ironhorse_iv
This is one of my favorite shows in 1990's. Aired on CBS from 1996 to 2000, the show follows the adventures of Gary Hobson (Kyle Chandler) who mysteriously receives a newspaper before it is actually published and with this knowledge tries to prevent terrible future events in Chicago, IL. Sometimes he would need the help of his pals such as stockbroker Charles Fishman (Fisher Stevens) and blind girl Marissa Clark (Shanésia Davis-Williams). Charles Fishman is the glue that held the show together in my opinion. He was funny, and somewhat had depth in his character arch. He like helping people, but he also would like to make profit out of knowing events out of the newspaper. While Gary Hobson was the Boy Scout superhero of the group, Marisa acts like Gary's self-appointed conscience in the show. The characters were likable, and all too human at times, making them even more likable. The show was more likable with the Chicago atmosphere. Each episodes was pretty different from the rest, as some episodes tend to follow the same repeated patterns. One week it was humorous and the next heartbreaking. In my opinion, from all the four seasons, there are a few episodes that do stated out. The first one is the Season 1, Episode 2, "The Choice", where Gary faces a difficult decision of choosing between stopping a fatal plane crash or saving the life of a young girl. It was such an emotional episode that deals with Sofia Choice dilemmas. Any dilemma where choosing one cherished person or thing over the other will result in the death or destruction of the other makes great watching. Season 1, Episode 3, "Baby" is also a pretty good episode, rather than being emotional and intense. This movie shows the funny side of the show, with the newspaper telling Chuck that we will delivered twins on the L and him trying to avoid any pregnant women throughout the whole day. It made me laugh. Other episodes that were interesting were when Gary travel back into time like Season 2, Episode 21 "Hot Time in the Old Town" & Season 4, Episode "Everybody Goes to Rick's" where Gary witness events such as 1871's The Great Chicago Fire and 1929's St. Valentine Massacre. A great deal of guest stars came into the show such as Coolio, Robert Ebert, George Takei, and probably the best one of all, Louis Gossett, Jr. who gave an amazing performance in Season 2, Episode 2, "The Medal" playing a Vietnam Vet with Posttraumatic stress disorder. I didn't like the cross-overs episodes like the one with the cast of 'Chicago Hope' or 'Martial Law'. I thought those were really dumb. Some of the Season 3 and Season 4 episodes got really childish and extremely repetitive. Still, writers Vik Rubenfeld and Pat Page did a great job on the show, not only in bringing new modern day fantasy concept to television, but also making it entertaining. I don't believe that the creators based the show, on the 1944 feature film 'It Happened Tomorrow' a film that centered upon a newspaper reporter who received a newspaper a day in advance. I think it just happens that two people in two different eras had the same idea. It was a bit funny, how the show came to be. The creators pitch the show to Tristar by having mock newspaper created just for the meeting, and didn't tell any of the producers about it. When the producers read it, they found out that they were reading tomorrow newspapers. Thus, that is how the show was created based on the accounts of the writers. In the end of season two Chuck (Fisher Stevens) leaves the show as a regular character, leading to some major changes in season three. He left to do some movie roles in New York City. While Fisher Stevens did the voice opinion during the opening and closing of each episode. The device of his voice-over narration was shifted to at first Gary and then Marissa in season three. Soon the theme song was changed. The addition of Kristy Swanson was add to Season 3, to add a love interest to Gary Hobson. She does her role alright, but it's not a ground breaking performance. Despite that, the show still had strong ratings and loyal fan base but, CBS pull the plug in Season 4. At less, Early Edition was able to wrap the show up with the final episode unlike other shows, explaining the backstory of the newspaper and why Gary gets it. Plus, it made room, just in case if anybody willing to reboot, a story explaining why Gary give up the newspaper to somebody else. The show was canceled to make room for reality shows that CBS is coming out. With canceling Early Edition, Survivor (2000) became the hit show that year. While Season 1 & 2 might be easier to find, sadly as of this writing. Season 3 and 4 hasn't been release to DVD sells. Since Sony Pictures Home Entertainment owns the international DVD rights to the show, people in other country might not see any releases for a long time. I like how the show is titled in some of these countries. In Canada, it's known as Dinsdale's Folly and in Hungary, it's known as the chosen - The American prophet, In Germany, it's known as Alone Against The Future and wow, these titles are way off. Still, the show can be seen in reruns such channels like TV Guide Network as of this writing. It's appropriate for nearly everybody. Plus, it had a cute cat. So get out there and find the Early Edition. It's would watching.
jayc-lawrence
I just started watching this after 10 years gone by. I had originally only seen a single episode of Early Edition.The idea is not exactly an original idea but I believe the writing and production quality of each episode is great. The episodes continue to some canon; so you find later episodes referring to previous episodes, rather than independently written episodes.You'll spot a lot of 'to be famous' faces in there and I do wonder what ever happened to Chuck and Gary as they were great actors.As with many TV series of the 90s this is an honest and heartwarming series with much stimulation of your own thoughts and experiences, leading you to realise that hindsight is often just as powerful as foresight.10/10 as this is one of the best series I have seen in a long time, even in 2008.
dreammakers
This was a very entertaining TV show, and was produced well. You can't help but put yourself in the place of the main character (Gary)...like how would you stop the catastrophe that Gary is trying to "fix". The other thing that's great about the show is how much of a nice guy the main character is. The only thing that bothered me about the show is how much hard work Gary went through in his daily run. He had this massive responsibility of saving people's lives, but he never took steps to optimize how he handled doing that. If I had tomorrow's newspaper today, I would set up and orchestrate a small taskforce of dedicated (and very well paid) workers that went out on different "errands" everyday to ensure that everyone was saved. Saving lives with a future newspaper is really too much responsibility to rely on one man to do. The taskforce could be well funded by using money raised from lottery wins or sportsbetting, etc. No one would need to know how the information was gathered (they could just pretend that a clairvoyant was supplying the info or something like that). There has been episodes where Gary was not able to save someone. In fact, I remember one episode where Gary felt guilty because he didn't save someone in time, and some mystical character had to show up and tell Gary that he should "count the living" and not to count the dead (i.e. he saved much more people than the ones he couldn't save). It's too bad the show never evolved to a stage where Gary took the "taskforce" route (like maybe Gary injures himself and is stuck in a wheelchair for 6 months, but the paper still comes)...that would have been a good twist.
General_G
This is the best drama ever. I have seen these new ones that come out like Orange County and North Shore and others and there just not entertaining or touching or anything. Early Edition has all that. It was a fantastic show. Kyle Chandler was perfect for the role. I liked the way the show started out. He was just kicked out of his home by his wife and he hates his job and one day a cat with tomorrows newspaper comes to his hotel room door and thats how the whole show started. I like his two friends, Marissa and Chuck, as well. I just wish Fisher Stevens didn't leave half way through the series. He was the funny guy. The situations Gary had were always pretty cool too. Sometimes you just felt sorry for him, but at the end when he saves someone's life he feel good and they feel good and you feel good that those characters feel good. This show goes first place as my favorite drama and Touched by an Angel as second. This show should have a reunion special. Come back Gary, come back.
