A 90's TV Deep Dive.
Updated: Apr 19, 2018
In this week's Movie Podcast episode, we look at the movie "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou". During the episode, we reference the 1993 television flop "SeaQuest DSV".
The show was basically an attempt to recreate Star Trek under the ocean. The premise was simple; in the year 2018, mankind has exhausted almost all natural resources, except for the ones on the ocean floor. Several colonies have been built at the bottom of the ocean and the objective of the SeaQuest's crew is to protect the colonies from hostile nations and engage in oceanic research.
The show starred Roy Scheider of "Jaws" fame as Captain Bridger, 1990's teen heart throb Jonathan Brandis as Lucas, the computer prodigy, and a dolphin named "Darwin" who is able to communicate with the crew using technology.
Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment as well as Universal Studios produced the show for NBC. What could possibly go wrong?
Well... the show was not that great and it really was just another Star Trek ripoff. The first season basically dealt with ocean and environmental issues along with the relationships of the crew members. It seemed doomed to fail when NBC often bumped the episodes for sports or special broadcasting.
SeaQuest ran for 3 seasons and was never really able to catch on. It's one of those shows people vaguely remember and look back on and wonder if it ever really existed.