"B-Men" was shown on "CBS Summer Playhouse"...a place where the network dumped unsold pilot episodes in order to recoup some of the cost it took to make them. Perhaps they also wanted to give the shows an airing just to see how the public reacted...and perhaps they would re-consider the decision not to make the series.
There were three odd things that struck me about this one. First, it was written by Dave Thomas. No, not the Wendy's guy...but the actor who starred on "SCTV" and the film "Strange Brew"....not the sort of person you'd think would write a series like "B-Men". Second, the show is about teens in high school...and like too many shows and movies, many of the 'teens' look old enough to perhaps have grandchildren! Well, they weren't quite that old...but they certainly weren't teens. Third, one of the teens is a knock-off of Pauly Shore...so similar that it took me a few looks to realize it wasn't him. He was even totally annoying like Shore!
The plot to "B-Men" sure sounds crazy...high schoolers who capture a serial killer decide to become professional bounty hunters!! It's nuts...but not surprising considering shows of the day were heavy into 'teen' characters (the networks were deliberately focusing on kids and not adults in the late 80s and into the 90s). More importantly, "21 Jump Street" came out in 1987 and it was all about undercover cops posing as teens to solve teen crimes (such as drug use and ripping the mattress tags off unsold mattresses)....so while "B-Men" is insane...it does make SOME sense for when it debuted. On hand are veteran actors Albert Salmi and John Vernon.
So is this any good and should it have become a series? Not really. The key problem to all this is that these are supposed to be teens--15-18 years-old and the 'kids' going to school by day and bounty hunting by night is just illogical and silly. In other words, even with the best writing in the world, this just won't work...at least as long as it's NOT a comedy. Had it been a comedy and Thomas had used his "SCTV" writing mindset....who knows? Maybe it might have worked.
Another problem with the show is that the 'big city' is filled with the most white bread of all folks. No minorities and the criminals all look like ex-Disney Channel stars, not real baddies.
The bottom line is that the show was a nutty idea in the first place and so it's not shocking that the networks said a resounding NO to the program.
If you want to see this, try YouTube as this is where I just saw the show.
