Strange Luck | |
---|---|
Created by | Karl Schaefer |
Starring | D. B. Sweeney Pamela Gidley Cynthia Martells Frances Fisher |
Composer | Mark Mothersbaugh |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 1 |
No. of episodes | 17 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Running time | 60 minutes |
Production companies | MT2 Services Unreality, Inc. New World Entertainment |
Original release | |
Network | Fox |
Release | September 15, 1995 – February 23, 1996 |
Strange Luck is an American television series that aired on Fox, created by Karl Schaefer and starring D. B. Sweeney in the role of Chance Harper who constantly stumbles into unusual situations. The series aired on Fox from 1995 to 1996. A total of seventeen episodes were aired before the show was canceled due to low ratings. Reruns were shown briefly on the Sci Fi Channel in 1997. The series was initially slotted as a lead-in to The X-Files on Friday nights, and was largely shot in Canada like the show which followed it. [1]
Chance Harper, a freelance photographer, is afflicted with a bizarre tendency to always be in the wrong place at the right time. As Chance himself says, "If I go to a restaurant, somebody chokes. If I walk into a bank, it gets robbed." Harper's strange luck began when, as a small child, he was the sole survivor of a plane crash that killed everyone else aboard, including his mother and sister.
D. B. Sweeney had been primarily a film actor before taking the role of Chance Harper. He did so because he had a series of unsuccessful low-budget films and decided to try his hand at television. He commented that "Fox has spent more time and money and effort promoting me and this show than all of my movies put together" [2]
No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "Soul Survivor" | David Carson | Karl Schaefer | September 15, 1995 |
2 | "Over Exposure" | David Jackson | John J. Sakmar & Kerry Lenhart | September 22, 1995 |
3 | "Last Chance" | Ralph Hemecker | Michael Cassutt | September 29, 1995 |
4 | "She Was" | Elodie Keene | Karl Schaefer | October 6, 1995 |
5 | "Blind Man's Bluff" | John McPherson | Melinda M. Snodgrass | October 13, 1995 |
6 | "Angie's Turn" | Greg Beeman | Cathryn Michon | October 20, 1995 |
7 | "Hat Trick" | Martha Mitchell | Matt Dearborn | November 3, 1995 |
8 | "The Liver Wild" | David Jackson | John J. Sakmar & Kerry Lenhart | November 10, 1995 |
9 | "Walk Away" | James Whitmore Jr. | Page Turner | November 17, 1995 |
10 | "The Box" | John T. Kretchmer | Michael Cassutt | December 1, 1995 |
11 | "Brothers Grim" | Greg Beeman | John J. Sakmar & Kerry Lenhart | December 8, 1995 |
12 | "Trial Period" | David Jackson | Matt Dearborn | December 15, 1995 |
13 | "Healing Hands" | John T. Kretchmer | Scott Smith Miller | January 5, 1996 |
14 | "Wrong Number" | Mark Sobel | Michael Cassutt | January 19, 1996 |
15 | "In Sickness and in Wealth" | Scott Brazil | Babs Greyhosky | February 2, 1996 |
16 | "Blinded by the Son" | Jim Charleston | Andy Hedden & Rob Hedden | February 9, 1996 |
17 | "Struck by Lighting" | Brad Turner | Eric Overmyer | February 23, 1996 |
Year | Association | Category | Nominated artist/work | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
1996 | Primetime Emmy Award | Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series | Andrew Spencer Dawson (supervising editor), Stacey Nakasone (dialogue editor), Rich Cusano (sound effects editor), Richard Webb (sound effects editor) For episode "The Liver Wild". | Nominated |
Leslie William Nielsen was a Canadian-American actor and comedian. With a career spanning 60 years, he appeared in more than 100 films and 150 television programs, portraying more than 220 characters.
Daniel Louis Castellaneta is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for voicing Homer Simpson on the animated series The Simpsons. Castellaneta is also known for voicing Grandpa in Nickelodeon's Hey Arnold!, and has had voice roles in several other programs, including Futurama, Sibs, Darkwing Duck, The Adventures of Dynamo Duck, The Batman, Back to the Future: The Animated Series, Aladdin, Earthworm Jim, and Taz-Mania.
Henry Albert "Hank" Azaria is an American actor, comedian, and producer. He is known for voicing many characters in the long-running animated sitcom The Simpsons since 1989, including Moe Szyslak, Chief Wiggum, Comic Book Guy, Snake Jailbird, Professor Frink, and formerly Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, Lou, Carl Carlson, among others. Azaria joined the show with little voice acting experience, but became a regular in its second season. For his work on the show, he has won four Primetime Emmy Awards.
Christopher Carl Carter is an American television and film producer, director and writer who gained fame in the 1990s as the creator of the Fox science fiction supernatural drama series The X-Files.
Martin James Landau was an American actor, acting coach, producer, and editorial cartoonist. His career began in the 1950s, with early film appearances including a supporting role in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959). His career breakthrough came with leading roles in the television series Mission: Impossible (1966–1969) and Space: 1999 (1975–1977).
Larry Martin Hagman was an American film and television actor, director, and producer, best known for playing ruthless oil baron J. R. Ewing in the 1978–1991 primetime television soap opera Dallas, and the befuddled astronaut Major Anthony Nelson in the 1965–1970 sitcom I Dream of Jeannie. Hagman had supporting roles in numerous films, including Fail-Safe, Harry and Tonto, S.O.B., Nixon, and Primary Colors. His television appearances also included guest roles on dozens of shows spanning from the late 1950s until his death, and a reprise of his signature role on the 2012 revival of Dallas. Hagman also worked as a television producer and director. He was the son of actress Mary Martin. Hagman underwent a life-saving liver transplant in 1995. He died on November 23, 2012, from complications of acute myeloid leukemia.
