1988: JANE BADLER TALKS 'V' AND THE HIGHWAYMAN IN STARLOG MAGAZINE

From 1988: the lovely Jane Badler discusses 'V', Larson's THE HIGHWAYMAN (behind-the-scenes punch-up alert!) and her other 1980s projects with STARLOG MAGAZINE.

1993: THE NIGHT MAN Issue 1 (Malibu Ultraverse)

From October 1993: the first issue of THE NIGHT MAN, part of the ambitious ULTRAVERSE line of shared universe books published by MALIBU in the wake of IMAGE COMICS leaving the fold after their first year in business.

In addition to being a successful comicbook series, THE NIGHT MAN was also Glen Larson's last foray into the action/ adventure genre.  The TV version ran for two syndicated seasons between 1997 and 1999.

Ironically, by the time Larson's show launched the comic that it was based on had been canned.  MARVEL, desperate to maintain market share in a floundering market, snapped-up Malibu in October 1994 to stop the upstart publisher falling into the hands of DC Comics... a purchase that, if it were allowed to happen, would cost Marvel their status as the biggest publisher.  A claim deemed essential to keeping the share price inflated.  

Marvel tried to bolster the fortunes of their acquisition by integrating, through a series of crossovers, the Ultraverse characters with the mainstream Marvel Universe.  Typically, this alienated their existing readership and failed to excite Marvel fans who hadn't sampled the line before.  The Ultraverse, like the UKverse before it, was a little corner of the Marvel Universe overlooked by most readers.  

Larson's TV show was notable for a ridiculously cheap looking approximation of the comicbook's costume design.  It looked OK on screen but ludicrous in stills and publicity material.  The realities of syndication deprived Larson of the budgets he'd enjoyed in his network years and left him heavily dependent on cutting edge, but unconvincing, CGI lending the show a bargain basement air.  

Standout moments included a David Hasselhoff cameo in the show's feature-length opener (presumably a favor from an old friend), a revival of Larson's fondly-remembered (but quickly cancelled) MANIMAL (which doubled as a backdoor pilot by shamelessly adding a daughter, time-travel AND Jake the Ripper to the already improbable premise) and a virtual remake of one of Larson's THE HIGHWAYMAN episodes (complete with plentiful stock truck shots, mixed with new material featuring the same vehicle, and a rehash of the script).  

The opening credits contained a name-check for Marvel, making this the live-action show that Marvel never talks about.  

The Ultraverse also spawned an ULTRA FORCE animated series which had the misfortune of hitting the screens just as Marvel were sealing the deal.  Marvel's existing animation deals with New World Television made it odd-man-out in the roster of shows and little was done to extend its life beyond the first run of episodes, despite a big licensing push spearheaded by a range of action figures.  Night Man appeared in one of the episodes.  

The Ultraverse has lain dormant in subsequent decades thanks, apparently, to some complicated royalty deals signed with the original creators which makes it uneconomical for Marvel to revive the characters.  The need to renew Marvel's copyright claim will probably see them revived, in some form, at some point.  

Unsurprisingly, given the limbo status of the characters, neither the animated series nor Larson's show is available on shiny disc although convention bootleggers have (once again) filled the gap with the latter.

I'm not sure the NIGHT MAN show ever even aired in the UK.  It was announced as upcoming, at one point, by Sky but (if I recall correctly) it was pulled prior to TX and I don't think it was ever rescheduled.  Whether this was down to a deal never being inked, or quality control on Sky's behalf, is unknown.  

Fans of Larson's brand of easy-going adventure will find much to enjoy. 

GLEN A. LARSON: 77 FACTOIDS

TV Uber Producer Glen A. Larson (of eponymous TV production company fame) died at the weekend aged 77.  So here are 77 factoids about his Star Age productions:

1.     Larson was drafted in to save THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN after ABC rejected the creative direction of the first TV movie.  Larson reinvented Steve Austin as a bionic James Bond and even drafted in Dusty Springfield to croon the new theme.  The network wasn’t convinced Larson was the right man for the gig but did commission a weekly series without his direct involvement. 

