Murphy Wrote:I can't give up on ABC yet.... "Better Off Ted" is hilarious and I much prefer belly laughs to crunches in terms of an abdomenal workout.

• The other astronauts seem to be aware of what Sam's virtual reality environment was, but Ray has to tell them what his was. From their reaction shots, they seem to be aware of what was going on in Sam's fantasy.
  
• The numerous David Bowie references ("It's the freakiest show!") in the ship and the Wizard of Oz references.
  
• The spaceship set is...odd. There is a vase of cut flowers in water on the table near the suspended animation pods. In one shot, in the background can be seen a section of wall with a patch of the 1970s wallpaper from Sam's kitchen (why?). It's only about 30 years from now, but we have a suspended animation set-up that doesn't require intubation or bathroom plumbing, yet no one has any facial hair (or, apparently, morning breath). And there's apparently artificial gravity in the ship, which seems unlikely in 30 years. (Not to mention which, neither of Obama's daughters would be legally eligible to be president by then. Unless he ordered the constitution to be changed. When Frank mentioned President Obama, for a moment I thought "Oh, crap, he's president for life!"). And there's the final shot of Gene's white loafer.
  
• Would an asteroid storm really be able to cause a "glitch" in programming that would bump you from one virtual reality in 2008 to one in 1973?
  

Mick C. Wrote:The big problem is the networks are cutting production costs like crazy, and rarely give a series a chance to build an audience unless it is an enormous hit immediately. They would rather fill programming with far-less-expensive "reality" shows and now, prime-time Leno.

I too enjoyed the series run of "Life on Mars" - well acted, great music score, and well written. I think if the show had been allowed to run a few more seasons, the final episode would have had more resonance. At least they were allowed to film a concluding episode, and did not have to leave the series hanging in limbo. (I am still - still - waiting for the final episode of "Coronet Blue".)

There's been a lot of on-line speculation that the series ending was pulled out of the writers' behind, but the clues were pretty strong from the first episode. (As when Sam says he is going to start walking down the street until whoever is creating his reality runs out of details - paraphrasing a line from the very first episode of the original "Twilight Zone", about a man trapped in an abandoned city who is finally revealed to be an astronaut hallucinating in an isolation experiment - played by Earl Holliman, a veteran of 1970s cop shows.)

I suspect the writers left some strong clues in the final episode that Sam's Martian odyssey may be yet another hallucination:

• The other astronauts seem to be aware of what Sam's virtual reality environment was, but Ray has to tell them what his was. From their reaction shots, they seem to be aware of what was going on in Sam's fantasy.
  
• The numerous David Bowie references ("It's the freakiest show!") in the ship and the Wizard of Oz references.
  
• The spaceship set is...odd. There is a vase of cut flowers in water on the table near the suspended animation pods. In one shot, in the background can be seen a section of wall with a patch of the 1970s wallpaper from Sam's kitchen (why?). It's only about 30 years from now, but we have a suspended animation set-up that doesn't require intubation or bathroom plumbing, yet no one has any facial hair (or, apparently, morning breath). And there's apparently artificial gravity in the ship, which seems unlikely in 30 years. (Not to mention which, neither of Obama's daughters would be legally eligible to be president by then. Unless he ordered the constitution to be changed. When Frank mentioned President Obama, for a moment I thought "Oh, crap, he's president for life!"). And there's the final shot of Gene's white loafer.
  
• Would an asteroid storm really be able to cause a "glitch" in programming that would bump you from one virtual reality in 2008 to one in 1973?
  

It's unlikely the show would be picked up by another channel (USA, Sci-Fi, FX) due to low ratings and high production costs (my guess is Harvey Keitel doesn't come cheap, and the song licensing probably likewise) but they seemed to have left the door open to continue the story...maybe in the 1980s, like "Ashes to Ashes"...