Loeb and Alexander fired from ‘Heroes’
Monday, November 3rd, 2008
NBC’s Heroes underwent a creative shakeup Sunday with the firing of co-executive producers Jeph Loeb and Jesse Alexander.
Variety reports the two writer-producers were axed because of NBC’s frustration with the direction of the three-year-old series, which has taken a pounding this season from fans and critics.
The show has not only been fighting to keep viewers, averaging 9 million-plus this season, down from 11.6 million last year, but has also been grappling with overruns that far exceed the $4 million-per-episode budget.
Alexander was a co-executive producer of Lost and Alias before joining Heroes. Loeb, of course, is best known for his comics work such as Batman: The Long Halloween and Spider-Man: Blue, and as a producer of both Smallville and Lost.
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I feel bad for Jeph Loeb, however I really think that this is exactly the kind of thing that this show needs to fix all the crap that has been this season.
This could be good, but it could make things even worse than they are now.
Hmmm…..I’m not sure what to think about this, but it will take some time to see the results. I doubt we’ll see any changes for several episodes at least.
Minus Mohinder, I absolutely love this season. Not nearly as bad as the flaws of last season…
Yeah this season has potential but it seems like the story is stalling. I hope this gives it the kick it needs.
I actually think the past 2 episodes have been the best of the season. They finally seem to have gotten past all of the time traveling crap. At the beginning of the season, it seemed like they had gone overboard trying to fix last season’s problems by adding in way to much. In season 2, nothing really seemed to happen while in season 3 to much was going on. This has gotten better recently though. I’m not sure how these firings will affect the show, though.
Yeah I agree with Saber J about the whole Mohinder thing… I KNEW it, just KNEW that he was going to get powers this season and find some way to screw them up… I also totally agree with The Watcher about the last two episodes, though I am dissapointed that Elle went into Pinehearst…
Every time Elle is on screen I’m terrified that they’re going to kill her off.
Yeah definitely! She needs to be elevated from guest star to regular cast!
My opinions on this show are made abundantly clear on the episode of Podculture that Scott and I were on.
Definitely not my favorite show on TV these days. However, it’s a lot of fun. If you go into it expecting too much, I can understand walking away disappointed.
Heroes problem was that it never EVER was going to beat the first series and then season 2 came a long and well…we all know how that went. Now season 3 is shaky and it does seem to be going somewhere but there is something wrong. I’m not even sure what it is it just seems weird. My theory is that they have over complicated everything with the whole time traveling and the flashes into the future.
But I am still a faithful watcher and always wil be. It will get a fourth season no matter how bad the show gets, it will just get it’s budget cut and I think that this is what the show needs. This way they can go back to the charatcers and focus less on special effects and who has what power.
For this season to work they need to have a good story line which they have and they need to kill off a main character. Whether it’s Claire, Hiro, Peter, Nathan, Mohinder or finally Sylar somebody needs to die. It will give us a great story and put more impact into the show. It will also re-enforce the fact that these are meant to be normal people living their normal lives and they are struggling with these abilties. That is what I liked most about season 1 and that is what the show needs back. Get rid of missions to save the world and bring back believable, relatable charatcers.
That’s all I have to say That and (spolier warning for those who haven’t seen the latest episodes of season 3) I can’t believe they killed off Adam Monroe that easily, he was an excellant character and deserved a better story this year or at least a better death
than being drained by Peter and Nathan’s dad. He should have gone out in full fight mode against Hiro this would make Hiro a much more darker charatcer and make him grow up a bit. Not that I don’t like the whole Hiro and Ando double act I just think it can be a bit much sometimes.
Elle and Daphne need to become major characters. Mohinder, Tracy, and Maya need to do something or die….
I agree that Mohinder needs to die. He’s become such an idiot. I’m indifferent towards Maya, and I think she’ll be gone for a while now anyway. I have actually enjoyed Tracy this season which is pretty surprising. She just needs to do something instead of just following Nathan around.
If it wasn’t for Matt, Sylar and Hiro I wouldn’t be watching.
Anyone else tired of the “we need to change the future” storylines in um every season? Stop it. It’s old. Elle needs to be a villain (she was way cooler like that), Peter needs to get his jaw fixed (just annoys me), the cheerleader needs to not be in the show (sorry, Randy), and Sylar needs to start killing folks again. Current storylines are very weak. Change was definitely needed.
I feel getting rid of Loeb is a good idea. Have him write another Batman book. It’s what he’s good at.
The future is doomed storyline is a little overused, yes. Unfortunately, I think they feel limited on how they can use Hiro effectively. I really think sometimes his powers can write themselves, and be much less grandiose. And for the love of God, I understand that you have a great artist attached to the show. But STOP with the people that can draw the future!
Claire is fine. Love her. I think she’s getting into a John Connor-esque pouty mood a little too often, but that’s the writing’s fault. Still, I just had to make that comparison, since she’s close personal friends with John Connor. ;P
Is anybody else wondering what happened to Bruce Boxleitner’s character? They introduced him like he was going to have a big role to play this year, and then he hasn’t been back since.
Oh thank god!
And may I just say; Lost, Smallville, and Allias- no wonder this show was going absolutly no where.