dave13-1

That Lewis Carroll's poetry, with its mathematical structure, could hack the software of an AI robot and cause havoc is an extraordinary bit of science fiction whimsy. If only more of this series' episodes contained such cleverness. This was regrettably not the case. Most of the episodes focused on idiot males breathing heavily whenever they got around Julie Newmar. Indeed, the repercussions from this, their best story idea, could have been more imaginatively worked out here, but clearly much of its comic potential went unrealized. Rhoda got vertigo but little otherwise came of it, where the opportunity was there for things to go very sideways. The fun in shows of this type largely came from the depth of craziness that Jeannie or Samantha could unleash with a simple misunderstanding, and what insane lengths the rest of the cast would have to go through to resolve the situation. Here, not so much.

This is a key failing of the show. Its execution consistently fell short of its science fiction ambitions. The premise of a NASA robot being trained by a psychologist to act human has seemingly endless comedic possibilities. They needed a writing staff capable of seeing that potential. They needed the gang from the Outer Limits. What they had were a few castoffs from My Favourite Martian. Too bad. The talented cast of this show was more than capable of navigating whatever direction the show took. That direction was, unfortunately, downhill from here on. If instead the show runners had taken their cues from this episode and ramped up the zaniness, they might have had a winner, rather than a one year run.

There was once a space comedy with two slobs who travel the galaxy in a beat up ship, encountering mutants, androids and sentient computers. The writers brilliantly wring every morsel of humour possible out of each wacky episode, and the show goes on to become a cult classic among fans of science fiction and comedy. That show was called Red Dwarf and it played on BBC for decades.

This is not that show. Financed through Disney's Touchstone TV, HBs in OS aims for the same raucous tone as earlier (better) space spoofs, but lacks insights into the genre that would inform the attempts at comedy. Smart comedies know their subject so well that clever and original takes on the material are commonplace. The creators here show little grasp or respect for the genre they are trying to mine for humour, and combining that with limited ability to craft original jokes makes for a lot of dead air and an atmosphere of desperation. The studio audience is ooing and aweing on the voice track, but the viewer has little to enjoy. The jokes are lame, the supporting characters are way over the top and thoroughly unlikable, and the two losers at the centre are so generic as to disappear whenever anyone else is talking. But beside the weak material, poor character engagement, and overall lack of anything fresh or original, is there anything here to like? Not really. The main android character, a staple of the form, is a lame white guy whose schtick is not being funny. And it continues like that. Fantasy is about world building, and it feels as if the creators of Family Matters took over that chore here. It's space fantasy for the Steve Urkel fans.

The show remains a curiosity. It was terribly reviewed in its day, making many worst ever lists. Years later it has defenders who insist it is a hidden gem. It is not and it never was or will be. It was just a not very original or competent attempt at spoofing much better tv shows that never got traction with an audience and was canceled quickly.

Back in the vhs era, video stores that did not carry adult movies would often stock the next closest thing: Penthouse and Playboy direct to video titles. These featured their models and showcased them in glamorous costumes and exotic settings with lots of thumping music and slow-circling cameras. The models were attractive and fully nude, but intimacy was simulated and non-explicit.

Most videos were just live action magazine pictorials, but a few tried to scaffold the individual scenes onto a frame story to give the impression that the intended result was a feature length film, rather than just a collection of photo shoots. This title was a popular one at my local video stores, and I thought it worth a look. The framing gag looks every bit as contrived as it sounds, but at least the sets and costumes look colourful and the models are knockouts.

As a piece of science fiction, it doesn't even rate. In the cinema of fantastic ideas, this makes The Starlost look like Dune. But nobody rented it for that. For its niche, it is ambitious and has nice production values. And once again, the models look great. It was worth the price of a rental , knowing in advance what to expect in the way of storytelling.