Roswell (TV series)

Roswell is an American science fiction television series that presents a timeline where the Roswell UFO exists, and aliens are hiding in plain sight as a trio of high school-aged teenagers. Developed, produced, and co-written by Jason Katims, the series aired on The WB from October 6, 1999 to May 21, 2001, and later on UPN from October 9, 2001 to May 14, 2002. Sixty-one episodes in total were broadcast over the show's three seasons. In the United Kingdom, the show aired as both Roswell High and Roswell.
The series is based on the Roswell High young adult book series, written by Melinda Metz and edited by Laura J. Burns, who later became staff writers for the television series.
A reimagining of the series, Roswell, New Mexico, aired for four seasons on the CW.

Cast

Main

Shiri Appleby as Liz Parker: A teenage girl who discovers the aliens' true identities after Max saves her life. The two develop a relationship.
Jason Behr as Max Evans: The Alien Leader of the Royal Four with healing powers. Throughout the series, Max struggles with his relationship with Liz, his mysterious past, and developing as a leader.
Brendan Fehr as Michael Guerin: Max's best friend. Michael is an alien who struggles to find his place on Earth. He has a relationship with Maria. He has the difficulty controlling himself, especially when his emotions are strong. His special power is never revealed.
Katherine Heigl as Isabel Evans: Max's sister, who struggles with the weight of her secret alien identity. Isabel has the power to "dream-walk", or enter people's minds during their dreams or her own.
Majandra Delfino as Maria DeLuca: Liz's best friend who is in on the secret. She is in a relationship with Michael and struggles with it.
Colin Hanks as Alex Whitman: Liz and Maria's best friend who helps them on their adventures while nurturing a crush on Isabel.
Nick Wechsler as Kyle Valenti: Jim's son who overcomes initial suspicions about Max to eventually become a friend.
William Sadler as Sheriff Jim Valenti: The town sheriff who starts out as an enemy but becomes a powerful ally. He later becomes the Royal Four's new protector after Nesedo dies. He also becomes the legal guardian of Tess as well.
Emilie de Ravin as Tess Harding: The "fourth" alien who was raised by Nasedo. Tess has the power to "mind-warp", or cause people to see things that are not really happening.
Adam Rodriguez as Jesse Ramirez
Recurring
Garrett M. Brown as Philip Evans: Max and Isabel's adoptive father
Mary Ellen Trainor as Diane Evans: Max and Isabel's adoptive mother
Diane Farr as Amy DeLuca: Maria's single mother
John Doe as Jeff Parker: Liz's father and owner of the Crashdown Cafe
Jo Anderson as Nancy Parker: Liz's mother
Nicholas Stratton as Young Michael : Appears in several flashback sequences
Julie Benz as Kathleen Topolsky : FBI agent posing as a high school guidance counselor
Jim Ortlieb as Nasedo : Alien sent from Antar to watch over the Royal Four. He has the ability to shapeshift. He is murdered at the beginning of season 2 by "Skins."
Michael Horse as Deputy Owen Blackwood: Sheriff Jim Valenti's assistant
Steve Hytner as Milton Ross : Owner of the UFO center
Richard Schiff as Agent John Stevens : FBI agent from a special unit tasked with investigating alien existence
David Conrad as Deputy David "Dave" Fisher/FBI Agent Daniel Pierce : Head of the FBI special unit assigned to investigate alien existence
Devon Gummersall as Sean DeLuca : Maria's delinquent cousin who has feelings for Liz
Desmond Askew as Brody Davis/Larek : New owner of the UFO center who has a young daughter and passion for researching aliens
Gretchen Egolf as Congresswoman Vanessa Whitaker : Congresswoman for whom Liz is an assistant before her identity as a "Skin" is discovered
Sara Downing as Courtney Banks : "Skin" who works at the Cafe and thinks Michael should be the leader of the Royal Four
Miko Hughes as Nicholas Crawford : Powerful "Skin" who has the appearance of a teenage boy
Guest stars
Daniel Hansen as Young Max
Sebastian Siegel as Brad
Carroll Baker as Grandma Claudia
John Cullum as James Valenti Sr.
Jonathan Frakes as Himself
Genie Francis as Queen Mother of Antar
Erica Gimpel as Agent Susan Duff
Ned Romero as River Dog, old native American man
Howie Dorough as Alien
Nelly Furtado as Herself
Jason Dohring as Jerry
Spence Decker as Kivar
Morgan Fairchild as Meris Wheeler
Joe Pantoliano as Kal Langley
John Billingsley as Himself
Episodes

Production

Roswell High was originally developed by 20th Century Fox Television and Regency Television for the Fox Network, but it eventually landed on The WB thanks to the latter network's offer to extend a full 22-episode upfront commitment. The pilot episode was filmed in 12 days with a budget of $2,000,000. "The Morning After," the second episode of the series, was the first episode with the full title sequence utilizing the theme song, "Here With Me" by Dido.