James Brolin is an American actor. Brolin has won two Golden Globes and an Emmy. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on August 27, 1998. He is the father of actor Josh Brolin and the husband of Barbra Streisand.
Daniel Bernard Sweeney is an American actor, known for his roles as Jackie Willow in Francis Ford Coppola's Gardens of Stone (1987), Lt. Phil Lowenthal in Memphis Belle (1990), and Travis Walton in Fire in the Sky (1993). He also starred in films such as The Cutting Edge (1992), Shoeless Joe Jackson in Eight Men Out (1988), Dinosaur (2000), and Brother Bear (2003).
Robert John Wagner Jr. is an American actor of stage, screen, and television. He is known for starring in the television shows It Takes a Thief (1968–1970), Switch (1975–1978), and Hart to Hart (1979–1984). He later had recurring roles on Two and a Half Men (2007–2008) and NCIS (2010–2019).
Our Man Flint is a 1966 American spy-fi comedy film that parodies the James Bond film series. The film was directed by Daniel Mann, written by Hal Fimberg and Ben Starr, and starred James Coburn as master spy Derek Flint. A sequel, In Like Flint, was released the following year, with Coburn reprising his role.
Maggie Roswell is an American actress, comedian, writer and producer from Los Angeles, California. She is well known for her voice work on the Fox network animated television series The Simpsons, in which she has played recurring characters such as Maude Flanders, Helen Lovejoy, Miss Hoover, and Luann Van Houten, as well as several minor characters. This work has earned her an Annie Award nomination.
FBI Assistant Director Walter Sergei Skinner is a fictional character portrayed by American actor Mitch Pileggi on The X-Files and its short-lived spin-off The Lone Gunmen, both broadcast on Fox.
The Simpsonsshorts are a series of animated short films that aired as a recurring segment on Fox variety television series The Tracey Ullman Show for three seasons, before the characters spun off into The Simpsons, their own half-hour prime-time show. They feature Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie, and a few secondary characters. The series was created by Matt Groening, who designed the Simpson family and wrote many of the shorts. The shorts first aired on April 19, 1987 starting with "Good Night". The final short to air was "TV Simpsons", originally airing on May 14, 1989. The Simpsons later debuted on December 17, 1989, as an independent series with the Christmas special "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire".
Kenneth "Chi" McBride is an American actor. He has appeared in films, where he is known primarily as a character actor, and in television, where he has had numerous starring roles.
"Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming" is the ninth episode of the seventh season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 26, 1995. In this episode, Sideshow Bob attempts to rid Springfield of television by threatening to detonate an atomic bomb. When that backfires, he attempts to kill Bart once again, but this time along with Krusty the Clown.
Night Visions is an American television horror anthology series, with each episode comprising two half-hour stories dealing with themes of the supernatural or simply the dark side of human nature. It was produced by Warner Bros. Television for the Fox network, originally airing from 2001 to 2002. Musician Henry Rollins was the uncredited host of the show.
"Pilot" is the pilot episode of the science fiction television series The X-Files. The episode aired on September 10, 1993, on the Fox network in the United States and Canada, and subsequently aired in the United Kingdom on BBC Two. The episode was written by series creator Chris Carter, and directed by Robert Mandel. As the pilot, it would set up the mythology storyline for the series. The episode earned a Nielsen rating of 7.9 and was viewed by 7.4 million households and 12.0 million viewers. The episode itself was generally well received by fans and critics alike, which led to a growing cult following for the series before it hit the mainstream.
"Terms of Endearment" is the seventh episode of the sixth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files, and originally aired on the Fox network on January 3, 1999. Written by David Amann and directed by Rob Bowman, "Terms of Endearment" is a "Monster-of-the-Week" story, unconnected to the series' wider mythology. It earned a Nielsen rating of 10.5 and was watched by 18.7 million people on its initial broadcast. The performance given by guest actor Bruce Campbell attracted positive comments, but the plot was criticized.
Good Luck Charlie is an American sitcom that aired on Disney Channel from April 4, 2010, to February 16, 2014. The series' creators, Phil Baker and Drew Vaupen, wanted to create a program that would appeal to entire families, not just children. It focuses on the Duncan family of Denver as they adjust to the births of their fourth and fifth children, Charlotte "Charlie" and Toby. In each episode, Teddy Duncan adds to a video diary that contains advice for Charlie about their family and life as a teenager. Teddy tries to show Charlie what she might go through when she is older for future reference. Each video diary ends with Teddy saying the eponymous phrase, "Good luck, Charlie".
British-born American actress Frances Fisher started her acting career in theater after moving to New York. She had a successful 14-year stage career in regional and off-Broadway productions before she was cast as Deborah Saxon in the television mystery crime drama series and soap opera The Edge of Night (1976–1981). She has appeared in numerous television series, including minor reoccurring roles on Guiding Light (1985), Becker (1999), Titus (2002), The Lyon's Den (2003), The Shield (2008), Eureka (2008), Touch (2013), Masters of Sex (2015–2016), and Watchmen (2019). She also had main roles in Strange Luck with D. B. Sweeney (1995), Glory Days with Eddie Cahill (2002), and Resurrection with Kurtwood Smith (2014–2015).