Eureka (2006 TV series)

• Sheriff Jack Carter, portrayed by Colin Ferguson, is a U.S. Marshal who reluctantly ends up as the sheriff of Eureka. Jack is consistently dumbfounded by the wonders Eureka produces, as well as its propensity to produce things that often threaten the entire town (or world). Despite being a man of average intelligence in a town full of geniuses, Jack's admittedly simple ideas and his intuition often save the day.
• Zoe Carter, portrayed by Jordan Danger (seasons 1–3, recurring in seasons 4–5), is Jack's rebellious teenage daughter. Unlike her father, she is intelligent enough to keep up with the town's residents. Yet, like her father, she also possesses street smarts, something lacking for most of the town's residents. She hopes to attend Harvard Medical School and become a physician and later does due to the alternate timeline.
• Dr. Allison Blake, portrayed by Salli Richardson-Whitfield, is a Department of Defense agent who acts as the liaison between Global Dynamics and the federal government in season one. Later, she becomes the head of Global Dynamics. In seasons four and five she is the head doctor due to the effect of their journey to the 1940s. Allison, unmarried, is also mother of Kevin, who has autism until time travel in season four creates a new timeline where Kevin is neurotypical.
• Dr. Henry Deacon, portrayed by Joe Morton, is the town jack of all trades and a brilliant scientist. Henry has ethical objections to the kind of research conducted at Global Dynamics, so he prefers to be employed as the town's mechanic. Henry's assistance is often invaluable in defusing the bad situations that are created by experiments at Global Dynamics. In seasons 4 and 5, he is far more directly involved in the operations of Global Dynamics and in two occasions he becomes its head, the first time replacing Stark in season 1, and in the end, Fargo.
• Dr. Nathan Stark, portrayed by Ed Quinn (seasons 1–3), is one of Eureka's top scientists. He and Jack are frequently at odds, although both respect each other. On and off, he is romantically involved with Allison. He is modeled after Tony Stark, a Marvel Comics character.[4]
• Dr. Beverly Barlowe, portrayed by Debrah Farentino (seasons 1–2, recurring in seasons 4-5), is the town psychiatrist. She secretly works for a mysterious organization known as the Consortium, which has expressed a desire to exploit Eureka's innovations by whatever means necessary.
• Josephina "Jo" Lupo, portrayed by Erica Cerra (recurring in seasons 1–2, regular in seasons 3–5), is Eureka's deputy sheriff. She is a former U.S. Army Ranger with a love of firearms. In seasons four and five, she is the head of Global Dynamics security due to the effect of their journey to the 1940s.
• Dr. Douglas Fargo, portrayed by Neil Grayston (recurring in seasons 1–2, regular in seasons 3–5), is a junior scientist, treated somewhat dismissively by his peers. Accident-prone, he often ends up a victim of the disasters befalling the town, and has caused a fair share of the problems. Grayston also provides the voice of S.A.R.A.H. (Self Actuated Residential Automated Habitat), the bunker home Jack and Zoe Carter live in. In seasons four and five he is the head of Global Dynamics due to the effect of their journey to the 1940s, with a personality much more assertive than his original.
• Zane Donovan, portrayed by Niall Matter (recurring in season 2, regular in seasons 3–5), is a rebellious genius who is recruited to Global Dynamics. He allegedly caused a stock market crash, and agreed to work for GD as an alternative to imprisonment.
• Dr. Grace Monroe, portrayed by Tembi Locke, (seasons 4–5) a scientist, mechanic, and wife of Henry Deacon in an alternate timeline created after the Eureka Five time-traveled to 1947.

The series was created by Andrew Cosby and Jaime Paglia and was produced by Universal Media Studios. The season one original music was composed by Mutato Muzika; season two and beyond were composed by Bear McCreary. The executive producers were Paglia, Charles Grant Craig, and Thania St. John. While initially lacking in strong critical acclaim, Eureka had been a popular success, averaging 3.2 million viewers during the second half of season three.[1] In 2007 Eureka was nominated for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Visual Effects for a Series and won the Leo Award for Best Visual Effects in a Dramatic Series.[2] In the United Kingdom on Sky1 the show is known as A Town Called Eureka although it is also shown under its original name on the BT Vision platform.[3]

Characters from Eureka have crossed over to Warehouse 13 and vice versa, and characters from Warehouse 13 have crossed over to Alphas, making the triplet sister shows.[5][6][7][8]

On August 17, 2010, the channel, now known as Syfy, announced that the show had been picked up for a fifth season of 13 episodes.[9][10] Fan sites and a show writers' Twitter feed said on August 4, 2011, that the show had been picked up for a sixth and possibly final season of six episodes.[10][11] It was then announced on August 8, 2011, that Eureka would not get a sixth season, but it would instead be canceled after season five.[12] However, one additional episode of the fifth season was approved in order to give the series a proper finale.[13] On February 16, 2012, Syfy announced that the show's fifth and final season would premiere on April 16, 2012.[14]

