The Quest

One of the best series ever. And the theme song is one of my favorites.

If you dig around on search engines and the video sites, you may be able to find the beginning and ending of the pilot episode. The end theme, on that episode only, was an extended version.

There are so many junk series available on DVD, it's too bad that most people don't have exposure to Real TV.

The singer of the theme -- Lisa Lee -- who is she? By searching, I find several singers by that name. One may be Indian, one Welsh ... I'm not sure what else.

While you're using your search engine, check out the speech of an FCC guy, decades ago, where he referred to TV programming as a "vast wasteland." How far TV has degraded since then!

This show was never given a chance on ABC. It was wonderful to see. I wish it would be put on DVD. It had adventure, drama, comedy, and though the evil character may not have been needed in the show it just kept you watching more. The acting by all the cast was great and their chemistry together clicked beautifully. The networks complain about not having a show to air on Saturday nights. I suggest they go to their vaults and pull out The Quest and air that on Saturday nights. The theme of the show is awesome and Lisa Lee's voice is perfect for it. I wish her singing of this theme song was on CD! My kids are 8 & 11 and I have a VHS tape of the pilot of the series and I told them nothing about the show but just to watch it. Now they love the Quest and have begged me to get the episodes of the show on DVD. I hope Stephen J. Cannell the producer would put this short lived show on DVD. Other short lived shows have come to DVD, why not The Quest!

This short-lived series was superb -- and it had an equally short and wonderful theme song. Adventure, human interaction, royalty, a great prize -- what else could you want in a weekly TV series?

For action and actual story line, it's far superior to the drivel that wastes electricity these days.

(For those who don't understand the concept, let me explain: Some TV series used to have actual stories. Many of the stories were somewhat ... well ... unbelievable ... such as this one, but even so they beat the current slop of "reality shows" which are slightly less interesting than watching any random group of drunks at a bus stop.)

I would love to see this series on DVD -- or even the theme song on CD!

Yes, this is worse than "Hardcastle and McCormick." Worse than "Sonny Spoon." Worse than even "The A-Team."

After Prince Charles and Diana's big wedding the previous year, royalty was on everyone's mind, including Cannell's, and so he concocted what was intended to be a light-hearted adventure series, but it ended up a light-headed mess.

"The Quest" (not to be confused with the 1976 Kurt Russell series) was about King Charles, monarch of a tiny European kingdom, who was at death's door and had no heir. For reasons best forgotten, he chose four American strangers and persuaded them to participate in an around-the-world "Amazing Race" style competition for the throne. The king chose the countries they traveled to by throwing a dart into a map. The second episode found them in a Hollywood simulation of Africa, complete with stereotypical cannibal tribes and headhunters (in 1982!).

There had to be a villain in such proceedings, of course, and so we had Count Dardinay, who claimed the throne as his and set out to destroy the contestants with a tenacity Wile E. Coyote would envy. Frankly, Dardinay would have made a better king than any of the Americans.

Cannell even threw in the usual catchy Mike Post theme song, whose lyrics have all the subtlety of a jackhammer: "Kings and queens/ It's a race for a place in the royal celebration/ Hopes and dreams /Shining like the jewels in a golden crown,/ Kings and queens/ It's the time of your life and you know it's all or nothing/ Just like kings and queens."

After only a handful of episodes, "The Quest" lost its quest for viewers, and it died a quicker death than King Charles.

The king of fictional nation Glendora "of advanced years and unlikely to produce an heir", has to find a successor or his kingdom will be absorbed into France, according to a medieval treaty. So, he searches the world, and finds four people who have royal blood, an adventurer, a retired ex-cop, a con-man, and.. well, a woman. He then devises a competition where they "race" to a place of his choosing, where it's more about how you run rather than how fast.

Character development was great, writing was great both from a comedic and an action standpoint. (My favorite was the chameleon-like con man who at one point sells the Brooklyn Bridge - literally). A greatly entertaining and well-done show with a great soundtrack, so of course ABC cancelled it after five episodes.