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Where can I find the song that plays in the tag of "Last Man Standing" when Jake and Diane dance?
The song in question is "Statue" by Adam Cohen. "Statue" is included on his band, Low Millions' new album Ex-Girlfriends due to be released October 5, 2004. A complete list of all of the licensed music used on Jake 2.0 can be found in the music guide.
What happened to Sarah?
Actor Marina Black (Sarah Carter) was contracted for the initial order of 13 episodes, and appeared in "The Tech," "Training Day", "Cater Waiter", "Last Man Standing" and "Middleman." The character was written out in "Middleman" and was her title card was removed from the credits in episode #14 "Get Foley."
Why is Sarah listed on the Internet as Sarah Heywood instead of Sarah Carter?
The original press materials listed Sarah's full name as "Sarah Heywood." However, she has only ever been called "Sarah Carter" on the series, starting with the first time her full name is mentioned by Kyle in "Training Day."
Why was Matt Czuchry (who played Darin Metcalf in the pilot) dropped when the show went to series?
The character was written out in order to streamline the cast. According to David Greenwalt in a UPN chat in late October 2003, "We needed to isolate Jake from the real 'comfortable' world he'd known before his accident and we felt the best way to do that was to have his roommate transferred to Hawaii and have Jake move to a new apartment."
How many episodes are there?
16 episodes were produced, 12 of which have aired in North America.
The original order of 13 were made ("The Tech", "Training Day," "Cater Waiter," "Arms and the Girl," "The Good The Bad and the Geeky," "Last Man Standing," "Jerry 2.0," "Middleman," "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot," "The Spy Who Really Liked Me," "Prince and the Revolution," "Double Agent," "Blackout") plus 3 of the back 6 ("Get Foley," "Dead Man Talking," "Upgrade").
Although UPN announced in November that a full season order of Jake 2.0 (i.e. "the back nine") had been placed, in reality the additional order consisted of six episodes: "Get Foley", "Dead Man Talking", "Upgrade", "The Fix", "Libra" and "Nano-a-Nano." Of these six, only the first three were produced, and the final three stories exist only as one unproduced script and two outlines. "The Fix" would have begin production in mid-January, after "Upgrade."
Production was halted January 15 and the series was put on hiatus "pending an improvement in the ratings" during the production of episode 16 "Upgrade." However, the ratings were never given the chance to improve as UPN yanked Jake 2.0 from the schedule. When the network announced its fall schedule in May 2004, Jake 2.0 was officially cancelled, although no formal announcement was ever made by either UPN or Viacom.
The final 4 produced episodes, "Blackout", "Get Foley", "Dead Man Talking" and "Upgrade" premiered on UK satellite channel Sky One in May 2004.
What does America's Next Top Model have to do with Jake 2.0 being cancelled?
On January 14, Jake 2.0 was pre-empted for the encore presentation of the second season premiere of America's Next Top Model. The fact that it was the only reality programme to air in that slot combined with the fact that it was the encore presentation of UPN's only bona-fide hit series meant that the ratings of that special broadcast were much better than what first-run episodes of Jake 2.0 had been in that same slot.
It is believed, due to several comments made by Dawn Tarnofsky-Ostroff, Les Moonves, and David Greenwalt in the press that Model's performance in the timeslot was somehow responsible for UPN halting production and yanking the series from the schedule for the remainder of the 2003/2004 season. According to various Star Trek news sites, Jake 2.0's cancellation came as a shock as UPN and Viacom had made assurances to the production staff that the series would be allowed to finish out the season. In fact, despite Jake being the lowest rated scripted series on UPN due to airing in a very competitive timeslot with little promotion, Tarnofsky-Ostroff had been publicly very supportive of the series, and the show getting the back nine order in November had been perceived by fans as a very good sign that—while there was no guarantee of a second season—there would at least be a full 22 episode first season.
So why did the spell doom for Jake? Financially, a reality programme such as Model costs much less per episode to produce than a scripted genre series such as Jake 2.0 (which generally have a budget of $2 million per episode), despite being worth much less in terms of secondary market sales such as syndication and foreign market sales. Because reality programming is much cheaper to produce, the network can get "more bang for its buck" in that a very cheap show does not necessarily need to be a ratings smash hit in order to be considered a financial success, and the fact that such programming has little or no longevity does not matter.
While obviously not a direct cause, Model's ratings are generally viewed as the nail in Jake's coffin by fans. It is particularly disappointing as, despite the fact that even with an Enterprise rerun as the lead-in to the last first-run episode to air on UPN ("Double Agent"), not only did Jake 2.0 retain all of Enterprise's audience, the ratings were headed back up.
How would the series have ended?
Prior to production being halted, creator Silvio Horta told SciFi Channel magazine "Valerie Warner, who's the slightly evil executive director of the NSA, she still has her guns set on Jake. She becomes involved with DuMont. They form an alliance, trying to figure out a way to get Jake and control him... We've got a lot of stuff going on with a lot of our characters. We're gearing up to a very big finale. Hopefully the people that have been watching, it will really satisfy them, because we're paying off a lot of these threads we sowed."
