Who Grayson?
October 2nd, 2008 by Esther Inglis-Arkell | Tags: 4l!tv, comic books, DC comics, dick graysonVariety reports that because of the success of Smallville and, I’m thinking, the death of the last executive to okay the Birds of Prey series, the CW will be ‘prepping’ The Graysons, a story about a young acrobat in the years before he will become Batman’s sidekick.
That’s right. You know him, you love him, and his name is . . .
DJ?
Yes. The CW has sorely disappointed me by re-naming Dick. Why, oh vaunted teen-show geniuses? Why? Is it because the name is old-fashioned? I’m a twenty-something woman with a name that hit its peak popularity during 1920-something. Julia Roberts named her kid ‘Hazel.’ The oldies are a’coming back.
Is it because it’s a slightly ridiculous name? Come on! Hollywood has multiple small, blonde, teenaged actresses named ‘Dakota.’ People these days are named Apple, Tallulah Belle, and Fitty. You could get away with calling him ‘The Aerialist Formerly Known As Dick,’ and it wouldn’t be too weird.
But it’s not just the end of a tradition that makes me weep, it’s the thought of what the dialog on the show could be. I’m not just talking about the ordinary day-to-day stuff like, ‘We want Dick. We need Dick. We love Dick,’ or ‘This won’t really be a party until we see Dick.’ Think of circus scenes!
“Dick will never fall as long as we’re here.”
“Look at Dick go!”
“I didn’t even know Dick could *do* that.”
Think of the inevitable crawling-through-air-vents scene that comes up in every show that involves solving crimes.
“Oh no! Dick’s stuck!”
“What will we do? I can’t call my parents for this!”
The list goes on. Changing the name is a mistake. Not only does it distance the character from his DC comics counterpart, it makes the show more difficult to write. An hour-long episode about a character named DJ? That’s a tough row to hoe with an implement not suited to hoeing. A show about The Flying Dick And His Many Adventures? That pretty much writes itself.
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“You suck, Dick!”
Why don’t they just call him by his actual name, Richard? This seems like such a simple solution.
Or at least call him “R.J.” It’s not much better then D.J., but at least it’s a name, not a occupation.
I just am having a hard time imagining what this show will be about.
Just some gymnasts traveling from town to town helping out folks and solving crime…with FLEXIBILITY.
@Jaap!: How did I not think of that?
@Pedro Tejeda: Also a good call. Maybe they want him to sound young, since I’m pretty sure that they’re going to cast someone who is a minimum of 22 years old.
@Blake: Again, who knows?
@Adam: Yeah. I think that pretty much hits the nail on the head. I’m hoping for a Barbara Gordon, too.
I’d think that Barb would be a really awkward looking thin girl who loves books. “Gangly” comes to mind. She’d spend an entire episode in a corner of a library and we’d never actually see her face due to her glasses and the giant book she’s reading.
@david brothers: I was thinking more like scrappy detective chick who meets Dick at a crime scene that they’re both sneaking in to investigate.
However, that would be cool, too. He goes in to a library and asks where he can find this-and-such book and hears the answer from behind a massive set of encyclopedias. Sort of pre-Oracle.
She’d probably wind up exactly like Smallville’s Chloe. With a little Lana thrown in.
I just hope they get a good handle on JT.
How sad is it that an episode of Powerpuff Girls, where they introduce the Professor’s old friend Professor Dick (who they angrily refer to by his first name over and over again), has more balls than this show?
[…] Esther Inglis-Arkell laments the name change: But it’s not just the end of a tradition that makes me weep, it’s the thought of what the […]
Well, I must say I think The Graysons could be an interesting show. I would be great if it turned out to be Carnivàle meets Smallville.
As for the name, well it irks me a bit. It feels like a Hollywood decision and not trusting the source material. I think that what bothers me the most. It reminds of that thing that Stan Lee said on the Mutant and Monsters thing with Kevin Smith. If I recall correctly, he said they changed Bruce Banner’s name for the TV show to David because they thought Bruce sounded like a gay man’s name. DJ also sounds like name of someone who is trying to be hard to be cool. It also was the name of the eldest daughter on Full House. So yeah, ummm, not cool.