The Pretender
Genre: Drama, Action/Adventure
Started: 19th September 1996
Ended: 13th May 2000
Episodes: 86
Country: United States of America
Created by: Craig W. Van Sickle, Steven Long Mitchell
Starring: Patrick Bauchau, Lenny Von Dohlen, Pamela Gidley, Michael T. Weiss, Harve Presnell, Andrea Parker, Kim Myers, Jon Gries, Tyler Christopher, Willie Gault, George Lazenby, Jason Brooks, Ryan Merriman, Paul Dillon, Ashley Peldon, Richard Marcus, James Denton, Jennifer Garner, Jennifer Garner, Drake Bell, Ally Walker, Aisha Tyler, Jeffrey Donovan, Michael Angarano, Jake Lloyd, Tamara Braun, Andrea Roth
The Pretender is an American television series that aired on NBC from 1996 to 2000. The series stars Michael T. Weiss as Jarod, a genius and former child prodigy with "the ability to become anyone he wants to be," i.e., to flawlessly impersonate anyone in virtually any line of work. Patrick Bauchau and Andrea Parker co-star as Sydney, Jarod's childhood teacher and mentor, and Miss Parker, a childhood friend and an operative for the mysterious organization (called "The Centre") that took Jarod from his parents as a child and forced him to unwittingly use his talents for their own interests. Jarod begins traveling around the country, searching for clues to his true identity and posing as doctors, police officers, attorneys, and various other figures in order to help those in trouble. Following the show's cancellation on NBC, two television movies were aired on the TNT Network that picked up where the series finale left off.
According to show creators Steven Long Mitchell and Craig Van Sickle, the character of Jarod was inspired by serial impostor Ferdinand Waldo Demara. There is also a strong similarity with the science fiction novel The Shockwave Rider by British author John
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