NBC Rejects David Kelley's Wonder Woman
By
Ashlocke,
Posted on: 2011-05-12 19:40 in Comic and Hero-Villain Culture
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Best thing about Bionic Woman was MM's synopsis afterwards. He (or she as the case may be) needs to find another show to snark on in a similar vein.
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Originally Posted by lionsbane_EU
Ack.. the Bionic Woman was unlucky... it didnt get into its stride and then the writers strike killed it... hated the first episode but I thought it improved and had hopes for it..
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WOOHOOO!!!!
I am VERY glad that NBC rejected it. I REALLY hope every place that Kelly shops it to, also rejects it.
This was NOT Wonder Woman. It was just some generic female superhero type, stealing the WW costume and name. If it had gone with an original costume and dropped the WW style origin I would have been interested in seeing it. But they were trying to pass it off as the DC Wonder Woman which it was NOT, no matter what they and DC might have said.
As it happens one of the people tapped to be in a test screening also runs a podcast, and dedicated it to a spoileriffic review of the pilot. And the general gist was that it sucked, big time.
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Or... it could have just really, really sucked. I love Wonder Woman, and the premise sounded absolutely horrible to me.
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Originally Posted by VoodooGirl
Test audiences can ruin a film or tv show. It could be that the test audience is *really* *really* *really* unfamiliar with Wonder Woman and don't know how to wrap their minds around the day of a female super hero.
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Global name: @k26dp
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Considering the relative crap most network-based TV is now-a-days any pilot would have to be fairly bad to not even make it far enough to get aired before it got cancelled. Still, I'm now left wondering how many more decades it'll be before someone gets this close again to making a new Wonder Woman series. |
Originally Posted by RosaQuartz
Or... it could have just really, really sucked. I love Wonder Woman, and the premise sounded absolutely horrible to me.
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Let's just give a couple hundred million dollars to Joss Whedon and Gail Simone for a WW movie.
- CaptainFoamerang
Silverspar on Kelly Hu: A face that could melt paint off the wall *shivers*
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I'm all for that scenario. Thing is people have been talking about hypotheticals like this for years and now as of today we're pretty much back to square one with -any- live action attempt. |
Originally Posted by CaptainFoamerang
Let's just give a couple hundred million dollars to Joss Whedon and Gail Simone for a WW movie.
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Wasn't Whedon working on a WW movie but he left it because they were wanting to force ****** concepts like the ones included in this series on him or something?
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Originally Posted by Lothic
I'm all for that scenario. Thing is people have been talking about hypotheticals like this for years and now as of today we're pretty much back to square one with -any- live action attempt.
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- CaptainFoamerang
Silverspar on Kelly Hu: A face that could melt paint off the wall *shivers*
Someone play my AE arc! "The Heart of Statesman" ID: 343405
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I'll just leave this here from 2006ish....the Japanese always on the cutting edge... |
Originally Posted by Lothic
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But with the way things are going I figure we'll get there in a matter of months at this point. |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5PS8zHBbxg
I am glad its canned though, better nothing than something so far off base as to be counterproductive for interest in the character
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A bad Wonder Woman would have been much worse for the brand than no Wonder Woman.|
Originally Posted by Lothic
Considering the relative crap most network-based TV is now-a-days any pilot would have to be fairly bad to not even make it far enough to get aired before it got cancelled. Still, I'm now left wondering how many more decades it'll be before someone gets this close again to making a new Wonder Woman series.
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Hopefully someone smart at Warner Bros. will take a good hard look at the Thor movie and realize that the same story could have essentially be told about Wonder Woman.
Global name: @k26dp
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Originally Posted by Kai
I am glad its canned though, better nothing than something so far off base as to be counterproductive for interest in the character
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Originally Posted by RosaQuartz
A bad Wonder Woman would have been much worse for the brand than no Wonder Woman.
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Consider the history involved: People had be trying to get a Wonder Woman TV show made for years through the 1960s and early 70s. The very first live action Wonder Woman that finally managed to get made was the very cheesy Cathy Lee Crosby version in 1974. Despite that being a horrible version of the character it directly generated enough interest in the idea to finally get us the Lynda Carter Wonder Woman shows of 1975-79.
