As we get ready to “Go West Young Man,” today our blog series is getting to know the The Virginian (which is sometimes confusing because it was renamed The Men from Shiloh later for part of the series). This series debuted on NBC in 1962. It produced 249 episodes, running until 1971, making it the third longest-running western (Gunsmoke and Bonanza were the top two).
📷wikipedia.com
Lew Wasserman was involved with Universal, and they produced Wagon Train which was on NBC. Universal sold the series to ABC in 1962 after it had been on the air for three years, and NBC was not happy, but Wasserman told them that he had a new show for them, The Virginian.
It was also the first 90-minute western. Like Stagecoach West, it was set in the Wyoming Territory. While the pilot was black and white, the rest of the series was filmed in color.
The series was based on an Owen Wister novel, The Virginian: Horseman of the Plains which was published in 1902.
The series featured a foreman at the Shiloh Ranch near Medicine Bow played by James Drury. The foreman was never referred to by his name. Drury once said, “Nobody knows the name of my character, not even me.” His sidekick was Trampas (Doug McClure). Sheriff Abbott (Ross Elliott) also shows up on and off throughout the nine seasons. For the first four seasons, the ranch owner, Judge Henry Garth (Lee J. Cobb) and his daughter Betsy (Roberta Shore) also live there. The cast changed fairly often throughout the series, but Drury and McClure were along for the entire ride.
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The plots of the show often revolve around themes of prejudice, injustice, being a responsible and hard worker, and standing up for the right thing.
During the final season, the show changed its title, and the series changed quite a bit. There was a new theme song, and it took on more of the character of the popular spaghetti westerns. Stewart Granger and Lee Majors joined the cast. While the ratings increased, the network was intent on cancelling the show, along with the rural purge that happened at that time.
Later when the show was no longer on the air, Drury discussed two of his castmates, one he admired and considered a friend and one he did not! About Grainger who joined the show for the last year, Drury said, “He was a disaster, and I couldn’t stand him. He wanted everything changed to make him the star of the show. . . . He also fired the whole camera crew and hired a new crew for his episodes.” However, on reflecting about his co-star Doug McClure, Drury recalled “off-screen Doug was quite like his character, and you couldn’t help but smile when he walked into a room because he was full of good humor and good spirits all the time. He could cheer anybody up. He became my best friend, and I still miss him terribly—you couldn’t ask for a better co-star.”
As you can imagine, being on the air for nine years meant a lot of guest stars showed up on the series, including Eddie Albert, Charles Bronson, Robert Culp, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Patty Duke, Robert Duvall, Harrison Ford, Jack Lord, Lee Marvin, Vera Miles, Leonard Nimoy, Ryan O’Neal, Robert Redford, George C. Scott, William Shatner and Franchot Tone.
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The Virginian was on Wednesday nights for its entire run. When it began, it was up against Wagon Train on ABC while CBS ran CBS Reports and The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. Both The Virginian and Wagon Train managed to hit the top thirty that year. The next year, its biggest competition was The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet followed by The Patty Duke Show. The Nelsons hit the top thirty and The Virginian and The Patty Duke Show were in the top twenty. The show continued to be in the top twenty or top thirty for the rest of its run, hitting the top ten in 1966, despite being on at the same time as many popular sitcoms during those years, including Batman, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, Gomer Pyle USMC, Lost in Space, MisterEd, and My Living Doll. It was still in the top twenty when it was canceled.
This show is fondly remembered by viewers who tuned it at the time. It’s been in syndication for decades, racking up new generations of fans. In one of his later interviews, Drury talked about the appeal of the show. He said, “People now tell me about their grandkids who discover the show on cable and start watching it. It’s a wonderful feeling to know the show is still viable after all these years.” That alone is reason to be proud of working on this show.
This is Reboot Month, and we are comparing and contrasting several shows that got rebooted after 2000. For the next three weeks we are traveling to Hawaii. Today we get to stop at the home of Magnum, P.I.
Tom Selleck starred as Thomas Magnum, a private investigator living in Oahu. The show first aired on CBS in December of 1980 and went off the schedule in May of 1988.
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The role of Magnum was offered to Kevin Dobson who turned it down. Tom Selleck had been the star of six different pilots that were unsuccessful in becoming shows, but he was offered this role after Dobson declined. After Selleck was given the role of Magnum, he was offered the role of Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark. He had to decline due to his show, so the part was given to Harrison Ford. However, an AFTRA/SAG strike in 1980 delayed the production of the television show, so if he had a crystal ball, Selleck would realize that he could have finished filming Raiders before the television show began filming.
