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Post by Deleted on May 29, 2022 10:31:41 GMT -5
Thank you.
My childhood involved enjoying the following shows: Knight Rider, Airwolf, The Fall Guy, The Dukes of Hazzard, The A-Team, Blue Thunder, and the criminally underrated and under-appreciated Street Hawk. They don’t make them like that now. In fact, what happened to the super-vehicle concept? We need to bring it back.
I suppose some concepts wouldn’t be as impressive today. A lot of real-life cars can do what KITT did, e.g. satellite navigation, autonomy, etc. But I think something like Airwolf is still ahead of its time, perhaps outside the realms of possibility. I’m no aviation expert, but I seriously doubt there’ll ever be a supersonic helicopter.
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Post by codystarbuck on May 29, 2022 21:05:34 GMT -5
Loved the Airwolf pilot movie and the first season, but became less enamored with the second. The Fall Guy was entertaining enough; but, I preferred Lee Majors in the Six Million Dollar Man.
The problem with a lot of the action shows was once you saw one episode, you had pretty much seen them all. I'd enjoy an episode of Knight Rider, Airwolf, Dukes or the A-Team; but, after 3 in row, I was bored with it and might skip it for a bit, unless they had a good guest star.
As far as Airwolf, as a feasible helicopter, the problem of supersonic flight is the issue of how a helicopter flies. The rotors create lift; but, you also have more drag issues than most fixed wing aircraft, which is one of the things that have held them back, in regards speed. The fastest military helicopters are the CH-47 Chinook and Mi-24 Hind, which are both bigger than the attack helicopters, like the Cobra and Apache. They have bigger power plants, though and can deliver more speed; but, we are talking about 200 MPH; so, we aren't anywhere close to 767 MPH, for Mach 1. The stealth aspects and weapons system were probably more realistic than anything else. They at least came up with something that sounded good, by saying they disengaged the rotors and were solely flying via jet engine when it was supersonic, implying that the fuselage acted like a lifting body.
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Post by Deleted on May 31, 2022 11:32:30 GMT -5
I do like the explanation for Airwolf’s supersonic flight in the pilot. Disengaging the rotors and igniting turbines did sound semi-plausible.
There was a third season episode where terrorists had managed to launch a nuke towards Washington. Airwolf ascended to 100,000 feet in that episode, which concerned co-pilot Dominic Santini. You know, within the parameters of the show, disengaging rotors and flying via jet engine was just about believable, but a chopper at 100,000 feet? No way! (Still, it was a good scene)
EDIT: You know, one day I might get to type a post without *crappy* autocorrect deciding it knows better. Pile of crap.
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,202 
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Post by Confessor on Jun 1, 2022 6:58:22 GMT -5
Airwolf is the second greatest TV show of all time after The A-Team (with The Fall Guy being the third greatest)... Sweet Jesus! Are you sniffing glue?!   |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 1, 2022 13:24:34 GMT -5
Did a mostly new watch of HBO's Rome lately. I'd watched the first 3-4 episodes way back when, but got distracted by other things. Overall it's a very good show that is diminished by the fact that it was truncated to two seasons from the planned five. It takes obvious liberties with actual history, partly for dramatic effect, partly for budget (battle scenarios particularly) and partly because of the truncated nature. But it's not nearly as egregious (generally) as most historical films or TV shows. The cast is generally good to excellent. Ray Stevenson steals the show as Titus Pullo and has, by far, the best character arc. I knew James Purefoy from Hap & Leonard and thought he was great as Marc Anthony. Really I'm hard-pressed to think of any casting that didn't work for me.  |
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Post by berkley on Jun 1, 2022 14:22:03 GMT -5
Did a mostly new watch of HBO's Rome lately. I'd watched the first 3-4 episodes way back when, but got distracted by other things. Overall it's a very good show that is diminished by the fact that it was truncated to two seasons from the planned five. It takes obvious liberties with actual history, partly for dramatic effect, partly for budget (battle scenarios particularly) and partly because of the truncated nature. But it's not nearly as egregious (generally) as most historical films or TV shows. The cast is generally good to excellent. Ray Stevenson steals the show as Titus Pullo and has, by far, the best character arc. I knew James Purefoy from Hap & Leonard and thought he was great as Marc Anthony. Really I'm hard-pressed to think of any casting that didn't work for me. You could see that they made more of an effort to pay attention to historical detail than most such shows had ever done up to that point. I liked the two leads and Purefoy was awesome as Mark Antony. Almost all the cast were really good as far as their performances were concerned. I thought the guy who played Julius Caesar was the wrong physical type for his character - a little too portly - but it wasn't something that ruined the character for me.
