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Television that Home Video Forgot: Jack & Bobby (2004)

Television that Home Video Forgot: Jack & Bobby (2004)

Jack & Bobby

Showcase Inventory

Created by Greg Berlanti, Steven A. Cohen, Vanessa Taylor, Brad Meltzer
Produced by Shoe Money Productions, Berlanti-Lippell Productions, Warner Bros. Television
Aired on WB for 1 season (22 episodes) from September 12, 2004 – May 11, 2005

Cast

Christine Lahti as Professor Grace McCallister
Matt Long as Jack McCallister
Logan Lerman as Robert “Bobby” McCallister
Jessica Paré as Courtney Benedict
Edwin Hodge as Marcus Ride
John Slattery as Peter Benedict
Keri Lynn Pratt as Missy Belknap

Show Premise

When we look back on all of the great American Presidents of the past, one can’t help but wonder about their lives and what they are really like behind their exterior. What lessons did they learn that would make them capable of leading a nation? What if we could see those moments that would inform the kind of President they would become? What if we could watch their life happen with the hindsight of what great things they will accomplish and what tragedies will befall them?

Those are the questions that Jack & Bobby appears eager to answer as it presents the unfolding lives of two young brothers, one of whom would be inaugurated as president in the year 2041. The series uses the framing device of a documentary, interviewing associates of the future President McCallister, both from his political career and personal life. While the framing device offered insight into the President’s future endeavors, the main narrative of the series offered up the day to day dramas that the two young brothers dealt with as they curated their path to the White House.

There is Jack, the older of the two, who is a fairly popular track team jock, and then there is Bobby, the socially awkward prodigy whose interests are often in tandem with that of his mother’s, who has overwhelmingly high expectations for him. Their mother Grace is a college Professor whose focus on her work makes her absent-minded to her children’s social needs. The crux of the show rests on following the development of the future President McCallister, and seeing glimpses of the future events that will transpire after he enters the oval office.

Jack & Bobby Cast

Series Run

The conception of Jack & Bobby began with Brad Meltzer and Steven A. Cohen who, after securing the title and the tracking of the early years of a future president premise, pitched the idea to West Wing director and executive producer Thomas Schlamme. The WB bought the project from Schlamme and brought in Everwood creator Greg Berlanti and staff writer Vanessa Taylor to develop the pilot for them. Soon thereafter, the cast came together, bringing in a slew of talented actors ready to make names for themselves as well as veterans like John Slattery, who was coming off improvisational political satire K Street, and Chicago Hope star Christine Lahti. Although Lahti was married to Thomas Schlamme, she was not considered for Grace, due to their desire to keep their marriage life and work life separate. Yet she ultimately got the role through another actor’s suggestion, and the creative team concurred that she’d be the ideal candidate for the matriarch McCallister.

The show premiered and wowed critics, who would place it on must watch lists for that Fall season. The WB Network was so determined to make Jack & Bobby their new hit show that they promoted the series to a great degree, even including the Pilot episode on a promotional DVD in the Fall guide issue of Entertainment Weekly magazine. Despite all efforts by the network to make the show notable, the audience turnout was far too low to keep it around. The show’s run just failed to gain traction and was considered a failure for the network, which hadn’t been able to put out a hit series since Smallville. The WB Network had been losing advertisers with one failed show after another, including Tarzan, Birds of Prey, and The Mountain. Despite being a favored show by the WB Network executives, the cancellation axe needed to be brought down, putting an end to the young series.

The cancellation of Jack & Bobby was perhaps due to having an unfortunate time slot against super popular ABC series Desperate Housewives on Sundays. The network did realize this, and decided to bounce the show over to Wednesdays, which ended up being no better, as the show was put against The West Wing, The Bachelor, and the American Idol results show. The quality of the show was top tier all the way down, from the writing to the cast to the production, which only makes it that much more disappointing that it was unable to bring more audiences to the polls.

