MovieChat Forums > Martial Law (1998) Discussion > Behind the scenes

Behind the scenes

posted 18 years ago by SmallYeti
11 replies | jump to latest

On one of my hunts for Martial Law DVDs I found loads of information about behind the scenes at Martial Law.

Most of this came from Lee Goldberg's site. He implies various bits and pieces.

It seems both Sammo and Arsenio Hall were really difficult to work with (which makes me so sad because Sammo always seems so lovely on the show, but that's not real life I guess). On the other hand Kelly Hu and Gretchen Egolf were lovely.

Sammo requested Melanie George (Sammo's girlfriend in season 1) be written out also. Which is a shame because I liked her in the series.

Finally it was Lee Goldberg's and Bill Rabkin's decision to write out Louis and Captin Winship.

Anyone else have any behind the scenes stuff?

I miss this show - there are no repeats planned in the UK yet and I can't find anyone who has copies. They should hurry up and bring out the DVDs already!!

[–] Adampoppy1 18 years ago

Hi. In reply to your post,itv4 have just started showing this series from the 1st episode as of 12/06/06. I also really enjoyed this show when i saw it first time round and thought it a shame that they did'nt make more. Hope you get most of them copied!

[–] SmallYeti 18 years ago

I managed to get DVDs from taped programs, which is better than nothing. I have all the episodes though so I'm really happy.

Thanks for the info though!

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Snusmumrikken 16 years ago

I don`t belive Sammo was difficult to work with. He does not seem like that kind of person. I also think it was stupid to write Melanie out of the series.

Slice of life

[–] wmlopez 7 years ago

Melanie was wonderful.

[–] Cognoscente (2470) 3 years ago

In this article I found, there was a Usenet post from Lee Goldberg where he told Jeff Pruitt: "As far as the girlfriend goes, none of us felt that storyline was going anywhere and made Sammo look like an adolescent."

https://popcultmaster.com/2017/12/27/pride-before-a-fall-in-ratings/

[–] WilloughbyStain (194) 3 years ago

As much as I like him reading between the lines I guessed Hung might have been a bit difficult. Jackie Chan was much the same; I think a lot of the East Asian action starts experienced a real culture clash when they came to Hollywood in the 90s/00s, they were used to a level of creative control and scale of stunts that the American system (and insurance companies) just didn't allow. It was no secret Chan didn't think much of his US films, and on the publicity tour for Rush Hour 3 Chan not only admitted he didn't "get" the film, he said The Forbidden Kingdom, which would come out a full 8 month later, wasn't any good! Probably didn't endear him to the industry too much. Still, Chan was making huge budget movies that brought in hundreds of millions in revue all over the world, whereas Hung was making a TV show with a troubled production and middling ratings.

Arsenio Hall has been doing the publicity rounds for Coming 2 America. Haven't heard him mention Martial Law despite it being one of the more notable and significant projects he's been involved in over the last 25 years. Suspect it's not a fond memory for him.

[–] AnubisRaydeen (7897) 3 years ago

Sammo expected a level of professionalism and dedication that wasn't present on the set. He comes from an industry where they work about 300% harder than in the US (in ways that could be considered in violation of human rights but, hey, our basketball sifus say it's OK). Sammo is a nice guy but did not mix well with back-slapping, trailer-squatting, cocaine-Hollywood.

Arsenio was a mistake.

[–] Cognoscente (2470) 3 years ago

They should have got Dave Chappelle to be his black sidekick.

[–] AnubisRaydeen (7897) 3 years ago

Oh yes!

[–] Moonglum9 (10729) 3 years ago

Lol @ our basketball sifus