Starting off with the imposing and real looking Dragonfire Films logo as if it really was an existing production company, this documentary features clips from all 13 episodes of the late lamented sitcom 'Action'. Of course the only way to watch this doc is as part of the Action boxed set, so it's safe to say that only fans of the show will check it out. And they are in for a treat. Not only do we get a better understanding of what went into the making the show, we also hear learn how some of the filthiest jokes on the show were even worse as originally written and catch a couple of glimpses of the Action press material that started it all. The entire documentary is presented like one of the episodes, with the names of the interviewees being identified as if part of a movie script and a lot of the same 'film running out' scene changes.
Big time Hollywood producer Joel Silver explains how he was contacted by HBO to produce a show similar to The Larry Sanders Show, but about the movie business. Creator Chris Thompson and producer Don Reo then got most of their inspiration listening to Joel's stories over dinner. Still, Peter Dragon wasn't exactly supposed to be Joel Silver, he was the written to be the worst human being on the planet, according to the man who played him: Jay Mohr. Unfortunately they were unable to make a deal with HBO. In fact, Joel thinks the show would still have excised had it been on HBO. Instead Fox bought it where it never found an audience. Chris Thompson originally wanted Oliver Platt to star. That would have been terrible IMHO. But Chris explains everything he does by summing up his needs for money to spend on whores, narcotics,cars and trips, so I guess I can see why he wanted Platt instead of the boyish Mohr. Jay may have been a bit too young, but he always plays older anyway. Meanwhile, Mohr wanted to have a movie career instead instead of becoming a TV star, so he said no 5 times before being convinced to take the part by Silver, producer of Xanadu and The Matrix, personally.
Note that there are no women being interviewed in this documentary at all. Not even co-star Ileana Douglas. Apparently she was giving the writers notes to make her character, a hooker, less of a whore. Instead, most of the running time concerns the writers. This is because Thompson got together a group of people who were really fed up with Hollywood. If this doc is to be believed, they were all in recovery and had scars, deformities and depressions, with the possible exception of Will Forte. But then again Joel also says that they wanted to actually shoot 'Beverly Hill Gunclub' while shooting the movie and then air it on TV as well. Thompson reveals that Dave Jesser & Matt Silverstein, two 'horrible, ugly human beings' (who are also interviewed here) had written a pilot for a filthy Olson twins sitcom. The idea on this show was to have people swear on camera and then bleep it out for the broadcast (with the possibility of releasing an unbleeped version on DVD) But Broadcast Standards and Practices just didn't get it. They wanted to censor and change everything anyway. And so, despite Fox's best intentions, the numbers were bad. And they were going up against Frasier too.
After just 6 episodes, they decided to put the next two on in a row - the classic TV burn off. And that episode ended rather shockingly and abruptly with the death of Peter Dragon. But there were five more episodes shot which later turned up on cable and all around the world (and of course on the DVD set that features this documentary). In the first of these it turned out Peter survives and the series did get a proper ending with 'The Last Ride of the Elephant Princess'. Unfortunately that episode is usually broadcast second to last because of the depressing ending, and the more upbeat 'Love Sucks' is shown last. As far as I can tell, the DVD set is the only way to watch the series in it's intended order. Joel Silver concludes that the show got better reviews than any of his pictures and Jay thinks 13 episodes were enough. In his opinion, it's better to go out with a bang instead of starting to repeat the formula season after season.
9 out of 10
Big time Hollywood producer Joel Silver explains how he was contacted by HBO to produce a show similar to The Larry Sanders Show, but about the movie business. Creator Chris Thompson and producer Don Reo then got most of their inspiration listening to Joel's stories over dinner. Still, Peter Dragon wasn't exactly supposed to be Joel Silver, he was the written to be the worst human being on the planet, according to the man who played him: Jay Mohr. Unfortunately they were unable to make a deal with HBO. In fact, Joel thinks the show would still have excised had it been on HBO. Instead Fox bought it where it never found an audience. Chris Thompson originally wanted Oliver Platt to star. That would have been terrible IMHO. But Chris explains everything he does by summing up his needs for money to spend on whores, narcotics,cars and trips, so I guess I can see why he wanted Platt instead of the boyish Mohr. Jay may have been a bit too young, but he always plays older anyway. Meanwhile, Mohr wanted to have a movie career instead instead of becoming a TV star, so he said no 5 times before being convinced to take the part by Silver, producer of Xanadu and The Matrix, personally.
Note that there are no women being interviewed in this documentary at all. Not even co-star Ileana Douglas. Apparently she was giving the writers notes to make her character, a hooker, less of a whore. Instead, most of the running time concerns the writers. This is because Thompson got together a group of people who were really fed up with Hollywood. If this doc is to be believed, they were all in recovery and had scars, deformities and depressions, with the possible exception of Will Forte. But then again Joel also says that they wanted to actually shoot 'Beverly Hill Gunclub' while shooting the movie and then air it on TV as well. Thompson reveals that Dave Jesser & Matt Silverstein, two 'horrible, ugly human beings' (who are also interviewed here) had written a pilot for a filthy Olson twins sitcom. The idea on this show was to have people swear on camera and then bleep it out for the broadcast (with the possibility of releasing an unbleeped version on DVD) But Broadcast Standards and Practices just didn't get it. They wanted to censor and change everything anyway. And so, despite Fox's best intentions, the numbers were bad. And they were going up against Frasier too.
After just 6 episodes, they decided to put the next two on in a row - the classic TV burn off. And that episode ended rather shockingly and abruptly with the death of Peter Dragon. But there were five more episodes shot which later turned up on cable and all around the world (and of course on the DVD set that features this documentary). In the first of these it turned out Peter survives and the series did get a proper ending with 'The Last Ride of the Elephant Princess'. Unfortunately that episode is usually broadcast second to last because of the depressing ending, and the more upbeat 'Love Sucks' is shown last. As far as I can tell, the DVD set is the only way to watch the series in it's intended order. Joel Silver concludes that the show got better reviews than any of his pictures and Jay thinks 13 episodes were enough. In his opinion, it's better to go out with a bang instead of starting to repeat the formula season after season.
9 out of 10
