Boomtown (2002 TV series)

Boomtown
Season 1 DVD cover
Created by	Graham Yost
Starring	Gary Basaraba Nina Garbiras Jason Gedrick Neal McDonough Lana Parrilla Donnie Wahlberg Mykelti Williamson
Composer(s)	Philip Giffin
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	24
Production
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	45 minutes
Production company(s)	Nemo Films DreamWorks Television NBC Studios
Release
Original network	NBC
Original release	September 29, 2002 – December 28, 2003

Boomtown was a U.S. television action/drama series produced by NBC. Created by Graham Yost, the show's title is a nickname for its setting, Los Angeles, California.

The show portrayed a criminal investigation each week, seen from various points of view: the police officers and detectives, the lawyers, paramedics, reporters, victims, witnesses and criminals. Despite the show's innovative style – similar to that of Akira Kurosawa's film Rashomon, except all the perspectives agree – and glowing critical reviews, the show never drew a significant audience.

The series premiered on September 29, 2002. The first season order was for 18 episodes instead of the usual 22. After airing 12 episodes with disappointing ratings, NBC CTV moved Boomtown from Sundays to Fridays, putting the show on a two-month hiatus before it returned in March 2003. Its first season ended before May sweeps, an important period in determining ratings and thus ad revenue values.

Boomtown was renewed for a second season, but to satisfy the network's concerns with low ratings, the producers made some changes. Most significantly they abandoned the show's unique style. In Season One each story was told in a non-linear fashion, with each character's view adding a new detail. In Season Two, they still would put up people's names as if it followed them specifically, but there was not much new information on the mystery, and aside from a few flashbacks, the episode's events would run in order. There were changes within the cast as well. Nina Garbiras was let go, as the producers wished to focus more exclusively on Law & Order type characters. There was never any mention of her reporter character again. Lana Parrilla's character suddenly joined the police academy. The character had previously been seen as never wanting to be anything but a paramedic after her mother's death. Vanessa L. Williams joined the cast for every episode, but was billed as a guest star. She played Detective Katherine Pierce, a high-ranking officer who transfers into Bobby and Joel's division. Jason Gedrick and Neal McDonough were absent from one episode each (although Gedrick's Tom Turcotte was heard on the telephone), and McDonough was also absent from all but the last 20 seconds of the season premiere. Lana Parrilla was not in three of the six episodes. After airing only two episodes, the series was put on hiatus. NBC broadcast reruns of Law & Order in its place before deciding to cancel the series. Three of the remaining unaired episodes were broadcast on December 27, 2003, and the final episode aired on December 28, 2003.