Monday, August 16, 2004

Oh. Dear.

If you caught The Best TV Shows That Never Were on ABC earlier this evening, you were subjected to clips of television pilots that weren't picked up. And if you think that the stuff that makes it on the air is crap, you couldn't believe that stuff that didn't make the cut.

Among the travesties presents were four pilots made from comics: Daredevil, with blind lawyer Matt Murdock donning a black fabric costume to use cheesy martial arts to bring down the bad guys; The Mighty Thor, with the thunder god fighting crime in bad viking gear and sharing an apartment with an ordinary guy; Generation X, starring kids whose mutant powers appeared to be the ability to generate bad special effects; and Mandrake, the magician as a 70's super spy with an ugly mystical amulet.

Seriously, had any of these made it to air it would have set back the state of comic adaptations at least a decade.

14 comments:

Jon Silpayamanant said...

Daredevil, with blind lawyer Matt Murdock donning a black fabric costume to use cheesy martial arts to bring down the bad guys;Urgh...sounds exactly how Daredevil appeared in the made for television movie The Trial of the Incridible Hulk...and John Rhys-Davies as the choice for the role of the Wilson Fisk is worlds worse than Michael Duncan Clark...IMO...

The Mighty Thor, with the thunder god fighting crime in bad viking gear and sharing an apartment with an ordinary guy;Urgh...sounds like a collusion of the plot in The Return of the Incredible Hulk.

I heard about Generation X--didn't that actually make it into a show--or at least a pilot? Or am I thinking about some other silly mutant television show?

Never heard about Mandrake...still, I'd probably like to see all of those!

Jon Silpayamanant said...

and sorry about the line breaks...don't know why they didn't work...???

Dave Carter said...

Yeah, they showed clips from the Generation X pilot. Later there was Mutant X, which ran for 2 seasons in syndication.

I was surprised they didn't show anything from the infamous JLA pilot--perhaps what will show up if they ever do a sequel...

Jon Silpayamanant said...

Ah, I see. I've never really been a TV bluff, hell--I don't even own one right now...

I never heard about the JLA pilot--though I might very well have just blocked out memory of that!

Dave Carter said...

Read about the JLA pilot at:
http://www.ohthehumanity.com/review.php3?ID=416

Jon Silpayamanant said...

oh my..."The Weatherman!"???!!?

that is just too much-hah! Thanks for the link!

Mark W. Hale said...

The Thor and Daredevil are EXACTLY the Thor and Daredevil from the Hulk tv movies. Didn't know they planned to make them into series, though, yeesh. Fun fact: John Rys-Davies was the voice of Thor on the Fantastic Four cartoon.
The Generation X movie/pilot did air on Fox. It, uhm... could've been better. I don't count myself as among Matt Frewer's fans, I guess. Let's just say it wasn't as good as Nick Fury starring the Hasselhoff.
Glad to see I wasn't the only one who caught that show last night. "Steel Justice," anyone...?

Dave Carter said...

Which one was "Steel Justice"?

Mark W. Hale said...

The one with the guy whose kid died and inhabited a toy dragon that turned into a giant metal dragon when the dad was in trouble. The best part was when the father patted the toy dragon on the head. The other best part was not having to watch the whole show.

Jon Silpayamanant said...

Hah! I couldn't find much about the Thor pilot, but the I noticed the Daredevil pilot had credited Rex Smith in Murdock's role so that one was obviously an attempt at a spin-off. I had heard about both the possible Daredevil and Thor spin-offs way back when...

I think it's interesting that the same wasn't even attempted with the Black Widow from the "Death of the Incredible Hulk"...but at the same time I guess I'm not surprised...

Dave Carter said...

"Steel Justice"! Yes! That's the one I couldn't remember the name of in the conversation we've been having over on Jon's blog. The one with the GIANT FIRE-BREATHING MECHANICAL DRAGON. It's genius, I tell you. Pure genius.

Here is the IMDB page.

Joan Chen was in this! OMG! Twin Peaks gets cancelled, and she ends up in this stinker?

I need to see "Steel Justice"--the whole thing. My life shall not be complete until I track down a copy. I'm off to eBay...

Jon Silpayamanant said...

"Steel Justice" is just sounding better and better...Hah! Joan Chen!--and shit, she was in Judge Dredd too wasn't she?

Dave Carter said...

Oh yeah, she was at that. Joan Chen is a talented actress who has made some questionable choices of projects, none worse than directing the monstrosity that was Autumn in New York (which seems to have abruptly ended her directing career).

Jon Silpayamanant said...

Hadn't known she'd directed anything. She seems to have had a varied career. Too bad she isn't more well known.