2.     BATTLESTAR owes its origins to another Larson idea concocted a decade earlier.  ADAM’S ARK sent the last survivors of the destruction of the Earth out into space.  Battlestar flipped the idea and added Star Age paraphernalia.

3.     Despite the sheer number of STAR WARS knock-offs released during the Star Age, only Larson was sued by 20^th Century Fox.  Universal counter-sued, claiming Lucas had ripped-off their SILENT RUNNING.  The lawyers were busy for longer than the show remained in production but Larson eventually emerged victorious. 

4.     Before the lawsuit, Larson met with the STAR WARS team to try and avoid stepping on their toes.  One of the edicts he readily agreed to was “no laser blasts”.  That made TV post-production easier as it meant less pricy effects work.

5.     BATTLESTAR GALACTICA should have been a series of occasional (initially three) TV movies.  ABC upped the ante and ordered a full series after they saw the rushes of the pilot.

6.     Larson took advantage of the brief hiatus between STAR WARS films to swoop on some of the behind-the-scenes talent.  John Dykstra and his team provided the all-important SFX (but baulked at TV’s different ways of working and bailed-out during Lost Planet of the Gods) and ace artist Ralph McQuarie supplied much of the pre-production art, including the ship and hardware designs (and even a draft of what became the poster key art). 

7.     MEDIASCENE ran an extensive preview of the series in its January 1978 issue, months before principal photography even commenced. 

8.     Larson cashed-in by not only taking payments for being the creator, writer and showrunner, he also muscled in and claimed co-writer status for the show’s excellent theme and also claimed to be the principle author of each of the novelizations (even when they were based on episodes he didn’t originally write… or band-new fiction).  Ironically, the novels only seemed to have a tenuous grasp on the format and characters anyway. 

9.     The first entry in BATTLESTAR’s Expanded Universe was the sixth issue of Marvel’s monthly comic.  They abandoned the show’s post-Lost Planet of the Gods continuity in favour of their own parallel chronology.  And wasted no time in killing-off Baltar.  The title eventually ran for 23 issues before falling sales, and lack of TV support, sealed its fate. 

10.  Muffet the Daggit, key to the show’s merchandising efforts, was actually a chimp called Evie.

11.  The Cylon Imperious Leader looks like a humanoid lizard because they were living beings, at least until ABC’s censors intervened, and made them all a race of robots to avoid an unacceptably high death toll.

12.  One of McQuarrie’s rejected Viper designs was recycled the following season as the hero Star Fighter in BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25^th CENTURY.

13.  A Universal film unit were dispatched, with a trunk of costumes, to gather footage in Egypt for Lost Planet of the Gods.  Fat-bummed locals doubled for the principle cast.

14.  The BATTLESTAR GALACTICA movie (a shorter edit of the TV pilot) was first released in Canadian cinemas in the summer of 1978, months before the US TV premiere.  The movie version hit the UK the following year and was even released in US cinemas AFTER the show was cancelled. 

15.  A second movie, MISSION GALACTICA: THE CYLON ATTACK, did the international rounds in 1980 to capitalize on the success of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK.  No new material was shot and all the footage came from episodes (The Living Legend and Fire in Space) shot two years earlier. 

16.  The third movie, CONQUEST OF THE EARTH, wrapped-up the unofficial trilogy.  It was a messy compilation of GALACTICA 1980 episodes.  The editors had to cut around challenges like the recasting of Doctor Zee between pilot and (brief) series.  Unlike its predecessors, it’s seldom seen today. 

17.  There were two UK hardback annuals inspired by the first two movies.  Both contained new strips and illustrated text stories. 

18.  Robin Williams inadvertently killed BATTLESTAR when ABC (fairly disastrously as it turned out) moved their break-out hit MORK AND MINDY into Battlestar’s old slot in 1979.  The bean counters reasoned that the cheaper three camera sitcom would score better ratings at a fraction of the cost.  Wrong.  It’s a myth that poor ratings killed the show.  It debuted with 65 million viewers (thrashing both the 1978 Emmy Awards and the premiere of the poorly received KING KONG remake) and settled down to lower weekly audiences but still figures that, for any other show (with a lower price ticket) would have been considered a hit.

