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ABC Entertainment Group president Paul Lee has a theory about why Once Upon a Time in Wonderland didn’t work out. The network executive suggests the Once Upon a Time spin-off was undermined by its time slot. Originally, ABC planned to run the Alice in Wonderland-inspired fantasy series during Once‘s winter hiatus. It ultimately opted to air Wonderland Thursdays at 8 p.m. leading into Grey’s Anatomy instead—which has been a tough hour for the network in recent years, with several shows struggling to gain traction in the slot (particularly up against CBS’ top-rated The Big Bang Theory). This fall, ABC will execute its original plan by running fairy tale musical comedy Galavant in the OUAT “gap.”
“I would have given [Wonderland] a better chance had I done what we’re doing with Galavant and put it in the gap,” Lee told reporters at the Television Critics Association’s press tour in Beverly Hills on Tuesday. “We wanted to build a night of empowered women, and we were excited about the show, disappointed we didn’t bring an audience to it … I think we should have tried that one in the gap. I think we would have had a better chance with that.”And Wonderland fizzling out doesn’t hurt the odds of Once getting another spin-off, the executive added.
“[Showrunners Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis] are endlessly inventive,” Lee said. “They have a glimpse in their eyes of stories they’re going to spin for many years to come on Once, and maybe beyond it. It certainly doesn’t rule out their ability or our ability to build on Once. In many ways, Once itself changes every season by bringing on new characters—think of the world of Hook, of Wicked, and now to have teased Frozen. It’s a very exciting way for us to use ABC to really take advantage of some of that—not just for the centuries of fairy tales, but specifically [stories] that come out of the Walt Disney company.”
http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/07/15/abc-once-upon-a-time-in-wonderland/
[adrotate group="5"]"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"I found WONDERLAND to be annoying… I did not care for Alice or the Genie or Will the joker…. I never got hooked into any of the characters they were so sappy and uninteresting. I am not looking forward to any of the characters coming to ONCE.
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I agree with Nonnie to a degree. The start of it was rather blehh but in the end the later episodes were fantastic. I didn’t care much for Alice or even Will as much ad the characters of normal OUAT and it COULD have been better. Jafar was the only reason I started and continued watching Wonderland. He is the only character I would be happy to see on OUAT just to see him with Regina and Rumpel and see how they would interact with one another
"I could have the giant duck as my steed!" --Daniel Radcliffe
Keeper Of Tamara's Taser , Jafar's Staff, Kitsis’s Glasses , Ariel’s Tail, Dopey's Hat , Peter Pan’s Shadow, Outfit, & Pied Cloak,Red Queen's Castle, White Rabbit's Power To World Hop, Zelena's BroomStick, & ALL MAGICI loved Wonderland and really can’t wait for the series to come to Netflix but yeah, the time slot was bad.
It would have a great hiatus filler between 3a and 3b.
The show probably would have done better as a break filler. Or not. How Galavant will be doing this season will say nothing about how Once in Wonderland could have done, two very different shows.
The statement that they “wanted to build a night of empowered women” made me spill me breakfast coffee over the desk. That was their plan? Cute. Well, if they think so. But have they even realized that one of the big things about Grey’s was the ongoing story about a friendship between two women? And then compare that to Once and Once in Wonderland. Maybe there is something important missing on those? Maybe it is not all about romance for women? Whatever.
For me that was one of the reasons I gave up on the show after three episodes. It appeared to me as just another romance story of a good looking white straight woman, and making her head strong and adept is nowadays not that much of a new attraction. Doubt though that this lack of originality was what most people put off the show. There was potential in the friendship of Alice and the Knave, but it didn’t have that much of a grip, although there was a nice chemistry between the actors, and it was in theory not all about romance (but only in theory).
Remember there was some ranting about the CGI, some finding it distracting and some distractingly bad. It was actually something I found interesting at first about the show, the quirky colors of Wonderland were fitting IMO, the darker Steampunk style of the fictional Edwardian world of Alice were great, but it lacked story telling quality soon. It felt more like someone playing around childishly with colors and effects for the sake of being shiny and flashy and exiting than anything with thoughts. It’s funny that TV as a visual medium so often fails at visual story telling, mostly neglects it. It’s all about dialogue, and a number of shows could very well or maybe even better work as audio drama. It’s not about the props or costumes, it’s about using the visual as an element of story telling. For example how you frame a scene can do so much for mood, set up something for later, tell about the dynamics between the people in the scene, establish things you don’t need to say in words then. Same goes for colors, movement to name to more important elements every DP should know a lot about (and every screen writer should learn something about).
If they would have kept the story more simple maybe. But as in the mothershow they liked quick twists and “great” surprises (which so often are not surprising) to a degree that it got confusing for the more casual viewer IMO, and neglected coherent character and drama development.
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I enjoyed Wonderland for so many different reasons. I’ll admit, it started weak, but each episode got better and better. The ending totally makes the beginning worth it.
I loved Alice. It was nice to see a smart and creative lady kicking butt the whole time.
Jafar blew me away! Having a backstory for his snake staff really won me over!
Will Scarlet/knave of hearts… so cool they combined the 2 characters. Can’t wait to see him in Once proper.
No kidding, did they really thought of it just now?
OUATIW was such a good show! It really did started boring but it became really great. I didn’t like Alice and Cyrus too at the begining because they were so perfect and deeply in love but I think it was on purpose. In later episodes the show showed all their flaws and they became very human.
You know what I can't continue with the dead people brought back to life list I'm out of space in the signature and now we have an underworld arc this is to much I quit why do you bring so many people back to life OUAT WHHHYYYY
I think, besides the glaringly obvious death slot against The Big Bang Theory (#1 show on tv, anyone?), that Wonderland suffered from too much CGI and it was tied too much to the Aladdin tale for the general audience. It seemed like a mishmash of a tale from Arabian Nights and Alice. If you were in the general audience and not part of the online fandom, some of the things just didn’t make sense or were glossed over with no explanation. That said, I ended up enjoying it even though I only watched in the first days because everyone else was and live chatting it.
There is a reason that the mother show should never get rid of Storybrooke. You lose that foothold into reality and people drift off. The draw of this show is that these characters are straddling two worlds and trying to make peace with their situation.
The real truth of why it failed, though, was there was no Rumplestiltskin. 😈 Bobby Carlyle makes everything better. (And nobody was related to Henry).
Keeper of Rumplestiltskin's and Neal's spears and war paint and crystal ball.
The story of ONCEWL wasn’t as compelling in the beginning, but I thoroughly enjoyed the second half, probably more so than i enjoyed the Oz-fest on ONCE proper. The series finale of WL was a bit trite and cliche, but it felt like a fairy tale ending. The CGI was horrible–except for the Rabbit!
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"The story of ONCEWL wasn’t as compelling in the beginning, but I thoroughly enjoyed the second half, probably more so than i enjoyed the Oz-fest on ONCE proper. The series finale of WL was a bit trite and cliche, but it felt like a fairy tale ending. The CGI was horrible–except for the Rabbit!
I too liked it more than the Oz arc (although I would probably have to say that this would apply for all of Wonderland).
It would be nice if ABC were to try their original plan for Wonderland again this year, because Will is now on Once-proper, and they’re doing the same thing for Agents of SHIELD and Agent Carter. This could help non-Wonderland viewers get to know him more. Of course, this could depend on how far his arc goes in 4A.
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