• Chilliwack, British Columbia – Downtown Wellington Avenue Cafe Diem set all five seasons.[15]
• Ladysmith, British Columbia – Downtown First Avenue, Roberts Street.[16]
• Burnaby, British Columbia – Vancouver Film Studios for the majority of the Global Dynamics building interiors, cafe interiors as well as the home of Sheriff Carter.[17]

The series premiere was watched by 4.1 million people, making it the top-rated cable program for that night; it was the highest-rated series launch in Sci-Fi's fourteen-year history.[18] The season two premiere drew 2.5 million viewers, making it the top-rated cable program of the day.[19]

For calendar-year 2008 as a first-run, the series delivered 1.42 million viewers in the 18–49 demographic.[20]

The third season premiere was viewed by 2.8 million viewers, and the season 3.5 premiere of Eureka earned 2.68 million viewers in its new time slot.[21] The fourth season premiere was viewed by 2.5 million viewers.[22] The fifth season premiere was viewed by 1.8 million viewers,[23] on par with season four's closing episode "One Giant Leap".[24] The fifth season closer "Just Another Day" generated 1.58 million viewers.[25]

Critical reaction was mixed, with general praise for the premise, but overall middling reaction to the writing of the pilot.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer:[26]

It's all very quirky. Too quirky, maybe, for an audience that is used to spaceships, robots, and explosions. Though every episode promises an "aha!" moment based in quantum physics and obscure scientific laws, this world is relatively flat, conceptually speaking, in comparison to the complexity woven into series such as Stargate SG-1 and Battlestar Galactica. This does not mean Eureka is a complete waste of time. Not at all. The characters are fun, Ferguson is believable and pleasant, the script is solidly constructed, and the visuals are slickly produced. All in all, it's a sweet series and probably not long for this world.

The New York Daily News:[27]

With its playful new series Eureka, set in the Pacific Northwest and telling the story of an outsider who comes to explore, and settle in, a remote town full of eccentrics, Sci-Fi Channel isn't just inviting comparisons to Twin Peaks and Northern Exposure. It's demanding them. But co-creators Andrew Cosby and Jaime Paglia hold up to them pretty well. Eureka has a premise, a cast and a plot that make it one of the TV treats of the summer. The folks at Sci-Fi Channel clearly intended to reinvent the summer TV series here, and come up with something breezy and fun. And Eureka – they've done it!

Director of Center for Inquiry & IIG, James Underdown presents writer Ed Fowler with an award on August 21, 2010.

• Eureka was nominated for a 2007 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series. The other nominees were Grey's Anatomy, Heroes, Rome, and Battlestar Galactica (the winner).[28]
• On August 21, 2010, Eureka was honoured with an award for its scientific, and critical thinking content, from The Independent Investigations Group during its 10th Anniversary Gala. The award was accepted by head writer Ed Fowler.[29]

All five seasons of Eureka have been released to Region 1 and region 2 on DVD. Seasons 1–4 have been released in region 4. Season 3 and 4 were released in two separate sets for each season in region 1 and 2.

In 2014, Universal released the complete series to the German market as an 18-disc Blu-Ray box set (aka Eureka: Die Komplette Serie or Eureka Gesamtbox). This set is region-free and will play on Region A (North America) players. It is available to U.S. buyers via online retailers. This set retains the original English-language audio. Titles and on-screen instructions can be switched to English in the disc menus.

In 2020, Mill Creek Entertainment released the complete series to the U.S. market as a 12-disc Blu-Ray box set. Extras mostly mirror those in the 2014 box set, though two extended episodes from the 2014 set are not included. Critical and buyer reviews report this set has significant issues with video quality.

A soundtrack was released on August 26, 2008 on La La Land Records.[34] The album consists of 28 tracks from the show's second season. It also includes two variations of the Mark Mothersbaugh and John Enroth composed main theme.

All five seasons of Eureka are now available for viewing on-demand on

• NBCUniversal's PeacockTV streaming service, which launched in July 2020.
• Amazon Prime Video (for US Prime members)
• The Roku Channel for all Roku owners.

In early 2009, Boom! Studios produced a comic book series based on storylines provided by Andrew Cosby (who is also the co-founder of the comic publisher), written by Brendan Hay, with art by Diego Barreto.[35] This was followed by a second 4-issue series called Eureka: Dormant Gene written by Andrew Cosby, Jaime Paglia and Jonathan L. Davis, with art by Mark Dos Santos.[36]

• Eureka: Substitution Method. Cris Ramsay, New York: Ace, August 2010. ISBN 9780441018857
• Eureka: Brain Box Blues. Cris Ramsay, New York: Ace, November 2010. ISBN 9780441019830
• Eureka: Road Less Traveled. Cris Ramsay, New York: Ace, March 2011. ISBN 9780441019021

In 2011, Colin Ferguson appeared on Disasterpiece Theatre, discussing what Eureka might look like if directed by Michael Bay.[37] In 2012, Niall Matter also made an appearance on the podcast, discussing how Eureka would function as a "romcom".[38]

In May 2012, Ferguson appeared on Tabletop, a show on Geek and Sundry, where during the course of the episode he discusses his experiences and character in Eureka. The Geek And Sundry network is co-hosted, among others, by Felicia Day and Wil Wheaton, who made various appearances on Eureka.[39]