RoboCop: The Series

Officer Harvey · Metro West District, Detroit Police Department, OCP

I thought the villains in the show SUCKED, just what??? When you have a recurring villain named Pudface, there's a problem. Just, wow.

bucka607 · R-L2

Ill probably get slaughtered for this but i prefer burke to eden, eden seemed really stiff in the series where as burke moved more easily. As regards to the voice alot of that was down to editing and producing. If you go back to R1 you'll notice Weller sounded very robotic at first like when he first goes to the station and is told when at rest to sit in the chair listen to the way he say's ''yes i understand''.

As for the series i liked the whole diana robo thing as well and how she always called him Alex. They really tried to work in the more human side of him which was pretty good, but some of the storylines were terrible. The main thing that really annoyed me is how they changed Ellen to Nancy.

Spectrum Scarlet · Sgt-L1* SIMPY 4 PIMPY

Like many shows, there's good and bad episodes. RoboCop was 50/50 in that respect, but actual moments, scenes and sequences that stood-out were aplenty, I thought. Quite a few to list, but I may do that sometime.

What has stood out for me since ITV premiered it on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, back in 1996, and stayed with me all these years, is the gorgeous and stunning orchestral music by Jon Stroll and Kevin Gillis, who was also one of the Executive Producers. Their compositions left a massive impression on me, and were so well balanced, written and performed. Their best episodes, where they clearly had the budget to afford probably 40-60 musicians, were the two-hour 'Pilot', and my personal favourites 'Officer Missing' and 'Ghosts of War'. Either episode should of received an Emmy nomination for "Outstanding Music for a Television Series", and won it as well.

The scores for those two latter episodes were excellent, and of motion-picture quality, and yet, this was for a television series! For those of you who thought the producers messed up on a big budget, they didn't. I read a comment that one member made in response to this topic; watch it all again, in particular the special effects filmed for the 'Pilot', 'Provision 22' ,'When Justice Fails', 'Illusions', 'The Tin Man', and 'Public Enemies'. They had a budget of $1 - 1.4 million dollars per episode. In the real world of television production, who can't have that budget for 22 episodes, so you HAVE to cut corners on the odd ep. to stay under or on top of the overall season budget, because if you don't, the studio are down on you like a ton of bricks.

Having said that, they probably didn't, and went over their budget, judging by the sheer colossal scale of pyrotechnics and stunts they staged, and the production costs was one of the main reasons cited for the show's unfortunate cancellation. It would definitely of been very interesting to see what the writers would of done with the humanistic stories and character arcs that had been told so brilliantly in the 'Pilot', 'Heartbreakers' and 'Corporate Raiders', what scenarios and further exhilarating action set-pieces they'd of thrown Robo into, and what further beautiful orchestrations and music scores Jon Stroll and Kevin Gillis would of composed.

For me, The Series was significantly better than RoboCop 3, and in some areas, RoboCop 2. R2 did NOT dedicate nowhere near enough time to the darker human side of Murphy's character, nor did R3. The Series did, and superbly handled it across several episodes, in particular 'Prime Suspect', 'Officer Missing', 'The Human Factor', 'Heartbreakers' and 'Corporate Raiders'. Additionally, some of the action sequences and stunts were far more superior, since the money was there. That's not to say the ones attempted in the sequels weren't; RoboCop 2 has some amazing feats, and RoboCop 3 a few noteworthy ones, but to me, none as satisfying and explosive as those in The Series.

However, and again unfortunately, The Series was not without it's errors. It's clear the producers and writers attempted to do episodes that were NOT suitable for the young, child audience their studio-issued mandate instructed them to stick to. All you have to do is go back and watch the episodes I've mentioned above, and see that they were dark, dramatic, and at times, quite gruesome and violent, for children to watch. It's so obvious those producers and writers were such fans of RoboCop's 1 and 2, and the dark, violent stories and elements that made them so iconic and memorable, that they followed suit as well, but then I get the impression the studio put their foot down once seeing those "cold" ep's, and ordered them to go back to the silly, child-minded, "warm and fuzzy" scripts, like 'Mother's Day' and 'RoboCop vs. Commander Cash'.

Still, I do believe The Series had far more pros than cons, and had such huge potential to go on for at least a few more seasons. It also boasted a very likeable and versatile ensemble cast, who clearly had great chemistry all round, but Sarah Campbell (Gadget) was no good at all; perhaps in an actual kid's show, but as part of an adult cast, and playing a pointless, boring character, that the show did not need one bit, she wasn't.

Stan The Man · Bah Concepts Division

Very good post. I agree that overall the Series did benefit from the high production value and made the most of it. Budget isn't really too much an issue (or at least it shouldn't be) but honestly, RoboCop is just not a property where you can do something for ten a penny, you do need some dough here and there. They had it in the Series and it shows.

I agree about the music for the most part, I thought it was pretty good. On the main I won't consider it quite on the level of the films but it certainly was good, especially in spots.

