Eli Stone
Encyclopedia
Eli Stone is an American TV series, and also the name of the title character.

San Francisco lawyer
Attorney at law
An attorney at law in the United States is a practitioner in a court of law who is legally qualified to prosecute and defend actions in such court on the retainer of clients. Alternative terms include counselor and lawyer...

 Eli Stone (Jonny Lee Miller
Jonny Lee Miller
Jonathan "Jonny" Lee Miller is an English actor. During the initial days he was best known for his roles in the 1996 films Trainspotting and Hackers...

) begins to see things, which leads him to discover a brain aneurysm. When Eli awakens to an unending George Michael soundtrack that only he can hear, gets dive-bombed by a WWI biplane on a busy San Francisco street, and faces a fire-breathing dragon outside his office window, there are two possible explanations: delusions caused by a potentially fatal brain aneurysm or the chance that something greater is at work. His visions lead him to accept cases with little monetary gain but a lot of moral goodness. He predicts an earthquake
Earthquake
An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...

 that hits San Francisco.
The series originally aired on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 from January 31, 2008 to July 11, 2009. The series was created by Greg Berlanti
Greg Berlanti
Greg Berlanti is an American television writer and producer.- Personal life :Berlanti was born in Rye, New York. His parents are Barbara Moller Berlanti and Eugene Berlanti. Greg has one sister, Dina and is the uncle of two nieces...

 and Marc Guggenheim
Marc Guggenheim
Marc Guggenheim is an American television writer-producer and a writer for Marvel Comics and DC Comics. His brother is screenwriter Eric Guggenheim.-Television:...

, who also served as executive producers alongside Ken Olin
Ken Olin
Kenneth Edward "Ken" Olin is an American actor, director and producer. He is known for his starring role on the television series Thirtysomething, and most recently as Executive Producer, director, and recurring guest star of the television series Brothers & Sisters .-Career:As an actor, Olin...

 who directed the pilot, with Melissa Berman producing.

Premise

Greg Berlanti
Greg Berlanti
Greg Berlanti is an American television writer and producer.- Personal life :Berlanti was born in Rye, New York. His parents are Barbara Moller Berlanti and Eugene Berlanti. Greg has one sister, Dina and is the uncle of two nieces...

, who co-wrote the show with Marc Guggenheim
Marc Guggenheim
Marc Guggenheim is an American television writer-producer and a writer for Marvel Comics and DC Comics. His brother is screenwriter Eric Guggenheim.-Television:...

, described Eli Stone in Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...

as "a Field of Dreams
Field of Dreams
Field of Dreams is a 1989 American fantasy-drama film directed by Phil Alden Robinson and is from the novel Shoeless Joe by W. P. Kinsella...

-type drama set in a law firm where a thirty-something attorney, whose name is the title of the show, begins having larger-than-life visions that compel him to do out-of-the-ordinary things.". Eli suffers from an inoperable brain aneurysm that causes him to have realistic hallucinations often relating to the plot of the episode to the extent that he may be considered a modern day prophet.

Pop singer George Michael
George Michael
George Michael is a British musician, singer, songwriter and record producer who rose to fame in the 1980s when he formed the pop duo Wham! with his school friend, Andrew Ridgeley...

 was featured prominently throughout the first season of the series, and each episode was named after one of his songs. Berlanti is a fan of Michael and made an effort to have him appear on the show. As luck would have it, Michael claimed he was a "TV Junkie." This led to the singer agreeing to do several episodes, including one in which Stone represents him in the case of a teen girl who plays the song "I Want Your Sex
I Want Your Sex
"I Want Your Sex" was a single which first charted in June 1987, appearing on George Michael's Faith album, and the soundtrack to Beverly Hills Cop II....

" in protest of an abstinence-only sex education program in her school.

The show's legal setting, mixture of comedy and drama, and use of fantasy sequences has drawn comparisons to the series Ally McBeal
Ally McBeal
Ally McBeal is an American legal comedy-drama series which aired on the Fox network from 1997 to 2002. The series was created by David E. Kelley, who also served as the executive producer, along with Bill D'Elia...

from some critics.

Production

Produced by ABC Studios, After Portsmouth and Berlanti Television, the series was officially greenlit and given a thirteen-episode order on May 11, 2007, and it aired as a mid-season replacement in 2008.
Eli Stone premiered on Thursday, January 31, 2008 at 22:00 Eastern/21:00 Central, following the return of Lost
Lost (TV series)
Lost is an American television series that originally aired on ABC from September 22, 2004 to May 23, 2010, consisting of six seasons. Lost is a drama series that follows the survivors of the crash of a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, on a mysterious tropical island...

; its first season finale aired April 17, 2008.

On May 13, 2008, ABC officially announced that the show had been renewed for the 2008–09 season
2008–09 United States network television schedule
The following is the 2008–2009 network television schedule for the six major English language broadcast networks in the United States. The schedule covers primetime hours from September 2008 through May 2009. The schedule is followed by a list per network of returning series, new series, and...

. Moreover, in Canada, CTVglobemedia
CTVglobemedia
CTVglobemedia , was one of Canada's largest private media companies. Its operations include newspaper publishing , television broadcasting and production , radio broadcasting , and their respective Internet properties.Originally established by BCE and the Thomson family in 2001 combining CTV Inc.,...

 announced that they will send down the series to CTV's relaunched "A" television system for the 2008–2009 season. Season 2 premiered on Tuesday, October 14 at 22:00 Eastern/21:00 Central.

On November 20, 2008, however, ABC told the show's producers that it had opted not to order any new episodes, signaling that the series would be cancelled once all the episodes were used up.

The last scheduled episode of Eli Stone aired on December 30, 2008. The final four episodes of the series aired Saturdays at 22:00 Eastern/21:00 Central on ABC starting Saturday, June 20, 2009. The final episode, "Flight Path", aired on July 11, 2009.

The first of these unaired episodes, Sonoma was broadcast in Ireland by RTÉ on March 13, 2009 with the further three episodes due to be aired in the following weeks. The British channel Sci-fi aired episode ten on the March 16 and episode eleven on March 23, with the last two episodes being scheduled for the following two weeks. The episode aired in Israel's yes stars Drama\HD
Yes stars HD
Yes Stars HD is an Israeli high definition television channel carried by the Israeli satellite television provider yes, which broadcasts American television shows. The channel aired on March 25, 2008 and part of it simulcasted with yes stars 1 and yes stars 2 on selected shows...

 channel on March 31, 2009. German TV-channel Pro7 did not air those episodes until this date. In Australia, the Seven Network
Seven Network
The Seven Network is an Australian television network owned by Seven West Media Limited. It dates back to 4 November 1956, when the first stations on the VHF7 frequency were established in Melbourne and Sydney.It is currently the second largest network in the country in terms of population reach...

 aired the final four unaired episodes in the month of April, in the timeslot of Tuesday 22:30.

Future

The series lasted two seasons with 26 episodes. If the show had been renewed for a third season, Eli would have a complete wrap-up of the series, including Taylor giving birth to a baby girl and Matt being a surprisingly good father with a better attitude to others, Jordan meeting his ex-wife for the first time since the divorce, and Eli meeting Grace again. Also, the show could have ended in a cliffhanger, with Eli having a high profile as a prophet, and Dr. Chen becoming rich and a star.

Controversy

The debut episode attracted controversy due to its plot line, which depicts the hypothesis that autism
Autism
Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their...

 is caused by a mercury
Mercury (element)
Mercury is a chemical element with the symbol Hg and atomic number 80. It is also known as quicksilver or hydrargyrum...

-based preservative formerly used in common childhood vaccines
Vaccination schedule
A vaccination schedule is a series of vaccinations, including the timing of all doses, which may be either recommended or compulsory, depending on the country of residence....

, and treats the hypothesis as being credible and legally compelling. This hypothesis
Thiomersal controversy
The thiomersal controversy describes claims that vaccines containing the mercury-based preservative thiomersal contribute to the development of autism and other brain development disorders...

 is not supported by scientific evidence, but has contributed to decreased vaccination rates. The American Academy of Pediatrics
American Academy of Pediatrics
The American Academy of Pediatrics is the major professional association of pediatricians in the United States. The AAP was founded in 1930 by 35 pediatricians to address pediatric healthcare standards. It currently has 60,000 members in primary care and sub-specialist areas...

 asked ABC to either cancel the episode or include a disclaimer emphasizing that mercury is not used in routine childhood vaccines, and that no scientific link exists between vaccines and autism. ABC instead decided to present a written notice and voice-over after the episode saying "The preceding story is fictional and does not portray any actual persons, companies, products or events", with a second card directing viewers to the autism web site of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services headquartered in Druid Hills, unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, in Greater Atlanta...

.

