Profit (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Profit is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 television series that originally aired on the Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...

 in 1996. The series was created by David Greenwalt
David Greenwalt
David Greenwalt is an American screenwriter, director and producer.He was the co-executive producer of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and co-creator of its spinoff, Angel. He is also co-creator of the short-lived cult television show Profit...

 and John McNamara
John McNamara (writer)
John McNamara is an American writer and television producer. He attended East Grand Rapids High School located in Michigan and attended the University of Michigan...

, and starred Adrian Pasdar
Adrian Pasdar
Adrian Kayvan Pasdar is an American actor, voice artist, and film director. He is known for playing Jim Profit on the TV series Profit, for his roles in Near Dark, Carlito's Way, Mysterious Ways and as Nathan Petrelli on Heroes. Additionally, he directed the feature film Cement...

 as the titular character, Jim Profit. In February 2008, episodes began airing on Chiller
Chiller (TV channel)
Chiller is a 24-hour American cable and satellite television channel specializing in horror and suspense programming. conglomerate NBCUniversal.- Origin :...

 in the USA. In October 2010, episodes began airing on CBS Action
CBS Action
CBS Action is a television channel in the United Kingdom and Ireland that launched on 16 November 2009.On 14 September 2009, it was revealed that the international arm of CBS, CBS Studios International, struck a joint venture deal with Chellomedia to launch six CBS-branded channels in the UK during...

 in Europe.

Considered by many to be ahead of its time, the show is a precursor to more recent edgy television shows that include The Sopranos
The Sopranos
The Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...

, Nip/Tuck
Nip/Tuck
Nip/Tuck is an American drama series created by Ryan Murphy, which aired on FX in the United States. The series focuses on McNamara/Troy, a plastic surgery practice, and follows its founders, Sean McNamara and Christian Troy...

, Dexter
Dexter (TV series)
Dexter is an American television drama series, which debuted on Showtime on October 1, 2006. The sixth season premiered on October 2, 2011. The series centers on Dexter Morgan , a bloodstain pattern analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department who moonlights as a serial killer...

, Breaking Bad
Breaking Bad
Breaking Bad is an American television drama series created and produced by Vince Gilligan. Set and produced in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Breaking Bad is the story of Walter White , a struggling high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with advanced lung cancer at the beginning of the series...

, and The Shield
The Shield
The Shield is an American television drama series starring Michael Chiklis which premiered on March 12, 2002 on FX in the United States and concluded on November 25, 2008 after seven seasons...

. Dark themes stemming from the amoral actions of the central character made the show uncomfortable and unfamiliar viewing for mainstream audiences and Fox network affiliate
Network affiliate
In the broadcasting industry , a network affiliate is a local broadcaster which carries some or all of the television program or radio program line-up of a television or radio network, but is owned by a company other than the owner of the network...

s, which ultimately led to the demise of the series.

Summary

Jim Profit is a newly-promoted employee following the heart attack death of the former VP of Acquisitions at Gracen & Gracen (G&G), a multinational corporation
Multinational corporation
A multi national corporation or enterprise , is a corporation or an enterprise that manages production or delivers services in more than one country. It can also be referred to as an international corporation...

 that is less than ethical with some of its business practices. That does not worry Profit, who is not above blackmail
Blackmail
In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...

, bribery
Bribery
Bribery, a form of corruption, is an act implying money or gift giving that alters the behavior of the recipient. Bribery constitutes a crime and is defined by Black's Law Dictionary as the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official or...

, extortion
Extortion
Extortion is a criminal offence which occurs when a person unlawfully obtains either money, property or services from a person, entity, or institution, through coercion. Refraining from doing harm is sometimes euphemistically called protection. Extortion is commonly practiced by organized crime...

, or even murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...

 to get ahead in the company. At the beginning and end of each episode Profit would directly address the audience and speak to the camera with such quotes as: "The line most people say they won't cross - it's usually something they've already done when they thought no one was watching."

Main

  • Jim Profit (Adrian Pasdar
    Adrian Pasdar
    Adrian Kayvan Pasdar is an American actor, voice artist, and film director. He is known for playing Jim Profit on the TV series Profit, for his roles in Near Dark, Carlito's Way, Mysterious Ways and as Nathan Petrelli on Heroes. Additionally, he directed the feature film Cement...

