Comic book characters on television

Quote: Ayecarumba

Not only is it the key measure, it is the lifeblood of the entire entertainment industry.

Whatever, comic characters do best in animation.

Batman riding a horse in blacked-out Gotham city in a cartoon is cool. An actor playing Batman doing the same in live action looks ridiculous.

BTW, the whole Batman vs Superman fight scene in the latest movie was copied from a cartoon feature based on an 80s comic, Batman's special suit, kryptonite poison gas and all.

Quote: Nareed

Whatever, comic characters do best in animation.

Batman riding a horse in blacked-out Gotham city in a cartoon is cool. An actor playing Batman doing the same in live action looks ridiculous.

BTW, the whole Batman vs Superman fight scene in the latest movie was copied from a cartoon feature based on an 80s comic, Batman's special suit, kryptonite poison gas and all.

I agree there have been comic book characters and stories that would have been much better as animated features than live action (remember "Howard the Duck", or even "TMNT"?), but a lot of that has to do with...

Money.

"Quality" animation is expensive and time consuming. Without tons of marketing, or a "gimmick" like 3-D, it is hard to make the jump from print comic to the big screen. Audiences won't pay movie theater ticket prices to watch a feature produced with the same standard as an animated television series, and distribution companies know it.

Submitted for your consideration, "Guardians of the Galaxy". I can't imagine this title making it as a straight up animated feature.

Quote: Ayecarumba

"Quality" animation is expensive and time consuming. Without tons of marketing, or a "gimmick" like 3-D, it is hard to make the jump from print comic to the big screen. Audiences won't pay movie theater ticket prices to watch a feature produced with the same standard as an animated television series, and distribution companies know it.

And the prevalent feeling in much of the world that cartoons are for children.

For my money, the best Batman movie ever (that I've seen) remains "The Mask of the Phantasm." It deals with grown-up themes, like love, marriage, family obligations, etc. It looks hard at Bruce Wayne when he started as Batman and the conflicts he faced. And I would buy none of that if it were live action.

Quote: Ayecarumba

Not only is it the key measure, it is the lifeblood of the entire entertainment industry.

Disney broadcasting (i.e. ABC which shows minimal sports) operating income has dropped to only 6.4% of Disney's overall income.
Cable Networks $16.632 billion revenue; $6.748 billion operating income
Broadcasting $7.057 billion revenue; $1.007 billion operating income

"Dancing with the Stars" is their sole TV series with viewership over 10 million.

With their movie releases having a banner year in 2016, they may actually sell their 8 TV stations to Bloomberg who wants to build a news network.

Quote: Pacomartin

Drew Barrymore's new zombie TV series will undoubtedly be seen by tens of millions, but it lacks some of the charm, and is much more dependent on gross-out scenes.

I do not get zombie TV shows or movies.
I got vampires, it's tongue in cheek wit
many times. But the appeal of zombies
has me flummoxed. Brainless idiots that
wander around and kill people. It makes
no sense, there's no logic behind it. Why
is it entertaining.

Quote: Pacomartin

Well I think that some qualification helps. I like the TV series iZombie because the characters are charming and the dialogue witty. However, the show is not very popular, having only drawn over 2 million viewers for the pilot. The special affects are minimal, and as some people point out, it is still a procedural police drama with the zombie aspect just a twist.

Wasn't there a show like that with a Vampire instead of a Zombie sometime in the early 90s?

I generally stay away of anything to do with zombies. The one work that has as much as piqued my interest, though not enough to go out and get it, is a novel about zombies infesting Constantinople in the 7th century CE or so. And I heard about it only because it was mentioned in a History of Byzantium podcast ep.

Quote: Nareed

Wasn't there a show like that with a Vampire instead of a Zombie sometime in the early 90s?.

The only one that seems to fit that description was very short lived. The movies Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) and Interview with the Vampire (1994) seems to have ignited a short term interest in vampires, but they didn't become a TV staple until the last decade.

Kindred: The Embraced is an American television series premiered on Fox on April 2, 1996, and ran for eight episodes before it was canceled. The series focused on San Francisco Police Detective Frank Kohanek who discovers his city is home to numerous vampires while investigating alleged mobster, Julian Luna . Julian is not really a mobster as Frank supposes. Julian is the Prince of the city, ruler of five groups of vampires in the city, collectively called "the Kindred."

TV series featuring a Vampire that aired on the USA
1964–1966 The Munsters
1965–1971 Dark Shadows
1979 The Curse of Dracula (single episode of show Cliffhangers)
1979 Salem's Lot (2 episode miniseries)
1980 Mr. & Mrs. Dracula
1988–1991 The Munsters Today
1991 Dark Shadows
1996 Kindred the Embraced
1997-2003 Port Charles (soap opera which featured vampire subplots)
1997–2003 Buffy the Vampire Slayer
1999–2004 Angel
2004 Mad Mad House
2004 Salem's Lot
2006 Blade: The Series
2007–2008 Moonlight
2007–2009 The Lair
2008–2014 True Blood
2009–2010 I Heart Vampires
2009–2017 The Vampire Diaries
2010 The Gates
2011 Death Valley
2011–2014 Being Human
2013– The Originals
2013–2014 Dracula
2013–2015 Hemlock Grove
2014-2016 Penny Dreadful
2014– From Dusk till Dawn: The Series
2014– The Strain
2016– Preacher
2016– Van Helsing
2017– Let the Right One In

Quote: Pacomartin

The only one that seems to fit that description was very short lived.

They all were.

I think it was Canadian. A friend of mine like to watch it. All I recall is the vampire kept bottles of human blood in his fridge.

Quote:

The movies Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) and Interview with the Vampire (1994) seems to have ignited a short term interest in vampires, but they didn't become a TV staple until the last decade.

I've heard of some of those, but haven't really watched any. I did read some of the Anne Rice Louis and Lestat books, and some were ok, but overall Fantasy simply stops making sense at some point and I lose interest. Way in the back-back-burner of my mind I filed away a story trying to portray vampires more scientifically (ie they are too sensitive to sunlight, but can tolerate it with protection; they need to drink blood because they can't make some protein, but also eat and drink other things; they are long-lived but not immortal; they do die if impaled through the heart with a stake, but so does everyone else; etc.), but lack the interest to pursue it. I'd give the story idea away to anyone who asks for 5% of what they take in royalties (and that's highway robbery).

Quote: Nareed

I think it was Canadian. A friend of mine like to watch it. All I recall is the vampire kept bottles of human blood in his fridge.

Forever Knight ( May 5, 1992 -May 17, 1996) is a Canadian television series about Nick Knight, an 800-year-old vampire working as a police detective in modern-day Toronto, Ontario. Wracked with guilt for centuries of killing others, he seeks redemption by working as a homicide detective on the night shift while struggling to find a way to become human again.



Pilot episode

Quote: Pacomartin

Forever Knight ( May 5, 1992 -May 17, 1996) is a Canadian television series about Nick Knight, an 800-year-old vampire working as a police detective in modern-day Toronto, Ontario.

I think that may have been it.

You know what bothers me most about vampire stories? That the lead often simply waste their immortal lives. Few seem to grow an interest in pursuing science, technology, art, philosophy or anything else worthwhile. Imagine being able to dedicate centuries to thorny problems at your physical and mental peak.