| 7/13/2009 12:16 AM |
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morphiaflow
Member since: 7/12/2009 | | Hull High | | This was another offbeat gem...I think it was on NBC. It never stood a chance....only ran 7 episodes...and was a triumph of style over substance...but it was so...interesting. WAAAAY before High School Musical, it was....High School--The Musical! Seriously, it's a 2-disc set at most....bring it! |
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| 7/13/2009 2:20 PM |
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morphiaflow
Member since: 7/12/2009 | | RE: Hull High | OK--what follows is what I wrote about Hull High on IMDB almost five years ago.....I can't believe I wrote this, but so be it. Shout Factory, please listen up!
Ok, so being a complete media whore with an archivist's soul and a love for pop culture, I used to obsessively videotape everything on the planet. God only knows the golden scraps I have buried, uncataloged and probably never to be watched again, in the thousands of videos I have in my possession.
However, for reasons entirely my own, right now I'm experiencing a nostalgic reverie for a certain period of time....1990, the threshold of a new decade, and certainly a palette cleansing year for network television.
Following the examples of shows like The Simpsons and Twin Peaks and a lot of programming in general on the Fox network (and also competing against the burgeoning cable and home video market), this was the year the networks stopped playing it safe. It didn't last long; Twin Peaks lasted one season, The Simpsons while still brilliant went mainstream, and commercial television's "weirdest season" came to a close--in my opinion, despite the later success of great shows like THE X FILES, BABYLON 5, NORTHERN EXPOSURE and PICKET FENCES. Ah, but for that brief, brilliant year, it really FELT like the dawn of something new...the new century, begun a decade early.
Shows like GET A LIFE and PARKER LEWIS CAN'T LOSE showed that sitcoms needn't be limited. The movie cash-in FERRIS BUELLER had a few witty moments and introduced a pre-friends Jennifer Aniston. Shows like COP ROCK were...well, noble failures, perhaps. CHINA BEACH and TWIN PEAKS showed that drama could go in a million directions. Even the early 90210 episodes have a freshness that one might never have anticipated, given its seemingly shallow premise.
In the midst of all this, to disappear within the blip of 5 episodes or so, was HULL HIGH. The premise was unique; a high school melodrama--musical, with voiceovered thoughts and music-video choreography, presented with an admitted earnestness.
As I said, I'm in a 1990 reverie right now, so I pulled out the tape of the first episode, which I have literally not watched since it was broadcast. One moment, however, is exactly as I remember it, if not better: Hottie Latin teach Ms. Breedlove (played by Nancy Valen) singing about poetic metaphors in a skintight red vinyl devil outfit. MMMM. nice.
Also Cheryl Pollack, fresh from the brilliant teen anthem PUMP UP THE VOLUME (in theatres at the same time this movie came out) stands out as one of the most sadly overlooked teen actresses of the period (I'd nominate the slightly better known Robyn Lively in the same category).
I'm still not even done watching the pilot; but I'm sufficiently intrigued and impressed, 14 years on, with what I'm seeing so far, that I'm going to track down all the episodes I taped and watch them. At the time, I dismissed it as shallow crap (I was a narrowminded snot back then); but now, I yearn for the day that the networks would even give a show like this a chance. (And it certainly wouldn't make it in Ashcroft's America: one subplot has a "radical" thinking female student want to do a nude photo layout in the boys' locker room, which her younger photo partner considers selling to PENTHOUSE; given the stifling morality of America today, it's hard to imagine this even being rebroadcast.)
Another thing to note about the show is the production design....no longer the 80s, not quite the 90s, it's in a gorgeous, day-glo, in between phase, well shot and well edited, and there's an earnestness to the performances. I can't tell if they thought it was silly, or innovative, but either way, it worked.
It's not surprising to see why it didn't last. In another venue, it might have had a chance--on cable, or as a miniseries. But it was sold as a series from the beginning, and that was the deathknell (inevitably, it was probably also buried by the glut of high school shows that year, including the aforementioned 90210 and Parker Lewis).
In any case, though, it'd make a good DVD release--a forgotten gem, tarnished a bit, but still retaining its own offbeat lustre.
Matthew M. Yenkala
morphiaflow@yahoo.com
www.azrocky.com |
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| 11/1/2009 8:02 AM |
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WizardGlick
Member since: 11/1/2009 | | RE: Hull High | | I remember this as well. "It only happens..once in a lifetime" I think the theme song went. I would buy this as well. Shout, are you bringing it? |
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| 11/7/2009 3:08 AM |
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LittleMissGenius
Member since: 7/3/2009 | | RE: Hull High | | Hull High would be a really cool and simple release. I love all those early 90s shows anyway. I buy 'em just for the nostalgia factor alone! |
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