I loved Mandy Patinkin. Mandy was a riot. But...I don't know. It was a lot of silly stuff, creatively. And we had this English director [Graham Baker] who I wasn't really that fond of. I mean, nice guy, but...it was just one of those things where, you know, you don't quit, you get through it. It certainly wasn't one of...I wouldn't write it down as one of my favorite movies. But it was pretty popular.
Money, Dear Boy: At the time of the film's release, James Caan unambiguously stated that his salary was the only reason for doing the film, especially since he said the director, Graham Baker, "couldn't direct traffic".
Release Date Change: The film was originally touted for a July 1988 release, but post-production issues led to it being pushed to October.
Screwed by the Network: This show's trajectory eerily mirrored Firefly - It aired in the Friday Night Death Slot and got an insanely devoted fandom. Henry Jenkins even cited it in Textual Poachers as a unifying force for different factions of Fan Fic writers (those who were writing for sci-fi series, and those who wrote for action-adventure series). But this show was the Trope Codifier for Fox treating their cult series poorly. Fox didn't even want to cancel the series but couldn't attract enough advertisers to support the show's considerable budget. The movies came out because several new executives hired at Fox were fans of the series themselves.
Brian Thompson played Trent Porter in the theatrical film and Peter Rabbit in "Rebirth". He is the only actor to appear in both the original film and the television series.
Joel Polis played Dr. Edward Windsor in "Fountain of Youth" and Carl Peterson in "Contact". He is the only actor to play both a human and a Newcomer in the TV series itself, though not in the franchise overall.
Tiny Ron played the Giant in the second TV film Body and Soul and the Queen Mother in the fourth The Enemy Within.
Kerrie Keane played Jennifer in the third TV film Millennium and Jessica in The Enemy Within.
Wayne Pére played Thor in "Fifteen with Wanda" and Terry Firma in The Enemy Within.
Trivia for both the film and the series:
Failed Future Forecast: Both the film and television series show a movie theater marquee advertising Rambo 6. Only three Rambo films had been released during the time that both the film and series were broadcast. The fourth Rambo film was not released until 11 years after the final Alien Nation TV movie was released. To date, only five Rambo films have been released. Despite film's negative reviews and Sylvester Stallone saying at the time of Rambo Last Blood's release that it would be the last Rambo film, Stallone said in 2020 that a sixth Rambo film might be made.[1]