From memory, the only role I thought was significantly misplayed was Cleopatra: I don't blame the actress, because she was obviously playing her part the way it was written and the way she was directed to do it, but the intellectual stature of the historical Cleopatra, which is what made the biggest impression on her contemporaries, even more than her famous seductiveness (actually the two were intertwined, according to Plutarch) didn't come across at all, and she seemed a lightweight character, just a cute, flirtatious young woman who happened to be Queen of Egypt and captivated Antony just because she was young and cute and Queen of Egypt. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 1, 2022 14:29:18 GMT -5
Did a mostly new watch of HBO's Rome lately. I'd watched the first 3-4 episodes way back when, but got distracted by other things. Overall it's a very good show that is diminished by the fact that it was truncated to two seasons from the planned five. It takes obvious liberties with actual history, partly for dramatic effect, partly for budget (battle scenarios particularly) and partly because of the truncated nature. But it's not nearly as egregious (generally) as most historical films or TV shows. The cast is generally good to excellent. Ray Stevenson steals the show as Titus Pullo and has, by far, the best character arc. I knew James Purefoy from Hap & Leonard and thought he was great as Marc Anthony. Really I'm hard-pressed to think of any casting that didn't work for me. You could see that they made more of an effort to pay attention to historical detail than most such shows had ever done up to that point. I liked the two leads and Purefoy was awesome as Mark Antony. Almost all the cast were really good as far as their performances were concerned. I thought the guy who played Julius Caesar was the wrong physical type for his character - a little too portly - but it wasn't something that ruined the character for me.
From memory, the only role I thought was significantly misplayed was Cleopatra: I don't blame the actress, because she was obviously playing her part the way it was written and the way she was directed to do it, but the intellectual stature of the historical Cleopatra, which is what made the biggest impression on her contemporaries, even more than her famous seductiveness (actually the two were intertwined, according to Plutarch) didn't come across at all, and she seemed a lightweight character, just a cute, flirtatious young woman who happened to be Queen of Egypt and captivated Antony just because she was young and cute and Queen of Egypt. I think the criticism of Cleopatra is fair. And it's definitely on the writing and the showrunner not the actress. I wonder if it would have been better if they'd had the full five years to develop the character better. |
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Post by berkley on Jun 1, 2022 18:27:16 GMT -5
You could see that they made more of an effort to pay attention to historical detail than most such shows had ever done up to that point. I liked the two leads and Purefoy was awesome as Mark Antony. Almost all the cast were really good as far as their performances were concerned. I thought the guy who played Julius Caesar was the wrong physical type for his character - a little too portly - but it wasn't something that ruined the character for me.
From memory, the only role I thought was significantly misplayed was Cleopatra: I don't blame the actress, because she was obviously playing her part the way it was written and the way she was directed to do it, but the intellectual stature of the historical Cleopatra, which is what made the biggest impression on her contemporaries, even more than her famous seductiveness (actually the two were intertwined, according to Plutarch) didn't come across at all, and she seemed a lightweight character, just a cute, flirtatious young woman who happened to be Queen of Egypt and captivated Antony just because she was young and cute and Queen of Egypt. I think the criticism of Cleopatra is fair. And it's definitely on the writing and the showrunner not the actress. I wonder if it would have been better if they'd had the full five years to develop the character better.
Good point, we don't know what the original plan for her was, since the show was cut off early.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 7, 2022 4:59:29 GMT -5
UK comedy Steptoe and Son debuted on BBC One sixty years ago today. It featured a father-and-son rag-and-bone business in Shepherd’s Bush, London. Wilfrid Brambell played Albert Steptoe, the father, while Harry H. Corbett played the son, Harold. The characters did not get on with each other. They were bickering, fighting, disagreeing, etc. Fun stuff.