Magnum lives in a guest house on an estate, Robin’s Nest, owned by Robin Masters, a famous author. We understand that Magnum helped Masters out and now Masters allows him to live on the estate for no charge. Masters has also provided Magnum with his car to drive, a Ferrari 308 GTS. The only person he really reports to is “Higgy.” Higgy is ex-British Army sergeant major, Johnthan Quayle Higgins III (John Hillerman).
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In the first show, Magnum is not a fan of Higgins but as the series continued, a respect and fondness was built between the two men. Other cast members include T.C. Calvin (Roger E. Mosley), a friend who owns a helicopter charter service and Rick Wright (Larry Manetti) who owns a local bar. Mosley was a licensed helicopter pilot, but he was banned from doing his own stunts. Both men help Magnum out on cases quite often. They are former Marines whom Magnum served with in Vietnam. The Vietnam connection was an important part of the show. Previously most shows about Vets portrayed them as dealing with post-traumatic syndrome, but this show featured three competent, close comrades from the war, and it changed the way the Vietnam War and the veterans were regarded by popular culture and American viewers.
Rounding out the cast were Lt. Yoshi Tanaka (Kwan Hi Lim), a police lieutenant in the homicide division and Agatha Chumley (Gillian Dobb), Higgins’ friend who obviously has a crush on him.
Higgins lives in the main house on the estate with two Dobermans named Zeus and Apollo. Higgins also bargains with Magnum for favors to get use of the tennis courts, wine cellar, and other amenities of the main house. Higgins considers Magnum an inconvenience; he was living at the estate to write his military memoirs.
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In reality, the Masters estate was known to Hawaiians as the Anderson Estate, Pahonu, owned by a local politician. The grounds were used by the royal family to raise green sea turtles, and the pond is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It had an 11,000-square-foot house; a boat house, which served as the guest house on the show; a gatehouse; and private tennis courts.
In January 2014, the then owner Barbara Cox Anthony sold it and in April of 2018, the estate was demolished.
For the first nine episodes, the theme music was a jazzy piece written by Ian Freebaim-Smith. However, it was replaced by a more up-tempo theme by Mike Post and Pete Carpenter, and it hit the Billboard Hot 100, ranking 25th in 1982.
The show was very popular with viewers. Men wanted to be Magnum and women wanted to date Magnum. The show received 17 Emmy nominations, picking up a win for Selleck in 1984 for Best Actor in a Drama and for Hillerman in 1989 for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama. It ranked in the top 20 for its first five seasons.
📷onlyinyourstate.com lagoon used on Magnum PI
One of the reasons the show was set in Hawaii is because CBS had its Hawaii production offices running for Hawaii Five-O. Since that show ended in 1980, it made sense to film Magnum there and continue the production division.
Thirty years later Magnum was back in Hawaii. This time it was Jay Hernandez as Thomas Magnum, former Navy seal. While he still lived at Robin’s Nest, he worked with Juliet Higgins (Perdita Weeks), an ex-MI6 Agent who runs the estate. Kumu Tuileta (Amy Hill) also lives onsite as the estate’s cultural curator. Magnum allows Robin Masters to write about his life as a Navy seal in exchange for living on the estate, but he has no income, so he becomes a private investigator with the help of “Higgie” who becomes his partner in season two.
In this version, Magnum also has use of Robin’s Ferrari. The shows were filmed in Hawaii. Robin’s Nest was Kualoa Ranch, a set where Jurassic World was also filmed. Several beaches throughout the island were also used, and the show received a traditional Hawaiian blessing before it began.
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Like the original show, Rick Wright (Zachary Knighton) and T.C. Calvin (Stephen Hill) are friends and former Marines. Rick owns a bar the friends frequently visit and T.C. does island helicopter tours. They both pitch in to help Magnum when their skills are needed on a case. Another ally is Gordon Katsumoto (Tim Kang), a Honolulu police detective.
Magnum and Higgins have a definite sexual attraction and they become close friends working together, but for the first few seasons one of them is always involved with someone else. Eventually they realize they both have feelings for each other and start a relationship.
The series was on CBS for four years. When CBS and the producers couldn’t reach an agreement for a fifth season, the show was canceled. The cancellation was bad for the cast and crew, but it also affected many of the locals. Hawaii’s film industry planned on firing 350-400 employees.
