The original timeline.
Netflix developing 'Lost in Space' remake!
- Thread starter Karzak
- Start date
The original timeline.
Probably not the best example on my part. I just struggled to come up with another IP that was still a sizeable franchise in it's own right but only the original movie made a truly lasting impact, while the other instalments just toddled along, trying to recapture that initial success. In that sense only 'Highlander' came to mind. I didn't really mean to compare them in terms of relative impact. I mean I love 'Highlander' way more that I like the original 'Planet of the Apes', but clearly 'Planet of the Apes' is certainly by far the bigger deal.
The new 'apes' movies may well completely turn that around for their part of course, I just feel it's too early to gauge any lasting impact.
In a sense, they're so removed from the original movies that they *almost* may as well be entirely their own thing. They've (quite admirably) never attempted to recreate the 'Statue of Liberty' scene and unless you know the source material, the re-use of names like "Caesar" & "Cornelia" won't resonate.
You're right though of course that the final scene is one of those that will probably outlive the film itself in terms of public consciousness. I imagine "...damn dirty apes!" is probably a close second.
I think my main point with BSG is just how *quickly* it faded after, as you say, it got so much mainstream attention. Sure there are people who remember it outside of the fandom, but who besides the fans really talk about it? What shows/movies quote or parody it? Again, time will tell of course but for now it seems to be going the way of 'Lost in Space', 'Logun's Run' & 'Space Above and Beyond'.
I might say the same thing about X-Files, but I haven't been a fan of that show since the fifth or sixth season when things went wonky so I'm not in a very objective position to judge.
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It's funny. Just the other day I was watching an old WONDER WOMAN episode set at an SF convention back in the seventies. STAR TREK and STAR WARS were never mentioned by name, but LOGAN'S RUN was treated as though it was the biggest thing in science fiction!
Another interesting case: Despite some recent activity, XENA was another phenomenon that seemed to fall off the radar rather quickly after the show wrapped up. At its height, XENA was everywhere: magazine covers, conventions, merchandise, lots of publicity. Gay bars hosted special "Xena Nights." Heck, I even managed to sell a non-fiction book on XENA . . . and for a nice advance.
But in the years since it went off the air, BUFFY seems to have eclipsed XENA somewhat. As a XENA fan, I confess it drives me mildly nuts when I see articles citing BUFFY as the forerunner of today's modern TV action heroines, even though XENA was there first. XENA even did the special musical episode thing first, even though BUFFY usually gets credited with that, too.
Personally, I blame Oprah. The rerun rights to XENA were sold to the Oxygen network, which might as well as have been invisible as far as much of the world was concerned, whereas BUFFY and ANGEL reruns still play constantly on cable . . ..
Another interesting case: Despite some recent activity, XENA was another phenomenon that seemed to fall off the radar rather quickly after the show wrapped up. At its height, XENA was everywhere: magazine covers, conventions, merchandise, lots of publicity. Gay bars hosted special "Xena Nights." Heck, I even managed to sell a non-fiction book on XENA . . . and for a nice advance.
But in the years since it went off the air, BUFFY seems to have eclipsed XENA somewhat. As a XENA fan, I confess it drives me mildly nuts when I see articles citing BUFFY as the forerunner of today's modern TV action heroines, even though XENA was there first. XENA even did the special musical episode thing first, even though BUFFY usually gets credited with that, too.
Personally, I blame Oprah. The rerun rights to XENA were sold to the Oxygen network, which might as well as have been invisible as far as much of the world was concerned, whereas BUFFY and ANGEL reruns still play constantly on cable . . ..
As I said over in the MeTV Saturday thread, they probably played up Logan's Run because it (the TV version) and Wonder Woman were both CBS series, so it was the only real SF show they had permission to mention, and it was probably easy to get their hands on the leftover costumes. (Although they also referenced Robby the Robot by name.)
Another interesting case: Despite some recent activity, XENA was another phenomenon that seemed to fall off the radar rather quickly after the show wrapped up. At its height, XENA was everywhere: magazine covers, conventions, merchandise, lots of publicity. Gay bars hosted special "Xena Nights." Heck, I even managed to sell a non-fiction book on XENA . . . and for a nice advance.
I always found it interesting that Xena so totally eclipsed the show it spun off from, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. They're actually developing a Xena remake now with no mention of Hercules. That's kind of unusual, for a spin-off to be bigger than the original.
As I said over in the MeTV Saturday thread, they probably played up Logan's Run because it (the TV version) and Wonder Woman were both CBS series, so it was the only real SF show they had permission to mention, and it was probably easy to get their hands on the leftover costumes. (Although they also referenced Robby the Robot by name.)
Another interesting case: Despite some recent activity, XENA was another phenomenon that seemed to fall off the radar rather quickly after the show wrapped up. At its height, XENA was everywhere: magazine covers, conventions, merchandise, lots of publicity. Gay bars hosted special "Xena Nights." Heck, I even managed to sell a non-fiction book on XENA . . . and for a nice advance.
I always found it interesting that Xena so totally eclipsed the show it spun off from, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. They're actually developing a Xena remake now with no mention of Hercules. That's kind of unusual, for a spin-off to be bigger than the original.
Definitely. XENA became the tail that wagged the dog.
(Although I seem to remember that the "official" conventions were often billed as HERCULES/XENA conventions, perhaps for form's sake?)
There's also a new line of XENA novels in the works, but I haven't heard anything about HERCULES.
Although Hercules is kinda trickier to license, since, technically, the original Greek hero has been public domain for thousands of years now.
Cool. Keep us updated, please. I'll want to grab that when it comes out. I wonder if they'll ask Doug Moench to contribute-- he and Mike Ploog did the best Apes spin off bar none.
