War of the Worlds TV show

[Susan]

I was talking with someone today about 80's tv shows, like the friday and saturday night lineup stuff and they mentioned War of the Worlds TV show. Now it sounds like something I might have watched but I have nothing to jostle my memory. Apparently it lasted two seasons - does anyone know a site that has the theme song, pics or episode descriptions? I can't seem to have any luck  I'm just curious if i ever watched it, i used to watch all kinds of shows like that when i was younger so i can't imagine not having seen this unless it really stank

[nobody]

I'd check out TV Tome or IMDB.

My parents used to love the show, until one of the main characters died. I remember them complaining quite a bit, saying the show jumped the shark after that (but they didn't actually say "jump the shark", of course). :)

[Menard]

War of the Worlds at TV.com

I had seen a few episodes of this show in the early to mid 90's. It aired on the Fox network.

[trekgeezer]

It was a syndicated show. After the Martians (they were called something else) were defeated in 1953 the government put them in storage in a cavern or something like that and of course someone woke them up.  Then a team is setup to hunt them down. (they can take over human bodies).

The only actor I remember in it was Richard Chavez (Predator) playing the military guy.

The second season they changed the whole premise of the show and I quit watching. I know that Adrian Paul from Highlander was in it.


The goofiest thing about the first season that they never explained very well, was that the public has forgotten about the whole 1953 war. The neatest episode was when they ressurected a couple of the war machines from the old movie.

[BoyScoutKevin]

I watched a few episodes. Mostly because it played back-to-back with "Friday the 13th," which I watched regularly. I think what I remember most about the program, is that at the end of the first season, they pretty much wiped out the regular cast, so they could start out with almost a brand new cast for the second season.

[DaveMunger]

I remember this show, it always cracked me up that that one guy was named "Colonel Ironhorse". Holy crap, what a badass name!  I think he was the one who said "They sure don't die pretty", and they used that quote in the opening for awhile.

The mom from "Ramona" played a doctor in it, I think she's a doctor in "Stargate SG1" now. The WotW show had kind of a Canadian feel to it, like "Ramona".

As I recall, the government had managed to cover up the Martian invasion by getting Orson Welles to do a fake radio broadcast about it, then they said that all the panic and everything was caused by people overreacting to that.

Some of the aliens were called Morthren I think, those might have been the Martians or the other aliens who took over for them afterwards. The Martians would always say "To life eternal". I don't think any of the humans knew that the Martians had been usurped in their Earth-conquering, they thought they were still dealing with Martians.

I think at first it was one of those things where the good guys are fighting the Martians while no one else even knows there are any Martians. In the second season or whatever, everyone knew there was a war going on, and everything looked kind of like the general 80s dystopian future, (Blade Runner wherever the buget allows, elsewhere Road Warrior, with a little Max Headroom).

Man, I just wrote a whole lot of stuff about that. (Hangs head in shame)

[Redjack]

Susan,

you might try this site, see if it jogs your memory.


http://www.war-ofthe-worlds.co.uk/eye.htm

[Susan]

Thanks Mendard - i may have never seen it which is hard to believe since i was such a tv nut in those days. And I watched Friday the 13th, maybe i didn't like the show and turned it to something else that was on , who knows. sometimes i'm better with visually seeing something tho and i've not seen it in syndication.

redjack i just checked out your link - thanks! the pics do bring back the memory of the show and it was one that i couldn't get into but nevertheless i remember the characters.  They need to have a station that aires only tv shows that lasted 1-2 seasons, that would be fun..lol  I wonder if this movie will spark another war of the worlds series...

[dean]

Wasn't there a British TV show called Tripods which was kind of war of the worldsish?

[AndyC]

Tripods was based on John Christopher's Tripod Trilogy, about a future society ruled by aliens who have returned humanity to 18th-century technology. When people come of age, they are taken by the huge, mysterious Tripods, to be fitted with mind-control devices. I'm sure the Tripods themselves might have been insipired by Wells' book, but it really is a different story.

Christopher's three books were The White Mountains, The City of Gold and Lead and The Pool of Fire. They follow a group of boys who fled before coming of age and joined a resistance movement. They're quite good.

In some ways, I think some aspects of the machines in Spielberg's movie (yes, I caved in and watched it) were borrowed from Christopher's Tripods.



Post Edited (07-02-05 06:30)

[dean]

Yeah I remember the books, Tripods, and have one at home [pool of fire I think], but its one of the last ones so it's a bit confusing to read.

I also borrowed the DVD of the Tripods series once, but never found the time to watch it, poor sap that I am.   How were the tripods in War of the Worlds borrowed from Tripods?  I guess it's hard to have tripods without one referring to the other.

[AndyC]

dean wrote:
> How were the
> tripods in War of the Worlds borrowed from Tripods?

Not entirely, just a couple of details I remember from the Christopher books, such as the tripods calling to each other audibly, the huge searchlight on the front. Also, one of them getting blown up by a captured person who manages to get a hand grenade inside.

I don't remember anything like that in Wells' book, although it's been 20-odd years since I read it. I just started re-reading it on the weekend, to remind myself how the story actually went. Re-read the Tripod books a year or two ago, after about 23 years, so they're pretty fresh in my memory.

There is no question that Christopher took some of his inspiration from War of the Worlds, since his alien machines are so similar. Seems kind of interesting that Spielberg might then borrow bits from Christopher in making his verson of WotW.



Post Edited (07-04-05 08:29)

[dean]

AndyC wrote:
>>>don't remember anything like that in Wells' book, although it's been 20-odd years since I read it. I just started re-reading it on the weekend, to remind myself how the story actually went. Re-read the Tripod books a year or two ago, after about 23 years, so they're pretty fresh in my memory.

No, the tripods weren't destroyed by captured people [or hand grenades] in Wells' book, though they were gunned down by cannons everynow and then [no shields]  which made it all the worse to me, since despite our best efforts to destroy them, a few more took their place and quickly destroyed our earthly forces.  Although I have to admit that in the new movie, I understand the use of shields in a modern context.

I remember that the Tripods in Wells' book did sort of cry out, but whether or not that was to communicate or just to scare the crap out of people, I can't remember!

Thanks for reminding me about Tripods, now I am in the process of searching through the books at my house to find my Tripods book and to check it out.

[Flangepart]

The "loss ratio" was like the Zulus aginst the Brits. When the Brits had Gatlings and cannon,to go with their rifles, they pounded the poor Zulus badly, yet if the Zulus could get in close, with captured rifles ( think Roark's drift ), they could kill the Brits, who were as mortal as they.
The ratio matches the two tripods taken out by a luckey cannon shot, and the two done in by the Iron clad Thunderchild.
And, of corse, disease killed more Brits then Zulu spears....Must not...say...Britiny!..must resist ...bad pun!...



Post Edited (07-07-05 17:12)

[dean]

Yeah, we were certainly screwed even though we took out a couple.

That's the only thing I felt missing from the movie: Thunderchild.  I've been listening to the Jeff Wayne musical version of War of the Worlds and have been humming the Thunderchild song all week...