The Mystery of the Chinese Junk-1967 pilot

[Baskingshark]

Hi, thanks so much for the link (I can't send PM's on here) - I'll make sure and keep it under wraps.

[MacGyver]

You're welcome. -and thanks.

[Baskingshark]

Just watched it - many thanks again, it was fascinating, and fun! Regarding the sound issues, I'm not sure if people are aware, but it's in mono, not stereo, which makes it seem extra quiet.

Wondering why it never made it to series, I think it may have been because it didn't seem too sure of who it was aimed at. I don't know what slot this aired in, but assume it was made for an 8pm (IMDB doesn't give a time, just that it aired for the first - and apparently the only time - on September 8th 1967)

The characters are definitely the closest to the books out of any of the shows I've seen, and they come across as a little flat, and probably better suited to a show aimed at a younger audience, but with an hour runtime, younger kids might start getting restless. The story was also pretty much pitched at the same level as the books, so if you consider that teenagers at the time would have been watching stuff like The Man From UNCLE which moved at a faster, higher-octane pace, they might have found it slow in comparison, even with the addition of the high-tech in-house crime lab and the dog-alerting belt buckle. Also, this was likely shot in early summer 1967, by which point the clean-cut beach party & hot rods type of thing was going out in favour of more mod fashions and psychedelia. There were some nice witty little touches like where they kept telling Biff to get them stuff, repeating to Chet that he was out of shape and Joe telling Frank to do stuff he'd already done, not to mention the boat "winking" at the end, but it feels like it was actually made a few years earlier than '67. Tim Matheson would have been something of a catch for them at the time, as he'd already been the voice of Jonny Quest and done a few movies. I guess they wanted to keep him recognisable and that was why they switched their hair colours round, since Rick Gates had never done anything before.

Ironic that they got a great dane when the cartoon show that became the hit of 1969 (beating the animated Hardy cartoon into a cocked hat) was focused entirely around a great dane! Also, obviously this dates from an era where Paul Lynde was considered the height of snark, but the line "The boat's not gonna sink, nobody's gonna drown, the dock is right there!" was great even by modern standards!

[Baskingshark]

I can't seem to edit previous posts, but I just wanted to add another interesting tidbit about this I just noticed - Frank is obviously older than Joe, and Rick Gates was older than Tim Matheson, but only by seven days!

[MacGyver]

Good observations- lack of an audience base may well have been a contributing factor to the show not getting picked up. It's a shame really because it does seem to be a very well done version of Hardy Boys story. From what I've read, I think this aired on a Friday night, which traditionally is never a good airing time for television shows (especially those aimed at teenagers or kids)- mainly because so many people tend to go out on the weekend.
   

[Baskingshark]

That seems right - I checked and September 8th 1967 (the release date given on imdb) was a Friday; I guess this was before they thought about scheduling in as much depth as they do nowadays! I really enjoyed it too and I wish it had been picked up, I'd love to see how a series might have been played out. According to one of the other Hardy sites, shooting dates were actually January 9-27 1967, so it was shot about six-seven months before it aired and I think tastes changed quite rapidly during that period; by way of example, the last AIP beach party film, The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini came out in April 1966 and by August 1967 AIP released their first LSD movie The Trip and were filming stuff like Wild in the Streets and biker movies. This is TV, so obviously it never got quite to those extremes, but I think maybe if this had come out a year or two earlier, it might have had a better chance of getting picked up. (I think they also could have come up with a slicker title theme and opening credits, that might have helped!)

It's actually ahead of its time in a way though, since there weren't really any hour-long shows about teenagers for teenagers at the time (Oddly, it has that in common with the cartoon series - that also was the first to have elements that became popular a few years later.); the only teen-targeted scripted programs around in 1967 were half-hour comedy shows like The Monkees and all the teen shows that had gone before like Dobie Gillis, The Patty Duke Show or the unsold Archie pilot were half hour too. One of the things I liked most about Chinese Junk was that they all had a great sense of camaraderie in their gang of friends - and with Aunt Gertrude; I really liked the scene where she was trying to feed them while they figured out what kind of typewriter the fortune cookie message had been written on. 

