Reaper is an American comedy television series that focuses on Sam Oliver, a "reaper" who works for the Devil by retrieving souls that have escaped from Hell.
The series ran from September 25, 2007, to May 26, 2009, airing on Tuesday nights at 8:00 p.m. Eastern/7:00 p.m. Central, on The CW. The series was produced by ABC Studios and The Mark Gordon Company. The rights for the show have been sold to Fox for its broadcast in Asia.
Premise
Sam Oliver (Bret Harrison) lives at home with his parents (Andrew Airlie and Allison Hossack) in the Seattle area. Sam dropped out of college ("It made him sleepy", his Mom explains) and took a dead-end job at the Work Bench, a home-repair superstore. He spent the rest of his time hanging out, playing video games, and pining for his co-worker Andi (Missy Peregrym).
On Sam's 21st birthday, his parents behave very strangely and Sam himself sees hellish visions and experiences odd events. His father eventually claims that many years ago he was very sick, and in return for restoring his health he and his wife promised their firstborn child to the Devil (Ray Wise). Although the couple intended to cheat the Devil by not having children, this plan went awry when Satan persuaded their doctor to lie and tell the couple that they couldn't conceive in exchange for wiping his gambling debts clean. Sam was born shortly thereafter.
After informing him of his fate, the Devil explains to Sam that he must serve as his bounty hunter (or "Reaper"), tracking down souls that have escaped from Hell and sending them back using his new powers (which include telekinesis) and "vessels," varied objects said to have been hand-made in the bowels of perdition by the iniquitous and the vile. Vessels appear inside a long wooden box sent for Sam to open (with the Italian inscription "Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'entrate" ["Abandon all hope, ye who enter here"], as was written on the entrance to Hell in Dante's Inferno), and are specially designed for each job. Examples throughout the series have included a Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner, a Taser gun, and a cigarette lighter.
Although Sam initially balks, Satan tells him that should he refuse, Sam's mother's soul is forfeit. Unwilling to sacrifice his mother and convinced that he is doing good in the world by tracking down evil souls, Sam accepts his fate. With the help of his slacker friends, Sock (Tyler Labine) and Ben (Rick Gonzalez), he begins his new life tracking down the corrupted souls trying to escape their own eternal punishment.
Development and production
Reaper premiered on September 25, 2007, in the U.S., airing on Tuesday nights at 9:00PM Eastern/8:00PM Central on the CW, following Beauty and the Geek. The series had a full 18 episode order for the 2007–2008 season, with 13 pre-strike episodes and 5 post-strike episodes.
Reaper stopped airing new episodes after the tenth episode due to the industry-wide 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike. It resumed new pre-strike episodes for three weeks on Thursdays in March, and began airing post-strike episodes on April 22, 2008.
On May 12, 2008, Reaper was officially renewed for a 13-episode second and final season which premiered on March 3, 2009.
On May 19, 2009, Reaper was officially cancelled by The CW. However, ABC Studios was still in negotiations with CW affiliates to syndicate the show, or sell it to cable.
Tyler Labine who plays Sock posted on his Facebook account that Reaper is officially cancelled and will not be returning.
Conception
The pilot script which was written by creators/executive producers Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters received a script commitment by The CW in September 2006. Mark Gordon and Deborah Spera also joined the project as executive producers under the former's production banner at Touchstone Television, The Mark Gordon Company. The network green-lighted a pilot order for the script in January 2007, and writer/director Kevin Smith agreed to direct the first hour of the series in February 2007. The CW gave the series an early pick-up and a 13-episode order on May 15, 2007.
While initially not making a full season order, The CW eventually ordered an additional 3 episodes, citing a high percentage of audience retention between Reaper and Beauty and the Geek. Additional episodes were ordered to fill in the first season after the writer's strike was resolved, and a second season of 13 episodes was later ordered, as well.
In a February 1, 2010 interview with CliqueClack TV, creators Fazekas and Butters revealed many of the unresolved plots from the series.