I'm finding this re-boot pilot fascinating. It appears so well written with a great cast. It's a shame it was rejected. It's also extraordinary that with everything we've seen so far (not counting un-shot or cut scenes) has elapsed in only about 20 minutes. My one criticism, regarding the storyline, is having Barnabas show up at Collinwood in just a few hours after his release with full knowledge of everything going on, including, apparently, much of 21st century goings-on. I always counted the rather rapid appearance of Barnabas introducing himself to the family one of the major illogical things about DS, in whatever version. The '12 version handled it the best. The '66 and '91 versions did wait for a couple days or so (still not enough time for our favorite past-dweller to make himself inconspicuous), but - if my timing is right - having him show up in a few hours. Maybe I'm wrong about that timing. It does become confusing trying to understand its passage when dealing with what was in the script but re-written; what was in the script and not shot; what was in the script and shot but cut; what was not in the script but shot. Maybe a day or more has passed.
Kinda along that line, I think it would've been interesting if the powers-that-be saw the completed pilot (meaning really completed) and liked it enough to run with it, had said "it's good, but it needs more fleshing out - put the cut/never-shot scenes back and add a few more and expand it over several episodes." That was done with Lost In Space back in '65. The original pilot, an hour long, was packed with lots of adventure that spanned years in the passage of time (much of it taken up by the Gemini XIII [later Jupiter 2] space ship drifting through space until it crash-landed on a hostile planet). There was no Dr. Smith or the robot. The suits at CBS wanted it "fleshed out" to promote character development, so new scenes were shot, Dr. Smith (who was originally a totally evil character that was suppose to be offed after no more than six episodes) and the robot added, and the one-hour original pilot was expanded into four episodes. The series became a cult-classic and a part of television Americana. Of course, TV suits don't do that anymore. They don't want to invest in working and developing a series. They want it all now, and if it doesn't work right now, it's history. There's no opportunity to work out the kinks, allow for development and find the audience. Many classic TV shows from the past wouldn't be around if broadcasters "back then" followed today's make-it-rich-quick mentality today. If that had happened, we wouldn't have such critical/viewer smashes like The Dick Van Dyke Show, All In the Family and Cheers. All debuted to extremely low ratings which today would've had them trashed after a few episodes. But the networks held out, found ways of making them work and without these classic series, we'd have no TVLand today.
Gerard
