Tuesday, May 20, 2014

TUESDAY NEWS DAY - "NOTTINGHAM"


Leon Unczer, the real Sheriff of Nottingham, 
with Tim Pollard, a Robin Hood impersonator.

Usually I try to avoid writing up blog posts on prospective series before they're on the air.  Why waste the effort if it's not going to have any impact on Toobworld in the long run?  But this is one case which I think deserves to be featured since it has a very novel approach to its subject matter......

Yet another TV dimension will be getting its own version of the Robin Hood legend.  And that makes sense, since the network suits won't have to shell out any of the potential profits to a rights-holder.

Mostly because it originated on Showtime, I didn't see many episodes of 'Robin Hood' starring Michael Praed as Robin of Locksley (and later, Jason Connery as Robin of Huntington).  I liked it, but it wasn't the Robin Hood for Earth Prime-Time.  Ancient and creaky though it may be, Richard Greene's televersion from the 1950s serves as the Robin of Toobworld.  (But I did like the soundtrack album "Robin The Hooded Man" very much!)

And I gave the 2006 incarnation of the legend a pass.  After a while (at least for this TV Universe caretaker), if it has nothing to do with your main focus of study, why bother?  (There will always be exceptions - 'Castle' being the current one; 'The West Wing' being the best.)

One other Robin Hood TV series I did watch - "When Things Were Rotten".  It didn't matter if it was in Doofus Toobworld; it was by Mel Brooks!

But this new televersion by BBC America sounds intriguing at least: 

Here's the pitch from the series creator Cole Haddon:

"Nottingham centers on the Sheriff of Nottingham whose wife is killed by King John’s men. When nobody is brought to justice, the Sheriff launches a one-man war against the Crown. By day, he remains the reviled Sheriff, loyal servant of the King, but by night he puts on a hood and, using the intelligence he gains from his office, attacks the King where it hurts the most — his coffers."

The series will be called 'Nottingham'.

Haddon recently had NBC's revamped vampire series 'Dracula' on the air, so he has the experience in transforming an old chestnut into something new.  (Re: 'Dracula', it pained me to finally send it off to an alternate dimension, and only for recastaway reasons.  Otherwise, everything about the storyline would have been perfect for Earth Prime-Time.)

Perhaps that version of 'Dracula' can share the same dimension with this new 'Robin of Nottingham' character.  And because the series title is the location, maybe 'Nottingham' can be in the same dimension as 'Gotham'.....

At any rate, I'll be keeping watch for any casting news.  And should it become a series, then I will check it out; see if it's worth adding to my non-Toobworld viewing schedule......

BCnU!

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