Men In Black - from movie to TV series

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Spengbab

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I have the first season of Men In Black: The Series on video but never got to see the rest of the show since no more seasons were released. Did they ever explain how the story progressed from the first movie to the series? If not, does anyone care to speculate?
 
Not really that I can recall, except for one episode in season two called "The Big Bad Bug". I believe it shows you a flashback of Elle killing "Edgar", which is close to the movie's version of the events. The episode is about bugs coming to Earth to get Elle for killing Edgar.

The only difference seems to be that Kay didn't retire, other than that, it seems to follow the movie's events directly.
 
If memory serves, it was never explained how Kay returned to the agency, but it was never really an issue as Kay and Jay remained partners, with Elle working in the lab.

I wish you could have seen the other seasons, as the show went through a little bit of changes from season 1 to 2, and then continues to progress.

One thing I did notice though, was that themes from the film plot were carried over into the show and became elements of episodes.
 
I'm kind of wondering why this show hasn't been back on television. You'd think at least Jetix would air it since they picked up a lot of Kid's WB's old shows (Jackie Chan, The Mummy, Superman/Batman, etc.)
 
Maybe if there's a high enough demand for it, Time Life will release it as a complete set like they're doing with The Real Ghostbusters currently. I'd imagine they'd come up with some great bonus features for it.

The show had, what 54 episodes? Yeah, a nice little 8 disc set would work out perfectly.
 
I've always thought of the movies and the animate series as taking place in similar but subtly different alternate universes. It always bugged my how Elle was written out of MIBII after being such a staple of the cartoon. Of course if I had my way Alpha would have been the main villain of the second movie.
 
I guess I always figured that K would be standing there when J tried to drive the LTD after neuralizing K at the end of the movie. That would be so like K.

I suppose the whole thing at the end of the movie could have been a test for J to see if he would follow orders. Or maybe K was going off on a top-secret mission and let everyone think he had been neuralized. K could've been wearing secret contact lenses that kept him from really being neuralized.

Anyways...

I would love to have the show on DVD but I would settle for seeing it on Cartoon Network. The movie seems like the perfect kick-off to showing the series on television. I imagine the Cartoon Network version of the movie will be edited but you can always watch the full movie on hulu and the DVD is probably dirt-cheap, too.

I never understood why this series never made it to video. Did it not sell well? I've started collecting the series three separate times but was never able to get more than a few episodes:

1) USA releases on VHS - there were only three tapes. I hate VHS but it's all that was released.

2) UK release on DVD - one DVD with three episodes. I picked that up years ago and that's all there was.

3) Indonesia release on VCD - seven VCD's with the entire first season. It's still the best set available, as far as I know.

If they don't think it will sell on DVD, why not at least put it on television, hulu, Amazon VOD, or maybe the burn-on-demand option? Heck, I'd even settle for i-Tunes and I don't even own an i-Pod. Not having it out there makes them no money at all.



I guess I've always thought of the movie as the alternate universe. I was a big fan of the comics before seeing the movie but really loved the television series. Even when I read the book, in my mind, I pictured/heard the characters of J, K, and L from the series instead of the movie. The voice actors for the series have the characters down perfectly.
 
I don't think the sequel was terrible - there were moments I enjoyed. But overall, I don't think it was very good. I definitely think the series was a lot better. But I love the series as much as the first film.

I liked Elle in the movie, but I loved her in the cartoon and it was disappointing how poorly she was written out in the sequel.

It's interesting watching the first season and then watching the second because of the animation change. I think it's especially noticable with Kay and Jay. I honestly prefer the animation in season two and beyond. Not that I dislike season one whatsoever, but I like the look of the later seasons more.



I thought of that, too! And I thought it would be absolutely awesome because that's the kind of story that would make a great movie. It would have given Jones and Smith a lot better concept/script to work with, that's for sure.
 
Yeah, MIB II had that feeling of being rushed just for the sake of getting the sequel out. It needed a stronger story arc to balance out Kay's return, and definately a better way to write out Elle if she wasn't coming back. What, they couldn't recast her or say she's working in the tech lab?
 
It did feel rushed to me, too....which is sort of funny since it took them five years to get a sequel made. Many sequels are made within three years apart. Kay's return should have had a stronger story arc supporting it.


The throwaway, senseless line about Elle in MIIB bugged me as well.
 
Sony wanted to make it sooner, but Will Smith had a big head and Barry Sonnenfeld complained he was underpaid for the first one.

Sonnenfeld even basically admitted in interviews, "I got paid for this one what I was supposed to be paid for the first one."

No wonder this terrible sequel was a bloated, over-expensive mess.

Will Smith did it because he was in a big slump at the time after Bagger Vance and Ali.

My biggest problem with the movie is that they totally wasted Patrick Warburton's character. I was so excited when I heard he was in the movie then it just turned out to be nothing more than about 5 minutes of screentime. Felt so ripped off. They totally wasted the Warburton.
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I barely remember the movie sequel beyond the fact that K came back and L wasn't in it. I saw it once in the theater and it was very forgettable.

Of course, I still hope for a third movie. I can always hope a new would be good and would get the series out on DVD in a cross-promotion.

The series seems like it would have been a perfect run for October on Cartoon Network; most of the aliens have a "monster" look to them.
 
I actually rewatched MIIB recently, and I actually enjoyed it a bit more than I did when I first saw it back in theaters. I was so disappointed. But it was too rushed, the product placement irritates me, and the villain was crap.

I think I'll forever wonder what the Alpha storyline would have been like in a MIB movie, though. I'll always wish they had done that.

I didn't much notice it the first time 'cause I hated the character, but Charlie's extra head seems rather like the symbiote in the series.

I would still love to see an MIIIB, though, and the series released to dvd where it belongs. I'm not sure if I watched all of the season four episodes. I didn't care much for season four because of the additions of Zeeltor and X (hated both of them), I do think I saw the "Endgame" episode, though.





They should have just kept Tee around up until Kay returned instead of overusing Frank the Pug.
 
Jay has a throwaway line while he's talking to Zed in the sequel after he neuralized Tee that "she wanted to go back to the morgue, I just helped her".
 
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