1993: THE NIGHT MAN Issue 1 (Malibu Ultraverse)

From October 1993: the first issue of THE NIGHT MAN, part of the ambitious ULTRAVERSE line of shared universe books published by MALIBU in the wake of IMAGE COMICS leaving the fold after their first year in business.

In addition to being a successful comicbook series, THE NIGHT MAN was also Glen Larson's last foray into the action/ adventure genre.  The TV version ran for two syndicated seasons between 1997 and 1999.

Ironically, by the time Larson's show launched the comic that it was based on had been canned.  MARVEL, desperate to maintain market share in a floundering market, snapped-up Malibu in October 1994 to stop the upstart publisher falling into the hands of DC Comics... a purchase that, if it were allowed to happen, would cost Marvel their status as the biggest publisher.  A claim deemed essential to keeping the share price inflated.  

Marvel tried to bolster the fortunes of their acquisition by integrating, through a series of crossovers, the Ultraverse characters with the mainstream Marvel Universe.  Typically, this alienated their existing readership and failed to excite Marvel fans who hadn't sampled the line before.  The Ultraverse, like the UKverse before it, was a little corner of the Marvel Universe overlooked by most readers.  

Larson's TV show was notable for a ridiculously cheap looking approximation of the comicbook's costume design.  It looked OK on screen but ludicrous in stills and publicity material.  The realities of syndication deprived Larson of the budgets he'd enjoyed in his network years and left him heavily dependent on cutting edge, but unconvincing, CGI lending the show a bargain basement air.  

Standout moments included a David Hasselhoff cameo in the show's feature-length opener (presumably a favor from an old friend), a revival of Larson's fondly-remembered (but quickly cancelled) MANIMAL (which doubled as a backdoor pilot by shamelessly adding a daughter, time-travel AND Jake the Ripper to the already improbable premise) and a virtual remake of one of Larson's THE HIGHWAYMAN episodes (complete with plentiful stock truck shots, mixed with new material featuring the same vehicle, and a rehash of the script).  

The opening credits contained a name-check for Marvel, making this the live-action show that Marvel never talks about.  

The Ultraverse also spawned an ULTRA FORCE animated series which had the misfortune of hitting the screens just as Marvel were sealing the deal.  Marvel's existing animation deals with New World Television made it odd-man-out in the roster of shows and little was done to extend its life beyond the first run of episodes, despite a big licensing push spearheaded by a range of action figures.  Night Man appeared in one of the episodes.  

The Ultraverse has lain dormant in subsequent decades thanks, apparently, to some complicated royalty deals signed with the original creators which makes it uneconomical for Marvel to revive the characters.  The need to renew Marvel's copyright claim will probably see them revived, in some form, at some point.  

Unsurprisingly, given the limbo status of the characters, neither the animated series nor Larson's show is available on shiny disc although convention bootleggers have (once again) filled the gap with the latter.

I'm not sure the NIGHT MAN show ever even aired in the UK.  It was announced as upcoming, at one point, by Sky but (if I recall correctly) it was pulled prior to TX and I don't think it was ever rescheduled.  Whether this was down to a deal never being inked, or quality control on Sky's behalf, is unknown.  

Fans of Larson's brand of easy-going adventure will find much to enjoy. 

1983: MANIMAL

Jonathan Chase: master of the secrets that divide man from animal... animal from man... Manimal.

Remember MANIMAL, the blink-and-you-missed it show that, frankly, made no sense but has retained a cult following?

It's due to (finally) get a DVD release in the UK in the near future (Amazon.co.uk currently has a due date of 27 August 2012) so, to set the scene, here's the show's quintessentially eighties title sequence as well as a couple of Professor Jonathan Chase's (Simon Maccorkindale) painfully predictable transformations.

The short-lived show (a suprisingly-sparse 8 shows including the feature length premiere) was another of schlock meister Glen A. Larson's back-of-an-envelope creations and, like so many of his shows, was a neat premise that lacked any substance.  Manimal, by all accounts something of an industry joke even before its premiere.