I’m not sure why they could not come to an agreement. While the show never achieved the ratings of the earlier show, it had a decent following.
NBC picked it up with a two-season, twenty-episode contract. NBC ended up going with ten episodes per season. They showed the ten episodes of season five by April 2023 and then fans realized that the sixth season would not be shown until some time in 2024. The entertainment industry was facing a writers’ strike as well. It’s interesting that writers’ strikes affected both of the Magnum series.
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The network had three options: renew the show for a sixth season, extend the cast’s options, or release the actors and cancel the series. NBC decided to cancel the show. Unfortunately, after the months-long break between the fourth and fifth season, the network change and schedule change, the show never did very well. You also have to consider that the “should we, shouldn’t we” relationship between the two stars had lost some of its magic when they got together and had to discuss more practical matters. The show was canceled again in June of 2023.
📷tvline.com When Reboots come together
I’m not sure why the reboot of Hawaii Five-0 did so well (which we will talk about next week), but the reboot of Magnum did not. The original Hawaii Five-0 was definitely about the investigations while the reboot included the officers’ personal lives as well. I think people liked Jack Lord, but the show was about solving crimes. Magnum P.I. says it in the name, the show was about Magnum and, more specifically, it was about Tom Selleck as Magnum. It was hard for Hernandez to follow in those footsteps no matter how good of an actor he was. I’m guessing a lot of the fans who turned on the show the first time for nostalgic reasons did not bond with the show in the same way they did the original.
I will admit I watched some Hawaii Five-0 and Magnum episodes from the originals, but I was busy during those years, and I didn’t see many and they weren’t shows on my “must-watch” list, although I liked the episodes I did see.
I thought the rebooted Magnum was a decent show on its own. It probably would not be one I would have continued to watch, however, while Hawaii Five-0 definitely made me a fan of the new series.
This month we are starting a new blog series, Casting Celebrities. We’re going to take a look at four shows that featured a group of celebrities every week. We’ll learn more about Love, American Style; Fantasy Island; The Love Boat, and Supertrain. When we discuss Supertrain, we’ll also look at the small number of stars who appeared on all four shows.
Today we begin with Love, American Style. This show was an iconic 1970s show. Like Laugh In, the clothing, furnishings, and vocabulary do not make it timeless. But it was a lot of fun. This fast-paced anthology series featured two to four mini episodes each week, and between them were quick skits, often featuring a brass bed. Each smaller episode is titled “Love and the _______.”
📷gms.com The regular cast
A troupe of players was featured on each show for the in-between skits. These regulars included William Callaway, Buzz Cooper, Phyllis Davis, Mary Grover, James Hampton, Stuart Margolin, Lynn Marta, Barbara Minkus, and Tracy Reed. Margolin went on to a regular role in TheRockford Files; Tracy Reed was featured in McCloud and Knot’s Landing; Phyllis Davis was part of the cast of Vega$ and Magnum PI, and James Hampton will be familiar if you watched The Doris Day Show or F-Troop.
The show had a memorable and catchy theme song. Written by Arnold Margolin, the first year it was performed by The Cowsills. The snappy melody was set to the following words:
Love, Love, Love
Love, American Style, Truer than the Red, White and Blue. Love, American Style, That’s me and you.
And on a star-spangled night my love,
My love come to me. You can rest you head on my shoulder. Out by the dawn’s early light, my love I will defend your right to try.
Love, American Style, That’s me and you.
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During the second and subsequent years that Love, American Style was on the air, the theme song was performed by the Ron Hicklin Group. The Ron Hicklin Group could be heard in a variety of motion pictures and commercials, and they also appeared on recordings with stars such as Paul Revere and the Raiders and Cher. John and Tom Bahler, brothers who sang under The Charles Fox Singers were also part of this group. The band provided television theme song recordings including Batman, That Girl, Happy Days, and Laverne and Shirley. They also did the singing for The Partridge Family theme and songs performed on the show as well as the Brady Bunch Kids. Ron retired in the early 2000s, and Tom does a variety of things. He is also known for writing Bobby Sherman’s hit, “Julie Do You Love Me?”. John married Janet Lennon, one of the Lennon sisters who performed on The Lawrence Welk Show. He currently lives in Branson and conducts the “new” Lawrence Welk orchestra.
