Film and Television

Maverick DVD

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MAVERICK was an incredible TV series that was way, way ahead of its
time. This DVD sampler is nice… but it’s no substitute for a
feature-packed DVD boxed set produced by someone like Paul Brownstein
(who did the amazing GUNSMOKE, WILD WILD WEST and DICK VAN DYKE boxed sets).
But if Warner Brothers ever wants to do another MAVERICK sampler, let’s see one that
includes the "Shady Deal at Sunny Acres" episode from the original
MAVERICK, the unsold ABC pilot THE NEW MAVERICK, the pilot from the CBS
series YOUNG MAVERICK, and the first and last episodes of the NBC
series BRET MAVERICK. Seeing "Shady Deal" and the last episode of BRET
MAVERICK (in which Jack Kelly makes a surprise appearance as Bart)
would make nice bookends to the entire MAVERICK saga.

Agent 007, eh?

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My friend David Breckman wrote and produced a hilarious pilot for USA Network called UNDERFUNDED, about a spy for the Canadian Secret Service (yes, they have one).  He’s still waiting to hear if USA is going to pick it up. But in the mean time, the Canadian Broadcasting Company (yes, they have TV networks up there) has announced that production has begun on INTELLIGENCE, a Canadian drama series (yes, they still have a couple shows of their own up there) about, you guessed it, Canadian spies (yes, they have them). The show is from Chris Haddock, the Canadian Steven Bochco, with financial help from every Canadian government entity except, it seems, the Department of Fish & Game.

“Intelligence takes place in the underworld where crime and
government meet. Part mystery, part thriller, all character and
conspiracy,” says Haddock. “It’s a new and volatile mix of gangster and
spy genres that should be pretty addictive. It’s gonna be a lot of fun
to watch.”

Intelligence is a Haddock Entertainment production produced with the
financial participation of CBC, Telefilm Canada, the CTF – License Fee
Program, the Canadian Western Independent Program Fund, the Canadian
and British Columbian Production Tax Credit Programs and CBC
International Sales.

Miami Hell

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Kim Masters at Slate Magazine looks at the troubled production of the MIAMI VICE movie.

on Miami Vice things went so wrong that Foxx ended up
leaving in the middle of production, after a shooting (and we don’t
mean the kind with a camera) took place during filming in the Dominican
Republic. Foxx refused to return for any more work outside the United
States, meaning that Mann had to rewrite the ending, eliminating a
version that was to have been shot in Paraguay.

"The whole of
making this movie was filled with adversity," Mann says. But he adds
that whatever the crew might have endured, it was all in the service of
making a great film. "Sometimes folks are going to join this unit and
they may have a tough time," he says. "Guess what? They’re on the wrong
movie."

Superman Returns

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SUPERMAN RETURNS reminded me of THE BRADY BUNCH MOVIE —  I couldn’t get past Brandon Routh’s irritating and pointless Christopher Reeve impersonation. It struck me as a particularly stupid idea… it would be like doing a James Bond movie and hiring someone to do a Sean Connery impersonation. The imitation works for satire…but for a drama? I don’t understand the thinking behind it. Why couldn’t they just let Routh create his own, unique portrayal? At least Kevin Spacey and Kate Bosworth weren’t forced into imitating Gene Hackman and Margot Kidder (though the performances by Spacey and Bosworth are surprisingly bland). 

By attempting to xerox the original SUPERMAN movie, all director Bryan Singer managed to do was force comparisons at every turn… and SUPERMAN RETURNS simply didn’t measure up on any level.  I was constantly reminded how much better the first two movies were…and how genuine and charming Christopher Reeve’s portrayal was.

Jumping into the Frying Pan

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Bryce Zabel gives readers an inside look at the development and production of M.A.N.T.I.S., the first TV series about a black superhero.

Anyway, the deal was, "M.A.N.T.I.S."
had started as a two-hour pilot, written by Sam Hamm (“Batman”) and
directed by Sam Raimi (“Spider-Man”). The two Sams had a disagreement
with Fox about how the series should go, and walked away from their own
project. Fox still wanted to do the series, but somebody needed to make
the changes and run the show. Both Hamm and Raimi were extremely
gracious and understanding in the transition, nothing was made
personal, and the series lived.

For me, that’s a pure TV moment. Bryce mentions it casually…but it’s outrageous and insane. And yet, this kind of thing happens so often in TV, we take it as normal. But think about it: Two guys create, produce and direct a pilot, praying that it will sell…and when it does, they end up walking away from the show. And Fox, who ordered the pilot and bought the show based on their vision, lets them go.  Now the studio and network have to scramble to find someone else… who wasn’t involved with the show before… to take it over and supply a new, creative vision. Fast.  It’s a thankless, no-win situation for the new showrunner but Bryce took it on and made the show his own.  Because he’s a pro.  I’ve been in a similar position two or three times myself (SHE-WOLF OF LONDON, MARTIAL LAW, etc.) and you just dive in, do your best with as much enthusiasm as possible, and try not to think about all the landmines in your path.