Manimal hit US screens in September 1983 (and reached the UK, in a prime time BBC ONE slot, in June 1984).  At the same time, Larson was also producing his other short-lived gimmick show of the season: the ever-so-slightly-inspired-by-TRON AUTOMAN (which clocked-up a not-much-better 13 shows).

Even by Larson's undemanding standards, Manimal is a pretty juvenile show and it probably would have had more of a fighting chance as either a comic book or a Saturday morning animation.  It does borrow heavily from Ken Johnson's adaptation of THE INCREDIBLE HULK (still the best screen version despite Marvel's big spending blockbusters), specifically the child-pleasing several-transformations-per-episode formula.

Despite Larson's experience in the trenches of weekly TV drama production (this is the man that made BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25th CENTURY a few seasons earlier), it seems like he failed to anticipate the logistics of trying to replicate the Manimal formula episode-after-episode.  Chase's pre-CGI transformations (from professor-of-prosthetics Stan Winston) are technically excellent but quickly become boring when seen episode-after-episode.  Larson doesn't seem to have had the time or budget to add to Chase's repertoire so we see the same few on-screen transformations (panther and hawk, see below) ever week and anything else conveniently happens off-screen.

The show's other problem is that bugger-all makes sense.  Even as an undemanding child, I was left with a lot of questions (and even more after revisiting the show, via bootlegs, a few years ago):
- How do you "learn" to become a shape-shifter?
- He's clearly British (another example of Larson trying to make his James Bond fetish work on the small screen per chance?) but also a Vietnam Vet.  How so?
- Infamously, where do his clothes go when he transforms?  And how does he get them back afterwards?
- Why does it look (and sound) like Chase is having an energetic wank (specifically the "amusing" back-of-the-cab scene) when he transforms?
- If he's such as animal expert, why is Chase's repertoire of transformations so limited?
- How many animal-related crimes could the NYPD conceivably have to deal with?

Despite the sheer stupidity of the shape-shifting shenanigans, the cast do their best to make it work.  The late Simon Maccorkindale does it with dignity and Melody Anderson (FLASH GORDON.  Hurrah!) may not be a great actress but she's a lot of fun.  It's a shame Larson couldn't find something for her to do when he drafted in her former co-star for THE HIGHWAYMAN.

William Conrad (the - err - fat man in JAKE AND THE FAT MAN) provided the narration.  He was a frequent Larson collaborator, performing the same duties on BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25th CENTURY and THE HIGHWAYMAN.

The show made a greater impact in the UK thanks to its peak time slot on the BBC (and, besides, at that time anything from America had a whiff of glamour and sophistication... even when it was pants) and, according to perceived wisdom, also travelled well in other markets (France is often cited as a bastion of Manimal fans... but it it true?).  Larson's decision to revive the character over a decade later (November 1998) in a sneaky attempt to revive the franchise would seem to support that.

NIGHTMAN saw Larson (by now past his producing prime) return to super heroics by adapting the Malibu Comics character (by the time the show aired, Malibu had been snaffled-up by Marvel Comics).  The show is no-great-shakes (and the costume looks terrible) but it still managed to clock-up two seasons in first-run syndication.  The episode Manimal (what else?) surfaced early in season two and saw Maccorkindale reprise the role.  Inexplicably, not only is Chase still transforming... he's now also a time traveller hunting Jack the Ripper.  Nightman was not a show grounded in reality.  Chase's daughter has also grasped the powers of the beast and Larson was clearly using the episode as a back-door pilot for a possible spin-off.  It never happened.  Larson also plundered his back catalogue for a Hasselhoff cameo in Nightman's pilot and an episode which remade a HIGHWAYMAN script (as well as borrowing a shed-load of footage and getting one of the trucks out of storage).

The show's merchandising was, understandably, sparse although Britain did get a single annual, released in 1984 (top left).

THE TITLES:

THE TRANSFORMATIONS: