TV shows come and, for various reasons, go. Those that had 100 episodes aired are virtually guaranteed to be syndicated to "reruns" in local markets and/or basic cable TV networks. A rare few generate a stronger interest after their demise than they did during their original broadcast schedule. Premium channel mini-series and broadcast network cancellations that didn't even exist for the standard 24 weeks of a normal season. If we are lucky the producers will release them to the public in a DVD box set. Millions of loyal fans wander the dark and dank back pathways of the internet, desperately seeking to find a place where they can, once again, view the show they loved.
Home Theater Center will add a limited number of these shows to our CULT TV section on an irregular basis. We hope you find them enjoyable.
There was a time when the world asked ordinary men to do extraordinary things.
This is the story of E ("Easy") Company, 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division from their initial training starting in 1942 to the end of World War II. They parachuted behind enemy lines in the early hours of D-Day in support of the landings at Utah beach, participated in the liberation of Carentan and again parachuted into action during Operation Market Garden. They stood alone and held the line at the "Battle of the Bulge" in Bastogne until relieved by General Patton. They also liberated a concentration camp and were the first to enter Hitler's mountain retreat, the "Eagle's Nest", in Berchtesgarten. A fascinating tale of comradeship that is, in the end, a tale of ordinary men who did extraordinary things.
Meet Georgia Lass (who prefers to be called George). She is a young Seattle college dropout who is unhappy with life. She is always at odds with her mom, Joy. She is killed by a toilet seat that falls from the MIR space station on her first day at a temp agency. Upon death, she is recruited for a team of grim reapers - undead who mix among the living and take people's souls just before they die. Along with fellow team members Mason, Roxy, Betty, and leader Rube, George discovers life after life. She does not like the details of her job, and is always at loggerheads with Rube. Her fellow grim reapers don't really take much of a liking to her either. She also learns grim reapers don't even get a free ride in death, as they must hold down regular jobs along with their death duties.
The town of Deadwood, South Dakota in the weeks following the Custer massacre is a lawless sinkhole of crime and corruption. Into this uncivilized outpost ride a disillusioned and bitter ex-lawman, Wild Bill Hickok, and Seth Bullock, a man hoping to find a new start for himself. Both men find themselves quickly on opposite sides of the legal and moral fence from Al Swearengen, saloon owner, hotel operator, and incipient boss of Deadwood. The lives of these three intertwine with many others, the high-minded and the low-lifes who populate Deadwood in 1876.
Defying Gravity is a sexy, provocative drama set in the very near future (2052) with our solar system as the background. An 8 member crew from 5 countries are part of a mysterious 7 year, 6 planet mission aboard the international space ship Antares. The crew is led by two veteran astronauts, Ted Shaw and Maddux Donner, who were part of a Mars mission 10 years earlier that left two crew members dead. The remaining members are all rookies who have undergone a rigorous, 5 year training program and, in flashbacks, the challenges they faced in being selected for the mission are revealed. The reality, however, is that none of the crew is aware of the real purpose of the mission, the result of an encounter with an alien object 15 years before.
Firefly It's the 26th century and the Earth has been used up. Mankind has been forced to migrate across the Galaxy to another solar system, where planets and moons are terra-formed to make them habitable. The inner core planets are rich and industrialized. The outer planets, not so much.
Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds is the owner/Captain of "Serenity", a Firefly-class general cargo space vessel. Mal, and his First-officer Zoe "Sarge" Warren, fought on the losing side in the civil war between the rebels (brown coats) and the inner core Alliance planets. Seeking to remove himself to a simpler life, far from Alliance influence, he buys and restores Serenity. During this process he hires a pilot, Hoban "Wash" Washburne (now Zoe's husband). A mechanic, Kaylee Frye, who is a poor country girl with an uncanny intuition about machinery and is seeking to see the galaxy. Former combat soldier and petty thief Jayne Cobb provides the muscle, and firepower, when needed. Registered "companion" Inara Serra rents one of Serenity's shuttles as her residence and provides Serenity with a certain level of respectability not normally associated with such a vessel. Three passengers round out the cast: Shepard Book, a devote religious man with a very mysterious past. Simon and River Tam, he being a young distinguished medical doctor and she having very unique capabilities. Simon facilitated the escape of his sister from a secret Alliance center that was doing unusual experiments on her and now they are "on the lam", trying to stay one step ahead of those who would return her to that cruel environment. This eclectic group plies the fringes of the solar system looking for ways, legitimate and not quite so, to earn a living and have a life free from Alliance interference.
