Spotlight on Fandoms -- Wildfire

[justlike_a_girl]

Wildfire was a television series co-created by Michael Piller, best known for his work with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and The Dead Zone. The show revolved around Kris Furillo, who was trying to start over after serving time in a juvenile detention facility. While she was incarcerated at Camp LaGrange, Kris bonded with a retired racehorse named Wildfire who was being re-trained as a police horse.

A horse trainer for Raintree Farms, Pablo Betart, noticed how well Kris worked with the horses when he volunteered at Camp LaGrange. When Kris came up for her parole and her family didn't come through for her, Pablo arranged for Kris to work at Raintree in exchange for room and board. His employer, single mom Jean Ritter, was awfully nervous about having this troubled young girl staying in a trailer not far from her teenage sons in the main house. At the same time, Jean and Pablo were struggling to save Raintree from financial ruin after being forced to sell their best horses just to stay afloat.

But when Wildfire's new owners gave up on him and tried to unload him, Kris threw away her second chance by stealing Wildfire from a horse auction and racing off into the night. She and Wildfire were caught the next day, but not before a camera crew broadcasting live from a helicopter made them into stars. Jean and her father are impressed with Wildfire's speed and agility when he has something to run for. They buy Wildfire, who quickly becomes a top racehorse with Kris as his jockey.

But, of course, there's a lot more drama, both on and off the track. And I've tried to write this without including too many spoilers, if you feel inclined to check the show out for yourself.

Major Characters
• Kris Furillo (Genevieve Cortese): The heroine who saved Wildfire from being sold to a slaughterhouse and managed to save Raintree Farms from financial ruin. Along the way, she found herself in the middle of one twisted love triangle.

• Matt Ritter (Micah Alberti): The son of Jean Ritter. At the beginning, Matt couldn't wait to go away to college and leave small town life behind. He also had a lot of resentment towards his mother for divorcing his dad and takes it out on Jean's new boyfriend. Oh, and he went a little wacko over Kris, much to Dani's dismay.

• Dani Davis (Nicole Tubiola): Daughter of the owner of Davis Farms, the prestigious racing stable down the street from Raintree. There was a pretty serious rivalry, but that didn't stop Dani from falling for Matt. However, she kept picking fights with him because she was bored and wanted make-up sex. It worked just fine for her until Kris arrived and Matt developed an interest in her. Dani then made it her mission to make Kris's life miserable a series of events brought both girls together as friends. It probably helped that Kris fell for Dani's brother.

• Junior Davis (Ryan Sypek): One of the break-out stars of the show (besides Genevieve, of course), Junior is Dani's brother and Matt's best friend. On the surface, he's a spoiled rich kid who drove a Porsche and chased lots of girls. But Junior turned out to have the strongest morals of all the kids. He struggled to get out of his rich father's shadow and establish himself as his own man, and that journey takes him from nightclub owner to professional bull rider before starting a green energy company.

• Jean Ritter (Nana Visitor): Owner of Raintree, mother of Matt and his little brother Todd as well as substitute mom to Kris and Dani. She fought to keep the family farm afloat while rebuilding her own life after divorce. She dated a pretty nice guy named Charlie, who was a little boring but very rich. Unfortunately, she ruined it by sleeping with her ex-husband, going crazy from the guilt, and then confessing it to Charlie when he tried to propose! And that was the last we saw of Charlie, who left so quickly that he never even came back for the horse that Jean was boarding in her stable. Jean wasn't afraid to make big sacrifices, as she tried to sell Wildfire twice, eventually selling half of her share to Pablo. But she had some standards, at least, because in the pilot episode she turned down a proposal from Dani and Junior's father.

• Ken Davis, Sr. (James Read): The crook who made Davis Farms one of the the most powerful racing operations in the country. But too many shady business deals caught up with him eventually, and Ken was arrested on federal charges. But you can't keep a good convict down, and he eventually got the charges dropped.

• Pablo Betart (Greg Serano): The head trainer of Raintree Farms who had his own legal problems in the past. He and Jean are equal partners in owning Wildfire, but he got frustrated when it seemed like he didn't have a place in the business once Matt started taking over more of the training duties. Also, he was in love with Jean, who was totally oblivious. Pablo eventually went over to work for the enemy Ken Davis, but his heart remained at Raintree.

Minor Characters Who Rate A Mention
• Henry Ritter (Dennis Weaver): Jean's dad and Matt's grandfather. He was meant to be a big part of the series but died during the hiatus after the first season. His character died a season later, leaving half the farm to Matt. Henry's brother Jesse arrived in the third season to execute Henry's will and provide emotional support to Matt and Jean.

• Todd Ritter (Andrew Hoeft): Matt's quirky younger brother who was born with a heart condition. As the show evolved from family-friendly to zomg!drama, Todd was pushed out of the major storylines until he eventually left to attend boarding school.

• Pete Ritter (Joe Lando): Jean's ex-husband, who tried to re-enter his family's life when Matt developed a gambling problem. He paid off Matt's debts but neglected to mention that he got the money from Jean's new boyfriend.

• Gillian Parsons (Charlotte Salt): A wealthy heiress who came to Dani's rescue when she needed money to save Davis Farms while Ken was in jail. However, she got more than she bargained for when Gillian and Matt started dating. Gillian eventually moved in with Matt, but moved out when he confessed that he loved Kris. Then she sold her shares of Davis Farm back to Ken and left.

• Kerry Connelly (Kieren Hutchinson): A sports agent who signed on to represent Kris as her career started to take off. He and Kris also started dating, but he was also sleeping around with Gillian. Dani accidentally caught them together and used the information to blackmail Gillian.

• Tina Sharp (Amy Jo Johnson): A hotshot jockey brought in by Jean and Pablo to ride Wildfire in a major race. She introduced Kris to painkillers and slept with Matt. Right before race day, she accepts an offer from Ken to ride one of his best horses against Wildfire.

Where To Find It
The first three season of Wildfire are available on DVD, but recently they also popped up Hulu and YouTube. The fourth season should show up eventually as well.

If you only want to check out a few episodes, I'd check out "The Rescue," "Lost And Found," and "Try It Without The Porsche," the latter of which has an awesome scene with Dani having a breakdown.


Why Should You Watch It?
Because it's so much fun spotting actors from other roles suddenly pop up! Genevieve Cortese went on to play Ruby 2.0 on Supernatural, James Read was the father of the Charmed Ones as well as Junior and Dani, Ryan Sypek went on to work as Ted Mosby's assistant, Amy Jo Johnson was the Pink Power Ranger, one of Junior's girlfriends was none other than Lilly Kane, Nicole Tubiola's real-life husband played one of Kris's boyfriends, Jason London is Matt's bookie and Dani's boyfriend… I could really go on.

I'm also a big fan of horse racing, and Wildfire does not skimp when it comes to the horses. Even though it seems contrived at times (watch season 4, if want to see what I mean), it still delivered plenty of dramatic races.