This is a title that I've been salivating over for many years and decided I'd write a post about it and ask if any of you actually saw it-

It was a 1980 TV movie that was, according to IMDB, a "failed TV pilot for an American version of the Australian series PRISONER IN CELL BLOCK H". The cast is completely filled with ALL of my favorite character film & TV actresses, i.e. Debra Clinger (Midnight Madness), Trisha Noble (The Private Eyes), Carol Lynley, Sally Kirkland, Elizabeth Hartman, Liz Torres, Lynne Moody, Virginia Capers and, best of all (and the reason I'M DYING to see this!) my favorite actress of all time, Susan Tyrrell, and my second fave, Ruth Roman, as the sinister-sounding Sgt. Pritchett! Wow! Not to mention that the fantastic John P. Ryan is in the cast, as well. I'm astounded. I need to find this....now! I check Ebay from time to time to see if someone taped it, but no luck yet.

Did anyone see it?

Also, on a similiar note, has anyone gotten the new A&E DVD of the Prisoner of Cell Block H? Is it worth buying? Being a HUGE women-in-prison fan, I'm wondering if I need to add this to my collection.

Signed,
Caged and Curious

Regarding PRISONER: CELL BLOCK H (the actual onscreen title is simply PRISONER, by the way, the suffix having been presumably added to reduce confusion with the Patrick McGoohan series)...the aesthetic of this show is definitely your typical minimalist-production-value-shot-on-videotape 1970s "look", with a drab brown palette and a set of hatchet-faced inmates you certainly wouldn't care to see indulging in the kind of Sapphic shower interludes for which your standard WIP is famed. (There isn't any nudity or naughtiness of any kind, by the way, which you probably realised anyway, this being a TV series...although there are the expected lesbian characters and amourous dilemmas, don't go in expecting any kind of exploitation angle. Not that I'm saying that's what you're interested in, o'course, but I thought the warning might be appropriate. :D ) There's the usual raft of characters: the stentorian dyke warder (affectionately dubbed "Vinegar Tits" by the prisoners), the big butch common-as-muck brawler (possibly with a heart of gold), the institutionalised old-timer who fears being released into the scary world outside the prison... Imagine all this delivered in the shrill, hectoring tones of a gang of fish-wives haranguing each other in the local marketplace, and you have some idea of its charm. :P

This is all based on hazy memories of catching a few episodes on late-night TV here in the UK, back in the mid-to-late 80s, when it was roundly considered the ne plus ultra of cheapo schedule-filling crap. There's been lots more crap under the bridge since then, naturally, but wild horses couldn't drag me back to sample this series again. And it ran for YEARS.

One possible interesting facet of this show is the spot-the-face game you can play, with Aussie character actors from other Grundy Television productions regularly popping up as prison-warder-of-the-week. Sadly, no Kylie Minogue as fresh-faced-innocent Linda Blair-type forced to fend for herself in the concrete jungle. In short...it's probably not what you're after. But I may be presuming. It's your call.