An Alt Pop Culture History: Masked Rider.

This is background for something I'm working on. Wanted to share.

In 1993, news leaked that Saban International was seeking to adapt another Toku series for the West, as they had Super Sentai in the form of Power Rangers. When it was announced the target work was Kamen Rider, the most iconic work of the legendary Shotaro Ishinomori, there was more than a little trepidation. Most expected Saban to do the stock footage/ original footage mashup approach, and there was a great deal of fear of Adaptation Decay.

What we got instead of the rumored adaptaition of Kamen Rider Black RX was something new. To this day, no one is sure who or how, but someone (several someones?) convinced Haim Saban and then partner Shuki Levi that the style that served them so well with Power Rangers and Samurai Pizza Cats wouldn't work here.

So instead of an adaptation of Black RX, in 1994 we got Masked Rider... which now of course has the expanded name Masked Rider Edenite. And it is still fondly remembered today.

It was the story of Dex, an alien warrior prince who came here to prevent his uncle Dregon from devastating our world as his homeworld was. Dregon sets loose his Vores, Plague Troops, and Generals on Earth.

Thanks to the sybiotic inscect in his forehead, Dex had some degree of telepathy and precognition. But his true strength was that of the Ectophase, which allowed him to become, with a brief order to change, the Masked Rider, the hero of a scattered people.

The show had a strong theme of eco-awareness that would later be favorably compared and grouped with Sonic Sat Am for it subtle but pointed aesop. Perhaps its biggest message was that we can not escape our connection to the enviroment— because it is wherever we are.

TJ Roberts, who played Dex, once noted that the plans for an adaptation originally did indeed see it as an even lighter take on Kamen Rider Black RX, and that "I like the Dex we got better. He's badass, and averts a lot of the naive newcomer alien cliches while still adjusting to earth."

Indeed, one of the most loved parts of Dex's character is that his hot temper is only matched by his loyalty. He sees humanity as a mixed bag... much as his home planet was before the war. We're worth saving for our potential to be great. His adopted family gives him acceptance and care, and in turn, he loves them right back.

Dex, when calm, has an affiable streak of Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness, a trait Roberts delights in calling forth when orating the assembled devote followers of the noble Rider franchise at cons. As he gets angry, his speach becomes more on point. And everyone knows, a Crowning Moment Of Awesome is in the offering when he goes into "grunt mode". Indeed, the silent and direct attack]] Dex delivers to his uncle's consort, Neferia, when she threatens his adopted brother Albee is known for both making Neferia creditable as a threat deserving it and for Dex's capping line, "He's more my blood than your master."

That raises another key to the series' awesome. Being an Edenite bound to a social insect, Dex needs a strong family group to feel right, which leads to one of the most masterful and beloved parts of the series— the Stewarts. On the surface, they're a goofy sit-com family. Father Hal? A goofy inventor! Mom Barbra? Happy Homemaker and Caterer! Molly, his sister? Typical Teen Girl! Albee? Bratty half pint who idolizes his new brother!

The subversions start with the fact that ALL the Stewart children are adopted, and Barbra's matter of fact statement that she can't have kids isn't treated as an aesop in itself. As the show goes on, each Stewart gains depth and awesome.

Hal, it turns out, does contract work for the government, and in fact it's his friendship with General Frank Norberts that helps avert a Government Hunting the Hero plot. That's right. Hal gets Dex US backing. In time, Hal understands the Rider suit enough to repair it and Dex's tradmark Electro Sabre and Harmonic Blaster. He's goofy, but also wise, and served in the Gulf. He and Dex are both fighters, and empathise with each other more than it would first appear.

Barbra proves to have a tough streak a mile wide, making her one of the truest Yamato Nadeshiko's on American Television. This is perhaps best scene in "Outed", the arc in which Dex's true identity is leaked to the media. "My son does not wish to do interviews. This bat is pure metal. You are trampling my marigolds. Leave." And when one producer tries to edit the encounter to his advantage, the interview Barbra gives on a revial network buries him. Don't screw with Badass Barb.

Molly proves to be a bit of a tactical thinker, helping Dex direct the passion he feels in battle effectively. She's also the first to call him on any self induced drama, and shows hints of taking after her mother. Many a fan who is part of an adopted or blended family has praised the show for not even suggesting a romance plot between the two, despite what shippers would like.

