Syfy Drops Time-Travel Show Rewind
The network has passed on the new TV series … and already aired the pilot.
Syfy Channel won’t send its time-travel pilot Rewind to series, the network officially confirmed today via Twitter.
It’s no surprise, seeing as the pilot shot in the spring of 2012 and the network has been conspicuously silent on the project since its completion. What is surprising is that Syfy has already burned off the pilot as a 2-hour movie. It aired Monday, August 26, with little fanfare and next to no advertising. (I, for one, was looking forward to seeing the show and had no idea it was going to be on.)
Rewind stars Shane McRae as an ex-Special Forces operative who joins a secret government division that uses experimental time travel technology to attempt to undo major world catastrophes — an idea not far off from Seven Days, which ran for three seasons on UPN (1998-2001).
The pilot burn-off is becoming common practice for Syfy, which has done the same with the pilot for Three Inches and Battlestar Galactica‘s spin-off Blood & Chrome.
In fact, Syfy doesn’t have all that great a track record with the pilot process itself. Most of the cable channel’s successful original scripted series started with a script and a full season order, including the forthcoming Helix, Defiance, and all three Stargate series.
Two other scripted series are currently at the pilot production stage for Syfy: Dominion, based on the angel warrior movie Legion; and High Moon, based on the 1969 John Christopher novel The Lotus Caves.
Read More: Syfy’s Rewind: Three Things We Loved
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Couldn’t agree more .. SyFy: I was REALLY looking forward to see a Rewind series … anyone aware of “complaint” channel to SyFy?
It’s amazing (in a bad way) that reality crap survives and multiplies into the ridiculous yet an enjoyable good SciFi show dies like this … sad.
I really liked the pilot. I came online to see when the next episode was going to air. I see it isn’t! It’s my usual luck, if I like a show it gets canceled. Crappy shows that aren’t worth watching get renewed.
Can’t believe Syfy didn’t pickup Rewind. It was one of the best pilots I have ever seen. It got me so hooked and was looking forward to the rest of the series more than any other show on tv. I watch a lot of tv, only Syfy show I have ever watched is warehouse 13, which is great, but rewind had me checking in with the Syfy network constantly hoping for another episode. With all these subpar shows they have on now, and wrestling(don’t even know how the justify showing that), dropping warehouse 13 and especially rewind is making sure I’ll never watch Syfy again. If they get their heads out of their arse’s and pickup a good show that had not only existing Syfy die hards, but non Syfy viewers excited, the network won’t be around much longer. Somebody wake up and produce your two best show ideas.
Rewind was one the best pilots I have ever seen. Mind numbing that it was not given the green light
I love rewind , so does my whole family . we have been waiting for the rest of the series . Now I find out that is it . Bad move Syfy channel . Not happy
Found this show by accident in an iTunes recommended for you list. I loved it from the beginning… and then… I read that SyFy was just giving up… like usual. Like they have so many many shows over the years. What a shame. Personally, I would just as soon that networks put out mini-series or made for TV movies that have some kind of closure if they are too afraid to take the risk on a series. I am actually getting pretty tired of the limited foresight of studio execs. Remember… there are dozens of networks now instead of 3… you aren’t going to have 50 million viewers like the old days. Ugh! (In disgust over the network execs)
I agree with most of your post. However, the pilot process doesn’t seem to be the problem, but the actual continuation. The series could go well after an episode or two. I didn’t really enjoy the concept of Rewind as much, since it involved yet another US government agency that believes they have the right to change history in their favour and are presented as the good guys, but the pilot wasn’t all that bad. With the epidemic of teen shows of questionable quality and zillions of seasons, I wouldn’t have minded seeing something a bit more dark and technical. I could go on and on about how having only one pilot episode says nothing about a good quality show, anyway, but I will stop here.
