o/~By the time he gets to Phoenix, she'll be screamin' o/~
mmderdekea Global Moderator Bill's Favorite Dance Partner member is offline
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Re: Youse is Da Greatest American Hero, Ralphie! « Reply #1 on Sept 8, 2007, 11:59am »
I gotta say, one of the most grateful changes I appreciated from pilot Bill to normal ep Bill was his relatively quick loss of his dis/dem/dat accent. Sure, he kept "ain't" and a few other sloppy grammatical phrases, which worked just fine, but I did not like the dis/dem/dat aspect of him at all. One wonders if Culp himself or the director/producers etc told Culp to tone that down; perhaps the same genius who also realized they needed to get rid of that horrid Kevin.
Los Angeles fits the show perfectly, and I think makes it a bit more realistic. It's nice having a wide bunch of uninhabited desert near LA for Ralph and Bill to practice in, and the more openness of Los Angeles proper allows us to believe Ralph could fly around and do things without one million folks directly around him on the sidewalks saying "What the hey!".
I don't know why Bill would be too tired to fight bad guys if the show had been in NY instead; I don't follow the question. Bill was never too tired to do anything! One can't fault his eternal reserves of energy, running his oftentimes bruised and injured body on coffee, burgers, scotch, and old guacamole found in Ralph's "ant hotel" refrigerator.
Jo Pierce Administrator Not Just Another Dame member is offline
Joined: Mar 2007 Gender: Female Posts: 121 Location: Not in California
Re: Youse is Da Greatest American Hero, Ralphie! « Reply #2 on Sept 8, 2007, 3:10pm »
Love the idea. Love it.
As far as being too tired, I actually don't think he would be. In fact, he'd probably be less tired, since he'd be in much better shape, since people walk a whole lot more in NYC, and take public transportation.
I also think it would be really a great plot twist to have Carlisle upset at all the taxis Bill has wrecked. Exploding buses? Works for me! Great photo ops of Ralph flying around Lady Liberty's torch... shoot-outs in Times Square. Ralph changing his clothes in the subway...
I think it would work, even if it would have a completely different feel.
Connie Selleca, ironically, is really the ONLY person on the show who has a really good New York accent. It's especially good because it's not a stereotypical one filled with dems and dats. Even Pare sound more Joisey than New Yawk... although I will spare you all the linguistic analyses of suburban flight and demographic shifts between 1960 and 2000 and the effect on New York accents.
Would Tony speak with a Surfer accent? Love it.
As far as Ralph dressing weird... believe me, L.A. people are just as weird when it comes to clothing choices. However, there would be a WHOLE lot more punk in GAH. I could see at least a few of Ralph's students with mohawks and blue hair.
Mona brings up a nice point about the desert being close by... lots of open space. But then again, it takes what... an hour or so to get from LA to Palmdale? From central Manhattan, an hour drive north would bring you to Harriman State Park which is pretty darned isolated. It would be a different kind of feel, but if isolation is what you're after, it's not hard to get around NY. Plus, NY in the 80s was much less developed than it is today and what we think of when we think NY... Sort of how Palmdale of the 80s was desert, whereas it's now - what? - suburban sprawl? There was a LOT of green space in NY in the early 80s.
I also think you could get a lot of REALLY interesting plots going with NY having the United Nations right there. Imagine what Bill and Ralph could do on an international level. I don't know all that much about LA (I want a t-shirt that says "All I learned about LA I learned from watching GAH"), but it seems to me that you are more likely to find politicos and diplomats and international intrigue in NY or DC rather than in LA, or.... dare I say it... Phoenix...
mmderdekea Global Moderator Bill's Favorite Dance Partner member is offline
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Re: Youse is Da Greatest American Hero, Ralphie! « Reply #3 on Sept 8, 2007, 5:07pm »
Hello, Jo,
It was interesting to read your excitement at the idea of NYC and the show. You must really love the City. I can see your points, although I still think LA works best. I like Ralph having his house in his middle class neighborhood, and Manhatton doesn't really have that sort of specious home set-up. Although NYC in your opinion wasn't that "built up" then, having lived in Northern New Jersey myself my first 10 years and gone into NYC fairly frequently, it was still at heart a crowded skyscraper kind of place. I worry the City would make things even MORE frenetic than they were in the show, and put a certain rushed aspect into the episodes that would detract from us having time to watch relationships grow and change. I do agree that the City lends itself well to spies and international intrigue and the mafia and so forth. More European related connections would make sense back East. There were SO MANY car scenes in GAH, though, that NYC would really cramp those wonderful moments. Sharing a taxi would be humorous once, with Ralph changing into his jammies, but it works great having Bill drive around in his own, destructible car.
I love to visit NYC, but it seems that darker shows like "The Equalizer" (great show) and the crime shows work better there, or comedies that are home based like "Cosby" or "Seinfeld" with few outdoor scenes and no need for more breadth of shots. The sprawl of LA works great for Ralph flying about, too.