Cast

  • Jonny Lee Miller
    Jonny Lee Miller
    Jonathan "Jonny" Lee Miller is an English actor. During the initial days he was best known for his roles in the 1996 films Trainspotting and Hackers...

     as Eli Stone, a successful attorney in San Francisco who is diagnosed with an inoperable brain aneurysm which is causing hallucinations. The hallucinations cause Eli to become alienated from his peers and soon his life takes a detour. Despite the fact that he is not religious, he interprets his hallucinations as signs, helping people in accepting lawsuits in hopes of bettering their lives.
    • Young Eli is played by Justin Lieberman.
  • Natasha Henstridge
    Natasha Henstridge
    Natasha T. Henstridge is a Canadian fashion model turned actress. Her most notable on-screen roles include Species, The Whole Nine Yards, It Had To Be You, Ghosts of Mars, She Spies, the TV series Eli Stone, and the Canadian TV mini-series Would Be Kings, for which she won the Gemini Award for...

     as Taylor Wethersby, Eli's ex-fiancee who is also an attorney. She formerly works in another company, and later joins in Eli's firm after they broke up. Although taken aback by Eli's episodes of hallucinations, she is determined to help him at any means. She is the daughter of Jordan Wethersby, the head of Wethersby, Posner & Klein.
  • Loretta Devine
    Loretta Devine
    Loretta Devine is an American stage, film and television actress known for her roles on Boston Public, Grey's Anatomy, and Eli Stone. She also provided her voice for the stop motion animated television series The PJs. Devine is a NAACP Image Award and Emmy award winning actress.-Early life:Devine...

     as Patti Dellacroix, Eli's helpful and bossy assistant. She considers Eli as a dear friend of hers and she is always blatantly honest to Eli.
  • Matt Letscher
    Matt Letscher
    Matthew Letscher is an American actor.-Biography:Letscher was born in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. He attended college at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI where he was a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity....

     as Dr. Nathan Stone, Eli's caring elder brother who is a doctor. He is the first who discovered Eli's conditions and he is also sceptical about his visions. Nathan dated Beth, a girl who Eli lost his virginity to in college, after Eli introduced both of them to each other at his engagement party.
  • Sam Jaeger
    Sam Jaeger
    Samuel Heath Jaeger is an American actor and screenwriter.Jaeger graduated from Perrysburg High School in 1995 and in 1999, he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree at Otterbein College...

     as Matt Dowd, Eli's co-worker and rival in the law firm. He is described as sarcastic, arrogant and having a frat-boy personality. He is dating with Taylor Wethersby and they are going to have a baby.
  • James Saito
    James Saito
    James Tomio Saito is an American actor of stage, motion pictures, and television. He is best known for his physical portrayal of Shredder in the 1990 film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; the character was voiced by David McCharen. Saito also appeared in films like The Devil's Advocate, Home Alone 3,...

     as Dr. Chen, an acupuncturist who explains Eli's conditions as a prophetic message. He helps Eli to analyze the visions Eli has and advises Eli to pursue them. He studied acupuncture in Beijing as well as holistic medicine. It is revealed that he is not a Chinese immigrant, and the "Dr. Chen" is merely an act so he will be taken seriously because, "No one trusts an acupuncturist from New Jersey". He once worked for Eli's father, who told him once that he would repay a favor by helping his son (Eli) someday.
  • Julie Gonzalo
    Julie Gonzalo
    Julie Gonzalo is an Argentine-American actress. She is known for her roles as Parker Lee in Veronica Mars, Shelby in A Cinderella Story and Maggie Dekker in Eli Stone. She has been in two movies with Chad Michael Murray: Freaky Friday and A Cinderella Story...

     as Maggie Dekker, a junior attorney who is ambitious and enthusiastic to her work. Much to Eli's dismay, she often assists him in his cases in hopes of moving up the career ladder. She is considered a religious person who is the first person to believe in Eli's visions without hesitations. She was engaged to Scott, who is in Eli's visions of the earthquake.
  • Jason Winston George
    Jason Winston George
    Jason Winston George is an American actor and model He is best known for his roles as Michael Bourne on the NBC daytime soap opera Sunset Beach, and as J.T. Hunter on the UPN television sitcom Eve...

     as Keith Bennett, a criminal law attorney who sued a potential employer for racism. After Keith lost the lawsuit, Jordan hired him as he saw Keith's potential.
  • Victor Garber
    Victor Garber
    Victor Joseph Garber is a Canadian film, stage and television actor and singer. Garber is known for playing Jesus in Godspell, Jack Bristow in the television series Alias, Max in Lend Me a Tenor, and Thomas Andrews in James Cameron's Titanic.-Early life:Born in London, Ontario, Canada, Garber is...

     as Jordan Wethersby, the co-owner of the firm and Taylor's father. He is often skeptical of Eli's imaginings. However, he is a mentor and father figure to Eli, and represented Eli when Eli was prosecuted for ineligibility to perform his work.

