Q. What is Millennium?
A. Millennium is an hour-long apocalyptic drama series that was
broadcast by
the Fox television network in the United States between 1996
and 1999. It was created by Chris Carter, who also created
The X-Files, and produced by Ten-Thirteen
Productions.
Q. When is it on TV?
A. The series currently airs in syndicated outlets around the world. Airdates depend on where you live, of course. Please
reference the Millennial Abyss'
airdates
section for the latest information on the most prominent
television outlets featuring the series. If the listings there
are incorrect and/or you have details about the show in
additional countries, contact the webmaster.
Q. How many seasons/episodes of the series were
produced?
A. Millennium aired from the fall of 1996 to the spring of 1999.
Three seasons of the series were produced, a total of 67
individual episodes. Each season of the series had its
own distinct style and unique elements as a result of the
regularly shifting executive producers who supervised its
creative process. Creator Chris Carter oversaw
production of the first season, writer/producers Glen Morgan
and James Wong supervised the second season, and writer Chip
Johannessen guided the show's third and final year on the air.
Q. What is the show about?
A. Millennium starred Lance Henriksen as Frank Black, a retired
criminal profiler who struggled against the increasing
presence of evil in our society at the brink of the year 2000. To protect his family, Frank left the
Federal Bureau of Investigation and moved his wife, Catherine, and daughter, Jordan, from Washington, D.C. to his hometown of Seattle. Frank
is approached by a mysterious and powerful organization known as
the Millennium Group,
a secretive collective of ex-law enforcement personnel working to fight the force of evil that strengthens as we approach the millennium. The series revolves around Frank as he battles
the evils of both human nature and the occult.
Q. Isn't Millennium all about serial killers?
A. While it's true that the first season of Millennium
dealt predominately with cases involving serial killers, the
show provided significant insight into the roots of
human evil and the just forces that are constantly fighting against it. This rather dark approach to television received a mixed reception from
viewers.
Thus, at the beginning of season two, new executive producers Glen Morgan and James Wong took control and made several changes
to deviate from the "Serial Killer of the Week" (SKOTW) format.
Q. What changes did executive producers Morgan and Wong make to
Millennium during its second season?
A. In response to mixed reviews and less than stellar ratings,
writer/producers Glen Morgan and James Wong (previously of The X-Files and
Space: Above and Beyond) decided to push the show in a
new direction. Less emphasis was placed on the serial
killer investigation format and stories focused more often on the history of the Millennium Group and the
religious mythos associated with it.
Q. Why did Morgan and Wong leave at the end of the second season?
A. Glen Morgan and James Wong were only contracted to executive produce and write for
the second season. At the close of the season the creative duo
left to pursue their own television pilot projects including
Skip Chasers, The Wonder Cabinet, and The
Others. They have since gone on to produce such
major motion pictures as Final Destination, The One,
and Willard for New Line Cinema and Sony Pictures.
Q. What changes did executive producers Chris Carter,
Chip Johannessen, and Michael Duggan make to
Millennium during its third season?
A. The events of the second season finale required a major shift
in the direction of the series. Changes including a new
reputation for the Millennium Group as sinister and
unforgiving and Frank Black accepting a position at the FBI Academy in Quantico,
Virginia, where he was partnered with rookie agent Emma
Hollis, a woman who would soon share Frank's crusade to expose
the Group's dark secrets.
Q. Why was Millennium cancelled?
A. Consistent low ratings caused the
Fox network to decided to cancel the series before it reached its 1999-2000 season. Several factors contributed
to the increasingly small audience base
including its
difficult Friday night timeslot, a lack of critical attention,
a lack of promotion, and poor scheduling and marketing decisions
made by Fox throughout the run of the series.
A Fox network
representative offered these simple words to explain their
position: "What we ultimately need to do as a major broadcast
network is provide viewers the series they find most relevant
and emotionally rewarding, and to many, Millennium fit
both those bills. However unfortunate, roughly nine out of
every ten people watching television found something more to
their liking than Millennium on Friday nights. Yesterday,
Fox announced its new 1999-2000 fall schedule, and
I must report that Millennium did not make the
line-up."
Q. What is the virtual fourth season?
A. The unofficial virtual season aired from July 2nd through December 24th of 1999. The project consisted of twenty-two professionally formatted television scripts,
written by fans of the show and published via the internet, effectively continuing and concluding the series' mythology.
Q. Is Millennium available on video?
A. Twentieth Century Fox has produced only a single official Millennium
video for commercial release in the United States. A VHS tape
containing the first two episodes of the series, "Pilot" and "Gehenna," is
available at some retailers. Because the video was intended only for
rental purposes it carries an unusually high market price.
In the United Kingdom the entire first season of the series was released on
vide
