Behold, Steven Spielberg's LOS ANGELES 2017! ...really. ....yes, really!

[JasonPratt]

Most of us know about Spielberg's early work in TV movies like Duel and the first official entry in the Columbo TV films, Murder By the Book. (There were two prior TV films made and broadcast before the network committed to a 'season' of Columbo films, and another one shot first in this first season which aired later.)

He also directed an adaptation of the dystopian novel Los Angeles: 2017, which was presented as a special entry in the final season of the groundbreaking political journalism drama "The Name of the Game" starring Gene Barry as an influential magazine publisher who likes to go out and do his own investigations (along with two other regular rotating characters who work for him). Each episode... gosh there were over 70 of them?? -- was its own TV film, running up to 90 minutes (at least a few being two-parters, so actually 3hrs plus commercials). And I thought the Columbo film production was crazy fast!

Anyway, the producers hired Spielberg (who had been directing TV eps for several years already) to run this film, adapted from a science-fiction novel of the day, which required some creative methods for maneuvering into the usually-very-realistic series format -- like if "The Wire" adapted Logun's Run or THX 1130 for an episode's plot! (Not coincidentally, since Lucas was working on that at this time.)

The eps are largely considered lost, but Youtuber "Mr. Scifi" has some friends who work on recovering lost eps of shows from VHS copies they've found, and so ta-daaa...!

...probably going to be taken down soon by Universal Studios, understandably! But until then, enjoy a slice of very early Spielberg, directing a rather high-powered cast, from a novel written by the guy who co-wrote When Worlds Collide, not seen in who knows how many years! (Since the days of VHS anyway.)

For a full list of film/eps in this lost series, check IMDB here: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062591/episodes?season=1