Deadly Games | |
---|---|
Genre | Science fiction |
Created by | Paul Bernbaum S.S. Schweitzer Anthony Spinner |
Directed by | Jim Charleston Christopher Hibler Christian I. Nyby II Leonard Nimoy |
Starring | James Calvert Christopher Lloyd Cynthia Gibb Stephen T. Kay |
Composer(s) | Dennis McCarthy |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of seasons | 1 |
No. of episodes | 13 |
Production | |
Producer(s) | William S. Kerr |
Location(s) | California |
Cinematography | Billy Dickson |
Editor(s) | Bill Butler Terry Kelley |
Running time | 60 min. |
Production company(s) | Shaken, Not Stirred Productions Rumbleseat Productions Viacom Productions |
Distributor |
Paramount Domestic Television (at time of original airing) CBS Television Distribution (current) |
Release | |
Original network | UPN |
Original release | September 5, 1995 | – July 17, 1997
Deadly Games is an American action science fiction television series that appeared on UPN as part of its 1995 season. The basic plot of the show is about video game characters that come to life, re-enacting their deadly plans for wanton destruction and world domination in the real world. The series was produced by Viacom Productions (1995-aired episodes also had the logo of Paramount Network Television at the end). Much was made that Leonard Nimoy was executive producer, creative consultant and directed the pilot.
The first episode introduces the protagonist, Dr. Gus Lloyd, an Antimatter physicist, engineer and video game designer who has created a live-action game in his spare time to exert his indignant feelings about people in his life who have all made his life hell on Earth (his father, his ex-wife's mother, his ex-wife's divorce lawyer, his ex-girlfriend, his former employer, a high school football-Quarterback bully, his old camp counselor, etc.); the villains of the game are modeled after all these people. The master villain is Jackal, who is a combination of the devil and Gus' father. The Jackal wears a Vanilla white Ice Cream suit and drives a Chrysler convertible to match.
The hero is "The Cold-Steel Kid," a warrior trying to save the dying world, dons commando wear, and is naturally modeled after Gus himself, and the sometime helplessly captive, sometime active heroine The Kid is always trying to rescue — "The Girl" — is based on Lauren Ashborne, Gus' ex-wife (wearing the kind of dress of a "Damsel in distress").
In an accident involving an experimental laboratory project, Jackal and the villains step out of the game and into the real world to cause the apocalyptic carnage and domination they were programmed to for the game.