As of March 27, 2004, Tribune Broadcasting’s Superstation WGN has acquired syndication rights to the first three seasons of Reno 911! After much anticipation, the show will now be part of WGN’s late-night comedy block starting this fall and will be syndicated to broadcast stations all over the country. In other words, Reno 911! is about to explode all over America! You can find more information such as episode guides, a photo gallery, meet the cast and more on Superstation WGN’s Reno 911! website. It’s expected that Reno 911! will be as big a hit for Superstation WGN as its previously acquired Comedy Central series, Scrubs. The newly syndicated series premieres on Friday, September 14, 2007.
Now that the Lt. Dangle and company have been to Florida and back in February’s Reno 911!: Miami movie, the show’s fans are wondering what we can expect from Season 5. According to Comedy Central’s October 9, 2006 announcement, there will be 13 new episodes of Reno 911! this year. Season Five production began in January and wrapped up in April, so the new episodes finished and the fans are dying for spoilers!
Obviously, the season opener will pick up where last season left off. After Deputy James Garcia’s unexpected proposal and Wiegel’s revelation that she knows who the father of her baby is; what unsettling shocks will the new season have? Is poor Lt. Jim Dangle going to lose a husband, but gain a child? Will we get to see how Garcia’s new love feels about the tattoo he got in Miami? Reno 911! is becoming more of a hysterically funny soap opera than a faux reality show and the fans are loving it!
Discussion is easy to find online, but I had no luck finding confirmed spoilers for Reno 911! Comedy Central is keeping the show’s future under very tight security; much like HBO did with the series finale of the Sopranos. Although, I did read that one Internet speculator believes that Dangle is NOT the father of Wiegel’s baby, despite her implication otherwise. Some other forum posters think that it might actually be Leslie, Dangle’s ex-wife’s husband and his stolen fiancée. I feel that would be just a ridiculous addition to poor Jim’s suffering though. Considering that Dangle is the most popular character on the show, it’s not likely the writers will push the envelope that far. At some point Dangle has to come out at least slightly triumphant or all his trials wouldn’t be funny anymore; they’d just be pathetic.
Considering how quickly Leslie jumped ship from Dangle’s ex-wife to Dangle himself and now to Garcia, my theory is that it’s going to come out that Garcia did Dangle a bigger favor than he realized. I suspect that the whole proposal twist was just a charade. It was a nice shock, but it would be too out of character for Garcia to suddenly be gay. Besides, with Dangle being openly gay and Cheresa Kimball being the new “closet case”, somebody on the show has to remain heterosexual or they’ll have to rename the series San Francisco 911!
As far as the rest of the characters, nobody is saying much because they’re all still reeling from last season’s shocking finale. Whatever Season 5 brings though, my bet is that it’ll be the biggest, boldest season yet! Reno 911! Season Five is scheduled to start airing in late 2007, but Comedy Central has not yet announced an exact date.
