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Scenes We'd Like To See: Alternate Movies, Television & Other Pop Culture Miscellanea

What were the things you consider benefited the most from 9/11 culturally?

There's a distinct change in The Sopranos after 9/11, it reflected the mood of the United States and became more of a phenomenon than it was in the earlier seasons. From that, perhaps all of US television drama 'benefited'.
 
There's a distinct change in The Sopranos after 9/11, it reflected the mood of the United States and became more of a phenomenon than it was in the earlier seasons. From that, perhaps all of US television drama 'benefited'.
Was

Was it wrong for me to ask this

If so,I’m sorry
 
Grab Bag of Doctor Who PODs

Dark example: while filming location scenes for "The Sontaran Experiment", Tom Baker fell down a slope and injured himself, to the point where the director initially believed he'd broken his neck. Indeed, most of the Doctor's fight scene with Styre at the climax of the second episode was shot by a stunt double who very obviously has the scarf pulled up to obscure his face with Baker's dialogue added via ADR.

Suppose the worst had happened; how do they get out of that one?
 
Dark example: while filming location scenes for "The Sontaran Experiment", Tom Baker fell down a slope and injured himself, to the point where the director initially believed he'd broken his neck. Indeed, most of the Doctor's fight scene with Styre at the climax of the second episode was shot by a stunt double who very obviously has the scarf pulled up to obscure his face with Baker's dialogue added via ADR.

Suppose the worst had happened; how do they get out of that one?
Dress Peter Davison in a curly wig and blur his face out for the regeneration scene?
 
Dress Peter Davison in a curly wig and blur his face out for the regeneration scene?

Honestly, if they have to write Tom Baker out in an emergency recasting in 1975, barely if a year after he started, Davison isn't replacing him, since he hasn't played the title role in All Creatures Great and Small yet. I'm not even sure Colin Baker would have been on their radar, since he would have only just joined the cast of Brothers.

Probably they'd try to go back to one of the people they'd asked before, like Graham Crowden or Fulton Mackay or Ron Moody.
 
Did any fantasy movies or television series get greenlit specifically because Lord of the Rings was popular which wouldn't have if it hadn't been? Seems to me that the movie people were chasing the YA money trying to find something that would be as big as the Harry Potter movies.
 
From what I understood,the Lord of rings movies were more successful due to the world needing some form of escapism.I could be wrong,of course.

Doesn't really hold up. Ocean's Eleven grossed only slightly under Shrek and Fellowship didn't quite get as high as The Phantom Menace 2 years earlier.
 
If Star Wars hadn't come out, the most successful movie of 1977 would have been a movie about Burt Reynolds delivering beer. This could have had colossal implications by itself.
The trucker genre stays relevant perhaps?Maybe a US-1 inspired movie?
 
If Star Wars hadn't come out, the most successful movie of 1977 would have been a movie about Burt Reynolds delivering beer. This could have had colossal implications by itself.

Some immediate effects of no Star Wars mean Battlestar Galactica not being picked up, Star Trek Phase II being made instead of The Motion Picture, For Your Eyes Only being adapted instead of Moonraker. Sorcerer probably does better as well.
 
