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Review:
The Famous Jett Jackson
Written
by Rick Ellis, October 17th, 1998
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The Disney Channel
has never been known for particularly strong original programming.
For years, it depended on its cartoon archive, broadcast network
reruns and endless supply of programming from the Sixties. I swear,
I never realized that Kurt Russell and Herbie the Love Bug spent
so much time in front of the camera in that decade.
But as the
network has positioned itself as a basic cable channel, it's ramped
up the quality of its production and has now delivered two entertaining
projects in a row. Following last week's holiday themed Halloweentown,
comes Jett Jackson. And while the two shows couldn't be less
similiar, the one thing they do have in common is the determination
to entertain the pre-and-early teen set. If you like Nickelodeon
or ABC's TGIF, you're gonna love this series.
Jett Jackson
really is famous. He's the star of a high-powered action series,
and he's instantly recognizable wherever he goes. Unfortunately,
he's just a 13-year-old actor playing an action hero named "Silverstone."
And wherever he goes, he finds himself being referred to as Silverstone,
and the real life Jett has just about had enough. He's tired of
the lifestyle and the fame and the oppressive press coverage. And
he's *really* tired of being thought of as Silverstone. So he convinces
his studio to let him move back the entire production back to his
hometown of Wilsted, North Carolina.
As you might
imagine, things don't go quite as Jett had planned. His hometown
fans are as rabid as the ones back in Hollywood, and his best friend
JB Halliburton (Ryan Sommers Baum) is more than a little starstruck.
The simple life seems out of reach for Jett, as his fans expect
him to be that tv action figure in real life too.
This show isn't
full of a lot of twists, but it is a lot of light- hearted fun.
It was created and produced by two alumni of the PBS series Ghostwriter.
And it has a lot of the breezy humor of that show, with Jett being
thrown each week into some small bit of peril and action. The cast
is solid, and works well as an ensemble. It's good family fun, and
if Disney had been smarter, they might have considered airing this
on ABC as part of that TGIF block. If I was 10 or 12 years old,
I'd like this show, and nowadays, that's more than most shows give
you.
The Famous
Jett Jackson airs beginning on Sunday, October 25th at 3:00pm
ET/PT.
THE CAST:
Jett Jackson..........Lee
Thompson Young JB Halliburton........Ryan Sommers Baum Kayla West............Kerry
Duff Wood Jackson..........Gordon Greene Miz Coretta...........Montrose
Hagins
It's co-produced
by Liz Nealon and Fracaswell Hyman.
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