    ) – born James Stakowski, he was raised in a cardboard G&G shipping box with the television on at all hours by an abusive father in Tulsa, Oklahoma
    Tulsa, Oklahoma
    Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's...

    , until he set his father on fire and ran away as a teenager. The experience left him with a complete hatred of TV and a desire to insinuate himself into the G&G family by any means necessary. Worked in Auditing before ascending to junior-vice president of Acquisitions. He intends to climb the corporate ladder at G&G by secretly engineering the ruin of those who stand in his way and/or refuse to assist him.
  • Joanne Meltzer (Lisa Zane
    Lisa Zane
    Elizabeth Frances "Lisa" Zane is an American actress and singer who has starred on stage, in film and television.-Personal life:...

    ) – the obsessive chief of security for G&G. Had an affair with Jack Walters after his wife had (temporarily) run off with a lover. Remains loyal to Jack Walters, and admires him as a person. Jack's downfall (engineered by Profit) is the main thing motivating her to stop Profit. She is constantly trying to figure out Profit's motives and master plan, but has her own issues.
  • Charles Henry "Chaz" Gracen (Keith Szarabajka
    Keith Szarabajka
    Keith Szarabajka is an American actor and voice artist.-Early life:Szarabajka was born in Oak Park, Illinois, the son of Anne, a school teacher, and Edward Szarabajka, a savings and loan officer....

    ) – the no-nonsense, paranoid, short-tempered chief executive of G&G. Is known to take a different mistress each year. Loves money above all else. Occasionally displays a dark sense of humor.
  • Pete Gracen (Jack Gwaltney) – Chaz's younger brother, and the Senior Vice-President of Acquisitions. Long-standing alcoholic, he's also impotent, and seemingly incompetent.
  • Nora Gracen (Allison Hossack
    Allison Hossack
    Allison Hossack is an actress.-Biography:Hossack attended schools in Steinbach and Killarney, Manitoba, later graduating from the Brandon University School of Music in 1988 with a B.Mus. where she majored in voice...

    ) – Pete's insecure, lonely, yet trusting wife. She initially was seduced by Profit, then obsessed over him when he insisted on "being just friends". Regards Profit as a close friend and kindred spirit.
  • Gail Koner (Lisa Darr
    Lisa Darr
    Lisa Darr is an American actress.Darr was born Lisa Darr Grabemann in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Mollie, an actress, and Karl Grabemann, a lawyer. She attended Stanford University and graduated in 1985 with a degree in Biology; she went on to receive an MFA in Acting from UCLA.She played...

    ) – Profit's resourceful secretary (who was originally Jack Walter's secretary), and primary henchperson. Initially Profit blackmailed her into assisting him in his schemes. However she feels increasingly loyal (and/or obligated) to Profit, since he saved her job, covered up her petty embezzlement, and pays 100% of her sick mother's nursing home bills. She also seems to be one of the few characters he shows any care for. In the episodes "Cupid" and "Chinese Box" he takes pride in her becoming more and more deceitful and is one of the few people he lets know about his abusive childhood. He at the very least feigns caring in her mother's well being, and says in "Chinese Box" that he is grooming/paving a way for her to become an executive at G&G.
  • Bobbi Stakowski (Lisa Blount
    Lisa Blount
    Lisa S. Blount was an American film and television actress and Oscar-winning producer.-Career:...

    ) – Profit's stepmother and former lover. Heroin addict, alcoholic, and former prostitute. She repeatedly tries to blackmail Profit (with evidence of his patricide
    Patricide
    Patricide is the act of killing one's father, or a person who kills his or her father. The word patricide derives from the Latin word pater and the Latin suffix -cida...

     and other crimes) into financing a luxurious lifestyle for her.
  • Jeffrey Sykes (Sherman Augustus
    Sherman Augustus
    Sherman Augustus is an American actor. Augustus played professional football with the San Diego Chargers and Minnesota Vikings...

