Journeyman (TV series)

Journeyman is an American science-fiction romance television series created by Kevin Falls for 20th Century Fox Television which aired on the NBC television network. It starred Kevin McKidd as Dan Vasser, a San Francisco reporter who involuntarily travels through time. Alex Graves, who directed the pilot, and Falls served as executive producers.

The show premiered on September 24, 2007, airing Mondays at 10 p.m. Eastern Time. The initial order from the network was for 13 episodes, all of which were produced prior to the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike by screenwriters. However, the series suffered from low ratings, and NBC canceled it in April 2008. The final episode of Journeyman aired on Wednesday, December 19, 2007.

Plot
The series centers on Dan Vasser, a newspaper reporter living with his wife Katie and young son Zack in San Francisco. For an unknown reason, one day he begins "jumping" backward in time. He soon learns that each series of jumps follows the life of a person whose destiny he is meant to change. Dan's jumping affects his family life and his job, and instills suspicion in his brother Jack, a police detective. While in the past, Dan reconnects with his ex-fiancée, Livia, whom he had believed was killed in a plane crash but who is actually a fellow time traveler.

Fictional cosmology
Dan's temporal displacements, colloquially referred to as "shifts," exhibit an apparent lack of pattern or predictability. Preceding each jump, Dan experiences a sensation in his head that varies in timing, ranging from immediate to several seconds in advance. Initially, these sensations manifested as headaches, although their intensity gradually diminished as the series progressed. It is worth noting that Dan possesses no conscious control over these shifts.

The initial leap thrusts Dan several decades into the past, with subsequent jumps progressively bringing him closer to the present, typically spanning several years per leap. In the series finale, Dan encounters Evan, who discloses his own identity as a fellow traveler, suggesting that Evan, too, has experienced haphazard jumps across various time periods. Livia, another character, also alludes to her own multitude of jumps, albeit distinct from Dan's experiences.

Dan's jumps materialize through the manifestation of a small blue flash and a rippling effect, causing him to seemingly vanish from the present and instantaneously appear in the past. During his absence from the present, the duration of time is unrelated to the period spent in the past. These disappearances and reappearances are seldom witnessed by others. Notably, Dan does not reemerge at the same location he departed from; instead, he materializes in close proximity to the individual he is destined to assist. His jumps predominantly confine him to the San Francisco region, the area of his departure. Initially, upon arrival in the past, Dan remains unconscious. However, as the series progresses, he gains some measure of control over the jumps, evidenced by his ability to sense their onset and walk with the ripples as they occur. Dan actively strives to comprehend the mechanics governing his temporal travels, seeking insights from a physicist who exhibits knowledge of his father's past and speculating about the potential influence of tachyon particles on temporal shifts. It becomes apparent that the scientist is cognizant of Dan's journeys and those undertaken by individuals sharing his peculiar abilities. Furthermore, it is revealed that individuals born around the time of a rare celestial event, the fictitious "Joseph-Lee" comet, possess the capacity for time travel.

Each of Dan's journeys bears an inherent purpose, which may not always be immediately evident to him. Their underlying objective revolves around effecting positive changes in the destinies of specific individuals. Paradoxically, if Dan attempts to manipulate events beyond his designated charge, fate appears to conspire against him. Alterations made by Dan to the timeline reverberate into the present and affect the recollections of its inhabitants. However, his own memories remain unaffected, enabling him to recall events as they originally unfolded prior to his interventions.

Dan is not alone in his temporal voyages. His former fiancée, Livia, presumed dead in a plane crash, actually travels back to her "home time" of 1948 and subsequently jumps forward through time. Dan encounters Livia during his leaps into the past, as she propels herself toward her future to offer guidance and support in his missions. In the episode "Perfidia," it is revealed that at least one other individual, named Evan, also possesses the ability to traverse time. Intriguingly, this person's demise occurs shortly before Dan experiences his initial jump, thereby establishing a cyclical narrative wherein Dan supplants the void left by Evan's absence as a time traveler. At the same time, Dan and Livia intuitively sense that her purpose in accompanying him culminates at that juncture, foreshadowing diminished future encounters between the two.

