“You’ll find him popping off at Pop’s Sodium Shoppe….”
I am still in “low content mode” here on the site for at least the next couple of days. Last week it was birthdays and family stuff, this week it’s medical stuff, which is a lousy birthday present. Anyway, I’m hoping to be back up to speed by Friday, but don’t be surprised if I go ahead and just start afresh on the following Monday.
At any rate, I’m going to, cough, “borrow” a topic from the esteemed Mark Evanier, who recently featured “Unsold Pilot Week” on his site. Now one of the pilots he featured particularly intrigued me, a 1967 attempt at a live-action Dick Tracy.
As Mr. Evanier notes, it was from some of the folks what brought you the 1960s Batman. show, which you’ll definitely get from factors such as the set design, the opening credit animation (which I liked, despite the most awful theme music), the “spinning hat” scene transition device, and so on. I ended up later watching it via the YouTube app on my Roku, and thought it was…interesting, and a slight shame we didn’t get more.
But when I later returned to my YouTube app to check out the latest capybara videos, I saw yet another unsold pilot in my suggested videos. And it was one that Mr. Evanier hadn’t featured, and I think the Unsold Pilot Week is over by now, so, hoping I don’t step on any toes, here’s the mid-1960s pilot for Archie, based on those very comics.
(Sorry, I’d embed it, but whoever uploaded the video has disabled sharing it in that way.)
Did I watch the whole thing? Sure I did! I think overall it did feel very…Archie-ish, with situations just outlandish enough to feel like they jumped off the comics page. I particularly enjoy the interaction between Archie and Mr. Weatherbee. It really is a shame this hadn’t gone to series. I can’t imagine how long it would have gone, as the probably 20-year-olds playing the kids would have likely become a little long in the tooth in short order.
Anyway, it was a fun watch, and if you’ve got a half an hour to spare, maybe give it a go.
Stop singing and finish your homework!
Ok, Tirebiter.
To turn in a Red — with red hair!
Archie in this show already looks like he’s working his way up through an accounting firm, worrying he won’t get his Christmas bonus this year.
“as the probably 20-year-olds playing the kids would have likely become a little long in the tooth in short order.”
Beverly Hills, 9210’s ears are burning!
” “Unsold Pilot Week” ”
There could be a week on Scott Bakula ALONE. He had 2 or 3 before he got Quantum Leap! And a short-lived sitcom.
That “Archie”pilot was pretty interesting, I wonder if one of the reasons it didn’t get picked up was because the networks thought it was too similar to “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis,” which ran from 1959 to 1963. Dobie was sort of an Archie type character, and Maynard G. Krebs was the oddball friend a la Jughead… except Maynard (played by Bob Denver before he was in “Gilligan’s Isle”) was a beatnik. The Dobie TV series also had Warren Beatty as Milton Armatage (a Reggie equivalent), Tuesday Weld as Thalia Menninger(a Veronica equivalent), and there was Zelda Gilroy as the Betty-esque character.