It's easy to understand how this whimsical show gathered an intense cult following after its short run because the episodes that ran have a witty, surreal snap to them that made it stand out from the typical formula boob tube junk that pollute the airwaves. In despair, he ended up sitting and drinking at The Barrel's bar for so long they gave him a bartending job and he's sleeping in the store room. Of course there's got to be a love interest and that would be Eric (Tyron Leitso), a sensitive hunk with a wounded soul because he'd come to the Falls on his honeymoon only to catch his wife providing some room service of her own to a bellhop. She thinks she's going crazy, but relents and starts doing their bidding with the expected wacky consequences. These muses bombard her with cryptic repeated phrases like "Get her words out," "Bring her home," "Give it back to her" and "She's going to kill him," which don't usually make sense at first or may take on a second meaning later in the show. It doesn't stop there, as eventually she's being hectored by everything from her family shrink's brass monkey bookend and her dad's lawn flamingos to stuffed animals at work and the mounted trout at The Barrel, a restaurant/bar/hangout where her best friend Mahandra (Traci Thoms) waitresses.
Things change after a malformed wax lion starts to speak to her. She's a snarky, bright and sarcastic chick who looks and acts like a cross between a young Demi Moore and Daria of MTV cartoon fame (if you liked Janeane Garofalo before she became an unfunny crank radio host, you'll like Jaye), comfortably stuck in her "expectation-free zone" and working for an assistant manager she calls "the Mouth Breather" (Neil Grayston). To say she's the black sheep of her overachieving family is an understatement - her father's a doctor, her mother's an author, her sister's a lawyer and even her brother, an atheist theologian (huh?) working on his doctorate in comparative religion while living rent-free at home, is considered a greater success than her. The center of the show is Jaye Tyler (Caroline Dhavernas), a 24-year-old girl who's putting her philosophy degree from Brown University to good use by wage-slaving at Wonderfalls, a gift shop next to Niagara Falls, and living in a trailer park.
I WONDER WHY THE WONDERFALLS SERIES
However, thanks to an Internet fan campaign, the entire series is now available as Wonderfalls: The Complete Viewer Collection. This was the case with Greg the Bunny, which only had 11 of 13 episodes air before cancellation, and Wonderfalls, which managed to get only 4 of their 13 episodes aired in two murderous time slots before going over the falls into cancellation oblivion. But when a show takes a few too many steps past third base into left field, Fox can also be very quick on the trigger to cap a quirky show prematurely. Jaye is the reluctant participant in conversations with various animal figurines - a wax lion, brass monkey, stuffed bear, and mounted fish, among others - which direct her via oblique instructions to help people in need.When the Fox Network wants to create a hip and/or successful show like 24, The O.C., American Idol or Arrested Development, they can be very good at it. The show centers on Jaye Tyler (Caroline Dhavernas), a recent Brown University graduate with a philosophy degree, who holds a dead-end job as a sales clerk at a Niagara Falls gift shop. The same summer, the British network Sky1 picked up Wonderfalls and aired the series to completion, though not in the original intended episode order.
The entirety of Wonderfalls was aired by the digital cable network Logo in the summer of 2005. In addition, some episodes were shown in theaters in Los Angeles during the summer of 2004 in order to raise support for the series. If they had been successful, Wonderfalls would have been the first American series in history to change networks in the midst of its first season.
Immediately after the show's cancellation, its producers attempted to interest other networks, including The WB, in picking up the series. (A fifth episode was advertised but never aired.) However, there was little notice or promotion of the time change, and the show was subsequently canceled after airing the fourth episode. The pilot episode, “Wax Lion”, received a higher Nielsen rating when it was repeated the Thursday after its premiere, and the show was moved from a Friday night time slot to Thursday.
When it finally debuted in March 2004, Wonderfalls received positive reviews from critics, but had trouble attracting viewers. Originally scheduled to debut in the fall of 2003, its premiere was delayed until early 2004.
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