Development

Producer Brannon Braga was the co-writer and executive producer for the first three episodes of the series.

The series was conceived by David S. Goyer and Brannon Braga, based upon the novel of the same name. The two had previously worked together on the short-lived CBS series Threshold The idea was originally pitched to HBO, a pay-cable network, however the HBO leadership felt that the series was better suited to a broadcast network. With the consent of HBO, Goyer and Braga pitched the idea to both ABC and Fox, with ABC winning the bidding war. In the early stages of development, ABC considered coupling the new show with Lost.^[1] This created a problem, as Braga was an executive producer of the Fox series 24. ABC Studios and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment discussed co-producing FlashForward, but Braga eventually pulled out of his "day-to-day" involvement with the project.^[2]

When writing the script, one of the most "obvious" changes from the novel was altering how far into the future the characters see when they black out. from "21 years to six months", according to Marc Guggenheim. Guggenheim felt that the "real appeal" of the series is "getting to see the payoff of when the future becomes the present", and Goyer and Braga made the decision to create a first season "payoff" early in the writing process.^[3] Another difference is the characters of FBI Special Agents Mark Benford and Demetri Noh, neither of whom appears in the book. The main character in the book is Lloyd Simcoe, the scientist who created the flash-forward.^[4]

Casting

On May 8, 2009, it was announced that FlashForward was to comprise part of ABC's fall 2009 season. Prior to this, the network had aired several five second advertisements featuring plot elements and characters.^[5] Courtney B. Vance and Jack Davenport became the first officially announced cast members of FlashForward.^[6] On June 10, 2009, it was announced that Lost star Dominic Monaghan had been cast in the series although his role was then unknown.^[7] Rumors of Monaghan's casting began after an advert of him being asked by Friends actress Courteney Cox "What did you see?" was aired as part of the ABC House advertising campaign. It was not immediately revealed which TV series Monaghan would be starring in, but it was eventually announced that he was joining the cast of FlashForward.^[8] On December 5, 2008, it was reported that Fiennes and Cho had been added to the cast,^[9] followed by the announcement that Sonya Walger and Christine Woods had also been cast.^[10] Sonya, who is British, uses an American accent in the show for her part as Olivia. In an interview with Digital Spy, Walger described Olivia as the "main woman in the show".^[11] Gabrielle Union was announced to be playing the part of Zoey on July 30, 2009,^[12] and Seth MacFarlane on June 18, 2009, as FBI agent Jake Curdy.^[13]

Ratings and viewership

This episode was watched by 12.47 million American viewers, with a 7.7/13 overall household rating.^[14] This episode was watched by 4.1 million British viewers on its premiere on Five. The repeat the following Friday reached 1.28 million. The satellite repeat on Fiver attracted 601 thousand viewers.^[15] CTV bought the rights for the series in May, 2009, though it was not known at that time what channel it would air at on the CTV television network.^[16]

Critical reception

Reviews of the premiere were generally positive. According to Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the premiere has received a "generally favorable" score of 72, based on 26 reviews.^[18] Gina Bellafante of The New York Times found the premiere to work "just as powerfully as a domestic drama as it does as a mechanism of apocalyptic intrigue".^[19] David Zurawik of The Baltimore Sun, likewise, said, "It's smart, richly textured, complex and filled with suspense and intellectual challenge--in short, it has all the things network television is supposed to have abandoned in favor of cheap reality shows."^[20] San Francisco Chronicle reviewer Tim Goodman said, "If you like big-screen-level thrills and complicated plot structures, you'll opt-in to FlashForward. And you'll be rewarded. Here's hoping it stays strong and compelling as it heads to April 29."^[21] Paige Wiser from the Chicago Sun-Times was overall positive towards the premiere episode, comparing it to another ABC series, Lost.^[18] Reviewer Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly said the premiere combined "sci-fi-ish conspiracy suspense with excellent prime-time-soap drama" giving it a B+.^[22]

Some critics, however, had more mixed feeling towards the pilot episode. Tom Shales from The Washington Post gave a mixed-to-positive review of the episode, saying, "The new series seems to share a perhaps fatal flaw of that now-canceled show [Pushing Daisies], which is that the premise becomes so byzantine and the complications so arcane that eventually people just give up on trying to make sense of the darn thing."^[23] Los Angeles Times writer Robert Lloyd, said it was "a decent but not brilliant beginning".^[24] In her review, Ellen Gray of the Philadelphia Daily News, was not pleased with the outcome, comparing it to the pilot episode of Lost and commenting that "No More Good Days" felt "more like deja vu, with characters who could've been rounded up from a disaster miniseries".^[25]