Deadly Games
Entry updated 10 November 2023. Tagged: TV.
US tv series (1995-1996). Stirred, Not Shaken Productions/Rumbleseat Productions/Viacom Productions for the UPN television network. Produced by Donald L Gold, William S Kerr, and Michelle Williams. Created by Paul Bernbaum, S S Schweitzer, and Anthony Spinner. Creative Consultant: Leonard Nimoy. Directors included Christopher Hibler, Christian Nyby II and Nimoy. Writers included Birnbaum, Kate Boutiliers, William Rabkin. Cast includes James Calvert, Cynthia Gibb, Stephen T Kay and Christopher Lloyd. 13 60-minute episodes; final episode unaired. Colour.
Antimatter physicist Dr Gus Lloyd (Calvert) and his friend Dr Peter Rucker (Kay) develop a Videogame in which Lloyd is the hero, The Cold-Steel Kid, allowing him to work off the frustrations of everyday life and his recent divorce. An experiment with antimatter goes wrong and brings the videogame characters into the real world in a reversal of the usual Virtual Reality scenario. Lloyd has modelled the game's Villains on his real-life banes, such as a former employer and a divorce lawyer. He is forced to recruit ex-wife Lauren Ashborne (Gibb) – another game character – to help him and Rucker defeat these assorted foes, one per episode. Each possesses a different Superpower and can only be destroyed by certain methods. Their diabolical leader, based on Gus's father, is Jordan Kenneth Lloyd/Sebastian Jackal (Lloyd): "The Jackal" sends the lesser villains after Gus and friends, each needing to be defeated by the rules Gus originally programmed into the game. Although Gus's team invariably succeeds, the series was cancelled before the expected climax of the Jackal himself being sent back into the videogame. [GSt]
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