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Boosterrific.com: The Complete, Annotated Adventures of Booster Gold
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Showing posts 1 - 5 of 5 matching: phil klemmer

Monday, May 9, 2022

When Heroes Fail to Save the Day

Two months ago, we learned how DC's Legends of Tomorrow executive producers Phil Klemmer and showrunner Keto Shimizu got DC to agree to allow Booster Gold to finally appear on their show.

Late last week, we learned why.

In response to fans questions on Twitter, Shimizu herself tweeted:

DC was in our corner trying to help our chances of renewal. They and WB wanted us to survive. We were asked for a new character to "excite" the audience, and attract more viewers. We requested Booster and DC agreed. It was all in an attempt to save the show.

That's right: they were counting on Booster Gold to help save them. And Booster failed.

As a Booster Gold fan, I should probably point out if you want to stir up public support, it would definitely help to actually tell us in advance to tune in to see our hero. (Early notices only teased a fallen hero whose "golden years are in the rearview mirror.") It's also really hard to boost week-over-week ratings if a character appears only in the season finale. (Booster's episode, "Knocked Up, Knocked Down," had the second-smallest audience of the season; the next-to-last episode was the smallest, meaning Booster actually did bring it up somewhat, and I certainly would have watched the following week if there had been one.)

That said, failure is kind of Booster's story, right? His heart is always in the right place, but he often overestimates his own abilities while underestimating the consequences, sometimes making a bad situation worse. Sometimes much worse. Cancellation worse.

However, Booster Gold's most sterling quality is that he is no quitter. After ruining the day, he'll dust himself off, take ownership of what he did wrong, and set out to make it right. It's the prototypical hero's journey. Everyone loves a redemption story.

And that's why I'm now strongly hoping that Legends of Tomorrow does find a way to return to the screen, at least long enough to give its fans the ending they deserve. We can all rest assured that Booster Gold will continue working behind the scenes until he has helped all those who need rescuing. Because that's what real heroes do.

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: keto shimizu legends of tomorrow phil klemmer television twitter.com

Friday, March 11, 2022

Cameo Appearance at the White House

If you watched The Flash season 8 episode "Impulsive Excessive Disorder" on Wednesday night, you must have seen this:

© The CW

Nicole Drum provides a recap of Booster's appearance at ComicBook.com, but the article fails to mention that the White House visit is clearly a nod to Booster Gold's comic book origin story (as told in Booster Gold #8 and #9).

Meanwhile, over at EW.com, Chancellor Agard got the behind-the-scenes story of how the cameo came to be directly from Flash showrunner Eric Wallace:

"It was just a kind of a fun coincidence," he tells EW. "I was in post working on episode 806 and I knew the kids, Bart and Nora, would be looking at future things in the Flash Museum. And the head of post for our show and for Legends is the same person, Geoff Garrett. He happened to mention, 'Oh, by the way, don't tell anybody, but Booster Gold is going to be appearing in the finale of Legends.' I'm big Booster Gold fan, and I went, 'Hey, have they cast that person yet? I have a crazy thought. What if we see our kids in this episode looking through newspapers and we see whoever you guys have cast really fast, kind of a connected thing?' And he said, 'Well, it's funny you should mention that, Eric, because the finale of Legends airs the week before Flash returns.'"

Wallace continues: "So we made a few calls. I called up Phil [Klemmer], the showrunner of Legends, pitched him the idea. After he stopped laughing so hard he's like, 'Of course, definitely do that.' And then it was a very simple matter of just talking to the actor Donald Faison and getting his permission just to use a picture. He was into it. Next thing you know, it's in the show. It all happened in literally 24 hours. It was hilarious."

Now that Donald Faison's Booster has been in two "Arrowverse" CW shows two weeks in a row, I'm starting to wonder if this isn't the beginning of a trend? I sure hope so. Personally, I'd like to see Booster Gold on every television show every day; I just can't get enough of that guy.

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: chancellor agard comicbook.com donald faison eric wallace ew.com flash geoff garrett nicole glum phil klemmer television

Friday, March 4, 2022

People Are Talking, Talking About People

Whether or not I'm a fan of CW's programming, I have to admit that Donald Faison's portrayal of Booster Gold on DC's Legends of Tomorrow season 7 finale has certainly raised the profile of the character and introduced him to a whole bunch of people who have never actually set their hands on a DC comic. That's an objectively good thing.

So it is a worthwhile experience to read how the show's executive producer Phil Klemmer finally got around to adding Booster to his long-running show.

Here he speaks to Chancellor Agard for ew.com:

EW: Arrowverse boss Greg Berlanti has reportedly been working on a Booster Gold movie for years. How did the character wind up on Legends?

