ALL SCI-FI

Pow · Last edited by Pow on Wed Sep 04, 2024 1:06 pm; edited 1 time in total

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The Pretender debuted on September 19, 1996 on NBC and ran until May 13, 2000 lasting four seasons and accumulating 86 episodes.

Two TV-movies followed and aired on TNT in 2001 and 2013.

The show was produced by MTM Enterprises along with 20th Century Fox TV.

Jarod is a genius who has the ability to rapidly master the complex skill sets required to impersonate a member of any profession. Doctor, lawyer, military jet pilot, astronaut, oceanographer, geologist, detective, you name the profession and Jarod could master it after self-taught accelerated learning.

Jarod was a child prodigy who was brought to a think tank called the Centre located in Delaware. There he was raised and instructed by some of the finest minds the world have ever known.

After reaching adulthood Jarod was able to learn that the parents who raised him and handed him over to the Centre were not his birth parents.

Jarod also learned that the benevolent Centre was in reality a black ops organization ruthlessly remaking the world in its own image. And the supremely gifted Jarod was to become a key agent for their achieving power.

Wanting no part of their evil plans and having a desire to find his real parents Jarod escapes the Centre and goes on the run.

While searching for answers to his origin and the mendacious Centre's missions, Jarod uses his unique gifts to pursue his goals.

Along the way he also adopts many professions in order to target criminals who have gone undetected or unpunished in order to bring them to justice.

The Centre is frantic in their quest to recapture Jarod.
Miss Parker is in charge of tracking down Jarod and will let nothing stop her from doing so.

So Jarod must also manage to stay at least two-steps ahead of the Centre while on his own personal missions.

Kind of The Fugitive with sci~fi elements as part of the mix.

Many shows utilize that approach but few did it as well and as fun as The Pretender did.

Michael T.Weiss was terrific as Jarod where each week we saw him morph into some kind of highly skilled professional.

He would do so in order to unearth clues as to the truth about himself, the Centre, and to help others find justice when no one else would or could.

The show was a fun blend of sci~fi, espionage, mystery, and action adventure that made for an entertaining hour each week.

Eadie · Galactic Ambassador Joined: 14 Dec 2013 Posts: 1670

All 3 seasons of The Pretender (85 of them) are available on Youtube™ Starting at:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRf1ic1jfFod9uOgezl3tkfJw9rChjvjt

Wikipedia™ article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pretender_(TV_series)
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Art Should Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable.

Bud Brewster · Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2020 4:56 pm Post subject:

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Many thanks to Mike (the Pow-man) for recommending this series, and to Miss Eadie (the Grande Dame of All Sci-Fi) for alerting me to that convenient source for all the episodes! Very Happy

Just think, guys . . . a year ago, I had to download this stuff, put it on a flash drive, plug it into my Blu-ray player, and then finally get to watch it on my TV. Sad

But now I can just tell my DISH voice remote to "Find The Pretender on YouTube" — and then binge-watch my bloody guts out!

God, I LOVE livin' in the 21st Century! Cool

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

Bud Brewster · Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2020 9:18 am Post subject:

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IMDB has an interesting trivia item about this series. Very Happy

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~ This show was partially inspired by the life of Ferdinand Demara, Jr., a genius with an eidetic memory who could master any skill just by reading a book about it.

Note from me: Accord to the Wikipedia article, the man's full name was Ferdinand Waldo Demara. The movie based on his life is The Great Imposter (1960), starring Tony Curtis — an odd bit of casting, since Demara was 6 feet tall and weight 350 pounds.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

Bud Brewster · Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2024 7:44 pm Post subject:

________________________________

IMDB has an interesting trivia item about this series. Very Happy

________________________________

~ This show was partially inspired by the life of Ferdinand Demara, Jr., a genius with an eidetic memory who could master any skill just by reading a book about it.

Note from me: Accord to the Wikipedia article, the man's full name was Ferdinand Waldo Demara. The movie based on his life is The Great Imposter (1960), starring Tony Curtis — an odd bit of casting, since Demara was 6 feet tall and weight 350 pounds.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)