Albee gets the big brother he always wanted in Dex, and ends up giving things Dex was robbed of from his childhood. In one of the most heartwarming moments halfway through the series, we learn that Dex and Albee have taken to watching cartoons every Saturday Morning they can together. Their favorite show? Samurai Pizza Cats. They sing along with the theme. Yeah. It could have been Narm or Glurge, but Roberts and Ashton Mc Arn are just... so darn enthuiastic!

Perhaps making Albee even less The Scrappy than he could have been is the fact that he's supportive of his brother as Masked Rider. There is no special episode where Albee tries to emotionally blackmail Dex into choosing him over protecting the world, or dreams of being in Dex's place. In fact, Albee admits to being scared everytime Dex goes to fight a vore... because he might not come back.

The 31 episode run was generally regarded as good, solid TV. The merchandise sold well. So a second American Made Toku followed.

edited 18th Oct '10 11:02:09 AM by EddieCurrent

Spelin erroars hont me.

Hell, I'd watch it.

Also: http://danbooru.donmai.us/post/show/731160/aino_minako-artemis_-sailor_moon-bicycle-bishoujo_ Taishou-era goodness, anyone?

edited 17th Sep '10 3:32:37 PM by FurikoMaru

A True Lady's Quest - A Jojo is You!

"All of humanity is my pack!"

1995 brought Masked Rider Alpha, a 39 episode season.

Alpha told the tale of Maxwell North, a man born into the mysterious Tribe of the Wolf, one of twelve hidden tribes in North America. On his 18th birthday, Max ends up challenging the chief of the tribe, Barnabas, on its policy of non-interference with "The Outside", saying that the Tribe's traditional enemies, the evil, demonic Mal Manitous, attack all humanity. Shocking even himself, he wins, gaining the belt that marks him as the tribe's Masked Rider protector and leader— and gaining the hand of the old leader's daughter in marriage.

Alpha is known for its blend of Western motifs and modern America— the Tribe functioning as equal parts gang, posse, and private company and running on a Steampunk accented sort of magitech. It uses Western and Spaghetti Western tropes as a frame for the rapid coming of age Max's ideals and morals have led him to. Maxwell is played by then unknown Quebec born Jean-Paul Gallant, who turns in an solid debut. Max has a Packish streak to rival his predecessor, Dex, but instead of a hot-blooded warrior prince, Max is striving to be exactly what the title suggests— the Alpha defending his pack. However, Max is not a wolf, but a man who realises there is a world beyond the isolated pack. He's a shamanistic warrior of sorts, and Gallant said that the role is based on his karate sensei from his childhood, a first generation immigrant alternately amazed and horrified by his adopted home nation who came to love the people and places around him. Max is an outsider to modern America, and reacts with horror to such things as the mass distribution of sugar, which he sees as a drug.

This season gave us one of the most undeniably creepy big bads ever— Dashes Hopes, played in suit by perennial Rider stunt man David Pound and voiced with positively lavish relish by Scott Mc Neil, a Canadian Voice actor whose vocal range led him to voice everyone from Bob of Reboot to... half the cast of Transformers Beast Wars. Scott vests Dashes with a gentlemanly menace, an evil affability, and an utter disdain for the humans he considers his lesser. Pound gives Dashes body language to match, and to this day, Dashes is up there in the pantheon of great Rider villains.

The show also gave the North Am Riders the character many consider our Riderman: Colonel Gabriel North, the Unmasked Rider. Played with amazing subtlety by Nashville session musician Danny Black, "The Gabe" is a franchise darling. Wondering where the "X Makes Me Go To Red" meme comes from? Unmasked and his R.A.G.E system are to blame. The Radical Aggression Generated Enhancement system allows Gabriel to enter a controlled berserker mode with three levels: Green, Yellow, and Red. Gab's enhancements were created by an element of the American Government to kill Max and other hidden tribe protectors as a threat to government power. Sadly for them, the RAGE requires the user to be level headed to start with— which, in Gabe's case, includes the ability to assess and question orders. After a period observing the Rider, Gabe reports what he sees as a betrayal of America to a superior he trusts and aids Max against a Mal Manitou. By the end of the season, he's Max's blood brother. Their Back to back bad ass scenes are among the series' CMOAs.

