Tower Prep

Did You Know?

• In the 2011 Leo Awards, Brenton Spencer was nominated for Best Direction in a Youth or Children's Program or Series for the episode "Dreams."
• Brian Lowry of Variety called the show 'a series that points the way toward a best-case scenario' for Cartoon Network's live-action programming.

Characters

Drew Van Acker portrays Ian Archer, who possesses the ability of "preflex," allowing him to see and react to events before they occur. Elise Gatien plays Candice "CJ" Ward, whose "perception" ability lets her read people's intentions from body language. Ryan Pinkston is Gabriel "Gabe" Lexington Forrest, gifted with "hypersuasion" to talk people into doing whatever he wants. Dyana Liu plays Suki Sato, who can perfectly replicate any sound she has heard through her "mimicry" ability. Ted Whittall appears as the Headmaster, the mysterious leader of Tower Prep later revealed to be CJ's father. Dan Payne plays the Coach, a former student and test subject for the performance-enhancing substance Corvus H-40. Alek Diakun portrays Dr. Specs, who wipes the memories of new students. Richard Steinmetz plays Coach History, Karin Konoval the Nurse, and Peggy Jo Jacobs voices Whisper 119, the artificial intelligence managing the school, later upgraded to Whisper 120. Other students include Richard Harmon as Ray Snider with hyper-strength, Izaak Smith as Calvin "Cal" Rice with enhanced hearing, and Andrew Dunbar as Conner Owens. Cornelius Augustus Tower, the school's founder, is played by David Smith and Matthew Thiessen. Additional characters include Charlie Carrick as Fenton Capwell, Jodi Balfour as Emily Wright, Calum Worthy as Don Finch, Terry Chen as Shinji Sato, Jeffery Ballard as Emerson Poencet, Jarod Joseph as Howard Gilmore, and Kacey Rohl as Ross Anderson.

Production

The series "Tower Prep" began with a pilot episode written by Paul Dini, who based it on his own feelings of being an outsider during his prep school years. Filmed in 2009, the show went into full production the following year in Vancouver, British Columbia. Glen Morgan, a writer from "The X-Files," was brought on as executive producer and showrunner, with a writing team that included Dini, Darin Morgan, Riley Stearns, Aury Wallington, Jeff Eckerle, and Marilyn Osborn. To build hype, Cartoon Network launched a fictional online campaign featuring video blogs from the show's four main characters. Before the series aired, a free preview of the first half of the premiere episode was made available on the iTunes Store. The network also promoted the debut by giving away 1,000 iPod Touch devices during the broadcast. The track "Unstoppable" by Foxy Shazam appeared in both promotional spots and the episode titled "Trust."