Are the script and outlines available online?
Not currently. However, one set were auctioned off on eBay in early May 2004, and the auction listing stated:
#017 "The Fix " [was] issued the day the show was cancelled and was never shot. The story begins with the return of Jake's ex-wife Vanessa from Episode #13, now also enhanced, as she tries to track down and destroy Jake but who ends up meeting his parents. Also included are two outlines (8 and 10 pages) for episodes #18 "Libra" and #19 "Nano-A-Nano". These also continue the story of Jake and Vanessa and a secret alliance between Warner and Dumont. The last line of "Nano-A-Nano" is: "Off Jake's mischievous smile... END OF SEASON ONE"
"The Fix" was written by Hans Beimler, and would have been directed by John Behring. The writer's draft is dated January 14, 2004. Episode 18 was called "Libra" and the story (beat sheet) was written by Jesse Stern and the outline was dated January 14. Episode 19 was called "Nano-A-Nano", written by Javier Grillo-Marxuach, outline dated January 12.
Is the series available on DVD?
Not yet. Amazon.co.uk has the series listed, however at this time the site is solely collecting email addresses of consumers who would be interested in purchasing the series on DVD. No DVD release is currently scheduled. However, fans can send postcards to Paramount Home Entertainment requesting the series on DVD, and can vote to have the series released on DVD at TVShowsonDVD.com.
Could the show return?
Star Christopher Gorham is currently under contract to a new NBC series from Paramount/Viacom entitled Medical Investigation set to premiere on NBC Universal in August 2004. However, there is precedent (Firefly, Family Guy) for series which have gone out of production returning due to successful DVD sales. Even more reason for fans to write in to Paramount Home Entertainment requesting the show be released as a DVD box set.
Was the show broadcast in widescreen?
The series was simultaneously broadcast in fullscreen and High-Definition widescreen format on both UPN and Sky One.
What are the in-jokes in the series?
"The Good, The Bad, and the Geeky" feature characters named after characters from the 1982 film Tron. They are specifically DuMont/Kevin Jarod Flynn, Clu, Bit, McP, Yori, and the company Banatech. The episode also features a mention of 221 B Bakerstrausse, which is a reference to 221 B Baker St., the street address of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. The episode also features several lines of dialogue from the film Robocop and the registry number for the private jet that the Banatech execs were flying was NX74205, which is the registry number for the USS Defiant, as seen on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
"Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" features characters named after characters (Burns, Hall, Sal, Wesley Freewald, Stern) from the 2001 Sci Fi Channel original series The Chronicle—which was created by Jake 2.0 creator Silvio Horta and for which Javier Grillo-Marxuach was a staff writer—as well as two characters (Mitchell Gant, Kenneth Aubrey) from the film and novel Firefox. "Middleman" also contains a reference to The Chronicle as Jake asks Kyle if the NSA basement is where they keep the Pig Boy. Co-incidentally, Mark Sheppard appeared in The Chronicle as Nitro in "Bring Me the Head of Tucker Burns" which was also written by Grillo-Marxuach.
The episode "Double Agent" guest stars actor Lee Majors and contains a SFX cue of the familiar "slo-mo running sound" from The Six Million Dollar Man over the tag. Austin is mentioned by Jake in dialogue in "Arms and the Girl" as being a fictional spy (along with Man Form U.N.C.L.E.'s Napoleon Solo, and James Bond). And Kyle specifically references The Six Million Dollar Man (and makes the running noise) in "Middleman." Also, the phrase "stronger, faster, and better" appears in "Upgrade."
The Russian cocktail waitress in "Double Agent" is named Stephanie Romanov, after actor Stephanie Romanov who appeared as Lilah Morgan in Angel, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin-off Jake 2.0 showrunner David Greenwalt co-created and co-produced with Joss Whedon.
"The Spy Who Really Liked Me" features the licence plate "JAK 020" on the truck in which Angela is driven away.
According to the close-up of the documents created by the art department in "Last Man Standing," Jake's best friend (played by Matt Hill) is named Kevin Parks, after one of the series first assistant directors.
Was the show called "Weapon X"?
The original pilot went through several titles—"Weapon X," and "Jake Reed 2.0" among them—before becoming "Jake 2.0." In March 2003, when the pilot was cast, the characters were originally named Jake Reed, Dr. Diane Duarte, Louise Mitchell, Darin Fisher, Kyle Metcalf, and Sarah Clarke.
How do you know all this stuff?
I have mad hacker skillz.
Just kidding.
Some of the information in this FAQ was gathered using resources at TV Tome, searching the Internet using engines such as Google, gleaned from audition sides, and through correspondence with excellent people like the folks at Hit The Ground Running (which handled all of the licensing for the music used on the series) and Mr. Donny Markowitz (who scored the series).
As for the rest... well, I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.
Have a question about Jake 2.0 that is not answered here? Contact us and let us know!
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