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Post by doc7924 on Oct 1, 2017 16:32:45 GMT -5
How successful do you think it would have been?
If they kept Culp as Maxwell - I would have at least watched it for him.
Maybe a few cameos from Ralph now and again.
I have to be honest, regardless of the rest of the pilot, Ralph having to give up the suit and part ways with Bill always makes me very teary eyed.
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Post by greenguy on Oct 2, 2017 9:11:33 GMT -5
How successful do you think it would have been?
If they kept Culp as Maxwell - I would have at least watched it for him.
Maybe a few cameos from Ralph now and again.
I have to be honest, regardless of the rest of the pilot, Ralph having to give up the suit and part ways with Bill always makes me very teary eyed.
That's a big "what if" Culp indeed was set to stay on. Personally, I don't think it would have been on for very long. NBC intended to run it on Sunday evening up against 60 Minutes. Plus stricter FCC rules at the time would have crippled the show. One rule that would have been okay was the fact there had to be a certain amount of educational material in programming ran in that time slot. That would have worked out in the sense that Holly was a teacher, so any educational material would not have been "shoehorned" in as it was for ABC's Galactica: 1980. The level of violence would have dropped dramatically. TGAH was never a overly violent series to begin with, but the "action" we had been used to would have been sliced more than in half. I think the writers hands would have been tied so much it would have been limiting on what type of stories could be told, well...watered down versions of the stories they would have wanted to write. What I don't know is had Katt agreed to return, would NBC had scheduled the series on Sunday in that time slot, or given it a better spot on the schedule to allow it a chance to be the series it was? |
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Post by MelMac on Oct 2, 2017 16:18:26 GMT -5
Culp indeed was set to stay on. The level of violence would have dropped dramatically. TGAH was never a overly violent series to begin with, but the "action" we had been used to would have been sliced more than in half. I think the writers hands would have been tied so much it would have been limiting on what type of stories could be told, well...watered down versions of the stories they would have wanted to write. What I don't know is had Katt agreed to return, would NBC had scheduled the series on Sunday in that time slot, or given it a better spot on the schedule to allow it a chance to be the series it was? The way they wrote that script for the pilot - if mmderdekea was correct, they might've phased him out though. Apparently Hathaway was going to go somewhere and save the animals (rolls eyes). Scarily enough - based on that script, the full one, we might've been far better off with just the half hour version we were given. In watching "Thunderbirds are Go" and the original "Thunderbirds," I can see how a huge change in standards and practices has affected shows. In the case of these two shows - in "TAG" gone are more serious situations, the drinking/smoking/most innuendo, none of the Tracys carry weapons (even defensive ones such as tranquilizer darts), and the worst I've seen any of the guys get is knocked out, and even then they traipse along as though they didn't fall off a 100 foot cliff... OK, let's just say Scott Tracy of now could rival the burglars in the "Home Alone" series with as many in real life fatal or critically injured situations. John Tracy has also survived being exposed to 25G's, when less than half of that can kill. I think it would've stayed at the proposed time if it was just him and Culp. Had Connie Sellecca quit "Hotel" and joined them they'd had the original trio back and probably would've gambled with a better time slot for the show. But I can understand between Connie not being there and Katt signing up for a more recognizable (and longer lasting run) in "Perry Mason" why he turned it down. Then again - he's on record saying if he had chosen to come back to the show he was guaranteed two years so we'd possibly seen two seasons. |
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Post by HoudiniDerek on Oct 3, 2017 8:42:36 GMT -5
How successful do you think it would have been?
If they kept Culp as Maxwell - I would have at least watched it for him.
Maybe a few cameos from Ralph now and again.
I have to be honest, regardless of the rest of the pilot, Ralph having to give up the suit and part ways with Bill always makes me very teary eyed.
Probably not very successful. Even though GAH got three seasons, it was a wildly successful show, considering. Yes, it has a cult following and did okay at the time, but nothing like other shows. To change the chemistry might have worked initially, but with die-hard fans probably not watching it, and the items Greenguy mentioned, it seems like it was always destined to fail. |
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Post by mmderdekea on May 16, 2018 22:44:08 GMT -5
How successful do you think it would have been?
If they kept Culp as Maxwell - I would have at least watched it for him.
Maybe a few cameos from Ralph now and again.
I have to be honest, regardless of the rest of the pilot, Ralph having to give up the suit and part ways with Bill always makes me very teary eyed.
It would not have done well, I think, even given the 80s were so different than now. First, I TOTALLY resented that the aliens so dissed Bill and his importance to the success Ralph had had with the suit. Then, we see Ralph turned into an ass. The whole set-up was really awful for fans of the original series. Our two favorite characters were either shown to be superficial and greedy (Ralph) or insulted and demeaned (Bill). I also disliked the parting of Bill and Ralph whereby neither could really share their affection, even though we saw it developing quite well in the original series. The set-up was a failure. Holly was a typical left leaning almost hippie type person, so a good juxtaposition for Bill (who looked SO good; he had lost weight and wore better clothes). Someone mentioned violence and the bar scene was terrible, so corny and ridiculous. Holly Hulks out, and BIll, in his middle-age, suffers blows to his gut he simply shrugs off. It was embarrassing. Holly being confident and in control of the suit powers from the get go really almost made BIll superfluous. Summary: I was not a fan of the pilot, not surprised it wasn't picked up and don't think it would have done well. Mona |
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Post by greenguy on May 17, 2018 13:25:27 GMT -5
Mona, good to see you back.
The only part I disagree on is the "goodbye" scene. I think it did show how far Ralph and Bill came when they actually hugged each other after the moment of skirting around it. Really that scene, and the look back at their partnership with the Culp voiceover are all I like.
Yep, the violence would have been watered down had the series been scheduled Sundays at 6PM Central time/ 7 Eastern. Probably, more of the same that we witnessed in the pilot.
It's too bad as soon as ABC cancelled the series, NBC didn't come in with the offer at that time. Katt might not have been so reluctant to continue. Or maybe had Cannell looked into first run syndication in the fall of 1983 and brought it back that way. The series was syndicated on a ton of stations across the U.S. If they bought the reruns, no reason to think they would not have bought new episodes instead.
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