Simon and Simon

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TVShowsonDVD reports that the first season of SIMON AND SIMON is coming out on DVD in October. I wonder if it will include the original, unaired pilot. Some footage from that pilot was later incorporated into another episode.  That’s the kind of stuff that makes the difference between a great DVD set and once that’s only okay.  I also wonder if the first season shows will have the original theme which, like the MAGNUM PI theme, was dropped in favor of a new one for the second season.

This is a great time to be alive if you are a TV Geek Like me

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TVShowsOnDVD reports that the complete series of the 70s sitcom BRIDGET LOVES BIRNEY is being released on DVD in September for $29.95. Then again, the complete series of ROAR, BOOK OF DANIEL, and COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF are coming out, too… so it’s clear this whole TV Shows on DVD business makes no sense at all. But it gives me hope that such forgotten classics as, ahem, SHE-WOLF OF LONDON and MURPHY’S LAW will some day show up on the shelves at Best Buy.

Now Somebody is Watching

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Variety reports that a bootleg video of the unsold NBC/Universal WB sitcom pilot NOBODY’S WATCHING  "mysteriously" showed up on YouTube, where it has become a viewer favorite. The studio almost immediately gave YouTube the okay to keep the pilot up and is already considering offering it for sale on iTunes. Meanwhile, the producers are hoping the buzz leads to their sitcom getting a second chance on one of the networks.

Maybe I’m too cynical, and have written too many mysteries, but this whole thing feels very premeditated to me…it wouldn’t surprise me at all to learn that the producers or the studio were the ones who "mysteriously" uploaded the bootlegged pilot to YouTube.

YouTube, meanwhile, doesn’t seem to mind being used in this way. The pilot is content, after all, and I suppose YouTube is just glad any time a studio calls with something besides a cease-and-desist order.

Baywatch coming to DVD

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TVShowsonDVD reports that BAYWATCH is coming to DVD…beginning with seasons two and season three. What happened to season one?

The first season of the show, which I worked on as a story editor, aired on NBC (and had a different theme song — Peter Cetera’s "Save Me"). After the show was cancelled, the series was revived in first-run syndication and became the most popular show in the world.

When the series went into reruns, those NBC episodes weren’t part of the package (so much for my dreams of big BAYWATCH residuals) and haven’t been seen in years. Now those first season shows are being billed as "lost episodes," and instead of being released as a set, will be doled out one or two at a time as "bonus features" on the boxed sets of the nine syndicated seasons (I wonder if they will go the cheap route and replace the Peter Cetera theme with the syndicated series theme to avoid paying for licensing). So the only way to get the complete first season is to buy all the other sets. There’s no way in hell I’m going to do that…

You Just Know This Idiot Loves FanFic…

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My brother Tod has a weekly feature on his blog in which he skewers the "fucktards" who write Letters to Parade seeking answers from the fictional Walter Scott. Well,  Tod could probably do the same with some of the people who write to TV Guide.

Take Susan A. Davis of Newport, Vermont for example.

She’s peeved about the season finale of CSI, which showed Grissom and Sara in bed together in the closing moments of the episode. TV Guide called it a shocking season finale. But since I only watched two episodes of CSI this season, I didn’t realize I was supposed to be shocked. I just figured the two characters were doing the nasty monkey together now. I wasn’t shocked. In fact, I didn’t care. But let’s get back to Susan A. Davis of Newport, Vermont. She wrote:

The writers ought to sit in a corner with their faces to the wall and chant the following: Don’t mess with canon. Don’t mess with canon. Don’t mess with canon.

"Canon" is a term that fanfic writers like to use to refer to the backstory established in the TV shows, movies, books and comics that they are ripping off.  So what makes Susan A. Davis of Newport, Vermont a raging fucktard is that she doesn’t seem to grasp that  she was watching  the actual, original, CSI tv show…not reading CSI fanfic or CSI/X-Files cross-over fic or CSI slash fic or even the William Petersen Real Person Slash Fic that she probably loves.  Because if she did comprehend that she was watching the actual, original, CSI tv show, then she’d know that canon is whatever the creators of CSI say it is.  The writer/producers decide who the characters are and what they are going to do…they create the canon.

You may not like what the writer/producers come up with, you may think they’ve jumped the shark and fucked it, too… but it’s what’s happening on the actual, original, CSI tv show, which is still written and produced by the same folks who did the pilot, and that, Susan A. Davis of Newport Vermont,  makes whatever they do "canon."

So, I submit that Susan A. Davis of Newport, Vermont, should sit in a corner with her face to the wall and chant "I am a fucktard, I am a fucktard, I am a fucktard…"