Some cool stuff.

Just over a month ago I made an update about an episode of the defunct TV series Alien Nation, which was based on the sci-fi flick of the same name. Titled “Eyewitness News,” the ep in question was co-written by a guy named… drumroll… Charles Kaufman. Observe:

 Now there's something Charlie's never mentioned about his TV days, eh? Our pal Twink Schiff dug up that nugget of info, and he returneth today with more about the episode:

Though technically an action-adventure, [Alien Nation] was one of the
funniest hours of television I have ever seen. It
follows a pair of Los Angeles police detectives, one
human and one alien.

In this episode, they search for a fan obsessed with
an alien porn star. The story was prescient in more
ways than one: not only did it predict the advent of
two-way erotic video chats, but it mentions the
bulldozing of the Berlin Wall “back in ‘90.”
“Eyewitness News” aired Feb. 5, 1990–less than three
months after the actual fall of the wall.

Angela Bassett guest stars as Renee Longstreet, a TV
reporter who shadows the two cops. Renee Longstreet
also happens to be the name of a TV writer and
producer whose credits include “V: The Final Battle,”
“Fame,” and “Voyagers!” But wait, it gets better: the
owner of the company that produces the alien porn is
named Arvin Kaufman. Yes, Kaufman. And the episode
contains endless references to “that sleaze bucket
Arvin Kaufman” and so on.

Trivia: the actress in the background of the pic above is Michele Scarabelli, who also played Data's girlfriend on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Now, wouldn't it be cool to have a few clips from that episode? ::sigh::

Oh, wait… what's this? Well lookee what we have here!

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I should add that it's the only time I've seen Charlie credited as “Charles S. Kaufman.” Usually he goes without the middle initial. There's another screenwriting Charles S. Kaufman, the brother of Lloyd - Lloyd founded Troma Studios. That Charles' only apparent TV credit is with the old Real Ghostbusters cartoon, the year before this Alien Nation episode was written. (So says IMDB.) The Nation episode sure sounds more like “our” Charlie, no? And it did air on Fox, which had a couple of Charlie's sitcoms. FYI for those keeping score: Twink originally found info about the Alien episode via the US gov's copyright search engine.

Life is so confusing.