Can you help me remember the title of that show?
Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 11:09 am
I've been trying like mad to remember the title of a TV show I enjoyed in the late 90s.
The plot was that a mysterious secret organisation, represented on screen, had recruited three master-criminals to do basically "Mission Impossible" type stuff. The vibe was fairly similar, basically the present day world with next-weeks future added to it.
The main characters were:
Old guy, the boss, represented the mysterious organisation. White haired caucasian, I think (not sure about him, though, only in one or two scenes per film).
Pretty girl, in her 20s, described as a "professional jewel thief" if I recall. Blonde caucasian.
Pretty dude, in his 20s, long-ish hair, I think he was supposed to be a stage magician/bank robber/conman or something. Dark haired caucasian.
Madevil, good-looking "computer criminal" or hacker, early 20s, glasses. African American.
The three main characters had been recruited into the secret organisation against their will, with the use of subtle blackmail and outright threats.
Each episode would begin with the three of them being summoned from whatever they were respectively doing to report to hq, which was a stylishly appointed victorian mansion.
Instead of a phonecall or self-destructing tape machine, they'd find the symbol of the secret organisation placed in front of them, in an entirely unexpected manner. It might be printed on a napking, it might be on TV, or they might just find the (literal) calling card appearing as if out of nowhere.
The symbol was a sort of globe or sphere, if I recall, something like (but not entirely like) this:
In one episode, another unwilling recruit found out about his new calling when, just as he thought the cops would get him, his fax machine spat out a plain page with just that symbol on it.
That particular character was a shady, black-market dealer character, in his effin teens, who, in his warehouse, had among other things one of the original lifeboats of the Titanic. He was a recurring character who could lay his hands on anything (how convenient...).
In order to get from job to job, the trio or main characters had at their disposal a pimped-out 727 with a James-Bondesque interior.
The one episode I can recall in some detail involved the urgent need to stop a nuclear missile from launching itself.
On their way there, they get stuck in the woods, so hacker-dude improvises the signal of the automatic distress beacon of a Soviet era long-range bomber, thus drawing the attention of an overeager cold-warrior air force general who just happens to be pimping around his his UH-1. Hacker-dude then proceeds to fly them to the silo with the copter, only to tell the other two that he doesn't know how to land it, as he only ever flew a chopper in the simulator...Microsoft Flight Simulator, that is. They eventually get down to earth by parachute. The episode culminates with the nuclear missile exploding (or very nearly almost exploding) harmlessly in the silo. The interior shots of the silo featured a ridiculous control room from which the silo crew was looking at the missile through a big old panoramic window. The silo was also hidden in mountainous woods, with tall trees all around the silo doors, so all in all, not the most realistic show.
I don't think it could have run for more than a season, maybe two, and I can't even recall the german TV title, I don't think I ever knew the original title.
Do you know it? Do you maybe know the name of at least one of the actors involved? Or the network it was on?
I'm posting this in the grinder to give it some exposure.
The plot was that a mysterious secret organisation, represented on screen, had recruited three master-criminals to do basically "Mission Impossible" type stuff. The vibe was fairly similar, basically the present day world with next-weeks future added to it.
The main characters were:
Old guy, the boss, represented the mysterious organisation. White haired caucasian, I think (not sure about him, though, only in one or two scenes per film).
Pretty girl, in her 20s, described as a "professional jewel thief" if I recall. Blonde caucasian.
Pretty dude, in his 20s, long-ish hair, I think he was supposed to be a stage magician/bank robber/conman or something. Dark haired caucasian.
Madevil, good-looking "computer criminal" or hacker, early 20s, glasses. African American.
The three main characters had been recruited into the secret organisation against their will, with the use of subtle blackmail and outright threats.
Each episode would begin with the three of them being summoned from whatever they were respectively doing to report to hq, which was a stylishly appointed victorian mansion.
Instead of a phonecall or self-destructing tape machine, they'd find the symbol of the secret organisation placed in front of them, in an entirely unexpected manner. It might be printed on a napking, it might be on TV, or they might just find the (literal) calling card appearing as if out of nowhere.
The symbol was a sort of globe or sphere, if I recall, something like (but not entirely like) this:
In one episode, another unwilling recruit found out about his new calling when, just as he thought the cops would get him, his fax machine spat out a plain page with just that symbol on it.
That particular character was a shady, black-market dealer character, in his effin teens, who, in his warehouse, had among other things one of the original lifeboats of the Titanic. He was a recurring character who could lay his hands on anything (how convenient...).
In order to get from job to job, the trio or main characters had at their disposal a pimped-out 727 with a James-Bondesque interior.
The one episode I can recall in some detail involved the urgent need to stop a nuclear missile from launching itself.
On their way there, they get stuck in the woods, so hacker-dude improvises the signal of the automatic distress beacon of a Soviet era long-range bomber, thus drawing the attention of an overeager cold-warrior air force general who just happens to be pimping around his his UH-1. Hacker-dude then proceeds to fly them to the silo with the copter, only to tell the other two that he doesn't know how to land it, as he only ever flew a chopper in the simulator...Microsoft Flight Simulator, that is. They eventually get down to earth by parachute. The episode culminates with the nuclear missile exploding (or very nearly almost exploding) harmlessly in the silo. The interior shots of the silo featured a ridiculous control room from which the silo crew was looking at the missile through a big old panoramic window. The silo was also hidden in mountainous woods, with tall trees all around the silo doors, so all in all, not the most realistic show.
I don't think it could have run for more than a season, maybe two, and I can't even recall the german TV title, I don't think I ever knew the original title.
Do you know it? Do you maybe know the name of at least one of the actors involved? Or the network it was on?
I'm posting this in the grinder to give it some exposure.