V (1983 Miniseries) - Legacy

Legacy

The two-part miniseries ran for 200 minutes; the first part was the second most-popular program of the week with a 25.4 rating or 40 share, and more than 40 million viewers. The second part also did very well, with a 39 share. Its success spawned a sequel, V: The Final Battle, which was meant to conclude the story. In spite of the apparent conclusion, this was then followed by a weekly television series, V: The Series, from 1984 to 1985 that continued the story a year after The Final Battle. Johnson left V during production of The Final Battle due to disagreements with NBC over how the story should progress.

In November 2005, Entertainment Weekly named V one of the ten best miniseries on DVD. The article noted, "As a parable about it-can-happen-here fascism, V was far from subtle, but it carved a place for lavish and intelligent sci-fi on TV. Its impact can still be felt in projects like Taken and The 4400 " (Ironically, The 4400's executive producer Scott Peters would be at the helm of ABC's 2009 reboot.) " In December 2008, Entertainment Weekly put V on its list "The Sci-Fi 25: The Genre's Best Since 1982", and called Visitor leader Diana's devouring a guinea pig "one of the best TV reveals ever."

For many years, Johnson has campaigned to revive V, and even wrote a sequel novel, V: The Second Generation which picked up the story 20 years after the original miniseries (but omitted the events of The Final Battle and V: The Series). Warner Bros. Television (who own the television rights to the V franchise) declined to make a continuation as Johnson had planned, and opted for a remake instead. A reimagining of V premiered on ABC on November 3, 2009 and ran for two seasons. Though Johnson was not involved in the remake, which featured all new characters, executive producer Scott Peters said that it would nod to the most iconic moments from the original franchise and may potentially include actors from the original in new roles. Both Jane Badler and Marc Singer appeared in the second season. As of 2009, Johnson has also said he is still moving ahead with his plans for a big screen remake of his original V mini-series though no progress has been made.