Jack & Bobby 5Jack & Bobby is one of those kinds of show that was able to find a unique way to build mythology by using these documentary interview style flash forwards that would give perspective to what viewers would see in the current day. The framing device was not always perfect, as it did hit some bumps in the early episodes, at times giving repetitive information that, instead of contributing to the theme of the current day narrative, would interrupt the pace and flow unnecessarily. But as with any new and interesting narrative device, there has to be room to grow, and the show did find its footing and was able to make the tool work overall by the end.

The very title of the series is meant to evoke the mystique of past political figures, the great things that they’ve achieved, and the tragedy that befell them. This is exactly where this narrative is leading the audience with the commemorative documentary of the future. It foreshadows both great accomplishment and tragic downfalls for the characters the viewers are following. This type of foreshadowing and self aggrandizing could easily be seen as pretentious or pompous if not for the sharp writing and the exceptional cast, who were able to bring the material to life so well and allow the audience to invest in the characters’ plights and drama.

To begin with, there’s Jack McCallister, portrayed by Matt Long, a very straightforward archetypical handsome teen typically found on a WB teen drama. He’s a jock that is fairly popular and seemingly shallow, and as viewers learn in the pilot, he is not exactly what he appears to be. He comes from a single parent home, living with a single mother who is self righteous and overbearing on him and his brother Bobby. He sees how her influence has affected his younger brother and made him into an outcast, with his interests leaning towards the geeky side. Jack just wants to be normal, and so he finds himself looking for interests that his mother wouldn’t approve of. Long comes off as thoughtful and honest to viewers with his brooding depiction of Jack, and he manages to reveal layers of himself as he speaks with authority to Bobby, and shows a kinder side when trying to prove his good nature to a skeptical Courtney. Courtney is the daughter of College President Peter Benedict, who has recently moved into town, and Jack has taken an interest in her possibly because his mother Grace had spoken poorly of Peter, whom she’ll be working under at the University. Jessica Paré plays Courtney, and upon meeting Jack, immediately sizes him and his friends up as shallow and callous teens whom she’d rather not associate with, an outsider mentality that is often presented on teen movies and shows. The show subverts this deconstruction with Jack disproving Courtney’s skewed perception in a very well conducted scene in the pilot that offers an impressive performances from both Long and Paré.

Then there is Bobby, as played by Logan Lerman, a very talented young actor who makes a really remarkable impression here. He is an awkward gawky teen whose interests are not in the mainstream, and therefore makes him appear weird and nerdy. This is a character reminiscent of Freaks & Geeks character Sam Weir in its honest portrayal, yet is not a retread of that character. The relationship of Jack and his mother Grace is different from that of Jack’s in that Bobby is pretty tied to his mother’s apron in a way that could draw parallels to that of Norman and Norma Bates. Bobby’s main arc has him learning to assert himself more to his mother as he begins to realize that he has interests and ambitions that do not meet her approval. For example, Grace is an atheist, yet Bobby is drawn to the idea of religion and so he decides to educate himself in the ways of the church, despite his mother’s criticism.

There is also an incredible performance by Lahti as her character Grace, the two boys’ mother. She’s a pot smoking yet judgmental liberal professor who suffers an exceptional hubris personality that makes her unlikable to those around her, but Lahti’s portrayal is very entertaining and comical. She often ends up with mud on her face from putting her foot in her mouth to her college President Benedict, played by John Slattery. Benedict is a Republican counter to Grace, and is the writers’ attempt at an even handed presentation on political views on issues. Benedict begins as a bit of a caricature, but as he becomes a more predominant figure on the show, with Slattery giving a very charming and watchable performance, he develops into a fully dimensional and likable character.

