Zach Stone is Gonna Be Famous

Many people seek their "15 minutes of fame" and Zach Stone is no exception.  The titular character of this show is a young man who decides to pursue a dream of becoming rich and famous instead of going to college.  To that end, he uses his savings to hire a film crew to follow him around and record his quest to become a celebrity.  Unfortunately he has little talent and all of the schemes that he comes up with fall flat, with often hilarious results.

The wild ideas that Zach tries on his journey range from getting a makeover to emulating a celebrity chef to faking his own disappearance.  In the process of all this he manages to alienate most of his friends and family members.  When he realizes what he has done he makes amends, decides to ditch the cameras and go to college after all... until a chance news report catapults him into the fame he has craved all along.  But it comes with a price.

Critics gave mixed reviews of the series.  Some described it as "fresh and timely" as well as praising its satirical spotlight on fame and the warped ideology it can cause, while others were scathing and noted the stereotypical parodying of reality shows.  However many fans were extremely positive, calling star Bo Burnham "a comic genius".

Twelve half-hour episodes aired on MTV during May and June of 2013.  Its initial viewership dropped to half by the time the series was midway through the season.  The network shifted the time slot in an attempt to gain more viewers but that failed, so the last few episodes were burned off before the official cancellation.  Zach Stone appeared on DVD in late 2013 and is also viewable on Prime Video.

Young Blades

I enjoy reading fan-fiction and often I see stories that feature the children of the original characters from that particular universe.  The trouble is that very few such stories are as good as the original.  Such is the case for Young Blades, a historical fantasy series created by Dan Angel that followed the adventures of the son of one of the original Three Musketeers, Count d'Artagnan.

The younger d'Artagnan, played by Tobias Mehler, seeks to gain as much recognition as his illustrious father by training with the Musketeers, along with his friends Siroc (Mark Hildreth) and Ramon (Zak Santiago). It doesn't take long for the trio to run afoul of the evil Cardinal Mazarin (Michael Ironside) as they harbour a young woman who has disguised herself as a man in order to escape persecution.

The show boasted some illustrious supporting actors, from Michael Ironside as Cardinal Mazarin to Bruce Boxleitner as Captain Duvall.  Unfortunately a low-budget production quality and at-times problematic writing made it difficult for it to keep the interest of audiences.  Still, fans described it as having "personality and charm" and praised the efforts of the actors to keep things fresh. 

Thirteen episodes aired on PAX Television (now Ion Television) from January to June 2005.  The series has not been officially released to DVD but bootleg DVDs have been seen online, and clips are currently posted on YouTube.

The XYY Man

The purpose of entertainment is frequently to present fantastical or scientific concepts in a way that appears believable.  Adapted from a series of novels by English author Kenneth Royce, the 13-episode British series The XYY Man claimed that the main character's genetic abnormality made him incapable of rescinding his criminal lifestyle. 

William "Spider" Scott, played by Stephen Yardley, is a career criminal who has just finished his latest stint in prison and has vowed to go on the straight and narrow.  Unfortunately his burgling talents are such that the British Secret Service and various criminal elements want him to work for them.  Hardened police detective Sergeant George Bulman, played by Don Henderson, wants nothing more than to see Scott back in jail.

Given the 1970-1977 time period during which the novels and series were originally written, the erroneous premise comes as little surprise.  Soon after the series aired, an academic paper stated that the conditional probability fallacy concerning the explanation of the genetics was the cause of the myth having become conventional wisdom until scientific studies proved otherwise.

The characters of Detective Bulman and his assistant Derek Willis were so popular that they earned two spin-off series: Strangers in 1978 and Bulman in 1985.  Kenneth Royce penned three followup novels featuring the characters in 1986 and 1996.  As for the show itself, all 13 episodes were released as a DVD box set in 2007 but this set was encoded for Region 2 only.

Wizards and Warriors

This short-lived series was clearly inspired by the sword-and-sorcery games that were gaining mainstream attention at the time.  Also known as Greystone's Odyssey (a reference to the name of the protagonist), the show was directed by Bill Bixby and Richard Colla, and starred Grease alum Jeff Conaway.  It debuted on CBS as a midseason replacement and ran from February to May of 1983.

Prince Erik Greystone has a promising future: he is engaged to King Baaldorf's daughter, the somewhat spoiled Princess Ariel (played by Julia Duffy) and is in training to eventually become king.  However the neighbouring kingdom's Prince Dirk Blackpool (Duncan Regehr) holds a deep grudge and plots with his evil wizard Vector (Clive Revill) to destroy Prince Erik and his squire Marko (Walter Olkewicz).

What made the show good was that it never really took itself seriously and it injected a lot of humour and over-the-top acting, particularly by the villains.  However its mix of comedy and adventure was ahead of its time and it had trouble finding an audience.  Plus, creating a convincing fantasy setting was expensive and the network wasn't willing to continue a show without the ratings to back it up.  Only eight episodes were produced.

Despite its brief life it gained some recognition.  Critics praised the series as being "witty" and having solid directing and writing.  Costume designer Theadora Van Runkle won the 1983 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Costumes for a Series and hairstylist Sharleen Rassi was nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Hairstyling.  There is a "manufacture on demand" DVD release available through the Warner Brothers online store and Amazon.

Voyagers!

When people are young, they tend to discover at least one movie or TV show that inspires their interest in a particular concept or subject.  Voyagers! was one of several shows during the 1980s that sparked my enthusiasm for the concept of time travel (and ultimately led me to my long-time fandom for Doctor Who).

In the far future, the Voyager Academy educates people in the many eras of Earth's history.  Upon graduating, a Voyager is issued a guidebook and a watch-like device known as an Omni, which enables its bearer to time-travel to a certain range of dates.  Their job is to monitor history and ensure that events unfold as they should.

One such Voyager, a charming but ignorant man named Phineas Bogg (played by Jon-Erik Hexum) accidentally lands in 1982 when his Omni malfunctions.  He appears in the high-rise apartment of twelve-year-old Jeffrey Jones (played by Meeno Peluce), the orphaned son of a history professor.  Jeffrey's dog grabs the Omni after mistaking it for a toy.  During the ensuing struggle to get it back, Jeffrey falls from a window, forcing Bogg to jump out and use the Omni to save him, leaving his Guidebook behind.  Thus begins their adventures of bouncing through time, with Bogg's charisma and Jeffrey's encyclopedic historical knowledge helping them to become a formidable team.

Each episode features two distinct storylines based on events in different parts of the world, the situation sometimes requiring one or both travelers to hop between the two.  Once in a while they would meet other Voyagers whose mission happened to intersect with their own.

NBC ran Voyagers! from October 1982 until July 1983 for a total of 20 episodes.  Given its good ratings it seemed likely to be renewed for a second season, but instead the network chose to cancel it and replace it with a news program.  The following year however it was rerun on Saturday mornings as part of a children's programming lineup.

In 1985 following the accidental death of star Jon-Erik Hexum, the pilot and episode 15 "Voyagers of the Titanic" were edited into a commemorative television film, with new effects and voice-overs.  This film was released to VHS but has long been out of print.  The series in its entirety was released on DVD in 2007 and all episodes are currently available on Amazon Video.