The Identity is a crime thriller TV show created by Mike Robert. The series aired since 1992 with the majority of the actors such as Michael Smith and Jane Ponley still here as the original cast.
The show is currently directed by Jason Hawk and written by Mark Sullivan and produced by Bloxy Productions.
Plot
A man named Alex who recently got a job at the police office at Downtown Street. However, his detective job comes with challenges and secrets surrounding him.
Production History:
The show started when an experience producer named Mike Robert pitched the series to Bloxy Productions. According to news outlets, he created the show because the crime and thriller kind of shows were dying and wanted to revive the show.
Before "The Identity"
Before the show piloting, Mike had already made other works such as Nightmares, Tonight is the time, and Another Egg. Mike was an experienced producer, making three impressive films.
Writing:
Mike wanted a storytelling to be somewhat mysterious but happy. However, the writers said no and wanted the show to be more dramatic and happier with the mystery. This caused creative differences and made the two writers (Zack Ghana&Martin Freedom) leave the project. However, Mike wanted to continue with the show. Jacob Salvin and Mike Stewart were hired as writers and storyliner for the show.
Location:
The show was using a studio-located set built by Gunez Studios. Starting in 1999, the show was filmed outside of the studio to make the show unique.
TV CHANNELS:
The show has gone through different channels, from Avast Broadcasting Company's Avast Broadcast to AAK Network.
Opening Title Sequence:
The 1st title sequence was directed by Mike Robert and the music was done by Alex Desliver. This was Alex's last project before he died due to old age.
The 2nd title sequence was directed by James Calypso and the music was done by The Kimbaly Brothers. This title sequence is considered as "lost media" due to the sequence being forgotten.
The 3rd and final title sequence was directed by Andrew Gary and the music by Michael King. This is considered to be the best title sequence in the series due to its excellent execution and the disturbing imagery.
Allegations with Mike Robert
On February 7th, 1995, before the title sequence was changed, an anonymous women accused Mike of raping a Robloxian, inappropriate offset, and his otherwise pedophilic behavior. Multiple women also reported him for the same reason. Bloxy Productions would later fire him. As such, he was removed from the credits and forced to pay 500 million ROBUX to the company. Mike would then sue Bloxy Productions for copyrighting his work and demanded a settlement of 500 million ROBUX. Unfortunately, Mike was unsuccessful.
Viewership in 2005
Viewership in 2005 was high. At its peak, 19.23 million viewers viewed the show at one time.
Broadcasting History
In 1992,The show started off with 3.56 Million Viewers which at the time was Avest's Broadcast's 7th lowest viewership in the channel so in 1994, Donald warned Bloxy Productions that if viewership doesn't increase atleast 6 million viewers in 1997 then the show would be canceled. In 1995 the show was in a massive revamp which increases viewership by 6.7 Million Viewers. In 1999 it was a double when they re-arrange the opening sequence, with 10 million viewers watching. It's Replays started in 2000 which increases viewers by 3.0 Million but it was shut down in 2011 due to low viewership.
Takeover of the show (Rostudios vs Bloxy Productions) (2019-2020)
In 2019, Rostudios wanted to buy the show, especially the production rights, for R$450 million. However, Bloxy Productions declined the deal and maintained the production rights. On Dec 28, 2019, just when they stopped production, Rostudios wanted to buy the show for R$1.2 billion Robux. The production rights were given to RoStudio until March 12, 2020. However, Rostudios wanted to buy its streaming service for R$500 million Robux. They accepted the deal.
Contract Dispute:
In Jan 1, 2020 (a year when they were bought by AAK CORPORATION) the actors accused Bloxy of underpaying its employees for a month. Francois Myers, the line producer for the show shortly sent a notice note that said:
Dear The Identity Team
Sorry we haven't payed you for the past month. But the reason for this was because AAK still haven't payed us ever since Dec 1 2019 and due to this we can pay you. But we will try and fix things for you to get your payment.
Again we are deeply sorry.
Francois Myers-Line Producer.
Shortly after this, AAK paid the team and the other productions that were not paid for the month.
Impact:
Spinoff:
The background of the story was created by Axel Douglas. He also wrote the story. However, as the story was repeatedly disapproved, viewers left the show in 2005. It was eventually greenlit by Bloxy Productions in 2006 and ran for 4 seasons from 2006-2009. However, it was produced by Justin A. Productions instead of Bloxy Productions.
Smoke Or Blood:
This show was created by executive producer of the show Jimmy Prenz. While approved for five seasons, it only ran for two before it was cancelled because of low viewership after season 1 and they could not afford the production costs of the show for Season 2.
Storyline Controversy:
In 2002, the show broadcasted Max drinking heavily and committing suicide due to his wife leaving him. The RBA (The Robloxian Broadcasting Authority) fined Avast Broadcast for R$250,000 for broadcasting the scene at 7:00pm. Due to this, the show later changed to 8:00pm to prevent this incident.
In 2009, Gavent Studios accused Bloxy Productions for blatantly copying the storyline from Ascent. However, despite this, they never filed a case on Bloxy Productions.
In 2011, for the first time in Avast Broadcast's history, they aired two men kissing each other which was pretty mixed.
In 2022, Alen Gavent(not to be confused with Gavent Studios) accused Bloxy Productions of airing "Who Choose One" which was a copy of his book "Sevana, the hopeless girl". Soon after, AAK settled the case for R$1.5 million for the author himself.
On December 2, 2023, over 1.5% of the workers at Bloxy Productions have been dismissed due to money cuts and almost half of its crew were laid off. Due to this, production for the show had to be shut down until December 25, 2023, when production was opened to celebrate Christmas and Day of Goodwill.
Awards:
The show has won numerous awards. In 2005, it has won the most rewards, with 86 wins and 26 nominations.
Reception
Initially, the show's reviews were mixed. While critics praised the acting (particularly from Jake Schertz and Pauline Shinwa), direction and story, critics panned the execution, writing along with its storyline. JoCan gave the show 3.5/5 with the journalist saying: "The Identity has an interesting idea with a cast and amazing story, overshadowed by its storyline, execution and the writing" meanwhile, Steven Howard gave the show a 4/5 with the journalist stating: "The Identity is a show that is intriguing, horrible but an amazing show with its writing, direction and it's cast". In recent times, the show has been rated an 8.2/10 on RMDB and has been named "the greatest show in Roblox" in 2005-2016. It was overtaken by "Polo Night" in 2016. Critics have praised the acting, title sequence, story, writing and direction while critics panned over its shift from a crime mystery show to a nighttime soap opera.
Future
According to news sources, the studio claimed that the show would get canceled and would instead end with a movie. However, Alex Smith denied the news but was interested into making a movie based on the series. In 2016, Bloxy Productions announced that a movie based on The Identity was on the works and would be directed by the infamous director Andrew Gary. There were no news after 2016.
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