The Loop (American TV series)

The Loop
The Loop intertitle
Created by	Will Gluck & Pam Brady
Starring	Bret Harrison Eric Christian Olsen Philip Baker Hall Mimi Rogers Joy Osmanski
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	17 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	approx. 22 min
Original release
Network	FOX
Release	March 15, 2006 – July 1, 2007

The Loop is an American sitcom that ran from March 15, 2006 to July 1, 2007 on the Fox Network. The show starred Bret Harrison as "Sam", a young professional trying to balance the needs of his social life with the pressures of working at the corporate headquarters of TransAlliance Airways, a major U.S. airline. Set in the city of Chicago, whose downtown loop area acted as the setting for most of the show. The show's theme song is "Hockey Monkey" by James Kochalka Superstar and the Zambonis.

The show was renewed for a second season consisting of 13 episodes on May 12 by Fox. It was one of only two sitcoms renewed for the 2006-2007 season on FOX along with The War at Home.

In the second season, almost all of the show took place in the workplace, and less of it with Sam's friends. The producers stated they found most of the comedy to be with Sam and his co-workers and they wanted to expand on that.

On November 28, 2006, it was announced that the show's second season episode order had been reduced from thirteen to ten, with Fox's crowded spring schedule believed to be the main reason for the reduction.

The show was cancelled on May 17, 2007, before the second season was even broadcast. FOX eventually burned off the remaining episodes on Sundays beginning June 10, 2007.

Series History

This is the story of Sam Sullivan, the youngest executive at the corporate headquarters of a major airline. His boss Russ is a lunatic and his coworker Meryl, a 40-something sexpot, is continuously making sexual advances towards him.

As Sam tries to find a way to cope with the demands of his career, the social demands of his crazy roommates get in the way. He lives with his brother Sully, his college buddy Piper (who he secretly has a crush on) and Lizzy, the sexy bartender at their local hangout. Through the pressures of work and the craziness of his home life, Sam's life is the subject of a pretty wild sitcom.

There were some major changes for the second season, such as the unexplained dropping of Sam's female roommates Piper (Amanda Loncar) and Lizzie (Sarah Wright), and switching the focus of the show so that most of the action took place at Sam's workplace.

The Loop only lasted two seasons. In fact, since FOX had already cancelled the show before the second season aired, the second season aired as an episode "burn-off".

The series was first boardcast on Tuesday nights after American Idol, but was moved to Wednesday and Sunday nights for its second, and last, season.

The Loop was created by Will Gluck and Pam Brady. The show was filmed in 480i (SDTV), 720p (HDTV). After the series was offical cancelled, the shows creators hoped to pass it on to another channel such as NBC which expressed intrest in The Loop , but it is still unknown why they did not take the offer given by the series creators.

U.S. television ratings

Below is a table of the seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of The Loop on FOX.
Each U.S. network television season starts in late September and ends in late May, which coincides with the completion of May sweeps.

Season	Episodes	Timeslot°	Season premiere	Season finale	Viewers (in millions)
1	7	Wednesday 9:30 p.m. (series permiere) Thursday 8:30 p.m. (offical)	May 15, 2006	April 13, 2006	4.86
2	10	Wednesday 8:30 p.m. (offical)	June 10, 2007	July 4, 2007	4.51
		Sunday 9:30 p.m. (burn off)			2.36

°Times listed are in EST

Cast

Name	Portrayed by	Occupation	Character Status
Sam Sullivan	Bret Harrison	a young professional trying to balance the needs of his social life with the pressures of working at the corporate headquarters of TransAlliance Airways.	Regular (2006–2007) Episodes:17
Russ McDonald	Philip Baker Hall	head executive of TransAlliance Airways (Sam's boss).	Regular (2006–2007) Episodes: 17
Sully Sullivan	Eric Christian Olsen	Sam's, goofy and carefree, older brother (jobless), he is also his roommate.	Regular (2006–2007) Episodes: 17
Merly	Mimi Rogers	a working women, and co-head executive of TransAlliance Airways.	Regular (2006–2007) Episodes: 17
Darcy	Joy Osmanski	Sam's personnal assistant, and student at MIT.	Regular (2006–2007) Episodes: 17
Derek Trikoly	TBA	Derek is a jockey, businessman for a large and prfitable comany, who constantly gets under Sam's skin.	Recurring (2006-2007)
Piper	Amanda Loncar	one of Sam's friends, whom he has had a crush on since they met freshmen year of college, she is also his roommate.	Former regular (2006) Episodes:7
Lizzy	Sarah Mason	one of Sam's friends, and roommate.	Former regular (2006) Episodes: 7

