cult film freak: gene roddenberry

Showing posts with label gene roddenberry. Show all posts

Written by James M. Tate / 2/19/2022 / No comments / ann bell , british , british tv , gene roddenberry , gig young , james villiers , john hurt , made-for-TV , robert culp , seventies , witch

GENE RODDENBERRY'S BRITISH-TV SCIENCE-HORROR OF 'SPECTRE'

<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjncDMj2GBudnneTqnuPAOq8fbEicH9TYBp6nBEDx1_vkjPsAr8kZXy3C1AGsW2RXk4C-kFwlYMYvnxPNjmv28MENBoXBznirTEJaOpskvg19poRY8_lYIWPLHFoPdgv2jX2454YHOX188X--CUI76gWzLWOZWu7G4AMv12Um0NEdRdDphZGgtvx-zD6Q=s2274" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1143" data-original-width="2274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjncDMj2GBudnneTqnuPAOq8fbEicH9TYBp6nBEDx1_vkjPsAr8kZXy3C1AGsW2RXk4C-kFwlYMYvnxPNjmv28MENBoXBznirTEJaOpskvg19poRY8_lYIWPLHFoPdgv2jX2454YHOX188X--CUI76gWzLWOZWu7G4AMv12Um0NEdRdDphZGgtvx-zD6Q=s16000"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Gene Roddenberry's SPECTRE Year: 1977 Rating: ***<br></u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Gene Roddenberry had a string of failed but always intriguing TV-pilots (from <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2017/07/ohohhhThisIsPlanetEarth.html">PLANET EARTH</a> to <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2017/08/Qtapes.html">THE QUESTOR TAPES</a>) in-between the STAR TREK series and movies, and SPECTRE is the most unique and downright bizarre... so much so it's a British production instead of American but with two American actors at the helm... <br></p><p></p><p>Enter Robert Culp and Gig Young as a kind of science-fiction Holmes and Watson... The first is a renowned criminologist now so heavily into Black Magic that when his former partner in faithful yet boozing Dr. Ham Hamilton reconnects, Culp's William Sebastian is sitting on his mansion floor reading Tarot Cards like a regular guy plays Solitaire...</p><p><span></span></p>

ann bell, british, british tv, gene roddenberry, gig young, james villiers, john hurt, made-for-TV, robert culp, seventies, witch

GENE RODDENBERRY'S BRITISH-TV SCIENCE-HORROR OF 'SPECTRE'

Gene Roddenberry's SPECTRE Year: 1977 Rating: *** Gene Roddenberry had a string of failed but always intriguing TV-pilots (from PLANET E...

GENE RODDENBERRY'S SCI-FI TV-MOVIE PILOT FOR 'PLANET EARTH'

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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"></span></p><p><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"></span></p><p><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG7OWJqliuz30s_jUAIy2dW9puWQU-op4gPSa7faXvZGeJ5jKgK7UE2-Qu5I1YTDaYCAbmA6F2PhLA1rjKZeIQYFIgB8RqOJiLW7rWUEjWOgXNPZK0UGClB9D2533yNFJYxiKGOndVX_gOJfaySszJLCg7x52xjFtmWPEZsjcGO9wt59iVxWj5s4614Q/s1170/Screen%20Shot%202022-03-23%20at%2010.07.38%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="767" data-original-width="1170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG7OWJqliuz30s_jUAIy2dW9puWQU-op4gPSa7faXvZGeJ5jKgK7UE2-Qu5I1YTDaYCAbmA6F2PhLA1rjKZeIQYFIgB8RqOJiLW7rWUEjWOgXNPZK0UGClB9D2533yNFJYxiKGOndVX_gOJfaySszJLCg7x52xjFtmWPEZsjcGO9wt59iVxWj5s4614Q/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202022-03-23%20at%2010.07.38%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><u>Title: Planet Earth Year: 1974 Rating: ****</u></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">By the 1970's, because of both syndication and conventions, Gene Roddenberry's 1960's three-season gem STAR TREK was beginning to gather a big cult following...</span></p><p></p><p><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">And yet, before the progressive doors opened up for another possible TREK series or, what happened instead from the financial success of STAR WARS, a trail of movies, Roddenberry attempted several entirely new science-fiction shows... </span></p><p></p><p><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><span></span></span></p>

apocalyptic future, diana muldaur, gene roddenberry, janet margolin, john saxon, science-fiction, seventies, ted cassidy, tv movie, warner archives

GENE RODDENBERRY'S SCI-FI TV-MOVIE PILOT FOR 'PLANET EARTH'

Title: Planet Earth Year: 1974 Rating: **** By the 1970's, because of both syndication and conventions, Gene Roddenberry's 1960...