Jack & Bobby the ImageThe politics on the show are often liberal leaning, yet would try to present all sides of an issue they would address in a given episode, whether it be the abortion issue, drug abuse, or recreational hunting. The tone was also reflective of the disillusion people were feeling after 9/11, the failed search of WMDs during the Iraq war, and the disheartened voter turnout of the American youth. There is a specific episode called “Election Night”, which aired the week of the 2004 Election and paralleled the election night when McCallister won his presidency with that of the current one, that is clearly meant to inspire hope in the electoral college. The episode does a great job at offering a future exploit that is interesting without overshadowing the turning point events that are happening in the current day plot, where a lot of the secrets people have been hiding come to the surface. It’s an impressive episode, and is a great example of what this series can do with the framing device. There are many other cases where the framing device worked on building mythology or reinforcing the theme of the episode. For example, in “Valentino”, the framing narrative relays an event involving the President’s eldest son, wherein his intent to protect him actually leads to him being hurt in ways he couldn’t have planned for. The same happens to Bobby in the present time, wherein the choices that are meant to protect him turn out to damage him. There’s this incredibly poetic sensibility to the series in how tragedy and triumph cycle in ironic ways.

Although the show had a very strong first season, there was room for more history to be explored that did not get the chance to be fully realized on screen. There was some hinting at the President having an affair with his Vice President that could’ve been given more detail, and it would’ve been phenomenal to see exactly how the courtship of President McCallister and Courtney fully developed. But alas, the series ended answering, at the very least, the most pressing questions presented.

There had been so many great cast cameos in this series as well, including Carrie Fisher, Shailene Woodley, Kate Mara, Ed Begley Jr., Gore Vidal, Kyle Gallner, Neil Patrick Harris, JK Simmons, John Beard, and Tom Cavanagh, not to mention series regulars Bradley Cooper, Edwin Hodge, and Keri Lynn Pratt. Cooper gives an exemplary performance as Grace’s under-qualified Teacher’s Assistant, Hodge is compelling as Jack’s best friend, and Pratt gives so much dimension to the vapid blonde Christian cheerleader stereotype. This show had an amazing cast, wonderful writing, and remarkable production that was near flawless and made this series not only watchable, but addictive once one begins watching. As far as teen dramas with a sense of political history go, this one was able to fine the perfect balance, and should be commemorated for its effort.

Jack & Bobby 4

Preservation Claim

There are so many shows that get cancelled even though they are made with great quality, and for the most part these shows are able to find their audience and gain cult status. Great shows like My So-Called Life or Freaks and Geeks are often considered to be amongst some of the best cancelled series, and they truly are, but as far as shows that really do not get enough attention, I would consider Jack & Bobby to be one that is often left out of the conversation. The problem has to be that there really is no official venue for this series to be viewed and build a cult audience. It’s a show that has truly fallen through the cracks of television history, and this should not be. Hopefully, one day there will be a way to watch this series in HD quality, because this is definitely a show that should be preserved for audiences to discover, and maybe then it will find its proper place among the ranks of great television.

Greg Berlanti would go on to develop numerous shows, including Eli Stone, No Ordinary Family, Political Animals, The Tomorrow People, and the ever growing DC TV universe, including CBS’ upcoming Supergirl.

Steven A. Cohen would follow up this with work on another political show, Commander in Chief, before executive producing shows like Glenn Martin DDS, The Booth at the End, and most recently Bojack Horseman.

Vanessa Taylor would go on to write for Tell Me You Love Me and Game of Thrones.

Brad Meltzer continued his role in television, executive producing the documentary series Decoded and Brad Meltzer’s Lost History.

Matt Long has appeared on Mad Men, Private Practice, and has last been seen in Helix.

Logan Lerman has made a career outside of television, starring in the Percy Jackson films, Perks of Being a Wallflower, and most recently in Fury.

Christine Lahti has made appearances regularly on Law & Order: SVU, and had a guest spot on Hawaii Five-O.

John Slattery has had a significant role on Mad Men up until it ended earlier this year, and will next be seen in Wet Hot American Summer: First Day at Camp on Netflix.

Jessica Paré has also had a notable role on Mad Men, and made cameo appearances in Life and Robot Chicken.

Bradley Cooper would continue his TV career, starring in Kitchen Confidential, a brief returning appearance on Alias, a recurring role in Nip/Tuck, and will be reprising roles from film in the TV adaptations of Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp and in the upcoming NBC series Limitless.

Availability

Currently there is no home video release of the show, which is very unfortunate. The only viable way to see the show is through low SD quality streaming on Youtube.

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