Tower Prep
Showcase Inventory
Created by Paul Dini
Produced by Dolphin Entertainment, Cartoon Network Studios
Aired on Cartoon Network for 1 season (13 episodes) from October 12, 2010 – December 28, 2010
Cast
Drew Van Acker as Ian Archer
Ryan Pinkston as Gabe Forrest
Elise Gatien as Candace Ward
Dyana Liu as Suki Sato
Show Premise
Tower Prep is a mysterious private school that exclusively enrolls students with special abilities in order to hone their skills through a rigorous and suspiciously brainwash-y program. All students that are selected for the school have been taken there against their will and have become resigned to their enrollment, as they’ve come to realize that escape is not only futile, but anyone who attempts it and gets caught will be corrected by being sent to the dreaded detention hall in the West Campus.
The series begins with Ian Archer, a righteous young man who has the special ability to “Preflex,” which allows him to foresee actions a split second before they happen, giving him an advantage over his opponents. When Ian arrives at Tower Prep, he is instantly leery and looking to leave the premises, and luckily for him, he discovers a group of escape minded students in Gabe, CJ, and Suki to join in his cause. Together they are driven to uncover the secrets that lie underneath the foundation of the school, and to ultimately make a pathway for their escape beyond the walls of Tower Prep.
Main Cast (from L to R) Dyana Liu, Ryan Pinkston, Elise Gatien, Drew Van Acker.
Series Run
In the late 2000s, Cartoon Network had been looking to branch out from producing mostly animated fare to programming live action shows, starting with reality series such as Survive This! and The Othersiders. The network met with animation writer Paul Dini to work on a pilot for a family oriented live action series as part of this new direction. Dini wrote the pilot for Tower Prep, drawing from his own real life experiences going to a prep school as a teen. The network gave the pilot the green-light to start production, and so Dini and director Terry McDonough went to British Columbia to film. The cast was found in audition rooms from both LA and Canada, with Dini looking for kids that had the best chemistry together. After the pilot was finished, it was sent to the Networks, who were thrilled with the results, but still unsure of the success of their new direction towards live action. The network ordered thirteen episodes to take the pilot into series.
With the series now in production, Dini went on to staff the writers room with TV veterans, including Glen Morgan of The X-Files, who would act as the series showrunner. The main goal for the writer’s room was to make the show a high quality family program that would create complex and compelling narratives that would not talk down to the younger audience, while also appealing to adult audiences with the deep seated mysteries.
The pilot premiered with a promotional campaign from the network that included a web series of vlogs from each of the four main characters’ perspectives, a downloadable promo feature video made available through the iTunes store, and the pilot being made available via on demand channels ahead of it’s official premiere date. The pilot received good to fair reviews, mostly saying that the show had potential to be very good despite some of the weaker production value.
The show achieved steady numbers in the ratings for the network and ended its run in late December, airing two episodes on the final night. After the initial run, the series went on a hiatus limbo of uncertainty, with no further support from the network, as it was seldom re-aired. By October 2011, there was a diminished presence of Tower Prep at the network’s website page, which did not bode well for the series’ chances. It was finally officially announced, a full year after its final airdate, that the show would not return for a second season by Dini on his twitter account.
For the longest time there was no real explanation as to why the series was canceled; critics were optimistic with the pilot and the series itself had a consistent and growing audience. Paul Dini spoke to this on Kevin Smith’s Fatman on Batman podcast (recorded in December 10, 2013) speculating on the likely reason why the series was canceled. The network executives appeared to have been unsatisfied with the audience that Tower Prep had garnered, as most of the show’s audience appeared to be young girls. The logic for the network had been that “boys buy more toys than girls”, and therefore girls were a market they were not interested in investing towards, so the network sat on their hands for a year before deciding to not continue with the series.
Ian (Drew Van Acker) is sent to Headmasters (Ted Whittall) office.
It is clear now that the failing of this series never stemmed from the creative teams involved, but more of a lack of faith from its network in their live action programming, which also canceled Unnatural History, the network’s other live action show produced during the same time. Released during the summer of 2010, Unnatural History had even better ratings than Tower Prep, yet was quickly announced as canceled only a few months after their final episode aired. Perhaps if Tower Prep had been developed under a different network, it would have flourished into the five season long mystery series that it was meant to be, rather than a footnote in the hall of short lived canceled-too-soon cult shows. From the pilot itself, it very apparent that a worthy mystery and a great ongoing mythology was in development. The show could easily have been seen as a successor to shows like Lost and The X-Files, as the theme of a shadowy institution and unseemly experimentation and character driven stories are present here.
The pilot begins with Ian Archer, an average teen who stands up to bullies of the world who pick on those who cannot defend themselves. It is because of this moral compass that he is getting into trouble at school, as he is far too often the one getting caught in fist fights, to his parents’ worrisome chagrin. The parental concern is warranted though, because it is slowly revealed in the pilot that Ian has a special ability that, if left unchecked, could make Ian a danger to his peers. Ian is established as someone with a lot of potential, someone who could be a leader someday, but the problem for him is he has trouble being a team player. That is perhaps why he is sent to Tower Prep, to learn how to hone his abilities and learn how to work with others like him. At least that’s what it seems like on the surface, but there might be a nefarious plot to control the alumni and use them for some secret agenda. Drew Van Acker is an excellent lead as Ian, who fits the mold of the average American hero archetype. He has a heroic build and a likability that makes it easy to imagine him in the role of Captain America, if it had not already been given to Chris Evans.