    ) – a corporate lawyer and the newest member of the G&G team. Sykes takes a more antagonistic approach to Profit.

Recurring and guests

  • Jack Walters (Scott Paulin
    Scott Paulin
    Scott Paulin is an American actor and television director.-Career:His work includes appearances in well-known television series like House M.D., ER, Cold Case, 24 and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation...

    ) – the former President of Acquisitions at G&G.
  • Elizabeth Gracen Walters (Jennifer Hetrick
    Jennifer Hetrick
    Jennifer Hetrick is an American actress. She is perhaps best known for playing Vash in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Corinne Becker on L.A...

    ) – Jack's wife, and cousin to Chaz and Pete Gracen.
  • Constance Gracen (Teryl Rothery
    Teryl Rothery
    Teryl Rothery is a Canadian actress. She is best known for her role as Dr. Janet Fraiser on Stargate SG-1.-Life and career:Rothery was born in Vancouver, British Columbia...

    ) – Chaz's estranged wife.
  • Dr. Jeremy Batewell (John Hawkes
    John Hawkes (actor)
    John Hawkes is an American film and television actor. He is known for his portrayal of the merchant Sol Star on the HBO series Deadwood, Dustin Powers on Eastbound & Down, and his Academy Award-nominated performance as the menacing backwoods meth addict Teardrop in Winter's Bone.-Life and...

    )
  • Kelly Hunt/Carol McKenna (Jessica Tuck
    Jessica Tuck
    Jessica Ines Tuck is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Megan Gordon Harrison on One Life to Live, Gillian Gray on Judging Amy, and Nan Flanagan on True Blood. She also appeared as Madeline Peterson Woods on Days of our Lives.-Personal life:Tuck was born in New York City and is a...

    )

Episodes

# Episode First US Airdate & Network Writer(s) Summary
01 "Pilot" (parts 1 and 2) April 8, 1996 / Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...

John McNamara & David Greenwalt Jim Profit joins the Gracen and Gracen executive team just as a public scandal erupts from an unethical baby food decision—sparked by a press leak that Profit orchestrated.
02 "Hero" April 15, 1996 / Fox David Greenwalt Joanne Meltzer and Jack Walters search into Profit's past, while Profit sets up a key plan to dislodge Jack Walters from his senior position at G&G and clear the way for his own promotion.
03 "Sykes" April 22, 1996 / Fox David Greenwalt Lawyer Jeffrey Sykes is hired by G&G, but his agenda has more to do with G&G and Profit's deal with a local mobster than actually representing the interests of G&G.
04 "Healing" April 29, 1996 / Fox John McNamara Joanne and Profit's rivalry comes to a head when Chaz announces that they will both take a lie detector test. Profit tries to mess with Joanne's mind by blackmailing her psychiatrist.
05 "Cupid" December 6, 2002 / Trio
Trio (TV network)
Trio was an American cable and satellite television network.Trio went on the air in 1997, then originally owned and operated jointly by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Power Broadcasting Inc. as a venue for airing the CBC's arts, culture and entertainment programming in the U.S...

John Shirley
John Shirley
John Shirley is an American fantasist, author of noir fiction, and science-fiction writer. Shirley is a prolific writer of novels and short stories, TV scripts and screenplays who has published over 30 books and 10 collections...

G&G wants to acquire a company jointly owned by a separated couple, so Profit is charged with getting them back together even though the husband is acting rather disingenuously. Bobbi sets her sights on Chaz.
06 "Chinese Box" December 7, 2002 / Trio W. K. Scott Meyer In order to avoid an imminent FBI investigation, Profit must sever G&G's relationship with a recently-acquired Chinese company by acquiring a codebreaker chip from Dr. Jeremy Batewell. This proves harder than it seems since Gail got him fired from G&G for sexual harassment some time ago.
07 "Security" December 8, 2002 / Trio John McNamara Profit is having an affair with the newest G&G security team addition, Kelly Hunt. However, Ms. Hunt isn't who she appears to be and is a muckraking reporter looking for dirt on G&G.
08 "Forgiveness" December 9, 2002 / Trio David Greenwalt Profit's manipulations come to a head: a secret from Nora's past may hold the key to derailing a hostile takeover of G&G. Joanne and Sykes come closer to finding out who the "real" Jim Profit was. Bobbi faces a near-death experience that makes her realize what she really wants.


