A week late; I noticed Alan F wrote:
>jayembee wrote:
>>
>> Sci Fi initially ordered two seasons. Of course, that's before
>> it proved itself as a complete ratings loser. If Sci Fi keeps
>> its order for a second season, they're even more bat**** crazy
>> than we thought.
>>
>
> Maybe the producers of Flush Gordon have incredibly compromising
>pictures of the NBC-Universal network executives who decide which shows
>to keep. As good an explanation for this show as any.
My third theory:
The SciFi Channel owners -Universal Studios- see how much money
they're making on the new Battlestar Galactica; not just ad
revenue and DVD sales, but licensing out to toys, books, and
comics. It's also raised the profile of the old BSG, such that
they can license the images from *that* to a new set of product.
They naturally look to other old properties they own that can
allow a re-imaging for new fans and a re-selling for old. (On
the "Savior of the Universe Edition" of their 1980s Flash Gordon
movie, I see Alex Ross was working on toys based on that
version.) Also, they can correct a minor difficulty with the new
BSG; that -although popular- it is dark,and sometimes
controversial. (Yes, I believe SciFi Channel can't tell the
difference between the cause and a side effect.) I can picture
SciFi looking for a production company that wouldn't use FG as a
vehicle for bringing up current issues, but just pump out
contem****ary-looking episodes. Such a company might have only
one demand, a two-year order, to allow the playing out of the
long-term story arc. Alas, we see the type of show produced by
folk who don't really have anything to say.
What else is in the Universal vault to be renewed?
*The '80s Buck Rogers series, of course.
*The old movie, Silent Running. That doesn't seem very
open-ended, but MGM rewrote the end of Logan's Run to create a
series pilot from *that*.
*This Island Earth, a very old movie, I don't know if it's worth
stealing the title for audience identification with a new series,
but they might actually need to acknowledge a debt to the
original book for the idea: Earth is in the position of Pacific
island during WW II; geographically placed in the middle of a war
they aren't involved with, put to work helping build things they
don't really understand. It has a difference from those other
recent Earth-bound invasion series in that the aliens don't WANT
to take our planet or our bodies, or even to have dominance over
us, may even feel slightly protective of us. And, possibly, with
a direction laid out, it wouldn't spend too many early episodes
treading water.
*Casting my mind that far back also brings up the Universal
monster movies. While watching "Abbott & Costello Meet
Frankenstein," it struck me that the movie had brought the
monsters from vaguely 19th century Europe to (then) contem****ary
America, and given them some of the least fatal "deaths" in the
franchise. If Universal had thought to do a straight sequel to a
comedy, carrying forward the story of John Talbot opposing the
king of vampires could have made a good movie: "The Wolf Man vs.
Dracula." "Underworld" fifty years early. I don't know about a
TV series, John Talbot can only turn into the Wolf Man one week
out of four.
*Universal did try to leverage its monster movies with "Van
Helsing," a followup to the more successful "The Mummy" movies.
I think it was too much in the Xena/Hercules camp, perhaps
necessary for wandering around a vague past Europe. A more
serious X-Files/Kolshak approach might work. Using the Church as
a central agency allows the monsters to be more than just a
physical threat, also a philosophical threat: taking the idea
that they *should not* exist.
Checking out other "franchise collections," Universal may also
have an interest in:
*Jaws
*Psycho
*Jurassic Park
*The Thing
although probably only for theatrical movies.
*Tremors (already done)
*Dragonheart
*Conan
*Darkman
*The Chronicles of Riddick
This last is interesting. The movie that gives it this
overarching series title also removes the title character as an
effective central protagonist. With Vin Diesel unlikely to do
much TV work, a series could be an anthology set in the "Riddick"
universe, with the ruler of the Necromongers a looming but mostly
unseen presence.
What do you think, sirs?
--
-Jack
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