When original Pretender adventures disappeared from the airwaves in 2001, fans were still left with a lot of questions. Fortunately, the show’s creators haven’t forgotten about them and are working on a way to bring the series back, albeit in a different form.
The Pretender debuted on September 19, 1996 and aired for four seasons on NBC. In the series, Michael T. Weiss plays the lead character, a beyond-genius “Pretender” named Jarod. As a young boy, Jarod was abducted from his parents and trained by The Centre to be able to flawlessly integrate himself into any profession or lifestyle. As an adult, Jarod discovers that the organization is using him for no good and he escapes. Jarod travels the country trying to help those in need while managing to stay a step ahead of his captors. When the series ended on May 13, 2000 after four seasons, it looked like Jarod, Miss Parker (Andrea Parker), and Ethan (guest Tyler Christopher) didn’t survive a huge train explosion.
Fortunately, the cliffhanger was later resolved. The Pretender was picked up for syndication and ran successfully on cable station TNT. That success paved the way for two television movies that aired in January and December 2001. When the second movie ended, there were still many questions left unanswered. Fans petitioned for more TV movies but they didn’t happen.
Pretender creators Steven Long Mitchell and Craig Van Sickle have long said that the show was a labor of love and that they’re interested in continuing the Pretender story. A few months ago, the creators suggested that the show might be continued online.
In a recent interview with Sci Fi Wire, Mitchell and Van Sickle shared a few more details. “We created the show The Pretender, and we’re working on bringing that back in a whole new form, in a digital form and in a digital platform,” Mitchell shared. This would allow viewers to be able to tap into more information and be able to follow the progress of the new stories.
A new format doesn’t mean however that they’re forsaking the series’ star or the existing Pretender storylines. Van Sickle notes, “We had breakfast with Michael… he just finished up a play out here in New York. I guess kind of the best thing we can say is that we have a timetable of within, hopefully, the next five or six months that we can have something really unique and different out there.” Stay tuned! 
We used to have watch parties (with potluck) to watch both The Pretender and Profiler, with a few stragglers that hung for Sleepwalkers. We really hated to see them go. . .Would love to see them return to the air, at least the first two. Sleepwalkers just didn’t air long enough to become addicted tho.
I just watched all 4 seasons and the 2 movies. the first 2 seasons were quite nice; the development of Jarod was pretty amazingly cool. The lack of ‘the Center’ development, however, and the relentless pursuit of Jarod as the main foundation of each episode, began to wear thin by mid way season 3. I feel if the writers had closed some of the main questions they left untidy and unanswered for the entire series and erased Miss Parker’s nigh unexplainable obedience to her crazy father, the series may well have continued. But the writing was on the wall season… Read more »
I saw this and got so excited until I saw that it was written back in 2007!!! Lol this is the last month of 2015 so it’s been almost 9 yrs since this article was written and 20 since the show debuted I’m not holding my breath on the show becoming a web series to finish up the story abs in not interested in another series getting rebooted. To reboot the pretender would be an injustice to the story it was done so perfectly the first time around or has no where to go but down if it were remade.… Read more »
This is a really misleading article as the television series is not coming back. The truth is that the Steven Long Mitchell and Craig Van Sickle lied to their lifelong fans. The books are not continuations as promised. There has been a reboot which means that all backstories, timelines and character history are erased and has begun anew. The novels are horribly written, editing and even the cover design is amateurish. Miss Parker is now a nasty pervert, and none of the characters are the ones we know, love and can identify with. The creators have started over from the… Read more »
I really hope that most of the original cast of the pretender come back and reboot the series onto primetime network.
Ok, almost seven years later, are they going to do it or not?
It’s coming back! Check out this facebook page and join the fans on twitter next friday at 2pm. The creators will be announcing how the Pretender is coming back july 19th.
It’s not coming back. It STILL hasn’t returned. The Pretender has died. There are 2 very different stories. The tv story, and the novel story. The novels are badly written, edited and designed and are well out of character and don’t resemble the characters we know and love from the television series in any way, shape, or form! This Pretender is a farce. The novels are a bad joke written by dirty old men.
PLEASE bring back the series, or at least make a comic book- just something so that we can figure out how it all truly ends!!!
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE finish the show! It is a GREAT show! Don’t leave us hanging any longer.
Please bring back. Love Jarod’s character. Love the plot of the series and love Michael T. Wiess.
Please bring it back I stayed up late night watching all of them again. I need to know what happened. I love this show but only if the original cast would come back. It just wouldn’t be the same if different people were playing there roles.
Please make PRETENDER: ISLAND OF THE HAUNTED on DVD SO I CAN BUY IT AT REASONABLE PRICE. I’m on a tight budget since my husband passed away. But I would buy the DVD at a REASONABLE PRICE. THANKS. GOD BLESS YOU!!!
it is on dvd, both movies are just search and you can order t over the internet
The best series/movie that I EVER watched! This article is almost 4 years old.. 🙁 Please, give us some sort of closure, any kind… It isn’t fair, this is not the way how you treat your fans!! And our favorite cast is getting older… It wouldn’t be the same without all of them….
please bring the tv series back, or at least end the series. If brought back nothing but the original cast would do for me.