Life Unexpected - Morning Madness News Thread - Life Unexpected Debuts Jan. 18th!

Hell on Heels · 01-01-2010, 09:02 AM

Welcome to the 1st News Thread!!

Quote:

'Life Unexpected' brings new life to CW
By MIKE HUGHES • for the Northwestern • January 1, 2010

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Del.icio.usFacebookDiggRedditNewsvineBuzz up!TwitterIn its first few years, the CW has stuffed itself with enviable teens.

Some (in “Gossip Girl” and “90210”) were born rich, others are headed there. Most are beautiful; many are accomplished and in control.

And now, unexpectedly, “Life Unexpected” arrives. “The biggest thing that excites me is how flawed these characters are,” said series creator Liz Tigelaar. “How flawed and real.”

Back in high school, Nate “Baze” Bazile (Kristoffer Polaha) was the quarterback and Cate Cassidy (Shiri Appleby) was the straight-A student. That was half-a-life ago, at their peak; now she has a radio talk show that centers on her scrambled life and he has a struggling bar.

“Here is a guy who is innately likable, but he just has the Peter Pan syndrome,” Polaha said. “He doesn't want to grow up.”

He might not have a choice. Lux arrives.

She's the daughter they conceived one confused evening. They thought she had been adopted, but she ended kicked around the foster-care system. “She has such a hard outside and she's the most grown-up of all these people,” Tigelaar said.
Still, she's a kid, not quite 16 and battered by life. That provided the first acting challenge.

Britt Robertson (also known as Brit and Brittany) is 19. “I naturally look very, very young,” she said. “(And) I have a 16-year-old sister, too, so that helps.”

The rest was done by camera angles and costumes. In the cold of Portland, Ore., encased in hats and scarves and sweaters, Lux seems young and fragile. “That was a very purposeful choice from our costume designer …. A lot of the characters have layers,” Tigelaar said.

They seem less like CW characters and more like … well, people from the late, beloved WB network.

One of the show's producers, Janet Leahy, used to produce WB's “Gilmore Girls.” Appleby starred in WB's “Roswell.” Kerr Smith, who plays her fiance, had an historic role in WB's “Dawson's Creek,” as a gay teen. “The letters I used to get just made me cry,” he said.

In the fall of 2006, however, WB and UPN merged into CW and a new image emerged. Now Tigelaar sees “Life Unexpected” as a kindred spirit to WB's “Gilmore” and “Creek” and “Felicity.”

For Appleby, 31, this involves suddenly playing a teen's mom. “They wanted someone to be, like, a very young mother,” she said.

For Polaha, 32, it means playing someone a little older and a lot less settled. In real life he's married, with sons who are 5 and 3; in the show, he's still in limbo. “You hit 30 and you are like, 'Well, I'm not 20 anymore, but I'm not, like, fully grown.”

And for Tigelaar, everything has gone smoothly except for names.

After giving Katie Cassidy one of its best “Melrose” roles, CW now adds a character named Cate Cassidy. “Nobody ever said anything about it,” Tigelaar said. “And only now am I like, 'What?'”

People liked naming the central character Lux, but naming the show was another matter.

Since “Lux” means “light,” Tigelaar thought “Light Years” would be a great name. “Then we tested and everyone thought it was a sci fi show.”

The title was “PDA” for a while, until “Life UneXpected” emerged. “The 'L' and the 'U' are already capitalized and then so is the 'X' and that spells 'LUX,'” Tigelaar explained.

Everyone seemed happy. Except that now the “X” is no longer capitalized. Life, and television, bring the unexpected.

'Life Unexpected' brings new life to CW | thenorthwestern.com | Oshkosh Northwestern

Calendar

Jan. 8th - Shiri Appleby on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.
Jan. 18th - LU debuts on the CW at 9pm est.

Honey-Girl · 01-01-2010, 09:43 AM

'Life Unexpected' brings new life to CW - that for sure

Thanks for the article!

Hell on Heels · 01-01-2010, 09:45 AM

Def. true considering I don't currently watch the channel.

You're welcome hun!

ana julia · 01-01-2010, 09:46 AM

You've been sooo clever with the choice of titles for the threads

Hell on Heels · 01-01-2010, 09:48 AM

Thanks Ana.

ana julia · 01-01-2010, 10:25 AM

Your welcome.

Mention:

What's new on TV in January: American Idol, 24, Lost, Human Target - South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

Quote:

The CW might have a sleeper in Life Unexpected, a sweet tale of a 16-year-old who breaks away from a life of foster homes and tracks down her biological parents. Life Unexpected is more like Everwood and 7th Heaven than Gossip Girl and 90210 in that it has appeal beyond the teen audience.