In my continuing attempt to get resolution to unresolved, canceled TV shows, I approached Josh Friedman, creator of ‘Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles’ for answers.

I admit I was a latecomer to The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I didn’t start watching the show until it was already long dead, on recommendation from my bro-in-law, Bob. Without Bob’s recommendation, I was extremely skeptical. I was a big fan of the first Terminator movie, with my interest in them lessening with each sequel. By the time Terminator Salvation came, I was pretty uninterested and lost some faith in the franchise. The thought that a television show could do a better job than the movies felt a stretch to me, so I didn’t bother.

Then I watched the series, and I quickly became hooked. As I finished each episode, the feeling of dread worsened, as I knew this whole thing had an unresolved end that I was fast approaching. I don’t think I was quite prepared for how unresolved it would be. I was angry at FOX for killing another great show. I was almost a little angry I even bothered to watch the dead-ended series to begin with. But I was hopeful that — someday — a movie would come to wrap everything up all nice. The years went by, with rumors here and there that a movie would be made. The actors went on to new projects. The hope of seeing the show have a proper ending faded to nothing. But that didn’t stop fans from wanting answers, including me.

I tried a few times to reach creator Josh Friedman, to see if I could do for T:TSCC what I helped do for Reaper, Defying Gravity and Persons Unknown. Maybe Mr. Friedman was ready to let the world know. Earlier this year I spoke with the assistant to Friedman’s agent, who decided to save me — and Friedman — the trouble of a call by telling me what he knew of the situation: Josh Friedman had made a vow to never reveal how Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles would have progressed or ended.

Josh Friedman had made a vow to never reveal how Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles would have progressed or ended.

Challenge accepted.

Earlier this week I finally had an email exchange with Friedman, where I was able to get the word right from the creator’s mouth. And it wasn’t what I wanted to hear. “That is absolutely true. Sorry.”

Of course, I wasn’t satisfied. So I went on to ask this: “If I had to guess, a majority of it is personal, if what you’ve written about it before is any indication. It really was a surprisingly exceptional show, and I say ‘surprisingly’ because I felt the Terminator movies fell short in their sequels, and your show rose from that to be greater — a seriously admirable feat. So is the vow you’ve made meant to give the finger to the networks that pulled the plug, or to fans who didn’t try to Jericho-like measures to get the network to change its mind? Or is it just too hard to talk about, and discussing how things would have proceeded is akin to pulling the life support plug from your child?”

He quickly came back with a final reply: “It’s certainly not meant as a fuck you to anybody; on the contrary, I think to give some sort of finite, canonical opinion on what would be (and always is) a much more fluid, dynamic situation seems sort of stultifying for all the people who have invested emotionally in the show. It wouldn’t just be killing it for me, it would be killing it for them. This way it’s sort of Schrödinger’s TV show.”

“This way it’s sort of Schrödinger’s TV show.”

I mentioned this exchange to Ivey and Bob earlier today, and they were clearly not as satisfied with that answer as I am. And many of you probably aren’t either. What makes sense to me from his response is that it seems he doesn’t want to claim sole responsibility for the show’s progression. Telling the world how his show would have progressed, in essence, might be seen as disregarding the art behind it — the writing, the acting, the visuals, all of it. If he reads off his Sarah Connor show bible, it’d ignore everything else that would have supported it. Maybe he feels he has more of a responsibility to the other people who made the show a reality, than to the fans who supported it.*

I thought for a moment about pressing the issue with him, hoping I could say something enlightening enough to spill it all out to me. I’m pretty sure he’s thought this through for quite some time, though, and anything I could have gone on about would likely just piss him off. Despite what he told me, if Friedman does change his mind, I’m hoping he’ll remember I asked and will let me know, even if I have to swear not to tell all of you. Yeah, I’d be all selfish like that.

As for what Friedman’s doing now: “I’m writing a pilot that I’m hopefully producing with Howard Gordon. I’m producing a pilot that John August is writing. First for NBC, second for ABC. They’re just pilot scripts until they’re something.”

Here’s to “something,” Josh.

* UPDATE: From Josh Friedman via Twitter:

@cliqueclack You get it wrong one 1 important point: I feel immense responsibility to fans; that’s WHY I won’t talk about S3. — josh friedman (@Josh_Friedman) December 21, 2012

Every show is a dialogue between creator&viewer. Every time creator says what s/he would do w/o an episode to show it, it’s a monologue. — josh friedman (@Josh_Friedman) December 21, 2012

A viewer brings their version of show to each episode, but can’t bring anything to a creator who sez “this is what I wouldve done.” — josh friedman (@Josh_Friedman) December 21, 2012

Canon is something you do over time on a show, it’s not something you explain post-hoc. Or pre-hoc for a season that never happened. #S3TSCC — josh friedman (@Josh_Friedman) December 21, 2012

Photo Credit: FOX