''Extreme'' is an American television adventure drama that premiered on ABC on January 29, 1995 following

Super Bowl XXIX Super Bowl XXIX was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion San Diego Chargers and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion San Francisco 49ers to decide the National Football League (NFL) champi ...

. Starring

James Brolin James Brolin (, born Craig Kenneth Bruderlin; July 18, 1940) is an American actor. Brolin has won two Golden Globes and an Emmy. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on August 27, 1998. He is the father of actor Josh Brolin. He ...

, ''Extreme'' was centered on a search and rescue team which operated in the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico ...

. Although thirteen episodes were ordered and the network had enough faith in the series to give it the coveted post-Super Bowl timeslot, ''Extreme'' could not find an audience and ABC cancelled the series after seven episodes aired. The final episode aired on April 6, 1995, and the remaining six episodes were never aired in the United States. The failure of ''Extreme'' forced a reconsideration of post-Super Bowl programming strategy by the major networks.

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

chose to commission a special episode of ''

Friends ''Friends'' is an American television sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting ten seasons. With an ensemble cast starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Li ...

'' to air immediately following

Super Bowl XXX Super Bowl XXX was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Dallas Cowboys and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Pittsburgh Steelers to decide the National Football League (NFL) champio ...

the next year and the experiment was such a success that the other networks have for the most part chosen to air one of their established series after covering the Super Bowl, with particular attention paid to season premieres of popular reality competitions like '' Survivor'' and '' The Voice''. The practice of premiering new series following the Super Bowl has not been fully discontinued; Fox debuted ''

Family Guy ''Family Guy'' is an American animated sitcom originally conceived and created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The show centers around the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their ch ...

'' in 1999, ''

American Dad! ''American Dad!'' is an American animated sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane, Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman for the Fox Broadcasting Company. Since 2014, the series has been airing new episodes on TBS. ''American Dad!'' is the first television ...

'' in 2005, and '' 24: Legacy'' in 2016 while CBS launched ''

Undercover Boss ''Undercover Boss'' is a reality television series franchise created by Stephen Lambert and produced in many countries. It originated in 2009 on the British Channel 4. The show’s format features the experiences of senior executives working u ...

'' in 2010 and its reboot of ''The Equalizer'' in 2021.

Plot

A search and rescue team operates a Bell 204B "Super Huey" helicopter in the Rocky Mountains of Utah. The show features the trials and tribulations of the rescue team and the daring rescues undertaken in "Steep Mountain." The series was filmed on location in Park City,

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its ...

Characters

*Reese Wheeler (

), a former downhill racer, is the seasoned leader of the Steep Mountain Rescue Unit. Wheeler is both manager of and father-figure to the group. *Farley Potts ( Tom Wright), a soft-spoken Vietnam vet and helicopter pilot. *Andie McDermott (

Julie Bowen Julie Bowen Luetkemeyer (born March 3, 1970) is an American actress. She is best known for starring as Claire Dunphy in the ABC sitcom '' Modern Family'' (2009–2020), for which she received critical acclaim and six nominations for the Primet ...

) part of the rescue team and love interest of Kyle Hansen. *Sarah Bowen (

Brooke Langton Brooke Langton (born November 27, 1970) is an American actress. She had significant guest roles on the NBC series '' Friday Night Lights'' and on ''Life'', in which Langton played a district attorney. She found early success on '' The Net'' (19 ...

) *Kyle Hansen ( Cameron Bancroft), newest member of the team is grappling with the tragic death of his fiancée. *Callie Manners (

Elizabeth Gracen Elizabeth Ward Gracen (born Elizabeth Grace Ward, April 3, 1961) is an American actress and beauty pageant contestant who won the title of Miss America in 1982. Early life and education Elizabeth Grace Ward was born on April 3, 1961, in Oza ...

) *Lance Monroe (

Justin Lazard Justin Lazard (born November 30, 1967) is an American retired actor, producer, director, and model. Early life Lazard was born in New York, but raised in Connecticut. His father, Sidney Lazard, is a former foreign correspondent, and his mother ...

), a suave self-promoter who will stop at nothing to get what he wantsExtreme Overview New York Times
/ref> *Skeeter (

Danny Masterson Daniel Peter Masterson (born March 13, 1976) Most sources give birth date March 13, 1976. FilmReference.com gives March 3, 1976. is an American actor. He played the roles of Steven Hyde in ''That '70s Show'' (1998–2006), Milo Foster in '' Men a ...

) *Bones Bowen (Micah Dyer)

Episodes

References

External links

* {{sequence , prev='' The Good Life''

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nels ...

, list=''Extreme''
Super Bowl lead-out program

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

, next=''

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone o ...

Television series by Universal Television American Broadcasting Company original programming 1990s American drama television series 1995 American television series debuts 1995 American television series endings Super Bowl lead-out shows Aviation television series

Plot

Characters

Episodes

See also

References

External links