RoboCop: The Series
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| RoboCop | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Science fiction, drama |
| Creator(s) | Stephen Downing |
| Starring | Richard Eden |
| Country of origin |  Canada |
| No. of episodes | 23 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 44 min., hour with commercials (per episode) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | CTV, syndicated in USA |
| Original run | March 18, 1994 – November 26, 1994 |
| Links | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
RoboCop: The Series is a television series made in 1994, starring Richard Eden as the title character, RoboCop. Made to appeal primarily to children and young teens, the graphic violence that was the hallmark of RoboCop and RoboCop 2 is absent. Rather than killing criminals, RoboCop now has several non-lethal alternatives, which ensure that certain villains can be recurring. The OCP Chairman and his corporation are also treated as merely naïve and ignorant, in contrast to their malicious and amoral behavior from the second movie onward.
The series was filmed in Toronto, Canada, and each episode was one hour long. Twenty-two episodes were made, but the series was not renewed for a second season. One of the reasons was the expense involved: some episodes cost as much as a million dollars.
The pilot was actually adapted from the original RoboCop 2 script, Corporate Wars, by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner, the writers of RoboCop.
The villains include Boppo the Clown, Dr. Cray Z. Mallardo, William "Pud-face" Morgan, and Commander Cash (although in one episode it is revealed that Commander Cash was actually a misunderstood hero - a former OCP employee who was the real creator of OCP's Commander Cash toy line whose idea was stolen by a co-worker and subsequently terminated from the company due to the said coworker).
The series gave writers more of an opportunity to develop the central characters and to extend the human interest aspect through the introduction of Gadget, the station mascot and not-too-annoying child, who, along with the presence of Jimmy Murphy did much to shift the focus from the adult to the youth target audience. The writers also introduced an element of virtual romance and deus ex machina in the persona of Diana, formerly a secretary to crooked Vice-President Chip Chaykin, who becomes transmogrified through her death into the 'face' and 'body' of Metronet, OCP's city-running super-computer.
Many of the episodes were explicitly critical of conservative and libertarian policies, i.e. the privatization of health care and welfare. The ironic handling of many of the negative aspects of modern urban life added a consistent element of black comedy.
A second series was planned but due to poor ratings with the first series, the second series was cancelled and the whole programme was axed.
The ending credit song was sung by Lita Ford.
[edit] External links
| RoboCop |
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TV: RoboCop: The Series | RoboCop: The Animated Series | RoboCop: Alpha Commando | |
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Video Games: RoboCop | RoboCop 2 | RoboCop 3 | RoboCop versus The Terminator | RoboCop |
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Comics: RoboCop versus The Terminator | Frank Miller's RoboCop |
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Organizations: Omni Consumer Products |
