Well, I had yesterday off, so I re-watched the first episode of Starsky & Hutch on the Planet of the Apes, so I'm ready to chime in if anybody else watches on MeTV. 
MeTV's SuperSci-Fi Saturday Night
- Thread starter JD
- Start date
Well, I had yesterday off, so I re-watched the first episode of Starsky & Hutch on the Planet of the Apes, so I'm ready to chime in if anybody else watches on MeTV.
Well, I don't want to say much until everybody else has had a chance to do a fresh watch. I certainly enjoyed it, but let's just say I have a few gentle criticisms. Needless to say, Roddy McDowall is superb and the star of the show.
Needless to say, Roddy McDowall is superb and the star of the show.
Well, I don't want to say much until everybody else has had a chance to do a fresh watch. I certainly enjoyed it, but let's just say I have a few gentle criticisms.
Well, let's try first with a technical question
. I read conflicting opinions whether this series fits into the movies continuity. Your take?
My take is that it does, but in a very different time period. Many years after the last movie and many, many years before the first movie. There are some inconsistencies, as I recall, but they can be easily explained. Back around the same time, Marvel came out with a black-and-white magazine with new Apes material and we decided that both the TV show and the comic fit easily into the continuity.
I recall that we also discussed the possibility that it was the same time period, but just in a different location. The TV show takes place on the West Coast, while the movies obviously take place on the East Coast. Since they are separated by at least one radioactive wasteland, the relationship between apes and humans could be quite different. That's not the view I favor, though.
I recall that we also discussed the possibility that it was the same time period, but just in a different location. The TV show takes place on the West Coast, while the movies obviously take place on the East Coast. Since they are separated by at least one radioactive wasteland, the relationship between apes and humans could be quite different. That's not the view I favor, though.
I just watched again the pilot and the two protagonists find this book
It's clearly stated that this is a photo taken in 2503. But didn't humanity fall at the end of the 20th century in the movies?
So...feels a little off-topic since I'm watching on H&I and the better part of two years behind the original discussion, but...
A few observations about Batman, "Hi Diddle Riddle":
Notice how Commissioner Gordon lowers his voice on the Batphone, like he doesn't want Aunt Harriet to hear him...even though he's in a room full of policemen who know who's on the other end.
Talk about a show that was made to sell color TV sets! Batman debuted the better part of a year earlier than Trek, and would have been a much more popular incentive when it was enjoying its 15 minutes.
It's cute how the Dynamic Duo use the big, obvious labels on their equipment to their advantage in protecting the Batmobile.
As a kid, Batman getting drugged while Robin was kidnapped disturbed me.
A few observations about Batman, "Hi Diddle Riddle":
Notice how Commissioner Gordon lowers his voice on the Batphone, like he doesn't want Aunt Harriet to hear him...even though he's in a room full of policemen who know who's on the other end.
Talk about a show that was made to sell color TV sets! Batman debuted the better part of a year earlier than Trek, and would have been a much more popular incentive when it was enjoying its 15 minutes.
It's cute how the Dynamic Duo use the big, obvious labels on their equipment to their advantage in protecting the Batmobile.
As a kid, Batman getting drugged while Robin was kidnapped disturbed me.
It's cute how the Dynamic Duo use the big, obvious labels on their equipment to their advantage in protecting the Batmobile.
Also, Batman invented the car alarm.
Although he seems to have un-invented it later in the season, since the villains stealing the Batmobile became almost a regular plot device.
Of course, none of this would be nearly as necessary if the car wasn't designed so that anyone could just climb in the thing....
Oh yeah, forgot to mention how Batman lets Robin walk on the back of the car!
ETA: Also, it's interesting how the news commentator asserts that Batman would have to reveal his true identity in court. A realistic touch, to be sure, but in the heightened reality of the show, one would think that Batman would be recognized as a legal entity without unmasking. As I recall, he makes at least one courtroom appearance in costume later in the show.
Oh yeah, forgot to mention how Batman lets Robin walk on the back of the car!
ETA: Also, it's interesting how the news commentator asserts that Batman would have to reveal his true identity in court. A realistic touch, to be sure, but in the heightened reality of the show, one would think that Batman would be recognized as a legal entity without unmasking. As I recall, he makes at least one courtroom appearance in costume later in the show.
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Programming notes for the new lineup that debuts tonight/tomorrow morning:
The Wild Wild West (6 PM) begins with the second-season premiere, "The Night of the Eccentrics." That implies they're skipping the black-and-white first season -- boooo!
Land of the Giants (1 AM) starts at the beginning with "The Crash," as do The Time Tunnel (2 AM) with "Rendezvous With Yesterday" and Planet of the Apes (5 AM) with the similarly-named "Escape From Tomorrow."
Star Trek (9 PM) is showing "The Man Trap" tonight, no doubt as an anniversary tribute. Otherwise, the returning shows are just continuing forward as before.
As the prosecutor, no less!
Anyway, that goes to show how the series started out being a little more grounded and serious than it ended up becoming -- though only a little.
The Wild Wild West (6 PM) begins with the second-season premiere, "The Night of the Eccentrics." That implies they're skipping the black-and-white first season -- boooo!
Land of the Giants (1 AM) starts at the beginning with "The Crash," as do The Time Tunnel (2 AM) with "Rendezvous With Yesterday" and Planet of the Apes (5 AM) with the similarly-named "Escape From Tomorrow."
Star Trek (9 PM) is showing "The Man Trap" tonight, no doubt as an anniversary tribute. Otherwise, the returning shows are just continuing forward as before.
As the prosecutor, no less!
Anyway, that goes to show how the series started out being a little more grounded and serious than it ended up becoming -- though only a little.
It's migrating back over there from H&I, so they may just be continuing the same sequence. I've seen them run b&w episodes on one channel or the other before, so they'll probably get back to them.
Ah, so that's on Me now...Decades just played a few episodes of it yesterday, which I recorded as it's one of those shows I've heard a lot about but never actually watched.
It's pretty mediocre overall -- it's Irwin Allen, after all -- but I might check out the pilot again, since I love the nifty matte shots of the huge Project Tic-Toc complex that appeared only in the pilot (as far as I recall).
Note also that "Svengoolie" is hosting a special two-hour broadcast of "The Cage," also as part of the 50th Anniversary celebration, so there's a three-hour bloc of STAR TREK tonight.
I wonder how they'll pad that out to an entire 2 hours. Even my old VHS version with the Roddenberry introduction is only 73 minutes. So will they have really long host segments, or will there be some kind of bonus documentary material?
Lots of humorous skits and schtick from Sven, I'm guessing. This is pretty much standard operating procedure, since many of the old b/w movies he shows are only 80 minutes or so, so he pads things out with comedy skits, puppets, interviews with guests, clips of convention appearances, musical numbers, movie trivia, etc.
Last week, "The Frozen Ghost" with Lon Chaney Jr. was only 79 minutes long, so they brought on some old 1950s rocker to do a musical number. They also did a segment on a horror-themed wax museum that was celebrating its 50th anniversary.
In other words, I wouldn't expect any "bonus documentary material."
Well, it's bound to be better than those uncut TOS episodes that Syfy (or was it still Sci-Fi?) aired in a 90-minute time slot some years back. They had a few brief cast and crew interviews as interstitials, but mostly they just had an insane amount of commercials and "we'll be back" bumpers. I always thought they should've shown one act of a TAS episode with each TOS episode; with 3 acts per episode, that would've added an average of 7 minutes and covered 66 of the 79 episodes (since you wouldn't need one for the longer "The Cage").
I'm looking forward to it!
