Dear Network Television,
I’m finally getting around to watching the second half of NBC’s Impact that aired this past Sunday. I will admit, this was definitely one of those circumstances where I started watching the first installment because there was nothing on. The cast helped, as I’m a fan of both David James Elliott (from JAG) and Natasha Henstridge (specifically because of Eli Stone). Plus, Steven Culp. How can you not like Steven Culp?
In case you hadn’t heard, the movie was pretty bad. Its a shame, though, because in today’s pantheon of pop culture, we really needed another asteroid movie (Yes, I know in this, it’s technically the moon … But you get my drift, right?). I’m not going to say that Impact outright stole story elements from Deep Impact or Armageddon, but … Wait, yeah, I totally am. We had the tearful goodbye scene in mission control, the guy stuck on the rock sacrificing himself to save them all. All of the tropes were there. But it didn’t need to steal to be bad. I won’t even talk about the American Boy Scouts that find a meteorite, and the scientists from Berlin that they show it to (well, I guess I just did). The movie was My Mother the Car kinds of bad.
But was it so long ago that mini-series and Made for TV movies were a much different fare? Historically, you’ve got titles like Roots, V, Shogun, North and South…. The list could quite literally go on forever. My all time favorite mini-series was Stephen King’s The Stand, which did an admirable job telling such an epic story. Shorter form standouts include The Day After and Duel. I remember being just a little freaked out by the War of the Worlds-inspired Without Warning which CBS aired in 1994.
The quick answer to where all of the good material has gone is a a familiar one, if you’ve heard me ramble before. Predictably, they’ve gone to cable. My all time favorite television anything was HBO’s Band of Brothers (read Scott’s superb CliqueClack Flashback) but they get credit for Generation Kill, And the Band Played On, From the Earth to the Moon, Angels in America, and Recount. Just to prove that the premium networks aren’t carrying the whole load, basic cable has given us the likes of Joseph and Into the West (TNT), Battlestar Galatica (Sci-Fi/Sky One), and … well, OK, HBO really does rule the roost here.
If they can get it done on Cable, then I don’t understand why the broadcast networks can’t get in the game, too. Yes, money is an issue. Band of Brothers cost in the neighborhood of $125m to make eight years ago, and its companion piece, The Pacific, is reported to be in the $250m range. But you don’t have to spend a ton of money to make a quality product. You do, however, need to find these projects and foster their growth.
What you need to do is get away from the idea of movies like Impact, or limited runs of stuff like Superstars or Million Dollar Password. Give me something that I actually want to watch, not that I get stuck watching because nothing else was on a Sunday night, and my XBox 360 is broken.
Sincerely,
Dorv
Clacked by Ivey West 
on Jul 01, 2009 @ 13:00 EST5EDT
Yes. Someone is dropping the ball somewhere. I recall very clearly that everyone around me was talking about Roots and North and South at the time they came out.
As for finding projects. I read on Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander website that “..we had sold an option–to the production company who did The Stand, and who wanted to do a TV mini-series–but their option has expired. They’ve expressed interest in renewing it, but we now also have a couple of other interested parties, with various suggestions–feature film, BBC-sponsored series, etc. So at the moment, nothing is settled, but stay tuned for further Interesting Developments.” I’m hoping for an Outlander miniseries. It is one of my all time favorite series of books.
*POST AUTHOR*
If someone is dropping the ball, then HBO is picking it up. Not so much on the Made for TV movies (They do have great original movies, but as far as I can tell they do a good job of picking up distribution rights for films, instead of them developing them in house), but definitely in the mini series area, though.