Thursday, May 15, 2014

Photo of the Day

Ada (Ziva Rodann) nurses Alexander (William Shatner) in more ways than one in the failed TV pilot ALEXANDER THE GREAT

Ziva's role is brief and almost inconsequential. The fun part of this TV pilot is knowing Ziva was in THE GIANTS OF THESSALY as Creusa and the episode freely uses battles scenes from THE GIANT OF MARATHON.

The concept of the then possible series was bizarre. Two of the main actors (Joseph Cotten and John Cassavetes) were killed in the pilot which sorta makes you wonder how could they stretch out an entire year's worth of episodes with such big characters dispatched so early. What would draw viewers back to a possible series with those marquee names gone? The battle footage from THE GIANT OF MARATHON and the no-budget setting of the series didn't match at all. One could imagine Ziva returning in future episodes but all in all the it's not surprising the series wasn't picked up.

1 comment:

gpm said...

Wow. I cannot even see this guy as WS in this shot. But there's a 5 minute Youtube clip, with an impossibly young and handsome John Cassevetes (the apparent villain) and an almost pre-campy Adam West. NTM a somewhat antique Joseph Cotten.

I have no memory of this one whatsoever, though I was religiously watching the original StarTrek on the old TV in the basement at the time. NTM the TV peplums in their TV heyday.

--gpm