Highlander: The Raven
| Fandom | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Highlander: The Raven |
| Abbreviation(s): | HLTR |
| Creator: | Davis-Panzer Productions, Rysher Entertainment, and Gaumont Télévision |
| Date(s): | September 26, 1998 – May 17, 1999 |
| Medium: | TV series |
| Country of Origin: | |
| External Links: | Wikipedia |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Highlander: the Raven is a spin-off TV series off the Highlander: The Series, it lasted only one season.
Originally conceived during the sixth season of Highlander, the producers originally wanted to feature a female immortal from one of that season's sixth episodes, including an episode that featured a female immortal who was partnered with a mortal man, both of whom were new faces to HL. When the actress the producers wanted was not available, the decision was made to substitute a more familiar face, that of the immortal thief, Amanda Darieux, who'd been a recurring character on the original series.
Set in both an unnamed American city (dubbed variously Torago and Chironto by fans) and in Paris, an immortal thief (Amanda) tries to go straight with the help of a former cop (Nick Wolfe). It starred Elizabeth Gracen as Amanda Darieux AKA Amanda Montrose AKA a bunch of other aliases and Paul Johansson as Nick Wolfe. The North American episodes also featured Patricia Gage as Amanda's bookkeeper and sometime partner-in-crime, Lucy Becker; as well as Hannes Jaenicke as Nick's friend and boss, Bert Meyers.
The show was filmed in both Toronto, Canada, and in Paris, France. Midway through filming the Paris episodes, the French production team abruptly lost funding, and the decision was made to change the direction of the final episodes. The show ended with the newly immortal Nick Wolfe walking away from a tearful Amanda, saying: "Once, everything was clear. Good guys, bad guys. Life and death. Then you meet someone, someone you want to love, then it all changes. Death brings life, life brings death. What room is there for love, when there can be only one?"
Initially, support for the show was mixed, not aided by the now-familiar-to-Highlander-fans problem of a syndicated show feed, where some TV stations showed it at random hours or not at all. The show's lack of many familiar Highlander elements confused many as well, starting with the lead character's backgrounds (Amanda's originally a Norman, not a Highlander) and included less focus on the bad-immortal-of-the-week. One description of the show was "Moonlighting meets Highlander."
Donna Lettow wrote in a post to the now-defunct Rysher Forum, said, "Immortality would be dead and gone from syndicated TV forever if Gaumont, the French studio that makes Highlander, hadn't catered to the buyers and offered them what they wanted -- lighthearted Moonlighting/Scarecrow & Mrs. King/Remington Steele-esque cop/spy show with banter and car chases featuring a beautiful butt-kicking woman. They also wanted fewer swordfights and smaller, more recent flashbacks."[1]. The reaction to said post was mixed, with some fans still wishing that the studio had not gone that route while others accepted that the show was not what they had hoped it would be.
Mailing Lists
Discussion for HLTR continued on the same mailing lists as for the original show, although a Yahoo!Groups list was set up specifically for discussion of said show (it was later deleted in the months following the end of the show's run.) Additionally, Rysher Entertainment hosted on its HLTR section a fan forum, where fanfic announcements were tolerated as long as they were not slash or R-rated. Rysher Entertainment closed this forum sometime in 2000.
Zines
Crossovers with Highlander:
Pairings
- Amanda Darieux/Duncan MacLeod
- Amanda Darieux/Nick Wolfe
Archives and Communities
- Highlander: The Raven tag on A03
- Highlander: The Raven tag on ff.net
Links and Resources
References
- ^ saved copy of February 13, 1999 post