Life on Mars: As you may (or may not) have read in my previous posting, there have been a lot of rumblings on the ‘net about how this show has had to deal with the dreaded “R” word. That’s right: retooling. It’s one of the dirtiest words in the TV business, since it implies that something’s gone so horribly wrong with the show…or, more likely, it never gelled in the first place…but whether or not this is truly the case with “Life in Mars” depends on how much you trust the ‘net.
The original series told the story of Sam Tyler of the Greater Manchester Police, who, after being hit by a car in 2006, found himself in the year 1973, where he split his time between being a cop and trying to figure out what the hell happened to him. But what’s going to happen when this thing gets Americanized?
According to producer Josh Applebaum, the differences aren’t quite as dramatic as you might want to believe, but there was a version by David Kelley at some point. “I think the main difference,” said Applebaum,” is that we’re moving the show to New York, which, for us, is a huge part of it. We’re New Yorkers. We think the show kind of will live beautifully being set in New York. When we think of the early ’70 cop genre, it speaks so much to New York as a whole, and that’s primarily the difference. David’s version was set in Los Angeles. We’re moving it to New York and just trying to recapture the spirit of the British version.
“We actually spoke to the creators from the BBC, and we sort of asked their permission to change the mythology of what’s going on with Sam Tyler, because in their version, ultimately, he was in a coma. And for us, to be doing hopefully a long-running series where you know that the whole thing is a dream or that he’s in this coma state, it felt unsatisfying. So with their permission, we are changing the mythology. And each week, we’ll be kind of deepening that mystery as to what’s going on with him. They have the three options that they sort of posed. Has he traveled through time, has he lost his mind, or is he in a coma? ”
Time will tell which of the three it is. We certainly don’t have a clue; the original pilot was scrapped, of course, but no new pilot was available for our perusal. As stands right now, I guess we should just be glad that the clips we saw did indeed feature the Bowie song which gave the show its title. (American tastes in the ’70s were just nowhere close to as cool as the UK’s tastes.)
We’re psyched that Michael Imperioli decided to sign onto the show, given that his only truly notable post-“Sopranos” appearance has been a short, underrated stint on “Law & Order”….and even that was only a temporary gig. “Well, I definitely was picky,” admitted Imperioli. “I mean, something like ‘The Sopranos’ that fulfills your creative drive for such a long period of time and challenges you is a hard act to follow. If I’m going to commit to something that hopefully is going to be on for a long time, you want something juicy and you want something different. That’s really what I was looking for. I got the script, and I was not familiar at all with the British show. To be honest, I’d never heard of it! But I thought it was very well written and a really cool idea, and the idea of doing New York detectives in 1973 really, really appealed to me a lot, just of the flavor of it and the period. Culturally, what the city was like then…the ’70s is a period of time that I have an affinity for – the music and just politically what was going on – so I was really into it. And the character…I thought there was a lot of truth to the character, and I thought he’s different enough from what I had done in the past…although it seems to be most of the stuff I’ve been doing is either a cop or a robber! But if that pays the bills, that’s okay. The other thing was that it shot in New York, which was something that I was hoping to do; if I was going to do another series, it would be in New York. So it kind of satisfied all those things at once.”
Not much else to tell you, really, except that all the Anglophiles in the viewing audience will be ready to rip this thing to shreds, so they’d better come roaring out of the gate or be ready to face the consequences.
No pressure.
Opportunity Knocks: While you have to pat the guy on the back for carving himself a niche as a television producer when just about everybody expected him to fall flat after “That ’70s Show,” I’ve never been a huge fan of Ashton Kutcher’s reality series. “Punk’d,” like all hidden-camera prank shows, had its moments, and as a self-professed geek, it would be a lie if I didn’t find myself rooting for the the guys in “Beauty & The Geek” once in awhile, but I’m pretty sure I’ve never actually seen an entire episode of either series. As such, there was really only one reason I stuck around for the panel for Kutcher’s new traveling game show, “Opportunity Knocks,” and that’s that…well, I just wanted to see Ashton Kutcher. (He’s a pretty big deal, you know.)
As it happens, the panel ended up being a lot of fun. The premise of the show is that the producers of the show go to the contestants’ houses, talk to their friends, family, employers, and even their friendly neighborhood postal carrier, and then they ask personal questions that, in theory, they should know the answers to. Or sometimes they’ll flip it around and play it “Newlywed Game” style, where they asked the contestant a question about themselves, and people close to them have to get it right before they reveal the answer.
The show’s host, J.D. Roth, decided that the best way to get the critics involved in the series was…well, to get them involved in the series! They called TV Guide’s Matt Roush up to the stage, and when he arrived, they revealed that, while he’d been out at the TCA Tour, they’d been in his office at TV Guide…and they had the footage to prove it. They then quizzed him about what was written on a cue card that he had saved from his work on “America’s Next Producer.” He was unable to do so…so they brought up Brill Bundy from Zap2it.com, along with both her husband and co-worker, to see which of them knew her best. Which one did? Well, let’s just say that her co-worker won’t be sleeping on the couch for the next week or so…
Sounds like a cute enough show, and the questions don’t appear to be malicious. It wouldn’t surprise me if this turned into a sleeper hit come the fall.
