Robocop franchise/ Future Cop / Brillo

[jefferiestubes8]

Future Cop - 1977 Series TV Intro
cheesy but an android cop like the West World film.

Future Cop wikipedia entry

the short lived TV series Future Cop. It also once more involved the author Harlan Ellison. The tale of the Future Cop plagiarism lawsuit began with the short story "Brillo," written by Ben Bova and Harlan Ellison. "Brillo" centred on a robotic police officer in the near future. Published in 1970, the two authors eventually pitched "Brillo" as an idea for a TV series to Paramount Pictures. Paramount Pictures passed on the idea, but shortly thereafter began development on the TV series Future Cop. Like "Brillo," Future Cop centred on a robot police officer. The differences only lie in that Paramount moved the setting of the series to the present, made the robotic police officer (named Haven) humanoid looking, and gave him a crusty mentor played by Ernest Borgnine. It took two pilots before the series finally made it to the air. When it did make it to the air, Future Cop only lasted for seven episodes on ABC. Still, Paramount had not given up on the idea. The series was revived in 1978 as Cops and Robin, in which Haven and his crusty mentor must protect a six year old girl who witnessed a murder. A new series did not emerge.

Cops and Robin NBC promo 1978

Despite its short run, the presence of Future Cop on American airwaves was not lost on Harlan Ellison and Ben Bova. Ellison sued ABC and Paramount Pictures, alleging that Future Cop was a plagiarism of "Brillo." Ellison would ultimately win $337,000 from the suit. Ellison would use part of his winnings to pay for a billboard across from Paramount Pictures which read "Writers -- Don't Let Them Steal From You! Keep Their Hands Out of Your Pockets!" The lawsuit is considered a landmark victory for writers in Hollywood.

source

In 1987 Robocop the film was released which we've all seen. It spawned two sequels, a television series, two animated TV series, and a television mini-series.
Robocop 1994 TV series opening

Interesting how similar these shows are.

 

[T'Girl]

So any time there is a robot police officer, Ellison expect money to be thrown at him? I seem to remember the movie West World (1973) had a robot sheriff in the western town, wonder if Ellison also scammed MGM out of some "just go away" money?

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[Icemizer]

Maybe Ellison was watching to much Get Smart and stole the idea from them and the robot spy Hymie.

 

[Roshi]

That Future Cop show reminds me more of Holmes & Yo-Yo rather than RoboCop.