Max's wife, Leonora, is interesting. Despite her coolness, it becomes obvious over the course of the series she honestly cares for Max. The circumstances of their marriage put off some, who suggest that Leonora is being treated merely as a spoil of the fight between Max and her father... completely missing the fact that Leonora matter of fact decides to offers herself to one of the few men that, in her mind, seems able to match her. As well, Leonora is a bad ass, who while a healer, is no staff chick. Played by Sophia Ross, whose gymnastic background influenced the character, Leonora is a damn agile fighter, who is every inch the Alpha female to Max's Alpha male. Witness Howl 35, On Hollowed Ground, in which Leonora deals with an attempted coup while Max faces down on a Mal bearing down on nearby Denver.

Two other characters stand out. The leader of the unnamed group that made the RAGE is Stone. Paul Gross, best known at the time for the still on air Due South, was awesome in the role of a man who might have once had his country's best interest in mind... but Agent Stone has slipped into assuming whatever he wants or feels is best for his country. Stone's conviction is scary at times, and many would argue he ends up as creepy, if not more so, than Dashes Hopes.

But one of the other things that Alpha is praised for is its sense of scale. Stone's group may have resources and official sanction, but it's a part of the enormous American Government. In fact, it's the size of said government and the fact he can keep other parts in the dark that Stone admits lets him get away with so much. If someone with enough pull realises Stone's agenda and doesn't like it, he might have problems.

Which leads to The General— Hawthorne Horn, the man Gabe turns to when he smells a rat. Played shockingly well by Max Wright (yes, the father from sitcom "ALF"), if Gross as Stone is America's warped shadow, The General is everything any decent human wants to see in a military man. He's a warrior who fought on the ground and earned his rank properly— and still remembers being on the ground. He's blunt, honest, and takes his duty as a protector of the country he grew up in very seriously. It's with his help that Gabe and Maxwell suddenly find themselves backed by American soldiers, and some fans state the political war of attrition between Horn and Stone (on a KIDS show, no less) is a highlight of the series.

The series ends as Max destroys Dash's anchor to this world and Gabe and Horn clean house, exposing Stone's group to the world. And few fans didn't have a grin on their face as Leonora whispered in Max's ear in the last few moments. Her small grin and his rushing up to everyone at the victory party shouting "I'm gonna be a dad!", even with Gabe's snark, ends the series on a note of hope— the hidden tribes will live on... though not so hidden... to protect the world.

Sadly, ratings made syndication of a further Rider season difficult. It was thought two awesome series would be all we'd get. But no one at Saban counted on their customers to the North...

edited 18th Oct '10 11:06:20 AM by EddieCurrent

Spelin erroars hont me.

Interesting.

An useless name, a forsaken connection.

1997. The year the Riders came back.

YTV, a Canadian Network focused mainly on children and young adults, had found great success running Edenite in 95 and Alpha in 96— oddly enough, drawing much of the male demographic (and quite a few females and parents) as the lead in to a 7 pm Saturday timeslot usually reserved for "teen drama"— Catwalk, and later Buffy the Vampire Slayer among them. Between that, a successful dub of Edenite by Toei for Japan, and convincing Nickelodeon in the States to co-produce as they sometimes did, YTV and then owner Shaw Cable convinced Haim Saban and his partners to join them in producing another season of Masked Rider. Okay, the lure of Canada Council for the Arts tax credits and grants helped.

"I will always live at top gear!"

Throttle. If ever there was a series that caused a shrug from the fandom, it was this one.

Fan lore has it that a group of Nickelodeon executives didn't quite get Masked Rider's status as a franchise of series rather than a series itself. Throttle was the season made when their well meaning interference was given just enough room to get it out of their system. The process of dealing directly with Saban, Toei, Bandai, YTV, and even others at the Viacom subsidiary, is said to be all the wake up call they needed. Tales of old Haim dressing them down after getting everyone else to leave a board room are almost certainly apocrypha. What it did do was cement that a YTV-headed production crew dubbed "Masked Men on Motorbikes Productions" or Triple M for short, would be the creative centre of North America's Riders. Triple M took the executives well meaning notes and tried to hash a series out of them.

Masked Rider Throttle is considered an okay series. It has its rabid fans, but also its share people who declare it too light and fluffy. Most find it an enjoyable but not outstanding start to the MMM prod era.