CJ (Elise Gatien) and Suki (Dyana Liu) watch as Tower Prep’s first school dance is interrupted by the secret fraternity known as the Rooks.
Ian discovers he is not alone in questioning the school’s intentions, and befriends a subset of like-minded teens who are also looking to escape the school. His group is made up of Suki, who has the special ability to perfectly mimic anyone she encounters, Gabe, who has the ability of Hypersuasion, which allows him to talk people into doing his will, and lastly CJ, who can read people’s facial expressions and create a psychological profile of that person’s state of mind. This cast of teens are all excellent in their roles, with Ryan Pinkston being one of the more entertaining performers, as he is often the comic relief of the show. Dyana Liu has a lot of depth to her character Suki, who has a very interesting back story that deals with her being tied to an evil tech company. Liu is also given opportunities to shine, as she gets to play into different roles at times due to her character’s ability to mimic people’s voices, movements, and mannerisms. In episode three “Whisper”, there is a great sequence featuring Liu copying people’s handwriting by mimicking their movements, which is presented as a fun montage. CJ’s character is perhaps the most mysterious, as her arc often involves issues of trust since her backstory is a blank slate, as she is the only one of the four to not have any memories of the outside world. Elise Gatien does well as CJ, as her emotions are hard to pinpoint at times, which serves the story the writers are telling very well.
The great aspects of this series include the levels of mysteries and discovering the unique world that is being established on this show. There are answers given throughout the season that are satisfying, but also bring up more questions, which are as good as Lost did at its best. The series introduces ideas like a subset of characters called the Gnomes (who are a possible threat to the student populace), a brotherhood fraternity called the Rooks, and a resistance group called Red Fang, all of which have their own agendas and connections within the school that are all intriguing and complex. The world building is very well done and utilizes many great surrounding characters like Cal Rice (Izaak Smith), the jock who is one of Ian’s regular antagonists, or Ross Anderson, a cold-blooded campaign manager (played by a young Kacey Rohl of Hannibal).
Gabe (Ryan Pinkston) is taken into custody by the mysterious Nurse (Karin Konoval).
In the pilot episode, the production value isn’t fully at its peak, which is forgivable because the story is still very compelling. Much of the character designs and costuming appear to have an animation style sensibility that is great to see realized in live action, although some are less so. For example, the costuming for the Rooks and the Buffer teams look very cool, albeit clunky, but then the Gnomes costumes, with glowing green lights for eyes, is going for an effect that works best realized through animation rather than in live action. As the season progresses, the production levels improve greatly and the action sequences become very well executed. The fight scenes in the very last episodes are exceptional, and to consider how much it has improved since the pilot is pretty amazing.
There should also be a spotlight held to writer Darin Morgan’s contribution in episode 6 “Book Report” and episode 9 “Dreams”, both which are standout episodes of the highest order. In “Book Report”, the show takes on the hero’s journey myth as its central theme by placing Ian in the role of Odysseus. In the episode, Ian goes on trials that has him come across Tower Prep versions of a Minotaur, seductive sirens, a medusa, and a cyclops skull. In “Dreams”, viewers are treated to another whimsical episode, but this one is more central to broadening the series mythology, and answers some lingering questions while presenting new ones. With some fairly interesting dream sequences and funny interpretations of what those dreams mean by the characters, it should come to no surprise that this episode was nominated for a Leo Award for best direction in a Youth or Children’s program or series in 2011.
Overall, Tower Prep is a great mystery series that did produce great quality family programming, with great characters and a great sense for mythology. Had it continued, it would’ve certainly brought in a wider audience if given the chance to cultivate it.
Ian (Drew Van Acker) mulls over the wall of Tower Prep mysteries.
Preservation Claim
When Cartoon Network decided to take on live action series, it was a smart yet risky idea, being that the network is mostly known for its animation programming. But it was one that worked here with Tower Prep because it had the sensibility of an animated series, due to the talents of Paul Dini, who is well renowned for his work in animated series, animated feature films and comic books, but with the style and tone of a well done mystery drama as developed by the excellent writing staff and overseen by their showrunner Glen Morgan. Currently there is buzz over the returning of The X-Files next year (that will feature episodes written by each Morgan brother) which would probably prompt fans to revisit favorite episodes, but I invite fans of that show to also take the time to remember this show and appreciate its place in Television history as a show that featured the writing talents of Dini and the Morgan brothers.
Paul Dini would go on to work on animated series Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Ultimate Spider-man, and Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.
Glen Morgan went on to work on The River, and then developed Those Who Kill and Intruders, and he will be contributing an episode of the upcoming The X-Files miniseries.
Darin Morgan followed up writing episodes for Those Who Kill and Intruders, and will be also contributing an episode for the upcoming The X-Files miniseries.
Drew Van Acker would have ongoing roles on Devious Maids and Pretty Little Liars.
Ryan Pinkston would appear on House of Lies, Ben & Kate, and is currently in the main cast of Clipped.
Elise Gatien would make appearances on The Secret Circle, The Tomorrow People, iZombie, and most recently in UnReal.
Dyana Liu would later appear on Suburgatory, Rizzoli & Isles, Franklin & Bash, and lastly on Grey’s Anatomy.
Availability
Full episodes of the show are currently unavailable on home video media or online streaming, but can be found in the iTunes store as video downloads.