Happy Town (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Happy Town is an American drama
television series that premiered on Wednesday, April 28, 2010, and ended on June 16, 2010 on ABC
. It was created by Josh Appelbaum
, Andre Nemec
and Scott Rosenberg
. It had a total of eight episodes.
town of Haplin. The townsfolk are convinced the crimes are committed by the so-called "Magic Man", a person whom character Merritt Grieves describes as having "an ability to make people disappear that bordered on the mystical." Seven people have vanished, never to be heard from again.
As the series progresses, it seems evident that the disappearances are related to an old German film titled Die Blaue Tür (The Blue Door).
, Penetanguishene, and St. Catharines
, all in Ontario. Several of the street level shots were filmed in Newnan, GA.
After shooting the pilot episode, actor Ben Schnetzer replaced John Patrick Amedori
in the role of Andrew Haplin, and Steven Weber
replaced Dean Winters
for the role of John Haplin.
and Eastwick
had during their run. In its second outing, the ratings slipped as did its audience, scoring a 1.2/4 among 18-49's and a 2.6/5 overall with 3.8 million viewers watching.
On May 11, 2010, ABC announced that it was pulling Happy Town from the schedule for two weeks, planning to resume its episode run on June 2; with the 5 remaining episodes airing on consecutive weeks. On May 17, 2010, ABC confirmed that Happy Town was among the shows cancelled from the 2009-2010 season. On June 18, 2010, ABC officially cancelled the series after its June 16, 2010 episode aired. On July 1, 2010 ABC.com released the two remaining episodes online.
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
television series that premiered on Wednesday, April 28, 2010, and ended on June 16, 2010 on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
. It was created by Josh Appelbaum
Josh Appelbaum
Josh Appelbaum is a television writer and producer. He has written for shows such as Life on Mars, October Road, and most recently, the series Happy Town.- Works :This is a partial listing of Appelbaum's work.*Profiler...
, Andre Nemec
André Nemec
André Nemec is the writer and producer on hit television show Alias. Past credits for writing include episodes of Alias, Fastlane, She Spies, and Profiler. Nemec is the creator, writer and producer of October Road...
and Scott Rosenberg
Scott Rosenberg
Scott Rosenberg is an American actor, screenwriter and film producer.- Biography :Born in Needham, Massachusetts in 1963, Rosenberg received a Bachelor's Degree from Boston University. He earned his MFA from UCLA...
. It had a total of eight episodes.
Plot
A period of peace following a series of unsolved kidnappings is cut short when a new crime has everyone talking in the small MinnesotaMinnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
town of Haplin. The townsfolk are convinced the crimes are committed by the so-called "Magic Man", a person whom character Merritt Grieves describes as having "an ability to make people disappear that bordered on the mystical." Seven people have vanished, never to be heard from again.
As the series progresses, it seems evident that the disappearances are related to an old German film titled Die Blaue Tür (The Blue Door).
Background
Although the series is set in Minnesota, many of the scenes for the program's pilot and first season were filmed in Canadian communities such as Port HopePort Hope, Ontario
Port Hope is a municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada, about east of Toronto and about west of Kingston. It is located at the mouth of the Ganaraska River on the north shore of Lake Ontario, in the west end of Northumberland County...
, Penetanguishene, and St. Catharines
St. Catharines, Ontario
St. Catharines is the largest city in Canada's Niagara Region and the sixth largest urban area in Ontario, Canada, with 97.11 square kilometres of land...
, all in Ontario. Several of the street level shots were filmed in Newnan, GA.
After shooting the pilot episode, actor Ben Schnetzer replaced John Patrick Amedori
John Patrick Amedori
John Patrick Amedori is an American actor and musician.His most notable role has been as the 13 year old Evan Treborn in The Butterfly Effect. He has also appeared in a number of TV shows, including Law & Order, Nip/Tuck, Joan of Arcadia and Ghost Whisperer. He also appeared in the movie Stick It...
in the role of Andrew Haplin, and Steven Weber
Steven Weber (actor)
Steven Robert Weber is an American actor. He is best known for his role in the television show Wings which aired throughout the 1990s on NBC.-Early life:...
replaced Dean Winters
Dean Winters
Dean Winters is an American actor, who has portrayed Ryan O'Reily on HBO's Oz, Johnny Gavin on FX Network's Rescue Me, and Dennis Duffy on NBC's 30 Rock...
for the role of John Haplin.
