Kate Jackson, Ron Perlman and Lane Davies is a wild combination. Among others (Polly Bergen, Patrika Darbo).

2 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

 

Kate Jackson as a police chief in a small town.. a CBS pilot from the mid 90s.  It reminded me of those cozy mystery movies that Allison Sweeney did for Hallmark.. and I believe this was based on a mystery book series.

I just watched the opening credits and immediately got a sense of the characters and that's not a good thing. Stereotypes 101.

Talk about an odd coupling.... a pilot I had heard about, but didn't ever think I would see.

 

Edited September 27, 2025Sep 27 by Soaplovers

Thanks @Soaplovers ! 

Here's another pilot on their channel I'd never heard about - an Invisible Man pilot with Kyle Maclachlan.

 

Escapade

CBS 5/19/78. 60 minutes. Quinn Martin Productions. Director: Jerry London. Executive Producer: Quinn Martin. Producer: Philip Saltzman. Writer/Creator: Brian Clemens. Music: Patrick Williams.

This was an attempt to do an Americanized version of The Avengers, an outlandish, stylized spoof of spy movies, which was made in England and ran on ABC from 1966-1969, becoming a cult classic, starring Patrick Macnee as debonair spy John Steed and Diana Rigg as his sexy, and dangerous, partner Emma Peel (and later Linda Thorson as Tara King).

Brian Clemens, who created, wrote, and produced The Avengers, penned this lighthearted pilot, about two San Francisco-based spies (Granville Van Dusen and Morgan Fairchild) who take their orders from an uppity computer named OZ. It was made shortly after Clemens finished producing twenty-six episodes of a European-produced revival called The New Avengers, which starred Macnee, Joanna Lumley, and Gareth Hunt, and aired late-night on CBS during the 1978-79 season. Cast: Granville Van Dusen (as Joshua Rand), Morgan Fairchild (Su- sie), Len Birman (Arnold Tulliver), Janice Lynde (Paula), Alex Henteloff (Wences), Gregory Walcott (Seaman), Dennis Rucker (Charlie Webster).

Thanks @Paul Raven 

I could see Morgan being OK, even if it's odd imagining her doing martial arts, but van Dusen bored the hell out of me on Y&R and PC. Not sure how his primetime work fared.

The unsold pilot for a TV version of Some Like It Hot, notable mostly due to them actually getting Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis for the early scenes. 

 

I was just going post that. What a bizarre idea. Such a contrived premise.

As for Curtis and Lemmon, maybe that was unused footage from the movie?

1 hour ago, Paul Raven said:

I was just going post that. What a bizarre idea. Such a contrived premise.

As for Curtis and Lemmon, maybe that was unused footage from the movie?

That would make sense. Maybe there was a subplot cut where they nearly got plastic surgery but instead decided to dress in drag.

Bizarre, also the plot with the most spin-off potential is following the all-girl orchestra.  Marilyn look-alikes were a dime a dozen.  Cast some funny ladies for the driver, the chaperone, and the cellist.  They travel around and meet new people every week (or play a residency in Palm Beach, and tourists come to the hotel). It's Petticoat Junction with a six-piece band.  Bim, bam, boom, it writes itself.

Edited October 22, 2025Oct 22 by j swift

58 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

Maybe there was a subplot cut where they nearly got plastic surgery but instead decided to dress in drag.

The thought had crossed my mind as well.  But the cinematography (for lack of a better word) isn't at all what you'd expect in a Billy Wilder picture.

Turning "Some Like It Hot" into a series is like turning "Casablanca" into a series (which the industry has tried to do, on more than one occasion, lol): once the story in the movie has been told, what's left to tell?

Edited October 22, 2025Oct 22 by Khan

The list of movies piloted or pick up as series is endless. Only a few ever took off.

Sunset Boulevard was once considered. God knows how that could work as a series. Perhaps they were only going to use the title to attract viewers? Maybe it was going to deal with different residents of that address?

Another one was Seven Year Itch. Again, difficult to grasp how it would work as a series.

18 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

Sunset Boulevard was once considered. God knows how that could work as a series. Perhaps they were only going to use the title to attract viewers? Maybe it was going to deal with different residents of that address?

Max and Betty hook up.  He's inherited the house on Sunset, and now Betty's midwestern family have to restore it in order to sell it.  It is Beverly Hillbillies, but with a German movie director.  The monkey's ghost makes a cameo in episode three, years before Friends ever thought of it. 

Edited October 22, 2025Oct 22 by j swift

14 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Sunset Boulevard was once considered. God knows how that could work as a series. Perhaps they were only going to use the title to attract viewers? Maybe it was going to deal with different residents of that address?

In order for "Sunset Boulevard" to have worked as a weekly series, it would've needed to be reinvented as an out-and-out half-hour comedy: the zany misadventures of a washed-up movie star still awaiting her comeback, her fawning valet and ex-husband who writes all her fan mail and the cynical, struggling screenwriter who takes up residence in her guest cottage above the garage when he runs afoul of loan sharks and creditors (with the gigolo aspect downplayed severely).

The original pilot for Pam Long's show Second Noah, which barely lasted into a second season (looking at Wiki Disney may have wanted it dead, although I can't see it lasting anyway).