Daniel's TV Blog

I recently saw the new G.I. Joe film. It was really cool. Lots of great special effects and cool gadgets and weapons. It got me thinking about the original cartoon from the 80s which I watched, and the comic book which I read for about 5 years.

The TV show started with a mini-series. GI Joe and Cobra went on a global hunt for three special ingredients to a special doomsday machine. It eventually went into a daily series where each week Cobra was foiled by Joe is they quest to take over the world. It was never really clear where Cobra got all they funding and how they could afford to buy all the choppers that the Joes shot down each episode or pay the mercenaries who bailed out of the choppers that the Joes shot down every episode. The comic book went into a lot more detail about their organization but the back story was never really explored that well. They also had to cool Cobra Island story where the Joes were tricked into detonating a ton of underwater explosives triggered a tectonic event which created a new island. At which point the secret Cobra organization became a nation recognized by the U.N. That was pretty cool.

The movie had the predicable one-liner references to the show, "He's a real American hero" and "Knowing is half the battle." But it also had a completely plausible origin story for the well funded terrorist organization Cobra. An super smart scientist stumbles across some groundbreaking nono-technology and he is able to adapt it to use for mind control and facial reconstruction. This guy goes on to become Cobra Commander. The mind control technology explains the source of the power, both money and man-power. It is very powerful technology for whoever first masters it and could easily turn someone into a very powerful threat. I'm not sure if I like the change of the Baroness from just evil villainess to the unwilling mind controlled sister of the Cobra Commander and ex-fiance of Duke, the newest member of the G. I. Joe team. Woman can be beautiful and evil. It made for a good love story though. Pretty much all of the characters Destro, Zartan, Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow had their origin stories presented in the film. Something I never got in the show. Even if the movie had been a flop (it wasn't so expect more) it would have been great for me to know the back stories of the characters I've known for so long. And knowing is half the battle.

Labels: G.I. Joe, I Remember

This is a new recurring kind of post for me, the "I Remember" post. I'm going to talk about shows I used to watch long ago without doing any research. It's just the show as I remember. So there will be some missing and incorrect information.

When I was a child I used to watch Days of Our Lives and Another World. The latter was since canceled but DOOL is still limping along as NBC's only remaining soap. I have a vague memory of another NBC soap called The Doctors. Then in high school there was Generations, the first soap with a significant African American cast, instead of the two token characters who have no choice but to get married, until a third black person moves into town. Finally NBC had Passions which I watched a few times at the gym and was thoroughly confused why anyone would watch it, and I love bad television. But my favorite soap opera was called Santa Barbara. And a few weeks ago when driving through Santa Barbara, I started to remember a lot of this show.

The show started with the return of some guy who used to be engaged to The Princess Bride. He was in prison for killing her brother. Upon parole he was released and returned. I don't remember much of this story line other than the not really dead Capwell mom was the real killer, but it was an accident. The two main families were the Capwells and someone else. They were modelled after the Capulets and Montegues from Romeo and Juliet. So the guy coming back from prison was probably a member of the other family. I didn't watch it for a while and then they had a big earthquake and stuff. I watched it regularly in high school. It was the time of two super couples, Mason Capwell and the character played by Nancy Lee Grahn and Cruz and Eden Capwell. Cruz was the successful Latino police detective and Eden was the daughter of the wealthiest family in town so this was a problem. But eventually everyone was happy with their relationship. And they were happy until the rape. Eden was violently and realistically raped in a very emotional storyline. She was smashed into her glass coffee table by a man dresses all in black, one of the many reasons never to have a glass coffee table. She recovered and they found out it was gynecologist. Gross. That character fell of a cliff or something. Apparently they liked the actor because they recast him as the new D.A. with the crazy wife. Mason and Nancy's character (I can't remember her name) had an on-again-off-again relationship. They were both lawyers and much of the time they were dealing with Mason's alcoholism. Often they were the comic relief with one mad capped adventure about a missing body they put in their garage freezer. I don't remember why they had a body, but it was funny.

I stopped watching when I went off to college and the show was eventually cancelled. It ended well though. Someone got married and all the couples got back together to celebrate at the wedding. There was some gunfire, but in the end all the couples danced happily off the air. I wonder if they are showing old episodes on the Soap Opera Network. I'll have to take a look.

Labels: I Remember, Santa Barabara