www.knowitalljoe.com Confidence!' Fighting hostile rays, evil aliens- and complex lawsuits ... 'Battlestar Galactica' revs up for a turbulent blastoff
By Bill O'Hallaren
The might}' battlestar Galactica, her the Galacti~a into subatomic splinters. pods alone bigger ~han any aircraft And the Cylons aren't alone. In carrier, sweeps majestically through Hollywood, dark-suited warriors from space, laser cannon blazing, her fight the sphere known as 20th Century-Fox ers flashing to the attack-leading the would also like to pulverize the Galac last of the human race in a gallant, tica into astral rubbish and teach her perilous dash for a homeland. rulers in the Universal tower not to The unimaginably evil, human-hating venture into the celestial. --+ Cylons, masters of space warfare, are in terrifying pursuit, determined to blast John Dykstra with his batt/estar Ga/aclica. l
to work. ·continued The Universals, in turn, are confident CURRIER lIVES Treattby that their beloved battlestar will forge on, triumphant over disintegrating rays, atomic hurricanes and multipronged PJY.!noulh lawsuits. (Fox is seeking to restrain network presentation on the grounds of copyright infringement and unfair well. competition and trade practices, but it 'freat your Plymouth to Champions appears ttiat the case won't be heard -the spark·plug it came With until next spring.) originally. The plug that's the best Battlestar Galactica is probably the seller around the world. The plug most expensive show ever created for · that wins more big races. The next TV, with an estimated tab of $7 million for the first seven hours. But science time your Plymouth needs plugs, fiction is supposed to be the genre specify Champions. Be good to whose time has arrived, and that could your Plymouth and it will be good make it a bargain at almost any price. to thee. Look at "Star Wars," which cost only $9 million and had, by August of '78, made more than $258 million. lcHAf loNJ And looking at "Star Wars," accord ing to Fox, is just what Universal has You can't been doing: looking and borrowing. To which Universal replies: our battlesiars aren't like yours and neither are our =:..plug. good. and bad guys and we don't even have a cute robot. A cute mechanical creature that looks like a dog, maybe, but no robot.
What Universal does have is John Dykstra and his staff. the crew respon sible for the special effects in "Star Entire set of 4 only 5998! Wars"-a dazzling display that won Collectors love the distinctive color of rieh Copeqbaoen Dykstra an Oscar and enhanced his Blue! Others hunt through antique stores in hopes of dis covering and buying a real Currier & lves llthograpb de already hefty reputation as a cinema picting America's all-but-vanished way of life in tbe list magician. Dykstra was hired by Uni century! Still others hunt for shaving mugs from grand versal producer Glen Larson shortly pa's day. after "Star Wars" had been completed Now we proudly offer a true rarity - genuine Cumec- & lves scenes on genuine Porcelain mugs ... in CopenllagN and he has been working on Galactica Blue and trilnmed with gleaming 22 karat gold! since the winter of '77 as special Think how just one mug will brighten your kitchen - bow effects coordinator and producer. the entire set of 4 will add charm and wamrth to your dis Dykstra, a bearded, jolly, 31-year-old play shelves or hutch! The distinctive Copenhagen Blur color. accented with white, goes beautifully with any dealr' . giant, laughs at mention of the fussing So hurry, order TODAY. Save over $2 when you buy tbe between the two huge studios, but entire set - save even MORE when you purchase an extD then he laughs at a great many things, set as a gift! Return within 14 days for refund (~ as befits a fellow who has found peo postage and handling) if you're not delighted when I!Jey ple will pay him a lot of money just arrive! Mail coupon now to avoid delay. © 1978 American Consumer, Inc., Caroline Rd .. Phila .. PA 19 ~ for playing with toys. In his case, the Canadian Customers please send orders to: toys are the ships and guns and crea Mail Store LTD .. Dept CIM. 170 BrockOOrt Drlw. tures that whoosh and zap and yowl Rexdale, Ontario M9W sea (Ontario & Quebec residents add sales tax) Champion Spark Plua Complllly through a universe of his own devis- ~ 'Jbledo, OH 431161 TV GUIDE SEPTEMBER 16, 1978 continued ing, to his unending delight. Of Galactica, What they all have in common, he