The McBain Franchise

The McBain Franchise is a fictional action movie/TV series franchise. The franchise is quite successful, spawning 8 films in the main series, 2 spin-off films, and numerous TV shows and comic books. The McBain movies feature numerous action movie clichés, such as a policeman being gunned down just before retirement, guns that never run out of ammunition, considerable (and often unnecessary) property damage, and cheesy one-liners. The McBain franchise consists of 10 films, eight are about McBain and the other two are spin-offs about McBabe, a character who worked with McBain in McBain VI: Escape from Newark. The McBain films presumably ended with McBain VII: The Final Chapter, but the series continued for one more installment, finally concluding with McBain VIII: The Droopening. McBain IV: Let's Get Silly is the only film where McBain doesn't fight crime, though he does attack the audience with a machine gun and a grenade after they heckle him over his lame jokes. Some of the McBain films feature outlandish plot points, such as McBain III: The Incredible Shrinking McBain, which has McBain shrink and use objects such as a Q-tip to fight crime. McBain has had at least three sidekicks. Troy McClure was approached to play the role of McBain's sidekick in McBain V: Fatal Discharge. However, after McClure broke up with Selma over refusing to have a baby with her, McClure turned down the role to star in his own movie. 
The franchise features Rainier Wolfcastle as McBain, Clara Hosenfrauen as McBabe, Skoey as Dexter Scoey, an unnamed actor as Senator Mendoza with Obergruppenfuhrer Wolfcastle as the announcer.
== Media ==
=== Movies ===
==== McBain ====
* McBain (1990)
* McBain II: You Have the Right to Remain Dead (1991)
* McBain III: The Incredible Shrinking McBain (1992)
* McBain IV: Let's Get Silly (1995)
* McBain V: Fatal Discharge (1997)
* McBain VI: Escape From Newark (1999)
*McBain VII: The Final Chapter (2002)
* McBain VIII: The Droopening (2008)
==== McBabe ====
* McBabe I: An Affair to Dismember (post-1999)
* McBabe II: Having a Gunderful Time, Wish You Were Dead (post-McBabe I)
=== TV Series ===
*Up Late with McBain (1994)
*McGarnagle (1994)
=== Comics ===
* McBain is Back! (1995-2001)
*McBain 1 (2000)
=== Promotional Campaigns ===
*McBabysitter
*McBeans Coffee House
*Powersauce (-1998)
== Interviews ==
When asked by Bart Simpson, a hardcore McBain fan, why The Incredible Shrinking McBain was so bad, star Rainier Wolfcastle replied by saying that there were script issues.
Shortly before the release of McBain IV: Let's Get Silly, Rainier Wolfcastle was interviewed by critic Jay Sherman on Sherman's show Coming Attractions. After showing some scenes from the movie, Wolfcastle stated that it cost 80 million dollars to film it. Disgusted Sherman sarcastically asked him how he slept at night. Wolfcastle, who didn't notice the sarcasm, replied "On top of a pile of money with many beautiful ladies."
== Plot ==
The franchise mainly follows the character of McBain, a policeman, who stumbled upon evidence that implicated Senator Mendoza of running a drug cartel. He then ran his limo off the cliff, snapped the necks off three of his bodyguards and drove a bus to his front door. This is where McBain's Life starts going upside down.
He was reprimanded by his boss, the captain of the precinct, and he tried to explain that he had very good reasons to do that, due to his running a cartel. However, he would not hear him out, and he then decided to kick him out of the squad. McBain then punches the captain out of the window in retaliation. 
Sometime afterwards, McBain, alongside his partner and best friend Dexter Scoey, begin to track down evidence independent from the squad due to the fact that he was kicked off. However, during an evening at a diner, a hitman attempted to gun down McBain. The hitman missed and Scoey took the bullets. McBain attempts to stop the assassin by shooting at him, but the assassin manages to get away by crashing though a window on a motorcycle. As Scoey dies in his arms, McBain becomes more determined than ever to put an end to Mendoza's reign of terror.