Paramount Television developed the show. The executive producer of the show was Arnold Margolin, Stuart’s brother. There were 53 different directors during the four-year run. The series received Emmy nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series in 1970 and 1971; Best Music Composition in 1971, 1972, and 1973, winning in 1973; and winning the Emmy in 1970 for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics.
📷rewatchclassictv.com
Many people wrote for the show, but Garry Marshall and Jerry Belson received the most credits. One of the writers, Peggy Elliott, was interviewed by the Huffington Post in May of 2013, and she talked about her time writing for the show.
“But the show I loved writing the most, was Love, American Style. For every other show, I was writing for characters created out of someone else’s head. Sure, we could create the occasional guest-star role, and we had been told to make every role, no matter how small, a real person. ‘Think of the actor who’s playing that delivery boy,’ I can hear Billy Persky, the co-creator or That Girl, say: ‘This is a big break for him — it’s the biggest role he’s had so far. Give him something to work with.’
But with Love, American Style, every character was our very own; every situation came out of our heads. Each segment of the hour the show ran each week was a one-act play created entirely by us. Added to the attraction was the fact that we could say and do things that were taboo on every other TV show in the early ‘70s. Arnold Margolin, co-creator of the show with Jim Parker, told me recently that the creative side of the network wanted the show to be more daring, while the censors kept their red pencils ready. There was a full-time position on the show just to run interference.
We must have put both sides through the hoops with one episode we wrote: ‘Love and The Hand-Maiden.’ A young guy was dating a centerfold model. As their relationship developed, he discovered that she had no problem with shedding her clothes, but she always kept her hands covered — with artful poses in magazines, and with gloves in real life. He became obsessed with seeing her hands and came up with one ruse after another to get her to take off her gloves. We had a ball writing it, with one double-entendre after another.”
📷imdb.com
If you were a star of any kind in the early 1970s, you most likely were on Love, American Style. The show produced 108 episodes, and those shows featured 1112 different actors. Some of the famous names showing up in the credits include Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Phyllis Diller, Arte Johnson, Ozzie and Harriet Nelson, Regis Philbin, Burt Reynolds, Sonny and Cher, Flip Wilson, and Jo Anne Worley.
Brad Duke wrote a biography about Harrison Ford, and he said Ford had fond memories of appearing on Love, American Style. “He recalled that he had been given little time to prepare his wardrobe for the role of a philosophical hippie in the November 1969 episode, “Love and the Former Marriage.” He appeared on set with long hair and a beard thinking they were appropriate for the role. He was surprised when he was told he needed a haircut and trim and then was given a navy blue dress shirt and vinyl burgundy jeans with a large belt. They even had a scarf with a little ring to put around my neck. And I thought, someone has made a mistake here. So, rather than argue with the wardrobe people, I put on the clothes and went to find the producer. I walked on the set and he was pointed out. I tapped his shoulder and when he turned around he had on the same clothes I did. He was a hippie producer I guess. At least the check went through, and I got paid.”
The best way to get a good understanding of what the show was like is to look at a couple of the episodes.
January 23, 1970: Love and the Big Night
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Starring Ann Elder, Buddy Lester, Frank Maxwell, Julie Newmar, and Tony Randall, this episode is often listed as a favorite of viewers. Randall is a married businessman who escorts his voluptuous secretary (Newmar) to her apartment after a late night at the office. Eager to get home to his wife, Randall hurriedly tries to open a stubborn jar of mayonnaise and winds up covered with mayo. Newmar cleans his suit, but while it’s drying, it’s stolen. After a series of amusing mishaps, Randall finally gets back to his own apartment and creeps into bed with his wife–only to find out she’s not there.
February 25, 1972: Love and the Television Set
📷that’s entertainment.com
It starred Harold Gould, Marion Ross, Ron Howard, and Anson Williams. Reading this list of names might give you a hint about what happened to this episode after it aired. Garry Marshall had written a pilot about a 1950s family that did not sell. He turned it into an episode for Love, American Style. George Lucas caught the episode and was impressed with Ron Howard and offered him a role in his new movie American Graffiti about 1950s teens. The movie was so popular that the network decided to put Marshall’s pilot in the fall line-up as Happy Days. Harold Gould’s role was given to Tom Bosley for the series. When Love, American Style went into syndication, this episode was retitled “Love and the Happy Days.”
October 22, 1970: Love and the Bashful Groom
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This is the episode I recall when I think of the series. When I watched it originally, I was staying overnight at my grandparents’ house and my grandmother was shocked at the “vulgarity.” It really seems quite tame today, but back then it probably was unexpected. She would approve of Tom Bahler marrying Janet Lennon though because I watched Lawrence Welk with her and my grandfather whenever I was at their house.
