By: Terry Jackson
Date: July 1999

Source: Miami Herald

Three seasons ago, it was Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. Two seasons ago, it was Dawson’s Creek. Last season, it was Felicity.

Can The WB make it a four-peat this fall and score another hit show that uniquely captures teen amour, angst and action? Bet on it.

Specifically, bet on Roswell, a charmingly odd hourlong drama that ties two very popular TV genres: alien conspiracies and teen romance. It’s just strange enough to work.

One of six new series previewed this week for the nation’s TV critics, Roswell has the sort of feel and buzz going for it that marked Buffy, Dawson’s and Felicity as quality hits. High on its chances for success, The WB has already guaranteed Roswell a full 22-episode season, starting in September, airing at 9 Wednesday nights (after Dawson’s Creek) on WBZL-Channel 39.

Based on a series of Roswell High books by Melinda Metz, it’s the story of five teenagers living in Roswell, N.M., the well-known conspiracy nexus made famous 51 years ago for, take your pick, either an alien crash landing or a weather-balloon mishap.

For the purposes of this show, it was definitely not a weather balloon, and one consequence is that there are three teenagers in town who are not of this world.

Alien in love

The teens’ secret is jeopardized when one of them uses his special powers to heal a girl who is accidentally shot. His reason for risking it all: He’s madly in love with the girl, even though they are from different planets.

Roswell executive producer David Nutter — a 1984 University of Miami film school graduate — says that teens and aliens are a natural mix.

“I used to say teenagers were the aliens among us,” he says. “And I think all teenagers kind of feel that way in many respects sometimes. Our challenge is to kind of embrace that . . . and have a lot of fun with it.”

Nutter knows a little something about space-alien stories: He was an early collaborator with Chris Carter on The X-Files. He shares producer duties here with Jonathan Frakes (Cmdr. Will Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation), who also makes a cameo appearance in Roswell’s pilot episode.

Also on the production team is Jason Katims, who was a writer on the sharply crafted but short-lived ABC series My So-Called Life.

Creating star image

The stars all fit the young, no-acne mold that produced most of The WB’s other headliners.

Newcomer Shiri Appleby plays Liz Parker, the girl who’s brought back from the brink of death by alien/classmate Max Evans, played by Jason Behr. Though she’s been acting since she was 4, Appleby’s credits to date have been somewhat obscure, highlighted by appearances in commercials for Taco Bell, M&Ms and Cheerios.

Behr is a veteran of guest-star roles in three WB shows — Buffy, Dawson’s and 7th Heaven.

Former Miami Beach resident Majandra Delfino, whose most recent TV experience was as the eldest daughter on the quickly canceled The Tony Danza Show, plays Maria De Luca, Liz’s flighty best friend who’s in on the conspiracy.

Max’s fellow teen aliens are played by Katherine Heigl, whose credits include My Father, the Hero, and Brendan Fehr (Disturbing Behavior).

If you don’t recognize these stars, you will soon. The WB is a master at making sure the faces of its young stars are fixtures at the magazine rack. Even though the show hasn’t aired yet, the entire cast has shot a cover for an upcoming issue of YM, and Seventeen and TV Guide are scoping out Appleby and Behr.

Before landing at The WB, Roswell was pitched to Fox.

“I think that there might have been concern at Fox that the show skewed too young for their audience,” says Katims, who also was told that Fox couldn’t find a suitable time slot.

Fox President Doug Herzog denies that his network actually said no to Roswell. He says that Fox was considering it for a mid-season slot, but couldn’t compete with the guaranteed 22-episode offer from The WB. Whatever the case, Fox’s loss may be The WB’s next hit.

By: Terry Kelleher
Date: October 1999

Source: People Online

“Okay, I’m still confused,” human high-schooler Liz (Shiri Appleby) says to alien classmate Max (Jason Behr) in episode two of this drama series. “If you really crash-landed in 1947, are you really 16 or are you like 52 in a 16-year-old’s body?” Max, an ostensible earthling who confided his extraterrestrial origin to Liz in the Oct. 6 pilot, replies with some nonsense about emerging from an incubation pod in Roswell, N.Mex., in 1989. But here’s all the explanation anyone needs: Teen shows are the rage this season; it’s handy to combine elements of The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer;and hey, logic is irrelevant.

Though it seems a product of calculation more than inspiration, Roswell has appeal. There’s a sweetness to the two-different-worlds romance of Liz and Max, and you’ll appreciate the plight of Michael (Brendan Fehr), a less friendly teen alien stuck in a trailer park with a nasty human foster father. But Liz’s voice-over diary entries are dispensable, and Majandra Delfino provides too little comic relief as Maria, her self-described “wacky friend.”

