Firehouse - 1973

There seems to be a lot of these TV pilots turned into movies on these boxsets, both the Sci Fi Invasion set and this 70's boxset.  I bet I run into more on the 80's set as well.  I wonder if they still would ever do this with a pilot?  I mean if you film a hour long pilot to a show, and then decide not to make the show, you still have a supposedly interesting idea which is half done.  Could just sorta, I dunno, finish it and slam it into theaters, onto TV, or Amazon or whatever?

Firehouse was going to be a TV show about a black firefighter who comes to work in a all white firehouse in New York.  The tensions there would be palpable, as the firefighters put him through a normal hazing ritual made worse by racial tension.  Additionally, the black firefighter would have inner conflict due to his supposedly "white" job and leanings, thus separating him from other black men.  Throw in the general racial stuff in the 70's and you're gold.

It succeeded, I'd say.  I put this on because I started a new Swinging 70's movie disc last night, and reading the descriptions I knew this would be the shortest movie.  This thing is like an hour and ten minutes long, so I was for sure right on there.  And it played out about as decently as one might expect.

Richard Roundtree plays Shelly.  He's a former criminal, but somehow became a firefighter after.  He's married to a loving wife, and he gets on at a local NY firehouse after one of them dies in a fire that's later ruled an arson.  The tension in NY is high, as the black people in the ghetto fight against the oppression they're facing.  In the firehouse, the other firefighters range from uncaring to outright racist.  When it's discovered the arson was started by a black man, and later when Shelly lets a young black man go because he swears he didn't start another fire, the tension in the firehouse builds.

Fill in some interesting comedic and character moments, and we eventually see Shelly begin to make a place for himself in the house.  The main guy against him, Billy, is a hard working 3rd generation Italian firefighter, who is mainly angry at the newborn hatred all of society has for the government.  A lot of black men are against the government, and given that the government signs his paycheck, he is understandably mad at the situation.  The movie does do a good job of giving the characters enough relate-able moments each.

I feel like the effects, all real fire and stuff, were pretty awesome.  The realism of the movie helps.  It's about 60% dialogue and tension, 30% fire, 10% nothing.  The nothing flies by though, since the movie is so short.  I did wonder who the target audience would be, though.  It's not blaxploitation enough for that fan base, and its both a bit depressing and very progressive.  So I guess that's maybe why it didn't become a show.

Either way, it's entertaining and well acted.  The relationship between Roundtree and his wife was really well done.   The Firehouse idea would later spawn a TV show, although with the race angle dropped.  It ran for one season, obviously not making a huge impact on the TV world.  I can't really love this or hate it, but I feel like it lands on the "like" side of the coin.  So, three stars.