And hey, Blood and Chrome was really neat, going back to the roots of BSG and forgetting about all that religious crap. Why didn’t they make a continuation? Syfy is for science fiction what History Channel is for history, apparently…
WTF this was the first thing that interested me on SyFy since BSG. And its canned before it even starts? And the shows they’re putting on look like garbage. Way to go you dummies.
I just watched the pilot for Rewind… that was a great show! Would love to see the series come to life!!
OK..here I am waiting for the series to begin (it did say “pilot”) and just found out it was cancelled………looked it up on line to see, maybe, when it might begin. A horrible shame. I very much liked the premise; kinda new, and was looking forward to it. Why did they powers do that???????
I watched it, but don’t remember if I saw a commercial for it or I stumbled upon it…anyway I thought it was good, and would have followed it had it continued. For some reason I just thought of it now and did a search, sad to find it was a burn-off.
Like many others, I stumbled across this pilot, & found it to be as good as Syfy’s Defiance & Helix, as well. The difference? I think this show could have broader appeal than their more hardcore Sci-fan viewers, snagging non-fangirl/boy friends & significant others of the base, & boosting ad revenues. While no fictional series is as cheap to produce as reality bile & dreck, for any network, I’d be hard pressed to believe production values were over-the-top, based on what I see in the pilot. Maybe they needed more special effects budget bucks in reserve for Sharknado 8. Ughhh.
This is my third time ever posting a ‘comment’… I just watched ‘Rewind’ on Youtube & discovered that it did not go beyond it Pilot in 2013. I just need it noted for SyFy’s record, that I thought it was an incredibly, imaginative and thought provoking shows for all ages… I hope in the near future SyFy will reconsider… and I too wonder, has SyFy lost it’s taste for pure Science Fiction? What a shame to loose such a captivating program!
It is beyond comprehension to me how the powers that be decided what stays and what goes. I do realise that incompetence is becoming more and more rife within the T.V and film networks. This was a great first episode and deserved atleast another 3 or 4 episodes to get its feet. Just my opinion and everybody else I’ve shown the pilot too.
Spoiler?
Not bad and to have a “pilot” end on a cliff hanger dumb! But at least we get brilliance like Sharknado and other drek….this is truly the age of idiocy
This was a great pilot. What happened?? Who picks your shows. You are losing this sci-fi channel follower. I mean all your shows are gloom and doom. Where is the sci-fi in that. There are no Time travel shows, you could have been the first. Big mistake. If we want to see the destruction of man all we have to do is watch the world news.
Happened upon this. Has a lot of similarities to other shows, but considering the current stock of SyFy projects, more accessible to me. Good concept, grounded into, this might be happenning right outside your door. Better than the unimaginable series that tend to go on or the super intellectual properties. Big mistake not going with this one.
I to just stumbled upon the Rewind Pilot it was excellent. Compared to ghost hunters, face off and being human it is Oscar Material. bring it back along with Defiance and you will have a good season.
I WANT TO SEE MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just watched REWIND on Youtube. Twas pretty interesting. I agree with all the posts; shame it did not get to the series stage.
Very disappointed that they won’t be making more! Loved the REWIND movie!
Just finished watching the REWIND pilot & must say I’m somewhat surprised the series wasn’t continued. It’s not only their loss, but ours also!
I also just watched rewind on the internet and I really liked it… Very sad about them not making it a new series…I would have liked to see what they came up with every week…. And yes I liked the show 7 Days also… Wish it lasted longer then 3 seasons
I seriously wonder if anyone from the network even reads any of our posts…. It seems that we allllllllll strongly agree that this should have went to series…. It would be nice to actually hear a response from someone at the SyFy channel????
I enjoyed the pilot very much. The special effects and physics were fantastic. Quite an improvement from Irwin Allen’s Time Tunnel, which I still enjoy watching on DVD. The only major drawback to a time travel sci-fi series is you know, in advance, that the main characters will be fine no matter how suspenseful the episode. It is like time traveling yourself since you know the episodes outcome.