593 posts tagged “tv”

Now that Vox seems to be letting me in within minutes rather than hours, my mind turned to cheesy 1980s’ mini-series. Remember when this was cool?

   Maurice Binder did the titles to this Sidney Sheldon-based mini-series, If Tomorrow Comes, starring Madolyn Smith. Binder’s trademark can be seen here: primary colours, a modernist approach to most elements, including the typography (ITC Modern No. 216). The hourglass motif was also used in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. The scary thing is I remember the Nick Bicât theme after all these years, but didn’t remember Liam Neeson being in it as a co-star.
   One YouTuber has put up clips from the mini-series and I was surprised at how slowly things dragged on, even with a 10-minute selection. We’ve obviously become accustomed to the action in the big-screen blockbusters.
   Before Matt Damon was Jason Bourne, Dr Kildare was Jason Bourne. This also dragged on—the difference being I remembered it being slow at the time (1988) and thinking it only needed to be two hours. Evidently some movie executive thought the same in the 2000s with the Doug Liman version.
   However, for Ludlum purists, the mini-series was more faithful to the book and even has a few scenes that creep up in the second movie.
   Old Doc Kildare was looking pretty worn by 1988, though Jaclyn Smith still looked amazing (and in 2009, as a 60-something, she still does). There were some good action sequences, but they were few and far between. However, as with If Tomorrow Comes, some European filming gave the mini-series a bit of polish that was absent from the hourly TV shows on back then.
   Here’s how it started (similarly to the Matt Damon one): And here’s a meeting at Treadstone—and yes, that is Shane Rimmer in the military uniform:    How about this one, Deceptions, starring Stefanie Powers, from 1985? This stands up quite well, with a ridiculous plot of two twins swapping lives, and Barry Bostwick with a lot of facial hair. The finalé takes place on Tower Bridge, London, and they shut off the bridge to film it, so some big bucks were involved. More entertaining than a lot of the stuff on TV today, and certainly miles better than any of that reality garbage.

Action Concept, the crowd that makes Alarm für Cobra 11: die Autobahnpolizei, has an English trailer for the show on its site. I am surprised no English channel has ever picked up the long-running series. Sure, it’s devoid of real plot and there are inconsistencies the size of Düsseldorf itself, but my gosh, is it fun.
   The budget has been cut since its heyday and the ratings are down, but from what I have read in the German press, it still outperforms everything else in its time slot.
   One problem is that the trailer is ancient. The German accent on the American English (why do announcers in Germany all sound the same—is this the same guy as on DW-TV?) might make it too foreign for some English-speaking countries, but who cares?

   As fans can see, Semir’s partners end with Tom Kranich (played by Réné Steinke). Since then, Chris Ritter (Gedeon Burkhard) has joined and been killed off in the course of duty, and Ben Jäger (Tom Beck) has been fielding the sidekick position since. The intro is pre-Chris, though this is still the only one I can recite with my extremely limited German.
   This is the sort of show that might start off at a bad time slot on an English channel and steadily work its way to prime-time. Even if it was dubbed, I am sure it would get plenty of fans.

PS.: I have tried Vox at another office, and I have used it with another ISP. The compose screen either fails to come up or takes several hours. Something is afoot.

Who knew that there would be an Already Ghosts group right here in Wellington?!

I had a moan about this yesterday on Twitter and Facebook, but seeing another ad for Leverage on the NZ City site brings it all back. Prime is promoting this TNT show a lot, but just as with TV One and Jekyll, they miss the fact that lead actress Gina Bellman is a Kiwi. Come on, folks, how about a bit of national pride? Our Gina is doing well!

I think Vox might be back. I clicked ‘Create’ and the compose box came up instantly.
   How’s this for a sparring match? The Renault Sport Mégane versus the Ford Focus RS. The Renault has a 50 bhp deficit but still manages to keep up on the corners. No surprises which car I was rooting for.

Go back one year and this was how Tom Beck was promoted in his first season of Alarm für Cobra 11: die Autobahnpolizei. There were a few episodes I didn’t see, judging by this RTL promo.

I saw a bit of this on telly, but didn’t expect it to be passed around the internet as much. Background: ‘Safer communities together’ is the local slogan for the police, much like ‘To protect and serve’ for some American police departments.

I somehow think there are fewer big car stunts tonight on Alarm für Cobra 11: die Autobahnpolizei. At 8.15 p.m. on RTL. Looks more like an episode of Water Rats.

There are numerous clips of Little Britain Down Under on YouTube, but David and Matt meeting Dame Edna has to be a highlight (from 3.28).

The makers of Alarm für Cobra 11: die Autobahnpolizei have a good relationship with many of the local car manufacturers. BMW débuted its X1 on the show, before it even appeared at the IAA (Frankfurt Motor Show), and since it is filmed in Nordrhein-Westfalen, Ford Köln is in the area. So, is this a Ford prototype? It looks like a stripped-down version of next year’s S-Max.