Probably The Worst Idea For A TV Program That Ever Was

You kids today don't know how good you have it. This sentence will come to mean two things that contradict each other before I'm done with this post.

I have this book I bought in 1984 called Total Television, a thick paperbound catalog of every network show that had aired up until that time. It was fascinating, seeing every idea that someone in an office in New York had reviewed, evaluated, and ultimately greenlighted. "I think that could catch on with the viewing public. Here's some of our money. Chase your dream."

And indeed, some of these are great ideas - either lofty or lowbrow, they paid off. Gilligan's Island, for example. Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Star Trek. All In The Family.

Of course, it's a really thick book.

For every Star Trek there are a dozen U.F.Os. For every Gilligan's Island, a host of Dusty's Trails. And the annals of kid's television are strewn with plenty of ideas which seemed cool when you were a child but left you scratching your head as an adult: Pokemon, Space Ghost, Scooby Doo, Clutch Cargo. But poring over these capsule descriptions, one caught my eye. An idea so stunningly insane that I could not imagine how the man in the office in New York didn't hurl the show runner out of his 30th floor window. The show was called Super President.

Per Wikipedia:

The American President James Norcross (voiced by Paul Frees) is given superpowers as the result of a cosmic storm. The President now has increased strength and the Metamorpho-like ability to change his molecular composition at will to any form required (like granite, steel, ozone, water and even electricity). A hidden panel in the Oval Office allows him access to his secret base, a hidden cave beneath the "Presidential Mansion" (a somewhat modified White House). Super President travels either by using a futuristic automobile/aircraft/submarine called the Omnicar, or by using jets built into his belt.

So, again, he's a super hero whose SECRET COVER IDENTITY is the leader of the free world. And who is known as Super President. Even though he is the most scrutinized, photographed man on the planet, and even though periodically a flying car emerges from the basement of the White House, no one makes the connection.

And he has no moral problem with abandoning the leadership of our great nation to fight crime, usually with his fists. Admittedly he's not going after bank robbers -- it's usually aliens or mutants, but still. Make a choice, Sophie.

Even the 5-year-old behind Axe Cop would say this premise is implausible.

Poorly executed too but that's par for the course in sixties. "Limited Animation" was all they'd pay for then. As I say, you kids don't know how good you have it.

Which brings me to the other meaning of that complaint. I've been salivating for 30 years to see an episode of Super President. When I read about it, you see, there was no YouTube.  Now, there is.




"Come on Jerry, I want to be there when those locusts arrive!"