Five Television Shows Affected by The Summer Glau Curse
Summer Glau has been acting for over a decade. Glau made her on-screen appearance in an episode of Angel, a spin-off of the popular teenage science fiction series, Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Since then, the 33 year-old star has appeared in several hit shows throughout her career, and has proven to be a versatile actress that can adapt to any role. However, even with a slew of hit shows under her belt, Glau’s star has not reached the heights that many of her fans feel are well deserved. Unfortunately for Glau, she seems to be suffering from what the public refers to as “The Summer Glau Curse” – meaning that almost every show she’s appeared on as either a regular or recurring cast member has been cancelled. Here are five of the best shows that have been affected by The Summer Glau Curse.
5. Dollhouse
Fox’s Dollhouse was a science-fiction series that focused on a company that created and programed “dolls” with “temporary personalities and skills.” In the show, Glau played the role of Bennett Halverson a dollhouse programmer was D.C. who was regarded as a genius. Although Glau was initially only scheduled to appear in two episodes, she eventually became a recurring cast member. Although the shoot had poor ratings during its first season, it was renewed for a second season slated to consist of 13 episodes. Fox’s president of entertainment stated: “if we’d canceled Joss’s show I’d probably have 110 million e-mails this morning from the fans.” However, after the show’s second season aired, FOX decided not to renew the show for a third.
4. The 4400
The 4400 followed a group of 4400 people who had disappeared at various times since 1946. When the 4400 return, none of them have aged or have any recollection of their disappearance. Glau’s character, Tess Doerner, was a paranoid schizophrenic living in a mental hospital. Doerner used mind control to make patients and staff members build an unknown device. After four seasons, the show’s writer and co-creator, Scott Peters, announced that the show would not be returning for a fifth season. Peters cited the Writers Guild of America strike, budget cuts, and low ratings as the reason for show’s cancellation. Although fans of the show fought to have it renewed, their attempt were unsuccessful and the show remains off the air.
3. The Unit
In CBS’ action-drama, The Unit, Summer Glau played the role of Crystal Burns. The show followed a top-secret military unit and was based on the book Inside Delta Force: The Story of America’s Elite Counter terrorist Unit by Eric L. Haney. After the show’s fourth season, executive producer Shawn Ryan shared that he and the show’s team had already come up with ideas for a fifth season. During an interview he stated: “It was going to be a whole new show in the sense that we were going to be training some young people, Bob was going to be training some people for a whole new organization. Jonas was finally going to be seeing his run end……The final season was going to be, I figured the fifth season was going to be the last… It was going to be a long, sort of final mission for Jonas. He’s not medically cleared, Mack has to go in and sort of change the medical records so that Jonas can keep on [going on missions]. We had a whole thing planned, it was going to be good.” Unfortunately, the show never made it to a fifth season.
2. Firefly
In Fox’s TV series, Firefly, Summer Glau’s reprises her role as River Tam, a “highly intelligent, compassionate and intuitive child prodigy.” The show follows the cast of the 2005 film Serenity as they live in the year 2517. Firefly’s combination of western motifs and science fiction led some reviewers to focus on the show’s strange theme, with one reviewer even labeling the show “offbeat.” However, the show received many positive reviews and the Boston Globe even referred to it as “wonderful, imaginative mess brimming with possibility.” Sadly, even though the show appeared to have a bright future, it was cancelled after just one 14 episode season.
1. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Summer Glau had a starring role on Fox’s Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. For her role in the show, Glau won a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress on Television. Her character, Cameron, was a terminator who could realistically mimic human mannerisms and consume small amounts of food. The show received mostly positive reviews with USA Today regarding the show as “smart, tough and entertaining.” Fans loved Glau’s character, and she also performed most of her own stunts on the show. During an interview with The A.V. Club, Glau stated: “I wanted to know what sort of training I needed to play Cameron. I remembered the extremely strenuous process of learning all the martial arts for Serenity; I did the fight scenes myself from start to finish, no cutaways, and I have to say, it’s one of the hardest things I’d done in my life. So I was bracing myself for that with Sarah Connor, but when I met with Joel, I said, “Well, how does the Terminator fight?” He said, “Basically, you just pick things up and throw them, you run through walls, and you shoot lots of fun guns. I’m going to have you jump off of cars and things like that.” I said, “Okay, that sounds great.” [Laughs.] He took me to the shooting range and taught me how to shoot a lot of different guns. For the most part, it’s about learning how to crash through things safely, and protecting each other when you’re doing hand-to-hand fights, but there’s no finesse.” However, even with her remarkable display of talent, and wealth of good reviews, the show wa cancelled after just two seasons.
(Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images)