I think this copy is B&W, but I also wonder if it was filmed in colour - and I wonder what other copies exist. The copyright holder details on the end titles are Twentieth Century Fox Television and it aired on NBC, so I assume that some department of Fox will still hold the copyright and that this actually isn't in the public domain, although I could be wrong about that. Have you considered posting just a clip from it on YouTube? It might jog interest in it among vintage TV collectors and either unearth more copies from the TV-collecting community or maybe catch someone's attention at Fox.

[SDLagent]

It's actually ahead of its time in a way though, since there weren't really any hour-long shows about teenagers for teenagers at the time (Oddly, it has that in common with the cartoon series - that also was the first to have elements that became popular a few years later.); the only teen-targeted scripted programs around in 1967 were half-hour comedy shows like The Monkees and all the teen shows that had gone before like Dobie Gillis, The Patty Duke Show or the unsold Archie pilot were half hour too. One of the things I liked most about Chinese Junk was that they all had a great sense of camaraderie in their gang of friends - and with Aunt Gertrude; I really liked the scene where she was trying to feed them while they figured out what kind of typewriter the fortune cookie message had been written on. 

Good point. And I agree about the "sense of camaraderie". That's one of things I really liked about the episode. Even though it's over 40 years old, it really felt like real kids hanging out.

[Baskingshark]

OK, well here's a twist - it's actually already on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWQwujKM-sk only whoever uploaded it doesn't seem to believe in using vowels! And it is in colour (although I think this was uploaded from the same file, for some reason the colour seems to come through a little better on YouTube)

[MacGyver]

Good point. And I agree about the "sense of camaraderie". That's one of things I really liked about the episode. Even though it's over 40 years old, it really felt like real kids hanging out.

I definitely agree on this too- I like camaraderie.
And cool find on the Youtube link- well, there you have it. I guess someone has put it out there now- and the colour does come up a lot better on that link.

[MacGyver]

In light of Skywarp's recent post here, I'm just going to say that I agree. I don't know if there would be as much concern over an unsold pilot from years ago, but nonetheless, we must keep that in mind here too. In any case, if anyone else is wanting to see The Mystery of the Chinese Junk pilot, as you can see in the post above, someone has apparently put it on Youtube, so I would say to enjoy it there while it's there because that is the place I would direct people to if looking for this. Assuming this thread remains open still- and I'm not trying to speak for Skywarp or anything here- but I just wanted to humbly suggest that we keep further comments relegated only to reviews of the pilot itself and any news of a possible official DVD release or further information about the original airing and people involved and such like that.

[TheTm]

Hello

I am trying to find a copy of THE MYSTERY OF THE CHINESE JUNK pilot for my brother's birthday. Can anyone please help me find a way to get a copy, please?
Thanks!

[MacGyver]

See this post above. Someone has put it on Youtube.

[Oakvale]

I've been trying to hunt this down for a while, as I have a relative who appeared in it for what appears to be the bit part of Mr. Pan as listed on IMDB. I can't seem to find where he is in the actual video, however. Could someone narrow it down for me when he appears in the pilot? Many thanks. 

Also, is the version on YouTube in "colour" different from the previously discussed B/W version that was found on here?

[tomswift2002]

As far as I'm aware the pilot was shot in black & white, which was a lot cheaper to shoot in during the time.  The color version that I've seen look like it came from someone's cheap transfer of a 8mm or 16mm copy to video by using a video chain, where the projector would be aimed at a wall and then the VHS/Betamax/Hi8 camcorder would be aimed at the wall as well and the video copy would be made that way.  And if the wall wasn't completely white, then you could get color in the video.  Cheap digital editor programs can change video to true b&w quite easily.

[MacGyver]

You may like to peruse the screen captures I've uploaded onto my Flickr page (among a few other random things. )   It's been a while since I've seen this, so I don't remember the Mr. Pan character offhand; I'm thinking he's probably toward the latter end of the pilot though.