Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Missing TV series topics
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HCH
Shipmate
# 14313
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Posted
I am a bit surprised, these days, that American television does not seem to have any TV series about the First World War.
What comes to mind as a topic for a TV series that is not presently in use?
Posts: 1540 | From: Illinois, USA | Registered: Nov 2008
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
As the US didn't enter until 1917 maybe they will appear for the 100th anniversary? Certainly there's been programming in the UK to mark, for example, the centenary of the Somme. Though more reporting of events, commerations and ceremonies than drama (though that may have already been since we've had since 2014 to do stuff).
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
I'd like a new up-to-date version of Chelmsford 123, a sitcom about a Roman governor and a Celtic chief and his hapless mates.
In fact why not have a historical soap opera about the Vikings. Plenty of scope for imagination there as Olaf the Pusillanimous takes to the seas to avoid a situation with his wife and a female thrall, then doesn't come back. Historical drama doesn't have to be limited to the last couple of centuries.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
So long as they don't have plastic cow horns on their helmets, electric eels,and other anachronisms.
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by Ariel: I'd like a new up-to-date version of Chelmsford 123 ...
Yes yes yes!!! - it was one of Hat Trick's absolute gems. Especially if it's still got Neil Pearson in it ...
As I recall, it did have anachronisms - didn't Blag say something like "I saw that on TV" and then get one of his headaches?
I like Ariel's Viking sit-com idea; I suggest it should have a character in it called Sigurd the Short, who D. says was one of my ancestors.
-------------------- I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander. alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by Penny S: So long as they don't have plastic cow horns on their helmets, electric eels,and other anachronisms.
No!! They have to, that's part of the fun!
(Electric eels? on helmets?)
quote: Originally posted by Piglet: Yes yes yes!!! - it was one of Hat Trick's absolute gems. Especially if it's still got Neil Pearson in it ...
Or Jimmy Mulville, though he's probably gone off a bit by now though.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Golden Key
Shipmate
# 1468
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Posted
PBS recently started running "The Crimson Field", a British series about WWI. I've only watched the first episode through, and a few moments of others, but it's good. I know enough about WWI to know there are things I don't want to see, so I may not watch much more, but it's well done.
-------------------- Blessed Gator, pray for us! --"Oh bat bladders, do you have to bring common sense into this?" (Dragon, "Jane & the Dragon") --"Oh, Peace Train, save this country!" (Yusuf/Cat Stevens, "Peace Train")
Posts: 18601 | From: Chilling out in an undisclosed, sincere pumpkin patch. | Registered: Oct 2001
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
Electric eels were a feature of a Viking episode of Dr Who that was so anachronistic that I spent the entire season expecting to find it was the equivalent of a Star Trek holodeck episode.
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
That wasn't the one where the monk turned out to be another Time Lord?
I generally assume that Historical Howlers are there for either comedic effect or to clue you that All Is Not As It Seems.
Mind you, I heard the presenter of an otherwise engaging series on classical music assure us that Debussy had written a groundbreaking piece on the afternoon of a young deer.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Schroedinger's cat
Ship's cool cat
# 64
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Posted
The series "The Vikings" on Netflix or similar was very good, and sort of a soap opera about the Vikings. Very good, and the lead character was searingly hot (if you like blond, blue-eyed fit young blokes. Which I don't).
What I miss on the BBC is really in-depth science. They do produce good science programs, but they seem to have dumbed down from when I was younger. I understand why, but I miss it.
-------------------- Blog Music for your enjoyment Lord may all my hard times be healing times take out this broken heart and renew my mind.
Posts: 18859 | From: At the bottom of a deep dark well. | Registered: May 2001
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Golden Key
Shipmate
# 1468
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Posted
SC--
Have you tried any science shows from PBS? (More or less the American BBC.) The depth varies, but you might like "Nova", "Nature", "Secrets of the Dead", and "Your Inner Fish", to name just a few.
-------------------- Blessed Gator, pray for us! --"Oh bat bladders, do you have to bring common sense into this?" (Dragon, "Jane & the Dragon") --"Oh, Peace Train, save this country!" (Yusuf/Cat Stevens, "Peace Train")
Posts: 18601 | From: Chilling out in an undisclosed, sincere pumpkin patch. | Registered: Oct 2001
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jedijudy
Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333
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Posted
Where are the cowboy/western shows? When I was a young pup, we had several to choose from. Bonanza, Sugarfoot, Maverick, The Rifleman, Wagon Train, The Lone Ranger, Kung Fu. And more!
