Reaper (TV series)
Reaper is an American comedy television series that focuses on Sam Oliver, a "reaper" who works for the Devil by retrieving souls that have escaped from Hell.
The series ran from September 25, 2007, to May 26, 2009, airing on Tuesdays at 8:00 p.m. Eastern/7:00 p.m. Central, on The CW. The series was produced by ABC Studios and The Mark Gordon Company. The rights for the show have been sold to Fox for its broadcast in Asia.
Premise
Sam Oliver lives at home with his parents in the Seattle area. Sam dropped out of college and took a dead-end job at the Work Bench, a home-repair superstore. He spent the rest of his time hanging out, playing video games, and pining for his co-worker Andi.On Sam's 21st birthday, his parents behave very strangely and Sam himself sees hellish visions and experiences odd events. His father eventually claims that many years ago he was very sick, and in return for restoring his health he and his wife promised their firstborn child to the Devil. Although the couple intended to cheat the Devil by not having children, this plan went awry when Satan persuaded their doctor to lie and tell the couple that they couldn't conceive in exchange for wiping his gambling debts clean. Sam was born shortly thereafter.
After informing him of his fate, the Devil explains to Sam that he must serve as his bounty hunter, tracking down souls that have escaped from Hell and sending them back using his new powers and "vessels," varied objects said to have been hand-made in the bowels of perdition by the iniquitous and the vile. Vessels appear inside a long wooden box sent for Sam to open, and are specially designed for each job. Examples throughout the series have included a Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner, a Taser gun, and a cigarette lighter.
Although Sam initially balks, Satan tells him that should he refuse, Sam's mother's soul is forfeit. Unwilling to sacrifice his mother and convinced that he is doing good in the world by tracking down evil souls, Sam accepts his fate. With the help of his slacker friends, Sock and Ben, he begins his new life tracking down the corrupted souls trying to escape their own eternal punishment.
Development and production
Reaper premiered on September 25, 2007 in the United States, airing on Tuesday nights at 9:00PM Eastern/8:00PM Central on the CW, following Beauty and the Geek. The series had a full 18 episode order for the 2007–2008 season, with 13 pre-strike episodes and 5 post-strike episodes.Reaper stopped airing new episodes after the tenth episode due to the industry-wide 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike. It resumed new pre-strike episodes for three weeks on Thursdays in March, and began airing post-strike episodes on April 22, 2008.
On May 12, 2008, Reaper was officially renewed for a 13-episode second and final season which premiered on March 3, 2009.
On May 19, 2009, Reaper was officially canceled by The CW. However, ABC Studios was still in negotiations with CW affiliates to syndicate the show, or sell it to cable.
Tyler Labine who plays Sock posted on his Facebook account that Reaper is officially canceled and will not be returning.
Conception
The pilot script which was written by creators/executive producers Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters received a script commitment by The CW in September 2006. Mark Gordon and Deborah Spera also joined the project as executive producers under the former's production banner at Touchstone Television, The Mark Gordon Company. The network green-lighted a pilot order for the script in January 2007, and writer/director Kevin Smith agreed to direct the first hour of the series in February 2007. The CW gave the series an early pick-up and a 13-episode order on May 15, 2007.While initially not making a full season order, The CW eventually ordered an additional 3 episodes, citing a high percentage of audience retention between Reaper and Beauty and the Geek. Additional episodes were ordered to fill in the first season after the writer's strike was resolved, and a second season of 13 episodes was later ordered, as well.
In a February 1, 2010 interview with CliqueClack TV, creators Fazekas and Butters revealed many of the unresolved plots from the series.
Casting
Casting began in February 2007, when Bret Harrison won the lead role of Sam Oliver. At the time, his commitment to the series came second to his show at Fox, The Loop, which had yet to air its second season on the network. The show was later canceled, leaving Harrison free to fully concentrate on Reaper. Canadian actor Tyler Labine was cast in the same month in the role of Bert "Sock" Wysocki, Sam's best friend and sidekick. Nikki Reed, actress and co-writer of the award-winning film Thirteen, was originally cast as Sam's love interest, Andi, in March 2007 but she was replaced by Missy Peregrym, who was fresh off a high-profile recurring role on Heroes in June 2007. Actors for the roles of Ben and Josie were found in the same month when Rick Gonzalez and Valarie Rae Miller were cast. Anthony Head and James Marsters auditioned for the role of the devil before Ray Wise was cast in the part in mid-March. Kyle Switzer was cast as Sam's younger brother Keith. Keith's name would later be changed to Kyle, and was written out of the show after two episodes. Donovan Stinson and Andrew Airlie rounded out the cast as Ted Gallagher and John Oliver, Sam's boss and father respectively.In July 2008, it was announced that Eriko Tamura had been cast as a season 2 recurring character, playing Sock's new stepsister and love interest.
