M.A.N.T.I.S. -- TV's First African-American Super-Hero
"M.A.N.T.I.S." was the first TV series where the powers-that-be gave me the keys to the car and said I was in charge. This was back in 1994 when I was coming off a successful first season of the "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" series. Sandy Grushow was in charge of FBC-TV back then, and he’s somebody I will always owe a strong debt of gratitude because he’s the first guy who said I was seasoned enough to be in charge of a budget of $1.4 million per episode.
Signed copy of Episode #1 -- "First Steps"
Anyway, the deal was, "M.A.N.T.I.S." had started as a two-hour pilot, written by Sam Hamm (“Batman”) and directed by Sam Raimi (“Spider-Man”). The two Sams had a disagreement with Fox about how the series should go, and walked away from their own project. Fox still wanted to do the series, but somebody needed to make the changes and run the show. Both Hamm and Raimi were extremely gracious and understanding in the transition, nothing was made personal, and the series lived.
We produced 22 episodes in the 1994-1995 season up in Vancouver, B.C. Since the pilot had aired the previous spring, our first episode basically became a re-premising and de-facto new pilot. Some things were kept, others fine-tuned, and others outright changed. The basic concept from Hamm and Raimi, however, never changed. The series was about an African-American super-hero, played by Carl Lumbly.
By the way, that's me and Carl that summer up in Canada. I always thought wearing a tie was uncomfortable but nothing in this world could compare to wearing the rubberized M.A.N.T.I.S. suit on a muggy August afternoon. It was like being in a sauna. Carl was a saint.
The premise, in case you missed it, was simple. Dr. Miles Hawkins, a brilliant scientist, had been paralyzed in a shooting incident. Confined to a wheelchair, he created a cutting edge, sophisticated exo-skeleton designed to allow him to walk again by transmitting his brain function through the suit, rather than through his body’s crippled nervous system. Once in the suit, he was more than normal, he was super, but he couldn’t stay in it long without some serious consequences. Oh, and he had a flying car. Really…
- "This is the scientific journal of Dr. Miles Hawkins, to be published in the event of my death. I know when the truth is known, people will wonder why I felt it necessary to create the M.A.N.T.I.S. The reality--I never did. The M.A.N.T.I.S. asked his own creation and I could not refuse him."
The copy above was the voice-over I’d written for the first episode. The “scientific journal” aspect allowed Hawkins a degree of introspection we felt was appropriate for his character.
Ironically, nobody in the pilot had ever decided what "M.A.N.T.I.S." stood for, despite the periods. One of my first jobs was to decide that burning issue. Frankly, I think originally my predecessors had thought of it more as Mantis, as in Preying, and wanted to fashion a super-hero in that image. Apparently, though, there had been at some point in history a not-very-widely read comicbook of the same name. That’s how the periods came about. You see, NOW, it was completely different.
So, by the time I inherited the name and the periods, it had become an issue. I remember sitting at my desk with a pen and a piece of paper and playing with words. It came spilling out, on the first try, I believe.
- Mechanically
- Augmented
- Neuro
- Transmitter
- Interactive
- System
There. Now you know. I'm not claiming genius or anything, but it worked, and we moved on to more pressing challenges. One of them was that while shooting that first episode, it became necessary to replace our line producer. Thankfully, Tim Iacafano came aboard on no notice, stayed the duration and did a fantastic job.
The rest of the team included supervising producer Mark Lisson, producer Paris Qualles, creative consultant Coleman Luck, co-producer Brad Markowitz and story editor David Ransil. We were on the Universal lot, breaking stories in a wonderful old building that was marked for the wrecking ball to make room for the Jurassic Park ride in the middle of our production order.
We started out the series with the idea that it was a very real world and M.A.N.T.I.S. was the singular fantasy element. A half dozen or more episodes in, we realized that wasn’t working like it was supposed to, and we changed tactics mid-season. For the final episodes, M.A.N.T.I.S. dealt with increasingly strange sci-fi type premises with my good friend Coleman Luck taking lead.
Unfortunately, that didn’t work either and Fox killed the series. Knowing cancellation was imminent, we even killed Hawkins off in the final episode. That scientific journal, it was now revealed, had told the story of his transformation and adventures from beyond the grave.
Well, actually, we left just a little bit of room for survival, maybe. After all, hope springs eternal in television.
A couple of years ago, when I was running the TV Academy, I got to re-connect with Carl when we did an "Alias" panel. It was like seeing a friend who'd I'd been in battle with. Those kinds of memories only get better with the years.
