RETROSPECULATIVE TV: The Tick: “Pilot” (Episode 1)

really grosses him out. Arthur is disgusted by this, realizes he’s ruined his life, and shuffles off.

INSERT COMMERCIAL HERE

The Tick thinks Arthur might be on to something with this whole “Killer Robot” thing, so he follows him home with one of Soviets in tow. The Prisoner explains that the machine was built with the intent of killing Jimmy Carter, and that they’d meant to re-program it to kill the postmaster general, but, alas, The Tick interrupted them. As it happen, Jimmy Carter is visiting The City that very night.

“What are the odds!”

They rush off to save his life, getting in an argument in a VERY long elevator ride about Arthur’s fears about getting hurt really, really badly, and culminating with him screaming at The Tick “I don’t want to have to poop with a machine” Just as the doors open in front of a properly mortified Ex-President. Tick snatches him away from the secret service guys, and all seems well until The Red Scare smashes through the roof of the car and tries to kill him, which results in your typical comedic superhero smack down while Jimmy yells “Help! Sweet Lord! Men in wrestling tights! We’re all gonna’ die!” and so forth. Arthur flies him to safety, the elevator crashes to the ground destroying The Red Scare, but merely annoying The Tick.

Back at The Happy Panda, The Tick and Arthur are basking in the envy of Bat Manuel (Who has a broken arm) and Captain Liberty (Who broke his arm because “I came to my senses” and “You don’t get past second base with this one.”)

The End

OBSERVATIONS

Maybe it’s just six months of B5 talking, but this was a LOT funnier than I remembered. Which is to say it was funny at all. I remember being blisteringly un-amused by it when it first ran eleven years ago. I think part of that was that The Tick comics were at pretty close to their highest ebb creatively, and the cartoon series was still recent enough that it cast an unfair comparison to the series. At this distance, it holds up better. Of course it could also be that I had no expectations whatsoever this time out.

I really like the way they did Arthur, which is in the spirit of the Comic/Cartoon character in all the meaningful ways, while not being beholden to the minutiae. And the costume is goofy looking without being flat-out embarrassing.

Patrick Warburton is about as good as a human cold possibly be as The Tick. I don’t like that we see his face, but the rest of the costume - and the antennae! - is great. He plays the part somewhere between the cartoon version and Adam West’s hyper-campy Batman, but without the self-awareness. (Adam *knew* he was doing a stupid guy’s impression of a smart guy. The Tick doesn’t.) Of course Warburton is way shorter than the Tick’s 7’11”, but they make up for this somewhat by building all the sets with unusually low ceilings, narrow doors, undersized chairs and things. It help that the rest of the cast is on the diminutive size, so it makes him look a bit too big for the surroundings, while everyone else looks about right. Clever.

Man, this is a dingy-looking show. Honestly, does Arthur live in a slum?

Liz Vassey was, at this exact moment in time, the absolute most gorgeous woman in the world, and she doesn’t seem particularly shy about showcasing it. At the same time, despite playing Wonder Woman’s hotter, smarter sister, she doesn’t seem particularly slutty, which is actually quite a trick. “The Hot Chick In Revealing Clothes” is pretty easy. “The Hot Bitchy Chick in Revealing Clothes” is even easier. “The Hot Bitchy Kickass Chick In Revealing Clothes That Doesn’t Immediately Make You Roll Your Eyes And Switch Over To Friends On NBC” is harder. I’d only seen her once prior to The Tick (In this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Captain_Zoom_in_Outer_Space
Terrible, but, again, she ain’t shy, and yet she still manages to be not embarrassing), but I totally fell in love with her.

Nestor Carbonel, probably best known to geeks like us as “Richard” from “Lost,” plays a trust-fund Eurotrash version of Batman. This was actually pretty clever, in that making him an American Hispanic would have lent itself to unfortunate stereotypes pretty quickly. Making him a Spaniard, however, makes him fair game for snobby, lazy, cowardly European slurs while making him completely immune from Mexican/Cuban/Puerto Rican ones.

“Captain Liberty” and “Bat Manuel” are both versions