Heat Vision and Jack

I would probably watch this show if it were real... because it's pretty funny.

Not as funny as Tropic Thunder, mind you... but what is? This almost seems like a joke pilot made for fun. It's "episode 14" too, so that should tell you something.

The cast is interesting... a lot of the same players who do appear together in a lot of stuff... (Night at the Museum -- Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson... Tropic Thunder -- Ben Stiller and Jack Black)... it's quite possible these are all friends who just wanted to make a funny movie pilot.

If I had as much money as they do, I'd still have to find some time to do some stuff not for profit... but for fun -- that's how you keep your goals in check and not purely based on how much money your next gig pays... keeps you straight, in line with your actual creative goals.

Created originally as a pilot for Fox, created and written by Rob Schrab and Dan Harmon, directed by a young Ben Stiller, and starring (the voice of) Owen Wilson and Jack Black as the leads Heat Vision and Jack respectively. What was in hindsight the set up of a powerhouse of a series, we never got more than the single original episode after Fox passed on the series. Following Jack Austin (Black), a former astronaut who is exposed to solar energy giving him extreme intelligence (but only in the day), and his best friend and talking motorcycle Heat Vision, who was an old roommate shot by a raygun, merging is mind with the bike. Obviously a ridiculous and over-the-top series from the get-go, it reminds me much of Garth Marenghi's Darkplace or Danger 5, in its campy, schlocky style. The jokes are pretty funny for what it was, and Jack Black of course gives a fantastic performance. With Harmon and Schrab behind the writer's room I'm sure this could have turned into a pretty fun ride, and its unfortunately we never got to see it. If you like any of these people, sure, was a fun thing to flip on for as short as it is.

made entirely of brilliant TV pilots (called "The Network") that were never picked up and this was by far the best. I couldn't stop laughing. It's a real tragedy the show didn't get any air time -- I bet if Jack Black and Owen Wilson switched places it would have been huge.

What can be said about Heat Vision and Jack? It's great, it's not good, in any way! But very funny. You have Jack Ausin (Jack Black), a NASA astronaut, who become supersmart in sunlight, because he came to near the sun during a NASA mission. He's buddy (Owen Wilson) has been transformed into a motorcycle. And they are being chased by a NASA hitman, Ron Silver (playing himself). And it's all being directed by Ben stiller.

Great if you like Tenacious D and Ben Stiller's wacky humour.

Hey, I noticed everyone spotted the spoof of Knight Rider, but did anyone pick up on this - the plot line about getting super powers from the sun after coming close to it in space is lifted straight from another doomed pilot show 'Northstar' - in which a NASA astronaut got hit in the face by a solar flare and then got super powers every time he looked at the sun! The original show I'm talking about was pretty bad... I remember the guy being shown a model of himself to explain what would happen if he stared at the sun for too long... and the model's brain caught fire... Oh, it was quite shocking. Check it out, trivia fans.