I contend that even though Cathy Lee Crosby's Wonder Woman was horrible it served a valuable purpose at the time to lead to something better. I feel that even if this 2011 David Kelley show had turned out to be horrible it would have at least primed the pump again to have a better chance to get a GOOD Wonder Woman show made in the relative near future. With the news that this series was easily discarded before it got a real chance I figure our collective chances for a good show in the next 5 to 10 years is now virtually nil. *shrugs*
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It's not really that so much as the concept was terrible. I think there's more to back up the "it's better it never happened" theory because at least Wonder Woman won't be tainted by bad memories of this show. People who are relatively unfamiliar with the character would have tuned in and wrote the character off because they'd look at it and go, "That's Wonder Woman? I'll pass." and do so in addition to the fans who'd already do the same.
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Originally Posted by Lothic
Actually I still disagree with the "we're better off it didn't happen" theory.
Consider the history involved: People had be trying to get a Wonder Woman TV show made for years through the 1960s and early 70s. The very first live action Wonder Woman that finally managed to get made was the very cheesy Cathy Lee Crosby version in 1974. Despite that being a horrible version of the character it directly generated enough interest in the idea to finally get us the Lynda Carter Wonder Woman shows of 1975-79. I contend that even though Cathy Lee Crosby's Wonder Woman was horrible it served a valuable purpose at the time to lead to something better. I feel that even if this 2011 David Kelley show had turned out to be horrible it would have at least primed the pump again to have a better chance to get a GOOD Wonder Woman show made in the relative near future. With the news that this series was easily discarded before it got a real chance I figure our collective chances for a good show in the next 5 to 10 years is now virtually nil. *shrugs* |
- CaptainFoamerang
Silverspar on Kelly Hu: A face that could melt paint off the wall *shivers*
Someone play my AE arc! "The Heart of Statesman" ID: 343405
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****** cop! William Shatner can make anything work.
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Originally Posted by Suspicious_Pkg
...They're cops. They're hookers. It's Cop a Feel.
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I'm very disappointed... mainly because I made a parody twitter account in advance and have been enjoying writing for it. @WonderMcWoman Now I may have to drop it, or at least change the name.
What we need is something so bizarre and so extreme that watching it would be like getting a left jab to the face by a heavy weight boxer.
I'm talking about a reality show about a group of normal everyday people who think they are super heroes and dress up in spandex (yes, even the fat guy!) and go out and stop crime... REAL crime.
Or at least they make the attempt, and I expect them to fail.... often.
Like a psychotic twilight zone version of Cops, only things go horribly bad a lot. People would be glued to their TVs in shock horror!
Imagine:
"Commander Elmer busts in on a 7-11 holdup, throws a ball of elmers glue at the thug with an actual handgun and some snappers on the gound for sound effects. A few seconds goes by as the stupefied thug takes in the surreal situation then blasts Commander Elmer away.... we segway to a commercial while everyone at home is stunned and mortified that that just happened.
When the show returns after the commercial break we see him being rushed to the hospital and we learn that he only barely survived because he was wearing a kevlar shirt under his tights... still though. The next few episodes deal with his physical therapy sessions and learning how to not drool when eating."
Make it happen!
"All that crap is grey to me, no XP." - Positron 5/15/05 8:36am . . . The world stopped and silence ensued except for the sound of a crying infant off in the distance.
"Everyone needs to chill the hell out." - BackAlleyBrawler 11/13/08 3:26pm . . . Geeks around the world stopped and blinked.
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Let's face it: Wonder Woman on TV has never had a completely flawless legacy. People who are old enough remember the absolute abomination the Cathy Lee Crosby Wonder Woman was. Ironically the David Kelley pilot, with all its apparent faults, was actually shaping up to easily be 10x BETTER than that joke of a show was which actually got on TV somehow. Ultimately everything is relative. If we were honest with ourselves we'd admit that even the Lydna Carter Wonder Woman was fairly silly. |
Originally Posted by CaptainFoamerang
It's not really that so much as the concept was terrible. I think there's more to back up the "it's better it never happened" theory because at least Wonder Woman won't be tainted by bad memories of this show. People who are relatively unfamiliar with the character would have tuned in and wrote the character off because they'd look at it and go, "That's Wonder Woman? I'll pass." and do so in addition to the fans who'd already do the same.
