[...] terror of the blank page and one of the most wonderfully realistic female characters ever on TV. Liz came back to watch this with me, because she’s a Pegg fan but hadn’t previously heard of Spaced. [...]

I don’t think people would complain as much about the freak-of-the-week structure if the individual episodes were good and interesting. After all, Buffy did something similar in early days, and those are still very rewatchable (with a couple of notable clunkers).

“You know, that reminds me of something. It’s been a while since I’ve read all those Knightfall/KnightQuest/KnightEend issues, but was did we ever see Batman talk with Oracle at all about the fact that he was now in a wheelchair as well? What about any conversations after Bruce’s back was miraculously healed by Dr. Kinsolving?”

This has come up a few times over the years in various ways - sometimes as meta-commentary couched in the dialogue. Toward the end of Chuck’s run on the title, IIRC (and it’s been a while so maybe I don’t), Babs was even offered a chance to take a dip in a Lazarus Pit (which is how Dinah got her Canary Cry back) but declined. My impression -perhaps KC would know and be willing to comment - is that DC editorial beleives Barbara is just much more interesting character as Oracle than Batgirl and giving her the use of her legs would, um… what exactly? Make it impossible for her to still be Oracle? The whole thing breaks down under scrutiny but you probably get the idea.

As for the villain of the week premise: The producers of Smallville took similar heat during season one for the “Kryptonite-irradiated freak-of-the-week” format - and if you try watching Smallville Season One on DVD, as I have, it is pretty tedious. But the producers’ reasoning on this was logically sound: They claimed the average viewer would only catch 1 out of every 3-4 episodes and so they wanted to make every ep pretty much done-in-one to make it accessible for as many viewers as possible. As the series progressed, they moved away from that format - but therein lies the danger: I was a big fan but lost track of it due to various circumstances around season four and never really got back into it again because I couldn’t figure out much of the backstory or the motivations of the characters. —- Sound familiar?

Good point, I think BoP suffered the way the animated Legion suffered — the writers knew how to write action but not how to write superheroes who’s powers weren’t visual, like Saturn Girl or Oracle.

I also remember how very annoyed I was by how Barbara/Oracle was supposed to be paraplegic but was always sitting and moving in a way that would be impossible for someone who is paraplegic to sit and move — one of the episodes had the three leads lounging and talking in a U-shaped couch, and there’s no freaking way Oracle would have been able to get to the place she was sitting without either crawling over the coffee table or the back of the couch.

Another thing I didn’t like was how they failed to understand the brains/brawn character dymamic of the Birds of Prey comics. Not getting that meant Helena did all the work and Barbara/Oracle was given very little to do, which sucked.

IIRC, the showbiz news coverage of the time talked about how the show’s producer was not very experienced, and the network failed to assign her a good showrunner exec, which explained a lot about the clumsy, awkward feel to the show as a whole.

You know, that reminds me of something. It’s been a while since I’ve read all those Knightfall/KnightQuest/KnightEend issues, but was did we ever see Batman talk with Oracle at all about the fact that he was now in a wheelchair as well? What about any conversations after Bruce’s back was miraculously healed by Dr. Kinsolving?

Even better, since the father was severely injured at the end of said episode, he came back played by another actor with a completely different body type and facial structure, Mitch Pileggi. Now they just think we’re idiots.

As charming as I find her, I must admit Ashley Scott was definitely the show’s weak link, hammering the slow burn angst button for, well, everything.

Mia Sara became the scene stealer, because, well, her character wasn’t feeling sorry for herself all the time, instead enacting a plan for REVENGE, albeit a ridiculous one.

Chas, if I had to guess why the women dropped the show, it’s because the soap opera wasn’t very entertaining. Based on this first episode, it felt flat instead of involving.

One, Babs is employing her brilliant mind to reverse her condition. She isn’t giving up. This isn’t reality. This is fiction. In one episode, she walks again, but with great pain.