says, "It is without doubt cashing Dykstra believes, "is a youthful ap in on the . genre. OK. It has become a proach and the technical ability to ex successful genre. When a police show ecute ideas. Anyone can come up with is a success, there are more police weird ideas for space, but only a few shows. It's the nature of the business." can actually realize them for the cam Dykstra's studio is in North Holly era" As an illustration of how close wood, and a visitor's first impression the operation is to youthful fantasy, one is that a bunch of kids are standing room is stacked to the ceiling with around giggling whil~ the bosses are. model sets, the kind sold in hobby gone. But these young men, and some stores. Designers are constantly as women, in jeans, shorts and granny sembling toy trucks, planes, tanks, dresses, are the bosses, busily creating tractors, etc., and asking themselves and executing their visions of creatures how could this, slightly modified, or and things that might exist in Dykstra's this plus that, be just what a Cyton space world. would order. Dykstra, wearing a floppy shirt and The Galactica herself, looking larger cutoffs, is asked if anyone over 30 could on the screen than any moving object function in his organization, and he ever created by man, turns out to be grins and says, yes, there have been exactly 72 inches long. But there is so a couple, including himself. But ba much intricate detail, including hun sically his crew is so young because dreds of fragments from the model kits. "most established film workers aren't that, when seen through a camera, the familiar with our techniques. We're not effect is that of an immense vehicle a conventional film business." He has passing by. somehow attracted a stable of young Special effects, according to Dykstra, EASY WAY TO RAISE MONEY sters with the absolutely. latest knowl also owes much to breakthroughs in edge in "electronics, photography, aerospace, medicine, the military and You, yow club or organization make lenses, optics, design and visual com plastics. For example, there are some $1.00 profit on each etching sold. Earn position." Some are movie buffs from four-armed creatures in Ga/actica. Nat extra money fast. Sell it and many the USC and UCLA film schools, but urally. "But these won't look hokey be other enchanting gift products. one of his key model makers ran a cause the actors will be wearing pros Only hospital laboratory, and another was a thetic devices created for amputees and social worker. you won't be able to tell a real arm $1.75 from a prop." Dykstra says all film craft unions are repre sented in his shop. "Say ------we want a special ve hicle. The Carpenters 1113 Wdshington Ave. P.O. Box 530 build it. A Teamster drives it. When its laser 0 I enclose 25¢ for my Crystal Etching canon fires, that's Spe and information on other easy ways to earn cial Effects. An actor I enclose $1.75 for my year-round inside has a jacket with 0 a breakiway sleeve. NAME------~
That's Wardrobe. The ADORES$ ______~ sleeve is shot off and the arm glows. That's CITY STAJ Props. When the actor Also send Fund Raising Plan for Organization! gets out, he's wearing NAME OF OAGANIZATIQN ______4 Richard Hatch {1.), Dirk Benedict in a culinary moment. · electric shoes. From ~ 36 continued Wardrobe. When he turns them on, it's the Cylons personify evil. They don't Special Effects." At Dykstra's, the donate to the Community Chest, they wonders never cease, nN the put-ons. don't give candy to kids, they don't do Shooting special effects is painstak anything nice. They would subjugate ingly slow and precise "and there's no the whole human race. They need to way you can hurry it." Universal set 27 be zapped." days of filming for the initial three-hour Dykstra is almost painfully aware of show, but it took 50. "There was a lot the high expectations for Gaiactica. of political hassle, a lot of money prob "The actors are already talking spinoff lems," Dykstra recalls, "but they never and lining up spinoffs from the spinoffs said stop. It's been first class all the because they think they'll get their way." wives in a spinoff and then she'll Dykstra is quick to concede that spe spinoff .. ." cial effects, no matter how flamboyant, Executive producer Glen Larson. don't make a show. "All that zooming whose credits include The Six Million around gets boring. It always gets back · Dollar Man, Switch, McCloud and to the people. Even