In France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, the entire run was originally screened on Jimmy commencing 23 June 1997.

In the UK the entire run was originally screened on Sky 2 in 1996, and later on BBC2.

Critical reception

The critical response to Profit at the time of its debut was positive. Howard Rosenberg of the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....

 called Profit "...rip-roaring, sinus-clearing, bold and wonderful." Tom Gliatto of People
People (magazine)
In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens called Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006. Subscribers to this magazine received...

 magazine said of Profit: "Refreshingly cruel, Fox's Profit is the most exciting new show I've seen this year." John J. O'Conner from The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

 called Profit "one of the most intriguing shows to come along since Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks is an American television serial drama created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. The series follows the investigation headed by FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper , of the murder of a popular teenager and homecoming queen, Laura Palmer...

..." Joyce Millman of salon.com stated: "Profit gains heft...from its nervy satiric vision of corporate capitalist culture."

Controversy and cancellation

Despite numerous positive critical reviews and intense industry buzz, Profit was canceled after only 5 of the 9 produced hours were broadcast on Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...

 in the USA. Low Nielsen ratings
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...

 were cited as the official cause; Profit ranked 138th of 160 shows for 1996 and suffered from viewer tune-out during the airing of the 2-hour pilot episode. Other factors that may have hastened the demise of Profit include:
  • Viewers were reported to have flooded their local Fox network affiliate
    Network affiliate
    In the broadcasting industry , a network affiliate is a local broadcaster which carries some or all of the television program or radio program line-up of a television or radio network, but is owned by a company other than the owner of the network...

    s with phone calls objecting to the amoral actions of the lead character Jim Profit and referring to him as "Satan in a Suit"; these opinions were expressed most vociferously by viewers located in the Bible Belt
    Bible Belt
    Bible Belt is an informal term for a region in the southeastern and south-central United States in which socially conservative evangelical Protestantism is a significant part of the culture and Christian church attendance across the denominations is generally higher than the nation's average.The...

     area of the USA. Some Fox network affiliate
    Network affiliate
    In the broadcasting industry , a network affiliate is a local broadcaster which carries some or all of the television program or radio program line-up of a television or radio network, but is owned by a company other than the owner of the network...

    s even threatened to preempt Profit in their local markets and replace it with alternative programming.

  • Members of the business community were outraged that Profit portrayed them so poorly. Shaifali Puri of Fortune
    Fortune (magazine)
    Fortune is a global business magazine published by Time Inc. Founded by Henry Luce in 1930, the publishing business, consisting of Time, Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated, grew to become Time Warner. In turn, AOL grew as it acquired Time Warner in 2000 when Time Warner was the world's largest...

     said: "Just in case there's anyone left who isn't convinced corporate America is a den of naked ambition and bald turpitude, comes now (the TV show) Profit." It was rumored that even the creator of the Fox
    Fox Broadcasting Company
    Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...

     network Rupert Murdoch
    Rupert Murdoch
    Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG is an Australian-American business magnate. He is the founder and Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate....

     objected to the edgy portrayal of corporate America in Profit, although Adrian Pasdar was quoted as saying that Profit was Murdoch's favorite TV show.

  • Airings of Profit consistently lost almost all of the lead-in audience from Melrose Place which was scheduled in the timeslot immediately preceding Profit. This reportedly did not sit well with Melrose Places executive producer Aaron Spelling
    Aaron Spelling
    Aaron Spelling was an American film and television producer. As of 2009, Spelling's eponymous production company Spelling Television holds the record as the most prolific television writer, with 218 producer and executive producer credits...

    , especially after a glowing Time review of Profit while previous reviews from the magazine were highly critical of Melrose Place. Adrian Pasdar was approached by Spelling for the role of Jake Hanson
    Jake Hanson
    Jake Hanson is a fictional character in the American television series Melrose Place, the second series of the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise...

     on Melrose Place in 1992, but Pasdar refused to even meet with Spelling who was widely considered one of the most powerful and influential television producers of the 1990s.


