Legend

If there ever was a show that deserved a fair chance to find its audience, or for its audience to find it, it was Legend. It had everything going for it. Everything except network executives with the discernment to recognize what they had. Anderson and de Lancy were the perfect actors for the roles of Pratt/Legend and Bartok, and the chemistry between them was pure magic. I haven't enjoyed a show with such an outrageous premise and sly humor since The Wild Wild West.

I place Legend in the small and sad category of TV shows that truly died before their time.

As webmaster of The Unofficial Nicodemus Legend Page (please use a search engine if you want to find it, as IMDB requests that URLs not be included), I've been in a position to learn much about "Legend" in the five years since its untimely demise. This was a show almost universally loved, yet killed when a station not yet available in most of the country couldn't get ratings. Richard Dean Anderson and John DeLancie both cite "Legend" as among their favorite projects of all time. It is my hope that Paramount (or whoever currently holds the rights to this program) will eventually release the episodes to videotape. Or better yet, maybe some company could get the rights to a new series. Given a chance to GET the audience (which UPN never gave it) this is a show that could be very successful.

Like everyone else who's posted here, I reveled in "Legend." It was one of the few TV shows on any network that I made an effort to see every week. I've also been kicking myself for ten years that I didn't record it when it aired! John de Lancie & Richard Dean Anderson had wonderful chemistry, & it was obvious how much fun RDA had, finally getting to flex his comedic muscles after seven years as straight-arrow MacGyver.

The bright side, if any, to "Legend"s cancellation is that it freed Richard Dean Anderson up to work on "Stargate SG-1" the following year. How drab would television be had he not gone down _that_ path? The first time de Lancie showed up on "Stargate SG-1," I giggled & thought "It's Bartok!"

Legend ranks up there as one of the best vehicles that Richard Dean Anderson has ever done. His character(s) of Ernest Pratt/Nicodemus Legend were unique to anything he had ever done before. RDA admits that this was the project that he loved the best patterning Ernest Pratt after his grandfather. It would be wonderful if Paramount, who still owns the rights to the show, would allow Mr. Anderson and Mr. de Lancie to reprise their roles in a made for TV movie. Both have said that they would be delighted to do so. For anyone who hasn't seen this delightful show, check with TVLand who has shown it at least once in the past.

And only one of the ones on UPN, besides Voyager, that I used to watch...USED to watch. I was heart-broken when UPN took it off. Seems like pretty much all of their shows fail. In my opinion, they never gave it a chance. I was in the process of writing a Legend novel when the show was trashed.

The show's plot was original and out of this world. I miss it.