Did you know there was a series Indiana Jonesor that the beginnings of game of Thrones were they catastrophic? Philippe Lombard, author of several books on cinema and television, has just published It ends badly… on TV! published by La Tengo, in which he recounts the misadventures experienced by series, American or French. She told us some of the most surprising anecdotes.
This collection of anecdotes focuses mainly on series from more than 20 years ago, and even older ones, because “for the most recent filming, tongues have not yet dissolved”… With the exception of one series and not least: Game of throneswhose last season aired three years ago.
The pilot episode of game of Thrones it was missed
“It’s fun to see him game of Thrones, which was a huge success, almost never saw the light of day,” observes Philippe Lombard. Indeed, as he recounts in his book, the pilot of the series, that is to say the very first episode presented to the bosses of HBO in 2009, could have marked the end of the project. When the show’s creators David Benioff and DB Weiss showed it to their fellow writers, one of them replied: “You have a big problem. This introductory episode was incomprehensible to them, and early viewers didn’t even realize that Jaime and Cersei Lannister were brother and sister. But HBO was still willing to finance a full season, so the cast was changed, the script rewritten, and scenes re-shot.” When the writer saw the new version, he told them : It’s the biggest bailout in Hollywood history,” says Philippe Lombard.
A character from Dallas come back from the dead
An older anecdote that “fascinated” Philippe Lombard concerns Dallas, the series was broadcast between 1978 and 1991. “Actor Patrick Duffy wanted to leave for the cinema when he was a global star thanks to the series. But after a year he realizes it was a wrong choice and he wants to come back. “Problem, the writers had killed his character in a car accident. This is not enough to discourage the producers of the series, who are delighted to get their lead actor back. So in May 1986 viewers rediscover the character of Bobby Ewing, under the pretext that all the events of the past season were just a dream. You had to dare! “I don’t think we could do it today, it would cause an uproar,” laughs Philippe Lombard.
Jean-Luc Godard flopped on TF1
French television is no less: Philippe Lombard recounts the strange episode broadcast on TF1 in 1986 and directed by Jean-Luc Godard. The director offered the channel to adapt the British novel Let’s sing together! for an episode of Black sequence, an anthology launched in 1984. But Jean-Luc Godard “didn’t take a beat from the novel to make it into something unwatchable”. The episode notably includes a twelve-minute passage where the actors each say a word in turn to form a giant sentence. “In the face of that, we inevitably zap, but Godard doesn’t care. It’s a total ratings flop but the chain’s production rejoices because it’s a prestige! Philippe Lombard reports.
A series Indiana Jones went completely unnoticed
We also find in It ends badly… on TV! the existence of a series which has gone completely unnoticed in France and which has been forgotten. George Lucas has in fact produced a series derived from the films Indiana Jones. But far from pursuing the archaeologist’s adventures, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles takes Indy as a child and then as a young girl to discover historical events, with an educational purpose for the viewers. “There was a total misunderstanding with the channels,” explains Philippe Lombard. These, disappointed to get an educational format instead of the action they had hoped for, stopped the series after only one year, in 1993. In France, TF1 broadcast a few episodes in 1994, without going to the end.
It ends badly… on TV!by Philippe Lombard, published on November 9, 2022 by La Tengo editions, 144 pages, 22 euros.