GENE RODDENBERRY 1970'S SCI-FI PILOT OF 'THE QUESTOR TAPES'

<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Well that's obviously the attempt, which leads to the second piece of trivia: unlike GENESIS II, PLANET EARTH and SPECTRE, this series was <i>almost</i> picked-up for a series despite the fact not much happens but a proverbial Oscar and Felix (or really, Felix and Felix) ODD COUPLE searching for the android's creator while traipsing around a casino, wherein some the best moments occur. </span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">And yet, this creative, sparse and breezy pilot opens doors for other adventures since it doesn't have a beginning, middle and end. In other words, Roddenberry's spy/science-fiction hybrid THE QUESTOR TAPES, being the most incomplete of the batch, succeeds as a would-be catapult. </span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Throw in a few more fish out of water situations and cut back on random scenes with greedy corporate villain John Vernon (antagonistic as usual), there might've been even more reasons for this vessel to actually take episodic flight. </span><br>

dana wynter, ellen weston, gene roddenberry, james shigeta, john vernon, lew ayres, mike farrell, robert foxworth, robot, science-fiction, spy, tv movie, warner archives

GENE RODDENBERRY 1970'S SCI-FI PILOT OF 'THE QUESTOR TAPES'

Title: THE QUESTOR TAPES Year: 1974 There are two trivia facts about another Gene Roddenberry science-fiction television pilot during th...

FIRST OF TWO ROBERT VAUGHN TRIBUTES: THE LIEUTENANT

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Robert Vaughn with Garry Lockwood on TV in 1963</u></td></tr>
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The Original STAR TREK series, created, co-written and produced by Gene Roddenberry, took the crew of The Enterprise WHERE NO MAN HAS GONE BEFORE, not only part of William Shatner's pre-credit narration but the title of one of the first episodes, which guest stars Gary Lockwood, best known as astronaut Dr. Frank Poole in 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, and before that he worked with Roddenberry when TREK was just blasting off...<br />
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THE LIEUTENANT, a fulfilling, character-driven, one-season series, centered on our man either helping, loving or fighting man or womankind; although, taking place after Korea and in the phantom heels of Vietnam, it didn't involve actual war (save a few episodes, if memory serves) as Lockwood, playing the young and ambitious Lt. Bill Rice, works, lives and breaths not exactly blood but there's enough sweat and tears to go around at the Southern California Marine base, Camp Pendleton, which becomes a sort of character in itself. Although more time's spent at taverns, hotels, motels, and wherever else he's needed for the service of duty and friendship — the latter that the first episode, A MILLION MILES FROM CLARY, is all about...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Gary Lockwood and Robert Vaughn on THE LT.</u></td></tr>
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In films before and after, ranging from (our current favorite) CANYON PASSAGE to MEAN STREETS, the subject of two long-time friends, one responsible and the other incredibly flakey, has been a standard plot-line that keeps the viewer intrigued since it's no telling what kind of trouble the instigating wild card, in this case, Rice's buddy, Pvt. Stu Sallaway, played by Bill Bixby (who shared co-starring in Elvis Presley vehicles together), will get himself into — and guess who has to get him out? That's where some lightweight yet intriguing suspense occurs — Rice putting his reputation on the line in front of the men he <i>didn't </i>share a past kinship with. Bixby, as the kind of charming b.s. artist he'd portray on television years later in the miniseries RICH MAN, POOR MAN, wields the perfect combination of someone you want to party with, punch in the gut, or both. And it's an odd pilot episode, not exactly igniting the series with a bang, or providing any kind of expository introduction: A MILLION MILES FROM CLARY (their hometown in-common) feels more like part of a show that'd been on for a little while, and Lockwood's Bill Rice has very little backstory except what we learn in the process...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Bill Bixby, Robert Vaughn, Gary Lockwood GRADE: A</u></td></tr>
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And now to unbury the lead: THE LIEUTENANT is eventually forced to bark orders at his friend — yet who's really in charge, and respectively feared by everyone, is an extremely mature young actor who, only a few years prior, starred in b-movies including and infamously bad caveman flick (riffed by Mystery Science Theater)...<br />
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And another with our ongoing retrospective starlet, Merry Anders — as a twenty-something slacker in NO TIME TO BE YOUNG, covered here soon: Making this the first of two parenthetical tributes to an actor that could play either the hero, like his most famous role on TV's MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E., as well as gentleman heavies like the snooty politician in Steve McQueen's best film (and performance), BULLITT, reuniting two MAGNIFICENT SEVEN stars (who have now all passed away). Vaughn was even talented enough to "replace" Gene Hackman as the human antagonist in the SUPERMAN franchise — and helped make the flawed part 3 a worthwhile experience.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>With MAGNIFICENT SEVEN co-star Steve McQueen in BULLITT</u></td></tr>
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Far more than just a talented, capable actor, he legitimized every role he played, and the projects along with them...<br />
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Like anyone who makes a lifelong career of Hollywood, as time passed, he didn't always chose (or get handed) the best roles, but he kept working... And back to the pilot of THE LIEUTENANT: his Captain Raymond Rambridge, a relatively young man with the countenance of a fifty-five year old war vet, was not a special guest star like Bixby, but a semi-regular who, by his mere presence, kept the title character standing firm while Lt. Rice kept his men on their toes. PS What led to this obscure show being the first tribute for Vaughn: The day after he died, there was a feeling to, out of nowhere, re-watch this particular episode, having forgotten anyone besides guest star Bill Bixby, and, within moments, there he was, in all his subtle, cleft-chinned, pelican-regal glory... A very serious man who, whether shining in the forefront or placed slightly in the background, always made a difference.

bill bixby, gary lockwood, gene roddenberry, military, one season, robert vaughn, series, sixties, war