In this episode, Paul Petersen, Christopher Stone, Meredith MacRae, Jeff Donnell, and Dick Wilson are featured. Harold (Petersen) and Linda (MacRae) are getting married. He learns that she grew up in a nudist colony and is not comfortable being naked for his wedding. After a soul-searching talk with his best friend, and realizing he loves Linda enough to be uncomfortable, he decides to go through with the ceremony. He gets to the church a bit late and walks in, only to see that everyone else is dressed in their Sunday best. His bride informs him that they always dress up for weddings. One of the congregation members says something like “Let’s not make him uncomfortable,” and they all begin to undress. Of course, you see nothing improper, no naked bodies, only clothes flying. This was probably not the best episode to “expose” my grandmother to as a first glimpse of the show.
The show lasted for four years and was cancelled in 1973. In 1985, a reboot was created, but it was on in the mornings and only lasted a few months. The show was on at the same time as everyone’s favorite game show, The Price is Right. For the 1998 fall season, a pilot was created for prime time, but it was never ordered. While doing my research for this blog, I noticed that there was a Love, American Style project in production, so we may see it resurface again. I’m not sure I would want to watch a contemporary version of the show though. It was such a product of its time, and I fear what a current version would be like after seeing the reboot of Match Game which has been airing the past few years.
I am calling this month’s blog series, “I Robot.” We are taking a look at some popular shows that featured robots. I did not include Lost in Space in this group because I did devote a blog to the show that discussed that robot in some detail.
Cast of Buck Rogers Photo: pinterest.com
Today we start with a show that was a fan favorite in the 1980s, although full disclosure, I had never seen this show until I wrote this blog: Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.
Because Star Wars was so popular, Universal decided to develop a television show about space. Glen Larson was the primary face behind the creation. The original plan was to make a series of Buck Rogers made-for-tv movies for NBC. Larson was also behind the show Battlestar Galactica.
Universal changed plans and filmed a big-screen movie about Buck Rogers. It had good reviews, netting $21 million. After the success of the film, NBC asked for a weekly series. Buck Rogers was not a new concept; he was created in 1928 by Philip Francis Nowlan and had been featured in a variety of media including comic strips, books, and radio. The original movie was edited for television, and it became the first two episodes of the series.
The concept of the show was that Captain William “Buck” Rogers (Gil Gerard) was a NASA pilot commanding Ranger 3 which was launched into outer space in 1987. Because of a part malfunction, Buck is frozen for 504 years and his spacecraft is found in 2491. At this time, he learns the Earth was recovering from a nuclear war.
Photo: buckrogersguide.blogspot.com
Buck has to try to assimilate into the 25th-century culture. Because he was previously a pilot, he is placed in the Earth Defense department. Buck is often undercover. He works with Colonel Wilma Deering (Erin Gray), a starfighter pilot. Stargates were artificially created portals in space to help travel between stars. If you watch the episodes closely, you will notice a subtle shift in Wilma’s hair color. Gray was required to dye her hair blonde for the first season. As the season progresses, the color begins to fade and she was allowed to do that, so by the second season, she has brunette hair.
Another coworker is Twiki, a small robot (Felix Silla and voiced by Mel Blanc). Twiki provided much of the humor on the show. Also helping the trio was Dr. Theopolis (voiced by Eri Server), a small computer disk who understood Twiki and was part of the Computer Council. In the first season, the group received its orders from Dr. Elias Huer (Tim O’Connor).
It was a bit kitschy a la Batman. Several villains are involved in plots. In the first season, the “bad guy” was Princess Ardala (Pamela Hensley) who tried to conquer Earth. Most of the population resided in New Chicago and the rest of the planet was being explored again, and new cities were popping up like New Detroit, New Manhattan, New Phoenix, etc.
In the original story, Buck awakes after 500 years to learn that America was overrun by Mongol invaders and in ruins. Wilma and Dr. Huer are both part of that story, as are Killer Kane and Ardala Valmar.
The Villians Photo: moriareviews.com
For a show that did not produce very many episodes, a lot of celebrities were featured on the show including Gary Coleman, Jamie Lee Curtis, Peter Graves, Jack Palance, Markie Post, Dorothy Stratten, and Vera Miles. A few of the stars who played Batman’s foes show up on Buck Rogers including Cesar Romero, Frank Gorshin, Roddy McDowall, and Julie Newmar.