Bottom Line: Contrived but intriguing

Date: October 1999

Source: Ultimate TV

Actress Majandra Delfino, who plays Maria De Luca, the cute curious blonde pal of Shiri Appleby on The WB’s new sci-fi series “Roswell,” is already following in the footsteps of WB stars that have come before. Delfino is currently auditioning for movie roles, a task she finds quite grueling in tandem with her busy work schedule on the WB’s fall sci-fi series, yet a move that could help her reach star status a la “Dawson’s Creek’s” Katie Holmes or Michelle Williams.

“If I get any busier I’ll have no time for myself,” Delfino told UltimateTV, venting after her audition, which followed a full day of production on “Roswell.”

Delfino has appeared on the big screen before in 1999’s “I Know What You Screamed Last Summer,” “Unglued,” and “Zeus and Roxanne.” Her TV credits include “The Tony Danza Show” and the short-lived WB summer offering “Katie Joplin.”

By: John Levesque
Date: November 1999

Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer

People latch onto new shows for many reasons. The stars. The look. The music. The writing. Me? I’m captivated by supporting actors.

Alyson Hannigan keeps me coming back to “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” Ditto Amy Jo Johnson on “Felicity.” Robert Guillaume on “Sports Night.” In the six new series featured in today’s column, outstanding support is a commonality. Here are six backup players who deserve more air time.

Majandra Delfino
Character: Liz Parker’s spunky best friend on “Roswell.”

Last word: Thanks to her Venezuelan father and Cuban-American mother, few names are as much fun to say as Majandra (muh-HAHN-druh) Delfino.

For all six people John named for best supporting character, please read the entire article.

Date: 1999

Source: ‘Twist’ Magazine

Ah, that first kiss. It’s killer, right? Well, most of the time. Here, TV’s hottest celebs give us the dirty details about their debut smooch.

“My first kiss was really interesting because it was with my boyfriend whom I wound up dating for, like, two and a half years, so it was a meaningful thing. It took us about six months to finally kiss. I was 15. It was definitely good, not scary.”
~Majandra Delfino “Roswell”

By: Marisa Laudadio
Date: January 2000

Source:  Teen

Sci-fi Phenom-Shiri Appleby–Liz Parker on Roswell Hollywood, listen up: We wanna see more real-girl roles like alien befriender Liz Parker. Sure, Roswell’s based mostly in fantasy (although high school can be pretty alienating…), but 21-year-old Shiri’s amazing acting maintains the show’s stellar status. Kinda hard to believe that the people responsible for casting her didn’t automatically recognize her true talent. “I actually auditioned for all three of the girl’s parts numerous times,” says Shiri. How stoked was she when she heard that she’d won a spot on the suspenseful, destined-for-success show? “I got really lucky in working with a really good group of talented young people,” she says. Sure, it may be part luck, but don’t discount the chemistry between Shiri and cute costar Jason Behr, who plays Max. We can’t wait to see what’s in store for them–assuming, of course, Liz comes to her senses and permanently dumps creepy Kyle Valenti, the sheriff’s son (Nick Wechsler). Will Liz and Max’s relationship mimic Mulder and Scully’s will-they-or-won’t-they tension on The X-Files or will love blossom? We’ll see, but for the record we vote for the hook-up.

Majandra Delfino–Maria DeLuca on Roswell
A message to Roswell’s writers: More Maria! Please! Sure, Majandra might not be playing an alien in this teenage take on The X-Files, and she’s not having a cosmic courtship with one either, but as Liz Parker’s best friend and co-conspirator, not to mention a great source of comic relief, we’re demanding more screen time for this down-to-earth girl. She’s cool, kooky and so in-control–after all, she’s one of only a handful of people who know where her friends are really from. Off the set, Majandra, 18, has out-of-this world plans of her own–she’s about to sign a recording contract with a major label (yup, she can sing too!).

Katherine Heigl–Isabel Evans on Roswell
The truth is out there, and Katherine’s ready to admit it. “Yeah, I’ve probably dated an alien,” laughs the 21-year-old who plays Roswell’s resident female, uh, foreigner. All jokes aside, Katherine says she really does believe in aliens and that she digs playing one on the show. “I love [Isabel] because she’s so complicated,” she says. “She doesn’t have a lot of friends to confide in. She plays it very tough and very cold.” We bet a love interest might warm her up a bit, and we even have an idea for some creative casting: How about Joey Lawrence, Katherine’s rumored real-life old flame?

