Heat Vision and Jack

Jack Black is the man, and Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller rock. This show was awesome. I really wish they would have made a few more episodes, though I doubt sincerely that it would have done well in the ratings. If no other reason, than this show is great because it featured a clip of Doctor Who, and played Metallica. These are a few of my favorite things. When the dog bites.... ahem, well, you get the idea. Funny, silly, and stupid. Can't ask for much more.

I thought it sounded interesting when I first read about it. Then I saw it. It's like Lovecraft funny. Like "human language is inadequate to describe the horror blah blah" funny.

It's like every action/adventure show EVER packed into a half hour, but the most obvious comparisons would have to be "X-files" and "Knight Rider." (Heat Vision is KITT) The only thing I didn't like was Owen Wilson's flat reading of Heat Vision's lines. And even that wasn't bad the whole time.

So why didn't it make it on TV? It's a half-hour live-action comedy without a laugh track. How many of those have EVER made it? (Apparantly people need to be told when it's funny.)

...well, not really.

As far as I know, only one episode was made of this show, Episode 14. It's a fantastic bit of parody... of what, I do not know.

Some elements of the Fugitive, Knight Rider, and the Six Million Dollar Man all thrown into one wacky package.

Check it out if you can, but I had to download a crappy copy of it. Maybe it'll be a hidden DVD feature on some other Jack Black, Ben Stiller, and Owen Wilson project.

I would probably watch this show if it were real... because it's pretty funny.

Not as funny as Tropic Thunder, mind you... but what is? This almost seems like a joke pilot made for fun. It's "episode 14" too, so that should tell you something.

The cast is interesting... a lot of the same players who do appear together in a lot of stuff... (Night at the Museum -- Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson... Tropic Thunder -- Ben Stiller and Jack Black)... it's quite possible these are all friends who just wanted to make a funny movie pilot.

If I had as much money as they do, I'd still have to find some time to do some stuff not for profit... but for fun -- that's how you keep your goals in check and not purely based on how much money your next gig pays... keeps you straight, in line with your actual creative goals.

Hey, I noticed everyone spotted the spoof of Knight Rider, but did anyone pick up on this - the plot line about getting super powers from the sun after coming close to it in space is lifted straight from another doomed pilot show 'Northstar' - in which a NASA astronaut got hit in the face by a solar flare and then got super powers every time he looked at the sun! The original show I'm talking about was pretty bad... I remember the guy being shown a model of himself to explain what would happen if he stared at the sun for too long... and the model's brain caught fire... Oh, it was quite shocking. Check it out, trivia fans.