Why ‘Roswell' Refuses to Die

It's the show no one can kill.

"Roswell" barely made it onto the air three years ago. The WB network picked it up only after Fox, despite great pilot buzz, passed on the right to take the show to series. Then low first-season ratings doomed it to the scrap heap, but die-hard fans flooded WB executives with enough bottles of Tabasco sauce to ensure a second season.

Season two came and went, and once again "Roswell" sat precariously on the bubble. It seemed like the end of the road for the agonizing "Romeo and Juliet" relationship between the human Liz (Shiri Appleby) and the alien Max (Jason Behr), not to mention their human allies (Majandra Delfino, William Sadler and Nick Wechsler) and alien pals (Katherine Heigl and Brendan Fehr).

But then the rumors started: WB was canceling "Roswell," but UPN would pick it up.

"I didn't think we'd go away," Appleby says with a laugh. "But I didn't know where we'd go."

In the end UPN raided WB not only for "Roswell" but also for "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Even better for "Roswell," UPN will launch "Roswell" on Oct. 9 in the cushy post-"Buffy" time slot.

What gives? Why won't people - and we're talking viewers and studio executives alike - ever let "Roswell" die?

"It's a really good question," Appleby says by telephone from the "Roswell" wardrobe room at Paramount Pictures' Hollywood lot. "My guess is that people like Max and Liz, and for two years they've wanted to see them get together and be happy.

The audience, I think, also likes seeing characters who are willing to risk everything for one another, constantly, and there's something very romantic about that," she continues. "You've also got these friends who are willing to miss school, to put their lives in jeopardy to save these kids. I just think Roswell is a very positive show that people can watch every week."

Viewers who watched the second-season finale, "The Departure," witnessed Tess (Emilie de Ravin) - the fourth alien and the murderer of the group's friend Alex (Colin Hanks) - ascend into the cosmos with the son she had conceived with Max. The other aliens, surprising even themselves, chose to remain in Roswell.

Season two will kick off with "Busted."

"Max and Liz are going to be together," Appleby says. "It's exciting. The scenes are really sweet and romantic between them. It's also very dangerous, because Max and Liz start rebelling together. They hold up a liquor store and get arrested. Liz's parents forbid her from seeing Max, but Max and Liz are working together to contact Max's son.

"What I'm most excited about is that you'll get to see these two people that are so passionate about each other finally be with each other," she says. "And you get into it in the very first scene. The whole first episode, you'll see the past couple of months in flashbacks and see how they got to the place where the first episode starts. It catches you up, and you see how they've gotten to the place they are now."

"They've completely rebelled against everything," Appleby concludes. "They're not as sweet and wholesome as they used to be."

The same might be said of Appleby herself. Barely two years ago she stood before a phalanx of journalists at a WB event heralding the addition of "Roswell" to its fall schedule. The actress pretty much hid behind Behr and let him do the talking.

Back then, Appleby admits, she was the proverbial deer in the headlights. But no longer.

"I think the entire experience of working on the show has made me grow up really quickly," says the 22-year-old actress, who shot the upcoming thriller "Swimfan85" during her summer hiatus. "When I did that event I was totally frightened. I'd never done an interview before - no one had ever wanted to take my picture before, at least not of me as an actor."

"I just didn't know how to react to any of it," she recalls. "I didn't necessarily know if I was ready to become `famous."

"I had so many choices to make and so many opportunities," she says. "I had to start making decisions for myself, and once I started realizing that I could make them and that I was actually capable of surviving in an adult world, I think it gave me a sense of confidence in myself."

"Now I've found things I want to fight for and I've gone after them," Appleby says. "I've realized that not every situation is worth a battle. I know how to choose now what's important to me and what's not important to me.

"And I think Roswell has given me all of that."

September 20, 2001
by Ian Spelling
Entertainment News Daily