Remember this Mike Grell based series?

[bretmaverick2]

There was a very brief , maybe six weeks, series based on Grell's series JON SABLE FREELANCE. I never saw it as
My local station pre emoted it constantly for basketball. Anyone remember it?

[Sandy Hausler]

There was a very brief , maybe six weeks, series based on Grell's series JON SABLE FREELANCE. I never saw it as
My local station pre emoted it constantly for basketball. Anyone remember it?

I remember it, but not that well. You can probably watch it on Youtube.

Sandy Hausler

[LordTrump]

lol I remember the potential of Arriw, which was claimed to be based off of Mike Grell's stuff. "Sigh".....

[electr1cgoblin]

I saw a couple of episodes; I liked it. It wasn't completely faithful, of course, but it was definitely worth a watch, and a longer run.

[RikWriter]

Is that the one where he carried a Desert Eagle with a laser sight but never loaded it and had a big-ass late 80s cell phone he carried in the pocket of his duster?

[Dr Will Hatch]

I'm vaguely familiar with it if memory serves, but I'm not sure. Really like the comic though.

[Dr Quinch]

Is that the one where he carried a Desert Eagle with a laser sight but never loaded it and had a big-ass late 80s cell phone he carried in the pocket of his duster?

Yep. I always wondered what his contingency plan was if a bad guy called his bluff after he threatened them with an empty gun.

[codystarbuck]

Ah, yes, I remember it well...

The series had long been in development, potentially as a movie, then a tv series. At one point, Eddie Murphey was interested, which would have been bizarre; but, didn't happen. Gene Simmons was involved, then out. Then, we got this. I wrote the first review, at IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092444/reviews?ref_=tt_urv

Lewis Van Bergen, who played Sable, had previously done a pilot for Modesty Blaise, playing her sidekick Willie Garvin. he wasn't much better in that. Here, he had a tendency to deliver his lines out the side of his mouth. The series had potential; but, was killed by its timeslot (8pm EST, 7PM CST), which limited the violence (hence the unloaded gun), and, it was on Saturday nights, which is a tv graveyard. This Sable is a wanted man in the US (based on the African killings) and masquerades full time as author Nicholas Fleming (instead of the BB Flemm pseudonym, of the comic). he gets his info from a blind computer hacker, Cheesecake (played by Broadway actor Ken Page). What did make it into the series was the female illustrator, Myke Blackmon (though she was not a love interest and was a pretty minor chaarcetr) and his on-agaon, off-again relationship with agent, Eden Kendall. now, here's what they got right. They cast a new model-turned-actress: Rene Russo. She was fantastic as Eden, which even Mike Grell applauds (about his only really favorable element of the series).

Of the 7 episodes, the pilot is decent, though flawed. There was one episode, where Sable is hunted by the son of the man he killed in Africa (head of a poaching ring), who murdered his wife and kids. That got into Sable's past and came far closer to the spirit of the comics than any other episode.

Ultimately, Hollywood tinkering doomed the series. However, there is hope. In an interview with Darrin and Rith Sutherland, on the Warlord Worlds podcast, Grell mentioned that there may be a new development in Hollywood, with a new Sable movie.

As for the comic, it was one of the best series of the 80s, certainly one of the best independent comics and probably the best adventure comic out there (though Tim Truman's Scout might argue the point). It has tons of action, great characters, liberal doses of humor (where appropriate), and Grell's amazing artwork. It was like a comic book version of the best action and adventure movies. Which is what made the tv series frustrating; all you had to do was copy the comic, note for note, and you had a hit show. Trust Hollywood to screw up a sure thing.