Terminator TV: Judgment Day
Searches Spike for the Sarah Connor Chronicles

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is an American television series that premiered on Sunday, January 13, 2008 on the U.S. television network Fox. It is a continuation of the Terminator film franchise. Produced by Warner Bros. Television and C2-Pictures, it revolves around the life of Sarah Connor, and her son, John Connor after the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The series is being executively produced by the Terminator 3 producers and C2 Pictures co-presidents, Mario Kassar and Andrew G. Vajna, C2 Senior Vice President James Middleton, David Nutter, and Josh Friedman, who is also writing.

 Sarah Connor Chronicles

Sunday night, Fox aired the debut episode of “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.” By Monday morning, the show’s message board was raking in the comments. In threads with titles like “This show doesn’t make sense” and “THIS IS A NO SHOW!!!!!!!!,” many fans fumed about how the new series deviated from the original “T” storyline.

Judging by buzz, though, the sci-fi drama may actually be an unstoppable, musclebound “yes.” After the show aired, searches for the cyborg series spiked nearly 400%, busting into our top movers. Lena Headey, who plays Sarah Connor, Interest in fellow actors Thomas Dekker and Summer Glau soared. Glau’s character, the re-programmed teen Terminator Cameron Phillips, also surged in Search Engines.

Even if the series does eventually crumble in the face of some fans’ resistance, it’s already benefited the larger good of the franchise. Searches for “terminator,” “terminator 2,” and “terminator 3″ are all on the rise. Demand for “terminator 4″ and its trailer has blasted upwards. For now, the world is looking safe for the ongoing saga of the Connor family.

Sarah Connor Chronicles Trailer:

Here’s a press release recently released by FOX:

Again facing relentless Terminators that will stop at nothing until John Connor, the future leader of the resistance, is eliminated, Sarah Connor stops running and starts fighting back against fate and the machines that are out for her son in the highly anticipated new series TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES premiering Monday, Jan. 14 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX.

Unfolding where the film “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” leaves off, TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES finds SARAH (Lena Headey) and her 15-year-old son JOHN CONNOR (Thomas Dekker) alone in a dangerous world. As fugitives from the law, they are confronted by the ever-evolving technological enemy bent on destroying their lives, and perhaps the world. Balancing his inevitable fate as the possible savior of mankind and his current life as an ordinary high school student, John must learn what it takes to become the future leader of the people’s resistance. His only friend is CAMERON (Summer Glau), an enigmatic and otherworldly student at his high school who soon proves to be much more than his confidante – she assumes the role of Sarah and John’s fearless protector. Together, Sarah, John and Summer, all extraordinary in their own right, attempt to become a “normal” family. On their trail are not only threats from the future, but an intelligent and tough FBI agent, JAMES ELLISON (Richard T. Jones), who just may become a powerful ally.

TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES represents an exciting reinvention of the “Terminator” film franchise, in which the strong and intrepid Sarah discovers that protecting her son and stopping the rise of the machines is more difficult than she had ever imagined.

Produced by C2 Pictures in association with Warner Bros. Television, TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES is executive-produced by Josh Friedman and John Wirth. James Middleton serves as consulting producer, while Toni Graphia serves as co-executive producer and Natalie Chaidez serves as a consulting producer for the series. The pilot was directed by David Nutter.

Casting: The casting process of the series took 16 weeks during which the producers auditioned actors not only from America but also from Australia, Canada, and England. Over 300 actresses auditioned for the role of Sarah Connor, the heroine of the Terminator series.Series creator Josh Friedman described the actress he was looking for was someone “who embodied that spirit and who was believable in that role and not just some glammed up, Hollywood, actressy thing.” After a friend recommended English actress Lena Headey for the role, Friedman watched her audition tape, and thought she was “a tough, tough woman”. Headey was officially cast on November 7, 2006.

On December 7, 2006, the actor cast in the role of 15-year-old John Connor was announced to be Thomas Dekker. Regarding the Terminator films, Dekker says, “They are like my favorite films when I was younger. So it’s very ironic that I’m getting to do this. And I know for the younger generation and for myself, John was equally important to me as Sarah was, and I know a lot of the people that I hear from really, really care about John.”

The remaining two principal cast members of the series, Richard T. Jones and Summer Glau, were announced in January 2007 and February 2007 respectively. Jones likens his character, an FBI agent, to that of Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive. Moreover, he is allowed to improvise a few lines to provide “a little bit of comic relief” to the show. Unlike Dekker, Glau had not seen the Terminator films prior to being cast as Cameron Phillips, whose role in the series was initially kept concealed but was later revealed to be a Terminator sent from the future to protect John. Friedman had previously wanted to cast Glau in a pilot he wrote four years prior to The Sarah Connor Chronicles but she was already committed to Serenity. Glau admitted that she felt “intimidated” by the role because the character is comprised of both human and robot characteristics.

The role of Cromartie, a Terminator sent back to kill John Connor, first went to Owain Yeoman, who appeared in the pilot. The trade press reported on September 24, 2007, that Garret Dillahunt has joined the show in that same role. The cast also features veteran TV actor Dean Winters as a former boyfriend of Sarah’s.

Filming: The pilot episode was primarily filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The principal photography started on January 24, 2007 and took approximately one month to complete. Subsequent episodes in the series are filmed in the backlot of the Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, California, where the set was previously used by Gilmore Girls to depict their fictional town, Stars Hollow.

The Story:
At the end of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Sarah, John, and the Terminator successfully destroy the T-1000 and the arm and computer chip from the first Terminator. Sarah and John then watch as the Terminator is lowered into a molten steel pit in an attempt to destroy all future technology that could be used to create Skynet. Sarah and John now find themselves alone in a very dangerous and complicated world. Fugitives from the law, they are confronted with the reality that still more enemies — from the future and the present — could attack at any moment.

Prompted by the return of Terminators into their lives, Sarah and John decide to stop running and focus on stopping the launching of Skynet. They are aided by Cameron, a Terminator who poses as a student at John’s school and whose mission is to protect John. Meanwhile, FBI Agent James Ellison pursues Sarah and John with the belief that Sarah is deranged. The pilot episode as broadcast takes place in August and September 1999 with a jump to September 2007.

Characters and Cast:

  • Sarah Connor (Lena Headey) is a major character in the Terminator series. She is seen as a deranged fugitive by the authorities, who do not believe her story about the terminators.

  • John Connor (Thomas Dekker) is Sarah’s son. The future leader of the human resistance, he is only fifteen years old in the show’s time setting.

  • Cameron Phillips (Summer Glau) is a cyborg sent back in time to protect John Connor. She is an unknown model and, according to the trailer, the most human yet; being able to convincingly mimic human emotions better than her predecessors.

  • James Ellison (Richard T. Jones) is an FBI agent pursuing the Connors.

  • Cromartie (Owain Yeoman) is a Terminator sent back to kill John in the pilot episode. He is shown to take damage to his biological covering, similar to the Model 101. Garret Dillahunt is also reported to have been cast in this role.

  • Charley Dixon (Dean Winters) Sarah’s former fiancé, who will be looking for her for a number of episodes. In the original pilot, this character was named Burke Daniels, and played by Tim Guinee.