The Checklist: Conan the Adventurer (S1 Ep12) “Homecoming”
Keller Entertainment, the fine folks that gave us Acapulco H.E.A.T. and Tarzan: The Epic Adventures, decided to get in on the sword and sandal craze that syndicated television was experiencing thanks to the success of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess by creating a television series, based on Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian, known as Conan the Adventurer.
The series did not enjoy the same success of Hercules and Xena only lasting one season. i didn’t even know the series existed until Tubi suggested it to me, and at that point I couldn’t help but randomly select an episode and put it to The Checklist test…
- Synopsis: Bayu proves that you can go home again and has to convince the inhabitants of the village he once called home to stand up and fight the oppressive Lord Senn.
#1- Does the show have a quality open?
The positive aspect of Conan the Adventurer’s open is it provides some background information on Conan and the world that he lives in. We also get our first look at Conan (Ralf Moeller, Best of the Best II) and his band of merry men that includes Bayu (T.J. Storm, Kickboxer: Vengeance), Otli (Danny Woodburn) and Zzeben (Robert McCray).
The negative is the music is nothing to write home about it, certainly not the epic score of Basil Poledouris from 1982’s Conan the Barbarian. Still the opening served its purpose and got the job done. 1/1
#2- Does Ralf Moeller make a good Conan?
Arnold Schwarzenegger set the bar really high for what a live action Conan should look like. Thanks to Arnold, whoever is playing Conan should look like the kind of guy that could compete in the Mr. Olympia competition.
Fortunately for German bodybuilder Ralf Moeller, he did compete in the 1988 Mr. Olympia so physically he looked the part of Conan.
Unfortunately for German bodybuilder Ralf Moeller, the randomizer did him no favors as the Conan character barely appears in the “Homecoming” episode. I can’t imagine this is a regular occurrence in every episode of the series, but we only see Conan at the very beginning and very end of the episode, meaning we don’t get to see him in action. So I can only give Ralf partial credit here, because I didn’t get to see him wield a sword and whoop some ass. 1.5/2
#3- Were there any notable guest stars?
Michael Worth of Fists of Iron and To Be the Best fame, plays Drakk. Drakk becomes the head of the unwelcome wagon, when he crosses paths with Bayu (T.J. Storm, Kickboxer: Vengeance) on the outskirts of the village that Bayu used to call home.
After some martial arts action between Bayu and Drakk, Drakk makes it clear that nobody wants Bayu back at the village… but Bayu does not heed Drakk’s words and Bayu (along with his friends Otli and Zzeben) heads home. This is the point in the show where Conan decides to take a different path and allow Bayu the opportunity to settle his unfinished business at home.
We learn that Bayu was banished from the village years earlier after he stood up to the Tarons that had been terrorizing the village. Since the Bayu incident, the Tarons and their evil leader, Lord Senn, have ran roughshod over the village and they continue to torment the villagers through a combination of violence and taxes. Now in an effort to provide the village with some relief, Bayu’s sister Lukar has agreed to marry Lord Senn. When Bayu finds out about this he and his friends make it their mission to prevent this from happening and Bayu even manages to get Drakk to help him in his fight with Lord Senn and the Tarons. 2.5/3
#4- Does anybody die?
One of the criticisms I saw about the show during the due diligence phase of this post was that the depiction of this version of Conan was less violent than the movies (which makes sense for a show airing on broadcast television) and even the Marvel Comics adaptation.
So needless to say, I was surprised when two people were killed during the course of the show. We had a farmer, who couldn’t pay his taxes to Lord Simm, who ended up getting his head chopped off (off camera of course) and Lord Simm also managed to stab someone to death later in the episode and it was the least bloody stabbing in the history of stabbings. Bloodthirsty Conan the Barbarian fans may call it a technicality, but Conan the Adventurer gets the point. 3.5/4
#5- Did Crom get a mention?
The scene from 1982’s Conan the Barbarian that sticks with me more than any other is when Conan is praying to Crom prior to the Battle of the Mounds. So going into Conan the Adventurer I was really hoping for a Crom reference… well much to my delight when Conan decides to participate in this episode in the closing minutes he does drop a Crom reference. 4.5/5
- Final Score = 4.5/5 (90%) The lack of Conan in this episode made it feel like this was a backdoor pilot for T.J. Storm to get his own spinoff show. Or was this an effort to try something different mid-season in response to less than stellar ratings?