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Also remember that everyone here is merely ASSUMING that the Kelley show would have instantly crashed and burned. True there was a lot of evidence to suggest that's what would have happened. But we'll honestly NEVER know if that was going to come to pass or not. Heck, I predicted Smallville wouldn't last a full season because I thought it totally sucked at the time. Go figure. *shrugs*
Again I'll ascribe to the idea that even in 2011 "bad publicity is still good publicity". Or at least would have been at any rate.
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But it kind of already did. I mean apparently it was so bad it didn't just crash and burn, it exploded on the runway.
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Originally Posted by Lothic
Let's face it: Wonder Woman on TV has never had a completely flawless legacy. People who are old enough remember the absolute abomination the Cathy Lee Crosby Wonder Woman was. Ironically the David Kelley pilot, with all its apparent faults, was actually shaping up to easily be 10x BETTER than that joke of a show was which actually got on TV somehow. Ultimately everything is relative. If we were honest with ourselves we'd admit that even the Lydna Carter Wonder Woman was fairly silly.
Also remember that everyone here is merely ASSUMING that the Kelley show would have instantly crashed and burned. True there was a lot of evidence to suggest that's what would have happened. But we'll honestly NEVER know if that was going to come to pass or not. Heck, I predicted Smallville wouldn't last a full season because I thought it totally sucked at the time. Go figure. *shrugs* Again I'll ascribe to the idea that even in 2011 "bad publicity is still good publicity". Or at least would have been at any rate. |
- CaptainFoamerang
Silverspar on Kelly Hu: A face that could melt paint off the wall *shivers*
Someone play my AE arc! "The Heart of Statesman" ID: 343405
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That made me laugh out loud |
Originally Posted by Ironik
It's time for a new direction in TV dramas. I present to you, Doctor Officer!
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Originally Posted by Lothic
Actually I still disagree with the "we're better off it didn't happen" theory.
Consider the history involved: People had be trying to get a Wonder Woman TV show made for years through the 1960s and early 70s. The very first live action Wonder Woman that finally managed to get made was the very cheesy Cathy Lee Crosby version in 1974. Despite that being a horrible version of the character it directly generated enough interest in the idea to finally get us the Lynda Carter Wonder Woman shows of 1975-79. I contend that even though Cathy Lee Crosby's Wonder Woman was horrible it served a valuable purpose at the time to lead to something better. I feel that even if this 2011 David Kelley show had turned out to be horrible it would have at least primed the pump again to have a better chance to get a GOOD Wonder Woman show made in the relative near future. With the news that this series was easily discarded before it got a real chance I figure our collective chances for a good show in the next 5 to 10 years is now virtually nil. *shrugs* |
I wonder... Things are certainly different, in regards to media coverage/tv/internet/entertainment... Perhaps just having this happen and whatever buzz may take place (or already taken place) could possibly result in the same display of interest to give value to another WW project as the original Cathy Lee WW did back then.
Perhaps internet buzz and the ability to see/read/hear the interest of potential viewers could be the type of influential thing to help make a WW happen, despite this setback.
I know there's always been an internet buzz about potential WW projects, but this is a near miss and focused/concentrated collection of feedback. The suits like them sorts of things, especially when showed ot them in pretty colored charts and stuff.
In today's day and age... a terrible show could possibly kill the brand name's chance. Have we seen any tv shows air, get canceled and then have someone else bring the same trademark to someone else to reinvent a different take on the same IP?
Hopeful thinking maybe... But it makes some sense to me. Not that it'll surely happen... just that what was true back then may not hold true today.
Through the world-wide accessible interactive media we have today, this may have created a larger buzz and generated more feedback than any canceled tv show in the 70s. And, in today's market, a TM'd character may not be coveted after it already aired and failed.
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Originally Posted by Dark One
... and America's <swimming> <feces>!
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@Zethustra
"Now at midnight all the agents and the superhuman crew come out
and round up everyone that knows more than they do"-Dylan
and round up everyone that knows more than they do"-Dylan
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A handful of corporate suits made a decision to kill the show in its crib. It's actually relatively hard to automatically assume that means that the millions of people who watch NBC shows would have agreed with them. *shrugs*|
Originally Posted by CaptainFoamerang
But it kind of already did. I mean apparently it was so bad it didn't just crash and burn, it exploded on the runway.
