Jake's Journey (partially found CBS pilot; 1988): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 11:08, 22 May 2018

Peter Cook as King Arthur and Jake.

Status: Partially Found

Jake's Journey is a 1988 TV pilot that was filmed for CBS. The story follows the Finley family as they make the move from America to merry old England. Their son, Jake, has a problem fitting in or adapting to the new environment. Somehow, he finds himself in another time period, the Middle Ages. He meets a knight called George and together they embark on a quest.

Creation

The genesis of the pilot came from a phone call in which Chapman was offered the chance to write a pilot based on Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Chapman, however, felt that it had a limited appeal as a TV series and would easily have become repetitive and boring. Therefore, he incorporated a time travel element to the storyline so as to ensure that there are further possibilities than just to make use of a Middle Ages setting. One of the earliest cutscenes includes Jake's trip to 1939 Europe. The network wanted Jake to make use of a time machine, however, Chapman wanted it to be more mysterious.

Chapman seemed excited about the series and the future prospects of what it could be. He talked about filming all over the world and revealed that the story would conclude in a twist as George in different incarnations and at different times in history would attract Jake for a reason which he left unrevealed.

Cancellation

Both OJRIL, a collection of scripts by Graham Chapman that was published in 1999, and Lee Goldberg in "The Best TV shows that never were" state that CBS passed because they thought the audience wouldn't understand the humor. Other potential reasons are: the 1988 writer's strike (although a Starlog article about the pilot, published before cancellation, was confident that that wouldn't be a problem), director Hal Ashby's death, and Graham Chapman's own battle with cancer, which he would loose one year later. According to the Starlog article, the head of comedy started laughing at it when he got the unfinished script. Chapman and partner David Sherlock had written the script hastily finishing about 8 or 9 minutes before presenting it to the head of comedy.

Cast

Chris Young as Jake Finley
Graham Chapman as Sir George/The Queen
Nancy Lenehan as Jean Finley
Lane Smith as Mike Finley
Fay Masterson as Sarah Finley
Peter Cook as King Arthur
Written by Graham Chapman, David Sherlock, and Andy Schatzberg
Directed by Hal Ashby

Gallery

From Starlog 136 Chapman as George and Young as Jake.
The Finley family.

Some footage from another TV show The Best TV Shows that Never Were

Some more pilot footage from the show.

Resources

IMDB Entry that had photos originally from Starlog Magazine 136.

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 The genesis of the pilot came from a phone call in which Chapman was offered the chance to write a pilot based on Mark Twain's ''A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court''. Chapman, however, felt that it had a limited appeal as a TV series and would easily have become repetitive and boring. Therefore, he incorporated a time travel element to the storyline so as to ensure that there are further possibilities than just to make use of a Middle Ages setting. One of the earliest cutscenes includes Jake's trip to 1939 Europe. The network wanted Jake to make use of a time machine, however, Chapman wanted it to be more mysterious.
 Chapman seemed excited about the series and the future prospects of what it could be. He talked about filming all over the world and revealed that the story would conclude in a twist as George in different incarnations and at different times in history would attract Jake for a reason which he left unrevealed.
 ==Cancellation==
-It is wrongly believed that this pilot was passed on by the network because it was too "Monty-Pythony" for Americans. However, this is not the case; the pilot came about at an unfortunate time and its demise came from three main reasons: the 1988 writer's strike, director Hal Ashby's ailing health and actor Graham Chapman's own ailing health. In fact, according to a Starlog article about the pilot, the head of comedy started laughing at it when the script was not finished yet. Chapman and partner David Sherlock had written the script hastily finishing about 8 or 9 minutes before presenting it to the head of comedy.
+Both ''OJRIL'', a collection of scripts by Graham Chapman that was published in 1999, and Lee Goldberg in "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mOoJC427nY The Best TV shows that never were]" state that CBS passed because they thought the audience wouldn't understand the humor. Other potential reasons are: the 1988 writer's strike (although a Starlog article about the pilot, published before cancellation, was confident that that wouldn't be a problem), director Hal Ashby's death, and Graham Chapman's own battle with cancer, which he would loose one year later. According to the Starlog article, the head of comedy started laughing at it when he got the unfinished script. Chapman and partner David Sherlock had written the script hastily finishing about 8 or 9 minutes before presenting it to the head of comedy.
 ==Cast==
@@ Line 42: / Line 42: @@
 * [https://archive.org/details/starlog_magazine-173 Lee Goldberg "The SF TV You Didn't See" Starlog 173]
 * [http://books.google.co.za/books?id=XxTx1xK-q14C&pg=PT667&lpg=PT667&dq=jake's+journey+1988&source=bl&ots=SfFCo5Q9a4&sig=l7-Bnr3qfdZMplYb6sjawzCWBKQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=c2qOUqfdA6qy7Aa0iIDABw&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q=jake's%20journey%201988&f=false Vincent Terrace "Encyclopedia of Television Pilots 1937 - 2012" ]
+* [https://books.google.nl/books?id=VX9lAAAAMAAJ&q=ojril&dq=ojril&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjZpLOSlpnbAhUF26QKHSmjD3kQ6AEIJzAA "OJRIL: The completely incomplete Graham Chapman; unpublished scripts from Monty Python's pipe-smoking genius" ]
 [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0204420/ IMDB Entry that had photos originally from Starlog Magazine 136.]