# Was "Whit Dwarf" a failed TV pilot? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 6, 2013, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-whit-dwarf-a-failed-tv-pilot/646219 "2013-01-06T02:41:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-whit-dwarf-a-failed-tv-pilot/646219/1 "2013-01-06T02:41:55Z")
[This show](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114926/), from 1995 was one of my favorite one-off TV movies that I watched when I was a kid. I’ve always wondered if it was a failed pilot. It was made into a pretty big deal, I remembered they kept name dropping Francis Ford Coppola and all these years I thought he was the director, but now that I looked it up apparently he wasn’t, in fact I can’t find any reference to him at all in the IMDB page. I thought it had potential but then again, I was a kid so what do I know? But some of the interesting things I remember was that it took place on an alien world that apparently didn’t spin on its axis, so you had a day side and a night side. I also remember a big ugly alien, I think it was a good guy or something, and a girl who had to be kept alive for some punishment and the method was she had to drink some of the alien’s secretions every once in a while. There was also an interesting technology where you’d put on these special rubber latex gloves and you could phase your hand into a patient’s body to do medical work. I think one of the plot revolved around something like that. Anyone know if this was supposed to be a pilot? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-whit-dwarf-a-failed-tv-pilot/646219/2 "2013-01-06T03:13:17Z")
Regarding the involvement of Francis Ford Coppola, your IMDB link mentions that one of the production companies for the movie was American Zoetrope. That’s his production company. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-whit-dwarf-a-failed-tv-pilot/646219/3 "2013-01-06T15:59:27Z")
IIRC, there was talk at the time of making it into a series. I assume once network executives saw how godawful it was, they didn’t bother picking it up. It was an attempt for Bruce Wagner to cash in on the success of his **Wild Palms** of a couple of years before. That was just as awful – style but no substance and stupid to boot – but got good ratings. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-whit-dwarf-a-failed-tv-pilot/646219/4 "2013-01-06T16:03:49Z")
Don’t know what it was, but I loved that movie. It was incredibly weird and creepy, but in a good way. I can honestly say if it was a pilot, it was better than most. ---
**Author:** ![the\_Lady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bb73d2/32.png) [@the\_Lady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_Lady)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-whit-dwarf-a-failed-tv-pilot/646219/5 "2013-01-06T16:05:10Z")
I really liked it as well. I still remember some parts of it very clearly, all these years later.