The KiMo Theatre was filled with laughter during Sunday's TV-pilot premiere of "Legal Hawks."
Produced by local filmmakers Isaac Kappy, Josh Klein and Will Davidson, the show's characters were upbeat and entertaining. With Kappy in a main role, the production was very creative. The trio produced the pilot in hopes of the show getting picked up by a network.
The show takes place in the 1980s, and there's a second TV show within the show. Opening the episode with a fictional 1986 hair metal band performance, these filmmakers brought the '80s back to life. With the mullet hairdos, sleeveless tops, fitted pants and lots of makeup, the characters really set the scene.
The story begins with bandleaders Jon Van Holland (Kappy) and Hamilton Smith (Ross Kelly) proposing the TV series within "Legal Hawks" to network executives. In this TV series within the show, the bandleaders play the lead roles of lawyer siblings, Michael and Richard Hawk, who are employed at a law firm owned by their father, Victor Hawk (Bill Sterchi).
After being assigned by their father to take on an unsolved murder mystery, with the conjoined Baxter twins (Mark Chavez and Shenoah Allen) as the primary suspects, the two brothers set out on their adventure, taking a young paralegal, Tiffany Monroe (April Fox), with them. The brothers are extremely attracted to her and constantly try to impress her by attempting to solve the case first. During this race to solve the mystery, the three characters are taken on a wild and hilarious adventure of unexpected events.
"It was great. It was a lot of fun and had a lot of unexpected twists and turns in it, and it was a riot. I didn't know what to expect in it. I thought it was hilarious that they were rock stars doing kind of a legal mystery, sort of like Starsky and Hutch," said Corrales resident Mollie Ferguson.
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The story line itself was funny, mixing law with rock 'n' roll.
Many of the special effects gave the show a professional appearance. And the lighting and the music created a fun atmosphere, which also helped add to the comedy of the show.
Within a small cast of actors, Kappy and Kelly stood out. Armed with enthusiasm and spot-on comic timing, the two actors contributed a great performance to the show and successfully added spunk to the story.
Taking things a step further, they added classic '80s commercials in between parts of the show. This made it appear more like a realistic TV series, which made the show that much more entertaining to watch.
"The premise is so out there, and I love stuff like that," attendee Katy Houska said. "So I love that they pull out something that is so absurd."
Especially amusing was how the producers introduced the guest performer that was set to appear on the next episode. With his music playing in the background, clips of his feet dancing the moonwalk and his silver glove on his right hand, the film producers made it extremely obvious that the celebrity guest would be none other than 1980s prince of pop Michael Jackson.
"The film itself was very creative, funny, a little off beat - which was very good," attendee Jim Battaglia said. "It was very different."
