When Lookwell was pitched to NBC in 1991, it was one of those ideas that looked awesome on paper but terrible in execution. It was conceived and written by Robert Smigel (known for his SNL work) and Conan O'Brien (known for writing The Simpsons at the time) thus already giving the pilot a good comedy pedigree. The storyline involved a washed-up TV action hero who believes he can actually solve crime and the original Batman himself, Adam West, was cast in the titular role of Lookwell. What could possibly go wrong? As it turns out, audiences weren't particularly taken with Lookwell. Going against the multi-camera sitcom norm at the time, Lookwell was produced as a single-camera comedy with no laugh track. The pilot was a comedy but looked like a cop show and consisted of layer upon layer of meta jokes. Whilst this type of TV show would fit into today's TV landscape just fine, Lookwell did not fit in anywhere in 1991. This was reflected in the ratings as Lookwell finished last in its timeslot, despite positive critical reception, leading to the pilot being dropped. Whilst Lookwell was a sad failure in 1991, a cult following developed over time and the pilot is considered an underground gem for TV fanatics. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBQ3HbB0c8Y
My life story is nothing special. I haven't cured ebola, I'm nowhere near stopping terrorism, and I'm still working on that climate change problem.
Instead, all I've done so far is put a few hundred words together in an attempt to make people laugh.
You can follow me at @Fry_ying_pan but don't be offended if I don't tweet back. It's usually because I've spent too long trying to think up a witty response that the reply window has closed.
