Man At The Top (1970 - 1973)

[Willie Oleson]

You're beginning to sound like every bored bitching suburban housewife!

Well I am a suburban housewife and if I'm bored who's to blame?

And that's really all I need. Kind of like a The Averys in England spin-off.
I hope I can watch all of it - it takes a while to get the episodes to play so if the other discs are worse then it's going to be a very short experience. Typical that this should happen with another Network release.


Hildegard Neil plays the femme fatale in episode 2.

 

[James from London]

Oh, interesting! I have the whole series on DVD but haven't got around to watching it yet. I'm planning to get to it as part of my (Re)Watching Every Series I Own in Chronological Order project.

Have you seen the original films, Room at the Top (1959) and Life at the Top (1965)?:

There's also Man at the Top, a 1973 spinoff film from the TV series:

But it was the 2012 mini-series remake of Room at the Top that prompted me to buy the series:

BBC Drama 'Room At The Top' Promo

This is "BBC Drama 'Room At The Top' Promo" by Damian Knight on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

vimeo.com

 

[Willie Oleson]

Have you seen the original films, Room at the Top (1959) and Life at the Top (1965)?

No I've never seen these, but they sure knew how to sell 'em.
"from the book's shock-provoking pages!"
"caused a storm of emotions!"
"she was French and all woman!"

Perhaps MAD MEN was the literary version of the John Braine and Harold Robbins characters.
And did Jackie Collins create the first aggressive female version in her Stud & Bitch novels?

There's also Man at the Top, a 1973 spinoff film from the TV series:

It's also on the DVD.

But it was the 2012 mini-series remake of Room at the Top that prompted me to buy the series

Hmm, two years after the BOUQUET remake (I have no intention to watch that unless someone tells me it's very very very good).

Hildegard Neil plays the femme fatale in episode 2.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention - I checked her IMDB profile, somehow I expected her filmography to fizzle out before the 1980s because it happened so often to obscure TV beauties from that era, but it didn't happen to Hildegard.
I randomly clicked on some of the titles (the best way to discover obscure gems, imo) and one of them was The Man Who Haunted Himself.
I watched the trailer without sound and I was so confused because what are the odds that they'd name their character Roger Moore who's being played by an actor who looks like Roger Moore?

 

[Willie Oleson]

I don't know where season 1 ends but since the third disc has 4 episodes instead of 3 and the story has come full circle I expect this to be end of season 1.
It's very enjoyable but not as serious as Bouquet and The Brothers. The main reason is that Joe Lampton's cheeky character sets the tone for the entire series.
The first episode is high on drama but then the story takes quite a detour with self-contained episodes that introduce the various people in Joe Lampton's life, and it's only in the last 3 or 4 episodes when situations begin to intertwine.
Some characters that are spotlit in the early episodes return, and some don't - but that also makes it unpredictable. And there are some very nice surprises (not to mention that interesting décolleté).

As for the characters, I feel there isn't very much to chew on. They all play it very well but sometimes it's a little too consistent, almost like sitcom characters.
There are times when a situation escalates and they react to it accordingly, but the reaction itself just "hangs in the air" and doesn't particularly affect them.
Two familiar faces from The Brothers showed up: Mark MacManus and the beautiful Gabrielle Drake.

I have no idea what's going to happen next, maybe a new haircut here and there.