The cancellation of Profit was lamented by the organization Viewers for Quality Television
Viewers For Quality Television
Viewers for Quality Television was an American nonprofit organization founded in 1984 to advocate network television series that members of the organization voted to be of the "highest quality." The group's goal was to rescue "...critically acclaimed programs from cancellation despite their...

; VQT founder Dorothy Swanson stated: "It certainly was not a mainstream show. It wasn't for everyone. There were parts of it I'm sure mainstream viewers found very disturbing and unappealing. But for people who like interesting television, it was very well written. It was spellbinding. You had to know what made this guy (Jim Profit) tick."

Awards

  • Nominated for a 1996 Artios Award in category "Best Casting for TV, Dramatic Pilot".

DVD releases

Anchor Bay Entertainment
Anchor Bay Entertainment
Anchor Bay Entertainment is a U.S. based home entertainment and production company and is a division of Starz Media, which is a unit of Starz, LLC. It was previously owned by IDT Entertainment until 2006 when IDT was purchased by Starz Media. Anchor Bay markets and sells feature films, series,...

 released the complete series on DVD in Region 1 on August 9, 2005. The three-disc set contains the two-hour pilot and seven episodes (the final four of which did not air during the original run on Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...

). Interviews with Stephen J. Cannell, David Greenwalt
David Greenwalt
David Greenwalt is an American screenwriter, director and producer.He was the co-executive producer of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and co-creator of its spinoff, Angel. He is also co-creator of the short-lived cult television show Profit...

, John McNamara
John McNamara (writer)
John McNamara is an American writer and television producer. He attended East Grand Rapids High School located in Michigan and attended the University of Michigan...

, Adrian Pasdar
Adrian Pasdar
Adrian Kayvan Pasdar is an American actor, voice artist, and film director. He is known for playing Jim Profit on the TV series Profit, for his roles in Near Dark, Carlito's Way, Mysterious Ways and as Nathan Petrelli on Heroes. Additionally, he directed the feature film Cement...

, Lisa Blount
Lisa Blount
Lisa S. Blount was an American film and television actress and Oscar-winning producer.-Career:...

, and Lisa Zane
Lisa Zane
Elizabeth Frances "Lisa" Zane is an American actress and singer who has starred on stage, in film and television.-Personal life:...

 are presented in a 67-minute featurette called Greed Kills about the making of Profit. Audio commentary with Adrian Pasdar and series creators David Greenwalt and John McNamara is provided for the 2-hour pilot and the episodes "Healing", "Chinese Box", and "Forgiveness". As of 2010, this release has been discontinued and is out of print.

Free Dolphin Entertainment released the complete series on DVD in Region 2 on October 20, 2005. The three-disc set contains the two-hour pilot and seven episodes (the final four of which did not air during the original run on Fox), along with the option of French subtitles or French-dubbed voice audio for all episodes. A 23-minute featurette produced in 1999 by French TV station Jimmy titled "Profit Special" covering the impact and enormous popularity of Profit in France was included in this release along with the Greed Kills featurette from the Region 1 release. Seven minutes of Fox promotional spots for Profit were provided as well, including a unique 30-second trailer showing Jim Profit crushing a spider on a park bench and calling it an "amateur".

Production

Profit was produced by Greenwalt/McNamara Productions and Stephen J. Cannell Productions
Stephen J. Cannell
Stephen Joseph Cannell was an American television producer, writer, novelist and occasional actor, and the founder of Stephen J. Cannell Productions.-Early life:...

 in association with New World Television, and was the final series to come from Cannell's company (as well as one of the few for which he did not write any scripts).

The exterior shots outside the Gracen & Gracen twin towers were filmed on the plaza in front of the Sheraton
Sheraton Hotels and Resorts
Sheraton Hotels and Resorts is Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide's largest and second oldest brand . Starwood's headquarters are in White Plains, New York.-Sheraton history:...

