A scary what-if, isn't it? :) I honestly do wonder if it would have killed or postponed SG-1 (bearing in mind that sometimes, if a proposed series gets postponed, it might never happen, because the people who would have done it wind up doing other things), or just resulted in them casting someone else as Jack and moving on.
(I forget now whether I've ever read how vital RDA coming on board was to getting SG-1 off the ground. I know he was the first-approached, and then they cast everyone else in try-outs *with* him. They clearly considered him their "name". But I wonder how important that name was to MGM or Showtime, or whether they could have found a second choice. It also seems significant that he came on not just as the star but as a producer as well. How vital were he and Greenberg to the show's early days? ... Huh! Another thought. Because they *did* cast the other three by trying them out with RDA, their choices of MS, AT and CJ must have depended somewhat on how they seemed in relation to RDA, chemistry and all that. So if SG-1 had gone forward with a different Jack... I wonder if they might have selected different actors for the rest of the roles as well?)
Anyway, yes, whew!
The thing that struck me about Firehouse when I first saw it, too, was that it kind of wanted to be what "Rescue Me!" ended up being -- but Firehouse *felt* like an 80s show. It's hard to explain what made it feel that way to me, but... like, MacGyver's an 80s show. 80s shows just have... I dunno... different pacing, structure, writing, editing, music. In comparison, I find due South (for example) to be a genuinely 90s show (with some leftover 80s elements). But Rescue Me is a purely 00s show. I guess you could say that I feel like 80s or 90s shows are "dated" (well, of course) and that Rescue Me feels "contemporary" (very gritty, different lighting and camera work and editing, music, plus scripts). I'm sure in 10 more years that style of show will seem dated too, though it's hard to anticipate how.
Anyway, for a show being made as late as 1996 or so, I think that Firehouse striking me as having an 80s feel to it was a problem. I think it doesn't feel as "updated" as dueSouth does, which was being made around the same time period. I wonder if that was a factor in it not being picked up? Firehouse seemed to want to be gritty... but in fact, it just looks a bit cheesy when compared to the grittiness of Rescue Me.
no subject
(I forget now whether I've ever read how vital RDA coming on board was to getting SG-1 off the ground. I know he was the first-approached, and then they cast everyone else in try-outs *with* him. They clearly considered him their "name". But I wonder how important that name was to MGM or Showtime, or whether they could have found a second choice. It also seems significant that he came on not just as the star but as a producer as well. How vital were he and Greenberg to the show's early days? ... Huh! Another thought. Because they *did* cast the other three by trying them out with RDA, their choices of MS, AT and CJ must have depended somewhat on how they seemed in relation to RDA, chemistry and all that. So if SG-1 had gone forward with a different Jack... I wonder if they might have selected different actors for the rest of the roles as well?)
Anyway, yes, whew!
The thing that struck me about Firehouse when I first saw it, too, was that it kind of wanted to be what "Rescue Me!" ended up being -- but Firehouse *felt* like an 80s show. It's hard to explain what made it feel that way to me, but... like, MacGyver's an 80s show. 80s shows just have... I dunno... different pacing, structure, writing, editing, music. In comparison, I find due South (for example) to be a genuinely 90s show (with some leftover 80s elements). But Rescue Me is a purely 00s show. I guess you could say that I feel like 80s or 90s shows are "dated" (well, of course) and that Rescue Me feels "contemporary" (very gritty, different lighting and camera work and editing, music, plus scripts). I'm sure in 10 more years that style of show will seem dated too, though it's hard to anticipate how.
Anyway, for a show being made as late as 1996 or so, I think that Firehouse striking me as having an 80s feel to it was a problem. I think it doesn't feel as "updated" as dueSouth does, which was being made around the same time period. I wonder if that was a factor in it not being picked up? Firehouse seemed to want to be gritty... but in fact, it just looks a bit cheesy when compared to the grittiness of Rescue Me.