Audie L. Murphy Memorial Website Message Boards

Did anyone else get the Google alert about a possible new comedy series by the Fox Network about a young genius named Audie Murphy who uses his skills to bully others into doing his bidding? What the heck?

Yes, Gerry, I noticed this as well. I get the feeling they are not talking about THE Audie Murphy (at least I hope not!). If they are they certainly don't know who Audie was. You can read the article at:

http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/news/a3685 ... pilot.html

I'd be interested in reading the pilot for that series.

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Betty

Looking at the blurb, it's pretty clearly a fictional character, and we're supposed to think his parents named him for THAT Audie Murphy. The writers probably latched onto it because it sounded "quirky" or because they had vaguely heard of Murph's exploits and associated his name with a strong, cunning person, without knowing that he had a passionate hatred of bullies, and a tendency to take on people much more powerful than himself.

Wow I am stunned by this. It is so strange to read this article with Audie's name in it for a TV pilot in 2012. John Wells who is working on the pilot is older and may know who Audie was and thought it would be an interesting name to use in a TV show. I can't imagine someone in the press will not ask how they came to choose the name Audie Murphy and did they think the real Audie was this kind of person. I agree with Christie that clearly Audie always fought for the underdog and did not tolerate anyone who took advantage of someone else in lesser circumstances. It will be interesting to see if the pilot is picked up by Fox and if so if their Audie will be more of a Ferris Bueller or one of the Menendez brothers. I hate the idea of Audie's name fictional or otherwise being used in anyway that comes off in a negative light. But good to know this information and thanks for the heads up on it.

Oh and an FYI..........on March 14th Terry Murphy turns 60 years old and Skipper 58 on March 23rd. How old does that make all of us feel???

Sharon

It sounds sacreligious!!

John Wells was born in '57, if you believe IMDB, which would make him 14 or so at the time of Murphy's death. There seems to have been a "second wave" of Murphy fans, who discovered his films on television as smallish children in the late sixties/early seventies. Wells would have been a bit old for that, but also a bit young to pay much attention to the handful of anti-establishment types who went out of their way to bad-mouth Murphy in the early years after his death.

I just posted a comment on Facebook asking "who came up with the idea to name the character Audie Murphy?" Maybe SOMEONE will respond.

***Teri

Can somebody keep us updated as to when it is supposed to air, so we can see if they mention where he got his name and how it goes?

Hello Everyone,
I too saw the write up in the Audie Googles. Shouldn't someone contact Larryanne, and let her
know that they are useing Audie's name, I thought Terry with the help of Larryanne had Audie's name and
his likeness copywrited, and legally they are not supposed to get away with that unless they pay
royalties to Terry. Maybe Richard could contact Larryanne and let them know. Shirley Jean.

Can someone send me (or post) the Google alert? I haven't seen it yet.

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Richard L. Rodgers
Webmaster
Audie Murphy Memorial Website

Betty's post upthread has a link to the article.

I emailed Larryann on this. I'm not sure what she will say. Even if a name is copyrighted, I believe there is some kind of legal precedent that allows a historical name to be used publicly. The question really is, can a copyrighted historical name be used publicly for profit without the copyright holder's permission?

I will let post an update as soon as I hear from Larryann.

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Richard L. Rodgers
Webmaster
Audie Murphy Memorial Website

Dave Phillips and I e-mailed each other and talked on the phone about this subject. Dave discovered that another pilot for this Prodigy Bully had been done in 2006 for NBC and the main character's name was Henry Tammer then when Mike O'Malley wrote another pilot for this Prodigy Bully he changed the name to Audie Murphy and Fox has picked up the pilot which will become a TV series in the fall. This begs the question to Mike O'Malley is why did you change the character's name from a fictional name like Henry Tammer to a real life historical figure's name who lived in our lifetime? It's not like the kid's name is Daniel Boone who died 200 years ago and no one is going to think this kid is portraying Daniel Boone's life back in the 18th century. How desperate is the Fox network if they are going to do a situation comedy about a prodigy who uses his brain and brawn to bully people into doing his bidding. There is a whole campaign by people like Dr Drew, Oprah Winfrey, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry etc to put out anti-bullying messages and Fox is going to do a show about a bully and his name is Audie Murphy? When I googled this show title and read that Fox had picked up the pilot for a series if you scroll down and read the readers comments one lady has already posted " the kid's name is Audie Murphy?" so it's already started that people will think that this is somehow about the Audie Murphy, the war hero and movie star, his life, and nothing could be further from the truth.

Regardless of the legality of being able to use an historical person's name in a TV show, why do the producers and Fox want to do it when there are millions of fictional names they could come up with?? Audie deserves better than having his name associated with a TV program that is about a bully and Audie was the antithesis of a bully and no way would he have mistreated either his men in the war or his fellow actors in his movies. I told Dave that Bill O'Reilly is on the Fox network. I wonder how he would feel about Audie's name being used on this kind of TV program. I'll bet he wouldn't and maybe someone should share this with him. A lot of times what is in a pilot is not what ends up being seen when it becomes a TV series. There is plenty of time for the writer Mike O'Malley and the producers to change the main character's name to something other than Audie Murphy.

Here is my worst nightmare..........there are people taking a tour of Arlington National Cemetery; kids from a school taking a field trip and with Audie's grave the second most visited after President Kennedy these kids see the name Audie Murphy on the gravestone and start laughing because they have watched this show and think this bully is funny and that there is someone who had the same name!! This is not what you want to have happen when Dave is so close to making his case to President Obama for awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Audie. Could this not be worse timing?? For me I don't want Audie's name used unless it is in a respectful manner befitting a person who holds a special place in military and American history. A show about a bully is not IT. Sorry this went on so long but this has really got me riled up at the implication on Audie's character and who he really was as a person when he was alive.

Sharon

I'm not too thrilled about this either, but there was a book out back in the 70s called HOW AUDIE MURPHY DIED IN VIETNAM that had nothing to do with OUR Audie Murphy. Since this is gong to happen anyway, maybe some good publicity will come out of this and some character in the show will mention how great the real one was and how NOT great this one is.

Please see my letter/contact info for Fox ref: Prodigy Idol which for ease of finding it I have posted it under a separate thread.

Thanks,

Dave

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"I believe in all the men who stood up against the enemy, taking their beatings without whimper and their triumphs without boasting. The men who went and would go again to hell and back to preserve what our country thinks right and decent."