I saw this television pilot on an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Not the worst thing they have ever riffed, but then again, I find that the stuff that is not completely horrible oftentimes makes for the better episodes. Someone commented that they should not have riffed this because it has good stars in it, but I say anything can be riffed. It does not have to be completely horrid and nearly impossible to watch for the gang to bring in the zingers at a torrid pace. That being said, I can see why this never became a hit series that instead of being riffed for its pilot episode, was in syndication. It was not that good. Sure it had some rather credible actors in it, Ian McShane being the main one; however, for the most part this was kind of dull at times if not for the riffs. There were a lot of shows going on at this time that put this one to shame as it seemed to be trying to do a bit of Hawaii Five-O with more of a spy slant to it, but like a lot of television shows during this time, all it managed to do was make it on television as a pilot episode. Not sure if it went beyond that. There were a number of television shows that I really enjoyed as a kid that never really got many episodes such as the live action Spider-man show. Heck, that one had good ratings, but the president of CBS yanked it because he did not want his station to cater to kids. These days that demographic is all they cater too. This show simply did not hook the audience and it would have faded into obscurity if not for the gang of the Satellite of Love.
The story centers around an agent who is undercover in Hawaii. A man who is like some sort of criminal and really bad guy comes to town to steal some sort of chemical explosive or something. The agent must try to out think this man known as Tree...he really should've gave himself a cooler nickname. At the agent's disposal, this big dude, an Asian lady who does some stuff and a cranky old pirate looking dude who wants his 50 dollars! It has its moments here and there mainly due to Ian as Tree, but it has a lot of stupid stuff too, like the music. At one point the music suddenly sounded like it was from the science fiction ant film, Phase IV.
As an episode of Mystery Science Theater it is becoming a favorite of mine. I was not as wild about it at first, but it continually grows on me and I laugh at the jokes which by today's wimp standards would probably offend some people. One of the reasons I fear the reincarnation of the show is going to be weak is the fact people are so easily offended so I just think the show is going to lack the edge it had back in the day.
So, another show that failed to become a regular on the prime time schedule. Who knows? If things were different it may have survived as for reasons unknown a good deal of people seem to have enjoyed this show and do not like the fact that it was done by Mystery Science Theater, but realistically, most of them would have completely forgotten this thing if not for them. It's still always kind of cool to reenter the 70's though and watch a blast from the past!