I saw some of these on DVD years ago. Eight seasons aired in total, although there was a gap between the initial series and the revival in 1970.
I wonder, did this translate well overseas? In particular, I imagine the term rag-and-bone isn’t used in the United States, but I imagine there’s a U.S. equivalent of that kind of business, which traded in discarded junk.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Jun 7, 2022 7:29:58 GMT -5
(...) I wonder, did this translate well overseas? In particular, I imagine the term rag-and-bone isn’t used in the United States, but I imagine there’s a U.S. equivalent of that kind of business, which traded in discarded junk. To address your second point first, yes, they're usually called junk dealers, but there's probably a number of other terms in different parts of the country. As to your first question, it translated quite well - because the show was 'translated' into an American version called Sanford & Son, starring comedian Red Foxx. It was a very popular show for its six seasons (1972-1977) and was even briefly revived in 1980-81, but it was just called 'Sanford' (because the actor who played the son wasn't interested in reprising his role). Since then, it's also been pretty popular in syndication as well.
Here's the title sequence for the original show, with the excellent theme music by Quincy Jones:
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Post by Deleted on Jun 7, 2022 7:42:09 GMT -5
Thank you. I think I want to see this remake. Sounds good!
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 7, 2022 21:26:06 GMT -5
Thank you. I think I want to see this remake. Sounds good! Several British comedies got remade for US audiences, during that timeframe. Till Death Us Do Part was remade by Norman Lear as All In The Family Steptoe & Son became Sanford and Son Man About The House was redone as Three's Company. Fawlty Towers was remade three times; but only two made it to series: Chateau Snavely (pilot only), with Harvey Korman and Betty White; Amanda's, with Bea Arthur, and Payne, with John Larrouquette. Are You Being Served was redone as Beanes of Boston, as a pilot, with Alan Sues (Laugh-In) as mr Humphries, John Hillerman (Magnum PI) as Capt Peacock, Charlotte Rae (Facts of Life & Different Strokes) as Mrs Slocombe, and Lorna Patterson (Airplane & Private Benjamin tv series) as Miss Brahms. Men Behaving Badly was redone, under the same name, with Rob Schneider & Ken Marino and limped through 2 undistinguised seasons. Red Dwarf had two separate pilots for the US, one of which had Jane Leeves, as Holly and Craig Bierko as Lister, while Robert Llewellyn reprised Kryten. A second pilot had Bierko & Leeves, but Terry Farrell joined, as the Cat (replacing Hinton Battle, who performed in The Whiz, on Broadway). Life on Mars got a rather lackluster American remake, which used a definite ending, when it was cancelled, which few liked. It wasn't terrible; but, the writing wasn't as good and Jason O'Mara was never as interesting as John Simm; and, as much as I like Harvey Keitel, his Gene Hunt wasn't a patch on Phillip Glenister. Also, they were less successful; in depicting the 70s. I liked Gretchen Mol, as Annie, as she was played differently and really liked Michael Imperiolli, as Ray, as he was given more depth. Several ITV series were brought over to the US, during their heyday, such as The Avengers, The Prisoner, The Saint (which was very popular, during the color years), Danger Man (as The Secret Agent), The Champions, The Persuaders and the Gerry Anderson series (Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Fireball XL-5, UFO, and Space 1999). In the 70s, PBS became a regular outlet for comedy and drama, from the BBC and ITV. Masterpiece Theater showed such series as Upstairs, downstairs, I, Claudius, Brideshead Revisited, Edward the King, The Fall of Eagles; Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy & Smiley's People, Danger UXB and All Creatures Great and Small, among others. Comedy started making the rounds with Monty Python, then things like Doctor in the House, The Goodies, The Good Life (as The Good Neighbors), to The Manor Born, The Bounder, Rising Damp, Yes, Minister; Fawlty Towers, Are You Being Served?, Keeping Up Appearances, Open All Hours, Only Fools and Horses, Red Dwarf, Men Behaving Badly, Black Adder, Mr Bean, Last of the Summer Wine, May to December, The Piglet Files, Drop the Dead Donkey (on Comedy Central), Absolutely Fabulous (also Comedy Central), The Young Ones (on MTV) the Comedy Strip Presents(MTV, because several of the Young Ones cast were in it, plus the Bad News