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Grindl (1963)
Class Comedy
I was very young when this aired and recall I did not get to see it as often as I wished as it was on a school night. I do recall the wit and humor that only Imogene Coca could deliver. I was sorely disappointed when this short-lived sitcom was canceled. My memories of the episodes are vague but the memories of Ms. Coca are clear. I have long hoped it would come back in re-runs, later to VHS or DVD. So far, I've seen no indications of that. It is really a pity for she was an exceptionally funny actress and an important part of early television history. I'd love to see shows like Grindl and I'm sure that it would find an audience in younger viewers of today as well. I have always found TV producers far too fickle when deciding whether or not to give a show the axe. I don't think it occurs to them that sometimes it could be audiences love the show but don't care for the products the sponsors peddle. Maybe that is what killed this show. Who knows. But I do believe it is one show worth preserving and would love to find it on Netflix or the DVD shelves at the store.
Star Trek: New Voyages (2004)
Curiously Surprising (may contain minor spoilers)
This new series is quite remarkable. Of course, it probably won't seem that way to those too young to remember the original series when it was new and have only seen it in syndication. New Voyages attempts to pick up where the original series left off filling the the gap and completing the five-year mission of U.S.S. Enterprise from the time TOS was canceled to just before ST: The Movie. The cast are all new younger actors which I found a bit unsettling at first but quickly found myself doing double takes on James Cawley (Kirk) and Jeff Quinn (Spock) who (among others in the cast) have attempted to capture the gestures and mannerisms of Shatner and Nimoy. Some may find it a bit overdone but have to admit, I found the performances rather nostalgic. The episodes themselves were written by the mother of ST, D.C. Fontana. For those to young to remember, Ms. Fontana wrote many of the original episodes and, if I am not mistaken, these episodes are ones she wrote but were never produced or may have been screenplays made from stories she wrote after the series was canceled as there was a lot of demand for Star Trek stories at the time. She also wrote the screenplays for the animated series. The pilot and first two episodes are based in whole or in part on other episodes from TOS ("Doomsday Machine", "Menagerie", "Deadly Years" & "City at the Edge of Forever") and at times make reference to other ST entities. If one is not comfortably familiar with the story lines from TOS, these new stories could seem chaotic or confusingly written. I did find some of the time travel paradoxes a bit convoluted though. From what I understand these productions are "pro bono" and everyone involved donated their time and efforts to make the shows on a shoestring budget. They should be given credit for doing so remarkably well under such circumstances. It is evident that it is a labor of love even if the sets and acting are not quite up to 'network' standards. I didn't expect them to be.
Aquaman (2006)
Pilot Makes Big Splash But is no Tsunami
This show is the very sort of program that is needed--desperately. How many shows out there deal with the looming global catastrophe growing from the abuse of the ocean's resources? Human beings are having a devastating effect on life in the sea and few are even paying attention. Along comes a show that hints at the potential to address these vital issues and it never gets holds water. I guess it is like Dr. Chomsky says: television is not about the programs, it's about the advertising. In the television world, what they call "content" is the commercials they want us to watch while the "filler" is just the show that comes in between the ads. Maybe if more viewers understood this and were more discriminating and vocal about their television viewing, Hollywood and advertising sponsors alike would get the message that it is better to have a show that interests a lot of people than try to get advertisers that want or don't want to sponsor a particular show. (Though I can see how a company that sells tuna fish would not be so tempted to sponsor a show with a superhero character that makes fishermen out to be the (ofttime) bad guy.)
I don't know that it was a sponsor that influenced this show to not get picked up but it makes sense that if not enough companies were willing to sponsor this show, its chances of getting on the air would sink straight to the bottom like a lead weight in water.
Aquaman was one of my favorite superheroes in childhood and I would have very much liked to have seen this show become a regular series. I do believe it had good potential to float although the pilot in some ways felt weak to me. The acting was not particularly good and the scripts could have used more polish. I see that often in pilots and then the show gets better as time goes on so that could well have been the case here. Looks like we'll never get the chance to find out. What a shame.
Perhaps if viewers show enough interest, this pilot might be further developed into a TV movie or a mini-series. I would certainly be one of the first in the water to buy it on iTunes.
I rate this 7 out of 10.
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