Cast and characters

 * Dan Vasser (played by Kevin McKidd) is a reporter for the fictional newspaper the San Francisco Register. Dan is the main protagonist of the series, who finds himself jumping through time, unable to stop or control the jumps. He has a son, Zack, with his wife of 7 years, Katie — his brother's ex-girlfriend. Dan was previously engaged to Livia Beale before her disappearance and supposed death in a plane crash. Dan is a recovered gambling addict.
 * Katie Vasser (played by Gretchen Egolf) is Dan's wife and mother of their son Zack. Until recently, she was the only one in the present who knew about her husband's time-traveling. Katie was the long-time girlfriend of Dan's brother Jack. Since their break-up nine years ago, the two have remained somewhat distant; partly because Katie ended up getting pregnant by Dan and they married soon after. Before marrying Dan, Katie was a television reporter. In response to cutbacks at the Register, and Dan's traveling, Katie returns to television to ensure a stable income for the family.
 * Olivia "Livia" Beale (played by Moon Bloodgood) is Dan's ex-fiancée who was presumed dead after a plane crash nearly ten years before the start of the series. It is revealed that she is actually a time traveler from 1948 who jumps into the future. After not being able to jump home for an uncertain number of years, she was stuck in Dan's present and adapted to life there, where she began a legal career and fell in love with Dan, only to finally jump back home while on the plane before it crashed. In "Blowback" and in the final episode, "Perfidia", she and Dan speculated that Dan was the target of her extended jump, and that her mission was to get Dan and Katie together (which was arguably a result of her supposed death). For unknown reasons, she now jumps to the same times that Dan visits, and offers him advice and assistance in his missions.
 * Jack Vasser (played by Reed Diamond) is Dan's brother. Jack, a police detective, is dating Dr. Theresa Sanchez (Lisa Sheridan), but also has feelings for Katie (his ex). Jack forms a number of misconceptions about Dan's disappearances and apparent irresponsibility, refusing to believe his brother when Dan tries to explain the time traveling. Believing Dan has perhaps returned to his gambling vice, Jack uses his police resources to investigate Dan's life. Jack is finally convinced of Dan's time traveling when Livia meets with Jack to enlist his help in getting Dan out of a desperate situation.
 * Hugh Skillen (played by Brian Howe) is the editor-in-chief of the San Francisco Register and Dan's boss and friend.
 * Zack Vasser (played by Charles Henry Wyson) is Dan and Katie's son, who has seen Dan disappear, believing it to be magic. Dan often fears leaving his son as his father left him when he was Zack's age.

Main crew
Kevin Falls, Alex Graves, Joan Binder Weiss, J.R. Orci, Neal Ahern, Megan Mascena, Matt McGuinness, Paul Redford, David Hyman, Juan Carlos Coto, Tom Szentgyorgyi, Dana Calvo, and Robert J. Ulrich (Casting Director).

Production
Exteriors of the Vasser family home were shot at Foy House, 1337 Carroll Ave., Angelino Heights, Echo Park, Los Angeles. At the end of episode ten the Innes House made famous as Halliwell Manor in the series Charmed can be seen next door to the south-east.

Episodes of the show were made available online, and NBC distributed the pilot on a fall-preview DVD at Blockbuster and other retail video-rental stores.

United Kingdom's Sky One, Australia's Channel Ten, TV3 in New Zealand and Canada's Global network acquired broadcast rights to the series.

When the show was not renewed for a full season, some Journeyman supporters initiated an attempt to revive production of the series by sending boxes of Rice-A-Roni (a product associated with San Francisco) to NBC, echoing the "Nuts" campaign which led to a second season of the CBS series Jericho. Journeyman creator Kevin Falls acknowledged the campaign in his blog, saying "Your fight to save Journeyman has humbled and moved us. I'm certainly not going to tell you to stop now". However, Falls also said that there were long odds against a revival, stating "Journeyman will likely not be getting a back nine order." As of April 2, 2008, the show was confirmed as officially canceled by NBC.

Reception
The series premiere, "A Love of a Lifetime", was watched by 9.2 million people, and received a 3.5/9 share among adults 18–49 years old. Mike Pearson of the Rocky Mountain News felt that Journeyman cannibalized past television shows Early Edition and Quantum Leap. In his opinion, the second episode was more coherent than the first. Tony Whitt of IfMagazine.com gave "A Love of a Lifetime" an A−, and felt that one aspect of Journeyman that was better than Quantum Leap was its love story. He also liked the acting in "A Love of a Lifetime" and called star McKidd "damn watchable". Karla Peterson of The San Diego Union-Tribune felt that "A Love of a Lifetime" was "a deft mix of supernatural wizardry and grown-up drama".