Code of Vengeance
| Television series | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Code of Vengeance |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Year (s) | 1985-1986 |
| Production company |
Universal Television |
| Episodes | 5 in 1 season |
| genre | Action , crime |
| idea | Robert Foster |
| First broadcast | June 30, 1985 (USA) on NBC |
Code of Vengeance , originally planned as All That Glitters , is an American television series from 1985. It was the first offshoot of the cult series Knight Rider (1982-1986). Since it was never broadcast in Germany, many mistakenly believe that the 1997 series Team Knight Rider was the first offshoot of Knight Rider . The series was very short-lived and was discontinued after just one season consisting of the pilot film and four 90-minute episodes.
Emergence
The original idea came from Knight Rider inventor Glen A. Larson and Robert Foster, who also worked on Knight Rider . The two were planning a series called All That Glitters , and the main characters would be introduced to the audience in an episode of Knight Rider . The opportunity arose while filming one of the last episodes of the second season, in March 1984, when David Hasselhoff married his first wife, Catherine Hickland. To give the couple more time for the wedding and honeymoon, Michael Knight and KITT played a supporting role in the double episode Goldschmuggel / Das Schlangenmaul .
The 1st pilot: All That Glitters
The Knight Rider episode Goldschmuggel / Das Schlangenmaul (1984) was supposed to serve as a backdoor pilot for All That Glitters and introduce the main characters. These are David Dalton (played by L. Charles Taylor), Joanna St. John (played by Joanna Pettet ) and Archibald Hendley (played by George Murdock). In the pilot, David and Joanna, who get to know each other in this episode, work with Knight Rider characters Michael Knight and KITT to capture a dangerous arms dealer named Eduardo O'Brien, whose people also murdered Joanna's husband. At the end of the episode, David's boss, an employee of the US Department of Justice, Archibald Hendley, appears and announces to David that he will no longer work alone in the future because Joanna is now part of the team. In the fifth Knight Rider novel, Mirror Images , it is revealed that David and Joanna became engaged shortly after the storyline of this episode.
Since the series was very similar to the series Fashion, Models and Intrigue shot by Larson the year before for the competing broadcaster CBS , NBC did not take All That Glitters as a series.
The 2nd pilot film: Code of Vengeance
In 1985 NBC finally decided to shoot a series with L. Charles Taylor as David Dalton, but under a different name and with a different focus. Instead of the never realized sequel All That Glitters , a prequel called Code of Vengeance was created . This series deals with Dalton's past and takes place a few years before The Snakemouth . Here he is a long-haired Vietnam veteran who travels the United States as a vagabond helping people in need. His future boss Archibald Hendley and his future wife Joanna St. John, he does not yet know at this point in time, which is why they are not part of the series. In the pilot, Dalton had just returned from Vietnam to the United States and helps a family fight criminals.
The “younger” Dalton from Code of Vengeance , who has just returned from Vietnam, behaves correspondingly tougher and more brutal than the “older” Dalton from The Snake Mouth known government agent, to whom he becomes a few years later. He always rejects the use of firearms and fights relatively non-violently. The Vietnam veteran, on the other hand, fights brutally and has no problems murdering criminals. In commercials, the program was announced as “In the footsteps of Rambo”, as Rambo II had recently been shown in cinemas. The show was canceled after a pilot film and three episodes.
The episodes
At the beginning of the second episode Patriot Play , which got the best rating of the series by the IMDB rating, you see excerpts from Vietnam in which Dalton saves the life of a colleague and almost dies himself. In the United States he is looking for his former major from Vietnam, whom he finds in Houston (Texas). The major wants to take his son with him, who lives with his mother. Dalton takes the side of mother and son, which does not prevent the major from violently kidnapping his son and from having henchmen brutally beat the mother. In addition, his henchmen want to explode a bomb at a large event. The major suffers from a Vietnam trauma and a decisive fight ensues with Dalton, in which the major is shot by a police officer. Dalton can just about detonate the bomb in an open space without injuring people. In the third episode, At Ruster's Moon , Dalton helps a rancher defend her cattle. In the fourth and final episode, The Last Hold Out , he helps a fruit and greengrocer family.
Trivia
- According to various sources, Code of Vengeance was supposed to play before All That Glitters . Code of Vengeance was filmed in 1985, but takes place around 1980/81, and tells the story of the Vietnam veteran David Dalton, who has just arrived back in the United States and is on the road as a tramp. All That Glitters was shot in 1984 and set in 1983. Dalton has ended his existence as a vagabond and works for Archibald Hendley, where he meets his future wife Joanna St. John in The Snake Mouth.
- Dalton actor Charles Taylor had no prior acting experience. During his school days he played a little theater and was u. a. active as the doorman of the New York disco Studio 54 .
- The Knight Rider episode Mouth of the Snake is often referred to as All That Glitters in the USA , or Mouth of the Snake aka All That Glitters .
- Glen Larson, the inventor of All That Glitters , did not participate in Code of Vengeance . Only Robert Foster acted as a producer.
- Dalton's movements come from the so-called Méthode Naturelle , from which the French David Belle developed the sport of parkour in the 1990s . The Naturelle method has its origins in the French military and was used to make it easier to move around in the jungle. In the USA it is called "free running".
Web links
- Code of Vengeance in the Internet Movie Database (English)