MeTV's SuperSci-Fi Saturday Night

[Zaku]

I used to watch that...it was an example like A-Team that worked in Fugitive elements, but didn't really follow the format. The first season, Matthew and Shep stayed put in one regular location and just kept their abilities secret...and I don't think the government types who were looking for them were an every-episode thing. Second season (or was the second half of one season?), they suddenly changed the premise to Matthew and Shep working as government agents.

There weren't the bad guys that invaded his planet that were searching for him too..?

 

[The Old Mixer]

Maybe, my memory of the show is vague. If so, I don't think they were an every-episode thing, either. The earlier part of the series was more centered around the high school setting with Matthew using his powers to help people, IIRC...the later part was Matthew and Shep being sent on missions for the government. Bottom line, though, is they weren't on the run on an episode-by-episode basis...they were settled in one place (at least for the earlier part). They had been on the run prior to the pilot, so it was more of a Fugitive-flavored backstory than a Fugitive series format.

Shows like Matthew Star and The A-Team definitely deserve honorable mention, though, for incorporating Fugitive-style elements on some level.

 

[Zaku]

Aaaaand.... Another one!

Two

Two is a Canadian drama series which aired from September 1996 to June 1997. It featured Michael Easton as Gus McClain, a college professor from Seattle who is framed for the murder of his wife by his twin brother Booth Hubbard (Easton in a dual role). Hubbard, whose existence had previously been unknown to McClain, committed several murders while assuming McClain's identity, leaving Gus on the run from the FBI. Complicating matters more was that Booth had a brain tumor that could kill him at any moment and leave Gus without a way to clear himself. The primary FBI investigator in the case was Terry Carter (Barbara Tyson), whose partner was a victim of Hubbard and does not believe his claims of a twin brother. It featured Andrew Sikes as a recurring character trying to help McClain.

 

[RJDiogenes]

This one might fit the bill: Here Comes The Grump. One of my favorite cartoons from grade school.

 

[Zaku]

This one might fit the bill: Here Comes The Grump. One of my favorite cartoons from grade school.

I'll see your Grump and I will raise you one The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The pilot episode opens with a live-action prologue which sets the premise for the series. It's late afternoon in Hannibal, Missouri and Twain's classic characters, Aunt Polly (Tom's aunt) and Mrs. Thatcher (Becky's mother) appear distressed in their concern for the youngsters who are said to be late arriving home. Next, we see our three protagonists, Huckleberry Finn (Michael Shea), Becky Thatcher (LuAnn Haslam) and Tom Sawyer (Kevin Schultz) taking a short-cut home through the town's graveyard when they encounter "Injun Joe" (Ted Cassidy). Furious at the two boys for testifying in court to seeing him murder Doctor Robinson, Injun Joe chases the three children into McDougal's cave. Once inside, the three youngsters quickly become disoriented within the cave's complicated mazes and find themselves lost. As the spry children outrun him, an angry Injun Joe vows revenge, calling out to them "You'll never get away from me! No matter where you go, I'll get you!". This prologue would be re-edited with a voice-over by Michael Shea as Huck Finn summarizing the events, and would serve as the opening sequence for each subsequent episode.

Although we never see the three youngsters emerge from the cave, it is presumed that they eventually find a way out since, as each episode proper begins, we join our three young live-action heroes as they now inhabit an animated world. Throughout the series, the children embark on a quest to return to their families in Hannibal, Missouri, traveling to various exotic animated lands (Tropical islands; Egyptian deserts; Aztec cities; etc.) and make friendships with an array of fanciful animated characters (leprechauns; pirates; sorcerers, etc.). In addition to the new friends they meet, each episode also features an evil animated antagonist who bears an uncanny resemblance to Injun Joe (voiced by Cassidy). The likeness is not lost on the three children, who are routinely startled by the striking similarity to their nemesis back home, however, an explanation as to how, or why, Injun Joe is constantly able to remain one step ahead of them in order to assume these various identities is never provided. As the series only lasted one season, an episode explaining how, or if, the three children ever make it back home, or if it may, in fact, all be some sort of surrealistic "dream", is never seen

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGt2CkfpvQY[/yt]

 

[Zaku]

I realized now that the only Fugitive-type show that had some kind of conclusion is the original The Fugitive (unless you want to consider The Death of The incredible Hulk as a finale for the series...)!

