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Joan of Arcadia is an Emmy-nominated American television fantasy/family drama, which originally aired on Fridays, 8-9 p.m. ET/PT on CBS from September 26, 2003 until April 22, 2005. It is shown in syndication with episodes airing in high definition on HDNet, as well as Friday evenings on Sci Fi Channel.
On initial release, the show was a favorite with critics and won the prestigious Humanitas Prize, the People's Choice Award, as well as being one of the few television shows to be nominated for an Emmy Award in the first season, for Best Dramatic Series.
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Quotations
Helen:
Luke, one breakdown a year is all we can handle. You'll have to wait.
Luke:
As the great physicist Faraday once said, 'Nothing is too wonderful to be true.'
Encyclopedia
Joan of Arcadia is an Emmy-nominated American television fantasy/family drama, which originally aired on Fridays, 8-9 p.m. ET/PT on CBS from September 26, 2003 until April 22, 2005. It is shown in syndication with episodes airing in high definition on HDNet, as well as Friday evenings on Sci Fi Channel.
On initial release, the show was a favorite with critics and won the prestigious Humanitas Prize, the People's Choice Award, as well as being one of the few television shows to be nominated for an Emmy Award in the first season, for Best Dramatic Series. The title alludes to Joan of Arc while Arcadia is a fictional city in Maryland. Joan of Arcadia still airs on CBS on high definition on HDNet.
Cast
Recurring cast
- Aaron Himelstein as Friedman - Luke's best friend
- Mageina Tovah as Glynis Figliola - Luke's friend and one-time girlfriend
- Sprague Grayden as Judith Montgomery - Joan's friend from the summer psychiatric camp.
- Mark Totty as Detective Carlisle - Will Girardi's junk food addicted partner on the Arcadia Police Department.
- Elaine Hendrix as Ms. Lischak - Chemistry and Physics teacher
- Patrick Fabian as Gavin Price - Assistant Principal, Arcadia High School
- Annie Potts as Lucy Preston - Lieutenant, Arcadia Police Department
- Derek Morgan as Roy Roebuck - Arcadia Police Department
- Wentworth Miller as Ryan Hunter - a young, charming dot com millionaire who also talks to God, but with his own sinister agenda. Introduced at the end of Season Two in the episode Common Thread it was planned for him to be a recurring character in the third season.
- David Burke as Fr. Ken Mallory - Helen's friend and pastor of a nearby church.
- Constance Zimmer as Sister Lilly Watters, a former nun who helps advise Helen Girardi, also Kevin's girlfriend.
Guest Cast
Incarnations of God
Some of the many incarnations included:
Crew
- Barbara Hall, Executive Producer
- Jim Hayman, Executive Producer
- Stephen Nathan, Executive Producer
- Hart Hanson, Consulting Producer
- Peter Schindler, Co-Executive Producer
- Randy Anderson, Co-Executive Producer
Plot
Joan of Arcadia is about teenager Joan Girardi (played by Amber Tamblyn), who sees and speaks with God. God appears in the form of various people such as small children, teenage boys, elderly ladies, transients, passers by, etc. Joan is asked by God to perform tasks that often appear to be trivial or contrary, but always end up positively improving a larger situation.
One of the more obvious effects of Joan's actions occurs when she is asked to take a reclusive bully to the school dance. While both her mother and the assistant principal object, Joan follows through with God's task. At the dance, it is revealed that the bully has a bottle of alcohol with him, but Joan convinces him not to open it. Despite this, the assistant principal later reaches into his jacket, finds the alcohol and expels him. In his anger, the boy threatens the chief of police (Joan's father) with a handgun, and he is then arrested. Joan later finds out from God that, while this turn of events seems rather bleak, it was the lesser of two evils--without Joan's actions, he would have shot over a dozen students and teachers with a handgun, before turning the gun on himself. (Note: this ending is noticeably more direct than most episodes, since it is the only time God comments so clearly on "what would have happened" rather than primarily allowing events to speak for themselves.)