It's funny. Just the other day I was watching an old WONDER WOMAN episode set at an SF convention back in the seventies. STAR TREK and STAR WARS were never mentioned by name, but LOGAN'S RUN was treated as though it was the biggest thing in science fiction!
Another interesting case: Despite some recent activity, XENA was another phenomenon that seemed to fall off the radar rather quickly after the show wrapped up. At its height, XENA was everywhere: magazine covers, conventions, merchandise, lots of publicity. Gay bars hosted special "Xena Nights." Heck, I even managed to sell a non-fiction book on XENA . . . and for a nice advance.
But in the years since it went off the air, BUFFY seems to have eclipsed XENA somewhat. As a XENA fan, I confess it drives me mildly nuts when I see articles citing BUFFY as the forerunner of today's modern TV action heroines, even though XENA was there first. XENA even did the special musical episode thing first, even though BUFFY usually gets credited with that, too.
Personally, I blame Oprah. The rerun rights to XENA were sold to the Oxygen network, which might as well as have been invisible as far as much of the world was concerned, whereas BUFFY and ANGEL reruns still play constantly on cable . . ..
This is what I was talking about earlier. When you think back there are a bunch of shows that were a *huge* deal in their time, but almost the second they were off the air it was almost as if they never existed.
I'm still of two minds as to whether 'X-Files' falls into this category. That show was *massive* at it's peak, but it had a bit of a late decline and probably outstayed it's welcome. That may be a significant factor as to why it's not often thought about. AFAIK the last movie they did sank like a stone with barely a ripple and we'll just have to wait and see how the new revival does.
I think 'Lost' may be a similar case in that regard in that people made a massive fuss early on, but over time it just outstayed it's welcome before ending in profound disappointment.
It makes Star Trek's longevity all the more impressive considering it only lasted three seasons and the third one (the one most seem agree to be the weakest) only happened by the skin of it's teeth and a letter writing campaign.
I suppose the key is getting new viewers to watch the repeats *after* the show has ended. It's certainly why JMS is so adamant that the only hope B5 has of a revival is if the original show gets put back on the air in the states.
(For the record, I only saw the last two or so seasons of 'Xena'. For that reason, it makes it a bit hard to go back and watch the earlier episodes that seem so silly compared to the dower tone of the later stuff. Also didn't help that I had a friend who had a bit of an unhealthy obsession with the show. That tends to put one off a bit. Oh and I never could stand 'Hercules'.)
Buffy was loaded with an insane amount of pop-culture references, which is the stuff that kids that grew up to be interwebs writers liked, hence the disproportion of mentions I reckon.
Well, for a time, it looked that way. Logan's Run had the life of fireworks: fast rise, big explosion, then burned out quickly. For a moment, after the 1976 movie (which had been highly anticipated for years, and changing interest from George Pal and Irwin Allen before Saul David finally got the job) was all the talk in sci-fi cinema.
As a result, it was quickly acquired for adaptation: in January 1977, Marvel Comics' 7 issue run hit the racks (5 covering the film, the last two trying to explore a post-film story), and in September, the 14 episode TV series premiered. The TV series was adapted as UK hardcover comic book annuals and serialized versions in the juvenile TV magazine Look-In.
Novel co-author William F. Nolan was also active in the period with two novel sequels: Logan's World (1977) & Logan's Search (1980). Even toy maker Mego (best known for their 8-inch action figures of DC, Marvel, Star Trek and Planet of the Apes characters) made prototype figures based on the TV series leads, but as the dates indicate, the explosion was all short-lived.
Logan's Run was following the franchise model set by TOS & Apes, but the concept was never meant to go on and on. It had a natural beginning, middle and end--which was the reason the 1967 novel was a bestseller / gained the interest of Hollywood early on--it was self-contained.
That said, perhaps the Wonder Woman reference was the writer living in the brief glow of Logan as a property. It would help to know when the script was submitted. Maybe the screenwriter was a LR fan and gave it a nod in the convention setting, instead of the then-omnipresent TOS.
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Although Hercules is kinda trickier to license, since, technically, the original Greek hero has been public domain for thousands of years now.
That could be a factor. Maybe the producers embraced and promoted Xena more because it was a property they had exclusive control over. Although that's not to discount the importance of the fan response.
I always found it interesting that Xena so totally eclipsed the show it spun off from, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. They're actually developing a Xena remake now with no mention of Hercules. That's kind of unusual, for a spin-off to be bigger than the original.Another interesting case: Despite some recent activity, XENA was another phenomenon that seemed to fall off the radar rather quickly after the show wrapped up. At its height, XENA was everywhere: magazine covers, conventions, merchandise, lots of publicity. Gay bars hosted special "Xena Nights." Heck, I even managed to sell a non-fiction book on XENA . . . and for a nice advance.
But not totally unheard of. (hint: [singing]The Siiimpsooonsss...[/singing])
Although Hercules is kinda trickier to license, since, technically, the original Greek hero has been public domain for thousands of years now.
That could be a factor. Maybe the producers embraced and promoted Xena more because it was a property they had exclusive control over. Although that's not to discount the importance of the fan response.
Hard to say. Marvel faces the same issue with Thor, but that hasn't stopped them from merchandising "their" Thor aggressively.
You can copyright your version of HERCULES (or THOR), but there's nothing to stop anyone else from producing toys or comics or even another TV show featuring Hercules, Zeus, Aphrodite, etc.
Heck, Marvel has its own version of Hercules who predated the Kevin Sorbo show by decades. Wonder if he'll show up on screen someday?
The LoS reboot has been ordered to series. It will be very interesting to see what kind of direction they take this in. It does sound like they will at least be keeping some of the humor.
Lost in Space on Netflix? I'm in.
