Cannonball Run

There was a sitcom on for a short time in the 70s titled Lotsa Luck. It starred Dom Deluise as a single guy who lived with his overbearing mother. I remember it being the funniest thing in the world, but I was around 8 or 9 years old at the time so if I were to see it today I'm sure I'd realize that I was wrong. But I do know that I went around saying "lotsa luck!" to people for several months after the show premiered.

Deluise died last night in Los Angeles. He was 75.

When I first heard the general premise for Drive, I instantly thought of Cannonball Run. The Cannonball Run is a movie a fondly remember watching time and again as a kid. Tons of money on the line, fast cars, hot women ... I mean hell, I was a hormone-filled kid somewhere between 10 and 13 years old when I first saw this flick, so cut me some slack.

While there is the obvious similarity with the whole race-around-the-country thing with Cannonball Run, after watching the rough-cut first episode of Drive I can start by telling you one way where the two differ: The Cannonball Run was for pussies.

There's more casting news on Fox's mid-season drama Drive from executive producers Tim Minear, Ben Queen and Greg Yaitanes. Just as Nathan Fillion replaced the pilot's lead Ivan Sergei, actors Kevin Alejandro and Mircea Monroe have been brought into take over the roles of Winston Salazar and Ellie Laird, both participants in the underground cross-country race at the center of the show. Laird's credits are fewer and further between, but you'll recognize Alejandro from his recent appearances on Sleeper Cell and Ugly Betty as Justin's father Santos.

Most television shows get a casting shake-up between the filming of the original pilot and, should the show get picked up, its eventual run. It happens for all kinds of reasons - networks don't like a certain actor in a role, scheduling conflicts, etc. In the case of Drive, characters are reportedly being taken in a "different direction."

While I'm not an avid viewer of reality TV I'm at least aware of which shows are out there. However, USA's Cannonball Run 2001 completely escaped me. I had no idea such a show even aired until recently when TVgasm reported that the Fox Reality Channel would be showing episodes of the series all this week. From what I can gather, the show was loosely based on the Cannonball Run movies and pitted mismatched teams against one another in a cross country race. I'm assuming the reason it only lasted one season was because it didn't include outtakes of Dom DeLuise flubbing his lines.