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While it was likely most "comic book geeks" would have hated Kelley's show it still -might- have found enough of an audience of "normal" people regardless. And that popularity -might- have encouraged a better future show or movie. Without a series on the air, even a bad one, we are in the same stagnate boat we've been in for decades. Even a bad show would have overcome the "mindset inertia" and gotten things looking better for a better future for this character.
Maybe the "controversy" over this failure will be enough to accomplish the same effect. I'm simply doubting it at this point.
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"Japennese"|
Originally Posted by Kai
I'll just leave this here from 2006ish....the Japanese always on the cutting edge...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5PS8zHBbxg |
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Well if the corporate suits can sell the garbage that's on now and decide that this take on Wonder Woman isn't worth the time, that could tell you something.|
Originally Posted by Lothic
A handful of corporate suits made a decision to kill the show in its crib. It's actually relatively hard to automatically assume that means that the millions of people who watch NBC shows would have agreed with them. *shrugs*
While it was likely most "comic book geeks" would have hated Kelley's show it still -might- have found enough of an audience of "normal" people regardless. And that popularity -might- have encouraged a better future show or movie. Without a series on the air, even a bad one, we are in the same stagnate boat we've been in for decades. Even a bad show would have overcome the "mindset inertia" and gotten things looking better for a better future for this character. Maybe the "controversy" over this failure will be enough to accomplish the same effect. I'm simply doubting it at this point. |
And the only way this would have been a positive if it was, well, actually good. If it was going to be as terrible as all the buzz and inside info indicated, then it would have added a negative connotation to the property in the public eye and create another roadblock for future projects.
- CaptainFoamerang
Silverspar on Kelly Hu: A face that could melt paint off the wall *shivers*
Someone play my AE arc! "The Heart of Statesman" ID: 343405
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I loved how the guy on the end, after seeing all the other guys get whacked, kept begging not to have to do the same thing. And people wonder why the birth rate in Japan is in such decline. |
Originally Posted by Mr. DJ
"Japennese"
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It only tells me what we've known all along: the suits really don't have any better clue about these things than we do. |
Originally Posted by CaptainFoamerang
Well if the corporate suits can sell the garbage that's on now and decide that this take on Wonder Woman isn't worth the time, that could tell you something.
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Originally Posted by CaptainFoamerang
And the only way this would have been a positive if it was, well, actually good. If it was going to be as terrible as all the buzz and inside info indicated, then it would have added a negative connotation to the property in the public eye and create another roadblock for future projects.
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but if you had then you would know that following your logic it would've taken at least 100 years before anyone would have given the Lynda Carter show a chance. Crosby's WW was truly that god-awful horrible - trust me. Contrary to your conclusion we saw the 1974 abomination that was many times worst than Kelley's pilot lead to a multi-year WW series the very next year.
Basically there is no way you're going to be able to convince me that not having a series on the air is a -good- thing for the future of the character no matter how bad it would've been. Wonder Woman has already weathered an absolute crap version on TV and lived to tell the tale. I promise you Kelley's version would have been near-perfection by comparison.
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Wonder Woman never had a completely flawless legacy in the comics, yet there's obviously much potential to the character, who's sufficiently mutable to survive in contemporary culture, unlike her contemporaries such as Phantom Lady, Lady Luck, and the Woman in Red.|
Originally Posted by Lothic
Let's face it: Wonder Woman on TV has never had a completely flawless legacy.
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| People who are old enough remember the absolute abomination the Cathy Lee Crosby Wonder Woman was. |
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| Again I'll ascribe to the idea that even in 2011 "bad publicity is still good publicity". Or at least would have been at any rate. |
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That only works if we're saying that the Lynda Carter Wonder Woman series had anything going for it than Lynda Carter running around in a Wonder Woman costume.|
Originally Posted by Lothic
My point about Cathy Lee Crosby's Wonder Woman leading to the Lydna Carter series pretty much already discredited this line of thinking.
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Also, it seems that viewer power has shifted to the point where a single, or even several scantily clad women alone aren't enough to sustain viewership on a series. Now it's more like if you can get enough attractive dudes in a series with semi-decent writing, you've got a shot.
- CaptainFoamerang
Silverspar on Kelly Hu: A face that could melt paint off the wall *shivers*
Someone play my AE arc! "The Heart of Statesman" ID: 343405
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