As I sit watching The Tick...

[El Duderino Diablo]

on disc I can't help but think that Fox television just doesn't know a good thing when it has one.

EDIT: Nine episodes and 201 Tick filled minutes later...

That was awfully damned funny. At least once per epsisode I found myself with tears in my eyes and giggling hysterically. Whew! Ah...

So, this is the live action Fox series starring Patrick Warburton (Big Trouble, Puddy from Seinfeld). It's a two disc set with all nine episodes that had been filmed and only eight of which Fox broadcast. Pretty damned scarce on extras. The pilot epsiode contains a commentary track with pilot director/series producer Barry Sonnenfeld (Addams Family, Get Shorty, Men in Black) and writer Ben Edlund (creator/writer/illustrator of The Tick comic book, wrote for the animated series and the live action series, screenplay for Titan A.E.) which I haven't listened to yet. I'll report back on that.
Other than the commentary track there are no other extra features unless you consider interactive menus and previews of MIB, MIB II, Bad Boys II and some other crappy movies worth counting as legitimate extras.

And plenty of Liz Vassey (http://img.actressarchives.com/liz/lv058.jpg) who looks awfully fetching in her Captain Liberty outfit.
Yikes! Can you say wedgie?

[Seedy Edgewick]

So, how high were you when you watched that crap?

I had the unfortunate experience of actually sitting through all eight egregious episodes of that Fox debacle. It's a pale, weak bastard stepchild of a truly funny creation.

The original comic was a BRILLIANT spoof of comics. Such comic gems uttered by the Tick as "An incredibly huge well-dressed digestive enzyme! I AM in a whale!!" or "Ninjas. I hate them. They're everywhere." are a world above the dreck poor Mr. Warburton & Co. were forced to perform.

The cartoon, while less specific in its satire, was also really fucking funny. I still laugh when I remember the episode in which, at the Mad Scientists' Convention, various characters have their minds and bodies switched. Arthur winds up in a monster made up entirely of tongues -- "Tongue-Tongue" is its name. At one point, Arthur exclaims, "I can taste the floor. I can taste this chair! I can taste...EVERYTHING!!" Or, the one in which a colony of ants tries to construct a giant magnifying glass to burn the residents of The City. Another Mad Scientist concocts a plan to build a giant pair of pants in which to trap the ants. The ants turn their magnifying glass on the pants, setting them ablaze. When the Scientist sees what's happening, he screams, "Liar. Liar! PANTS ON FIRE!!"

Liz Vassey's tits simply aren't enough to redeem that show. Die Fledermaus becomes Batmanuel? American Maid becomes Captain Liberty? Such obviously-PC alterations only served to castrate a once-ballsy creation.

If you think "Ernest Goes to Camp" is a comedy tour-de-force, go ahead and get the live-action Tick. Otherwise, hold out for the cartoon or dig up old issues of the comic from your local shop.

PS -- sorry for the venom, but I really hated what Fox did to The Tick.

[El Duderino Diablo]

Originally posted by Seedy Edgewick
So, how high were you when you watched that crap?


I wasn't.

Originally posted by Seedy Edgewick
PS -- sorry for the venom, but I really hated what Fox did to The Tick.

Fox or Ben Edlund?
Ben Edlund being the fellow who created The Tick. Wrote and illustrated the comic book, worked on the animated series for a while then went on to help create live action series.

This quote is from an interview he gave regarding The Tick live action series:
"There are some other changes. Chief among them, sadly, is that the material from the cartoon series has passed into the ownership of interests outside this current endeavor. But, in a way, this situation has served us well. We were forced to re-investigate our motives for making this thing, and had to engineer it from the ground up, applying what we've learned over the last few years to creating a better, stronger Tick. The show will be closer in tone to the comic book, favoring character over action, painting a superheroic portrait of genuine human lameness. We will all miss various things from the cartoon. I, personally, will miss SPEAK most of all. But I am extra-hot on the new stuff in this prime time beast."
-Ben Edlund, creator of The Tick

[Seedy Edgewick]

Hey, the man has to hawk his wares, otherwise he doesn't get paid.

