MeTV's SuperSci-Fi Saturday Night

[TREK_GOD_1]

I had to look that up to know what you meant. I hadn't realized Norman Burton had played Leiter. Apparently he also had roles in two Planet of the Apes movies and the '74 TV series of same (which IMDb oddly lists as a "TV mini-series" rather than what it was, a series that got quickly cancelled).

Mini-series? How did IMDB cough that one up? Geeze. That's not even trying to source readily available information.

Anyway, I've been thinking about the theme song and wondering why they so drastically changed the lyrics. There were only a couple of lines in the first-season lyrics that were specific to the WWII period. The second verse had "Make a hawk a dove / Stop a war with love / Make a liar tell it true," and the third had "Stop a bullet cold / Make the Axis fold / Change their minds and change the world." The first one of those could've been left unchanged, or maybe replaced with "Conquer hate with love," say. Finding a replacement for the Axis line is a bit trickier -- "Make the villains fold," maybe, but that's weak. How about "Make the timid bold"? In any case, they could've just tweaked a few syllables, but instead they replaced the whole verses with much worse lyrics. That's a shame.

Yes, it is a shame, as the music end remains a strong piece.

 

[Christopher]

The problem is that it wasn't meant to be a finale. They were going to do another, but Bill Bixby died.

I didn't know that. Where had they planned to go with it, considering that he'd died?

Okay, turns out I was wrong about the reasons for the project's cancellation. From Wikipedia:

Despite the Hulk's death in the 1990 film, the movie's makers had intended from the start for him to return in The Revenge of the Incredible Hulk, again with Gerald Di Pego as writer. As of July 10, 1990, a script was being written.[5] It has been reported that the fourth film would have featured the Hulk with Banner's mind,[1] and that the project was canceled because of Bill Bixby's struggle with cancer,[6] but Di Pego has refuted both these claims as fan rumors, pointing out that Bixby's health had not yet begun to decline at the time the film was cancelled. Di Pego said that the plot for The Revenge of the Incredible Hulk began with Banner being revived, but no longer able to change into the Hulk. Banner then begins to work for the government in order to prevent accidents like the one that turned him into the Hulk, but is captured by villains and coerced into turning their agents into Hulk-like beings. According to Di Pego, at the film's climax Banner would be forced to recreate the accident that transformed him into the Hulk in order to stop the villains' plans.[7]
The sequel was cancelled because of the disappointing ratings for The Death of the Incredible Hulk.[7]

Not sure how I feel about that idea, though it could've been done well, I suppose.

I've read about another idea for a fourth movie that would've been a backdoor She-Hulk pilot starring Gabrielle Reece as Shulkie, although as just another mindless Hulk rather than the wisecracking, self-aware Jen we know and love. Read the tale here:

http://spinoff.comicbookresources.c...aled-did-bill-bixby-star-in-a-she-hulk-pilot/

I remember that after Bixby died, I had an idea knocking around in my head for how they could have done one more....Since TDOTIH had emphasized researching his healing abilities, the scientists would have tried using gamma rays to revitalize him, with the side effect that he'd be stuck in Hulk form, but with Banner's intelligence...give Ferrigno a chance to carry the torch.

Not so different from the rumored plot mentioned above.

I always wished they had done at least one episode like that, with an intelligent, verbal Hulk. They did give Ferrigno a speaking part as a bodybuilder in one episode, but that was it.

And DD felt more like he belonged in the TV Hulk's world than their version of Thor did.

Absolutely. The Hulk series was set in a relatively naturalistic world; other than one episode involving a psychic, the only fantasy element was gamma-ray mutation producing Hulk-like beings (the Hulk himself, the Dick Durock creature in "The First," and the prehistoric Hulk in the Kim Catrall episode). Suddenly injecting Norse gods and magic into the universe was a jarring conceptual mismatch. But Daredevil was also mutated by radiation, and in a fairly subtle way, so he fit perfectly into the established rules of the series.

The other odd bit of business I'd like to have seen touched upon for a finale would be seeing him reunited with his family from the Thanksgiving episode. TDOTIH kind of took a leak on that, intentionally or not, by having Banner go out of his way to say that the scientists who'd taken him in were the only family he had.

I feel the same way about that. It was also incongruous in the context of Trial. That movie started with David lost and angsty and feeling alone in the world, which also ignored the issue of his family, but by the end of the movie, he'd made friends with Matt Murdock and seemed happier now that he knew there was someone else he could turn to and confide in. But then just nine months later he's all despairing about how alone and friendless he is? It just didn't make sense.

Of the three revivals, Trial is the best, even if -- as you say -- it's really a Daredevil movie guest-starring the Hulk. The Thor movie had the virtue of being written and co-directed by Nicholas Corea, one of the better writer-producers from the original series, so it was pretty good for what it was (and at least it had McGee), but the supernatural angle just didn't fit, as I said.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Huh...interesting that they may have been thinking along the same lines that I was a few years later and for different reasons.

