Thursday, June 28, 2007

DEJA VIEW ALL OVER AGAIN

Earlier this past season, 'Boston Legal' took old footage of a young William Shatner working with Ralph Bellamy on a 'Studio One' production, "The Defender". This would serve as the pilot for the classic TV series 'The Defenders', starring EG Marshall and Robert Reed. We were meant to look at this old footage in a new light, seeing Shatner and Bellamy playing Denny Crane and his father.

But it wasn't the first time that we saw old TV series footage recycled to be used in a different way on another TV show. A member of the IMDb.com-munity supplied this information about an episode of 'Boomtown':

Two men rob a sporting goods store and hold everyone inside hostage. After hearing that one of the hostages inside is a former 80s TV star whose role inspired him to become a cop, Ray decides to go inside in an effort to save the day.

The interesting thing about this episode was use of footage from the '80s series "Riptide" recast as the fictional TV series "Insured by Smith & Wesson". It was a rather clever re-editing and done well. Joe Penny plays an assistant manager at a Wal-Mart style sporting goods store in this episode of "Boomtown". He was once an actor that starred as a PI in an old TV show. Now he is the inside man on a store robbery gone bad.

He slowly realizes that through this he may resuscitate his career and recapture some old glory. Perry King shows up in the "Riptide" footage only. It was fun to see "Riptide" resurrected if only briefly some 15 years after it was canceled. An interesting twist to a so-so TV show.

"Insured By Smith & Wesson" sounds like the kind of show that Howie Zuckerman ('Lost' - "Expose") might have produced.....

BCnU!
Toby OB

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