 Wall Centre Hotel in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

. For production, a "Gracen & Gracen Wall Center" placard was positioned over the covered entrance in front of one building and two G&G logo monuments were placed in the front and center of the plaza. Another part of the same hotel complex now includes the well-known One Wall Centre
One Wall Centre
One Wall Centre, also known as the Sheraton Wall Centre - North Tower, is currently the second-tallest completed building in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The skyscraper is located at a high point on the downtown peninsula of Vancouver and its address is 1088 Burrard Street.One Wall Centre...

 building that had not yet been constructed when Profit was shot in early 1996.

According to the Region 1 DVD liner notes, the interior G&G office shots for the two-hour pilot episode were taken at the real working offices of B.C. Gas
Terasen Gas
FortisBC Energy, Inc., formerly known as Terasen Gas, is the largest distributor of natural gas in British Columbia, Canada, serving approximately 920,000 customers in over 125 communities. The company owns and operates 44,100 kilometres of gas distribution pipelines and 4,300 kilometres of gas...

 and that of a prestigious law firm in downtown Vancouver. Subsequent episodes were shot in studio sets modeled after these offices. The scene outside a hospital with Joanne Meltzer and Profit in the episode "Healing" was shot in front of St. Paul's Hospital located just across Burrard Street from the Sheraton Wall Centre. The exterior of Profit's apartment building featuring columnar bay windows up and down the entire front of the building is a location called Eugenia Place in Vancouver's West End
West End, Vancouver
The West End of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada is on the downtown peninsula neighbouring Stanley Park and the areas of Yaletown, Coal Harbour and the downtown financial and central business districts....

; the structure is notable for the presence of a 35-foot Pin oak
Pin oak
Quercus palustris, the Pin oak or Swamp Spanish oak, is an oak in the red oak section Quercus sect. Lobatae.-Distribution:...

 tree growing on the building's roof, located 180 feet above street level.

What would have happened

David Greenwalt & John McNamara gave details of plotlines from the never-produced second season in the audio commentaries on the Region 1 DVD.
  • Joanne Meltzer dies early in the first episode of the second season while in Ireland
    Ireland
    Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

     looking into Profit's background. The phone booth from which she is calling Sykes is set to explode. There is a bomb planted there by the Irish Republican Army
    Irish Republican Army
    The Irish Republican Army was an Irish republican revolutionary military organisation. It was descended from the Irish Volunteers, an organisation established on 25 November 1913 that staged the Easter Rising in April 1916...

    . It was to be revealed later that this was done at the behest of Profit.
  • Jim has stolen the identity of a "real" Jim Profit. The "real" Jim Profit is in a coma after he was drowned by the protagonist Jim Profit. Later on, the protagonist would return to finish killing his alias.
  • Charles "Chaz" Gracen has a heart attack while running on his treadmill due to a mild poison Profit slips into Chaz's water bottle. Profit eventually convinces Chaz that his father (who is the Chairman of G&G's Board of Directors) is trying to kill him.
  • Profit engineers the death of Chaz and Pete Gracen's father to help the two brothers reconcile their differences, eliminate a troublemaker on G&G's Board of Directors, and help tighten Profit's control over G&G.
  • Another storyline involved Profit getting a current Senator drunk to the point of blackout, staging a car accident, and convincing the Senator that he had killed someone. These events probably led into a related storyline where Pete Gracen becomes a Senator himself.
  • Pete and Nora Gracen would have divorced.


Also of note is the fact, reported in 2001, that David Greenwalt, who later went on to produce the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin-off
Spin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...

 series Angel
Angel (TV series)
Angel is an American television series, a spin-off of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The series was created by Buffys creator, Joss Whedon, in collaboration with David Greenwalt, and first aired on October 5, 1999...

, once entertained the idea of having Adrian Pasdar reprise his role as Jim Profit in said series. The main villains in Angel were a law firm called Wolfram & Hart
Wolfram & Hart
Wolfram & Hart − Attorneys at Law is a fictional international, and interdimensional law firm featured in the television series Angel, as well as other extended materials in Joss Whedon's Buffyverse.-Fictional history:...

, and Profit would have joined them. Conflicting working schedules with Pasdar (then the lead on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

's Mysterious Ways), and the predictable difficulties in securing the rights to use the character prevented this from happening before Angel ended on its fifth season in 2004.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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