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WhenTimelessco-creator Shawn Ryan heard the news on a Saturday morning last May, he couldnt believe it.
What the hell is going on?
When a web link cancels a show, it usually dies then and there.
Meanwhile, theTimelesscast and crew went from mourning its end to celebrating a new beginning.
Shawn Ryan (series co-creator):I had been optimistic.
As our delayed viewing numbers were coming in, I felt encouraged.
After that meeting, I felt very good.
I was actually surprised by the cancellation.
So we had a lot of really passionate viewers.
Eric Kripke (series co-creator):My reaction was, Oh, shit.
Ive been through it before, but it never gets easier.
Ive had that reaction and usually that reaction involves scotch.
Theres a couple nights with that.
You have all the difficult calls.
You talk to everybody.
Everyone makes plans to get together and have a drink.
It feels unfair now, but this is the TV world we live in.
It was great working with you.
Hopefully, well meet again on this Hollywood journey one day.
Malcolm Barrett:Ive been in this game awhile, so I take everything with a grain of salt.
You hope for the best and prepare for the worst.
Abigail Spencer (Lucy):It was a terrible week.
Id gone through a breakup, I found out the show got canceled.
I thought,Im unemployed, so I guess Im coming to do your play.
We are going to take a stab at figure out how to get this show back from the dead.
Tell the fans to hang in there and were on it.
And literally 99 out of 100 times that goes nowhere, right?
In my mind, it was very much,Well, this is the universe.
Its time to give some people closure.
My writers are still like, Should we be interviewing for jobs?
They emailed back me and Shawn and the email was two words.
It said, Sit tight.
What does sit tight mean?
Essentially, they thought they made a financial decision, because they always loved and adored the show.
She says, Were picking up the show for ten more episodes.
They really responded to the fan outcry, which was amazing online.
Shawn Ryan:They only gave us an hour to call all the actors.
A lot of info flying.
Initially thought#Timelesswould be on next summer, now it may be 2018 spring.
Just know we’re back!
Okay, we gotta get everybody going.
Were trying to call everybody.
The#TimeTeamwent back 3 days, and changed history.
@nbcpicked us up for 10 episodes.
I tried to call Abigail.
She was sleeping I think she had gone out the night before or something.
I couldnt get ahold of her, so I did my own little video.
Abigail Spencer:I had my friends birthday party, so I stayed out all night that night.
I didnt know the show was picked up because I was dead asleep.
Phone on airplane mode.
I was flying my mother out for Mothers Day.
Lanters like, Where are you?
Can I come over?
Im like, What?
My Twitter notifications were like, Congratulations!
I think somewhere around noon or something, I turned on my phone and computer.
I saw I had a voice-mail from my agent.
You never get reached by your agent during a weekend unless its a big deal.
On an iPhone, you might read your voice-mail it literally just said, Check the internet.
Abigail Spencer:I just thought it was the fans.
They are so wonderful, I just thought they made it up.
I thought it was fake news.
Then my agent started texting me, Call us right now.
Malcolm Barrett:I think we all were just sitting there like, What the hell?
But Id never seen a data pipe do this.
That was a streaming show before there were streaming shows.
I think that show would have done a lot better had it come of age in the streaming era.
The numbers just werent there for [FX executive] John Landgraf to pick it up.
To Bob Greenblatt and Jen Salkes credit, I think it was a mistake to cancel [Timeless].
I give them a ton of credit.
It means something to us, so it was a pleasure to be able to make more.
And has allowed us to be more hands-on.
Abigail Spencer:It was pretty glorious, we were stoked.
What was even better is that they decided to move the show to Los Angeles.
A wake to mourn the end of the show.
It became a big celebratory congratulations party instead.
And Im like, Yeah, when else are we gonna do it?
Maybe well do that on some other shows, so keep your eyes peeled.
But we would never do that to the creators of a show.
They werent in on it.
Shawn Ryan:I think its a fluke.
I wont count on it happening for me in my lifetime again.
