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anyone remember War of the Worlds: The TV series ?

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  • Mikey
    Verbose Member
    • Aug 9, 2001
    • 47243

    anyone remember War of the Worlds: The TV series ?

    I have brief flashbacks of seeing this show when it first premired-- I think in the late 80's on FOX.

    All I remember was the pilot movie.......

    Set TODAY (late 80's)
    Nobody remembered being invaded in the 50's (very hard to believe)..
    Very slow moving story...
    Only cool thing......
    At the end-- in the government hanger-- they found old Martian spaceships-EXACTLY like the ones on the the 50's classic movie--decent matte painting.

    Anybody remember this short lived series ?
  • Godzilla
    Permanent Member
    • Nov 3, 2002
    • 3008

    #2
    I really enjoyed the first season where the team of 4 main characters was trying to prevent the second martian invasion.

    If I remember correctly, they failed and invaded which left us in the second season with a Mad Max style world with most of the main characters dead. Much less fun.
    Mortui Vivos Docent
    The Dead Teach the Living

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    • ShadowAvenger
      Career Member
      • May 14, 2007
      • 547

      #3
      I remember watching a few episodes of the series and I thought it was pretty interesting especially the first season.

      Check out Review of War Of The Worlds TV series (1988) for a nice review of the series.
      Read my blog at Moongem Comics about comics, toys and more.

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      • Chris DVM
        Veterinarian Member
        • Jun 18, 2001
        • 2577

        #4
        Hey,
        Ah yes, one of my favorite TV periods.
        It seems that syndication was just starting to come into itself. Many TV shows started to get produced without a solid channel behind them - produced and then sold to whoever wanted them.
        War of the Worlds was one. I loved it. The first season was great, but then it started to run out on itself. Another one was Friday the 13th. Cool series - a evil man puts a curse on a bunch of antiques and sells them. His nephew and niece inherit the antique shop after he gets taken by the devil and start trying to get all the cursed antiques back to put them in a vault that is safe for everyone. They have the help of a mysterious bearded man who knows a lot about them. Same thing - first season was great, then the main characters/actors left and they tried with new people. It died.
        There were some others I really enjoyed - can't remember much about them.
        Chris DVM
        "The more I get to know people, the better I like my dog." - Mark Twain

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        • Flynne
          Permanent Member
          • Jan 22, 2003
          • 3008

          #5
          I vaugely remember watching the first season, though I seem to most clearly recall something about radioactive waste containers (some kind of nuclear accident, or something) that were used to store the Martians (although I think they were really from some other planet) before they would somehow possess the bodies of humans. I recall lots of people screaming after being gripped by a slimy tri-fingered hand, and then being little slimy puddles of skin after the possessing Martian was gone.

          I do recall the episode where they found the Martian "Tripod" from the George Pal movie, and also the name "Harrison Blackwood", which I think was the main character. I also remember the second season totally sucking a'la "Galactica 1980" so I quit watching. I also think there was a lot of preaching about being eco-friendly and the Martians wanting Earth because Humans were squandering it. This alien logic was totally undermined in the story however by the fact that Martians needed radioactive waste to survive on Earth. "You can't use this place because you are screwing up your planet with your greedy Human breeding. Now hand me my barrel of that delicious nuclear waste you have produced and then die!".

          That's about it though.
          Last edited by Flynne; Dec 26, '07, 3:10 PM.
          An old Irish Blessing - "May those who love us, love us; and if they do not love us, may God turn their hearts; and if He does not turn their hearts, may He turn their ankles, that we may know them by their limping"

          Comment

          • johnmiic
            Adrift
            • Sep 6, 2002
            • 8427

            #6
            That's out on DVD now. This was a real dog of a show. A bad concept by the Strangis Brothers, ( the producers). This was the bone Paramount tossed them after they pitched the idea of Star Trek - The Next Generation. Yes, I read somewheres that ST-TNG was originally pitched by the Strangis Brothers and Paramount, ( wisely I suppose), called up Roddenberry to take over and gave them this project instead. My friend Joe used to watch it with me for laffs. I recall any given day we hung around he would make a tri-fingered hand and try to grab me with his claw hand and shout that alien gibberish saying they had, " Oy, egahhr-veyyy!"

