State Fair

Just watched this pilot for a proposed "State Fair" TV series as an extra on the 1962 State Fair DVD disc (which is disc 2 of which the 1945 version is disc 1). There's the farm family, the girl-boy siblings (though this time the female half has now been divorced with a pre-teen grandson in tow and Wayne is now still in high school in this one), and the upcoming fair. There's now also an older adult son, a teen girl (Linda Purl) who like Wayne wants Country Music stardom, and a former boyfriend of Karen's (the renamed sister who used to be called Margy). Oh, and the grandson is a bit rebellious because he misses his father. Okay, first off why name the series "State Fair" since that's just an annual event if not for the chance to cash-in the title of what was originally a novel that was later made into a non-musical film starring Will Rogers and Janet Gaynor and then two musicals with songs written by Rodgers and Hamerstein? And how much compelling drama could be had from the conflict between Wayne and the more ambitious Bobbie Jean (Ms. Purl's) character concerning their music or between the grandson and the family especially since he seemed okay at the end of this pilot? I'm guessing when this actually aired at the end of the 1975-76 season on CBS, it didn't do too well so it didn't go to series so one could only imagine... Just as well, it didn't.

I loved "State Fair" of the 40s, what a movie… Rodgers and Hammerstein truly know how to make a movie to delight the audience, it's not only the "Sound of Music" "Oklahoma!" or "The King and I", it's every one they made…

In the bonus disk of the DVD Special Edition there's this TV pilot of the never even started series. I didn't seen the 30s and the 60s version yet, but I hope it would be better than this 50 minute waste of time. Different characters, different characteristics (names, ages, numbers), different story, and undeniably different quality. There's no chain from the original, I guess the better way to show this to the world was don't even mention "State Fair", like if it was made from the beginning, starting at zero.

In my opinion, the project ends when the crew tries to make the connection with the classic, it could have legs to walk if they just named it "County Family" or "Brothers Disguise", what else less than "State Fair", cause it has nothing to do with it… The actors are bad, the plot doesn't work and everything goes wrong, don't waste your time and even if you want to, I'm sure you could find a better way to do it.