Life on Mars 10/9/2008

1678 Views 22 Replies 16 Participants Last post by Steve, Nov 24, 2008

jacksonm30354

Discussion Starter · Oct 10, 2008

Wow. Main character says he was 4 in 1973. I was 5/6. (born 1967).

Was kind of impactful looking up at the World Trade Center's towers...in the show they weren't quite finished... they were not complete until 1974.

Amazing the advances we have had in just 35 years too.

Things I remember... I-85 was not complete between Montgomery and Atlanta. I-185 that connects Columbus (my hometown) to Atlanta was not even thought of.
I-95 was not complete in NC as I remember drivig to my grandparents in NC SW of Norfolk, VA and we hd to get off the Interstate.

In Columbus, the top 40 stations were still on AM and opposite ends of the dial - AM 540 WDAK and 1580 WCLS. The later produced Scott Shannon who went on to bigger things in NYC.

The AFLAC Tower was under construction. Still the city tallest building at 19 stories...3 miles east of downtown.

GA 411 Lindsay Creek Bypass (now part of I-185) had holographic signs that showed the speed limit as 70 MPH during the day and would tilt and show 65 MPH at night. Sped limit now thrugh he city is 55 MPH, as it is through all urban areas in GA - I think just so the cities can ticket you more readily.

Columbus Square Mall had Sears and Penney's (signage said Penney's not JCPenney as today). Peachtree Mall was under construction which was to add Montgomery Ward and Gayfers to the retail mix. (JCPenney is on a tacked on wing to Peachtree Mall now, Montgomery Ward is now Macy's and Gayfer's is now Dillard's and there is an empty anchor slot where Parisian used to be (added in 1985 - Belk decided not to open a store their when they bought out Parisian). Sears now has a full line, 2 story department store in a strip mall further north).

Bill Heard Chevrolet (which you may have heard of in the news - now bankrupt) located right next to Peachtree Mall.

Peachtree Mall was/is located at the end of the long runway at Columbus Metro Airport, which in the 70's had jet service - DC-9 - from Delta, Eastern and Southern Airways including a direct flight to Washington, DC. (now there are just 4 ASA (Delta Connection ) flights a day to Atlanta).

I'll jump off the reminising train now

Edit: I meant LIFE on Mars. Can a mode correct pretty please

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Stuart Sweet

· #2 · Oct 10, 2008

In 1973 if you wanted to research something you went to a library.
If you wanted to buy something and have it sent to your house you went to Sears or Penney's.
If you wanted to bring your music with you, you got a transistor radio (or you hummed.)
If you wanted your food in 3 minutes, then you ate it raw.
"Gaming" generally meant something like Scrabble.
Most men could not type.
Most women did not work.
A user group was limited to the number of people you could fit in a room.

On the other hand, in 1973:
Mothers loved their children.
People tried their best to make a better life for themselves.
Everyone laughed and hoped and sought comfort when they needed to.
The important things don't change.

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Newshawk

· #3 · Oct 10, 2008

Stuart Sweet said:
In 1973...
If you wanted to bring your music with you, you got a transistor radio (or you hummed.)

Despite Hollywood's fetish for 8 tracks, the cassette player was beginning to appear in a portable form-albeit in the form of a monophonic portable. You could get a case with a strap to carry it around. Of course, alomst all radios were mono, too.

Stuart Sweet said:
If you wanted your food in 3 minutes, then you ate it raw.

Or you made a sandwich.

BlueGuy

· #4 · Oct 10, 2008

Stuart Sweet said:
In 1973 if you wanted to research something you went to a library.
If you wanted to buy something and have it sent to your house you went to Sears or Penney's.
If you wanted to bring your music with you, you got a transistor radio (or you hummed.)
If you wanted your food in 3 minutes, then you ate it raw.
"Gaming" generally meant something like Scrabble.
Most men could not type.
Most women did not work.
A user group was limited to the number of people you could fit in a room.

On the other hand, in 1973:
Mothers loved their children.
People tried their best to make a better life for themselves.
Everyone laughed and hoped and sought comfort when they needed to.
The important things don't change.

Hey one thing that is about the same now as in 1973 is the value of the Dow. :nono2:

I'm exagerating but a few more days and it won't be by much!

Nick

· #5 · Oct 10, 2008

"Life" has possibilities, but I hope they don't continue with the 1974/2008
comparisons. That will grow old faster than a may fly on its honeymoon.

At my age, there are many other decades about which I can choose to
not reminisce.

Doug Brott

· #6 · Oct 10, 2008

Nick said:
"Life" has possibilities, but I hope they don't continue with the 1974/2008
comparisons. That will grow old faster than a may fly on its honeymoon.

I was thinking the same thing .. except I used 1973/2008

TedBarrett

· #7 · Oct 10, 2008

I really liked the two seasons the BBCAmerica ran of the UK version.

I think a large part of the appeal was realizing the oh so proper British Bobbies were just as brutal as many '70s US metropolitan Police Departments.

With US version the shock isn't there and so far the show suffered - for me.

Steve

· #8 · Oct 11, 2008

I thought it was engaging. Will definitely give it another look or two. The Mrs. thought it was just another cop show. My favorite character was Keitel, as Chief of D's. Real piece of work.

I like shows that try to faithfully recreate era's I've lived through. Like the Bronx Zoo and Madmen. I once owned an 8-track player myself.

