Forgotten Television: Starman 1986

Fourteen-year-old Scott Hayden (Christopher Daniel Barnes) loses his adopted parents in a car accident but survives without a scratch and is sent to live in an orphanage.  His real mother had abandoned him when he was three and the only thing he knows of his father is the gift of a silver ball that his father left for him.  One night he fell asleep while holding the ball which begins to glow and sends a message to his father who is an alien from another planet.  Meanwhile, a womanizing but talented Pulitzer winning photographer, Paul Forrester (Robert Hays) dies in a helicopter crash and the alien returning to Earth creates a clone of Paul to inhabit while searching for and helping his son. It has been fifteen years since the alien had visited earth and fell in love with Jenny Hayden (Erin Gray) and produced a child before having to leave Earth. FSA agent George Fox (Michael Cavanaugh) knows of this original encounter and is convinced that Scott is the son of an alien and begins surveillance of the teen.  Scott and Paul finally meet and at first Scott is confused at meeting his long-lost father, it isn’t until he receives a tape from his biological mother, Jenny, explaining who is father really is. The pair decide to track down and find Jenny but are endlessly being pursued by Fox.  Each week, the pair meet people in need of help and with their unique powers and perspectives on life, they aid those in need while also trying to find Jenny.

Starman is an American science fiction television series based on a 1984 film of the same name directed by horror legend John Carpenter.  Robert Hays steps into the role originally played by Jeff Bridges.  When the pair finally do find Jenny, she is now played by Erin Gray standing in for Karen Allen who originated the role in the film. The series isn’t a remake, but a continuation of the movie’s story supposedly happened fifteen years after the movie. We will get into the problem with this later. The show ran for one full season of twenty-two episodes premiering on ABC on September 19, 1986, and ending on May 2, 1987.  The series was not well received with the reviews ranging from “warm and funny” to “Brother, is this a drag”.

I am a big fan of the film, but did not watch the series when it originally aired.  I had several problems with it.  The first is that in the movie, the alien comes to earth after hearing an invitation from the Voyager 2 space probe and the movie appears to take place in 1984. The series takes place in 1986, which does not fit into the fifteen-year timeline.  Even if you assume the movie takes place fifteen years earlier in 1972, that would be five years before the probe was launched.  So, no matter how you look at it, the timeline doesn’t add up.  Second, the formulaic storylines add nothing new to the genre and become boring after the first 5 minutes.  The pilot episode entitled “The Return” is rushed not taking its time to really introduce the characters and allow them to establish who and what they are.  Everything feels forced and nothing feels natural.  Third, Hays is miscast in the role done so well by Jeff Bridges that he received a Best Actor Oscar Nomination for playing the part.  Hays just feels a bit goofy and lacks the same nuances that Jeff brought to the role.  The show wasn’t completely bad.  Chris Barnes does a great job as the alien love child Scott.  Chris would go on to be the voice of Prince Eric in the Disney film The Little Mermaid as well as Spider-Man in the 1994 animated series.   He would also portray Greg Brady in the live action Brady Bunch parodies made in 1995 and 1996. He was nominated for the Young Artist Award by the Youth Film Association in 1987.  Overall, the series isn’t bad, it just isn’t very good either.  It had its touching moments and life lessons learned, but it really never connected with audiences, possibly because it came so soon after such an amazing film that had the spirit and heart that this series was lacking.