V is for NoVember

In answer to your question, Philip from Atlanta, from today's Must Hear TV segment on The Frank DeCaro Show on Sirius XM OutQ, V is coming to ABC, starting November 3.

According to the network's press release, "'V' is a re-imagining of the 1980s miniseries about the world's first encounter with an alien race. Simultaneously appearing over every major city in the world, the Visitors (or V's) promote a message of peace. Through their generous offer to share advanced technology, the V's build a following that may actually hide a more malevolent agenda, one that twists a very deep component of human nature -- devotion."

The original show's baddies -- led by the vixenish, appropriately named Jane Badler -- were a bunch of rodent-gobbling lizard people covered in fake human skin, here to harvest us for food. And so the series was not, I learned with some disappointment back in 1982, about my strict 8th grade math teacher Mrs. Vastola, as had been widely rumored around Schuyler-Colfax Junior High School in Wayne, NJ.

The cast of this new remake boasts quite a few viewer favorites, including Lost's Elizabeth Mitchell as resistance leader Erica Evans, and Scott Wolf (formerly of Party of Five, and not to be confused his costar from that show, Lost's Matthew Fox -- got that?) as journalist Chad Decker.

I'm excited for the remake -- if only to see the concept executed better this time around. Because let's face it -- if you're around my age, you may have nostalgia for the original, but if you think back on it, it was pretty bad. But meanwhile, these days, remakes of sci-fi -- witness Battlestar Galactica -- are smarter, deeper, and lavished with impressive special effects. So will this new V delve deeper into the allegory of fascism as depicted in our relationship with our new alien overlords?

And more importantly, will Morena Baccarin, as the Visitors' leader Anna, unhinge her jaw a la the original alien baddie Diana to swallow a rat whole? Come to think of it, even if this new V is spectacular, a part of me will always miss the cheesy special effects (and Mrs. Vastola, who turned out to be an amazing teacher.)

PS -- I know she was on Falcon Crest afterwards, but whatever happened to Jane Badler? Anyone?