Broadcast and distribution

Episode List

Main article: List of The Loop episodes

The first season of The Loop premiered on FOX in the United States on March 15, 2006 at 8:30pm ET. The series finale of The Loop aired on July 1, 2007.

DVD Release

DVD Name	Ep #	Release Date	Additional Information
Season One	7	March 6, 2007	Bonus features include a featurette which has interviews from the cast and crew.

International Airdates

Country	TV network(s)	Series premiere	Weekly schedule
Argentina	FX Network	March 2007	Mondays 8:00 p.m.
Australia	Seven Network	December 7, 2006	Fridays 12:00 a.m.
Brazil	FX Network	September 2007	Mondays 9:00 p.m.
Canada	CH	March 2006	Sundays 9:00 p.m. (2)
France	NRJ 12	August 25 2008	Daily at 5:30 p.m.
Iceland	Skjár einn	2007
Ireland	RTÉ Two	June 8, 2007	Fridays 9:00 p.m.
Israel	yesSTARS	February 7, 2007	Tuesdays & Wednesdays 9:05 p.m.
UK	Trouble	2006	Mondays 12:00 a.m.
New Zealand	C4	May 19, 2008	Mondays 9:30 p.m.
Philippines	Jack TV	September 5, 2007	Wednesdays 9:00 p.m.
Thailand	True Series	December 19, 2006	Wednesdays 9:00 p.m.
Turkey	ComedyMax	January 27, 2008	Weekdays 7:00 p.m.
Slovenia	Kanal A		Mondays to Thursdays 10:35 p.m.
Middle East	Showtime Arabia (ShowComedy)	2007	Mondays 6:30 p.m.
México	FX		Mondays 9:30 p.m.

2007 Cancelled Shows (FOX)

Though the FOX network has fewer primetime hours to fill than other networks (15 vs. 22 hours), they’ve certainly burned through their share of TV series. Here are the ones that won’t be back for the 2007-08 season:

Drive - The Nathan Fillion series was pulled after four episodes. The remaining two will air on July 4th. Unfortunately, the road race won’t be completed.

Happy Hour - Fox aired three episodes in September and one episode in November before pulling it. FOX has said that 13 episodes have been completed and may be released on DVD at some point.

Justice - The courtroom drama was pulled and returned to primetime several times in 2006. Of the 13 episodes produced, 12 have aired in the United States. It won’t be coming back.

The Loop - The sitcom was given a 13-episode second season order but it was then reduced. The return was also delayed until June 10, 2007. It won’t return for a third season.

The O.C. - The network cancelled the drama series back in early January and the last episode was completed on February 2nd. The series finale aired on February 22, 2007.

The Rich List - This game show was cancelled after just one episode. The single episode aired on November 2, 2006 and was cancelled along with Happy Hour.

Standoff - The drama is expected to return on June 8th after a six month hiatus. There are eight unaired episodes from the first season. There won’t be a second year.

Vanished - Fox pulled their mystery serial drama after nine episodes. It was supposed to return but they opted to bring back Justice instead. The remaining four episodes were released online but few viewers felt satisfied with the storyline’s rushed resolution.

The War at Home - The family sitcom ended its two year run on April 22, 2007 after 44 episodes. There won’t be a third season.

The Wedding Bells - The David E. Kelly series was pulled after five episodes. Production was shut down after the seventh was completed. The two remaining episodes aren’t expected to air.

The Winner - Six episodes of the sitcom were produced and all aired to low ratings. The series won’t be returning.

External links

• The Loop at IMDb
• The Loop in Fox Forums
• Aroundtheloop.com - Blog with Forums about the show (blog last updated in June, 2006)
• The Loop Streaming episodes on theWB