Grab Bag of James Bond adaptation PODs

  1. Alexander Korda presents Moonraker - Korda had spoken with Fleming about adapting Live and Let Die in the 1950s, Fleming specifically said he was writing Moonraker with the intention of it being adapted into a film. The home counties setting would certainly have been more amenable to an adaptation by The Rank Organisation. Who plays Bond, Drax and Gala Brand in this 1950s low-key adaptation? Does this butterfly the EON films? Or does Moonraker become akin to Casino Royale and Thunderball in being one of the novels too tangled in legal disputes to be adapted?
  2. CBS presents For You Eyes Only - what if CBS go through with their plans to adapt the character into a weekly television series in the 1950s? Fleming wrote numerous scripts for this that he later adapted into short stories when the plan fell through. Is Bond Americanised in this production? Does the character become a figure adapted more for the small screen than the big screen? Does Fleming focus his efforts on the television show at the expense of the novels?
  3. BOAC Flight 911 - what if Cubby Broccoli, Harry Saltzman, Ken Adams, Lewis Gilbert and Freddie Young had not missed their flight back from location scouting in Japan for You Only Live Twice to see a ninja demonstration? Historically the flight broke up in flight with no survivors. With the presumed end of the film franchise do the rights go into limbo for years before being picked up again?
  4. Hiatus after The Man with the Golden Gun - what if Cubby Broccoli took Harry Saltzman's advice following the muted reception to The Man with the Golden Gun and put the franchise on hold. Does it come back for the 1980s with a GoldenEye-esque bang? Or does it linger in hiatus for longer? Does it even have some competition when it comes back?
  5. Kevin McClory strikes gold - what if Kevin McClory was able to get a successful film adaptation of Thunderball in the 1970s or 1980s? Do we have a proper duelling franchise between the EON films and the McClory films? Does it need the EON franchise to be on hiatus? Or to make a miscalculation in lead actor for an alternative to be viable? Or is McClory able to cobble together a film from actors and directors interested in the franchise who never got the chance from Cubby?
  6. Directed by Steven Spielberg - after both Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind Steven Spielberg lobbied Cubby Broccoli to direct a Bond film. Cubby both times told him he was not yet ready, and instead Spielberg went on to create Indiana Jones with George Lucas. What if Spielberg's pitch had been accepted by Cubby or he had made another one in the early 80s? Would the trend of stunt directors have started three or four decades earlier? How would Spielberg's version of The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, or For Your Eyes Only have been received? At any point would he push for a new Bond?
  7. Moore leaves after For Your Eyes Only - what if Roger Moore had not returned for Octopussy? OTL EON knew they were on the hunt for a new Bond with Timothy Dalton being discussed and both Michael Billington and James Brolin being screen tested. When they heard McClory had secured Connery for Never Say Never Again they asked Moore to return as an established actor to help them at the box office. What if he turned them down or they decided to take a chance? Does the film falter against Never Say Never Again? How do Dalton, Billington, or Brolin do taking over the role in 1983?
  8. Remington Steele cancelled - OTL Pierce Brosnan was chosen to play James Bond following the cancellation of the NBC series Remington Steele in 1986; this announcement caused an upsurge in interest in the programme that caused NBC to renew it. Denying Brosnan the role for a number of years. What if EON keep the announcement under wraps until he is completely out of contract? How does he fare in The Living Daylights? Better than Dalton did? Does the franchise still go into hiatus by 1990?
  9. The Property of a Lady - what if the Bond franchise is not part of legal disputes in the late 1980s that cause a delay in production of the film following Licence to Kill? Is Dalton accepted as Bond after three films? Does he go on to do a fourth? Does the franchise continue on the trajectory set during the 1980s? How does it fare in the 1990s without the rebirth that was GoldenEye?
  10. Directed by Quentin Tarantino - what if Pierce Brosnan had not been fired after Die Another Day and instead had done a fifth film? Quentin Tarantino had lobbied to direct an adaptation of Casino Royale but only if Pierce Brosnan returned. It's exactly the kind of move EON would go for in this decade? What if they had gone for it in the mid-00s and instead of the Batman Begins-esque Casino Royale we got a stylistic interpretation that would probably set the standard for the next actor following Brosnan, whoever that may be?
 