/steve

rustynails

· #9 · Oct 11, 2008

I tried to like the show but I didn't succeed. I just don't like the premise. It was only slightly entertaining to relive the 1970's. I don't see how they can go much further with this show.

phrelin

· #10 · Oct 11, 2008

Well, we watched the BBCA version. I loved it, my wife was ambivalent about it. But after we watched this American pilot we both did not like it. Harvey Keitel was fine. Jason O'Mara is an actor we like, but the show and episode was trying just too much to be like the Brit version and O'Mara is playing Sam too much like John Simm did.

And Gretchen Mol just looks too 21st Century. Liz White looked like a slightly above average young English woman in 1973 struggling to find a place in law enforcement. Mol looks like a 2008 hottie dressed up for a Halloween Party as a 1973 NYPD police woman.

And here we go again with post 90's American TV pilots. In the British version it took a few episodes before Sam even chats with Annie about his secret and his thoughts on what it means. The new guy, confused and uneasy, didn't just tell some girl in the office: "Hey, I think either I've traveled back in time, this is all a dream, or I'm nuts. Now take me home then let's go solve crimes with our guns and stuff." But hey, she has a degree in psychology. Yeah, if her degree was in parapsychology maybe.

The premise of the show isn't bad - how can a 2008 top investigator used to all the rules and all the csi gadgets and criminal databases function in a 1973 police environment? It provides all kinds of opportunities for tension and struggle.

We will try a few more episodes. But I have my doubts. So it will probably do well against Eleventh Hour which is so much better adapted from the British show.

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SeptemberBaby

· #11 · Oct 11, 2008

rustynails said:
I tried to like the show but I didn't succeed. I just don't like the premise. It was only slightly entertaining to relive the 1970's. I don't see how they can go much further with this show.

Yeah, I'm not loving it either. In fact, I found it to be very frustrating. I'll give it another two weeks.

cj9788

· #12 · Oct 13, 2008

Well it was a ratings success lets see if it can keep up. Me I did not like the US version. No disrespect to Harvey Kietel but he is just too old to be Gene Hunt. The scene where they realize that they know where to find the girl and leap over the desk was lame, in the BBC version it was dramatic and exciting. The brit version IMHO was awsome, the US version sucks. Maybe my view would be diifrent if I had never seen it.

djlong

· #13 · Oct 14, 2008

The only thing better in the US version was Sam seeing the Towers under construction.

I found myself making CONSTANT comparisons to the excellent UK original and sometimes disparaging it for being too much like the UK version and other times for it being not enough like the UK version.

I have to agree, though, about Annie. Nothing against her. I couldn't put my finger on what was wrong other than to say something lame like "too blonde", whereas Liz White has such a charm about her. But describing the US Annie as a 2008 hotties dressed up for Halloween - THAT hits the nail on the head!

tsmacro

· #14 · Oct 14, 2008

I mostly enjoyed it and so did my wife and we were both big fans of the BBC version. The only negative comment I heard from her was that while she liked the guy who played Gene Hunt in the original better than Harvey. As for me my main concern is how are they going to maintain this over a full season or multiple seasons if it gets the ratings to keep it around? After all the original had only 16 eps spread over two seasons and it worked very well like that. What happens when you need 20+ eps per season for an American audience? The one thing I thought about is if they put the whole "why am I here in 1973?" thing in the background and only deal with it every now and then and for the rest of the time let it just be a retro-cop show. It could work, we'll see like I said I had mostly good impressions of USA ep 1 to the extent I was pleasantly surprised, considering I was going into it thinking to myself, ok let's see how bad they're going to screw this up. Hopefully they'll keep up the good work and i'll have another enjoyable show to watch.

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fluffybear

· #15 · Oct 14, 2008

Not happy with this at all! My wife and I were big fans of the BBC version and may have been expecting to much. The US version lacked something. The characters did not deliver that 1973 feeling to me. IMHO, Harvey Kietel was out of place. I am not sure if it is his age or that he was not able to be his usual self.

Unless something changes, I am afraid that life on 'Mars' might become 'Canceled on TV'.

rustynails

· #16 · Oct 15, 2008

It should be cancelled. One of the worst new shows I have seen this year.

fluffybear

· #17 · Oct 15, 2008

rustynails said:
It should be cancelled. One of the worst new shows I have seen this year.

It wasn't great! However, it was considerably better then a number of returning shows.

phrelin

· #18 · Oct 15, 2008

rustynails said:
It should be cancelled. One of the worst new shows I have seen this year.

Given a choice based on one episode I would prefer that "Eleventh Hour" be continued by CBS rather than "Life on Mars" be continued by ABC. We will record and watch both for a few weeks. But "Life on Mars" as a series better improve rapidly.

spunkyvision

· #19 · Oct 27, 2008

The scene where they realize that they know where to find the girl and leap over the desk was lame, in the BBC version it was dramatic and exciting. The brit version IMHO was awsome, the US version sucks. Maybe my view would be diifrent if I had never seen it.

I never saw the british version and I thought it was just way to hokey.

It should be cancelled. One of the worst new shows I have seen this year.

No kidding.

I like some of these "out there" shows, one of my favorites was Journeyman, but i just didn't get this show.
Cosby Kid talking through the radio..lol

The opening was all action and no real story.
I still have yet to watch episodes 2 and 3 I am kind of waiting to see if this gets cancelled.

phrelin

· #20 · Oct 27, 2008

Well, after three episodes, I'm still not high on this version. It's likely to continue to have decent ratings coming out of "Grey's Anatomy" and it feels a little like they are aiming to retain that audience. (The British version might retain the "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" audience, definitely not the "Grey's Anatomy" crowd.)

The one element significantly different from the British version is the "hippie" girl neighbor which if developed as a principle character could lead to a better show and one that would better retain the audience.

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