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The Series:
No matter what you might think of William Shatner and his
acting ability, you have to admit that the man has had an amazing
career. While most dramatic actors get one
TV series
and then fade away, he's stared in several series (Star Trek,
T. J. Hooker,
Rescue 911, Boston Legal, and the
Australian production A Twist in the Tale)
as well as countless mini-series, movies, and guest appearances. In 2005, at the age of 74 (!), Shatner took a
crew to the small town of Riverside, Iowa to film a
movie he
had written 30 years ago. Bringing a
crew of Hollywood filmmakers and
actors,
Shatner filled several of the roles with locals and began filming. There was only one catch:
they weren't filming a movie, but a reality
TV show. The result is Invasion Iowa, an
oddly compelling show that has several good laughs but never makes fun
of the
people of Riverside.
One of the reasons the show works as well as it does is that
the people of Riverside
(pop 928, famous as the future birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk)
aren't the
butt of the jokes, Shatner and the cast and crew he brings with him are. Played by impromptu comics who were in
character the whole time, the rest of the cast includes the
air-brained,
one-named, leading lady Griffin
(Desi Lydic), Shatner's incompetent and anxious assistant Herb (Michael
J.
O'Hara), Tiny (Kirk Ward) Shatner's body double and nephew, and
Shatner's
personal Spiritual Advisor Steve (Ernie Grunwald).
Later in the series a studio exec arrives,
the hard-nosed and totally unreasonable Max (played magnificently by
Garz
Chan.)
After making a big appearance in the middle of Riverside by driving up in
a huge stretch limo, William Shatner addresses the townsfolk, bringing
his Emmy
award with him onto the stage just in case anyone didn't realize he was
a real
TV star. Soon afterwards they hold
auditions and pick several locals to fill important roles in the movie.
What a movie it is too.
With a hilariously bad script filled with every bad SF
cliché that can
be imagined, the plot involves Shatner's character going back in time
to
protect a young 20 year old girl (a Riverside
local) from being kidnapped and impregnated by an evil alien ruler. Arriving in 21st Century Iowa, the
visitor from
the future finds himself falling in love with the young girl he's
supposed to
protect. After defending her for a
robotic assassin, the two are to get married (with Shatner wearing tin
foil
over his sneakers to make him look futuristic,) only to have the
wedding
interrupted by the evil Emperor.
In between filming the scenes from the movie, where all the
locals were nice enough not to critique the horrible lines, Shatner and
his
entourage interacted with the citizens of Riverside. A
lot of it was funny too, like when they
visited the church that was going to be used in the climax of the film. They were complimenting the priest on his
lovely place of worship when Shatner asked if they could break the 100
year old
stained glass windows. The priest
chuckles a bit and says "You're kidding" to which Shatner replies "No,
I'm not
kidding." It was so funny that Shatner
(in his egomaniacal Hollywood star
character)
would think that the church should let him destroy their windows. He's astounded that someone would actually
say 'no'. It becomes a running gag, with
the crew giving the priest a dog bowl for his pet in the hopes that the
(small
and insignificant) gift would cause him to change his mind.
There were a lot of great segments in the show. Griffith's
children's book (which advocated
plastic surgery to make girls feel better about themselves,) making
Tiny do
scene where he runs down the street again and again and again, the
reaction on
everyone's face when Herb broke Max's glasses, and of course the reveal
at he
end were all fun. You could also tell
that the actors started to really care for the people that they had met. This comes to a head at the end of the series
when an old man that Shatner had been talking to at breakfast every
morning as
the actor for a favor. The man and
William drove up to a cemetery where the octogenarian introduced his
dead wife
to his new friend. You could tell that
Shatner was really touched and moved and when they two hugged
afterwards there
were tears in the stars eyes.
While this is still reality TV, and by definition the bottom
of the heap, every episode had a few really good laughs in it and
almost none of
them were at the expense of the people of Riverside.
Of course that reality doesn't stop people from
complaining. The biggest critique I've
heard of this show is that it's using the people of Riverside, hurting their feelings,
and making
fun of them. Of course, in today's
politically correct world, the fact that someone isn't offended or hurt
isn't
enough to call off self-appointed arbiters of the public good. The plain and simple fact remains that the
people used in the filming of the 'movie' are all interviewed after
they
discover that it was all a gag and they're all fine with it (some are
even
relieved, thinking that the movie script was so bad that it would bring
shame
onto their city.) There was one member
of the local crew who was upset and even walked out of the movie wrap
dinner
(where the joke was revealed.) That person
did come to the premier that evening and admitted that he was initially
upset
but that upon reflection he did have a great time and that everything
had been
a lot of fun. Overall the people of Riverside had a
great
time, they got a significant amount of money for hosting the crew, and
they
brought even more attention to their town, something that they
obviously wanted. But that's not good
enough for a lot of
people who apparently haven't seen the show.
The DVD:
Audio:
The stereo soundtrack was about average for a reality show
like this. There wasn't a great range
and it wasn't the last word in high fidelity, but it got the job done. The dialog was easy to hear, even in the
noisy location scenes and that's all you really need.
Video:
The show was originally shown on Spike TV in 2005 and the
full frame image looked about average for a low budget TV show. The picture was a bit flat and the definition
was only average, but it was fine for this type of show.
Extras:
I was really hoping there would be an update on some of the
people from Riverside
to see what happened to them and what they thought of the series after
having
seen it. Unfortunately that wasn't to
be. The only extras are a pair of
commentary tracks on two episodes by William Shatner and producers
Rhett Reese
and Paul Wernick. These were pretty
sedate and didn't reveal much. They
often explained what was going on in the scene or Shatner would talk
about what
he was thinking about the various townspeople, something that he did in
the
show too. There was a good amount of
dead space too, making these a pair of tracks that it's safe to skip.
Final Thoughts:
Having lived in Iowa for
half a decade, I didn't find this show insulting to Iowans or the
people from Riverside. It was a light amusing reality show that had
some substantial laughs. Though I was
worried about how they were going to reveal the joke and not make the
locals
look or feel stupid, but they manage to pull that off without much
trouble. A fun and enjoyable show this
comes with a strong recommendation. |
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