Thursday, September 6, 2018

Forgotten TV: The Omen's 1995 Failed Pilot

So this exists.  In 1995, NBC produced a strange update to the famous tale as a Film/Backdoor Pilot.  In other words, if this did well, they'd make a Show.  

We didn't get an Omen Show until 2016, so this didn't go well.  It's very odd and somewhat infamous.  

Mind you, it's infamous amongst the people that are aware of Backdoor Pilots like this and/or even know that it exists.  All 6 of us are 'in the know.'  

If you want to join this illustrious group, read on...
A man- William Sadler- goes to check on his friend.  He finds him dead via hanging in a Bomb Shelter.  The body moves and a weird energy flies out, taking over the man with him, who flees.
In the City, a Reporter- Brett Cullen- is in the City and covered the Story.  His Boss is hit by a car driven by the possessed man, thus awkwardly-tying the Story together.

Incidentally, Sadler was the President in Iron Man 3 and Cullen was the Dad in Ghost Rider.  MCU!
The woman dies and the spirit moves on to another.  This leads to the Hospital being put in lockdown and Sadler called (him being a Epidemiologist).  Hi, Character Actor!
The pair are united by a man who knows the truth- the spirit is that of pure evil.  It seeks out a vessel to take over the World in!
The spirit switches bodies one more time to a Nurse and ends up escaping with a vial of flesh eating bacteria.  The target- the St. Patrick's Day Parade!
They manage to stop him and kill the vessel, but the old man dies.  The spirit finds a new host...
The Nurse recovers and can now sense the spirit (well, sometimes).  She agrees to join the two as they plan to track down and destroy the evil...but no Series, so...I guess they're done.  

The End.
An interesting, if strange attempt at a Show.  The Omen is an interesting property.  We got one good Film, a pointless one, a silly one and a bad one.  This was the next attempt and, boy, it is sure was weird.  The evil of Damien is now just a bunch of flying, white energy that possesses you.  If you fight it, you do quickly.  If you accept it, you become a good host.  In the course of the Show, it doesn't quite find the right host in the long term.  Presumably, this was to lead to it finding a host to become Damien.  If anyone actually knows what the plans for this Show was after 23 Years, let me know!  The Acting and Production Values are solid here.  The thing is chock full of Character Actors, be it Sadler, Cullen or even Garry Chalk.  The video quality is obviously an issue, since I'm watching what I can only assume is a VHS Rip put online.  If you can live with that, this is an interesting watch.  It's almost *more* interesting because it goes nowhere. 

 Speaking of going nowhere, there's this weird Plot Point.  The Host escapes the finale and is seen boarding a Train.  After what I can only assume was the Commercial Break, our Heroes recap what apparently happened- the Host literally burned up *off-screen* and found a new place to go.  Yeah, I would HATE to see that, Show- you dick.  There's also some dispute over whether or not this is more like The Exorcist, but...I mean, it kind of is, kind of isn't.  That also got a Show recently- I guess I need to see that too!  In the meantime, here's another Book for me to not finish reading...
An interesting premise and a decent execution.  As big of a change to the Story this is, I do kind of like it.

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