I REFUSE to believe his heart was behind his comments. The tone of the comic was absurdly witty. For instance: the Tick is actually an escaped mental patient. He's a superhero because he's too stupid to realize he can't be a superhero. In one of the first strips featuring the Tick, a newscaster is shown reading a story about a petty thief who was hospitalized with second-degree scalp burns and extreme hair loss. The following frame shows the Tick with said thief in a headlock, his knuckles vigoriously rubbing the thug's head, while bellowing, "Noogie patrol! Noogie patrol!" Where was that in the TV show? Or anything like it?

Also, the comic only had the Tick team up with Arthur. The other "superheroes" who appeared were either spoofs of real ones or ridiculous characters in their own right. Envelope Man springs to mind as an example. Along with the Chainsaw Vigilante, who would patrol The City looking for said ridiculous superheroes and scare the shit out of them with his titular power tool. Plus, he wore a yellow smiley-face as a mask. The point is that the whole "super team" idea was lifted straight out of the cartoon, not the comic.

Or, how about this: one comic panel was a direct reference to "The Boulevard of Broken Dreams," only with the Tick sitting at the counter instead of Bogey. The story goes inside the diner, where another patron is questioning the Tick about his name. "But, you're blue. Ticks aren't blue, they're black," he says. "Do you suck blood? Ticks suck blood." "Sure, I suck blood," says the Tick. "I got a straw right here, pal! Want a demonstration?" The Tick then goes on to breathe through the straw so hard he passes out. When he comes to, he's in a subway tunnel. "Hmm," he thinks. "A dark, moist tunnel. I must be in a whale. But I don't remember steel tracks being a part of whale anatomy." [or something similar; it's been a few years since I read the book] At this point, a mild-mannered, well-dressed reporter named Clark sees the Tick and decides to assist him. "A citizen needs my assistance," he thinks. But, he doesn't want to reveal his secret identity in front of the platform of waiting subway travelers (one of whom is a ninja reading a newspaper), so he jumps down in his street clothes and tries to save the Tick. The Tick responds with the digestive-enzyme comment in my previous post and struggles with "Clark." Finally, the subway train barrels through and pummels them both.

Yes, this post is getting really fucking long, but as I said, I really hated what Fox did to The Tick. And I don't blame Edlund. He probably had two choices -- do as Fox wanted or lose the show completely. Had the show been "closer in tone to the comic," there would have been more satire. Surely, the TV viewing public is aware of comics enough to understand a Superman spoof. Or a Batman spoof, which Batmanuel simply was not. There could have been many ways The Tick spoofed various TV conventions the was the comic spoofed comic conventions (ahem).

Maybe my expectations were too high. I still hate the show. If you like it, more power to you.

[El Duderino Diablo]

Oh feh.
It's a twenty-two minute live action show with a limited budget that pretty much rules out action or monsters made up of tongues. As an animator once made a point of telling me, "you can do anything you want in a cartoon. You're only limited by your imagination. Not so in (live action) film."
The live action Tick is about the down time between acts of heroism. It's about the banalities of life and how superheros aren't exempt from them. They still need groceries and clean laundry, they have to pay the bills and keep the toilet functioning.
In fact, I dare say it's about...
nothing.
Aye, I contend that it could've, would've, in fact was on the path to being the Seinfeld of comic book superhero satires.
It's the same Tick as found in the comic and the cartoon and his creator is using a new medium to show another side of his characters. Who would pass up an opportunity to do that?

Come on, go to your local video joint, rent disc one, have a nice meal, a beer or two, take a few minutes to compose yourself, wipe the lofty expectations from your mind, take a few deep breaths and give it another chance. For me. For Ben Edlund. For Arthur and the Tick.
;)

[Seedy Edgewick]

Um, no. No offense intended, but no.

Da dweeeee da da da dwee dow!

[El Duderino Diablo]

I'll snail mail you a lollipop, Canadian change and some coupons if you do.