July Q&A! Doomed sitcoms, a gay-ish kiss on That 70s Show, and a talking cat mystery

Oh my GOD how have I never seen this??? AMAZING

Matt Baume

Have you seen "The Decorator"? It was a failed sitcom pilot from 1965 starring Bette Davis (yes, really). She played an interior decorator who tends to get a little too involved with her clients. It was produced by Aaron Spelling and written by Matt Crowley, who only a few years later wrote the groundbreaking "The Boys in the Band." https://youtu.be/_7J2I9LxSF0?si=6cnI1NDqm4rQe-yp (Ignore that the post says it's from 1962. That's wrong.)

Shannon Stewart

I remember reading the Global Frequency comic and being disappointed that the show didn’t end up happening, but I suppose you’re right that the concept is basically a gigantic zoom call

TheLibrarianSaysOok

One recent pilot a lot of people want to see was Marvel's New Warriors, an MCU series that wasn't picked up. Milana Vayntrub was seen as inspired casting for the beloved comics hero Squirrel Girl. It's possible that the pilot just wasn't good; this was a time when series like Iron Fist and Inhumans were coasting on Marvel's reputation. But it's rumored another issue was the supporting cast being, as in her comic series "Unbeatable Squirrel Girl", enthusiastically non binary and LGBTQ+ positive. It's hardly the first comic where young superhumans and their friends help each other learn to appreciate their gifts and live their truths, but not everyone is ready to bring that story up to date.

Paul Anderson

Oh wow you're not kidding about it being very quick -- less than a second! I wonder how many gays taped it and freeze-framed on that momentary nudity (just as I did the moment I found the show online)

Matt Baume

Hi Matt! One gay scene that is very obscure but pretty early on is in the pilot to the HBO series "1st and Ten", a football themed comedy/drama series starring Delta Burke. In the pilot, she walks in on her husband naked and on top of another naked man (it happens very quickly), and files for divorce, winning his football team in the divorce and thus beginning the plot of that series. Not sure if you'd ever seen that one, but the first episode was probably late 80's or early 90's! HBO was very intent on pushing the envelope, as you know.

Jason Pagano

Absolutely. Paved the way for Calvin and Hobbes.

Zardogs! Zardogs!

It's such a promising idea! I agree that it works really well in comic form. But I think seeing it in live action makes it impossible to ignore how ... well ... silly the premise is. Maybe the show would've worked if it had more of a Max Headroom budget-cyberpunk vibe? But there's no way any network would've wanted THAT kind of a show. Especially after The Matrix set a gold standard for those kinds of stories.

Matt Baume

Haha Bloom County really is a gem. I was far too young to understand most of the jokes when it originally ran, so it made me feel like I was getting access to something ~forbidden~ ... despite it running next to, like, The Wizard of Id.

Matt Baume

Ok Automan is INCREDIBLY homoerotic. The whole thing about how they can merge bodies??? Amazing. Also what a great theme song.

Matt Baume

Oh my GOSH I didn't even connect that!!! It's a semi-Fleckman!!!

Matt Baume

I think the most interesting thing about Poochinski is exactly that -- trying to figure out what the germ of the idea was, and how they built all the rest of the ... stuff ... around that. That joke's as good as any!

Matt Baume

OMG Global Frequency! My partner and I loved the comic and legitimately got excited when we found the pilot. It was rough but...not terrible? hahaha

Rocky Sunico

Thanks for the shout out! I still can't find a single panel, but my searching brought up Night of the Mary Kay Commandos, so maybe I just need to re-read it. Not a bad way to spend an evening anyway.

Zardogs! Zardogs!

I always wondered about "Automan" ... a shlubby programmer/cop creates a holographic partner in the form of sexy Chuck Wagner. My hetero-centric mind could never understand why he picked that gender...

Jason Olshefsky

Bobbi Fleckman was Fran Drescher's character in This is Spinal Tap ... but do we get half-credit for writer Christopher Guest giving Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara the surname 'Fleck' in "Best in Show" sixteen years later? :-P

Thomas Drury-Wang

That one only half counts since that was her character in This is Spinal Tap, so it's the same "publicist Bobbi Fleckman" :-)

Thomas Drury-Wang

I feel like "That was when you were making collars not wearing one" was the birth of "Poochinski" (sic?)... the writer had that one OK joke... and just wrote an entire pilot around it

I'm going next month to San Diego Comic-Con aka the Mothership. I'm meeting more Q and POC. We can make our own universes or jump into existing ones with people of a like mind. Strangers become friends, even if only for a short while, over pop-colture. When you've found the things you enjoy its fun to talk, share, and learn more about them. To let your imagination expand and an easy way to break the ice when you meet someone. Sports doesn't expand your imagination. There's no creativity.

Marsia Powers

Oh wow that one totally slipped my mind. I remember when it happened though -- everyone was so excited that stuff like that could surface online!

Matt Baume

Oh of course, how could I forget!!!

Matt Baume

If you haven't seen Heat Vision and Jack from 1999, it's probably one of the most well loved failed pilots that went viral after the rise of video sharing online.

Joe

I just found Fran Drescher as the Nanny pretending to be a character named Bobbie Fleckman. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf554pHCNy8

Sam Aronow

It definitely has the machine-learning vibe of almost making sense but not quite!

Matt Baume

Oh yes I should have specified! I'm thinking of a kiss where at least one of the participants has romantic intent. But as far as ANY man kissing another in a somewhat gay context, I think you're right that the Cheers one might be the first!

Matt Baume

Haha thank you. I love a big swing for the fences, even if it doesn't work out! Nothing like a good fiasco. And I didn't even mention Superpup, a 1958 version of Superman where everyone is dogs.

Matt Baume

Baffled! and Steel Justice win the "Would Be Accused of Being Written by ChatGPT if Released Today" Award.

TBoneSF

By male same-sex kiss, I'm guessing you mean on the lips? For on-the-cheek, there's that episode of Cheers where two men kiss Norm (I think) as the punchline about the men of Cheers being paranoid that there's a gay couple in the bar but they aren't sure who they are (and Diane bets them that they can't figure it out).

TBoneSF

Wow! You found a really rich vein of gold in the mine of Failed Pilots! Thanks for digging!

Eric Baysinger