Recurring characters

  • Laura Benanti
    Laura Benanti
    Laura Benanti is an American actress of television, film and Broadway theatre noted for her award winning performance as Louise in the 2008 production of Gypsy.-Early years:...

     as Beth Keller, a friend of Eli back in college who has an autistic son. She dated Nathan. (Seasons 1 and 2)
  • Tom Amandes
    Tom Amandes
    Tom Amandes is an American actor. His best known role to date is that of the role of Dr. Harold "Hal" Abbott on the The WB Drama series Everwood, and as Eliot Ness in the 1990's version of The Untouchables TV series.- Career :...

     as Martin Posner, one of the co-owners of the firm. He had a relationship with Patti in the past. (Seasons 1 and 2)
  • Katey Sagal
    Katey Sagal
    Catherine Louise "Katey" Sagal is an American actress and singer-songwriter. She first achieved widespread fame as Peggy Bundy on the long-running Fox comedy series Married.....

     as Marci Klein, one of the co-owners of the firm. She is unfriendly and is more interested of the financial benefit of the firm. She is not fond of Eli's intentions of helping more individuals than major corporations. (Seasons 1 and 2)
  • Pamela Reed
    Pamela Reed
    Pamela Reed is an American actress. She is known for playing Ruth Powers in various episodes of TV's The Simpsons, as Arnold Schwarzenegger's hypoglycemic partner in the 1990 movie Kindergarten Cop and as the matriarch Gail Green in Jericho...

     as Mrs. Stone. (First season only)
  • Tom Cavanagh
    Tom Cavanagh
    Thomas "Tom" Cavanagh is a Canadian actor.-Early life:Cavanagh was born in Ottawa, Ontario. He is of Irish descent and was raised in a large Roman Catholic family. Cavanagh moved with his family to Winneba, a small city in Ghana, when he was seven years old. In his teens, the family moved to...

     as Jeremy Stone, the late father of Nathan and Eli. He also had a brain aneurysm which causes hallucinations. He suffered from depression and was an alcoholic, which causes Nathan and Eli to resent him. He died from a heart attack 10 years ago. (Flashbacks in seasons 1 and 2)
  • George Michael
    George Michael
    George Michael is a British musician, singer, songwriter and record producer who rose to fame in the 1980s when he formed the pop duo Wham! with his school friend, Andrew Ridgeley...

     as himself. (First season only)
  • Bridget Moynahan
    Bridget Moynahan
    Kathryn Bridget Moynahan , best known as Bridget Moynahan, is an American model and actress. After graduating from Longmeadow High School in 1989, Moynahan pursued a career in modeling. She was signed by a modeling agency, which led her to appear in department store catalogs and the covers of...

     as Ashley Cardiff, Eli's ex-girlfriend.
  • Taraji P. Henson
    Taraji P. Henson
    Taraji Penda Henson is an American actress and singer. She is best known for her roles as Yvette in Baby Boy , Shug in Hustle and Flow and Queenie in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button , for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2009...

     as Angela Scott, Patti's daughter. (Second season only)
  • Kerr Smith
    Kerr Smith
    Kerr Van Cleve Smith is an American actor best known for playing Jack McPhee on The WB drama series Dawson's Creek, Kyle Brody in The WB's, supernatural drama, Charmed and more recently Axel Palmer in My Bloody Valentine 3D...

     as Paul Rollins, a partner at Posner/Klein.

Special Guest Stars

  • Sigourney Weaver
    Sigourney Weaver
    Sigourney Weaver is an American actress. She is best known for her critically acclaimed role of Ellen Ripley in the four Alien films: Alien, Aliens, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection, for which she has received worldwide recognition .Other notable roles include Dana...

     as therapist and God.
  • Katie Holmes
    Katie Holmes
    Katherine Noelle "Katie" Holmes is an American actress who first achieved fame for her role as Joey Potter on The WB television teen drama Dawson's Creek from 1998 to 2003. Her movie roles have included the blockbuster Batman Begins along with art house films such as The Ice Storm and thrillers...

     as Grace, a woman whom Eli accidentally meets.


