13 posts tagged “promo”

Remember this scene?

   It’s Quin Gallardo and Samuel Santos figuring out who’s behind the kidnappings in the first episode of La chica de ayer—Spanish Life on Mars. Seems the show is doing very well in Spain with this Antena 3 TVC:

I posted this last week but didn’t do a blog entry: a promo for the second series of Ashes to Ashes, which begins on the 21st at 9 p.m. on BBC One. It’s rather well made (it’s not from clips of the show, but especially filmed), and I didn’t recognize Chris (Marshall Lancaster) with his new hairdo!

Not many clues about the eighth US episode of Life on Mars in the latest promotion, tied in with the new Lost. I am wondering who has called Sam at an address he has more or less concocted himself at the end of the seventh episode, because it sounds more sinister than the Hyde 2612 call at the beginning of the original’s second series.

Life on Mars isn’t the only show that has had a producer change and rejig Stateside. Knight Rider, shown as a telemovie earlier in 2008, has gone through many changes, though Justin Bruening and Val Kilmer remain. The rest of the telemovie, I have read, has been chucked out.

For those who saw my earlier post on the ABC retro-style promo—and the discussion that it wasn’t that genuine—here’s what a 1972 promo for the network really looked like.

   Gotta dig that slitscan technique—no computers doing these effects then!
   Some from 1973 announcing programmes:

   Since ABC has used the Mod Squad theme for its Life on Mars promo, how about a real one for Mod Squad—really from 1973 itself?    Surely if the BBC can re-create its 1973 graphics, and ABC wants to play the same trick, it wouldn’t be that hard to make something like this, would it?

Looks like ABC is getting into the retro theme with this 15-second promotion for the American Life on Mars.

   OK, so the typography is meant to be reminiscent of the 1970s but it looks more modern (I seem to remember Peignot was used a lot then on ABC, but perhaps Americans can tell me more definitively), the theme is that of The Mod Squad, and the voiceover sounds like the old announcer on that network (who I understand has passed away). The logo looks suitably retro, too.
   This reminds me of the campaign the BBC used for the second series of the original Life on Mars in the UK, which included the old BBC1 globe before each episode. A pity TVNZ never did it here in New Zealand—I did suggest it to them at the time, and they could have got out old TV1 logos. For those who might not remember the 2007 campaign: with all those lovely brown tones from 1973 and typography looking like it was done on Letraset (it was more likely digitally set). The retro ident was also computer-re-created but it looks nearly indistinguishable to the original, apart from the widescreen ratio:    It looks like ABC is being far more serious about Life on Mars than when David E. Kelley was helming the programme, though I wonder if first-time viewers will understand the retro campaign for a first series. Even the UK, despite its nostalgia for The Sweeney and The Professionals, waited till the second year before springing the retro marketing campaign on to the public.

I hope Kiwi Lifers seeing the ninth episode of Life on Mars tonight for the first time enjoyed it. I did watch it again—yes, with the ads—and I didn’t mind the repeat, even if I could have chucked on the DVD. The acting was superb on every count, including that of guest star Marc Warren. Simm and Glenister were brilliant was always. Most of my commentary on the show was on IMDB, so it looks like I didn’t blog as much about the second series as I thought. Those messages, dating back to March 2007, have all disappeared, but I do remember being spooked out by the telephone call at the end from Hyde 2612.
   As to the image at the left, wait till episode five of this series.
   Strangely, the first promo I ever saw for the second series of Life on Mars was around 6.30 p.m.—two hours before the broadcast. If I hadn’t bought the DVD I would have been furious for the late under-promotion. I understand from the VO at the end of the episode that it replaced Without a Trace, and the American show was even advertised in some publications. The decision to air Life on Mars seems to have been a very late one, which explains why there was so little by way of promos.
   If only TV One promoted this prime-time show with the fervour that the BBC had—I even suggested a year ago that the old 1973 NZBC logo should come on before the programme, just as BBC One put on the early-1970s blue globe before its second-series Life on Mars episodes:

   If anyone caught the promo for next week’s episode, Emmy is misspelt by TV One staff as Emme. Let’s hope they catch it before more of this typo airs.

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 Lefèvre).

   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.

The trailer to one of my favourite films—but it’s very 1960s. A modern audience won’t exactly get excited over this. That’s ironic though: if you see the film, there are plenty of scenes which could be edited in a modern fashion to create a very impactful trailer. But since it was the 1960s, this was perfectly acceptable and there’s just enough of Sophia Loren in a state of undress to get her fans along. And plenty of Christian Dior dresses and shoes (oh, the shoes—they were in Loren’s contract and written in to the script as a fetish of Alan Badel’s character). Gregory Peck, meanwhile, is still one of the top stars of the time—doing a role originally written for Archie Leach (Cary Grant to the rest of us). Note the prominence of Henry Mancini’s name, too. 
   As a movie it holds up remarkably well, far better than the trailer.

Un pub pour le film Arabesque, de Stanley Donen, avec Gregory Peck et Sophia Loren.

If you thought The Professionals was the first time Martin Shaw could be seen driving a Ford Capri, think again. This clip—probably from 1974 judging by the registration of the car—sees Mr Shaw as the male model charged with selling the Ford Capri II, a full three years before the cult TV show. This is, perhaps, prescient, considering that the TV series was credited as the number-one reason the Ford Capri stayed in production until 1987.

   Un publicitaire de 1974 pour la Ford Capri II, avec l’acteur britannique Martin Shaw, trois années avant sa série The Professionals.