a robot has to have Quincy, believes "Our problem is to personality." As producer, he spends ·make Middle America comfortable with half his time on the Universal lot where space. We're not going to let this be the live aGtion is, working with actors come the Monster of the Week Show. and trying to tighten scripts. "The worst There'll be lots of action but with · a thing in science fiction is when they fantasy element that shouldn't cause explain. The space pilot says, 'I am any nightmares or disturb the PTA. And now setting the alpha deterrent to give guest stars. Maybe one week we'll us maximum longitudinal protection have Bette Davis on an asteroid . . . " against Class A to C rays.' It's like a guy getting in a. car and telling his Lorne Greene, as Commander Adama,. passenger, 'I am now setting the auto is charged with leading those surviving matic transmission to D. which will humans to safety but he isn't sure that enable the drive train to give us for commanding a battlestar is as much ward locomotion'." fun as owning a ranch. "On Bonanza Isn't the big attraction of the new I gave orders and then went out to space epics, all that shooting and blast help implement them. Here I just give ing and bombing, a sort of laundered orders. I don't get to leave the ship." violence? "Absolutely. It's action ad Maren Jensen, as Athena, Comman ll.Mgior.07 Mo. Nicoune venture and it's fun but it isn't explicit der Adama's daughter, has the leading gore. You've got to kill some bad guys female role, but women don't seem to and even some good guys. Remember, have much· more to do in space than they did on the Ponderosa. "It's an TV GUIDE absolutely macho show," Dykstra ad mits. "It doesn't have as many women as it should. We tried to change this but it just doesn't come out the other end.''· ·· Most Qf the fun and romance ·of Galactica will center. on Richard Hatch, as Captain· Apollo, Adama's son and the gung-ho leader of the fighter squadron; and Dirk Benedict, who is Lieutenant Starbuck, the happy-go 'The following program inay be hazardous lucky, gambling, woman-chasing fighter to your sense of humor.' pilot. ~ 38 TV GUIDE SEPTEMBER 16, 1978 continued
Benedict, after a few years of not <;>f him . . I understand that. In my lifo getting much of · anything to do in women are always one step ahead ol Hollywood, simply dropped out and re me." turned to a lakefront spread he owns Benedict, a bachelor, makes clear near his home town of White Sulphur that his austere life style doesn't ex Springs, Mont. There he was working elude women, but complains 14-hour on a literary- and culinary- first, a working days don't leave time to find vegetarian cowboy cookbook, when them. '-'What cnance have I got to Lorson, who had remomberod him from meet a real girl when I'm here till 8
11omo long-ago lost, summonod him for every night? I don't care for casual, bnttlostor duty. high-speed relationships." Now Bonudlol, nlnndlno boloro the In an adjoining, matching motor nlovo In hln plunh rnotor homo on the home, Hatch, who has been a far busier lJnlvornnl lot, ntlrrml ri pot or rico and actor than Benedict, including a con huunn nntl rnllnolud on hln luck. " One tinuing role on The Streets of San ruornnnt I wun nllllnn undor my apple Francisco, admits that "Before this trrm uml thn nuxl I'm In Hollywood started I wasn't sure I would like Dirk. dnlnu lnvu nr.unnn with Or Itt Ekland." We'd been up for a thousand parts to Aolunlly, lot•• ul lklnndn bocouao In this gather and somehow you tend to put pnrtlculnr ulory I klund hos boon cloned down the fellow who's competing with md otnrbuck romuncoa a succession you. Now it turns out we get along fine or hor We're both into health foods. I wish he'd invite me over for whatever he'll Ho hnd what ho calls "an Ernest cooking." When told it was rice and Homlngwuy boyhood," In the open beans, Hatch said that -sounds great. spacos of Montana and never saw TV Hatch, also a bachelor, is confident until ho was In junior high. "I grew up Galactica will be a smash and fears It eating boot, venison and elk and drink will do great damage to his love lifo ing whiskey." In college he discovered "When people. see you on the screen drama and as a young actor in New they stop relating to you as a person." York came under the influence of Gloria Even now, because of his experience Swanson ("She's my second mother") on Streets and the soap All My Chi/ and her husband William Dufty ("the dren, "Ladies don't_really see me. They most influential person in my life"). see an image of what they think I am With their encouragement he has given or what they want me to be. It's all up all refined foods, meat, eggs and very superficial. After this [Ga/act/ca) dairy products, and his projected cook I can't go anywhere. Too many will book will teach cowboys and other be pulling, wanting this, wanting that." sturdy Western types the beauties of lentils. It was the Ouftys who also en For Larson, who says he first thought ,couraged him to be independent and of the show more than nine years ago, follow his muse and that's why, when Ga/actica is "a giant toy. Fun and jobs didn't appear, ·he cheerfully bade agony. I'm not 100 per cent pleased Hollywood goodbye. with it, but I'm quite pleased. In the "It could have been for good. No one past, science fiction cared too llttlo missed me. It . was just a coincidence about people and too much about sci that this one man remembered me." ence fictiony concepts. Maybe we'vu Some press people complained that changed that." If he's right, a hugo Lieutenant Starbuck is a male chauvinist section of Middle America may soon but Benedict doesn't think they under be cruising through space on Sunday stand him. "Starbuck genuinely loves nights, hissing the Cylons and meetlnu women but women always get the best Bette Davis on an asteroid. €§ lV GUIDE SEPTEMBER 16, 1978 <41 HERB JANE JEFFERSONSEYMOUR JR. 8-II:OOPM G4ID F 1 SEPTEMBER 17, 1976 Sunday EVENING eludes with "Dumbo," the 1941 car tlestar Galactica, who has doubts toon about a flying baby circus ele about the peace mission. Apollo: Rich phant. One of Walt Disney's own fa ard Hatch. Starbuck: Dirk Benedict. vorites, the movie (first telecast in Boomer: Herb Jefferson Jr. Athena: 1955) features an OlOcar-winning scor~ Maren Jensen. Tigh: Terry Carter. that includes "When I See an Elephant Boxey: Noah Hathaway. Jolly: Tony Fly" and " Pink Elephants." The show Swartz. (3 hrs.) opens with excerpts from other car Guest Cast toon classics such as " Snow White Uri ...... Ray Milland and the Seven Dwarfs," "Pinocchio" Adar ...... Lew Ayres and "Fantasia." Ron Howard and Su Count Baltar ...... John Calicos zanne Somers are the hosts. (2 hrs.) Anton ...... Wilfrid Hyde-White [Expands to two hours.] Serina ...... Jane Seymour NEXT WEEK IN TV GUIDE . .. read Cassiopea ...... Laurette Spang how the Mary Tyler Moore empire is Dr. Paye ...... John Fink making some changes to keep up w ith [Expands to three hours, pre-empting viewers' tastes. in the beginning of a regular programming.] two-part report. 0:'} EVENING AT POPS Dancer-mime Noel Parenti teams with (]) ANIMAL WORLD Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops The misadventures of Blanco, a baby for Morton Gould's " Concerto for Tap burro left to fend for himself in Cali Dancer and Orchestra," and is lea: fornia's scorching Mojave Desert. lured with Karen Joy McCormick in a @)MARCUS WELBY, M.D.-Drama comic interpretation of Scott Joplin's An ebullient young woman is forced to "The Entertainer." (60 min.) cope with the fact that she has been @ WILD KINGDOM stricken with leukemia. Maggie: Fion A project to transport moose from the nuala Flanagan. (60 min.) 7:30 0 ROOKIES-Crime Drama Police search for an arsonist who murders firemen. Terry: Georg Stan ford Brown. Chris: Bruce Fairbairn. ® RUFF HOUSE-Discussion Scientist-inventor Roger Billings dis cusses the use of hydrogen to solve the world's energy crisis. 8:00 (g) ITALIAN PANORAMA 0 HEEHAW Guests: Bill Anderson & Mary Lou Tur ner, Lenzo & Oscar, and Jana Jae. Songs include "Whe~e Are You Going, Billy Boy?" (Bill, Mary Lou). (60 min.) 0 (1) EMMY AWARDS Special: For details, see lhe Close up on page A-47. (2 hrs., 30 min.) [This program, taped from an earlier MICHAEL LEARNED DANNY THOMAS live telecast, pre-empts regular pro HAL UNDEN MARLO THOMAS gramming. " Mary" makes its debut o1AC1C LORD LILY TOMLIN next week at this time.] STEVE MARTIN LINDSAY WAGNER 0!) (L) BATTLESTAR GALACTICA MARY TYLER MOORE BILLY DEE WILLIAMS Debut: Once upon a time, a race of CAlL REINER HENRY WINKLER sinister droids waged a thousand-year ROB REINER AND MANY MORE. war against mankind. This space se THE SOUNDTRACK ries opens with a last-ditch effort by the human forces to secure a peaceful NOW AVAILABLE end to the conflict. Lorne Greene plays Adama, commander of the bat- from MCA RECORDS ~ TV GUIDE A-51