As I've said before, and as you also alluded to, the show indeed had more 'darker human' stuff - that it alluded to much darker and deeper aspects than the films, stuff that the show couldn't (and indeed didn't) fully delve into for a number of reasons. I've said a lot on this before on the board and site itself so I'll not repeat myself again, but I do wholeheartedly agree that many episodes that leaned more to that were the better episodes of the show, and indeed I would have liked to see more and stronger takes on those elements. That said, the show had it's cheesy and silly moments, but I definitely consider it considerably better in certain spots than R3. Overall.. Bah, sub-par as the Series is.. I might be able to rate it over R3. Though I agree about the sequels not delving into the 'dark human' stuff as much, there's no way I'd rate it over R2, but R3 - maybe. At the very least, there are more good moments in the Series than R3 to me, or at least I find them more memorable.

Action wise though, I have to disagree - The films always had that one-up over the series, or R2 sure did, at the very least, (come on, a Robo stomping around getting his ass kicked every other episode as opposed to one taking a beating and jumping around on RoboCAIN?), Robo was definitely more badass and less vulnerable in that film (R3 is different story). Though there were parts in the Series where he wasn't portrayed as some slow, weak-ass robot, they weren't many, at least not to me. There also were some cool stunts and explosions and whatnot in the Series, but still, I'll always give that nod to R2 - it's a flashy action piece anyway and just does it better.

In the end, the Series had it's moments, and they do shine. However, I can't rate the series quite so highly myself overall. I find it a decently respectable piece for what it is, though. It had good episodes that do stand out, and other aspects of the show are also interesting. I would have liked to see it go on but I don't think it would have lasted too long before petering out. Still, a complete bag of suck it is not, and that's more than I can say for some other RoboCop products.
_________________
I don't wanna pay that, PhotoBucket. Now maybe you haven't heard, but I'm the guy in old Archive. So hows about you just shit snow for a year and I'll figure out something else. Sayonara!

Metronet · R-L3

I was 12 years old when first watched The Series. Honestly, I didn't miss the violence. I was far too focused on the portrayal of Alex Murphy, which I was glad was not forgotten. Before the Series, it had been years since I had seen the original film, as I both liked and feared R1. The Series created the opening to let me to enjoy RoboCop again. I would record the eps on VHS and watch it religiously; my favorite TV show at the time.

I recognized some familiar plot devices carried over from the film into the Series, like Media Breaks and the satirical consumer commercials. I liked how Commander Cash is used as the vehicle to push outlandish products on both kids and adults.

Listening to the music of the Series, I'm glad that Production did not cheap-out on this aspect. The scores contributed plenty to building atmosphere and maintaining moments of tension.

Diana is by far the coolest addition to The Series. She has a similar background to RoboCop; a human murdered and now existing as a ghost-in-the-machine anomaly. She was RoboCop's ace-in-the-hole many times, with her omnipotence over Delta City.

With the inconsistencies in story quality, I didn't like all episodes. Many of those I'd watch a few times as their plots were boring to follow. This is probably me being biased to begin with, but the best episodes of The Series are the ones that touch down with RoboCop's humanity. These are the episodes I would repeatedly view over others. Most notable are "Heartbreakers" and "Corporate Raiders."

The latter episode had the poignant moment Russell figures out who RoboCop is and calls out, "Alex." Murphy had to confront his father, and he seemed so ashamed to have died and cause his family so much grief and pain. I cried. I mean, R1 is an overall masterpiece with dozens of scenes which I felt deeply emotional. Yet this on-and-off Series has this one golden moment which made me an infant. And I was secretly crying, too, because at the same time I was realizing I was tearing over this Series. I suppose this is what could happen when one is emotionally vested in a show, and then this after twenty-odd episodes in it.

Part of the architecture of The Series is that while Murphy's wife and son can be seen in it, RoboCop refuses to tell them who he is, though he still tries to protect them. This may seem to create unnecessary tension, but I rather enjoy the idea for RoboCop as the traditional hero with a secret identity. It also means that Jimmy Murphy mind as well walk around with a "Kidnap Me" sign taped to his back, because that is what happens to him in almost every episode he's in.

After watching PD, I'm thankful that The Series was was one of the more expensive shows to produce in those days; to execute a story with some degree of quality. PD taught me that a RoboCop show can follow in the footsteps of the original film as much as possible, but with a crap budget and no inventiveness, it can still suck monkey balls.

Kara_Kedi · R-L1

Hello from Ukraine!
I looked this serial in 1995 (in 1995 it showed at us on TV). I then very much liked a serial! Certainly, the serial differs from R1, R2 and R3, but it were pleasant to me …
And RoboCop performed by Richard Eden has seemed remarkable … its movements, gait really as much as possible approached to to robot actions.
The second time I have looked at this serial this year (unfortunately it was not given to possibility to find all series of a serial earlier). Also should tell to me a serial still it is pleasant not less than it was pleasant in 1994!..

Kara_Kedi · R-L1

A sound-track pleased me at the end of the last series of serial...
Who does know, how is a song named, who sings and where it is possible to load it?..