On November 6, 2008, TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...

reported that Jamey Sheridan
Jamey Sheridan
James Patrick "Jamey" Sheridan is an American actor. He was born in Pasadena, California.He has had a prolific acting career in theater, television, and feature film productions. Born to a family of actors, he made it to Broadway and earned a Tony nomination in 1987 for his performance in the...

 would guest-star as an evening news anchor. On December 1, 2008, TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...

reported that Gregory Smith would make a guest appearance on the show's finale.

Ratings

Season Timeslot (EDT) Season premiere Season finale TV season Rank Viewers
(in millions)
18-49 Network
1 Thursday 10:00pm
Sunday 10:00pm (April 13, 2008)
January 31, 2008
April 17, 2008
2008
#80
8.09
2.8
ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

2
Tuesday 10:00pm (October 14-December 30, 2008)
Saturday 10:00pm (June 20-July 11, 2009)
October 14, 2008
July 11, 2009
2008–2009
#77
5.28
2.4

Awards and nominations

Year Award Category Result
2008 ALMA Awards Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Television Series - Julie Gonzalo
Julie Gonzalo
Julie Gonzalo is an Argentine-American actress. She is known for her roles as Parker Lee in Veronica Mars, Shelby in A Cinderella Story and Maggie Dekker in Eli Stone. She has been in two movies with Chad Michael Murray: Freaky Friday and A Cinderella Story...

NAACP Image Awards Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series - Loretta Devine
Loretta Devine
Loretta Devine is an American stage, film and television actress known for her roles on Boston Public, Grey's Anatomy, and Eli Stone. She also provided her voice for the stop motion animated television series The PJs. Devine is a NAACP Image Award and Emmy award winning actress.-Early life:Devine...

Satellite Awards
Satellite Awards 2008
The winners of the 13th Annual Satellite Awards, honoring the best in film and television in 2008, were announced on December 14, 2008.-Top 10 films:*Ballast*Changeling*Doubt*The Dark Knight*Frost/Nixon*Frozen River*Milk...

Best Actor - Musical or Comedy Series - Jonny Lee Miller
Jonny Lee Miller
Jonathan "Jonny" Lee Miller is an English actor. During the initial days he was best known for his roles in the 1996 films Trainspotting and Hackers...

WGA Awards
Writers Guild of America Awards 2008
The 61st Writers Guild of America Awards honored the best film, television, and videogame writers of 2008. Winners were announced on February 7, 2009.-Best Adapted Screenplay:...

Episodic Drama - "Pilot"
2009 Prism Awards Drama Series Multi-Episode Storyline - "The Humanitarian," "Happy Birthday, Nate," "Help"

International airings

Eli Stone premiered on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 on January 31, 2008. It premiered on Fox Life
Fox Life Greece
Fox Life Greece is a television network, launched by the Fox International Channels, which launched on 1 December 2008 and is currently available to the subscribers of NOVA Greece, Conn-x TV and On TV....

 in Greece, and AXN in Japan in 2010. In the UK, the show was first shown on the Sci Fi Channel in 2008 and will be broadcast on Fiver in June 2010. In Malaysia, the show premiered on TV2
TV2 (Malaysia)
RTM2, also known as TV2 is a television station in Malaysia owned and operated by the Radio Television Malaysia, a division of the Malaysian Government. RTM2 is now broadcasting for 24 hours a day effective January 2006.- History :...

 in June 2009, airing all the complete 26 episodes until 23 December 2009. The series is later re-run in 2010.

DVD releases

On September 2, 2008, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released the complete first season of Eli Stone on DVD in Region 1. Season 1 was also released in Region 4 on March 18, 2009. The second and final season was released in Region 1 on August 18, 2009.
DVD Name Ep # Release dates
Region 1 Region 4
The Complete First Season
13
September 2, 2008
March 18, 2009
The Complete Second Season
13
August 18, 2009
TBA

See also

  • Medium
    Medium (TV series)
    Medium is an American television drama series that premiered on NBC on January 3, 2005, and ended on CBS on January 21, 2011. Themed on supernatural gifts, its lead character, Allison DuBois , is a medium employed as a consultant for the Phoenix, Arizona district attorney's office...

  • Joan of Arcadia
    Joan of Arcadia
    Joan of Arcadia is an American television fantasy/family drama telling the story of teenager Joan Girardi , who sees and speaks with God and performs tasks she is given. The series originally aired on Fridays, 8-9 p.m...

  • The Listener
    The Listener (TV series)
    The Listener is a Canadian science fiction drama set in Toronto about a young paramedic named Toby Logan with the ability to listen to people's minds. The series premiered on Fox International Channels beginning with the Arabic-speaking area of northern Africa and south-western Asia on March 1, 2009...

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