Perhaps most notable, somewhere in all that mess, the executives had decided to make the lead female. Yes, for the first time, the main Rider was a woman. The notes said, "small side, firecracker, not white (?)".

Well, they had a stunt woman with a bit of acting experience who could fit that. Enter Angela Bassimbrio. And if there's one thing that all Rider fans agree, she's the best thing in the series. The 20 year old daughter of a famed indy wrestler and a restaurateur, Angela is a judo mistress who's all of 4'9, with Caribbean, Asian Indian, and Japanese blood. She fit the profile to a T. To date, she is the only North Am Rider to do both the civilian and suit role... mainly because no suitably sized stunt double could be found for the 4'9 judo mistress.

And to every Masked Rider fan on both sides of any body of water, she is Auntie Angie (or Angie-Oneesan, but you'd better actually be Japanese if you call her that). You do not mock Auntie Angie. Despite a very successful career as an actress, screen writer, and jazz singer beyond Masked Rider, Bassimbrio always finds time to pay respect to the franchise that launched her. The only year she missed Rider Con was due to appendicitis. Angie's ours, and we love her.

In Throttle, Bassimbrio plays Laura Kidd, a motorbike racing enthusiast who found her gender and petite frame made many regard her as a non-contender. But that changes when she takes an experimental bike for a test drive. Yes, the bike comes with a "control assist" belt and it grants her the power of "the engine" to fight the League of Saboteurs... but most people can forgive and even enjoy the campiness of the plot. The Saboteurs freely admit they just like to break things, and the gremlins that served as foot soldiers... we know the costumes are laughable. The racing sub-plots can depend on patently impossible manoeuvres. It's around Course 8 you sense head writer Mark Prow and director Mark Muldoon just threw up their hands and said, "Fine, be camp! But damn it, Throttle, you're gonna be FUN camp!" The next 36 episodes are an exercise in seeing how silly they can get and still be coherent. Answer: Very. And they stumble over the line into incoherence once or twice, with Laura's mechanic/ love interest Jeremy (played with increasing despair by David Pound, in his only on screen role outside a monster suit) serving as the one to admit the depths of the insanity ("IT JUST DOES NOT FIT, LOR!").

All in all, Throttle is fun, but not polished enough to be one of the best.

This left viewers totally unprepared for Mercury.

Spelin erroars hont me.

A bit of trivia:

Throttle's actress is named after my older half sister.

Spelin erroars hont me.

Do one with time travel next!

A True Lady's Quest - A Jojo is You!

I do have one with time travel planned, but that's a bit later in the timeline. Next is Mercury, which takes a hammer to a certain cliche I see too often in urban fantasy.

Spelin erroars hont me.

"The magic is real!"

"If this were a fairytale..."

On hearing the title, many fans expected 1998's Masked Rider Mercury to be a show steeped in Greek Myth. Thus, it was a surprise when that first scene started and we entered the magical city of Hermes, BC, a "Hidden Enclave" where magicians live in secrecy and safety— just as the secret of magic's existence is revealed to the world. The series' catch phrase, "If this were a fairy tale...", stirs fond memories to this day. Mercury's three forms— Mario Steady, Mighty Glacier Falling, and Glass Cannon Rising— made 'Merc' the first NA Rider with multiform balance. The sparse use of post production effects was actually used favorably, saving the cash for the truely powerfull spells. The stunt crew is considered one of, if not the best in NA Rider history.

It is also where Angela Bassimbrio proved she was every bit able to write; Auntie Angie has returned to write for many other seasons, and head write two others. Have we mentioned we love our Auntie? Yeah? Okay.

Mercury actually comes from her frustration with the idea so many settings have of doing magic in the modern world by hiding it. Then came another thought— okay, it's hidden all these years. What happens when the beans are spilled?

Well, you kind of have to deal with something like that.

Narrated by Hugh Dillon (lead singer of Canadian hard alt-rock standbys The Headstones) in his first steps toward acting that he'd dive into to some acclaim. Dillon also voiced the Mercury Changer. Dillon's weathered, matter of fact narration was likened by one critic as being "like the guy in the corner of the bar, telling tales, with a slowly growing crowd around him."