"We choose to go to the Moon. We choose to go to the Moon. We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard. I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this time period will be more impressive to Mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space. And none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish."
President John F. Kennedy
From the Earth to the Moon is a stunning masterpiece that captures the triumph of a defining moment in the history of the world: Humankind's arrival to, short exploration of, and return from, it's planetary neighbor the Moon.
Tom Hanks brought together actors, writers, directors, producers, and composers of the highest caliber to deliver an accurate, outstanding, hard hitting film.
From the Earth to the Moon is a mini-series that focuses on the United States involvement in the space race from the first man in space in 1961 to the last lunar landing in 1972. The series teaches, gives insights, paints portraits of real people, and is simply fascinating.
The stories told in From the Earth to the Moon are inspiring, captivating, funny, thrilling, and heartbreaking. True stories that are absolutely unforgettable, stories of the men, women, and machines of the Apollo era.
All the stories presented in this series are special, especially the one about Apollo 7. With the tragedy of Apollo 1, the movie reveals how Apollo 7 and its crew were America's last chance to make it happen. The episode beautifully presents the pressure Wally Shirra, his crew, and NASA were under before the lift-off of Apollo 7. Had Apollo 7 failed, the space program certainly would have stopped and the world would have never experienced Apollo 11's lunar landing.
The live footage shown from the Apollo 7 lift-off is awesome and spectacular. Generations from now people will watch Apollo 7's lift-off and be amazed that humans could achieve such an engineering and technical marvel and scholars will debate in awe how the political, social, and economic environments of the time made such an event possible.
After viewing the entire series, you will be struck with sense of sadness. The Apollo program seemed to allow people's ideas to flourish and pull together around one common goal. That goal, of landing a man on the moon, was noble and exciting. It drew on man's positive strengths to explore, learn, move forward, and better the human condition. Someday, mankind must again reach for the stars.
From the Earth to the Moon will stay with you for a long, long time.
When strange anomalies in time start to appear all over England, Professor Cutter and his team have to help track down and capture all sorts of dangerous creatures from Earth's distant past.
Taken spans five decades and four generations, centering on three families: the Keys, Crawford's, and Clarke's. World War II veteran Russell Keys is plagued by nightmares of his abduction by aliens during the war; the Roswell incident transforms Owen Crawford from ambitious Air Force captain to evil shadow government conspirator; the unhappily married Sally Clarke is impregnated by an alien visitor. As the decades go by, the heirs of each are affected by the machinations of the aliens, culminating with the birth of Allie Keys, who is the final product of the aliens' experimentation and holds the key to their future.
In a High-Tech Future......Man is the Only Flaw
Total Recall 2070 takes place in a dark, crowded, industrialized cosmopolitan setting. The government mostly runs at the behest of a small number of extremely powerful companies called "the Consortium" (including computer memory and virtual-reality vacation provider Rekall and android manufacturer Uber Braun). David Hume is a senior detective for the Citizens Protection Bureau (CPB), a police agency. After his first partner is killed by self-aware androids, he is partnered against his wishes with Ian Farve, an earnest and upright officer new to the department. Hume and the CPB often have conflicts with the Assessor's Office (the investigative agency that has sole jurisdiction over crimes related to the Consortium) and with the private security forces of the Consortium companies. The main story arcs of the series concern the agendas of the Hume, Farve, Hume's wife Olivia, and the mysterious manufacturer of Alpha Class androids (including Farve himself). Significant plot elements remain unresolved due to the cancellation of the series, a crucial story arc from the series was the suggestion that the memory expansion used on self-aware androids was partially non-human DNA and that a material found by a remote base on Mars could create a hybrid of human and android DNA.
