Chateau Lloyd

Long-tine readers know that I've been intermittently acquiring vintage TV shows, which are a nice way to fill a bit of an evening before bed.  They don't require much engagement, have a nice nostalgic flavor and many of them have held up surprisingly well.

However, just about every TV series has its low points, and it was only recently that long-form plot arc were introduced to American productions.  This lends it self to high-grading the shows, watching only the best portions of the best seasons.

Typically, this is found in the second season, when the cast, crew and writers have found their rhythm.  I've been watching the second season of Miami Vice for this reason and it is outstanding.  This was the peak of the show, where its music, style, and action all achieved perfection.

The nice thing about having a library is that one has options.  I streamed Remington Steele and am thinking of adding that and Moonlighting to my collection.  One of my kids asked for all of MASH and I may dip into that as well.  Again, only the best years.

One of the themes of my criticism of modern entertainment is that while we may make fun of old shows and their tropes, they still had much better production values, acting and were more entertaining than what we have today.  Yes, the TV audience of the 1980s had less options, but competition was fierce to get those big numbers.  A #1 rated show would draw a minimum of 40 million eyeballs, which was a huge commercial opportunity.  It's interesting to see that with far more views, "hit" shows have half of that viewership.

As I pointed out during the Bleeding Fool Battlestar Galactica Wars, for all the critical acclaim of the reboot, its numbers were objectively terrible.  It would not have survived to a second season in the broadcast television era.

For a while it seemed that every other post over at Bleedingfool.com involved Battlestar Galactica, specifically its terrible "reboot."

In fact, I've pulled it apart in so many different ways, I think it would be useful to have a handy place to reference the collection, so here we are.

These are the ones at Bleedingfool.com:

Yes, Battlestar Galactica (2004) was the First Punitive Remake

Battlestar Galactica’s Reboot was the forerunner of SJW Hollywood

Battlestar Galactica ’78: The Original Space Western

Again With the Battlestar Galactica Thing…

At the time I was also in a habit of doing posts linking to stories when they posted and adding some addition commentary here at Chateau Lloyd, so here are those links:

My Battlestar Galactica piece is up

Battlestar Galactica revisited

Yet another Battlestar Galactica post

I was willing to let the topic go, but I saw that another version of the show is in the works, so I had to comment on it.

Maybe I need to create a category for this.  Nah, just read the whole thing over at Bleeding Fool.

As promised, my latest and greatest is live at bleedingfool.com.

It's interesting that people who disagree with me are falling right into the Social Justice Warrior mode of calling me a sexist.

Interestingly, no one's addressed my point about the black characters being made either white or Asian.

Anyhow, I'm working on a response that will more fully address the core issue, which is that creativity isn't necessarily a zero-sum game.

To make up a new character, you have to eliminate an old one.

My next article for bleedingfool.com will take a look at the two versions of Battlestar Galactica.  I'm still putting the finishing touches on it and I just realized that the original series went off the air almost exactly 30 years ago.

Geez, I'm old.

As part of my research, I've been re-watching it, so I may come back to the topic from time to time, since I'm going to go through it at a leisurely pace, rather than binge-watching.

I'll have more to say in the article, but I have to say that even with the limitations of the special effects, it's pretty good and far from being a Star Wars clone, it uses some concepts that later Star Wars movies will borrow.  Even stuff that I've long thought of as a cheesy sop to the audience (the little kid and his robot dog), make more sense as an author, since they allow the writers to have more space to be creative.

Plus, children would be an issue when looking at a refugee fleet.  Everyone hated Wesley Crusher because he was insufferable but also because warships shouldn't have nurseries.  

But it makes sense on the Galactica, which is now the capital of a floating city.  And the plot line of broken and rebuilding families is an important one.  In fact, having watched the pilot/movie, I have to say it's a lot darker than I remember.

In the first 30 minutes or Adama loses his wife, younger son, and civilization.  Pretty rough and they don't soft-pedal it, either.   Yet it was still viewed a highly kid-appropriate.  I guess we were tougher back then.

Anyhow, I'll post a notice here when I finish and it goes live.