The process for most TV shows to get on the air involves a pitch, a script, and then a pilot is made to try and convince the executives that the show is worth continuing. Most, if not all, the readers of this blog already know this, I’m sure.

In earlier years, most ‘green lit’ shows didn’t include the pilots as the first episode; it was often remade after some tweaking or ditched altogether. Sometimes the pilots would air in a special and more often, not. Some pilots never air at all, and are locked away forever, never to see the light of day again.

A few weeks ago, Justine and I caught the tail-end of a documentary about Adam West. The section we watched focused on West’s more recent years, when he was trying to break back into television (but didn’t feature Family Guy, so I suppose it must have been made before that show). West did a pilot for a show called ‘Lookwell’, which was co-written by Conan O’Brien.

Lookwell – in a way – reflects West’s actual life. The show focuses on an actor – Ty Lookwell – who, 20 years ago, played a TV detective named Bannigan (which is a running joke throughout). Now, out of work and bored, Lookwell tries to solve real crimes. The local police department gave him an honourary badge, which Lookwell flashes at every opportunity to show his ‘credentials’. Not to mention the crazy leaps of logic he makes.

Since we were looking at failed pilots, I also grabbed Heat Vision and Jack which featured Owen Wilson as a talking motorbike and Jack Black as a former NASA astronaut who becomes the smartest person in the world… during the day.

You can find both of these pilots on YouTube. I used a downloading service to grab the FLV then a converter (I forget which) to transcode them into AVIs.

Pretty quiet Saturday today; got up late, browsed the web a bit, finally managed to return the faulty wireless stuff even though it will take a few days for the money to go through.

Since we planned on seeing War of the Worlds later this evening, I listened to the Jeff Wayne musical version to try and get into the right frame of mind. I haven’t listened to the album for quite a few years but this time I had a think about it while listening; some of it’s aged well but other parts haven’t. I think the best parts are really only the first 3 or 4 tracks and after that it starts to fall a bit flat.

After lunch, Justine and I watched the failed pilot for Global Frequency which is only available through naughty means. The pilot wasn’t too bad, but there were some obvious and liberal uses of styles from both Blade Runner and The Matrix. Could have turned into a decent series but I don’t think I’m missing anything major.

Later this evening, we went to the cinema for the third time in four weeks (presumably because of the US summer movies) and managed to catch War of the Worlds. We’d planned to go last weekend but the bloody wireless unit used up all of my time.

So, onto the movie. Going in, I’d wished they’d set it in the setting of the original HG Wells novel but really, it translated almost without issue to the present. Some things were either omitted, rolled up or changed slightly, but most of the major story elements are there: the machines coming out of the ground, the heat-rays, the ferry (steamer) being destroyed, the crazy guy in his basement, the red weed, the bacteria and birds pecking — all included. The film managed to keep and air of suspense quite well, too. Overall I’d say it was pretty good — a bit ‘Hollywood’-ised for my tastes (the force fields I don’t remember, as well as the protagonist single-handedly destroying one of the machines) in some parts but still enjoyable.

If you like the overall storyline, the HG Wells novel, the Jeff Wayne musical or decent popcorn movies, go and see this. Oh, and the heat-ray noise wasn’t quite “Ooooooh-laaaaaah!” but it was close.