"If this were a fairytale," Hugh starts us, "everything would turn out okay."

Mercury opens with the two episode "Shattering". Three mages claiming the Randi prize— or rather, confirming their claim on international TV. There's a wonderful "person as himself" cameo by James Randi here, who immediately brings up the next task for any good skeptic— how does it work? The story reverberates around the world, and magicians— those helping their neighbors in secret, those who live in friendly communities, and those who have lived in hidden settlements— out themselves. The world tries to deal with it. The Canadian Government's first act of damage control is to reveal it has a roster of Hidden Enclaves where Canada's mages have settled to live in secret while still complying with Canadian Law, and to request that said enclaves willingly reveal themselves.

As this shockwave is felt throughout the world, we meet Allan Gibbons (played by Grant Kesser— yes, that guy who now hosts Prank Power, another YTV/ Nick coproduction), a young and barely "active" son of a Mercury wizard and an outsider. Allan's uncle Jason has left him a rather unique belt— a talisman that allows the user to become the town's traditional protector, Mercury. Just after the news has broken, a group of upset citizens from nearby Whistler who've had Mercury's location leaked to them come foreward, anger stroked by Allan's bitter, magicless cousin, Robert. The first scene sets the tone for the sort of hero Allan is— a Battle Therapist, keeping up a steady analysis of his foe and only fighting as much as he has to. Allan manages to subdue Rob, and dispells his rider form to talk down the crowd. Despite the fact that Allan is able to settle things somewhat peacefully, the Canadian Armed Forces ar sent in to monitor the two towns— just a precaution, of course. As well, the event was broadcast nationally. Allan has unwittingly become the "good" face of magic to a panicking nation.

To a background of Mercury's city council starting to politic, the national government trying to keep all its citizens safe, and other Enclaves having decided Mercury is the ideal neutral ground to figure out what to do next— including a faction that wants to re-instate the seperation— Allan must come to grips with being his hometown's protector— even as other, more personal secrets are revealed.

The series deals with that a lot: how long buried secrets can affect us today. Alan finds himself facing the three pronged challenge of magicians who want to put the genie back in the bottle (the Silencers), an element of the Canadian military trained to combat magicians, some of whom are all too eager to exterminate magical people (Spellbreakers), and his own town's leadership attempting to use the reborn avatar of their patron as a political football. His girlfriend and childhood playmate Cora seems a little to eager to use Mercury's fame to her own advantage. There's also truths of his family; his mother is supposedly mundane... but proves skilled at enchanting. Is the idea that you're born with magic wrong? And one of the Spellbreakers, Sgt Anna Munroe, has taken an interest in this Masked Rider.

It's also for its heroes. Allan is a confused young man trying to figure out adult hood with the additional pressures of being a Rider. His father isn't a bad man, but Allan's begining to see his failings. His mother keeps secrects almost too well. His Spellbreaker love interest Anna revealed herself not to be an ice queen needing a thaw, but a woman commited to her country's defense who was trying to decide whether to trust Merc.

Mercury stands out among Riders, here or in Japan, for having no one Big Bad— or, as Mercury's suit actor Matt Kesser noted, "The Situation is the big bad."  ^*

And he's right. There's jerks and angels everywhere, and sometimes one person is notably both. Things get more complex as some of the Silencers and Spellbreakers have very good reasons for wanting what they do, and other Hidden Magic Villages start sending representives with their own ideas.

This brings in another first— Mercury is the first series with a true "rival Rider" in the form of the visiting guardian of the hidden town of Whitchurch, Arbitrator. Arbitrator, or Arby, is a rather divissive character. Some think of him as a Jerkass Knight Templar, others as a man with admirable dedication to a questionable and lost cause, and some see him as a Jerkass Woobie who may just have a point. Arby honestly believed the secret's end ment the end of all he held dear, and was so commited, his true name is still considered a spoiler for the last episode by many. It's Joshua Ruth.

Also, Mercury doesn't shy from having obviously human foes for its Rider. Bassimbrio and director Mark Muldoon actually had to fight Nickeloden over this, and it's one case were fan lore is quite correct— Haim Saban did sit down with Bassimbrio, Muldoon, and the Nic execs in question and back the Mercury team to the hilt. It was an odd act for a man whose production company was know for altering, 'softening', Woolseyisms, and even bowdlerising works— heck, he brought over the Most Truimphant Example, Samurai Pizza Cats. But it's interesting to note that Saban will always speak in glowing terms of both writer and director.