Klemmer: As you might expect, through the side door you'd least expect it [to]. I just remember [co-showrunner Keto Shimizu] and I were on a call with Kim Roberto at DC, and we were just talking about fun characters. I think somebody threw it out there, of course never [imagining] in a million years would we get Booster Gold. And then it felt like 15 minutes later, DC called us back and was just like, "Hey, Booster's yours." And just you have a moment of being like, "Okay, this is clearly a prank of some sort, because..." We were all giddy and in disbelief and then it just became a quest of finding an actor who was worthy of the character.

EW: Why was Booster Gold on your mind to begin with? Were you just looking for a DC character to bring in at the end of the season? How did Booster end up fitting the needs of the story?

Klemmer: It's always the tonal fit and just knowing, I don't know, there's just something so lovable and unexpected. You just knew that he was going to work as kind of a bit of the merry prankster, a bit of a BS artist.

Klemmer was also quizzed by Joshua Lapin-Bertone at DCComics.com:

DC: How familiar were you with Booster before this?

Klemmer: I just knew about him from the early days of Legends, when I would hear of various projects, whether they were TV shows or movies, in the same halls where I was working. And obviously dealing with Rip Hunter in early seasons as well. I just assumed that he was going to have his own project. I never imagined that he would come into our world.

DC: For building this version of Booster, did you draw upon any particular stories? Or did you build him from the ground up?

Klemmer: The creation of a character really takes place over the course of that first season, and then seasons to come. It's going to really be a correspondence between us as writers and Donald as a performer. We definitely wanted someone who is a little off center, and like, a little bit mischievous. But we also just wanted a charisma bomb.

And we round out our media tour with Klemmer's conversation with Damian Holbrook of TVInsider.com:

TV: Is the plan to keep Donald on the board?

Klemmer: For sure. We're not gonna let Booster get away. I'm really excited to write him—he's the kind of character you wish you could be. You could get away with murder and be so charming that you never really have to suffer the consequences. He's the antithesis of a writer. Writers are deeply neurotic and self-loathing self-doubting, etcetera. I think that's why we writers are drawn to those characters—because those are our secret alter egos.

Season 8 has not yet been announced. Will there be another season of Legends of Tomorrow? If I were a betting man, I'd bet yes (especially if Michael "Booster" Carter is on the field). Legends of Tomorrow is one of the few CW shows that has improved its ratings season-over-season, so I think we should prepare to see more of Klemmer and Faison's Gold come fall.

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: chancellor agard damian holbrook dccomics.com donald faison ew.com greg berlanti interviews joshua lapin-bertone legends of tomorrow phil klemmer tvinsider.com

Friday, March 18, 2016

I've Got Your Beloved DC Hero Right Here

Yesterday, Michael Ausiello of TVLine.com reported the following:

Rumor has it the final scene of Legends of Tomorrow's May 19 season finale will introduce a "beloved superhero from the DC canon" whose mysterious agenda serves as "a launching off point for Season 2."

Naturally, the Internet seems to think this will be Booster Gold. "Mysterious" might be a bit much, but "beloved" is on target.

If you recall, it was just last August when Legends of Tomorrow Executive Producer Phil Klemmer told The Hollwyood Reporter that there was no way Booster Gold would be appearing in Season One.

"I wish I could tease a Booster thing but, you might have to wait a good long while at least on our show. Perhaps Booster is being groomed for bigger things."

Have Booster's "bigger things" fallen through? Was "bigger things" always intended to be Legends of Tomorrow's Season Two? Or is this "mysterious" and "beloved" hero from DC's canon not Booster Gold at all? I guess we'll find out on May 19.

Comments (3) | Add a Comment | Tags: hollywoodreporter.com legends of tomorrow michael ausiello phil klemmer television tvline.com

Monday, August 10, 2015

Booster Gold Not Coming to Legends of Tomorrow

If you were paying attention this weekend, you've probably already heard the news reported by Laurence Almalvez of The Hollywood Reporter.

"I wish I could tease a Booster thing but, you might have to wait a good long while at least on our show," said [Legends of Tomorrow showrunner Phil] Klemmer. "Perhaps Booster is being groomed for bigger things."

Or perhaps he's not. Who knows?

The nerd-baiting click farms that populate the Interwebs want you to believe that this is clear evidence that a Booster Gold movie is in the works. Don't be fooled. This isn't clear evidence of anything other than news that Booster Gold fans don't have to watch Legends of Tomorrow.

Don't worry. If there's going to be a Booster Gold movie, DC will let us know.

Find the whole article, with more information about Legends of Tomorrow at hollywoodreporter.com. Thanks to Cdn for the tip in the Boosterrific Forum.

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: cdn hollywoodreporter.com laurence almalvez movies phil klemmer television


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