POINT PLEASANT (TV SERIES)

'''Point Pleasant''' is a television series that first aired on the Fox Network in January 2005. It was cancelled in March 2005 due to poor ratings.
''Point Pleasant'' boasted many of the same crew behind the scenes as Fox's other shortly withdrawn series, ''Tru Calling''. In fact, ''Point Pleasant'' received the greenlight just three days after production ceased on ''Tru Calling''. 13 episodes were filmed, but due to poor ratings, Fox only aired episodes 1-8 in the United States. Episodes 9-11 aired in Sweden, all episodes appeared in New Zealand on back to back weekdays in mid 2007, and the last two episodes are included on the DVD release.
Much of the music featured in the series was replaced for the DVD release due to licensing issues.
The show's executive producer was Marti Noxon, who worked closely with Joss Whedon for several seasons on ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer''. For this reason, ''Point Pleasant'' initially drew in many of that show's fans, but ''Point Pleasant'' had a distinct "soapy" flavor, more in the vein of shows like ''Melrose Place'' or ''The O.C.'' than ''Buffy''. The resulting drop in viewership eventually led to the show's cancellation. Advocates of the show, however, point to its gothic tone, its tempered, surprisingly subtle use of special effects, and the potential of the overall plotline as solid reasons the show should have stayed on the air. The plots were surprisingly sophisticated, and emphasized humanity's cruelty to one another, as primal reasons for evil. In fact, many fans of the show have expressed their loyalty through an online petition.

Contents

Synopsis

Cast

Names in Point Pleasant

Trivia

Episodes

Synopsis

A young girl named Christina washes up on the shore near Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey during a violent storm. After being resuscitated by lifeguard Jesse Parker, the girl is taken in by the family of a local doctor, the Kramers, and quickly befriends their teenage daughter, Judy. The show follows Christina's attempts to discover who she really is, and to learn what happened to her mother, who disappeared shortly after Christina was born.
It soon becomes apparent that Christina's presence has a strange, profound effect on the people around her. Emotions are heightened, repressed feelings and secret desires awakened, and inhibitions weakened, turning what once were friendly competitions into bitter rivalries, romantic rivals into violent enemies, and so on. And if that wasn't enough, freakish 'accidents' have a way of befalling those with whom Christina becomes angry.
Meanwhile, sinister forces have their eye on Christina, believing it is the girl's destiny, as the "child of darkness," to "bring [the world] to its knees." Christina is the child of Satan. The resulting tension between the good and evil aspects of the girl's nature, with the viewer always left in doubt as to which side she will ultimately choose, provides the basis for much of the show's conflict and suspense.
Christina is plagued by terrifying visions of death and destruction, glimpses of the dark future she seems destined to help bring about. Meanwhile, a handsome, charming stranger named Lucas Boyd arrives in town, determined to help guide Christina toward her destiny, and Jesse Parker, who has become romantically involved with Christina, discovers that he may be the only one who can prevent the girl from ushering in Armageddon. Ironically, as the 13 episodes closed, it was the continual betrayal of people who Christina cared about, and plain human cruelty, that brought out the darkness in her. If Christina "fell" into darkness, she did it not because of the evil influences around her, but the supposedly good ones who betrayed her so bitterly.

Cast

★ Elisabeth Harnois — Christina Nickson

★ Grant Show — Lucas Boyd

★ Samuel Page — Jesse Parker

★ Aubrey Dollar — Judy Kramer

★ Dina Meyer — Amber Hargrove

★ Cameron Richardson — Paula Hargrove

★ Brent Weber — Terry Burke

★ Susan Walters — Meg Kramer

★ Richard Burgi — Ben Kramer

Names in Point Pleasant

Many of the names in Point Pleasant, through serendipity or planning, are Biblical in nature or otherwise allude to religious themes.

Character name	Significance or origin of name
Christina Nickson	''Christina'' is a feminine form of ''Christ''. ''Nick'', often appearing as ''Old Nick'' or ''Nicholas'', is a nickname for the Devil, with the suffix ''-son'' meaning ''son of''. Unlike some languages, English has not adopted a patronymic to express ''daughter of''.
Jesse Parker	''Jesse'' is the father of David, one of only four men, according to some rabbinical sources, who died without committing sin.
Lucas Boyd	''Lucas'', an allusion to ''Lucifer'' used in the Christian Bible as a synonym for Satan. ''Boyd'' means ''blondheaded''.
Judy Kramer	''Judy'' derives form ''Judith'', a woman who decapitated an invading general. Judy nearly gets a knife through her throat in the television show but someone else is smote in the same way in her stead.
David Burke	''David'', a chosen man of God, who was the son of Jesse. Notably David conquered the fortress Jerusalem, brought about the death of Uriah, whose wife David had illicitly impregnated, then married her but the child was killed, and his son Absalom rebelled against his father and was killed in the unsuccessful rebellion which fact David lamented. ''Burke'' is a Middle English word that means ''fort'' or ''fortified settlement''.
Ben Kramer	''Benjamin'' was the next to favourite son of Jacob, to whom Joseph revealed himself in Egypt, another of the four men who died without sin.
Anne Gibson	''Anne'' in the form of ''Anna'' is an elderly prophetess around the time of Jesus' birth. ''Hannah/Hanna/Hana/Chana'' is one of the wives of Samuel who remains childless until she prays in the Temple and is blessed by the High Priest Eli. ''Gibson'' is a combination of ''Gib'', a diminutive of ''Gilbert'' which translates to ''bright promise (or perhaps bright youth/young man)'' and ''-son'' meaning ''son of''.

Other names that have a Biblical or religious connection:

★ Lucinda

★ Matthew

★ Paula

★ Sarah

★ Tomas

★ Isabelle (means ''Devoted to God'')

★ Mark
This constitutes half of the named characters listed on the IMDB page. Nine of the fourteen characters appearing in half or more of the episodes have this sort of name.

Trivia

★ The fictional Point Pleasant, New Jersey bore little resemblance to any real town in New Jersey. The town as depicted was a mashup of Point Pleasant, New Jersey, the neighboring town of Point Pleasant Beach, the town of Seaside Heights, which is nearly 17 miles south, and the neighboring town of Bay Head with liberal doses of the OC. This was a point of contention with many local residents who protested the series both for not accurately representing the local community and for associating the towns with such a dark subject. The creators of the series missed a prime opportunity by not making the series more like the actual surroundings. The real towns have and interesting mix of long time Barnegat Bay decendents and sophisticated New York transplants.

★ Executive Producer and Co-Creator Marti Noxon allowed several connections to ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'', including bringing in Adam Busch to play Wes. The two had previously worked together on ''Buffy'', where she was a writer and producer, and he played Warren Mears, one of the sixth-season villains.

★ It was reported that Marti Noxon hoped to enlist both James Marsters and Amber Benson to guest star in the show.

★ The 9th episode "Walking the Dead" was meant to be the last episode to air on Thursday, March 24, 2005 at 9:00 PM ET. Due to the ''American Idol'' "wrong number" incident, ''American Idol'' was shown instead. The episode was never shown on FOX, making the 8th episode "Swimming With Boyd" the last episode to air.

Episodes

Main articles: List of Point Pleasant episodes