Grab Bag of James Bond adaptation PODs

  1. Alexander Korda presents Moonraker - Korda had spoken with Fleming about adapting Live and Let Die in the 1950s, Fleming specifically said he was writing Moonraker with the intention of it being adapted into a film. The home counties setting would certainly have been more amenable to an adaptation by The Rank Organisation. Who plays Bond, Drax and Gala Brand in this 1950s low-key adaptation? Does this butterfly the EON films? Or does Moonraker become akin to Casino Royale and Thunderball in being one of the novels too tangled in legal disputes to be adapted?
  2. CBS presents For You Eyes Only - what if CBS go through with their plans to adapt the character into a weekly television series in the 1950s? Fleming wrote numerous scripts for this that he later adapted into short stories when the plan fell through. Is Bond Americanised in this production? Does the character become a figure adapted more for the small screen than the big screen? Does Fleming focus his efforts on the television show at the expense of the novels?
  3. BOAC Flight 911 - what if Cubby Broccoli, Harry Saltzman, Ken Adams, Lewis Gilbert and Freddie Young had not missed their flight back from location scouting in Japan for You Only Live Twice to see a ninja demonstration? Historically the flight broke up in flight with no survivors. With the presumed end of the film franchise do the rights go into limbo for years before being picked up again?
  4. Hiatus after The Man with the Golden Gun - what if Cubby Broccoli took Harry Saltzman's advice following the muted reception to The Man with the Golden Gun and put the franchise on hold. Does it come back for the 1980s with a GoldenEye-esque bang? Or does it linger in hiatus for longer? Does it even have some competition when it comes back?
  5. Kevin McClory strikes gold - what if Kevin McClory was able to get a successful film adaptation of Thunderball in the 1970s or 1980s? Do we have a proper duelling franchise between the EON films and the McClory films? Does it need the EON franchise to be on hiatus? Or to make a miscalculation in lead actor for an alternative to be viable? Or is McClory able to cobble together a film from actors and directors interested in the franchise who never got the chance from Cubby?
  6. Directed by Steven Spielberg - after both Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind Steven Spielberg lobbied Cubby Broccoli to direct a Bond film. Cubby both times told him he was not yet ready, and instead Spielberg went on to create Indiana Jones with George Lucas. What if Spielberg's pitch had been accepted by Cubby or he had made another one in the early 80s? Would the trend of stunt directors have started three or four decades earlier? How would Spielberg's version of The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, or For Your Eyes Only have been received? At any point would he push for a new Bond?
  7. Moore leaves after For Your Eyes Only - what if Roger Moore had not returned for Octopussy? OTL EON knew they were on the hunt for a new Bond with Timothy Dalton being discussed and both Michael Billington and James Brolin being screen tested. When they heard McClory had secured Connery for Never Say Never Again they asked Moore to return as an established actor to help them at the box office. What if he turned them down or they decided to take a chance? Does the film falter against Never Say Never Again? How do Dalton, Billington, or Brolin do taking over the role in 1983?
  8. Remington Steele cancelled - OTL Pierce Brosnan was chosen to play James Bond following the cancellation of the NBC series Remington Steele in 1986; this announcement caused an upsurge in interest in the programme that caused NBC to renew it. Denying Brosnan the role for a number of years. What if EON keep the announcement under wraps until he is completely out of contract? How does he fare in The Living Daylights? Better than Dalton did? Does the franchise still go into hiatus by 1990?
  9. The Property of a Lady - what if the Bond franchise is not part of legal disputes in the late 1980s that cause a delay in production of the film following Licence to Kill? Is Dalton accepted as Bond after three films? Does he go on to do a fourth? Does the franchise continue on the trajectory set during the 1980s? How does it fare in the 1990s without the rebirth that was GoldenEye?
  10. Directed by Quentin Tarantino - what if Pierce Brosnan had not been fired after Die Another Day and instead had done a fifth film? Quentin Tarantino had lobbied to direct an adaptation of Casino Royale but only if Pierce Brosnan returned. It's exactly the kind of move EON would go for in this decade? What if they had gone for it in the mid-00s and instead of the Batman Begins-esque Casino Royale we got a stylistic interpretation that would probably set the standard for the next actor following Brosnan, whoever that may be?
Good ones.

What about the one where George Lazenby doesn’t become Bond due to the series of circumstances that were presented in Becoming Bond?
 
A break from my usual postings on alternate film and television in this thread to discuss a potential POD for an alternate history of comic books.

With the move in comics from an episodic format to a continuity-heavy and eventually serialised one highlighted in this recent article on the Magazine, it got me thinking about how this change might never have come about.