The opening theme music for the show was composed by Stu Phillips and arranged by Johnny Harris. Harris added a 45-second audio clip when Rogers is spinning and then begins with the main theme.
The show debuted in September of 1979. It was popular with viewers, but critics were not on board with the show. Gerard did not like the direction his character was taking. He was in favor of more series stories and felt like his character was just used to make continual jokes and not taken seriously. At times he even rewrote scripts to favor his character over other roles. There was a lot of tension on the set. Two of the writers and script editors left in the middle of the year. Gerard was reprimanded by the network, and he said he hoped that the series would not be picked up for a second season.
Photo: denofgeeks.com
James Van Hise said the show’s scripts “never took advantage of what they had at hand.” And he said Larson exploited a well-loved character in popular culture. John Javna in his book The Best of Science Fiction TV described the show as the worst science fiction show of all time. Bill Lengeman said the acting was wooden and specified that the episode “Space Rockers” was the worst episode of TV science fiction he had ever seen. Many critics were not happy with the way the women were treated in the second season. Ardala was dismissed, and Wilma lost her respectful position, almost becoming an inconsequential sidekick to Buck.
An actors’ strike delayed filming for season two. A new set of producers was brought in and the format was tweaked. Buck, Wilma, and Twiki were now on a spaceship called the Searcher with a mission to look for lost groups of humanity. Many of the previous characters were no longer part of the series, including Theopolis, Ardala, and Dr. Huer. The Starfighter on the series was created by Ralph McQuarrie and had been one of his designs for Battlestar Galactica.
Taking on more of a Star Trek aura, the new characters included Admiral Efram Asimov, a distant relative of Isaac Asimov (Jay Garner) who commands the Searcher; Hawk (Thom Christopher) an alien who represents the Bird people, now almost extinct; like Spock, he remained straight-faced while others are enjoying emotional moments; Dr. Goodfellow (Wilfrid Hyde-White) an elderly scientist; and Crichton (voiced by Jeff David) a robot built by Goodfellow who disdains humans.
The storylines became more serious and an underlying romance was hinted at between Buck and Wilma. Although the changes were what he asked for, Gerard later complained again about the show. Larson might have been second-guessing himself for casting Gerard. His first choice for the role was Kurt Russell. However, he was concentrating on his movie career and had no interest in coming back to television. Interestingly, Russell had been passed over for the role of Han Solo in Star Wars, losing to Harrison Ford. Ratings dropped in the second season. After only producing 21 episodes for season one, NBC canceled the show after 11 episodes in season two.
Despite the small number of shows produced, Universal released the show on DVD in 2004, but the first two episodes were replaced with the original big-screen movie. The series can also be streamed on NBC’s app.
New books and comic books were produced in the eighties. There were also several sets of action figures released by Mego. Milton Bradley debuted a Buck Rogers board game. You could also purchase jigsaw puzzles, model kits of space ships, die-cast toys, trading cards, and a lunch box.
Although the show garnered no Emmys for acting which is not surprising, it did receive five nominations. In season one, Bruce Broughton won for Outstanding Achievement in Music Composition for a Series. Other nominations included Outstanding Cinematography for a Series in season one, Outstanding Art Direction for a Series in season two, and Outstanding Costume Design for a Series in both seasons. The miniature sets for the landing bays and launch tubes were built with Styrofoam. Although they were inexpensive, combined with clever lighting, they appeared as complex architectural sets.
The show was beloved by its fan base. It’s hard to say why it had such a short life. There seem to be many reasons it didn’t last. With the success of Star Wars, everyone jumped on the outer space bandwagon, and the viewers could only watch so many of them. Gerard certainly did not help the ratings with his complaints and dissatisfaction with the show. Getting rid of Princess Ardala and reducing the role of Wilma to a minor character did not help retain female viewers. The show never seemed to be able to figure out what it was. Was it a Star Wars? Was it Batman? Was it Star Trek? It just seemed to not be very well planned or developed.
Twiki Photo: imdb.com
If you enjoy science fiction, it might be worth watching. After all, there are only 32 episodes, and if nothing else, you might want to watch to see if in the decades since it debuted, it still makes that list of worst science fiction shows. I’d be interested in hearing what you decide. As for this blog series on robots. I can happily relay that Twiki won the TV Land Awards in 2008 for Most Awesome Robot!
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