There are a lot of wannabe critics on IMDb; some have even written reviews of this particular series. Too bad there aren't bad Lemon laws for poorly written reviews.
"Lime Street" was a troubled young series that suffered a tragic setback even before its prime-time premiere. But it had a lot going for it and could have, had it been given the opportunity, become a hit.
Warning: There may be spoilers in the following material. I wouldn't want to make the same mistake I made when I accidentally revealed that Nellie decided not to run off and elope with the traveling salesman in the next-to-last unaired episode of "Doc Corkle."
Anyway, "Lime Street" starred actors Robert Wagner and John Standing as insurance investigators (not detectives) for Lime Street, one of London's oldest and most prestigious insurance companies. The original idea was for the pair to work for Lloyd's of London (which was the program's working title). Wagner played James Greyson Culver, an American who lived with his young daughters on a horse farm in Virginia. He was divorced; his ex lived in Paris. Meanwhile, Standing played Edward Wingate, Culver's British partner, who resided in his family's historic mansion outside of London. They traveled all over the world investigating fraudulent insurance claims which could cost Lime Street millions of dollars.
The series had drama, adventure, and humor. One scene in the pilot (not that episode's opening sequence, however) involved the duo's daring escape from Culver's Cessna airplane, which had been sabotaged and caught fire in mid-flight. With only one parachute on board, Culver and Wingate were forced to resort to a dangerous tandem jump in order to both survive. The scene would have been thrilling had it not been for actor John Standing's unprofessional actions behind the scenes. The actor balked at the idea of jumping from an airplane at 10,000 feet without a parachute, forcing the director to film the sequence in long shot utilizing expert skydivers wearing concealed parachutes to double for the actors. This of course eliminated any real suspense from the scene.
This event may have been indicative of one problem with "Lime Street": the writers did seem determined to fill their series with situations that were unlikely to actually occur in real life. All that made-up stuff is certainly the kiss of death for any TV show! The series was ratings-challenged thanks to the unexpected success of NBC's freshman sitcom that season, "The Golden Girls," which aired opposite "Lime Street" on Saturday nights. When 13-year-old co-star Samantha Smith was killed in a plane crash, the producers asked ABC to pull the series off the air so they could retool the program and add the role of another, older daughter, Libby (Samantha's character would not have been recast). A few more episodes were shot after Samantha's death, but the series never returned to the air. In January, 1986, ABC officially cancelled the series when a new time slot, away from "The Golden Girls" on Saturday nights, could not be secured.
4 out of 7 found this helpful