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The Tick Premieres Tonight on FOX
abde writes "The Tick finally premieres this Thursday on FOX at 7:30 PM CST. Looks like Patrick Warburton finally gets to spread some creamy Justice on our toast!" Here's hoping that this show comes close to it's source materials. It's in a tough time slot, so I really hope it sticks around long
enough to find a footing. Good luck to you Ben (I know you're reading!) In other TV news, Salon reviewed
The buffy musical which aired on tuesday. Since my local basic cable doesn't provide UPN, I haven't seen it. I've been loving FX syndicating what is easily among my favorite shows: hot chicks, sharp humor, and monster killing. It may be the perfect show. I just wish TV was available via FTP.
I can't say I agree with the thought that the new show should be only as good as its original material-- has anybody ever actually read the comics? They just didn't have the spark that the cartoon did.
Of course, the cartoon was probably what Taco meant, in which case-- oh hell yeah. In no particular order, the new show is going to need a few things to match up with Fox's Saturday-morning masterpiece:
1. A running gag along the lines of the "CHA" written on the moon, popping up in episodes that have nothing to do with it anyways.
2. A rehash of "The Tick vs. The Tick" episode-- in which the Tick goes to a superhero bar (complete with Sidekicks' Lounge) and finds that there's another, more psychotic hero that already uses his name.
3. The Human Bullet: whenever things went wrong in The City, he'd be fired from a cannon in his backyard, only to somehow spend so much time in the air as to always show up late. ("Fire me, boy!"
It's nice to know that the legal problems aren't completely robbing the show of its charm-- I remember reading something about problems with Die Fledermaus, for example, so it looks like they've replaced him with "Batmanuel." And I think we can all agree that Patrick Warburton is the best choice for the job, judging from his "Seinfeld" work.
When the show aired, I was young enough to enjoy the cartoon show for what it was, and old enough to still get most of the grown-up jokes. Let's hope the live-action version maintains that delicate balance between smarmy irony and childish charm.
As a long time Tick fan I have been eagerly awaiting this show. You can view a few 45 second clips of the show at http://www.spe.sony.com/tv/shows/tick/video.phtml.
The Tick is played by Patrick Warburton, who was "Puddy" (Elaine's Boyfriend) in Seinfeld and Johnny James (Jimmy James's VP) in Newsradio. He also was the voice of Kronk in Emperor's New Groove. An excellent casting choice for what is obviously a hard role to cast.
Also of note, in addition to The Tick and Arthur are "Captain Liberty" and "Batmanuel". When you see these characters you will probably notice that they greatly resemble American Maid and Die Fledermaus. This is actually due to copyright negotiations (which actually held up the show for some time). The original comic book characters belong to Ben Edlund, but all of the characters that were created for the cartoon are jointly owned by all the groups that produced the cartoon (Fox Children's Network, Saban, Graz and Sunbow). Since Sony (who owns Columbia Tri-Star) could not reach an agreement on who received what proceeds among all the companies they simply replaced the characters.
I still like the show, but c'mon; too much kissing, not enough killing. It's Sunnyvale 90210 now.
IMHO, Angel is a far better show than Buffy at the current time. It's a little too smoochy-face too, but it has this weird charm that Buffy can't match. For me, anyway.
Grade: B-. It actually sucked less than I expected it to, though it wasn't in the same league as, say, Mystery Men. It's definitely not like anything else on TV. I give it six episodes before Fox pulls the plug. Catch it while you can.
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
Patrick Warburton doesn't have the ability to convey the childlike innocence of The Tick. He's just muscle and bravado. The guy who did the voice of the animated Tick had it all totally down. The Tick is Forrest Gump with superpowers.
There has NEVER been a decent live-action remake of a cartoon. Never. I think that a live-action Cowboy Bebop could work if someone like Quentin Tarantino directed and he infused it with the same kind of berserk energy he gave "Pulp Fiction." But that's about it. Think about the march of iniquity that has resulted from live-action remakes of cartoons. Rocky And Bullwinkle. The Flintstones. The Flinststones in Viva Rock Vegas. Dudley Do-Right. The list goes on, and on, and on.
If Fox had any decency they'd buy the original characters from the animated series like American Maid and Sewer Urchin from Haim Saban, and revive the show as it should be...ANIMATED.
The original animated Tick never had a chance. It was a show for Fox Primetime, not a show to ghettoize on Fox Kids' Network. Ben, if you are reading this, please stop the charade and give this hideous excuse for a show the early death it deserves.
"This is bad...duh duh definitely bad." -- Sewer Urchin
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
Okay, I did kind of like Die Fliedermaus in the cartoon, but Batmanuel will be a decent replacement IF:
he drives a mid-seventies El Camino Lowrider with hydraulic lift and a disco-ball instead of a dome light
His sidekick's name is "Rueben"
His secret hideout is in a storm drain under his low-rent apartment, and instead of a butler, he has a "dos equis" drinking uncle Chico that used to be a bullfighter in tijuana
But of course all this comes from Paul Rodruegez's (SP?) stand up sketch about "Vatoman and Rueben" fighting crime in their "chebby lowrider"