Filming locations

Roswell was filmed in various locations around California. City Hall, Charter Oak High School, and several other businesses and residences in Covina served as stand ins for fictional locations in Roswell, New Mexico, as well as Vasquez Rocks, a park in Los Angeles County. Episode 1 of season 3 was filmed partially in Salina, Utah.

Airing history

The series premiered on October 6, 1999, on The WB in the United States to generally favorable reviews, and quickly gained an outspoken fanbase.
In response to low ratings during the first season, the relationship-driven stand-alone episodes of the early first season were to be replaced with more science fiction themes and multi-episode plot arcs. Starting with the second season, after a fierce fan-driven campaign involving bottles of Tabasco sauce—a favorite condiment of the show's alien characters—were sent to the network's offices, veteran science fiction writer Ronald D. Moore was brought in as an executive producer and showrunner to further develop the science fiction elements of the show.
Not all fans responded favorably to the shift to more science fiction-driven storylines during the second season and the ratings continued to disappoint, causing the network to finally cancel the show on May 15, 2001, after the show's second-season finale. However, producing studio 20th Century Fox persuaded UPN to commit to a third season as a package deal when UPN outbid The WB for one of its popular flagship series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. During the 2001 – 2002 television season, Roswell, in its third season, aired directly after Buffy on Tuesday nights on UPN, though it was unable to hold on to the audience Buffy provided. This led to the show's final cancellation.

Ratings

Season	Timeslot	Season premiere	Season finale	TV season	Viewers	Rating	Rank
1	Wednesdays 9:00 p.m. Mondays 9:00 p.m.	October 6, 1999	May 15, 2000	1999–2000	3.56	2.6/4	#128
2	Mondays 9:00 p.m.	October 2, 2000	May 21, 2001	2000–2001	4.0	2.7/4	#136
3	Tuesdays 9:00 p.m.	October 9, 2001	May 14, 2002	2001–2002	3.0	1.9/3	#136

Plot

Season one

In the first season of Roswell, we meet high school students and best friends Liz Parker, Maria DeLuca, and Alex Whitman, residents of the small town of Roswell, New Mexico, site of the famed Roswell Incident. Liz Parker's parents own the Crashdown Café, which serves alien-themed dishes. At the beginning of the pilot episode, Liz is waitressing in her parents' restaurant when a disagreement between two customers breaks out. A gun is fired, and Liz is shot. We are introduced to a character named Max Evans, a seemingly normal high school student, who rushes to Liz's aid and saves her life by healing the gunshot wound with his alien abilities. The healing leaves a silver hand print on her stomach. To hide what he has done, Max pours ketchup on Liz before fleeing the scene with his friend Michael Guerin. The shooting acts as a catalyst for the rest of the series action.
Liz is presented as an insatiably curious character, obtaining a sample of Max's saliva, analyzing it, and finding that his cells do not look like normal human cells. When she confronts him, Max admits that he, his sister Isabel and their friend Michael, are aliens from the planet Antar, whose spaceship crashed at Roswell in 1947. A love triangle begins between Max, Liz, and Kyle Valenti, the sheriff's son whom Liz was dating.
Max divulging the secret of his heritage to Liz and the series of revelations as other characters, first Maria and then Alex, give the first season of Roswell much of its narrative tension, secrecy and trust being important to character development, relationships, and plot. Fear of authority is another theme of the series, as the teenagers protect the secret from characters who are in positions of authority: Roswell's sheriff, Jim Valenti, and a series of FBI agents.
Two romances develop between human and alien characters. Liz and Max's romance is portrayed as tender and sweet, while Michael and Maria's is portrayed as passionate and often explosive. Later in the first season a tentative romance develops between Isabel and Alex.
Toward the end of the season another alien character is introduced. Nasedo is a shape shifter, with a violent, murderous past. The gang initially believes that new kid in town Tess Harding is Nasedo because she seems to have a strange effect on Max, but this character turns out to be a teenage alien raised by Nasedo.
As the show's first season conculdes, it is revealed that Max, Isabel, Michael and Tess are clones of the "Royal Four" of Antar, the planet these characters come from. In a former life, Max was the king of his planet, Isabel his sister and a princess, Michael his second in command and Tess his wife and the queen. The four learn they are alien-human hybrids: their alien DNA was mixed with human DNA in order to allow them to look like humans and survive on earth. Their mission is to one day return to Antar and reclaim the throne from Kivar, Max's enemy in his previous life. As a result of this revelation, Liz distances herself from Max because she believes she cannot get in the way of Max's destiny.