Marlowe — A look at the pilot script
I’m a big fan of private eye TV shows and novels, and I’ve been thinking lately that they need to make a big comeback (sorry, Monk just isn’t the same). Raines comes kinda close, but it’s not quite the same thing. Judging from the script for the pilot of Marlowe, ABC’s modern take on the classic Raymond Chandler character, it looks like it could be a return to the great private eye genre that TV fans have been waiting for.
The first thing I noticed is that, yes, the show is going to have voiceovers! Some people hate voiceovers, some people love them. I remember that Robert Parker hated the voiceover on Spenser: For Hire, when it was actually one of the cool things about the show. There’s a lot of voiceover in this pilot script, and while I don’t mind it, I wonder if it’s too much.
Another thing I notice is that everything in the script is in first person, like the voiceovers. I don’t think that’s a normal aspect of most scripts, even those that contain voiceovers and narration by the main protagonist. And that makes me think that this show is going to be very first person-oriented, very much focused on the Philip Marlowe character.
All the other private eye staples are here too: Marlowe is sick of L.A., he wonders why he doesn’t leave the city, and he comments on the city and the surroundings and how the rich live. He’s hired to follow the friend of rich couple Bill and Suzette Church, and problems arise from that seemingly mundane assignment. There’s a sexpot in the story, of course, and she causes trouble for Marlowe, too.
ABC has hired Jason O’Mara (The Agency, In Justice) to play Marlowe, though I don’t really know much about him. As long as they don’t have him dress like Ryan Seacrest and listen to rap music. If they do this show right, it will truly be unlike anything else on television. That’s if it gets past the pilot stage, of course.
Short-Lived Shows: Married People - VIDEO
My roommates and I were obsessed with this show when it was on in 1990. We were all living in the same condo, all of them in college and me…not. We’d spend our time playing tennis, eating subs and Chinese, and watching Star Trek: TNG, MacGyver, reruns of Spenser: For Hire, and this show.
Married People was a short-lived sitcom on ABC. It was about the lives of several married couples who all lived in the same building in New York City. The star of the show was Jay Thomas, who was married to Bess Armstrong (they were the “middle” couple). The “older” couple (also the landlords in the building) was played by Ray Aranha and Barbara Montgomery, and the “younger” couple was played by Chris Young (from Max Headroom) and Megan Gallivan. Several episodes were directed by veteran director Asaad Kelada.
On the surface this might seem like a typical sitcom, but the writing was a lot better than you’d expect. And by structuring the show are three different types of couples (the older black couple that was wise, the middle couple that was a bit sarcastic (Armstrong was a lawyer while Thomas played a work-at-home freelance writer - maybe that’s one of the reasons I latched on to this show), and the younger couple who always had questions about their marriage, etc), it gave the show a definite personality you don’t often see on network sitcoms. It’s really a shame this show didn’t last longer.
Below are the opening credits from the show. Believe me, it was better than the credits (which almost seem like a Saturday Night Live parody of what sitcom credits are like) might suggest.
Short-Lived Shows: Married People - VIDEO
My roommates and I were obsessed with this show when it was on in 1990. We were all living in the same condo, all of them in college and me…not. We’d spend our time playing tennis, eating subs and Chinese, and watching Star Trek: TNG, MacGyver, reruns of Spenser: For Hire, and this show.
Married People was a short-lived sitcom on ABC. It was about the lives of several married couples who all lived in the same building in New York City. The star of the show was Jay Thomas, who was married to Bess Armstrong (they were the “middle” couple). The “older” couple (also the landlords in the building) was played by Ray Aranha and Barbara Montgomery, and the “younger” couple was played by Chris Young (from Max Headroom) and Megan Gallivan. Several episodes were directed by veteran director Asaad Kelada.
On the surface this might seem like a typical sitcom, but the writing was a lot better than you’d expect. And by structuring the show are three different types of couples (the older black couple that was wise, the middle couple that was a bit sarcastic (Armstrong was a lawyer while Thomas played a work-at-home freelance writer - maybe that’s one of the reasons I latched on to this show), and the younger couple who always had questions about their marriage, etc), it gave the show a definite personality you don’t often see on network sitcoms. It’s really a shame this show didn’t last longer.
Below are the opening credits from the show. Believe me, it was better than the credits (which almost seem like a Saturday Night Live parody of what sitcom credits are like) might suggest.
25 awesome openings to ’80s action shows (and five they missed)
We’ve talked a lot here about theme songs and how they just don’t make them like they used to. The openings to shows used to be a lot longer, a real part of the show. Today we’re lucky if we get a few bars of music and maybe a credit or two. Heck, one show, Lost, only plays one note and shows the logo.
The Popcorn Trick has a list of the Top 25 Opening Credits of ’80s Action Shows, and you can’t argue with most of the picks. Magnum P.I. is on the list, as is Riptide, Miami Vice, and The A Team. I would quibble a little bit with the choice of The Rockford Files. One of my favorites, but it was really more of a ’70s show than ’80s (it ended in 1980). I was 13 years old when Vegas premiered (in 1978 - it ran until 1981) and I wanted to be Dan Tanna and live in Vegas and have hot girlfriends and drive around with a lion in my sports car.
Cagney and Lacey shouldn’t be on the list though. It should be replaced with one of several other shows from the ’80s. After the jump, the five shows they missed.
Stingray: Yeah, I know, I’ve been talking about this show a lot lately, but I don’t see how they missed this opening. It has everything: cool techno song, exploding helicopters, mysterious symbols, shots of the hero.
Macgyver: Come on, a list of ’80s action show openings and this isn’t listed? Nonsense! Watch Richard Dean Anderson slide down a desert hill on a map, use his Swiss Army knife, and look cool in a leather jacket!
Spenser: For Hire: Maybe I’m just biased because this show was set (and filmed!) in Boston, but this was a intelligent, well-written, well cast show, and the opening conveys what the show is about. You get shots of Boston Common and Avery Brooks looking menacing and Robert Urich and Barbara Stock taking a shower together. Besides, how many TV show openings show Larry Bird shooting a basket and the show’s hero eating spaghetti?
Strike Force: This wasn’t the best show, but I have to include it because it’s such a great example of 80s action shows. You have the military-sounding theme song (sorta A Team-ish), all the heroes running and getting into cars to chase someone, an incredibly cheesy logo, the team walking towards the camera all together, and three scenes where the hero aims a gun and shoots! Awesome.
Mister T: If you’ll excuse the inclusion of a cartoon here, I’d just like to point out that this cartoon features Mister T (in probably the only time his name was spelled that way and not Mr.) as the leader of some sort of gymnastics team that fights crime? I barely remember this show, but it looks insane. When the gymnasts are doing their thing, why does it sound like someone ripping up a piece of paper? Also, the team drove around in the world’s biggest van.
Every time I see this I think of the TV Funhouse spot on SNL. Drink your school! Stay in drugs! Don’t do milk!