Broken Pilot Saturday: 'Generation X'

Although it's difficult to imagine in 2015, there was a time when producing a new superhero-oriented feature film or TV show was a very risky idea. In the mid-1990s, Marvel had produced a string of unsuccessful projects, including the box office disaster "Howard The Duck." The film based on "The Punisher" went straight to video and the Captain America film barely grossed $10 million worldwide.

The prevailing thought at Marvel was that the company needed to focus on newer, hipper heroes and the end result was "Generation X," a 1995 pilot for Fox which was intended to be Marvel's path back to cultural significance. Based on the comic by Scott Lobdell and Chris Bachalo, the show focuses on Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. Finola Hughes played headmaster Emma Frost and Jeremy Ratchford played Banshee, the headmasters of the school. They were tasked with teaching a young group of fledgling mutants how to best harness their powers.

The pilot isn't terrible, it just suffers from a lackluster script and a surprising lack of action. Part of the problem seems to be that in the mid-1990s, it was too expensive to show elaborate mutant powers on camera, which leads to some very odd and awkward scenes. "Generation X" is worth seeing, although after seeing it you'll understand why Fox ultimately passed on the project.

There was also a couple of casting problems. Hughes was cast after a long search that included Sandra Oh and Jeremy Sisto. And fans of the comic series were unhappy with the casting of Heather McComb as Jubilee, a character was Asian in the original books.

Ultimately, the biggest impact "Generation X" had on the Marvel Universe was the location of the series. It was shot at Hatley Castle, which also serves as the home of the X-Men in their string of feature films. "Generation X" also began with this on-screen quote, which was later adopted for the X-Men films, although in the movies the quote was done as a voice-over:

Mutation: n. 1. The act of being altered or changed. 2. The illegal genetic condition [US Statute 5504178], first apparent in puberty, caused by the X factor located in the pineal gland of the brain.

So take a look at the complete pilot and let me know what you think in the comments section below: