Legend Blog

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themacgyverproject
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Re: Legend Blog

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Here's my take on episode 6, Knee-High Noon!
http://themacgyverproject.blogspot.com/ ... -noon.html
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KateR
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Re: Legend Blog

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themacgyverproject wrote:Here's my take on episode 6, Knee-High Noon!
http://themacgyverproject.blogspot.com/ ... -noon.html
I finally caught up to you. I added episode 6 to the Lexicon this morning.

I rather liked this one despite the fact that I usually cringe at any show that focuses around an obnoxious kid. And I do agree with you, RDA seemed more cartoonish than ever, to the point that we are hardly even hearing his real voice anymore. The goofy aspect of Legend was never something that really appealed to me. It was like a breath of fresh air when he would suddenly drop the facade and speak in his normal voice, and you felt that you were finally getting a glimpse of the real person.

But that being said, I think that may have been part of the message of the show, (that, and the fact that RDA was just playing and no one tried to rein him in when perhaps they should have.) Actors really do have a facade, and what we as the public see isn't the real person except for those rare moments when the facade drops. But this episode, especially, was full of humorous commentary on celebrity, fandom, the press, publishing, merchandising, actors, lawyers - and that's what I found enjoyable. Perhaps it fed my cynical side. ;)

I still enjoy Bartok's creative inventions (NEVER "gadgets"!!), and loved the Trojan Cow. I also enjoy the references to real historical events or people, but this one didn't have much beyond Smoky's reference to Jesse Chisholm. I do find the constant mugging for the camera and tilts of the head (Laura did it too) tiresome - and it makes it VERY difficult to make video captures!
The kid is wearing the same style suit as Legend wore in episode 1.
I had forgotten that Legend actually wears his yellow suit less often than I remembered, but I liked the occasions when it was called for, and I got a kick out of the miniature version for the kid. I also liked seeing Skeeter wearing the suit, which one would assume was Legend's own and was appropriately just a little too big and loose on him.

BTW, I haven't put this in the "Notes" section because I want to be sure I'm remembering it correctly from the discussions that happened 20 years ago (yikes!). As I recall, Jarrad Paul, who plays Skeeter, is the godson of Michael Greenburg, RDA's friend and producing partner. (Does anyone here remember the details of that?) It partially explains how he became a regular with his name in the credits even though he was not considered one of the main stars. But I do love the character of Skeeter. He has a way of delivering funny lines in such a deadpan way that he doesn't become goofy. (Incidentally, Jarrad Paul and Michael Greenburg teamed up to write the story for the SG-1 episode Message in a Bottle, in which RDA gets pinned to the wall for an entire episode. :shock: )
"If Legend has led a truly chaste life, as the novels dictate, then how does he have a kid?" I wondered the same thing about MacGyver when I first saw The Stringer.
LOL! Even better was the answer: "Writer's problem." (My question was how MacGyver ended up with a nephew in one of the earlier remakes when he was also an only child.)
The mom and the kid are so unlikable that when they're being held hostage, I find myself rooting for the crooked rustler.
"I thought rustling was a dirty business, but you acting folks put me to shame."
I rate this episode as third best, just behind Mr. Pratt Goes to Sheridan and just ahead of Legend on His President's Secret Service.
It may be my third best as well. I still like the pilot, and my favorite one (Revenge of the Herd) is yet to come.

Kate
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themacgyverproject
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Re: Legend Blog

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KateR wrote: As I recall, Jarrad Paul, who plays Skeeter, is the godson of Michael Greenburg, RDA's friend and producing partner. (Does anyone here remember the details of that?) It partially explains how he became a regular with his name in the credits even though he was not considered one of the main stars. But I do love the character of Skeeter. He has a way of delivering funny lines in such a deadpan way that he doesn't become goofy.
Kate
I like Skeeter too -- Jarrad Paul does a nice job. That will be another one I'll add to my list of questions for Greenburg if I can get a hold of him.
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KateR
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Re: Legend Blog

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themacgyverproject wrote:I like Skeeter too -- Jarrad Paul does a nice job. That will be another one I'll add to my list of questions for Greenburg if I can get a hold of him.
I'll be interested to see that.

I had interviewed Michael Greenburg several times back on the Stargate set, and we did talk about Jarrad Paul, though I can't remember now if that part of the conversation ended up in the finished interview. (Without going to check, anyway - it's posted in the Stargate section on the site.) I do remember him confirming that Jarrad was his godson, but I don't recall all the details of his involvement and promotion to main cast on Legend. We did laugh about the two of them writing the story for Message in a Bottle, which literally kept RDA pinned to a wall for the better part of a week.

When I watch the episodes now, 20 years later, it strikes me how young Skeeter looked back then. I just looked him up, and he would have only been about 19 years old then. Since then, he seems to still do occasional acting and is also doing well for himself as a writer, director, and producer. I thought Skeeter was one of the highlights of Legend.

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Re: Legend Blog

Post by PamK1950 »

I went back to the archives in the Stargate section and found the interview with Mr. Greenburg "A Filmaker at the Helm". This is the paragraph about Jarrad:

"The stories Michael has written for Stargate have tended to evolve from a "what if" scenario, which is the kind of adventure and mystery he especially likes to contemplate. Crystal Skull and Message in a Bottle had originally been pitched as a single episode, from a story on which Michael had collaborated with his godson, Jarrad Paul. Jarrad is also an accomplished writer, as well as an actor, and Stargate fans may recognize him from his role as Skeeter in the short-lived Richard Dean Anderson series Legend. "Jarrad wrote with me on Gentlemen of the Shade also," Michael explains. "He's an actor. He does pretty well. He was in Legend with Rick and I, and he was in Action, and a show that shot up here, UC: Undercover. He's a working actor, and a really good writer, and my godson," he smiles. Their original story pitch was too large for a single episode. "The first title, which no one knows, was Stargate to Heaven. Like Stairway to Heaven, you know, Led Zeppelin, my favorite band?" he clarifies. "That was the original title, and Brad Wright said there's too much here for one Stargate. Let's make them two different ones. So Jarrad and I wrote the Stargate to Heaven thing together. That started when I was thinking about these messages in a bottle, or these things that NASA does, where they take things from society and put them in space or plant them underground so thousands and thousands of years from now, people are going to see what we were like. So, my 'what if' was, what if an entire planet civilization could be downloaded into this orb because their planet was dying? And now the orb finds Earth, and says hey, I can live here, and… whoosh! All hell breaks loose. So that was basically the genesis of that story."

This is a terrific interview with Michael. I learned a lot of interesting things about him.
If you can't say anything nice.....

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Re: Legend Blog

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Very interesting, thanks for sharing, Pam!

And here's my review on "The Gospel According to Legend.'
http://themacgyverproject.blogspot.com/ ... egend.html
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KateR
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Re: Legend Blog

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themacgyverproject wrote:Very interesting, thanks for sharing, Pam!

And here's my review on "The Gospel According to Legend.'
http://themacgyverproject.blogspot.com/ ... egend.html
Thanks, Nick! I finally caught up and got my Lexicon page up today as well.
Now Ernest, we're not so different, you and me. Both selling books, helping people feel better about themselves. Only difference is my book's older, truer, and better than yours. ~Willy Miles

He's a phony. He's making money pretending to be someone he's not. ~Legend
I do like the way the show takes many opportunities to poke fun at its own premise.
The final scene where the mob is setting fire to Bartok's house with Bartok, Legend, and Ramos inside brings some welcome excitement to a series where it is too often lacking. Though I am surprised with how quickly the unruly mob calms down and disperses after Legend comes out and punches Willy.
Back when this show first aired, it was still in production at the same time, and one of the extras who appeared as one of the townsfolk in the mob had actually joined the MacList, where most of the fan discussion was taking place. He didn't have a lot of happy memories for this particular episode, though, but mostly because of the conditions of filming that final scene. As I recall, he said it went late into the night, there were many retakes, it gets cold in the desert at night, they were continually being "rained on" so they were soaking wet, and many of them were going into hypothermia. So as climaxes go, it did have its share of excitement, but it was actually a much more complicated scene to do than it might appear at first glance. I can't imagine RDA rolling around in the cold mud was all that comfortable either. I always shiver when I watch that scene.
I like the scene in the middle of the episode with the revival meeting in the tent, but at the same time it drags on a bit too long.
I was expecting a little better "trading rhetoric" in that scene. Legend's true rhetorical skills will be more apparent, as I recall, when he goes on trial in a later episode.
That episode was near the end of our 12 show series which Paramount did not pick up, so at the time a lot of people were getting ready to look for other jobs.
Interesting insight from John. According to the episode code numbers, it was the 9th episode shot. I think it was John DeLancie, in several interviews, who has mentioned that they were in the middle of filming the 10th episode, Bone of Contention, when they officially got the news that they were canceled. It can't be easy, knowing you will be out of a job and still having to put in your best work for 4 more episodes.
Willy Miles is played by Robert Englund who starred as Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare From Elm Street series. Of course he is more famous around these parts for his turn on MacGyver as the morally ambiguous and somewhat wimpy Tim Wexler in Flame's End.
I thought he did well, being just slimy enough to be dangerous but believable to the crowd.
I like the little electric bolts that appear in Skeeter's hair. He's a fun character, and I learned from Kate at the rdanderson site that the actor who plays him is producer Michael Greenburg's godson.
I wish we'd see more of Skeeter. He's fun, and I like the running joke about the electricity in his hair.
Nice move by Legend to turn the tables on the dimwitted security guard by placing him on the defensive even though he caught Bartok and Legend breaking and entering.
There's a better example of Legend's rhetorical skills! And then he reverts to form: "How old's your sister?" :lol:
I'm putting this as my number one episode so far.
It's not one of my top favorites, but that being said, I did like the plot twist. Taggert has such a small and tangential appearance in the beginning of the episode, that I had nearly forgotten about him and never saw the connection to Willie coming. I appreciate a plot that deliberately leads you to a destination without you realizing it.

And who doesn't love a Nocturnal Legend Intrusion? :lol:

Kate
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themacgyverproject
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Re: Legend Blog

Post by themacgyverproject »

Just posted an interview with Mike Greenburg where we discuss Legend and the new MacGyver series.
http://themacgyverproject.blogspot.com/ ... art-2.html
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Re: Legend Blog

Post by bftlovesRDA »

A nice interview! Thanks for taking the time to do the interview and for posting it. I too am sooooooo disappointed with UPN for cancelling Legend. It is so tough that that happened. I can't stand it!
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Re: Legend Blog

Post by themacgyverproject »

Here's episode 8: Bone of Contention!
http://themacgyverproject.blogspot.com/ ... ntion.html
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