By: Kristen Shaw
Date: Jan 2000

Source: ‘Twist’ Magazine

Heard About Roswell?

If you haven’t been watching Roswell, you must be living on another planet! Why? Cause it’s awesome! And we know after you read this, you’ll be an even bigger fan.

1. It’s not deja vu! if you’ve heard of Roswell before, maybe you’ve seen the book series Roswell High. The TV show is based on it.

2. Roswell was supposed to air on Fox. But then Fox wanted to change the whole show to be soap-opera-y like 90210. The Roswell peeps said “no way” and went with the WB instead.

3. Shiri Appleby, who plays Liz, is no alien to TV stardom. She played Teri Hatcher’s daughter on the TV sitcom Sunday Dinner, and had a recurring roll on Xena: Warrior Princess.

4. Shiri’s super smart (for a human, that is) She takes classes at the University of Southern California while filming Roswell. (She’s an English Major)

5. On the show, the teen aliens have a way-weird diet. They dip cookie in wasabi mustard and put Tabasco sauce in their Cokes.

6. But Brendan Fehr, who plays the alien Michael, says he can handle the Tabasco. “Instead of spankings, my mom would make us stick our tongues out and pour Tabasco on them.

7. Brendan broke into the biz after he dropped by a modeling agency to ask for work- they told him to try acting instead. One week later, he got a guest role on the series Breaker High.

8. Before Roswell, Brendan wanted to be a teacher. But his mom encouraged him to put off college and go after his dream of becoming a star.

9. When Majandra Delfino- the chick who plays Maria- was 15, her ‘rents told her she had six months to get an acting job, or she would have to totally concentrate on school. Luckily, she landed roles right away.

10. Majandra was in a band called China Doll, with Samantha Gibb, the daughter of Bee Gee Maurice Gibb.

11. He’s being low-key about it, but Colin Hanks- the guy who plays Alex- is Tom Hanks’ real life son.

12. Colin says he doesn’t know if he wants mega-stardom like his dad’s because he wouldn’t want to go through everything his dad does.

13. Jason Behr, you know, the hottie Max, may look familiar. That’s because he played Chris, a friend of poor ill-fated Abby’s, on Dawson’s Creek.

14. Jason says he skipped out on Dawson’s because he was unsure where his character was going. But the sky’s the limit on Roswell. After all, his character Max is from outer space.

15. Before landing the Dawson’s gig, Jason ruled the tube with roles on Buffy, 7th Heaven, Cracker, and step by step.

16. Jason says he felt a little, well, alienated in high school because his voice sounded like a girl’s.

17. Katherine Heigl (Isabel) modeled for the Sears Catalogs, which she says was demanding, and after doing a few TV commercials, she decided she liked acting tons better.

18. As a teen, Katherine was an expert TP-er. She would buy 48 rolls of toilet paper and then attack a neighborhood house with her friends.

19. Talk about zero gravity- Katherines big bro. used to hang her over the staircase banister by her feet.

20. Roswell rumor: Isabel, Max, and Michael are gonna be spending time looking for a fourth alien- the one who may hold the secret to the gang’s cosmic past!

By Michele Greppi
Date: 1999

Source: New York Post

“ROMEO and Juliet” meets “The X-Files” in “Roswell,” and we fall in love at first sight.

It turns out that a spaceship did, indeed, crash in the New Mexico desert in 1947. There were survivors.

They are passing for impossibly attractive but otherwise average teens until Max (Jason Behr) risks all protective anonymity by using his powers to save the life of Liz (Shiri Appleby) after she takes a stray bullet in a crowded diner.

“Five days ago I died,” Liz writes in her diary. “After that things got really weird.”

Things get romantic and otherwise spine-tingly, too, as Liz fails to convince her best friend Maria (Majandra Delfino) and assorted other busybodies that what she was covered in was catsup, not blood.

And then the jock, Kyle (Nick Wechsler), Liz has dated desultorily, sees the silver handprint on her tummy and tells his dad (William Sadler), who happens to be not just the sheriff but a second-generation conspiracy nut who’s got a picture that indicates there was at least one other alien out there in 1959, when Max and his sister, Isabel (Katherine Heigl), and his best friend, Michael (Brendan Fehr), were still pods.

They didn’t emerge until 1989, as putative 6-year-olds, one of the evocative images exchanged when Max “connects” with Liz.

The aliens also can monkey with molecular structure, which is how Max healed Liz and how Isabel listens to a CD without a player. The aliens also have a thing for Tabasco sauce.

