"STARMAN" TV Series starring Robert Hays and C.B. Barnes

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"STARMAN" TV Series starring Robert Hays and C.B. Barnes

Post by Ye Admin » Tue Apr 30, 2019 4:59 pm

John Carpenter's STARMAN came out in 1984 (Pre-Crisis) and wasn't a box-office smash at the time, but it did leave an impression in fandom. Roger Ebert gave it three stars out of four and wrote a lazy review that mostly praised the acting and Carpenter's decision to make what's more of a road movie than a regular sci-fi film. The plot involved a glowing ball of light (the "Starman") cloning the body of a deceased Wisconsin house painter, Scott Hayden, and attempting to get home by reaching a rendezvous point within three days or he would die. He enlists the help of the painter's widow and the pair go on the road, with the requisite government goons in hot pursuit. In the course of those three days he learns about humanity, saves a deer and gives Karen Allen's Jenny Hayden a baby, before taking off leaving the door open for a sequel.

It's obvious Jeff Bridges would never return for a sequel and in fact the movie didn't make enough money to warrant one from the bigwigs, but on September 19, 1986, STARMAN returned. At least as a TV series.

Gone was the amazing theme by Jack Nitzsche and instead of Jeff Bridges, we get fan favourite Robert Hays, who will never hear the end of having been in "AIRPLANE!" and its sequel/remake. This is perfectly acceptable because since Starman is a being of light that can clone other bodies, he has no need to re-use Scott Hayden's. Co-starring as a different Scott Hayden is C.B. Barnes, a.k.a. "the other Greg Brady ", only thirteen at the time this was shot, showing remarkable talent and maturity for his age.

So what went wrong?

The series is hit or miss and it has a number of script problems. Hays mentioned in STARLOG #114 (I had that when it came out) that they didn't even have the budget to go to Albuquerque. Budgetary restrictions seemed to limit the scripts as well. A number of California locations had to stand in for other states but road signs can be clearly seen revealing where they were actually shot.

Hays evolves from cloning (I can't think of a better word) Bridges' original portrayal into his own version of Starman and the relationship with his newfound son is developed in the first few episodes, possibly to prevent Scott's angst from making him annoying to the viewer. Richard Jaeckel's George Fox is played here by Michael Cavanaugh, drawing an interesting parallel to Richard Lynch's Preminger from THE PHOENIX. There is that same aquiline look to him that Lynch had, but Cavanaugh's Fox, unlike Lynch's Preminger, is a believer and this fuels his passion for hunting down Starman. Preminger just wanted to prove that he was right.

What killed the show for me was boring scripts and terrible guest star acting by some of the leading ladies of the week. Episodes 2 and 3 both contain some TROLL 2 level of bad acting by its women. I'm actually rewatching the whole thing this week and when it misses the mark it really misses the mark. There are some notably good episodes, but it could have been a lot better. Unfortunately, like WEREWOLF (that other man-on-the-run sci-fi show of the time), STARMAN went into a black hole after only 22 episodes.

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