            The shows good points such as the Martians bodies not decomposing and being cured by exposure to radioactivity-waking from a dormant state-was brilliant! The fact that they were not really Martians but used Mars as a staging area to attack us was also good innovation. Still these ideas that allowed the series to take off were offset by ridiculously bad logic like how could we all forget being invaded by Martians-mass amnesia-baloney! And how the hell does a martian body fit into a human one-it just cant !?!?!?

            The producers took a cheapie approach to this show. They kept dangling the possibility in front of us that the aliens would find their war machines and use them to try and wipe us out again. Due to limited budget we catch glimpses of the classic design in some episodes but as soon as it's working it gets destroyed. WOW! Humans couldn't even do that in the first invasion so I guess we have nothing to worry about.

            The Dr. on the show was last seen in the series Fantastic Journey in the 70's. There was a decent episode guest starring John Colicos, ( Baltar of BSG). Also, perhaps the best episode, the scariest, was one where the Martians tagged humans for experiments and used ambulance drivers to abduct them. This was such a good idea and it pre-dates that type of story that the X-Files did so well. I wish the rest of the series had been so good.

            Comment

            • jds1911a1
              Alan Scott is the best GL
              • Aug 8, 2007
              • 3556

              #7
              really liked Richard Chaves as Col Ironhorse for the first season but after a while the show just got old. I think it was on the same night as x files for a while on fox

              Comment

              • jds1911a1
                Alan Scott is the best GL
                • Aug 8, 2007
                • 3556

                #8
                Originally posted by Chris DVM
                Hey,
                Ah yes, one of my favorite TV periods.
                It seems that syndication was just starting to come into itself. Many TV shows started to get produced without a solid channel behind them - produced and then sold to whoever wanted them.
                War of the Worlds was one. I loved it. The first season was great, but then it started to run out on itself. Another one was Friday the 13th. Cool series - a evil man puts a curse on a bunch of antiques and sells them. His nephew and niece inherit the antique shop after he gets taken by the devil and start trying to get all the cursed antiques back to put them in a vault that is safe for everyone. They have the help of a mysterious bearded man who knows a lot about them. Same thing - first season was great, then the main characters/actors left and they tried with new people. It died.
                There were some others I really enjoyed - can't remember much about them.
                Chris DVM
                I had a real thing for Robey back then

                Comment

                • Captain
                  Fighting the good fight!
                  • Jun 17, 2001
                  • 6031

                  #9
                  Wasnt Colicos made a (semi)regular in the second season?

                  When I first started watching the show, I thought it would lead up to a huge Earth/Mars war type story...instead it went nowhere.
                  Only reason I watched it to start with was it was on after Quantum Leap and Trek:TNG.
                  "Crayons taste like purple!"

                  Comment

                  • mego73
                    Printed paperboard Tiger
                    • Aug 1, 2003
                    • 6690

                    #10
                    I remember watching bits of it and just dismissing it as something Paramount did to try to start another syndicated Sci-Fi show like TNG.

                    I did see one show where an alien attacks a nurse and tears her leg off, I couldn't believe I was seeing that in a TV show.

                    So much so, I had to see that episode again when it got repeated. But, I bet they got complaints because it was edited out on the repeat.

                    mego73@hotmail.com

                    Comment

                    • Bo8a_Fett
                      Pat Troughton in disguise
                      • Nov 21, 2007
                      • 3738

                      #11
                      Originally posted by type1kirk
                      Only cool thing......
                      At the end-- in the government hanger-- they found old Martian spaceships-EXACTLY like the ones on the the 50's classic movie--decent matte painting.
                      Apart from this i felt I had wasted an hour of my life that i'd never get back.
                      ENGLISH AND DAMN PROUD OF IT British by birth....English by the grace of God. Yes Jamie...it is big isn't it....

                      Comment

                      • fallensaviour
                        Talkative Member
                        • Aug 28, 2006
                        • 5620

                        #12
                        I liked the show.Ah Tv in the eighties it was great.The war of the worlds starred
                        Adrian (duncan Mcloud) Paul.
                        “When you say “It’s hard”, it actually means “I’m not strong enough to fight for it”. Stop saying its hard. Think positive!”

                        Comment

                        • DocDrako
                          Formerly Doc Drako
                          • Nov 11, 2004
                          • 2813

                          #13
                          I vaguely remember it. I'd like to watch it now though just to see it. I'm a fan of the original movie.

                          "I prefer to remain an enigma."

                          DRAKO'S GOOD TRADERS LIST

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