I’ve always wondered about this. If Babs is so smart, so technologically savvy in the comic series, why hasn’t she come up with a way to repair the damage?

Two, Birds of Prey does not take place in the wholecloth of the DC universe. Therefore, there is no supernatural or high tech way to permanently repair Babs’ spine.

Babs might a solution in the television series, but there’s no Zatanna, nor are there such things as advanced Kryptonian or Thanagarian science readily available to her.

Three, the Huntress is based on the earth-two original hero not the generic post-Crisis vigilante that lacks a single tie to Batman and hasn’t a good reason to exist. The writer/creator of the show was a fan of the original Huntress, not Valerie’s cousin.

Four, Batman occasionally shows up in flashback and isn’t portrayed as an emotionless, unfeeling manipulator. Batgirl was his trusted partner.

Five, we don’t know exactly why Batman left Gotham City. Grief over Catwoman’s death doesn’t seem likely. Now that he knows about Helena, it would be more likely that he would return. So, I always suspected that Batman is searching the globe, seeking a way to fix Babs’ spine, which is a helluva lot more than he did for her in the comics. Granted, this is merely hypothetical, but I’m sticking with it.

Ray

P.S. SPOILER.

Young Dinah isn’t the Black Canary. She’s the daughter of Black Canary, who shows up later, complete with sonic scream.

For the same reasons as Charmed, it didn’t hold my (male) interest very much, even if the premise and characters were appealing. As for why the female viewership abandoned the show as well, I don’t know. Maybe it wasn’t marketed to them in the first place, thus missing the key demographic? But it was on the WB, which had high female viewership, so that doesn’t make much sense.

Just some random thoughts. I wouldn’t mind seeing it again, actually, especially with there being only 13 episodes.

The thing that really didn’t work for me was the fact that they basically set it in the Marvel Universe instead of the DC Universe, with mutants renamed as Metas.

Plus, I like to think that the existence of the BIRDS OF PREY tv show, somehow, in some way, influenced DC’s decision to finally collect the Paul Levitz Huntress stories in that HUNTRESS: DARK KNIGHT DAUGHTER tpb.

OK, sure, there wasn’t any direct tie-in–the book was published something like 3 or 4 years after the show was cancelled–but, still, I like to think that having a Batman’s daughther character kicking around on the teevee got at least some wheels turning in the reprint division…

One big positive effect of the show, however, was the effect on the comic. Typical of DC (and Marvel, too), changes were made in the editiorial direction of the comic series to make it hew closer to the show. So, Huntress was brought in as a regualar player, a move which warranted a new creative team - Gail Simone and Ed Benes. Good call. The book had been floundering and directionless for about a year since Chuck Dixon left and I was about to drop it. Gail’s run really re-energized it. Too bad she’s gone - I’m still having a hard time with the stupid moves DC has made to nullify all the positive character-development Gail did with Dinah. I’m still picking it up regularly but it no longer hits the top of my reading pile and as I look for places to cut back, I can’t guarantee its’ safety.

But back to the show: Was I the only one who had a hard time processing “Mr. Pitt” as Alfred?

On the other hand, if I recall correctly, BIRDS OF PREY always scored very high on TVShowsonDVD.com’s list of most-requested-but-yet-unreleased TV shows, so there was something of a demand for it. And if rights issues still preclude the Adam West Batman TV series from getting to DVD, it makes some sense to release new Batman-related DVD product out along with the new movie.

Anyway, what I recall of the BIRDS OF PREY series from watching it pretty much jibes with your assessement. I remember thinking that it looked good in terms of sets and art direction, and the cast was reasonably solid (Dina Meyer is one of the better seemingly-consigned-to-genre-work actresses there is, IMO), but the whole thing didn’t fully come together.

Which, I suppose, makes a fine candidate for a DVD release for a collector’s shelf, even if it doesn’t make for must-see TV viewing…

I enjoyed the show a lot and can’t wait to pick up the DVDs.