Tourepisode), Jeeves & Wooster (with Fry & Laurie) and A Bit of Fry & Laurie. Detective series brought over included Inspector Morse, Rumpole of the Bailey, A Touch of Frost, the PD James series, Prime Suspect, Cadfael, Lovejoy, Cracker, Hettie Wainthrop, Rosemary & Thyme, Foyle's War, Lord Peter Whimsey, Sherlock Holmes (Jeremy Brett) and others. Once the home video revolution got going well, we started getting video imports, without them first appearing on cable or PBS (though more the shows that had already appeared than new ones). PBS continued to buy British stuff. In the 70s, it was mostly BBC or the big ITV dramas and detective. In the 80s, you got a lot of Grenada and Thames Television stuff, a little London Weekend Television. By the 90s, it was coming from the specific production companies, after Thatcher started messing with ITV, like Hat Trick Productions, or Tiger Aspect or Kudos. Spitting Image appeared in specials, over here, done specifically for the US, but with the same voice actors (Chris Barrie did a lot of his Ronald Reagan), in the 80s, but not as a regular series. They attempted an American swipe, with DC Follies; but, it tanked. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 7, 2022 21:59:09 GMT -5
ps How could I forget Doctor Who? I'm not sure when it first started appearing over here; but, most stations started showing it during the Tom Baker years. My local station started with that, then brought in Peter Davison, then showed Jon Pertwee through Tom Baker, until they had the new Davison stuff, continued through Colin Baker and into Sylvester McCoy. By the time I was in high school, they were showing it weeknights, so they could move through the stories and series. Some stations were only showing it on the weekends and some did that, but ran the whole serial.
We also later got Blake's 7.
My local PBS station was part of the University of Illinois and had been buying British shows since the early 70s. Doctor Who was a big deal in the late 70s and 80s and the local fan club, at the U of I, would take part in pledge drives (especially after the Reagan Administration cut funding for public broadcasting) and they would do special episodes, like the Three Doctors and The Five Doctors, or one of the bigger serials, like Genesis of the Daleks. They also showed the pilot for K-9 and Company and would show the Peter Cushing films, occasionally, in their late movie slot (weekends). They ran the sitcoms and did that nightly, by the 90s, with Are You Being Served? and then an entire bloc of them on Saturday nights. They brought in some things for Pledge Drives, like a test for new series or the entirety of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere (nice idea and cast; but, the budget and visuals really held it back). They also used to have actors from some of the series, like one or two of the cast of Are You Being Served?, for pledge drives. They would do marathons and specials, at those times, often with inserts of people like Molly Sugden or John Inman, telling people to contribute to their local PBS station, for more of the content.
The A & E network started as a glorified PBS station, for cable, and carried a lot of that, into the early to mid-90s. They started to move away from it, by the 2000s. Bravo, another cable channel, ad stuff like A Bit of Fry & Laurie.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jun 10, 2022 10:17:00 GMT -5
Did a mostly new watch of HBO's Rome lately. I'd watched the first 3-4 episodes way back when, but got distracted by other things. Overall it's a very good show that is diminished by the fact that it was truncated to two seasons from the planned five. It takes obvious liberties with actual history, partly for dramatic effect, partly for budget (battle scenarios particularly) and partly because of the truncated nature. But it's not nearly as egregious (generally) as most historical films or TV shows. The cast is generally good to excellent. Ray Stevenson steals the show as Titus Pullo and has, by far, the best character arc. I knew James Purefoy from Hap & Leonard and thought he was great as Marc Anthony. Really I'm hard-pressed to think of any casting that didn't work for me. I would have loved to see Stevenson take a crack at playing Conan. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 12, 2022 7:31:41 GMT -5
As I work my way through my UFO boxset, I am impressed by the show. Last night’s episode was “The Cat with Ten Lives”, which saw the aliens utilise a Siamese cat at SHADO HQ.
Great plot. Interesting. Unique. And I doubt I’ll ever trust a cat again…
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