Inspired by the “Roswell High” series of books and produced by a team that includes creator Jason Katims (”My So-Called Life”), director David Nutter (”The X-Files”) and Jonathan Frakes, who tonight makes a cameo appearance as his “Star Trekkin’” self, “Roswell” has atmosphere to spare.

It’s fast-paced but also not afraid to linger on images or feelings that make this easy on the eyes and the heart.

There’s the attraction on which Max, a sensitive soul who’s got ears and eyes that are worth studying, says he and Liz, a Katie Holmes-style beauty, must not act.

There’s the desperation of Michael - who looks like he’s the son of Larry Sanders and David Duchovny, and who had the bad luck to get an alcoholic piece of trailer-park trash as a guardian - to connect with anyone who might be able to tell the kids where they come from, who they are and that they are not alone.

There’s also the question of whether, in their otherworldly form, they look like any of the costumed crowds packing the annual Crash Festival, where the “merriment” is capped with the burning of alien effigies.

The suspense is compounded regularly as more people become hip to what’s happening. Even the substitute geometry teacher becomes suspect when Liz realizes that she knows too little about geometry and too much about Michael, who has trouble controlling his powers.

Liz is going to have to let her close friends (including Tom Hanks’ son Colin ) in on the secret if there is to be any hope that Max, Michael and Isabel will avoid capture and the inevitable slicing and dicing and grilling in the name of science and global security.

Indeed, the sheriff can expect regular visits and bigfooting by a rumpled fed (Richard Schiff who will be competing with himself as White House communications director on NBC’s “The West Wing”).

Like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” which also has mined adolescent alienation for ratings gold, “Roswell” promises to be wise, witty and watchable beyond its ostensible years.

Maria, like Buffy’s pals, tends to panic first and come through like a trouper later. She’s also good for most of the laughs.

“I can’t be a wacky friend to someone who’s already wacky. It’d be, like, redundant.”

“Roswell” is anything but redundant.

Indeed, its intrepid band of teenoids is downright inviting to anyone who, like Jennifer Love Hewitt’s Sarah, has tired of the never-ending pity patter on Fox’s “Party of Five.”

From: “Watch With Wanda”
Date: 1999

Source: E! Online

This Week: New Year’s resolutions the stars should make

It’s the start of a new millennium, and you know what that means: those pesky resolutions. So, I’ve decided to give 10 of our favorite TV folks a few suggestions (okay, unsolicited) on what they should vow to do–or stop doing. (Don’t worry, I’ll make some of my own, too.) Here goes:

Brendan Fehr and Majandra Delfino: We all know it. It’s time for a coup d’état on the Roswell set. As sidekicks, you’re kickin’ it. But we want more. You’re cuter, sassier and, gosh darn it, we like you more than Liz and Max. So, take charge. Out with the old, in with you two. (Will & Grace, be warned.)

By: Manuel Mendoza
Date: January 2, 2000

Source: The Press Enterprise

Who’s going to be hot in 2000? Here’s some likely
prospects from film, television, music, dance and the visual arts.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

Artistes expected to take stage

Here’s a ‘Who’s Who’ of artists who you’ll probably be hearing more of.

There’s certainly been enough looking back — now it’s time to look ahead.

Here are some names of artists who are on the way to making waves in this new
year in movies, music, theater, dance and visual art, from staff writers at
The Dallas Morning News.)

Television - WHO: The women of the WB’s teen-alien series “Roswell” –
Shiri Appleby, 21; Majandra Delfino, 18; Katherine Heigl, 21.

WHY: With spunk and sensitivity, they steal their prime-time show. Despite
their youth, all three are veterans of TV and film. Appleby, for instance,
has been doing commercials since she was 4. She and Delfino play best friends
whose kitschy attitude toward their hometown’s supposed ‘47 crash is shattered
when they discover three real aliens, including Heigl, walking the school
halls alongside them. Together, they make you believe.

WHAT’S NEXT: Appleby — perennial TV guest star, regular on Norman Lear’s
short-lived 1991 series “Sunday Dinner” and bit player in such films as “I Love
You to Death” and “The Thirteenth Floor” — has a role in the upcoming Kevin
Pollack comedy “Deal of a Lifetime.” Delfino (”Zeus & Roxanne,” “The Tony
Danza Show”) has three movies in the works, including the teen-slasher parody
“I Know What You Screamed Last Summer.” And Heigl, best known for playing the
daughter opposite Gerard Depardieu in “My Father, the Hero,” is currently
shooting the independent feature “100 Girls.” “Roswell,” their strongest work
to date, can been at 9 p.m. Wednesday on Channel 5 (KTLA).