I managed to retrieve the comments about RIVERWORLD that I posted elsewhere
when the film was first broadcast and will repeat them here, in case anyone
is interested in the silly film.

I watched most of this film last night and can report that it bears only an
atmospheric resemblance to Philip Joséé Farmer's RIVERWORLD novels. About
all that I could recognize in the film from the novels was the basic
setting: a mysterious planet dominated by an immense river, on the shores
of which all the people who ever died on Earth are mysteriously
reincarnated in young, healthy bodies.

I watched the film because I enjoyed reading the novels and because I was
curious what it would do with the character of Sam Clemens--who figures
prominently in the second novel, THE FABULOUS RIVERBOAT. Well, there is a
character named "Sam," but he isn't revealed as Samuel L. Clemens until the
end.

I always wonder why so many films adapted from novels go out of their way
to change things, when it would not only be better but probably easier to
stick to the original story lines. The central character in Farmer's
original novel is the 19th century British explorer Sir Richard Frances
Burton, whose strong personality and intellectual drive to understand the
Riverworld planet give the novel a powerful focus.

Naturally, Burton isn't good enough for this TV movie, which makes an
American astronaut the central character (played by Jeff Hale, a dead
ringer for Tom Berenger). Thrown into the mix are a feisty African princess
(Karen Holness), a mysterious alien (Brian Moore), a cute child, et al.

Most of this TV movie seems to have been inspired by the second novel, THE
FABULOUS RIVERBOAT, in which Sam Clemens directs the building of a boat to
travel up the river to find the secret of the planet. In the novel,
Clemens's primary antagonist is England's King John. In the movie, it's
Emperor Nero (played for laughs by Jonathan Cake, who more closely
resembles an invincible Greek Adonis than the effeminate Nero known to
history).

Incidentally, I wasn't around when the film's credit's rolled. If anyone
who saw the film noticed where the location shooting was done, I'd like to
hear about it. The locations were okay, but it's probably impossible to
find a river on Earth that matches the appearance of the one in Farmer's
novels.

(I concluded with a postscript, describing the film as “ about as faithful
to Farmer's RIVERWORLD as UNIDENTIFIED FLYING ODDBALL  was to Mark Twain's
A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT.)