The problem with pilots...
Recently, as I remarked on this journal, I watched the Hawaii Five-0 pilot, followed quickly by several first season episodes, in broadcast order. Now, the Hawaii Five-0 pilot is claimed to be the first two-hour US TV pilot, and it shows many of the problems we see with some similar pilots today. One of the stated reasons for making pilots is to correct obvious mistakes - often in casting - and tweak the show to fit in with what the studio bosses decide they want, though the most important job is to get a good audience reaction which results in the show being picked up.
At first I thought that the massive differences in style and substance between the Hawaii Five-0 pilot Cocoon and the first episodes of the season proper (which set a consistent tone for the very early seasons) were a result of a rethink by the producers after the first broadcast, and that they were lucky the series was picked up by the studio at all.
But I do wonder...
The recasting of Danny Williams is plainly that sort of change. The original actor looked like and played Danny as bootlicking, one note, college Jock, all teeth and boundless enthusiasm for whatever McGarrett suggested. I, personally, had more sympathy for Wo Fat. Hence the casting of James MacArthur, who was much too short to be a college jock, had quirkier good looks, and played Danny with an air of quiet determination - and intelligence - that also took in an ability to argue with McGarrett. (Something that occurs in the first 'real' episode and, indeed, the first act of that episode.) The dire pacing and the crow-barred in romance are pretty much standard for pilots, even to this day. The first is due to stretching the plot beyond its bounds, and the second to studio pressure.
Setting those aside, the pilot is a different type of show. It is a spy thriller. Now, as the series ran on (and on and on) they never actually forget that McGarrett's background is in (Naval) intelligence - and there's a crossover waiting to happen! - and spy stories do reappear and, particularly in later series, become more frequent. Wo Fat also continues to crop up now and again, including in the very last episode. However, overwhelmingly, during the first season the series is police procedural/detective. The first two broadcast episodes concern a con involving serial killing (not giving anything away, that's in the teaser!) and the blowing up of a native island official. Where Chin Ho and Kono had about five lines between them (to go with Danny's five lines to himself) in the pilot, suddenly the series proper has real characters and real team interactions. Sure, this is Lord's show, and McGarrett is frontlined, but only the same way that Telly Salvalas will be in a few years in a decade or so in Kojak. From the one-man-show pilot, it has become a ensemble-with-a-lead series.
What's more, it's equally suddenly grounded in reality. The pilot had a few obvious back-projections, but the series moves immediately to its ground-breaking location shooting. What's more, the pilot concentrated on the tourist spots, threw in a few leis and hula girls, but could really have been set anywhere. McGarrett spent more time with white intelligence people than with his team or the island peoples.
Second episode (second!) we have an apparently political killing within the native islander community. What's more, no conclusion is drawn about the morality either the victim or anyone else's position the racial and environmental issues that drive the story. One of the interviews takes place in what amounts to a shanty town where the native islanders live. Hey, real issues. What happened to the lovey-dovey island paradise of the pilot?
Suddenly, I wonder if the pilot was made simply for the studio bosses, and the series was what the creators wanted to make in the first place. 1968 was still in the spy boom. Presenting their pilot as a spy-thriller when, in fact, they wanted to make a police procedural would make a lot of sense. So would the total dominance of Lord's role and the sidelining of all the other characters, so we have something closer to Matt Helm or one of the other 'headline' spies. This is the way the industry was going.
If so, it worked. There are no more spy plots in first season (though the pilot was rejigged and broadcast as a two parter.) The series was an enormous success, so the studio wasn't going to complain - or did it? Is that why the spy stories come back (and more frequently after the show's original creative forces left) or did they just run out of plots?
It wouldn't work nowadays, of course. Now, a bad pilot (and make no mistake, Cocoon is a bad pilot whichever way you look at it) kills the series. Watching it, I began to wonder if I had made a mistake in grabbing the DVD season one box set.
I didn't. At this stage the series was excellent. The location filming gave it an air of realism, some of the forensics would be at home on CSI, and it was fast, well-plotted, and occasionally violent. The characters were distinguishable, if not fully rounded, and there was even some humour. It was damn good.