Pare is more Brooklyn than NYC proper, to my ears. Us Norther NJ folks pretty much are known by saying Ar-ange and Far-est and Harrible (for orange, forest and horrible), but not going overboard into Pare's anti-Queen's English dialect.
Jo Pierce Administrator Not Just Another Dame member is offline
Joined: Mar 2007 Gender: Female Posts: 121 Location: Not in California
Re: Youse is Da Greatest American Hero, Ralphie! « Reply #4 on Sept 8, 2007, 5:20pm »
Sure, it would be different. And I think it worked great in LA. But I think it could have also worked in NYC. Why not?
I would not think that Ralph would be a Manhanttanite. I am thinking more of a Queens setting. A nice little house in a nice middle class neighborhood. Bayside. Or Forest Hills. And then we could put Bill in a one room flat in Astoria or Williamsburg or Long Island City or something... just a quick hop into the city. I agree - I like the idea of Bill in his car - and in the early 80s, there was less congestion, so it would have been just as good. I think LA in the 80s was even less congested than now.
Where the heck is Helane? She should be all over this...
Joined: Mar 2007 Gender: Female Posts: 55 Location: NY
Re: Youse is Da Greatest American Hero, Ralphie! « Reply #5 on Sept 8, 2007, 11:52pm »
I'm all over it now, Jo!!!
Sure, Ralph could live in Forest Hills....after all, I lived there in the 1980's and sure would have liked him as a neighbor. Especially, with Bill visiting him so much. Bill could live in nearby Corona. Saving the world in NY would be more difficult though? Wouldn't it?
In NY, Ralph could walk around in the suit all the time and start a new fashion craze.......capes would be the new in thing to wear......
Oh, dont get me started! Anyhow, interesting to think about.
Joined: Jun 2007 Gender: Female Posts: 11 Location: South Park, WA
Re: Youse is Da Greatest American Hero, Ralphie! « Reply #6 on Sept 9, 2007, 7:42am »
I dunno, I think it would've been better placed in Seattle
I honestly can't picture GAH in NYC. Ralph LOOKS like a surfer dude (as we probably all know, WK is an accomplished surfer), RC is from California (he proudly mentions he's a son of the Pioneers), so I can't imagine either of them in a different locale. The characters and actors both scream CALIFORNIA!
Granted, I don't CARE much for L.A. Been there once, and that was plenty for me this lifetime. Never been to NYC, unless cutting through on I-95 in the wee hours of an icey December morning in 1973 counts. At least I THINK it was NYC... I was kind of out of it, from being tired and excited and sad, all at the same time... we were leaving my beloved New Hampshire for Mississippi, thanks to the oil embargo of the early 70s, which forced us to sell our big old house in NH and relocate to the warmer South.... but I digress, as usual.
Gads, GAH in Seattle... well, I touched on that a little in my Lilacs Series. I don't know diddly about L.A., so I had to put them somewhere familiar to me. But we're boring up here, I don't think it's something that could be maintained indefinitely. L.A.'s about 5 times the size of Seattle.
Now, as far as the kids go, and those Joisey accents... I mean, what up with that? I guess they thought "Jersey Accent = Tough Dudes and Dudette"?
Jo Pierce Administrator Not Just Another Dame member is offline
Joined: Mar 2007 Gender: Female Posts: 121 Location: Not in California
Re: Youse is Da Greatest American Hero, Ralphie! « Reply #7 on Sept 9, 2007, 8:05am »
For me, Katt is certainly a surfer guy, but Bill I think could fit anywhere. I often think about him in Detroit. Yes, it's the noir in me coming out, but Bill doesn't strike me as that California-dude kinda guy. JMHO.
Yes, GAH is a california show. We couldn't change that... but it's all fun to talk about other options.
Corona could work, but I am really starting to think about Bill in Brooklyn. Just a quick ride over the Williamsburg bridge to the Federal Building seems about right to me.
Re: Youse is Da Greatest American Hero, Ralphie! « Reply #9 on Sept 10, 2007, 12:52pm »
Quote:
I wonder what tGAH would have been like if it had been set in NY instead of LA? Would Bill be too tired to fight bad guys?...
Quote:
I don't know why Bill would be too tired to fight bad guys if the show had been in NY instead; I don't follow the question. Bill was never too tired to do anything! One can't fault his eternal reserves of energy, running his oftentimes bruised and injured body on coffee, burgers, scotch, and old guacamole found in Ralph's "ant hotel" refrigerator.
Quote:
As far as being too tired, I actually don't think he would be. In fact, he'd probably be less tired, since he'd be in much better shape, since people walk a whole lot more in NYC, and take public transportation.
OMG! Was I being too obscure?! I'm glad that Jo got my "Tony with Surfer accent" joke, but come on!
Hell-ooo?! Why would Bill be too tired in NY?[spoiler]
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