Fastlane
The main characters of Fastlane (from left to right), Van, Billie, and Deaq.
Format	Action/crime drama
Created by	McG
Starring	Peter Facinelli Bill Bellamy Tiffani Thiessen
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	22
Production
Running time	60 minutes (with commercials)
Broadcast
Original channel	FOX
Original run	September 18, 2002 – April 25, 2003
External links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Fastlane is an American action/crime drama series that was broadcast on FOX from 2002 to 2003. On August 14, 2005 G4 began rebroadcasting the complete series.^[1] After finishing its initial run on G4, Fastlane stopped airing altogether. The reruns currently air on TV One in the U.S.

[edit] Plot summary

Van Ray and Deaqon Hayes are two mismatched cops teamed together by shady vixen police lieutenant, Wilhelmina "Billie" Chambers, in a secretive undercover division of the LAPD. Operating with the motto "Everything we seize, we keep. Everything we keep, we use," their base of operations is the "Candy Store" - a warehouse containing a fortune in confiscated cars, clothes, weapons and everything else needed to blend into the seedy criminal underworld of Los Angeles. Given criminal covers, the officers use all of the resources at their disposal to apprehend dangerous miscreants while walking the line between cop and criminal.

[edit] Series run

The series consisted of twenty-two episodes, forty-five minutes each, plus an unaired pilot which ended up being very similar to the first episode broadcasted. Episodes 13 and 14 ("Defense" and "Offense") form a two-part story, while episodes 21 and 22 ("Dosed" and "Iced") form a two-part story ending on a cliffhanger which sees Billie Chambers kidnapped and forced to do drugs. As the series was canceled at that point, fans were left clamoring for a resolution. It is unknown how many episodes the remaining plot would have covered.

Each episode cost the two studios making it (Warner Bros. and Fox) $2.6 million. The show's hallmarks — unconventional cinematography, explosions, guest appearances, licensed soundtracks, supercars and other exotic vehicles — were the root cause of the exorbitant production costs. As a result, the show was canceled because of these high production costs and the ratings drop it suffered from being moved from Wednesday nights to Friday nights.

The series paid numerous homages to the original Miami Vice, of which it was a spiritual successor. Watching the first aired episode of each series reveals numerous similarities in plot and music, in addition to the obvious similarities in premise and ambiance.

[edit] Release to DVD

Fastlane: The Complete Series was released on DVD as a six disc set on July 8th, 2008. The soundtrack was significantly altered for the DVD release due to licensing issues.^[2] Episodes are presented in fullscreen rather than widescreen as they initially appeared on television.^[3]

[edit] Cast

[edit] Main cast

• Peter Facinelli — Donovan "Van" Ray
• Bill Bellamy — Deaqon "Deaq" Hayes
• Tiffani Thiessen — Wilhemina "Billie" Chambers

[edit] Recurring cast

• Jay Mohr — Roland Hill
• Mark Famiglietti — Jarod
• Big Boy — Aquarius
• Vondie Curtis-Hall — Andre Hayes
• Jennifer Sky — Cassidy Shaw
• Robert Forster — Raymond Ray
• Jamie Brown — Sophia Jones
• Bill Duke — Capt. Parish

[edit] Episode listing

[edit] Guest appearances

Over the course of its run, Fastlane featured cameos and guest appearances from a good number of known figures, including Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Mischa Barton, Jenny McCarthy, Krista Allen, Jake Busey, Bokeem Woodbine, Hudson Leick, Jaime Pressly, George Hamilton, Eric Mabius, Michelle Forbes, Navi Rawat, Iggy Pop, Naomi Campbell, Tommy Lee, Terrence Howard, Isaac Hayes, the Red Elvises, Tatyana Ali, Paul Gleason, Antonio Fargas, Biz Markie, Treach, and Ali Landry.

Mischa Barton's role as Simone in "Simone Says" led to producer McG casting her in his next project – The O.C..

[edit] Trivia

• The role of Billie Chambers was initially offered to Heather Locklear.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Fastlane at the Internet Movie Database
• Fastlane at TV.com
• Fastlane - General Comments in F in in Jump The Sharken:Fastlane