 

[The Realist]

Well, there's a name I haven't seen in a while. How you doing, buddy? I pretty much agree with you. I never much watched Wonder Woman back in the day-- aside from the Adam West Batman, which was on when I was in grade school, TV and movie adaptations of superheroes never appealed to me-- but from what I've seen of it on MeTV, the first season is pretty cool, thanks to the period setting, and the rest is mostly pretty bad. Except maybe for that gorilla episode, which had a Silver Age charm to it.

Hi, RJ! Nice that somebody around here still remembers. I actually lurk quite a bit, but rarely post anymore.

(BTW, the gorilla episode was first season.)

Hmm, that's not encouraging. But I'll see. I figure that, for better or worse, I owe it to myself to rewatch this. I watched it as a child and have retained very little recall of it, so I want to refresh my memory.

Oh, I certainly wasn't trying to discourage anyone from watching. After all, I own the complete series on DVD. It's just frustrating that basically every change they made after the first season was a change for the worse. But at the end of the day, it's still Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman, and I wouldn't give up a single episode.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Hi, RJ! Nice that somebody around here still remembers. I actually lurk quite a bit, but rarely post anymore.

I don't blame you.

(BTW, the gorilla episode was first season.)

Sweet. That makes it more likely I'll get the DVDs eventually.

 

[Christopher]

By the way, a question for the group: What musical style would you say the Wonder Woman theme song belongs to? I'm not sure I can recall another piece of music quite like it. The best description I can think of is "funk power ballad," but I'm not at all sure of that.

 

[Noname Given]

By the way, a question for the group: What musical style would you say the Wonder Woman theme song belongs to? I'm not sure I can recall another piece of music quite like it. The best description I can think of is "funk power ballad," but I'm not at all sure of that.

Sorry, but it really comes across as something conceived in the 'Disco' era (as it WAS conceived and performed in the height of 'Disco') - and it does have a beat you can dance to.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Maybe power lounge music...I can picture Bill Murray singing it.

 

[RJDiogenes]

The Millionaire seems like a strange show. I haven't had a chance to see an entire episode, but the format is interesting. The narrator character speaks directly to the audience, like Rod Serling in Twilight Zone, but he is also part of the story (usually just to hand over the check). He describes the millionaire character as having died a few years ago, and the stories he tells are from a few years before that. Since the show started in 1955, that would mean that the stories must take place in the 1940s. I haven't seen enough of it to be able to tell if they actually make any effort to be true to that period.

 

[The Old Mixer]

That, or the narrative framing sequence (really the stock opening, I think) takes place in...[holdsnose]THE WORLD OF THE FUTURE![/holdsnose]

Caught a couple of episodes Sunday...as I thought, not my thing. Happy to take a break from having DECADES on constantly.

 

[RJDiogenes]

That, or the narrative framing sequence (really the stock opening, I think) takes place in...[holdsnose]THE WORLD OF THE FUTURE![/holdsnose]

Good thought. There's really nothing to pin down the time frame of the intros.

Caught a couple of episodes Sunday...as I thought, not my thing. Happy to take a break from having DECADES on constantly.

Next will be Family Affair. How I hated that show when it was on the air.

Except for Mister French. Mister French rocked.

 

[The Old Mixer]

I'll probably put FA on in the background some. I have a "special relationship" with that show...to say more would be to divulge details of my secret identity.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Ah, crush on Cissy, eh?

 

[The Old Mixer]

Not even close....

Evidently my mom had a crush on Uncle Bill, though...I can say no more.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Okay.

Next up will be Phil Silvers, which I also have no interest in. I'm waiting now for Love, American Style. It's too bad they don't have a schedule that lists individual episodes, but at least I have the first day of the marathon off.

 

[The Old Mixer]

There's also the Mrs. Beasley connection...my sis used to have one of those.

I woke up in time to catch Family Affair's Hippie Episode (TM).

I was reading something interesting about FA...evidently they used to shoot all of Brian Keith's scenes for a half-season in a month to keep him open for movie roles, then shoot the remainder of the material for those episodes around him.

 

[Photoman15]

They got that from My Three Sons. All of Fred MacMurray's scenes were shot in a very short time (a few weeks to a month) and then everything else. The same person created both shows and they had the same production company.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Yeah, they mentioned that in the Wiki article I was reading. It's interesting to watch knowing that they were working around him...I notice how often Uncle Bill was traveling, on dates, etc.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Well, Mister French was always the real star as far as I was concerned.

That is interesting, though. If they did that today, they could just shoot the guy against a green screen and the other actors wouldn't even have to be there.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Is this the one where Wonder Woman spends a half-hour waiting for a table at a Chinese restaurant?

"Seinfeld, four!"