Sometimes a good impression is all it takes, and this one let Allan battle Golems, Elementals, and even his fellow mages. The character fallout to when he ends up having to kill— yes, actually kill— his cousin Rob when the younger man is going mad from a drug-like might potion is stunning, and is the moment he and Anna truely start to bond. It took several takes to get the death approved by Nickeloden, and even the Y, who didn't shy from shows with such, were a little circumspect. But to both networks' credit, they didn't ask it be softened or removed. There was a bit of audience fall out, but it is a francise defining moment— and led to Masked Rider moving from 6:30 to 7:30 pm Saturdays on both networks.

Mercury is often praised by its fans for wrapping a rather deceptively complex aesop— keep an open, but questioning mind— in a down-right awesome narritive. They were eager for the next rider... but got a special treat first....

Spelin erroars hont me.

When's the next one?

A True Lady's Quest - A Jojo is You!

((Hush, you. You're the one that broke my carefully laid plans.

Besides, Next isn't for a bit yet.))

After the episode 45 finale, Rider fans were stunned the following week to get "All Riders: Across the White Void". In it, the reccuring gag of Mercury's resident mad theurge, Dr. Atweiler, experimenting with realities becomes deadly serious. The Mal Manitou Breaks Spirits, Sabateur Master Monkeywrench, and Count Dregon himself are set loose on Mercury, with their opposing Riders shortly behind.

In general, Void is a well loved bit of fun that YTV and Nick reair as popcorn movie fare. Fans praise it for avoiding typical misunderstandings, as the heroes quickly realize they're all riders on the side; Gabe the Unmasked Rider sums it up, "Whether by accident or by design, we have power— and realize what a terrible weight it is."

The original actors for every character returned, including Clancy Brown reprising the oily conning Mal Manitou Breaks— in a voice many note today is somewhere between his Lex Luthor and Mr. Krabbs.

What tasks the Riders the most is that the villians do not team up. This was a key story choice, as head writer Mark Prow noted. He and director Mark Muldoon (The Double Marks!) thought it added a bit of scale and realistically fit the villians used. This forced the Riders to split up. Deferences in tone are handled adeptly, with a returned "Auntie Angie" as Throttle noting, "My guy? A bother. Alpha's guy? Bastard who's gonna level the city. Him first."

The hour and a half long special is rough; full of sure, why not moments; and the plot barely holds... but it's fun.

And seeing dear ol' Dex pound his uncle, growling "WHAT. PART. OF. NOT. A. NOTHER. WORLD. DO. YOU. NOT. GET!" never gets old...

After this... came a bit of worry from fans. Mercury was so well done, so well loved— how would the next rider compare.

Brutally.

Spelin erroars hont me.

A programming note: between my horrible spelling (my sig only partly in jest) and this being a work in progress, earlier posts can and will be edited. This is basically me sharing my thought process on this little alt history, and giving a preview of sorts to all my tropin' posse.

Spelin erroars hont me.

Heh. I'm trying to write the Scrappy Season summary, and it's coming harder than the "good" ones.

Spelin erroars hont me.

May I?

When in doubt, focus on problems on the set. Make the new executive producer an alcoholic who never shows up to work. A plot tumour built around a side character whose actor had an affair with one of the directors that promptly went nowhere when her husband found out and she had to fire the guy (good opportunity for mention of genderfail on messageboards, here). A budget cut thanks to reckless spending on the pilot film.

As for the plot itself, why not an actor-switch? Helped kill Power Rangers widespread success.

A True Lady's Quest - A Jojo is You!

Check your PM, dear friend, I have something for you.

Welcome, friends, to one of the primary reasons (or so it's thought) Shaw Cable sold YTV to Corus, why the rights to Masked Rider have never entirely left Haim Saban's hands, and why mentioning 1999's Rider will get you Gannon-Banned on a lot of boards.

It's True!

This is Masked Rider True. Indecisive Deconstruction. Home of the most Martiest of Stu Rider— it got a follow up series purely so the actor that played him could actually ACT. It saw the terror of Protection from Editors, and how executive meddling is sometimes exactly what's needed. To this day, fans will ask the people involved what the hell happened. And many will regretfully admit—they have no idea either.

