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But man, the pilot was GREAT! The production values were off the charts for a television series. Better than a lot of motion pictures at that time. Fantastic sets, in camera effects, stunts, imaginative model work. An engaging story that had a lot more depth and mystery than I remembered.
Year One is still one of the best-looking series ever made. I think its design work and photography still look good today -- and much better than that of Battlestar Galatica, Buck Rogers, Star Trek: The Next Generation and other shows which came later. (In visual terms, Gerry Anderon's shows always had an edge over those made in Hollywood.)
But I wish they'd done their homework. Even if the moon could have been hurled out of the Earth's orbit it could never have escaped the solar system, and certainly not have passed through (nor moved on from) other solar systems within any of the characters' lifetimes -- and certainly not every other week!
Still Year One had an appealingly "mysterious" quality -- it's clear they were taking a cue from 2001. Year Two -- though entertaining -- was a much sillier show.
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I Know this thread will very quickly devolve into a "Year two sucks Fred Freiberger is the series killer" kinda bullshit I've had to listen to since 1978, but I love both years. Such a fantastic show to watch back to back with Star Trek when I was a kid. The first year looked great and had a wonderful atmosphere. Year two was fun and exciting, if - yes - sillier with the monsters taking up the mid-episodes. However it started well and ended well. And the music for both years is exceptional.
Freiberger actually saved this series, as the ratings in year one dropped in the states to the point ITC didn't feel it worth the expense. However, it was popular enough to warrant a second chance if it were made more appealing to the US (forgetting or ignoring that we liked it for what it was already). Sylvia Anderson and Gerry split up so she was off the show and out of all the people they considered, FF was the only one they wanted due to his Star Trek experience and the idea of Maya. So we were lucky to get the second year at all. At least, this is what I read. As a kid, I didn't care, it was great fun.
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The only thing that really irked me was the model of the Moon. That was really bad, like they never even bothered to look at reference photos or the night sky. Though I think Moon Base Alpha was on the far side in all fairness.
The moon model never bothered me so much. And I think the series had a good premise, which with a few tweaks could have been more convincing. Maybe if Alpha was the base for an experimental man-made wormhole or something -- which could have gone haywire and thus hurled the moon out of the solar system. That might have been more believable than it randomly floating through space.
Regarding the positives, I thought it was an inspired choice to enlist a fashion designer -- Rudi Gurnreich -- rather than than a jobbing costume designer to create the Alpha uniforms. The bell-bottoms may be a bit dated today, but they were otherwise very striking in appearance.
Although, come to think of it, bell-bottoms and platform shoes actually did make a comeback in the actual 1990s!
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If you grew up in New York when it was first run, it was on Saturday at 7pm during the first year, just after Star Trek. The second year premiered on Sunday. Not 100% if it stayed there but it was still at 7. A special showing of the two part Bringer of Wonder was shown on a Wednesday at 8 pm.
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I tend to resist the show killer label a bit because it's too easy and relies mostly on circumstance.
Star Trek season 3 was doomed no matter who was producing it. Roddenberry knew that. It's why he he didn't stay on as showrunner. NBC put it in a proven death slot and Paramount slashed the budget and demanded the series never go beyond 6 days to shoot and frowned on overtime. VERY few producers would have made a quality science fiction product under those circumstances, yet a good number of episodes from the third season are excellent.
The Wild Wild West: Freiberger took over from producer Collier Young who had made the series a straightforward western. Freiberger's regime introduced Dr. Loveless and the successful format. He was replaced against the wishes of Robert Conrad, who loved what he was doing. That format is the format which proved most popular in the long run.
The Six Million Dollar Man: the series was already on the decline. He also SHARED producing duties with Allan Balter, alternating episodes. Lee Majors was bored and wanted out, with Gil Gerard of all people eyed as a potential replacement. Instead, ABC pulled the plug. Again, nobody was gonna save the series, and yet some really good episodes were made.
Space:1999: ITC America insisted on monsters. He gave them monsters. When ITC said they were no longer the rage, he took them out. The first few episodes of the season and the last few were really quite good. People like to say the first year was this sterling bit of science fiction, but it was always seen as fairly ludicrous, frequently confusing and always wooden. It's really just a matter of style preference. I happen to enjoy schlock sci-fi of the Irwin Allen variety. I also enjoy open ended metaphysical claptrap. So 1999 was a winner with me all around.
Frieberger was no artist, he was a producer who always tried to give the bosses the shows they asked for. A show killer? It's easy to hang the label on a man being given dying shows to work on. Maybe he was better suited to Saturday morning cartoons, but honestly, he gets a bad rap.
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So go watch 'em. Why waste your time on this thread?
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Was I talking to you? Mind your own business.
You're in a forum, so yeah, it is my business. It's everyone's business. Don't be a dick.
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Cool it, please.
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I remember it being a syndicated show that suffered from.egregious editing - even in first run!
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