Cast
- Geoff StultsGeoff StultsGeoffrey Manton "Geoff" Stults is an American actor. He is best known for his regular roles on 7th Heaven, October Road and Happy Town. During the 2011 network upfronts, Fox announced it was picking up The Finder, a spin-off of Bones, in which Stults will star as the title character.-Early...
as Deputy Tommy Conroy - Lauren GermanLauren GermanLauren Christine German is an American actress, known for her role as the hitchhiker in the 2003 remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, as well as for starring in the 2007 film Hostel: Part II, in which she plays one of the lead characters...
as Henley Boone/"Chloe" - Amy AckerAmy AckerAmy Louise Acker is an American actress. She is best known for her roles on the television series Angel as Winifred Burkle and Illyria and on Alias as Kelly Peyton. She is also known for her role as Dr. Claire Saunders/Whiskey on Dollhouse.-Early life:Acker was born and raised in Dallas, where she...
as Rachel Conroy - Robert WisdomRobert WisdomRobert Wisdom is an American actor. He is a graduate of Columbia University.-Biography:Wisdom was born in Washington, D.C. to Jamaican parents. He appeared in four of the five seasons of HBO program The Wire as Howard "Bunny" Colvin...
as Roger Hobbs - Sarah GadonSarah GadonSarah Gadon is a Canadian actress. She acted in David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method and Cosmopolis. She has guest starred in number of notable television series including Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Dark Oracle, Doc, In a Heartbeat, La Femme Nikita, Life with Derek, and Mutant X...
as Georgia Bravin - Sam NeillSam NeillNigel John Dermot "Sam" Neill, DCNZM, OBE is a New Zealand actor. He is well known for his starring role as paleontologist Dr Alan Grant in Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III....
as Merritt Grieves - Peter OuterbridgePeter OuterbridgePeter Outerbridge is a Canadian actor, best known for his role as Dr. David Sandstrom in the TMN series ReGenesis, as William in Saw VI and his role as Dan Farmer in Happy Town.-Life and career:...
as Dan Farmer - Jay PaulsonJay PaulsonJoseph Andrew "Jay" Hughes Paulson is an American actor. Jay graduated UCLA in 2001 with B.A. in History and is a lifetime member of The Actors Studio. He also ran the 22nd Annual Los Angeles Marathon in 4:50:13, March 4, 2007.He is a practicing Theravadin Buddhist...
as Deputy Eli "Root Beer" Rogers - Steven WeberSteven Weber (actor)Steven Robert Weber is an American actor. He is best known for his role in the television show Wings which aired throughout the 1990s on NBC.-Early life:...
as John Haplin - Warren ChristieWarren ChristieHans Warren Christie is an Irish-born Canadian television and film actor known for his roles as Ray Cataldo on the ABC drama October Road and as Aidan "Greggy" Stiviletto on the ABC series Happy Town...
as Aidan "Greggy" Stiviletto - Lynne GriffinLynne GriffinLynne Griffin is a Canadian actress. She is known for her work in film, television and stage.Griffin was born in Toronto, Ontario, the daughter of Kay, an actress, and James Joseph Griffin, a fashion photographer and soccer player. Currently, she is married to fellow actor Sean Gregory Sullivan.-...
as Dot Meadows - Ben Schnetzer as Andrew Haplin
Recurring cast
- Sophia EwaniukSophia EwaniukSophia Ewaniuk is a Canadian child film and television actress who landed her first major role as a recurring principal as Emma Conroy in ABC television's series Happy Town...