 

[The Old Mixer]

Kung Fu had a partial resolution...Caine found his brother but was still on the run.

 

[RJDiogenes]

This one might fit the bill: Here Comes The Grump. One of my favorite cartoons from grade school.

I'll see your Grump and I will raise you one The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Amazing. I have absolutely no recollection of that whatsoever.

Kung Fu had a partial resolution...Caine found his brother but was still on the run.

Not in the series itself, but there were a couple of episodes of Kung Fu: The Legend Continues where Caine's descendent Caine achieved some sort of family redemption for killing the Emperor's nephew. There was also Kung Fu: The Movie, but I don't remember if there was any resolution there.

 

[Zaku]

This one might fit the bill: Here Comes The Grump. One of my favorite cartoons from grade school.

I'll see your Grump and I will raise you one The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Amazing. I have absolutely no recollection of that whatsoever.

I remember it well . Probably it is one of the best example of interaction of live action with animated one on TV.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

This one might fit the bill: Here Comes The Grump. One of my favorite cartoons from grade school.

I'll see your Grump and I will raise you one The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Amazing. I have absolutely no recollection of that whatsoever.

Kung Fu had a partial resolution...Caine found his brother but was still on the run.

Not in the series itself, but there were a couple of episodes of Kung Fu: The Legend Continues where Caine's descendent Caine achieved some sort of family redemption for killing the Emperor's nephew. There was also Kung Fu: The Movie, but I don't remember if there was any resolution there.

No, Kwai Chang and Danny Caine meet in the second to the last episode of the series, and are together in the finale. Danny is in three episodes altogether: the fourth to last "Barbary House," the second to last "The Brothers Caine," and the last "Full Circle."

 

[Djinn]

Not sure how I have never heard of this channel before. Looking around it seems like it is not available on directv.

It is an interesting lineup, it just has me looking elsewhere online to see what some of these series are about.

 

[Silvercrest]

It's weird to see Bruce going hunting on vacation, and wearing a jacket with a shoulder pad that's clearly meant for a rifle butt. Batman using guns???

Rubber bullets. Honest.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Kung Fu had a partial resolution...Caine found his brother but was still on the run.

Not in the series itself, but there were a couple of episodes of Kung Fu: The Legend Continues where Caine's descendent Caine achieved some sort of family redemption for killing the Emperor's nephew. There was also Kung Fu: The Movie, but I don't remember if there was any resolution there.

No, Kwai Chang and Danny Caine meet in the second to the last episode of the series, and are together in the finale. Danny is in three episodes altogether: the fourth to last "Barbary House," the second to last "The Brothers Caine," and the last "Full Circle."

(Pssst--he knows that...he was referring to the "on the run" part, which was left unresolved in the last episodes of the series.)

 

[CorporalCaptain]

^ Oh, OK. Sorry, I misread that!

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ No problem. I kind of phrased my reply oddly. Early morning posting.

I'll see your Grump and I will raise you one The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Amazing. I have absolutely no recollection of that whatsoever.

I remember it well . Probably it is one of the best example of interaction of live action with animated one on TV.

Oh, so the main characters were always live action? I vaguely remember a couple of shows like that. This one sounds like it would be interesting to see.

 

[Zaku]

I remember it well . Probably it is one of the best example of interaction of live action with animated one on TV.

Oh, so the main characters were always live action? I vaguely remember a couple of shows like that. This one sounds like it would be interesting to see.

This is an Italian ad for the show:

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHyI3xBsKeg[/yt]

Edit: Does anyone remember Otherworld?

They are on the run, they have a special ability (the access crystal), they have a goal (to go back to earth).

