Starman

I was 14 years old when "Starman" the TV series premiered and I loved the show from the get-go. It was helpful that CB Barnes was a bit of a babe but it was the quality of writing on the show that kept me watching every week. In fact, I was so disappointed when they kept switching the time-slot that I was not surprised when they canceled it. In fact, I was incredibly upset because they kept really pathetic shows on the air and gave "Starman" the shaft.

Funny enough, there were enough people that felt the same as me that there were "Blue Lights" clubs all over North America that wrote angry letters and petitions to have "Starman" continue. After months of fighting, it was clear that ABC had no intention of giving it the opportunity it deserved. If anyone knows how I could buy the two seasons that "Starman" was on the air, please let me know. I would love to add this series to my DVD collection and finally give it the credit it deserves.

This show picks up 14 years after the movie left off. The alien returns to earth to find the woman he had met during the movie and the child he had fathered. He finds the son, now a teenager, and together they search for the mother, while being hounded by a government agent. In the movie, the woman helped Starman (who apparantly had no corporal form of his own and assumes the body of a photographer who has just died in a helicopter accident in the show) learn about earth customs; in the tv show, the son does the same.

All in all, I thought this was a decent television show and a worthy companion to one of my favorite movies of all time.

"Starman" was a good, quality series. I loved this show back in 1986, and I became so used to the Robert Hays version of Starman that I remember when I looked up the 1984 Jeff Bridges/Karen Allen movie, I had a hard time accepting Bridges as Starman. And I wasn't as blown away by Bridges performance as others seem to have been. Bridges's was actually nominated for an Academy Award in acting in that 1984 John Carpenter film.

Robert Hays does an excellent job bringing the Starman back to life. Starman isn't as uncomfortable with his human body as he was in the film, and Hays brings a great gentleness and warmth to the character. Hays doesn't try and copy Bridges, but he brings a different but similar take on the Starman character. Like Bridges, Hays plays the character as if he has an IQ of 60, but at the same time possesses the genius of Albert Einstein, Mahatma Ghandi, and Stephen Hawking combined. But thankfully Hays doesn't do the annoying bird like head movements Bridges does, and he doesn't speak with the motor neuron time delay that Bridges did in the film. You can believe that this is the same alien from the movie, but one that has learned things from his first time on Earth. He's still innocent and naive, but he's been around the block a bit more. In the pilot, Hays briefly played Paul Forrester, the photographer Starman cloned to use as a human body. There was a great contrast in the performances of Forrester and Starman as Forrester. So if Bridges could be nominated for an Oscar, why couldn't Hays have been nominated for any Emmy?

I also prefered the TV series to the movie because the show was far more funny and lighthearted then the dreary and depressing movie. I think a lot of this has to do with the addition of Starman's 14 year old son Scott Hayden, played wonderfully by Christopher Daniel Barnes. In the movie, Starman gives Jenny the sphere and tells her "the baby will know what to do with". We get this sense that the baby will be born a genius and be just like Starman, a weird alien. But Scott is just a typical human kid that has a hard time accepting he is half alien. Back then, Barnes was was known as "C.B. Barnes", who for a while was a very low level teen heartthrob. In the 1990s Barnes got some mild fame playing Greg Brady in the "Brady Bunch" movies and doing the voice of Spider-Man in the Spidey animated series.

Sure the John Carpenter/Jeff Bridges movie had some funny moments, but I felt that the movie was really depressing and gloomy. It was just this gigantic tragic road love story with such sad, sad, SAD music. The TV series has Scott Hayden to let the air out of it all and there are some hilarious exchanges here between Scott, his father and the people they come across in their quest for Jenny Hayden. I highly recommend this funny, warm and intelligently written series. It was a shame that ABC gave this series the shaft after just 1 year and 22 episodes. They never gave the show any good time slots anyway. They were always yanking "Starman" around on different nights, and always putting the series up against the heavyweights of the day like "Dynasty" or something like that. Yes Sci-Fi channel IS airing "Starman". It comes on Sunday/Monday morning at 2 AM Eastern/1 AM Central.

This was a great show. The series was a sequel to the theatrical film of the same name, although with entirely new actors. The episodes focused on Paul Forrester "Starman" and his 14 year old son Scott Hayden, in their quest to find Scott's mother Jenny Hayden. Constantly on their tail was federal agent George Fox, seeking to capture them. Most episodes showed how Starman learned not only about living on Earth, but about being a father to Scott. There were some genuine touching moments as they both loved and lost, and always had to move on to another location. Although a sci-fi series, the episodes all had human interest stories.

Today's sci-fi shows are all about special effects and gore. No sci-fi show comes close to being what Starman was. It's a shame that this series isn't on DVD. Since it only ran one season and the studio that owns the rights seems to have an aversion to 80's shows, it most likely never will. If the sci-fi channel ever shows the reruns again, and you've never seen this show, tape them and watch them with your family. There is no gore and almost no violence. This a family viewing series.

I just finished watching the Starman series again. I loved this show as a teenager when it first came out. However, I now realize a lot of the actual storyline and meaning of it was lost on my youth. In watching the show again, I see how well Robert Hays brought to life the character of the alien wrapped in the body of Paul Forrester.

The interactions between Paul the Alien and Paul Forrester and his old friends, family, or acquaintances are priceless. Each Paul has a different feel to him, the way he stands, the way he moves, or the way he reacts to different things. We truly believe that Paul the Alien is experiencing some things for the first time. However, it's not overkill either.

This is a great show that probably deserved at least another season. It seems like all the good science fiction shows are cut too short.