13 posts tagged “abc”

Here’s the full publicity picture from US Life on Mars, including the American Gene Hunt himself (Colm Meaney), Sam Tyler (Jason O’Mara) and Annie Cartwright (Rachelle Lefevre).

   What is American for ‘You great, soft, sissy, girly, nancy, French, bender, Man. United-supporting poof!’?
   Here’s another pic from the network:. Question: who’s the old dude on the left? Is this the American Ray?    And, finally, the trailer, which is of great interest to me. Fans of the original, you’ll notice many things are repeated from the first episode in the UK, except the Americans drive on the wrong side of the road—so Sam stops his Jeep on the right side. (He is, interestingly, struck from left to right, too.) The suspect’s name, Colin Raimes, is the same, Sam’s girlfriend in the present is called Maya, and even the Life on Mars title card looks very much like the original with a few changes for US tastes. IMDB says Edmund Butt, who scored the original, has the same job this time around.
   Gene seems less tough in this incarnation though. Maybe Philip Glenister desensitized us?
   I was laughing through most of it (note the American VO with ‘Back in the nick of time’, used in the second series) but unlike most Brit fans, I am looking forward to this.    Un pub pour la nouvelle série américaine Life on Mars, avec les photographies de publicité. Il y a beaucoup de similitudes avec la série originale britannique du BBC.

Interesting commentary on ABC’s brand-new hit shows for 2008 in the American TV Week:

Buzz projects: Game show “Opportunity Knocks,” which takes the game show out of the studio and into contestants’ front yards, is gaining steam. An adaptation of British crime drama “Life on Mars” is virtually on the air, although producer David E. Kelley’s involvement is in doubt.

   We know Life on Mars is a remake, but Opportunity Knocks? Talk about reviving something very, very old.
   It began on BBC Radio in 1949 and the Hughie Green TV version on ITV began in 1960 in the UK.
   While this version sounds a bit different (‘contestants’ front yards’?) I can’t help but think it’s somehow the same show—it certainly sounds like a talent show with everyday contestants, as with the original.
   The original was infamous for having a young Su Pollard beaten by a dog and some dude called Gerry Dorsey (Engelbert Humperdinck to most of us) getting rejected at auditions. But it was a solid ratings’ hit for ITV and Thames in its day.
   It was so famous that Benny Hill did a parody of it in 1971, pretending it was on German television:

   Again, I shall be interested to see what transpires, and I mean that most sincerely, folks.

Isn’t it far too early to be nostalgic for a Beverly Hills, 90210 revival?
   American networks don’t think so: it’s back in the (northern) autumn, called 90210 and produced by Rob Thomas (who’s also doing the US version of Outrageous Fortune, called Outrageous Behavior).
   More at Canada.com.
   Normally revivals take some 20 years though they seem to come around the time of Hollywood writers’ strikes.
   And will fans of the old watch the new if it doesn’t have returning stars? That would be like Grease 2 not having Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta.

Life on Mars (the US version) has made the news a bit more lately, with a report that David E. Kelley could leave the show if financial arrangements don’t suit.
   Variety reports that October Road executive producers Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec and Scott Rosenberg could join the series as showrunners if Kelley departs.
   The Hollywood Reporter says ABC is close to picking up the US version of the British time-travelling cop show as a series.
   So for those of us without Ashes to Ashes to watch till 2009, this might be the next best thing. And because we know the British ending, there’s always a chance that the US one won’t work out the same way (even if Three’s Company kind of did).

I would have watched Alias if it was more like this each week.

My memory says that Life on Mars is about a chap called Sam Tyler, who wonders if he’s in a coma, mad, or back in time. Not Annie Cartwright. But from the National Post in Canada, I read:

Rachelle Lefevre is having a very good year. The red-haired actress gets to be featured on David E. Kelley’s Boston Legal for a three-episode arc in the next few weeks. She’s preparing for good news soon regarding Kelley’s Life On Mars pilot, written by Kelley especially for Lefevre who plays a time-travelling detective.

   Wow, written ‘especially’ for her—so is the American Life on Mars a bit more like Ashes to Ashes with a female time traveller?
   Doesn’t sound right if it is an adaptation of the British original. However, I think Ms Lefevre looks great, and I ain’t complainin’.

First there was Kath & Kim, the US version, for NBC. Now, ABC brings you … from the maker of Veronica Mars … the American version of Outrageous Fortune!
   I can see OF work in the US though no doubt the hard-out Kiwi fans of the show will join all the Brits (who have had their fair share of American remakes), and moan. We will say what an inferior version the American one is and how it misses all our Newzild subtexts.
   The American Outrageous Fortune will join the American Life on Mars and the American Kath & Kim on American TV screens this autumn, I mean the American version of autumn, which is called fall. 
   We are certainly not immune from taking someone else’s concept and running with it, what with the New Zealand version of two British shows, Strictly Come Dancing and Pop Idol, and a Danish show that is now called Sensing Murder here. It’s only notable because aside from Popstars, New Zealand shows have not made it hugely overseas in licensed format.
   And the Dutch can get angry about the British versions of some of their shows like Big Brother and The Generation Game.
   Actually, I welcome our trans-Pacific transplanting and I hope the creators of Outrageous Fortune can bring in some useful royalty income into New Zealand.
   The irony is that this is probably the sort of show TV2 would air here in an effort to beat TV3, which shows the original OF.
   If we are all licensing each other’s shows, then how about a local version of Alarm für Cobra 11 but with a Māori guy and a white guy?

