Granted, I don't remember seeing the pilot back in the glory days of the 70s. And hopefully the show improves, as I recall it. but the pilot is a bit of a damp squib. I'm surprised that it went to series based on what is seen here.
The plot is pretty eh. The bad guys send Nora from Seattle to Los Angeles and Tony's show for some reason. Or maybe Lucian does: it's not clear who sent her there. But why send her to LA, when everyone operates out of Seattle? It gets Tony involved (maybe Lucien was a fan), but otherwise it's never explained.
Tony is the height of 70s cool: he smirks, twitches, and saunters around like he's king of the hill. Bill Bixby is okay, but it's the least of his four TV-starring performances (Martian, Courtship, and Hulk being the other big three). And there are some things that are hard to imagine passing muster in the 2010s. Like Tony throwing doves into a bad guy's face. Where is PETA when you need them?
There is also some odd crowbarring of sleight-of-hand into the episode. Like when Tony confronts the bad guys in the fallout shelter, and keeps producing (exploding) cigarettes while wandering in a circle around them. They're clearly not paying attention to the cigarette in his hand ("Why is this guy smoking during a life-and-death confrontation?"), so why Tony bothers with sleight-of-handing multiple cigarettes, who knows? And the main thug, Adams, saw Tony three times earlier and saw that he doesn't smoke. But he doesn't wonder about it here.
But there's some indications of modern-day 2010-ish ness, too. If the show was made today, Tony would probably be a gay icon. Notice his lack of interest in the supposed romantic lead, Sally. Max is apparently a liberal columnist, going on about how marriage based on love is a modern-day idiocy. While living with a woman who he takes pains to point out isn't his wife, but birthed his son. And we get the handicapped Dennis, doing the Norton Drake-style wheelchair-ridden genius years before it became a trope on 'War of the Worlds' and other shows.
Overall, the story is pretty weak sauce. It doesn't help that Robert Mandan as a minor and undeveloped baddie looks a lot like a clean-shaven Barry Sullivan. Who is a major baddie in the episode. The first time they showed Mandan, I thought Sullivan's character was watching himself through a pair of binoculars!
But there are some cool scenes, like Jerry's rescue of Tony and Mary Rose via seaplane. Although you wonder why Tony had Jerry standing at the ready: did he expect that Joseph's goons would follow them? Or is Tony just that prescient? Keene Curtis is always a class act. Heck, Bixby is too even if he doesn't have much to do. We never do find out in the pilot why Tony is a stage magician, even though Max explains why Tony is 's rich.
And IMO the show has one of the best theme songs in TV history. Even if it's used a lot. Not only is it play during Tony's show performance, but it's also playing in one of the femme fatale's bedrooms.
So A for effort, C for delivery. But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
The plot is pretty eh. The bad guys send Nora from Seattle to Los Angeles and Tony's show for some reason. Or maybe Lucian does: it's not clear who sent her there. But why send her to LA, when everyone operates out of Seattle? It gets Tony involved (maybe Lucien was a fan), but otherwise it's never explained.
Tony is the height of 70s cool: he smirks, twitches, and saunters around like he's king of the hill. Bill Bixby is okay, but it's the least of his four TV-starring performances (Martian, Courtship, and Hulk being the other big three). And there are some things that are hard to imagine passing muster in the 2010s. Like Tony throwing doves into a bad guy's face. Where is PETA when you need them?
There is also some odd crowbarring of sleight-of-hand into the episode. Like when Tony confronts the bad guys in the fallout shelter, and keeps producing (exploding) cigarettes while wandering in a circle around them. They're clearly not paying attention to the cigarette in his hand ("Why is this guy smoking during a life-and-death confrontation?"), so why Tony bothers with sleight-of-handing multiple cigarettes, who knows? And the main thug, Adams, saw Tony three times earlier and saw that he doesn't smoke. But he doesn't wonder about it here.
But there's some indications of modern-day 2010-ish ness, too. If the show was made today, Tony would probably be a gay icon. Notice his lack of interest in the supposed romantic lead, Sally. Max is apparently a liberal columnist, going on about how marriage based on love is a modern-day idiocy. While living with a woman who he takes pains to point out isn't his wife, but birthed his son. And we get the handicapped Dennis, doing the Norton Drake-style wheelchair-ridden genius years before it became a trope on 'War of the Worlds' and other shows.
Overall, the story is pretty weak sauce. It doesn't help that Robert Mandan as a minor and undeveloped baddie looks a lot like a clean-shaven Barry Sullivan. Who is a major baddie in the episode. The first time they showed Mandan, I thought Sullivan's character was watching himself through a pair of binoculars!
But there are some cool scenes, like Jerry's rescue of Tony and Mary Rose via seaplane. Although you wonder why Tony had Jerry standing at the ready: did he expect that Joseph's goons would follow them? Or is Tony just that prescient? Keene Curtis is always a class act. Heck, Bixby is too even if he doesn't have much to do. We never do find out in the pilot why Tony is a stage magician, even though Max explains why Tony is 's rich.
And IMO the show has one of the best theme songs in TV history. Even if it's used a lot. Not only is it play during Tony's show performance, but it's also playing in one of the femme fatale's bedrooms.
So A for effort, C for delivery. But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?