1994: GENERATION X TV MOVIE

Prior to the first X-MEN feature film, Marvel dipped their toes into the mutant gene pool with this potty-mouthed teleflick, GENERATION X, an aborted pilot for a possible series.

The show was based on the X-MEN spin-off comic book of the same name, created by Scott Lobdell and Chris Bachalo, launched in November 1994.

The screen version, produced by Marvel's former owner New World Entertainment alongside Marvel, is a sorry affair.  It's starved of the money and resources required to bring a super team to the screen and looks embarrassingly cheap.

For a family-friendly project, there's a surprising amount of mild profanity, possibly shoe-horned into the home video version to give it a little spice.

The movie aired on FOX in February 1996 and was released in the UK on rental VHS the same year.  It never received a sell-through VHS or any DVD release in the UK.  The VHS sleeve is above.

The Canada-shot pilot apparently scored healthy ratings for FOX.  This improbable success prompted talk of a weekly series, either for Fox or for first-run syndication.  Predictably, it didn't happen.  It may have been scuppered due to lack of industry interest or by the January 1997 takeover of New World (principally to secure its network of local television stations) by FOX, who promptly closed NW production business. Generation X was presumably not a viable enough project to survive at 20th Century Fox.

Here is the complete pilot:

PART ONE

PART TWO

PART THREE

PART FOUR

PART FIVE

PART SIX

PART SEVEN

PART EIGHT

PART NINE

(Final part)