For those who want to know, the transfers are excellent, though the sound can be a little off. Fans more expert than I have pronounced the episodes complete. There is a decent, if old, documentary to round off the box set. I shall be looking out for seasons two and three at least.
Pity the pilot's such a dud, though.
At first I thought that the massive differences in style and substance between the Hawaii Five-0 pilot Cocoon and the first episodes of the season proper (which set a consistent tone for the very early seasons) were a result of a rethink by the producers after the first broadcast, and that they were lucky the series was picked up by the studio at all.
But I do wonder...
The recasting of Danny Williams is plainly that sort of change. The original actor looked like and played Danny as bootlicking, one note, college Jock, all teeth and boundless enthusiasm for whatever McGarrett suggested. I, personally, had more sympathy for Wo Fat. Hence the casting of James MacArthur, who was much too short to be a college jock, had quirkier good looks, and played Danny with an air of quiet determination - and intelligence - that also took in an ability to argue with McGarrett. (Something that occurs in the first 'real' episode and, indeed, the first act of that episode.) The dire pacing and the crow-barred in romance are pretty much standard for pilots, even to this day. The first is due to stretching the plot beyond its bounds, and the second to studio pressure.
Setting those aside, the pilot is a different type of show. It is a spy thriller. Now, as the series ran on (and on and on) they never actually forget that McGarrett's background is in (Naval) intelligence - and there's a crossover waiting to happen! - and spy stories do reappear and, particularly in later series, become more frequent. Wo Fat also continues to crop up now and again, including in the very last episode. However, overwhelmingly, during the first season the series is police procedural/detective. The first two broadcast episodes concern a con involving serial killing (not giving anything away, that's in the teaser!) and the blowing up of a native island official. Where Chin Ho and Kono had about five lines between them (to go with Danny's five lines to himself) in the pilot, suddenly the series proper has real characters and real team interactions. Sure, this is Lord's show, and McGarrett is frontlined, but only the same way that Telly Salvalas will be in a few years in a decade or so in Kojak. From the one-man-show pilot, it has become a ensemble-with-a-lead series.
What's more, it's equally suddenly grounded in reality. The pilot had a few obvious back-projections, but the series moves immediately to its ground-breaking location shooting. What's more, the pilot concentrated on the tourist spots, threw in a few leis and hula girls, but could really have been set anywhere. McGarrett spent more time with white intelligence people than with his team or the island peoples.
Second episode (second!) we have an apparently political killing within the native islander community. What's more, no conclusion is drawn about the morality either the victim or anyone else's position the racial and environmental issues that drive the story. One of the interviews takes place in what amounts to a shanty town where the native islanders live. Hey, real issues. What happened to the lovey-dovey island paradise of the pilot?
Suddenly, I wonder if the pilot was made simply for the studio bosses, and the series was what the creators wanted to make in the first place. 1968 was still in the spy boom. Presenting their pilot as a spy-thriller when, in fact, they wanted to make a police procedural would make a lot of sense. So would the total dominance of Lord's role and the sidelining of all the other characters, so we have something closer to Matt Helm or one of the other 'headline' spies. This is the way the industry was going.
If so, it worked. There are no more spy plots in first season (though the pilot was rejigged and broadcast as a two parter.) The series was an enormous success, so the studio wasn't going to complain - or did it? Is that why the spy stories come back (and more frequently after the show's original creative forces left) or did they just run out of plots?
It wouldn't work nowadays, of course. Now, a bad pilot (and make no mistake, Cocoon is a bad pilot whichever way you look at it) kills the series. Watching it, I began to wonder if I had made a mistake in grabbing the DVD season one box set.
I didn't. At this stage the series was excellent. The location filming gave it an air of realism, some of the forensics would be at home on CSI, and it was fast, well-plotted, and occasionally violent. The characters were distinguishable, if not fully rounded, and there was even some humour. It was damn good.
For those who want to know, the transfers are excellent, though the sound can be a little off. Fans more expert than I have pronounced the episodes complete. There is a decent, if old, documentary to round off the box set. I shall be looking out for seasons two and three at least.
Pity the pilot's such a dud, though.