The General Knight Rider thread.
- Thread starter Skipper
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Maybe, but it at least had a full season. Usually you would start to get an idea for the kind of story they want to tell via story threads that maybe would lead to something else. But to have it be a procedural was a disappointment to me, and I get it from a 'Hollywood does what it knows' standpoint, but it's not at all what I would have expected. And you're right though, even movies can start out as something and turn out completely different when following multiple characters and scenarios.
No, it didn't. Minority Report had an initial 13-episode order, but it was cut to 10 after it had a weak start in the ratings. Personally I don't think it would really count as a full season unless it had gotten a back 9 pickup for a total 22.
Hm. Given that the movie was about cops and crimefighting, I think turning it into a TV procedural is exactly what I would've expected them to do. Although my recollection is that the case-of-the-week element was secondary to the serialized story arc that explored the aftermath of the movie.
Let's let sleeping crap piles sleep -- if we keep bringing up crap like "Automan", or the previously un-mentioned "Manimal", Hollywood might get ideas to remake them...
I see your "The Phoenix" and raise you: "The Powers of Matthew Star".
2005 "Kojak".
No Greatest American Hero?
No Misfits of Science?
No Misfits of Science?
"Greatest American Hero" was good. Had some cheese, but it was good.
Okay, that one was largely better than the other shows being listed here. It had its cheesy episodes here and there, but to a large extent it was a relatively smart, well-done show, basically Stephen J. Cannell's attempt to do a superhero version of The Rockford Files. It did go downhill somewhat in its mid-second season and its third, though, at times when Cannell and Juanita Bartlett were too busy working on other shows to give TGAH their full attention. But both its second and third seasons end with fairly impressive episodes written and directed by Robert Culp.
Trivia: Since TGAH's visual effects were done by Douglas Trumbull's Magicam company, its alien spaceship was built by the same modelmaker who did the spaceships in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and the Mothership in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Incidentally, thanks to Tubi, I've been watching the show Cannell did between Rockford and TGAH, the short-lived Tenspeed and Brown Shoe, starring Ben Vereen and a young Jeff Goldblum as mismatched private detectives, a fast-talking con artist and the gumshoe-novel-loving ex-accountant trying to keep him on the straight and narrow. I remember liking the show as a kid, but in my rewatch, I haven't found it quite as engaging and I've only occasionally gone back to it, though I'm down to the last two. Goldblum is actually a bit annoying with the overearnest way his character is written, and though his character is supposed to know karate, it's extremely obvious that Goldblum didn't know the first thing about it. But Tenspeed and Brown Shoe was the prototype of the mismatched-buddy crimefighter format that Cannell would reuse in TGAH, Hardcastle & McCormick, and others.
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I know the thread is going astray, but...
Ben Vereen's character in "Tenspeed and Brownshoe" was apparently loved by Stephen, as he brought the character back in attempt to save another show that failed: "J.J. Starbuck" (which was actually good; the parent series was rather cheese).
Ben Vereen's character in "Tenspeed and Brownshoe" was apparently loved by Stephen, as he brought the character back in attempt to save another show that failed: "J.J. Starbuck" (which was actually good; the parent series was rather cheese).
Ok, I didn't realize it didn't get the full thing. I guess now we'll never know whether they had plans for something bigger than that. How frustrating.
I think the difference is that the movie was much more broad in its scope. I guess it's down to expectations? It's been long enough that I can't remember exactly what my issues with it were. I just know there was an element about the show that I personally found disappointing.
Automan was a fun series, but I liked it more as a kid than as an adult. Also, it aired the same time as Miami Vice by me, so I didn't see many episodes.
Also, I started a binge watch of the Powers of Mathew Star the last time I traveled. I actually liked it for some reason. The writing wasn't all that great, but for some reason, I really like Louis Gossett Jr.'s acting. I liked him in Iron Eagle, and I liked him in those bad Left Behind movies. But he really shined in An Officer and a Gentleman.
Also, I started a binge watch of the Powers of Mathew Star the last time I traveled. I actually liked it for some reason. The writing wasn't all that great, but for some reason, I really like Louis Gossett Jr.'s acting. I liked him in Iron Eagle, and I liked him in those bad Left Behind movies. But he really shined in An Officer and a Gentleman.
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This was not a good show. It has some decent episodes, but it's not good.
Honestly, the main thing I remember about the show was that I thought its lead actress Meagan Good was really hot, so that biased me in its favor. But I did find it interesting, and as far as I could tell without having rewatched the movie first, it felt like it managed to be a consistent continuation. I think the only significant change from the movie was that the identical twin precogs in the film were fraternal twins in the show.
Hmm, now you have me wondering about the connection between the movie and the TV series. I wonder if that connection would have deepened as the series went along if it had more seasons? Initially, I didn't think there was a connection at all.
No. It was good.
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