Broadcast history
The first telecast of the pilot occurred on July 27, 2007, at San Diego Comic-Con. It received mostly positive responses from critics and audience members alike. The series premiered on The CW on September 25, 2007, and ran on Tuesdays, but moved in late February 2008 to Thursdays after Smallville. After the restart following the writers' strike, Reaper returned to being broadcast on Tuesday nights on The CW as original releases.Cancellation
The CW canceled the show near the end of the second season, airing the final episode on May 26, 2009. ABC Studios was initially in talks with CW affiliates to get a syndicated version of Reaper run on Sunday nights.It was later reported that syndication talks with CW affiliates fell through, as well as attempts to sell the series to Sci-Fi Channel as part of its change over to Syfy, after news that both Bret Harrison and Tyler Labine would not be returning for season three even if the syndication plan proved viable.
The official Reaper website confirmed that there will be no third season, but there will be a comic book series and possibly a cartoon.
In February 2018, Bret Harrison and Tyler Labine reprised their roles from the show on an episode of Kevin Saves the World.
Syndication
In 2013, FEARnet made a syndication deal to air the entire series. It is FEARnet's first "off-network" series, meaning that it is the first third-party show they air that they didn't make for the network. The series premiered on June 4, 2013, but on May 28, FEARnet aired a 30-minute reunion special that they produced which featured discussion with some of the cast. During the reunion cast members left open the possibility that a Kickstarter campaign could help finance the production of a season 3 of Reaper.Cast and characters
Main characters
Samuel "Sam" Oliver
Sam Oliver, the protagonist of the show, is a dropout and all-around slacker who, due to a deal that his parents made to save his father's life, is coerced into becoming a bounty hunter for the Devil after turning 21 years old. According to the terms of the contract, Sam would serve the Devil by using various tools, called vessels, to recapture souls who have escaped from Hell. After capturing an escaped soul with a vessel, he would then drop the vessel and soul at a portal to Hell, which was the local Department of Motor Vehicles in the show. Also, the Devil would grant Sam a unique power to aid in a particular soul's capture; the type of power ranged from telekinesis to a tattoo hinting the soul's location.Sam, despite being an inherent quitter, surrendered to his fate as a bounty hunter for the Devil in an endeavor to prevent the escaped souls from endangering innocent lives and to protect his mother's soul. He enlists the help of his best friends Sock and Ben to capture these dangerous souls.
Since the beginning of the show, Sam had romantic feelings for his co-worker, Andi and the two entered a relationship by the end of the first season.
At the end of season one, the demon Tony tells Sam that he believes Sam's parents were paid by the Devil to carry his baby, though Sam's mother denied this, and the Devil admits that he would probably not answer Sam honestly if asked about it. Later, the Devil indicates that Sam is his son, although the father who raised Sam, Mr. Oliver, tells Sam that the deal with the Devil will not allow him to tell Sam the truth of the matter. All other characters who know about the claim assume that Sam, though kindhearted, is indeed the Devil's son.
During season 2, Sam discovers an escaped soul, Alan, who can't be sent back to Hell because he claims he escaped the Devil. Sam continues throughout the season hunting down Alan, trying to get information on how to escape his contract.
In "Underbelly", the Devil hints that Sam is invulnerable. In "The Home Stretch," Sam inadvertently wins a competition with his half-brother Morgan and is appointed the Devil's right-hand man. In the words of the Devil, he is "my right-hand man, my human representative in this realm, serving at my side as we create Hell on Earth". In "No Reaper Left Behind", the Devil tells Sam, "I expect you to rise to the heights of political power here on Earth, seize control of the planet, and hasten the Apocalypse".
Andi breaks up with Sam once Morgan gives her the idea that Sam is the son of the Devil. She stated she recognized evil within him, and she couldn't deal with it. Even though she ended the relationship, Andi continues to assist Sam in capturing souls. In "The Devil & Sam Oliver", Andi ends up with him again, united by the fact that both of their souls are owned by the Devil.
In the series finale, Sam gains information that can help him regain his soul. Sam challenges the Devil to a game, but a wingless angel named Steve intentionally breaks Sam's hand causing Sam to lose to the Devil. But at the end of the episode, Steve reveals to the then-dating pair Sam and Andi that he helped Sam by breaking his hand and that he was acting from a higher authority.