The series starred actors Joe Mantegna and Mary Steenburgen as Joan's parents Will and Helen, Jason Ritter as her paraplegic older brother Kevin, and Michael Welch as her younger brother Luke. The family relationships and plot situations were written more realistically than other shows with spiritual themes. Various story-lines that spanned multiple episodes dealt with the consequences of Kevin's accident, Will's job as a police officer, Helen's career as an art teacher, and Luke's aspirations to be a scientist. No specific mention of any "true" religion is ever made,and God quotes Bob Dylan, Emily Dickinson and the Beatles rather than any scripture or verses. Furthermore, God is portrayed with a very human personality. In "Touch Move", he tells Joan that he has to send her "down There", and laughs when she becomes worried he means Hell (he meant the school basement). Also, in one episode, he hands Joan a book from a store they have just left. When Joan accuses him of stealing, he remarks "Well, technically everything's mine" because I'm God.
Christopher Marquette also stars as Adam Rove, a close friend of Joan's who has an on-and-off romantic relationship with her. Another of Joan's best friends is Grace Polk, played by Becky Wahlstrom.
Theme Song
The opening credits roll with the song "One of Us" by Joan Osborne, a hit single in the United States from her 1995 album Relish:
What if God was one of us?Just a slob like one of usJust a stranger on the busTrying to make his way home (repeated)
This was not the original version of the song, but was re-recorded by Osborne (with a noticeably less rough quality) specifically for the show. To fit the lyrics of the song, Joan first meets God as a teenage boy riding to school on the bus with her (although they don't actually speak to each other at the time).
Production
Scenes of Arcadia's skyline and other outdoor scenes were actually the city of Wilmington, Delaware. Arcadia itself is set in Maryland.
Reception and cancellation
Joan of Arcadia debuted on the heels of Touched by an Angel, which had ended its nine-year run in April 2003.
While Joan of Arcadia was one of the highest rated new shows of the 2003-2004 TV season, its ratings declined in the second season, in spite of continued critical acclaim. The show was cancelled by CBS on May 18, 2005. Only two episodes from the second season were repeated by CBS; "No Future" and "The Rise and Fall of Joan Girardi." The network pulled any remaining reruns from its schedule. Near the end of the second season, a menacing character was introduced to the series, an amoral "tempter", seemingly destined to cause a significant amount of conflict in the show's characters. The show's cancellation left that premise unexplored. Ghost Whisperer took over the show's Friday time slot in September 2005.
After the show's cancellation, props such as pieces of Adam's artwork and Joan's signature messenger bag and costume pieces belonging to cast members were sold on eBay. Grace's trademark leather jacket was not included as the jacket was brought in by actress Becky Wahlstrom from her own teenage years.
Episodes
Season 1: 2003-2004
| # | Title |
|---|
| 1 | Pilot | | 2 | The Fire and the Wood | | 3 | Touch Move | | 4 | The Boat | | 5 | Just Say No | | 6 | Bringeth It On | | 7 | Death Be Not Whatever | | 8 | The Devil Made Me Do It | | 9 | St. Joan | | 10 | Drive, He Said | | 11 | The Uncertainty Principle | | 12 | Jump | | 13 | Recreation | | 14 | State of Grace | | 15 | Night Without Stars | | 16 | Double Dutch | | 17 | No Bad Guy | | 18 | Requiem for a Third Grade Ashtray | | 19 | Do The Math | | 20 | Anonymous | | 21 | Vanity, Thy Name Is Human | | 22 | The Gift | | 23 | Silence |
Season 2: 2004-2005
| # | Title |
|---|
| 1 | Only Connect | | 2 | Out of Sight | | 3 | Back to the Garden | | 4 | The Cat | | 5 | The Election | | 6 | Wealth of Nations | | 7 | P.O.V. | | 8 | Friday Night | | 9 | No Future | | 10 | The Book of Questions | | 11 | Dive | | 12 | Game Theory | | 13 | Queen of the Zombies | | 14 | The Rise and Fall of Joan Girardi | | 15 | Romancing the Joan | | 16 | Independence Day | | 17 | Shadows and Light | | 18 | Secret Service | | 19 | Trial and Error | | 20 | Spring Cleaning | | 21 | Common Thread | | 22 | Something Wicked This Way Comes |
DVD releases
| Season | Discs | Release Date | Episode # | Additional Information |
|---|
| 1 | 6 | May 10, 2005 | 23 | Deleted Scenes, Audio commentaries by the Filmmakers and Cast
Behind-The-Scenes Featurettes: The Creation of Joan of Arcadia and Joan of Arcadia - A Look at Season One
God Gallery | | 2 | 6 | November 28, 2006 | 22 | Audio Commentaries on selected episodes
A Look at Season 2 featurette
The Making of Queen of the Zombies
A Tour of Joan's High School
Common Thread Table Read |
External links
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