as Emma Conroy - M. C. GaineyM. C. GaineyMichael Connor "Mike" Gainey , better known as M. C. Gainey, is an American film and television actor whose distinctive mustache, 6'2½" height, and threatening look have given him supporting roles as Southern/Southwestern types, thugs, and criminals.Gainey attended the University of Southern...
as Sheriff Griffin Conroy - Frances ConroyFrances ConroyFrances Conroy is an American actress. She is best known for playing Ruth, the matriarch of the Fisher family, on Six Feet Under, which earned her a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award.-Early life:...
as Peggy Haplin - Natalie BrownNatalie BrownNatalie Brown is a Canadian-born, contemporary R&B, pop and Blue-eyed soul singer-songwriter.She is one of the first artists to successfully launch a music career using the Internet as her primary medium for publicity.-Biography:...
as Carol Haplin - Abraham BenrubiAbraham BenrubiAbraham Rubin Hercules Benrubi is an American character actor known for his appearances as Jerry Markovic on the long-running U.S...
as Big Dave - David CronenbergDavid CronenbergDavid Paul Cronenberg, OC, FRSC is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter and actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror or venereal horror genre. This style of filmmaking explores people's fears of bodily transformation and infection. In his films, the...
as Dr. Leichman - Stephen McHattieStephen McHattieStephen McHattie is a Canadian actor.-Life and career:McHattie was born in Antigonish, Nova Scotia....
as Carl Bravin - Dee Wallace as Alice Conroy
Episodes
| # | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | U.S. viewers (in millions) |
|---|
Ratings
Despite a promotional push from ABC, its debut episode performed poorly, scoring a 1.7/5 among 18-49's, with 5.2 million viewers overall, roughly scoring the same numbers in the same time period that predecessors Ugly BettyUgly Betty
Ugly Betty is an American comedy-drama television series developed by Silvio Horta, which premiered on ABC on September 28, 2006, and ended on April 14, 2010. The series revolves around the character Betty Suarez and is based on Fernando Gaitán's Colombian telenovela soap opera Yo soy Betty, la fea...
and Eastwick
Eastwick (TV series)
Eastwick is a 2009 screwball comedy series based on John Updike's novel, The Witches of Eastwick. The series was developed by Maggie Friedman, and starred Paul Gross as the infamous Darryl Van Horne, alongside Jaime Ray Newman , Lindsay Price, and Rebecca Romijn as the eponymous...
had during their run. In its second outing, the ratings slipped as did its audience, scoring a 1.2/4 among 18-49's and a 2.6/5 overall with 3.8 million viewers watching.
On May 11, 2010, ABC announced that it was pulling Happy Town from the schedule for two weeks, planning to resume its episode run on June 2; with the 5 remaining episodes airing on consecutive weeks. On May 17, 2010, ABC confirmed that Happy Town was among the shows cancelled from the 2009-2010 season. On June 18, 2010, ABC officially cancelled the series after its June 16, 2010 episode aired. On July 1, 2010 ABC.com released the two remaining episodes online.
Ratings chart
| Order | Episode | Airdate | Rating | Share | Rating/Share Nielsen Ratings Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States... (18-49) |
Viewers (millions) |
Rank (night) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "In This Home on Ice" | April 28, 2010 | 3.5 | 6 | 1.7/5 | 5.25 | 8 |
| 2 | "I Came to Haplin for the Waters" | May 5, 2010 | 2.6 | 6 | 1.2/4 | 3.79 | 14 |
| 3 | "Polly Wants a Crack at Her" | May 12, 2010 | 2.1 | 4 | 1.1/3 | 3.04 | 14 |
| 4 | "Slight of Hand" | June 2, 2010 | 2.0 | 3 | 0.8/3 | 2.76 | 13 |
| 5 | "This Is Why We Stay" | June 9, 2010 | 1.9 | 3 | 0.8/2 | 2.58 | 11 |
| 6 | "Questions and Antlers" | June 16, 2010 | 1.6 | 3 | 0.6/2 | 2.17 | 12 |