To what can the trends that led to this change be laid at the feet of Frederic Wertham's infamous Seduction of the Innocent and the subsequent Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency and the Comics Code Authority? During the early 1950s superhero comics had fallen by the wayside in favour of genre anthology comics best exemplified by EC Comics titles such as Crime SuspenseStories, Tales from the Crypt, Two-Fisted Tales, and Weird Science (in the thriller, horror, war, and science fiction genres respectively). As the generation that grew up on superhero comics in the 1930s and 1940s come of age they looked for more mature content, and these anthology books began to take off. Unfortunately the chain of events that led to the Comics Code Authority saw EC forced to close most of their titles with the exception of Mad magazine.

What if the EC anthologies had survived and superhero comics had continued to wane during the 1950s? Would Marvel stick to science fiction anthologies and not revitalise the superhero genre in the early 1960s? From this, might the episodic format still reign supreme in comic books with all the knock-on effects in popular culture that woudl come from that?
 
BOAC Flight 911 - what if Cubby Broccoli, Harry Saltzman, Ken Adams, Lewis Gilbert and Freddie Young had not missed their flight back from location scouting in Japan for You Only Live Twice to see a ninja demonstration? Historically the flight broke up in flight with no survivors. With the presumed end of the film franchise do the rights go into limbo for years before being picked up again?

Moonraker the movie is completely and absolutely removed from the novel, which featured nuclear V-2 rockets instead of Space Shuttles. More generally, the movie plot is 98% removed from the novel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BOAC_Flight_911

An horrifying crash straight out of a disaster movie. The crew just wanted to make a pass to show Mount Fuji to the passenger, Mount Fuji answered with severe turbulence that broke the aircraft midair. Dang.

On a lighter note, imagine if Airplane ! creators never heard of Zero hour ! or if that movie had never been made.

Also Capricorn One featured O. J Simpson in a secondary role (oops), plus it fueled the Moon Hoax theory. Finally, it saved Peter Hyams career and allowed him later to ruin 2001, a space Odyssey making a bad (politically laden !) sequel.
In a nutshell, Peter Hyams ruined 1968 twin crowning achievements related to the space program
- Apollo through Capricorn One
- 2001 through its 2010 sequel.
 
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What if the EC anthologies had survived and superhero comics had continued to wane during the 1950s? Would Marvel stick to science fiction anthologies and not revitalise the superhero genre in the early 1960s? From this, might the episodic format still reign supreme in comic books with all the knock-on effects in popular culture that woudl come from that?

Martin Goodman was on the brink of shuttering Marvel in the early 60s, just as Fantastic Four and Spider-Man were starting to take off. There's a famous story about how Jack Kirby arrived at the office when the repo men were there trying to take out the furniture and started throwing out ideas like, "Let's bring back Captain America!" and "Let's bring back the Sub-Mariner!" to try and convince him to change his mind. I think DC (or something like it) endures, because Superman and Batman were still selling well (and the biggest selling comic of the 1940s going into the 1950s was still Captain Marvel Adventures even regardless of EC's success) but perhaps it settles into the pattern that most of the B-list publishers followed, which was assuming that comics had a five-year shelf life and consequently recycling and reprinting stories when the audience refreshed?

There's every chance that Marvel Comics just doesn't exist without superheroes, because the book that saved them was the Fantastic Four and that existed because (to the best of my recollection) Martin Goodman played golf with somebody at National Comics (whether it was Mort Weisinger or Julie Schwartz or somebody higher up the food chain, I don't know) and they were bragging about how they were making money hand over fist because they'd put all their biggest characters on the same team, so Goodman went back to the office and told Stan Lee to give him a version of that (which is why the cover copy for FF #1 says all the characters are "FINALLY together for the first time!" or something like that, because they wanted to sell it the same way National/DC was selling the JLA book).

(Reported in that old Chris Sims article I linked in my superhero comics top 10 list, which I imagine you've already read, but which I re-link here for anyone who didn't get seeing that list!)
 
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