decision not to greenlight a full series, but the opposite proved to be true: nowadays, downloads of TV shows are so common that most channels & networks have adopted a "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" approach, and have made downloads of their shows available on their own websites. But back in 2005 the leaking of Global Frequency was a high profile embarrassment and ran as a major news story in the entertainment press. Warren Ellis has stated in interviews that the network were so affronted that not only was any possible revival of the project killed stone dead, they have also repeatedly refused requests for the pilot to be released on DVD.
I finally got the chance to see Global Frequency in late 2011, and as a fan of the original comic book series I can report that it lived up to both it's reputation (the British newspaper 'Metro' once ran a page-long article about the pilot, in which they described Global Frequency as "the greatest TV series never made") and my own high expectations. Believe the hype.
A pilot episode for a proposed TV series about the Global Frequency was produced in 2005, with Michelle Forbes playing the organisation's founder & leader Miranda Zero (having read the initial comic book series when it was originally published, I can confirm that the fabulous Forbes is perfect casting for the role), but the network decided not to commission it. There was a time when it was common practice to make full length pilot movies, so even if a series wasn't greenlit at least there was still a ninety minute made-for-TV film that would usually be broadcast and/or released on VHS. But from the early Nineties onwards, as a cost saving measure the networks decided to just make 45 minute-long pilot episodes instead, and those that failed to progress to a full series are often never seen by the general public.
However, the Global Frequency pilot was leaked on-line, became readily available as an illegal download, received universally positive reviews and swiftly gained a sizeable following. The pilot's fanbase hoped that it's popularity on-line would cause the network to reconsider it's decision not to greenlight a full series, but the opposite proved to be true: nowadays, downloads of TV shows are so common that most channels & networks have adopted a "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" approach, and have made downloads of their shows available on their own websites. But back in 2005 the leaking of Global Frequency was a high profile embarrassment and ran as a major news story in the entertainment press. Warren Ellis has stated in interviews that the network were so affronted that not only was any possible revival of the project killed stone dead, they have also repeatedly refused requests for the pilot to be released on DVD.
I finally got the chance to see Global Frequency in late 2011, and as a fan of the original comic book series I can report that it lived up to both it's reputation (the British newspaper 'Metro' once ran a page-long article about the pilot, in which they described Global Frequency as "the greatest TV series never made") and my own high expectations. Believe the hype.