It starts with Joe Staller. Staller had written for quite a few YTV productions, including co-productions with Nick. He had a workman's rep... and a friendship with YTV executive Adam Hail.

We'll get back to that point.

It continues with the fact that Staller... well, he's an Anglophone from Quebec. A very... touchy one. The kind who thinks any Quebecouis is waiting to cut Canada in two with their "sovreignty". You can protest your patriotism till you're red, if you dropped your H's, Joe didn't like you.

We'll get back to that, too.

Finally, there was... the ego. It was known by most that Joe required a deft touch to get the brilliance out of his slowly growing sense of Small Name, Big Ego. His success thus far had earned him the right to be somewhat proud— but the man made Uwe Boll and John Romero— John "Make You His Fucking Bitch" Romero!— look grounded.

We'll get to it— all this contributed to the perfect storm that hit when the time came to write and film True.

But the eye of the storm, the seemingly calm event in its center... was Joe Staller asking his his old bud Adam Hail for a job... the exact day MMM got Hail to be Executive Producer for the next Rider series...

edited 26th Oct '10 10:56:00 AM by EddieCurrent

Spelin erroars hont me.

If you sent me something, I didn't get it. Mind re-sending?

A True Lady's Quest - A Jojo is You!

Hail will be the first to admit now— and it's probably why he still has a job at YTV's now owner Corus— that one of his earliest mistakes was to say yes when Staller asked if he could direct as well as write True.

It takes a certain degree of talent and/or experience to write and direct one episode, let alone a whole series. Auntie Angie has never directed anything she's written. There's a reason Mark Prow has pared up with Mark Muldoon as his director of choice— as Prow once said, Muldoon listens to him and knows when to tell him to shut him up. And special unit directors, like Rider production stalwarts stunt director Dick Pound and special effects director Alex "On" Si Hung  ^*

are there to make sure their specialties— kickass action and effects that work in context. The main director's biggest job is to communicate what's needed to get the show in the can to everyone else. Some of the best can indeed be dictators... but they get the point across.

Staller... Staller as director was everything you didn't want. He was married to the script in the worst way. He would describe what he wanted, see it flawlessly executed, and then insist it was wrong. He bulked at the regulations working with the various unions involved brought in and more than once tried to bend the rules.

The only thing that got the seven episodes of True he helmed out was Hail acting as a steadying hand, keeping everyone reasonably happy.

Despite the fact they seemed to be producing Madan Senki Ryukendo sans the sense of humor.

But even Hail had his limits. And in this case, his limit was embodied in the young Qubecouis actor hired to play the "genetically perfect" True.

Robert St. Laurent is an affible, smart, witty actor born in Haul, QC. He's got a boyish look in him to this day, a dry sarcasm, and an honest care for his fellow man.

Staller would not let up on the then 18 year old St. Laurent. He kept making him repeat takes, claiming the bilingual and fluent French Canadian was dropping h's, and sounding too French for the bulk of their audience to understand him. He berated him alternately for being too wooden and being too hammy. He started suggesting they should fire St. Laurent and replace him. Through it all, Hail made appologies and kept things going.

Until the day they were filming episode eight.

On that day, when Pound finally had enough of Staller sticking his nose into an "civvie form" action sequence, and making snide comments about St. Laurents abilities, Dick asked him to at least wait for the dailies.

Staller insisted that if he didn't intervene now, "that frenchie" would waste time and money. "You know how those people are..."

Pound, in one of the most calculated acts of baiting ever, asked Staller to elaborate.

The cast and crew of a Rider show, when it's working, do tend to gain a sense of Nakama; one Staller seemed to be doing his best to sabatoge.

To this day no one who was on that set will repeat what, exactly, Joe Staller said. The camera was still rolling, but that bit has never been leaked.

What they will all agree on, and love Hail forever for, was when he shot his now ex-friend a cold, hard look, and said, "I'm not stopping you all from leaving."

When Staller actually lunged at St. Laurent as he was leaving, Pound got in the way and got a broken nose.

Word was quickly spread that continuing with Staller was not an option. And everyone involved sat and waited for the fallout of the first incomplete Masked Rider Series.

edited 27th Oct '10 6:29:39 AM by EddieCurrent

Spelin erroars hont me.