More news is emerging on the American remake of Life on Mars, which may come in the fall break there on ABC.
   But here’s the humdinger. Should we get ready for blog commenters who say Spaniards always mess up British shows though? From Variety:

Spanish terrestrial broadcaster Antena 3 TV will reversion the BBC’s high concept cop drama "Life on Mars," transferring the action from Manchester to Madrid.
   This pioneering remake of a U.K. TV fiction series for Spain, tentatively titled “Vida en Marte,” will be produced in 2008 and aired next year in primetime.

   It’s to be set in 1978. No word yet on the character names but you can be Santos Tyler and Geraldo Hunt won’t be them. But 1978—will they dash around in a Chrysler 150, 180 or Seat 132?

There have been rumours that NBC was planning to cancel Journeyman, but the latest news is that four more episodes have been ordered.
   I hate hearing of these cancellation rumours, especially since the show has only had three episodes aired and the network presumes that it can gauge its popularity from that.
   If networks went with ratings this closely, we would never have had additional seasons of The Dick van Dyke Show, a sitcom which many would agree set the template for its modern counterparts. I am sure readers out there can think of more examples of shows that faltered early but found their feet later.
   But with this interconnected world, it will make those of us outside the United States think twice about watching any American show, for fear of investing our time and finding out that it was all in vain. Or, it will force us back into one-hour shows with no story arcs extending beyond one episode.
   I watched The Pretender for years, but I understand the network concluded it was cheaper to buy football games and cancelled it. Fans of Tru Calling (sorry, I was not one) were also left hanging, even if New Zealand was the first country to get the second season. I have no idea why anyone would watch The Nine on prime-time here in New Zealand, considering it meets an early end. John Doe was another. Mr & Mrs Smith, the series about the two spies who often pose as an undercover married couple, only finished its season in Australia: the Americans saw seven and I think we only got to that number, too. That one where John Stamos played a thief and Ian McShane his Dad—whatever that was—I enjoyed that, too. Day Break was a seven-episode affair on ABC in the States; fortunately, we got to see all 13 of that excellent drama, a sort of Americanized Life on Mars.
   US networks have no need to care about foreign markets, as they can get sufficient business domestically, but it can make us eye their new offerings with suspicion.
   So now we come to one of the best dramas of their new season, from two blokes who had worked on The West Wing. Dan Vasser is a journalist who begins, inexplicably, time-travelling. There are shades of Quantum Leap, but the character development and drive are a lot stronger. Scots actor Kevin McKidd, whom I last saw in a Christmas Father Ted special stuck in the lingerie store, is brilliant. (Moon Bloodgood, ex-Day Break, and Gretchen Egolf, whom I last saw in Martial Law, are welcome returning faces.)
   It is a clever drama and we know the American audience is actually smart and sophisticated: if it can follow the many threads of Heroes, which airs before Journeyman, then this should be a walk in the park.
   This is where the Brits get things right: there is more judgement on merit, not ratings, and a good drama is given a chance to build up loyalty. The US networks, with their knee-jerk reactions and inability to see what forces might be keeping a good series down, are less able to do this—with serious long-term consequences.
   So I applaud NBC for ordering the four extra episodes, and can assure them that Journeyman will be more than able to build an audience domestically and internationally. The opinions of foreigners like us—I am prepared to buy the DVD already on the strength of the three episodes and knowing creator Kevin Falls’s work—must count for something.

Given how popular my Love Boat post was, I thought I would attempt it with Charlie’s Angels. The only problem is, from a design perspective, not much changed. If anything, with each title change, the openings seemed to get more and more out of date. You also can’t sing along to the late Jack Elliott’s theme. Still, it is an interesting journey into recent TV history, and how a show began sinking because of cast changes and ever-inexperienced actresses. But Jaclyn Smith is still hot, so there.
   Here is the original cast:

   Then, goodbye Farrah. She may have been the 1970s icon and with hindsight, her departure from the show helped turn her into a legend. Word has it that her husband, our good mate Harv Yeary, wanted her at home more. For whatever disputes went on behind the scenes, Spelling and Goldberg decided that Farrah’s role would be replaced by that of a sister, played by Cheryl Ladd.
   Just as Jaclyn Smith was chosen for her good looks, Cheryl was chosen for her figure. To this day, there is something alluring to me about a girl with her hair up in a hot tub. Cheryl did that. 

   Now, change Kate’s clips a little for the New Year and put Cheryl’s name on a single line. Is it me, or has John Forsyth’s narration changed a little, too?
   Kate always thought she was the star and I reckon she must have felt overshadowed. So exit Kate—the smart one—and hello Shelley Hack. Shelley was the first woman I remember on TV who wore slacks in a perfume commercial. What next? Being Prime Minister of the United Kingdom?
   In the final series, the narration changed: the third member was no longer an ex-cop, but an ex-model, played by Tanya Roberts. And thank God, we still have Cheryl in the hot tub. Not all was lost, but by this time, the show’s impact on everyday life hit an all-time low. It never recovered the days of Farrah’s nipples showing through her T-shirt from the first season. No one wanted to have hair like Jaclyn, Cheryl or Tanya.
   So while they had new Mustang IIIs to drive around in, the Charles Townsend detective agency closed its doors, at least till Drew Barrymore got bored one day. And word has it that Charles Townsend went undercover in Denver with the alias of Blake Carrington. At least they sounded like the same guy.