RARA-AVIS: Re: Mike Hammer TV series and movies
Bax Deal (BaxDeal@aol.com)
Mon, 20 Apr 1998 14:54:22 EDT
Bill wrote:
>What did the network think of the Hammer character and
>universe? As just a
tough guy in a hat, or had some of the >producers read the
stories and wanted
to do something close, >but set in modern times? Do writers
for this kind of
show >often know a fair bit about the books, or do they just
work off >the
previous TV shows?
I can only speak of my experience, but what the network,
producers and yours
truly thought about Mike Hammer were from the beginning very
different things.
The network decisions to make Hammer young and in Miami
obviously have very
little to do with Mickey Spillane. Their concerns had to do
more with things
like what kind of car Hammer would drive and how does one
depict Hammer's less
than politically correct attitude. Also, since the movie would
serve as a
pilot for a new potential series, it was more important to
establish
continuing characters than come up with a complex and
intriguing storyline.
Indeed, the structure and plotting of my storyline was
"clarified" at their
request.
Exec producer Jay Bernstein, who was friends with Mickey and
owns the tv and
movie rights to the character, was most concerned with saying
whatever the
networks wanted to hear so he could continue to personally cast
bimbos for his
tv show. His story notes reflected that viewpoint.
Producer Jeff Morton, responsible for overseeing my work and
then physically
producing the movie was tired of seeing the same old tv P.I.
cliches and just
wanted something fresh, fun and different. Which is why he
hired me.
Another voice came into the picture when a French tv company
stepped in to
finance half the production after Pamela Anderson was cast as
Velda. They
were mainly concerned with seeing as much of Pamela as
possible, and including
more of those scantily clad women coming on to Mike.
My job was to make everybody happy and still be true to my own
standards of
quality. One can easily see that the above parameters aren't
exactly
conducive to creating tough, nihilistic, hardboiled crime
fiction. So I wrote
something funny. The director responded to that sensibility and
took the
humor a step further in the production. While the tv movie that
became "Come
Die With Me" is a very entertaining diversion, lost in the
translation was any
real semblance to Mickey Spillane's creation.
In response to Jennifer's query regarding other female writers
on the series,
Jeff Morton said that Nancy Miller (he thought that was her
name, it's been
awhile) served as a staff writer for a year, and thus had a
hand in a number
of shows. A freelance woman writer whose name escaped him
contributed another
episode. I'd like to ask Jennifer how she enjoys laboring under
Jay
Bernstein's formulaic guidelines for each episode.
John Lau
#
# To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to
majordomo@icomm.ca.
# The web pages for the list are at http://www.vex.net/~buff/rara-avis/.