Red Dwarf - US?

[SmileOfTheShadow]

I was tooling around IMDB the other day, and saw that Terry Farrell (of DS9) fame got credit for being Cat in this. Someone explain to me what this is/was/never became? Just a pilot that failed?

And when are we getting a Red Dwarf movie! lol

[frulad]

It was developed by NBC and they got as far as shooting the pilot which kind of combined the first two episodes of the original series, but also shoehorning Kryton in. When that didn't sell, they shoot some new material and combined it with some stuff from the pilot to make a presentation reel, but that didn't get the series sold either.

Despite the presence of series creators Grant and Naylor, and a virtual retelling of the first two episodes, the pilot wasn't that good.

The pilot is floating around out there in all the usual places such things float...

[Joe Nazzaro]

I managed to see both of them, and all I can say is, ahem, painful. Unfortunately, the first time I saw the 'promo,' which was the re-shot version with Terry Farrell, I was actually shown it by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor themselves, sitting in their office, because they wanted to know what I thought of it. It's like the proud parents asking what you thought of their ugly baby, and you're trying to find some sort of diplomatic response on the spur of the moment.

Ironically, Linwood Boomer who was the writer/producer of the American pilot, eventually ended up creating Malcolm in the Middle, so I guess some things have a way of working out. And if you want a really good first-person account of the whole thing, track down Robert Llewellyn's book, The Man in the Rubber Mask by Penguin Books, which is extremely funny and quite illuminating.

[frulad]

I managed to see both of them, and all I can say is, ahem, painful. Unfortunately, the first time I saw the 'promo,' which was the re-shot version with Terry Farrell, I was actually shown it by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor themselves, sitting in their office, because they wanted to know what I thought of it. It's like the proud parents asking what you thought of their ugly baby, and you're trying to find some sort of diplomatic response on the spur of the moment.

Ouch. Dude, I feel for you. I remember just cringing through the whole thing when I watched it. Remind me not to play poker with you.

[SmileOfTheShadow]

I managed to see both of them, and all I can say is, ahem, painful. Unfortunately, the first time I saw the 'promo,' which was the re-shot version with Terry Farrell, I was actually shown it by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor themselves, sitting in their office, because they wanted to know what I thought of it. It's like the proud parents asking what you thought of their ugly baby, and you're trying to find some sort of diplomatic response on the spur of the moment.

Ironically, Linwood Boomer who was the writer/producer of the American pilot, eventually ended up creating Malcolm in the Middle, so I guess some things have a way of working out. And if you want a really good first-person account of the whole thing, track down Robert Llewellyn's book, The Man in the Rubber Mask by Penguin Books, which is extremely funny and quite illuminating.

Ouchies. I'll avoid it then.

[Joe Nazzaro]

I would instead invest money into Red Dwarf season 1-8 on DVD, which are a little bit pricey but well worth the money in my opinion. Every episode has a cast commentary which is usually very funny, and tons of extras. The season by season documentaries are quite extensive and informative, revealing a surprising amount of insight on each episode.

[SmileOfTheShadow]

I would instead invest money into Red Dwarf season 1-8 on DVD, which are a little bit pricey but well worth the money in my opinion. Every episode has a cast commentary which is usually very funny, and tons of extras. The season by season documentaries are quite extensive and informative, revealing a surprising amount of insight on each episode.

I already have them

[Quarxius]

If I were an extrodinarily rich man I would invest money to getting Red Dwarf: The Movie actually filmed, marketed and released. However, I am not overflowing in the financial arena. Instead I must still sit, watch, and hope that either Grant & Naylor do find some financial backers or that they give up and work up a Series 9.

If I can get new B5 after all these years I don't think a little new Red Dwarf is too much to ask.

[NotSoWize]

I just started watching Red Dwarf for the first time a few weeks ago. I've seen the first three "seasons" so far. I really am having a hard time understanding how this caught on as much as it did. Not that it isn't sometimes pretty funny stuff, but talk about looking like it was filmed in a basement . . .

