The 100 Lives of Black Jack Savage

The 100 Lives of Black Jack Savage
Genre	Comedy
Created by	James Wong Glen Morgan Stephen J. Cannell
Written by	James Wong Glen Morgan Stephen J. Cannell Jack Bernstein Gary Rosen
Directed by	Kim Manners Tucker Gates Bruce Kessler Jorge Montesi David Nutter James Whitmore Jr.
Starring	Daniel Hugh Kelly Steven Williams Roma Downey Bert Rosario Steve Hytner
Theme music composer	Mike Post
Composer(s)	Mike Post
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	7
Production
Executive producer(s)	Stephen J. Cannell
Producer(s)	John Peter Kousakis
Cinematography	Frank Johnson, A.S.C.
Running time	83 minutes (pilot), 42 minutes (series)
Production company(s)	Stephen J. Cannell Productions Walt Disney Television
Distributor	Disney-ABC Domestic Television
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Original run	31 March 1991 – 26 May 1991

The 100 Lives of Black Jack Savage is a television series broadcast in the United States by NBC and produced by Stephen J. Cannell Productions in association with Walt Disney Television. This show originated as a TV-movie. The program originally aired in 1991, but lasted less than one season. The series was officially titled Disney Presents The 100 Lives of Black Jack Savage.

Plot

The series followed the story of Black Jack Savage (played by Steven Williams - Stoney Jackson in the pilot), the ghost of a legendary 17th century Caribbean pirate who teams up with Barry Tarberry (played by Daniel Hugh Kelly), a crooked Wall Street con-artist who has escaped trial by coming to the Caribbean. Eternally damned, both of them discover that they need to save 100 souls to compensate for the damage done by their sinful lives.

Any time Black Jack tries to leave the safety of his castle haunt on San Pietro Island, he is fair game for the 'snarks'. They are entities that can transport Jack to Hell through an entrance at the base of the tree where he was originally hanged. Tarberry has his own difficulties dodging the government agents sent to extradite him back to the United States to stand trial for his crimes. Other characters on San Pietro include the corrupt governor-general, Abel Vasquez (played by Bert Rosario), with whom Tarberry is able to make another deal, and island activist Danielle (played by Roma Downey), who is constantly trying to help protect the locals from the effects of Vasquez's corruption and is not above enlisting Tarberry's help in doing so.

The show follows the misadventures of both Black Jack and his human counterpart as they team up to dodge the law, both supernatural and secular, to make their 100 soul quota and thus win their way to salvation.

Blackbird powerboat

A regular part of each and every episode was an appearance of the high tech powerboat. The origin of the Blackbird was built by scientist/inventor Logan "FX" Murphy (played by Steve Hytner) from the body of an SR-71 recon/spy plane to help Tarberry battle crime around the Caribbean Islands. When not in use, the Blackbird was moored at a secret dock at Blackbird Castle on San Pietro Island. A 2002 photo of the mockup boat on a Disney backlot can be found at (http://www.disneypix.com/Studios/Street/2002a/ST0402-41.html).

References

• Brooks, Tim and Marsh, Earle, The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows
• Cotter, Bill, The Wonderful World Of Disney Television: A Complete History

External links

• Pilot/TV-movie at the Internet Movie Database
• Series at the Internet Movie Database