Anyway, I've been thinking I needed to a.) update this site more often and b.) clean up my online presence, so I'll be taking both of those zombie blogs offline. However, because I did put a lot of work into the material on those sites, I'll be taking some of that content and re-posting it here. This means that this site (which also has, much to my dismay, been too-infrequently updated of late) will be somewhat more lively in the coming months as I mix in a bunch of my spy-fi-related material (and crime comics reviews!) with any new personal and pop culture topics that may catch my fancy.
Which brings me to A Man Called Sloane.
A Man Called Sloane was a half-season adventure series that aired on NBC in 1979. It starred Robert Conrad (The Wild Wild West, Baa Baa Black Sheep) as Thomas Remington Sloane III, the (only) Top Priority agent for a secret organization called UNIT. Though the format harkened back to the 60s and shows like The Man from U.N.C.L.E., it was still very much a product of its time, with ludicrous plots, lots of cheesecake, and Conrad's patented macho swagger. Needless to say, I loved it as a kid. Back in '09, I got my hands on a set of bootleg DVDs and reviewed all twelve episodes of the show. That represented a lot of time and work, so rather than let those posts disappear into the digital aether, I'll be re-running those reviews here over the next few months.
Of course, I'll be editing them a bit and adding a few new thoughts and observations (as I've watched most of the episodes more than once now). I even plan on writing at least one new article for the series, as I never reviewed the original T.R.Sloane TV pilot film (a/k/a Death Ray 2000), which starred Robert Logan as superspy Sloane.
As I mentioned above, it won't only be reruns here; I'll be getting back to posting those "Wednesday Covers," and will almost certainly have a Halloween post or two. I'll also continue to keep you updated on my various comics projects and will continue posting about cheesy B action movies, comic strips, etc.
Look for the first Sloane review on Monday.
I very much look forward to reading your revamped posts about A Man Called Sloane.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Jeff
If I'm not mistaken, wasn't Torque the bad guy in the pilot?
ReplyDeleteYou're not mistaken. I'll discuss that when I get to it - the reviews are in order of airdate, and the pilot didn't air until almost a year after the series was cancelled.
ReplyDeleteI thought so. As I recall, in the pilot, Torque was portrayed as something similar to Jaws in the Bond movies. (Same era, too.)
ReplyDeleteIn the T.R. SLOANE pilot, Torque is, indeed, a "Jaws" type henchman.
ReplyDeleteApparently, upon watching the pilot, NBC's Fred Silverman hated Robert Logan, but loved Torque's mechanical hand. So Torque was promoted to co-star in the series with Conrad.
As the pilot was not intended to air (and only did so after the series was cancelled when NBC needed a Thursday Movie one week), the producers probably thought no one would ever know that the character had switched sides. ;)