Birds of Prey Anyone? (1 Viewer)

[Chuck L]

Anyone thing that with the forthcoming Batman film, that we might get the complete season of this show finally on DVD?

 

[Rick P]

Gawd, I wish... that one was just coming into it's own when it got shot down... and they need their "Alfred" for the movie!

 

[David_Blackwell]

Only if they include the origianl unaired pilot as one of the extras.

Be Seeing you,
David Blackwell

 

[Shayne Lebrun]

I'd buy it. I thought that show wasn't bad as it stood, and had great potential.

 

[Pete Battista]

I would buy Birds of Prey also! This really was a great show. I watched every episode when it aired... an unaired pilot was mentioned. I would love to see that... was there much of a diffrence?

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

It was pretty unwatchable the first time. Dont think I could sit through it again.

 

[Michael Sliger]

I wouldn't put much hope in a Birds of Prey DVD release. The core fanbase rejected the series rather quickly due to the radical changes to the comic book premise and some sloppy writing. Warner presumably knows this since the network execs stated the problem when the show was axed.



As for the unaired pilot, it was rather similar to the aired pilot in script (just a few changed scenes to add some season arc elements to the story). The major change was with Sherilyn Fenn playing Harley. She did a somewhat better job than Mia Sara IMHO. For a DVD release, I would expect the changed scenes to be presented as extras. The original Harley scenes would only be released with Ms. Fenn's approval.

 

[ChrisBEA]

I'd probably pick this up.
I thought it was finally starting to come around when they canned it....

 

[Dan Rudolph]

There were lots of subtle differences in the unaired pilot, too. It had a different intro, there were a lot of small differences in the editing and the score and sound effects were very different in many places.

 

[John Berggren]

I thought they changed the series too much from it's comic book roots, but I still kind of enjoyed it. I felt that if the finale had been the premiere, it would have done well. It seemed the very last episode was the finest one. If every episode was that quality, it may have been around for a second season.

That said, I'd buy a relatively inexpensive set to get my hands on that episode alone.

 

[Evan Lee]

I would buy it. If Jake 2.0 can be put on dvd then why not this? FireFly, (admittedly a much better show) also with a short run is coming to dvd so it is possible if we whine enough to the right people. While we are at it, I really want Fastlane to come to dvd.

 

[ChrisBEA]

Jake's coming to DVD? Hadn't heard about that....

 

[Dean Andre]

As much as I'd like to see Birds of Prey on DVD, the series itself was just not that good. I agree that it showed potential in the end, but it started off quite bad and Dinah always annoyed me. She was no Black Canary.

It only just now occurred to me that Mia Sara who played Harley Quinn was the girl from Legend and Ferris Buleur's (sp) Day Off.


Either way, I'd like to see the set on DVD even though I burned the original airings on DVD. Our WB station here has fairly poor reception.

 

[RichardLoomis]

Yeah, Dinah has been a long-running favourite of mine. I've been a big Green Arrow fan for years, so I guess it was only natural. What they did to the character in BOP was not right. Psychic powers? Ugh.

I'd very much welcome a DVD, especially with the unaired pilot, but I'd take anything really. I have seen all the episodes, as they screened out here at some godforsaken hour, and although I was disappointed overall, it had some good moments.

 

[LizH]

How many versions of Batman are there? (We've got B:TAS, "Batman Beyond", JL Batman, The WB's newest show "The Batman", film Batman, comic Batman, etc.)

You'll accept multiple continuities for Batman but not for BOP. Personally, I find that hypocritical.

 

[Rick P]

WOAH! Hold up... where did you find this? I've got the SkyOne airings sitting here in the edit queue and if this is coming, I'll not waste time on them (like I don't have enough stacked up to do..)

 

[Deb Walsh]

According to the Save Jake 2.0, there is no real news about a Jake 2.0 DVD set. Fans are pushing though, so I'm hopeful.

I've never read the Birds of Prey comic, so I didn't have any preconceptions when I started watching the series. I fell in love with the first episode, and as far as I'm concerned, it just kept getting better. Don't know if I would have felt that way had I been a huge fan of the comic, but this would be a no-brainer purchase for me. Gotta have it!

 

[LizH]

BOP is best appreciated as an "Elseworlds" story (It exists in a continuity all its own: apart from the Bat-films, comics, etc.)

 

[Frank Anderson]

I'd buy it in a minute. I enjoyed it.

[url=https://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/7/7d/images_smiley_spidey.gif] [/url]

 

[Michael Sliger]

Hmmm, it is interesting to see responses to statements I made 11.5 months ago.

To set things up Liz, I will tell you that I watched every single episode of this series (including the unaired pilot) and enjoyed several moments and ideas. Still, I have to agree with most of my friends and several of the people who have contributed to this thread in their beliefs that the writers and producers stumbled with the concept and characters. Heck, Hans Tobeason even confirms that to some extent in the interview you provided.



IIRC, Jordan Levin at the time claimed that it wasn't level of the ratings that The WB was concerned about. It was the nearly continuous drop of those numbers. Whether he liked the show or not, that fact does have to concern any network head. As you can see here, after the typical post-pilot plummet from 6.5 to 4.7, the numbers kept trickling down to a 3.4 in the 7th consecutive week. Typically, series that will show some moderate success have a stable and dependable core audience by that point. With the higher production costs attributed to a SFX-laden series like BoP (even though the producers worked on the cheap due to early overruns), I can't blame the network for being jumpy about not knowing where their ratings floor was. The heavy promotion concerning the "return of Batgirl" did give the numbers a healthy boost for Lady Shiva. It would have been interesting to see if something could have been built from that, but it is rather atypical for any network to air much more than eight new episodes in a row for a fall debut series (especially into December). The rest of the numbers should probably be thrown out due to the haphazard airing dates, but they at best can only can truly suggest that stabilization of viewer numbers may have finally started to occur. Of course, it was a bit too late then.

And regarding your character/concept change comparisons between the Batman movies and BoP, I see that as an apples and oranges argument. For a feature film, you can get away with partially alienating some of your audience. Just out of pure curiosity, you can usually convince a good chunk of core fans to sit in a theater for two hours to see if the changes worked or failed (though Catwoman showed that you can take things too far). In a TV series situation, the viewers who were displeased with the changes likely won't return for the next week's airing. I have to think that this was a significant cause for the ratings profile that was seen.