MickeyToo Many Chefs
In the competition for the Almighty Ratings, producers will often "re-tool" a show, trying to change it to attract a larger audience. This may even work early on, before the audience one has has gotten used to a particular look or format. Once a show has been on for a while, though, I tend to think that such tweaks and changes are more likely to drive away the established audience than to attract new ones. If you've already decided not to waste your viewing hours on a particular show you don't keep looking for news that they're revamping it. "Hey- they're adding a hot babe in a catsuit! I'm sure gonna watch now!!"
Back in 1975 an early pioneer in first-run syndication premiered. Space:1999 wasn't a perfect show, but I thought it evoked a real sense of wonder in the universe. Granted the resolutions were sometimes more than a bit mysterious, even surreal... but to me it actually made a sort of sense that we wouldn't instantly understand every strange phenomena encountered out there. Many in the audience could never get past the myriad scientific non sequitors, but I found the cast to be likeable and believable enough to suspend disbelief for an hour.
Enough people agreed, but unfortunately, the Powers That Be decided to try and "fix" the show for the second season. Apparently in an attempt to play to the larger American audience they brought in an American producer to do the fixing. Very unfortunately, the man they chose was Fred Freiberger.
Freiburger had a resume that looked quite good at first glance- until you check the dates. He had worked on some good shows, but during their final seasons, when the writing quality nosedived- right after he was brought in to produce. Freiberger had produced the third and final season for the original Star Trek, what some fans call the "turd season." He apparently thought the first season of Space:1999 had left the viewers thinking too much, so he simplified it to David Prowse in a rubber suit attacking Moonbase Alpha on a regular basis. Bringing in the man who had killed Star Trek didn't attract many fans, though the dumbed-down scripts managed to lose a lot of audience.
Meanwhile, Prowse was also hiding his face in a feature film. Star Wars convinced Hollywood that sci fi was a valid genre in the one language Hollywood groks: It hauled in buckets and buckets of money. With the runaway success of Star Wars it would have been amazing if a TV network hadn't announced plans to bring an awesome outer space adventure to the small screen.
Battlestar Galactica was designed draw as much of The Force from Star Wars as possible- even to hiring John Dykstra, who had directed the Oscar-winning special effects for the movie, to produce the effects for the TV show. Unfortunately, the special effects were about all the show had going for it. The characters weren't even one-half dimensional, all sparkly heroic clean or evil, dastardly boo-hiss villains. The scripts were essentially about having fun flying through space blowing stuff up.
The weekly production grind had them re-re-re-using the special effects shot for the pilot and the first two installments repeatedly- even watching once a week we quickly had them all memorized. The marathons on SciFi channel only served to drive home how much mileage (light-yearage?) they had squeezed from those clips.
A few years ago when I read that SciFi was going to produce a new Galactica series I expected the old light-hearted space opera, just done with cool new CGI special effects. I got a gut-wrenching, serious and moving story of a people who's entire civilization has been bombed out from under them, desperately hanging on to the ragged cliff-edge of survival. It is, in short, the best show on TV right now.
So when should a show be "fixed?" There was much to like in Space:1999's first season, and so much of that was lost in the transition to season two. The old Galactica, on the other hand, boasted some great special effects clips and not a lot else. There are a few die-hard fans of the old series who quibble about some of the upgrades, but the new series has improved on literally everything in the old one.
Back in 1975 an early pioneer in first-run syndication premiered. Space:1999 wasn't a perfect show, but I thought it evoked a real sense of wonder in the universe. Granted the resolutions were sometimes more than a bit mysterious, even surreal... but to me it actually made a sort of sense that we wouldn't instantly understand every strange phenomena encountered out there. Many in the audience could never get past the myriad scientific non sequitors, but I found the cast to be likeable and believable enough to suspend disbelief for an hour.
Enough people agreed, but unfortunately, the Powers That Be decided to try and "fix" the show for the second season. Apparently in an attempt to play to the larger American audience they brought in an American producer to do the fixing. Very unfortunately, the man they chose was Fred Freiberger.
Freiburger had a resume that looked quite good at first glance- until you check the dates. He had worked on some good shows, but during their final seasons, when the writing quality nosedived- right after he was brought in to produce. Freiberger had produced the third and final season for the original Star Trek, what some fans call the "turd season." He apparently thought the first season of Space:1999 had left the viewers thinking too much, so he simplified it to David Prowse in a rubber suit attacking Moonbase Alpha on a regular basis. Bringing in the man who had killed Star Trek didn't attract many fans, though the dumbed-down scripts managed to lose a lot of audience.
Meanwhile, Prowse was also hiding his face in a feature film. Star Wars convinced Hollywood that sci fi was a valid genre in the one language Hollywood groks: It hauled in buckets and buckets of money. With the runaway success of Star Wars it would have been amazing if a TV network hadn't announced plans to bring an awesome outer space adventure to the small screen.
Battlestar Galactica was designed draw as much of The Force from Star Wars as possible- even to hiring John Dykstra, who had directed the Oscar-winning special effects for the movie, to produce the effects for the TV show. Unfortunately, the special effects were about all the show had going for it. The characters weren't even one-half dimensional, all sparkly heroic clean or evil, dastardly boo-hiss villains. The scripts were essentially about having fun flying through space blowing stuff up.
The weekly production grind had them re-re-re-using the special effects shot for the pilot and the first two installments repeatedly- even watching once a week we quickly had them all memorized. The marathons on SciFi channel only served to drive home how much mileage (light-yearage?) they had squeezed from those clips.
A few years ago when I read that SciFi was going to produce a new Galactica series I expected the old light-hearted space opera, just done with cool new CGI special effects. I got a gut-wrenching, serious and moving story of a people who's entire civilization has been bombed out from under them, desperately hanging on to the ragged cliff-edge of survival. It is, in short, the best show on TV right now.
So when should a show be "fixed?" There was much to like in Space:1999's first season, and so much of that was lost in the transition to season two. The old Galactica, on the other hand, boasted some great special effects clips and not a lot else. There are a few die-hard fans of the old series who quibble about some of the upgrades, but the new series has improved on literally everything in the old one.
Lost Fanatic
Day Break TV
The old BSG was great when I was seven. It made perfect sense that bad guys were bad and good guys were good. I'm a bit older now and I prefer the complexities and shades of the new BSG.
Passionate Apathy
I'm just loving how the new series is succeeding on virtually every level.