I can see a comedy based on the Wild West (like F Troop) that could possibly be a hit. Anachronisms could definitely be part of the humor!
-------------------- Jasmine, little cat with a big heart.
Posts: 18017 | From: 'Twixt the 'Glades and the Gulf | Registered: Aug 2001
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georgiaboy
Shipmate
# 11294
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by Firenze:
Mind you, I heard the presenter of an otherwise engaging series on classical music assure us that Debussy had written a groundbreaking piece on the afternoon of a young deer.
Bambi lives!
-------------------- You can't retire from a calling.
Posts: 1675 | From: saint meinrad, IN | Registered: Apr 2006
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
You need to hunt down a series called Orchestra! which was written and presented by Georg Solti and Dudley Moore.
I have it on DVD and use it with my junior choristers.
-------------------- Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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Kelly Alves
Bunny with an axe
# 2522
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by jedijudy: Where are the cowboy/western shows? When I was a young pup, we had several to choose from. Bonanza, Sugarfoot, Maverick, The Rifleman, Wagon Train, The Lone Ranger, Kung Fu. And more!
I can see a comedy based on the Wild West (like F Troop) that could possibly be a hit. Anachronisms could definitely be part of the humor!
They should do a miniseries- maybe even a series-- about the goldrush town of Pescadero, CA. Basically some crazy East Coast money man ( Loren Coburn) bought up an existing town and attempted to rule it like Boss Hogg while the establish residents resisted. Most of it was micro agression ( like the locals repeatedly violating Coburn's gate across a previously public road to 'Pebble Beach' and Coburn's repeated litigation of the town government- he was called the "most litigious man in San Mateo County.)
But Coburn eventually turned to local gangsters to be his muscle, and and in one case escalated to a violent turf battle in which Coburn's thugs wouldn't let Portugese fishermen dock for delivery at the only local pier, in Pigeon Point. Pescadero went from being a peaceful little farming/ fishing town to being a gang- controlled semi- prison very quickly. ( oh, and in the middle of all this, a fire destroyed half the town.)
Coburn's widow also died under mysterious circumstances, and as luck had it, she left her entire estate to the leader of the aforementioned thugs. Really, this craziness went on for decades. It would make a great series.
-------------------- I cannot expect people to believe “ Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.” Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.
Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002
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Stetson
Shipmate
# 9597
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Posted
I've always found it rather telling that the history segments on Schoolhouse Rock never got around to covering the American Civil War, considering their mandate to teach American history, and the ACW being pretty much the biggest and most consequential thing that happened there since independence.
Presumably, slavery, national breakdown, and fratricidal warfare woulda been pretty tough to weave into a cute cartoon scored to a catchy jingle.
-------------------- I have the power...Lucifer is lord!
Posts: 6574 | From: back and forth between bible belts | Registered: Jun 2005
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HCH
Shipmate
# 14313
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Posted
In American history alone there are plenty of possibilities, such as the gold rush (or later such rushes in Alaska, etc.) or the building of the railroads, or the Pony Express (though that may have been done) or the experiences of various immigrant groups.
It might be interesting to have a British series about the London theater scene sometime between 1880 and 1930. I have sometimes thought about a series set at a modern opera house.
I can imagine a Canadian series about the amalgamation of the provinces into one nation.
Of course, sequels are possible. What happened to the Poldarks a hundred years later? Or to the folk from Downton Abbey?
Posts: 1540 | From: Illinois, USA | Registered: Nov 2008
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by Firenze: That wasn't the one where the monk turned out to be another Time Lord?
I generally assume that Historical Howlers are there for either comedic effect or to clue you that All Is Not As It Seems.
Mind you, I heard the presenter of an otherwise engaging series on classical music assure us that Debussy had written a groundbreaking piece on the afternoon of a young deer.
Much more recent than the meddling monk. And I think they just didn't care. Unless the next series refers back.
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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Lord Jestocost
Shipmate
# 12909
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by Piglet: As I recall, it did have anachronisms - didn't Blag say something like "I saw that on TV" and then get one of his headaches?
This extract from the very first episode of Chelmsford 123 was an early clue that historical veracity was not their foremost concern.
Posts: 761 | From: The Instrumentality of Man | Registered: Aug 2007
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