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsYHQnInnXM[/yt]

 

[Christopher]

Going off on yet another tangent: I picked up the first two trade collections of DC's Batman '66 comic at the library. In many respects, it's a pretty good tribute to the show and gets a lot right -- the dialogue style, the reverence everyone had for Batman, his ability to solve any problem with his super-intellect or deploy any gadget at will -- but ramped up for an unlimited budget. Still, there are details that aren't quite authentic. Batman and Robin take their masks off in the Batcave. The Riddler and Penguin are identified as Edward Nigma and Oswald Cobblepot. (It's clear from the show that Penguin's legal name is The Penguin.) Batman sometimes calls Robin "Boy Wonder" -- that's what everyone else called him, but Batman called him "Robin" or "old chum." Most of the villains are incarcerated in "the Arkham Institute" rather than Gotham State Penitentiary -- and when we do see the Pen, Warden Crichton is inexplicably a black woman. (Maybe the original's wife? Progressive and all, but implausible in a '60s setting.) And there's a 2-parter that features London and Scotland Yard rather than Londinium and Venerable Ireland Yard -- although Londinium is mentioned in a later issue. Also, there's an unfortunate dearth of deathtraps. And many of the supporting players don't look like the original actors, although sometimes they do, depending on the artist.

Oh, yes, and there's a scene in the Batcave where they need to consult a map and they just look at a paper one! How could they forget the Giant Lighted Lucite Map of Gotham City?!

On the plus side, it finally gives us the more physical Catwoman I've wished for, one who actively participates in the fights. Or I should say Catwomen, since they've used both the Newmar and Kitt versions without explanation (with Kitt in a Batgirl solo story, naturally).

 

[RJDiogenes]

I remember it well . Probably it is one of the best example of interaction of live action with animated one on TV.

Oh, so the main characters were always live action? I vaguely remember a couple of shows like that. This one sounds like it would be interesting to see.

This is an Italian ad for the show:

That looks pretty cool. But I find myself thinking of the technical challenges more than paying attention to the story.

Edit: Does anyone remember Otherworld?

They are on the run, they have a special ability (the access crystal), they have a goal (to go back to earth).

Oh, yeah, I used to watch that. Gretchen Corbett was in it. It wasn't very good, though.

 

[Zaku]

Oh, so the main characters were always live action? I vaguely remember a couple of shows like that. This one sounds like it would be interesting to see.

This is an Italian ad for the show:

That looks pretty cool. But I find myself thinking of the technical challenges more than paying attention to the story.

Wikipedia has some info about the productions of the show

With the series' three young live-action stars in place, the complicated filming process began. During the months the series was in production, each day of filming reportedly began at 9:00 a.m.[8] Under California law at the time, child actors were required to attend school for three hours a day and periods of instruction had to last at least 20 minutes at a time.[8] When asked about the filming process, Michael Shea described an average day on the set, saying, "First we'd get made-up and dressed, and then we'd go to school while the shot was being set up. By coincidence, we were all taking the exact same subjects, so we were tutored together."[8] The young actors' scenes were filmed in front of a royal blue backdrop (an early forerunner to the modern-day CGI green screen) and the cartoon background and characters were animated in later.[8] A technique still in its infancy, the young cast was required to master the art of engaging in conversational exchanges without having their animated co-stars to interact with. Shea recalled, "Injun Joe, for instance, was a cartoon character, so when I had to talk to him, I'd run my eyes slowly up the blue screen until the director told me to stop. Then I'd just try to remember where that point on the screen was."[8] Since the voice-actors would record their audio tracks after principal filming, character actor Bruce Watson (LuAnn Haslam mistakenly giving his name as Bruce Davidson[4]), whom Shea described as "the greatest dialogue coach in the world", would perform the lines of all the animated characters for the young live-action stars to interact with during filming.[8] Each episode reportedly took approximately 4 hours to film and six months to animate.[4][8]

Edit: Does anyone remember Otherworld?

They are on the run, they have a special ability (the access crystal), they have a goal (to go back to earth).

Oh, yeah, I used to watch that. Gretchen Corbett was in it. It wasn't very good, though.

Yep. Great premise. Mediocre execution.

 

[Christopher]

Oh, boy... bluescreens are an "early forerunner" to CGI greenscreen, according to some Wikipedia contributor? Talk about lacking a sense of history. Bluescreen mattes (which take advantage of the properties of color film) were first used in The Thief of Baghdad in 1940 and were the predominant traveling-matte technology for the rest of the 20th century. Greenscreen mattes (which work better with digital video cameras) only began to take over in the late '90s when films began to use digital post-production, and only became the standard in the 21st century. And bluescreens are actually still used on occasion, since digital chromakey technology can be used with any desired background color.

Here's a nice overview of the history of matte technologies:

http://filmmakeriq.com/lessons/holl...-it-the-evolution-of-greenscreen-compositing/