For those of you who have seen the whole thing, what are your favorite seasons? I'm wondering if it's one of those shows that peaked early or one that improved over the years etc.

Terry Farrell as "Cat" huh, I almost want to track it down just to see how crazy that must have been.

[JoeD80]

The low-budget look is part of the fun I think! I think the earliest episodes are funniest, although there's good stuff throughout. It's one of those series I'd just recommend starting from the beginning and going straight through to the end, rather than picking one season over another.

[Joe Nazzaro]

I tend to agree; the first two seasons were done for no money but I think they're the funniest because they're basically relationship-based comedy. In seasons three and four, everything was redesigned to get rid of the drab gray look and Grant/Naylor began to parody a lot of sci-fi traditions. Seasons five and six were done largely by new directors and I also think they're the purest combination of SF and comedy. Seven and eight were done without Rob Grant, and in some ways they're the weakest because the sum of the parts was no longer there. While there are some brilliant ideas and episodes, there is also some really lazy writing, where episodes were turned into two and three-parters for no real reason. Just my two cents, for what it's worth. While I still pick one and two as my favorites, I also have a soft spot for six, as I was there for the entirety of filming to write a making-of book about the series, so it's a bit difficult to be objective. And the worst of the bunch is the US pilot, which should be avoided at all costs. Read Robert Llewellyn's book, The Man in the Rubber Mask for a much more amusing account of what it was like.

[raw_bean]

I tend to agree; the first two seasons were done for no money but I think they're the funniest because they're basically relationship-based comedy. In seasons three and four, everything was redesigned to get rid of the drab gray look and Grant/Naylor began to parody a lot of sci-fi traditions. Seasons five and six were done largely by new directors and I also think they're the purest combination of SF and comedy. Seven and eight were done without Rob Grant, and in some ways they're the weakest because the sum of the parts was no longer there. While there are some brilliant ideas and episodes, there is also some really lazy writing, where episodes were turned into two and three-parters for no real reason. Just my two cents, for what it's worth. While I still pick one and two as my favorites, I also have a soft spot for six, as I was there for the entirety of filming to write a making-of book about the series, so it's a bit difficult to be objective. And the worst of the bunch is the US pilot, which should be avoided at all costs. Read Robert Llewellyn's book, The Man in the Rubber Mask for a much more amusing account of what it was like.

This pretty much says it all. Seven and Eight almost put me off completely, though. It wasn't just the loss of Rob Grant I think, but the entrance of Christine Kochanski as a regular (but not very funny) character, and a large problem was that it was filmed in a studio with a laughter track added rather than in front of a live audience. That hampered even those bits of it that worked on the page. Eight was a definite attempt to recapture the feel of the original first season, largely focussing on Lister and Rimmer sharing a room and bickering, but it all felt too forced and wasn't really funny any more. There was too much self-parodying reference to old gags like Dwayne Dibbly and Rimmer's elaborate self-invented salutes, and not enough new inventions of equal hilarity.

[Belbo]

For those of you who have seen the whole thing, what are your favorite seasons?

Hard to choose between 3 and 5 for me, with 2 not far behind. Season 1 I found only mildly amusing ("Me2" aside); 4 & 6 are wildly uneven, with 8 similar but worse.

Oh, and 7 is a complete disaster - suffice it to say that whoever thought that the Lister/Kryten/Kochanski triangle would be a comedy goldmine will end up against the wall with the Sirius Cybernetics guys if there's any justice ....

[Joe Nazzaro]

My own person theory about why some of the comedy fell apart in later seasons is because of the Grant-Naylor split after season six. Without the checks and balances of two creators working together, you basically ended up with one creator who was also the executive producer (meaning the boss) and head writer. You get a lot of good ideas, because that person is not answerable to anybody, but you sometimes get a lot of bad ideas as well, for the same reason.