What Might've Been: Sable (1987)

In the 80's, Mike Grell had left DC Comics and took his talents to other publishers. One of his creations, Jon Sable, Freelance, was good enough to be adapted for television. Unfortunately, the transition was botched.

Originally, the producers envisioned Kiss bassist-vocalist Gene Simmons, who was doing some moonlighting as an actor away from the band, as Sable, but early rushes showed that Simmons wasn't in as good physical condition as they would've liked, so a relative unknown, Lewis Van Bergen, replaced Simmons.

There were other issues. Feeling that Grell's vision struck too close to Marvel's Punisher to risk any litigation, the producers decided to add a touch of The Fugitive by deciding that Sable was wanted for killing the man responsible for killing Sable's family. Implausible? Yep.

First Comics, which acquired the rights to Sable, relaunched the series, although one of the supporting characters, Maggie the Cat, would move to Image in the 90's, to coincide with the TV show, which lasted 7 episodes, ending in January 1988.

The other problem? Wrong night of the week. ABC aired it on Saturday nights, at 8 (ET), perhaps a wee bit too early, since this was definitely not for the kiddo's to latch onto.

Here's the intro:




Ironically, around the time Sable ended, Grell returned to DC to write & draw a Green Arrow miniseries, perhaps inspired by his Sable work.

Rating: B.