The first part of the True Fallout was interesting— Nickelodeon paying their kill fees for their part in the MMM Prod. partnership and basically washing their hands of it. They weren't interested in seeing True finish, they didn't let it sour their co-productions with YTV or the Y's exclusive right to Nick Toons in Canada. This was in the time leading up to The N/ Nick Teens, where Masked Rider would have best fit. There was maybe a bit of worry that it didn't quite fit in with the Nickelodeon line up to be. True merely made cutting ties easier. And besides, there was already rumors of the coming sale of assets Haim Saban had a stake in to Disney. Let the Mouse deal with it.

At least one Nickelodeon executive admitted to kicking themselves later when they realized that only included the properties included in Saban's partnership with News Corp, Fox Family.

Another reason the fall out happened as it did was the sale of YTV by Shaw Cable to Corus. There was, in Corus' bid, a set of programming that Corus wanted in good stead and working order when they bought it— standard "don't sell us a scuttled ship" deligence— and one of them was Masked Rider.

So. YTV needed a Rider in production and on air if Shaw wanted to sell it.

It was then that Hail got a call from Haim Saban's office on the phone. They knew the situation, and had one question— who was Hail calling in to help with the train wreck.

Hail said the magic words.

He was going to see if Bassimbrio was free.

He was asked to hold on. And then he heard a voice he'd only heard during the occasional press junket.

"I'll call her," Haim Saban said, "And we'll get the money going."

It was amazing how quickly the horror of True's eight episodes was forgotten. As Haim himself pointed out, though, that was how toku worked. True had been canceled— good riddance. The Masked Rider Franchise had an order to fill.

Spelin erroars hont me.

In all this production history, you may be wondering, dear reader:

"Yes, but what was True about?"

We'll tell you when we know. Seriously, the thing is a mismash of barely though out concepts. Bandai was pissed as hell, because they weren't getting all the advanced info they needed to get much more than a True figure and the Truth Driver on the shelves. Staller tore up what notes he had, and seemed to think that'd stop the idiots trying to salvage "his" rider. (He was so very wrong)

Basically, True— the Rider— was presented to us as a perfect genetic being. And... there's vaguly Objectivist ideas. And, it's almost like The Office he works for is a reverse Shocker of sorts— a heroic organization who took the man that volunteered to be True as Rider.

Really, it's a muddle. And our prior comparision to Madan Senki Ryukendo without the humor or camp is apt. True is set up as a God-Mode Sue, and borning as hell even as St. Laurent gamely tries to give True some humanity. His love interest is the hollowest of Mary Sues. Every battle ends in a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, and despite Pound's best efforts... those get boring.

True is a case study in how one bad element can drag a show down even when everything else is in place.

Just, its follow up, is a text book case of digging the lost diamond out of a pile of shit. Angela Bassimbrio had her work cut out for her... but she made it easy, and cribbed from a classic.

edited 27th Oct '10 12:17:01 PM by EddieCurrent

Spelin erroars hont me.

A side bar here.

I am an Anglophone descendant of French Canadians. A prairie born one. I apparently have a good accent when I speak French, but I'm by no means fluent. But Christmas mean meat pies I can't spell the name of, and I was hearing about the Loup-Garou and Aunt Odate (I know I'm misspelling that) same time as I heard about Paul Bunyan.

The incident that ended True? Comes from sitting there, listening to some jerk who's lived in York Region or Toronto or by Lake Huron all their life saying that every Francophone needs to be rounded up and shot, or that the French should just speak english, or that we all want to tear Canada appart.

Sometimes I even tell them my real last name. It's hard to tell if the times they sputter and back track are funnier or the times they don't realize it's a French name.

So, yes. There are people with Staller's attitude in my home country.

Spelin erroars hont me.

Gonna be a bit until I get to just; working on the... well, the Black Hole Sue knows what facet of this madness I'm working on.

I'm going to archive this on another site soon, too. Betas wanted.

Spelin erroars hont me.

Hey, you're Métis? Cool. Or just a prairie Francophone, that's cool too.

/a Pillon in addition to a legal surname (English) redacted, the first one in two generations to speak French as well as English

A True Lady's Quest - A Jojo is You!

So, yeah.

Spelin erroars hont me.