After completing a series of impossible tasks, McBain gets his job as a policeman back. The first thing he does is to try and avenge Scoey. However, his regulated gun is far too small for him to use, so he decides to use a much bigger gun. He is then reprimanded by the captain about the size of his gun being against the manual. McBain merely responds by using his gun to shoot and blow away the Police Manual.
He then tries to hunt down Mendoza, with his regulated gun. At some point McBain meets and falls for McBabe, a sexy female who becomes his accomplice. Eventually, McBain comes face to face with Mendoza in an alley. Mendoza proceeds to try and place a live Cobra on him, only for McBain to punch the cobra off. Mendoza manages to escape McBain's wrath in this instance. Continuing on his hunt for Mendoza. He hears about a meeting that will be attended by Mendoza. At the meeting, McBain bursts out of an ice sculpture and kills everyone in the room, except Mendoza. However, Mendoza gets the better of him by feeding him a drugged salmon puff. McBain escapes Mendoza without Mendoza knowing. 
His final stand against Mendoza was at Mendoza's headquarters at the top of a skyscraper. McBain interrupts Mendoza's meeting again and hurls him out of a window all the way down onto a parked Gas truck, which explodes on impact, stopping him once and for all. McBain then decides to sleep with McBabe.
After killing Senator Mendoza, McBain leaves the police force to become a transport plane pilot. However, McBain now has a new evil to fight Commie-Nazis. In one incident he is helping to deliver UNICEF-collected pennies to children, when he is suddenly attacked by a squadron of Commie-Nazis. In an attempt to save the pennies a literally-on fire McBain leaps onto one of the Commie-Nazi jet fighters and kills the pilot. In another mission McBain kills the president: Ross Perot.
Later, McBain quits Transport-Piloting and joins a chat show were he is interviewed on his life as a policeman and a transport-pilot. The show however fails and McBain goes in to comedy. He performs stand-up comedy, standing against a brick wall (much in the style of Jerry Seinfeld), saying bad jokes to an audience. When some of them criticize, he kills them with various weapons, including machine guns and a grenade. However his career as a comedian didn't last very long since he was so bad and was killing the audience. At the same time the Police Captain was having problems with another police officer: McGarnagle.
After quitting comedy McBain joins the secret service. There he gets a new sidekick. In one of their missions McBain has to go undercover as a fat person in Newark, New Jersey. There he is reunited with McBabe. However, she is already married. Later on, McBabe and McBain have an affair. They then went on a holiday together.
== Critical Views ==
Despite the films being popular, they are shown to be not well received critically.
Abe Simpson and Jasper Beardsley were so disgusted with McBain that they threw their popcorn and personally sought the manager of the theater out to demand a refund. One episode of Up Late with McBain suffered from controversy when Wolfcastle, while commenting on Scoey's musician outfit, noted that it made him look homosexual, which caused an outcry from the audience, with Wolfcastle then accusing the audience of being homosexual as well, to even more outrage from the audience. As of 1994, Bart Simpson and Chief Clancy Wiggum considered McBain III: The Incredible Shrinking McBain the worst McBain film. After watching some scenes from McBain IV: Let's Get Silly with Star Rainier Wolfcastle, Critic Jay Sherman was disgusted and sarcastically asked Wolfcastle how he slept at night. Üter Zörker stated at a fitness fair, run by Rainier Wolfcastle, that he really liked the last McBain film (Fatal Discharge). In 1998, Homer Simpson said to Rainier Wolfcastle, in an All Night Gym that he really liked the McBain movies.
== Crossovers ==
The character of the Police Captain also appeared on the McGarnagle TV Series.
== Trivia ==
In 1991, a real-life film called McBain, starring Christopher Walken and Michael Ironside, was released. It has no relation to the Simpsons character. The film was a critical and financial bomb. In 1988, Gary Busey starred in a film called Bulletproof with the lead character called Frank McBain. The author Evan Hunter uses the pseudonym Ed McBain. 
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