SFF show on Heroes & Icons

[JD]

They finally added Heroes and Icons to my cable package, so I've gotten a chance to start watching some of the Sci-Fi and Fantasy shows they air. Yesterday I watched a bit of an episode of Xena, and now today I watched Greatest American Hero and Beastmaster.
Greatest American Hero
This is one I've been wanting to watch for a while, and I'm glad I finally got a chance to, because I really enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun, the three main characters were likeable, the writing was pretty good, and the superpowers stuff was fun.
Beastmaster
I used to watch this off and on as a kid when it originally aired, and so I was curious to check it out as an adult, and I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to. The characters were all pretty interesting, the action was pretty good, and as an animal person I got a kick out of Dar's animal friends. The guy who played the big bad Zad was just the right amount of over to top for a bad guy in this kind of show. The 2 episodes they showed today also had Into The Badlands Marton Csokas in them so I got a big kick out of seeing him pre-ITB.

 

[Refuge]

Before you know it you'll be watching Xena every chance you get. It's addictive.

 

[M'rk son of Mogh]

I love this channel. I thankfully have it through free-to-air (I'm probably the only person in the company I work at that still knows what commercials are) and every night when I'm getting ready for bed, there's a Trek episode on for me and I love it. It's usually DS9, but Voyager right after has kept me up later than I should on many occasions. Once Enterprise hits, I know it's going to be a very rough morning.

I'll watch the odd Hercules episode here and there. I don't enjoy it as much as I did on first airings I find.

 

[JD]

Before you know it you'll be watching Xena every chance you get. It's addictive.

I'm hoping that maybe once we hit the fall they'll change the schedule and move Hercules and Xena to times when I'll have a better chance of being able to watch them.

 

[tomalak301]

This is the network I wish would add something like Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I would record all the episodes then, and I don't have Hulu so that option is out. Would like to know what I missed.

 

[The Old Mixer]

I'm hoping that maybe once we hit the fall they'll change the schedule and move Hercules and Xena to times when I'll have a better chance of being able to watch them.

Sounds like you caught Xena on Saturday. They also show those two in the wee hours on weekdays, if that's any better for you:
http://www.heroesandiconstv.com/shows/hercules-the-legendary-journeys
http://www.heroesandiconstv.com/shows/xena-warrior-princess

 

[JD]

It's on til one in the morning here, and I'm sound asleep by then. I don't have any kind of regular schedule at work, so there should be at some Saturdays where I'm off all day, or at least early enough to watch Hercules and Xena. I'm just frustrated because them and Greatest American Hero are the shows that I most want to watch on H&I.

 

[The Old Mixer]

GAH is also on Saturday mornings at 10 and 11 EST.

 

[Christopher]

The Greatest American Hero and BeastMaster: The Series are both shows that got weaker over time. TGAH was subject to network pressure to make it more kid-friendly and simplistic, as was common for SF/fantasy shows in the '70s and '80s, so it was smartest and richest in the first season. As for BeastMaster, it was from Tribune Entertainment, which naturally meant that it had its original showrunner fired and was subject to constant retooling and budget-slashing from the network suits, although its developer/showrunner at least lasted an entire season, which is twice as long as Earth: Final Conflict's developer lasted. The second season doesn't really change that much from the first, but there's a pretty major retool in season 3, with the movies' lead Marc Singer being brought in as a new character.

 

[JD]

I have to confess, after all the horror stories on here, I did cringe a bit when I saw the Tribune logo pop up during Beastmaster's credits.

 

[Christopher]

I have to confess, after all the horror stories on here, I did cringe a bit when I saw the Tribune logo pop up during Beastmaster's credits.

Of the Tribune shows I've seen, BeastMaster weathered the changes better than the Roddenberry shows. But then, the Roddenberry shows started out as smart, sophisticated hard science fiction with something to say, and so they had a very long, very fast fall to Tribune's preferred level of lowbrow action. BeastMaster was never really more than a B-movie action fantasy to start with (as far as the screen franchise goes -- the original Andre Norton novel that it was loosely based on was drastically different), although the show was a fairly good entry in that genre for at least the first year or two.