666 Park Avenue is an American supernatural drama television series that aired on ABC from 30 September 2012 to 13 July 2013. It was developed by David Wilcox and is described by its producers as "loosely based" on the novel of the same name by Gabriella Pierce, although the two share little beyond a title and character names.[1]
Premise
The series follows Jane Van Veen (Rachael Taylor) and her partner Henry Martin (Dave Annable), a Midwestern couple hired as co-managers of the Drake, a fictional residential building on Manhattan's Upper East Side. The Drake is owned by billionaire Gavin Doran (Terry O'Quinn) and his wife Olivia (Vanessa Williams) and grants its residents anything they desire — wealth, love, power, revenge — at a hidden cost, exacted by a supernatural force bound to the building.
Episodes
The season's back half was held off the air for several months: the first nine episodes ran weekly from September to December 2012, and the final four aired together the following summer, from late June to mid-July 2013, after the show's cancellation.[2]
| No. | Title | Original air date | Synopsis |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Pilot" | 30 September 2012 | Jane Van Veen and Henry Martin move into the Drake as its new co-managers and soon suspect that the building and its residents are bound to a demonic force controlled by owner Gavin Doran.[3] |
| 2 | "Murmurations" | 7 October 2012 | While renovating a resident's apartment, Jane makes an unsettling discovery behind the Drake's walls and continues investigating a locked basement door; Henry weighs whether to pass Gavin inside information on a business deal.[4] |
| 3 | "The Dead Don't Stay Dead" | 14 October 2012 | On the tenth anniversary of the Dorans' daughter's death, Jane begins glimpsing what may be an apparition, Gavin steers Henry toward a career change, and a Drake-resident journalist realizes her fabricated obituaries are coming true.[5] |
| 4 | "Hero Complex" | 21 October 2012 | Henry must choose between loyalty to Gavin and an investigation against him; Jane identifies the building's resident thief; a child apparition issues a warning.[5] |
| 5 | "A Crowd of Demons" | 28 October 2012 | As Olivia prepares the Drake's Halloween gala, echoes of an earlier gala marked by murder resurface, tied to a 1929 murder-suicide in the building; Henry receives unwanted media attention after a public act of heroism.[6] |
| 6 | "Diabolic" | 4 November 2012 | Jane struggles with the fallout of the Halloween party's terrifying events and a lack of support from Henry and the police, while Dr. Evans' gambling debts draw him deeper into Gavin's control.[6] |
| 7 | "Downward Spiral" | 11 November 2012 | Henry's rising political ambitions clash with Jane's growing unease about staying at the Drake; Jane and Nona search for a missing woman and uncover a secret tied to the building's past.[7] |
| 8 | "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" | 25 November 2012 | Jane vanishes and reappears dazed in Times Square, leading to a hospital stay; Gavin holds a captive in the Drake's boiler room to force out the location of a hidden box.[8] |
| 9 | "Hypnos" | 2 December 2012 | The enigmatic Maris Elder helps Jane connect her own past to the Drake's history, as Henry considers a run for City Council and the truth behind the Dorans' daughter Sasha begins to surface.[9] |
| 10 | "The Comfort of Death" | 22 June 2013 | Sasha's return forces Olivia to confront her grief and anger; Henry questions his political future, and Alexis discovers a shocking past connection to Louise.[9] |
| 11 | "Sins of the Fathers" | 29 June 2013 | Sasha holds information that could determine both Henry's political career and her parents' fate, while a new tenant arrives at the Drake and Alexis plots revenge.[9] |
| 12 | "The Elysian Fields" | 6 July 2013 | The mysterious group known as the "Conspiratii" confronts Gavin with explosive results, while a romantic triangle between Brian, Louise, and Alexis reaches its breaking point.[9] |
| 13 | "Lazarus: Part 1" | 13 July 2013 | In the series finale, Jane learns the truth about what really happened to her mother during an earlier stay at the Drake, while Henry's City Council campaign is complicated by the return of a former councilman.[10] |
Production
The series was produced by Alloy Entertainment, Bonanza Productions, and Warner Bros. Television, and ran for one 13-episode season.[2] Showrunner David Wilcox described the show as "absolutely Stephen King influenced" in press interviews ahead of its premiere, despite having no connection to any of King's published work.[11]
Exterior shots of the Drake used the Ansonia, a Beaux-Arts apartment building on Broadway between West 73rd and 74th Streets, completed in the early 1900s.[12] The choice drew notice from New York viewers at the time, since the Ansonia sits on the Upper West Side rather than Park Avenue, and the fictional Drake's in-story address is given as 999 Park Avenue rather than 666.[12]
Reception and cancellation
Ahead of its premiere, the series drew public criticism from the advocacy group One Million Moms, which described its premise as "satanic and demonic."[13] Despite an accomplished cast, the show drew soft ratings from its premiere onward, falling from roughly 7 million viewers to under 4 million within its first two months on air.[14] ABC cancelled the series in November 2012 after nine episodes had aired, opting to complete and later air its remaining four episodes rather than order additional episodes.[2] Critics were divided on the show itself but generally agreed the controversy over its premise was not the deciding factor in its cancellation, which was attributed to ratings.[13]
See also
References
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "'Last Resort,' '666 Park Avenue' Canceled at ABC."The Hollywood Reporter.2012.
- ↑ "666 Park Avenue (S01E01): Pilot Summary."PogDesign.
- ↑ "666 Park Avenue (S01E02): Murmurations Summary."PogDesign.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "666 Park Avenue: Season 1."Rotten Tomatoes.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "666 Park Avenue Episode Guide."TV Fanatic.
- ↑ "666 Park Avenue — Episode Guide."TV.com.
- ↑ "666 Park Avenue 1x08 — What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?."TVmaze.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 "666 Park Avenue season 1 Reviews."Metacritic.
- ↑ "Olivia Doran — 666 Park Avenue."TVmaze.
- ↑ "666 Park Avenue (TV Series 2012–2013) — News."IMDb.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 "'666 Park Avenue' Annoys New Yorkers By Relocating Famous Building To Wrong Side Of Central Park."International Business Times.2012.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 "This Supernatural Series Sparked Controversy Before Its Premiere."Collider.2024.
- ↑ "'666 Park Avenue' Canceled: ABC Axes Drama Starring Rachael Taylor, Terry O'Quinn And Vanessa Williams."HuffPost.2012.