19.  The TV version of BATTLESTAR didn’t reach British screens until 1980.  And, even then, it was left to each ITV region to schedule at their leisure.  It wasn’t networked until BBC TWO picked-up reruns later in the decade.

20.  GALACTICA 1980 took four years to touch down in the UK.  Unsurprisingly, ITV tucked it away in off-peak slots.

21.  The initial BBC run was far from complete.  Saga of a Star World and The Living Legend were both deemed off-limits by the distributor because ITV still held the rights to the movie versions.  Oddly, Fire In Space was scheduled but had to be pulled at the last minute because it would have aired the day after the Kings Cross fire disaster.  It was never rescheduled.  BUCK ROGERS also lost its pilot (for the same reason) but, strangely, Space Vampire was also deemed unsuitable for its 6pm slot.  ITV didn’t seem bothered when they aired it on Saturday nights a few years earlier. 

22.  BATTLESTAR GALACTICA has subsequently been seen (usually with the “lost” episodes restored) on BBC TWO (again), SKY ONE, THE SCI-FI CHANNEL and BRAVO.  Phew.  GALACTICA 1980 is usually thrown-in as freebie. 

23.  Dirk Benedict was cast as Starbuck despite the objections of the network.  When the character became the breakout star of the show, more and more scripts resolved around the character. 

24.  Experiment in Terra should have been another Benedict script but Richard Hatch, concerned he was being marginalized, complained and the names were swapped, making it an Apollo-centric outing. 

25.  The Cylon Fortress in The Young Lords was the Medieval Castle on the Universal backlot.  The backlot subsequently played host to the BATTLE FOR GALACTICA ride on the studio tour.  The state-of-the-art attraction saw trams of tourists kidnapped by the Cylons only to be rescued by a lone Colonial Warrior in a hail of laser blasts.

26.  Larson (possibly thanks to the gossipy network of SFX boffins) was able to get the jump on Lucas twice.  The Colonial Warriors deployed to an ice planet (albeit on the Universal lot) more than six months before Lucas decamped to Norway.  And BUCK ROGERS had an asteroid field (in Return of the Fighting 69^th) a year before THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. 

27.  The Viper cockpit sequences were shot against back projection screens, which forced the cast to react to the footage in real time. 

28.  BATTLESTAR indirectly caused two deaths: a child choked on a missile from the Mattel Viper toy (leading to a recall, amendments to standards and the end of plans for a rocket-firing back pack on Kenner’s Boba Fett figure).  After ABC cancelled the show, a distraught teenage fan committed suicide. 

29.  The road to newsstands was not an easy one for Marvel’s BATTLESTAR comic book.  The creative team on the movie adaptation had to battle with the usual problems of early deadlines versus last-minute Hollywood revisions.  And then, to make matters worse, someone forgot to check the final version with the studio before it was printed.  Universal bulked at some of the art and ordered the entire run pulped.  A (unlabelled) second printing was signed-off and emerged in magazine, treasury and paperback editions.

30.  The adaptation, reworked to eliminate the “mistakes” from the original, also formed the first three issues of the monthly book.  The following two months adapted, for the first time, the TV story Lost Planet of the Gods.  Thanks to a weird licensing agreement, Marvel could only feature TV elements introduced in these five broadcast hours and couldn’t incorporate anything from subsequent shows.  They also didn’t bother with GALACTICA 1980. 

31.  A second (after the movie adaptation) comic strip paperback reprinted the 4-6^th issues of Marvel’s BATTLESTAR strips.

32.  Dez Skinn, of Marvel UK, didn’t think that BATTLESTAR was going to be another STAR WARS sized hit and knew it wouldn’t support a similar weekly.  And the lack of material would have made it impossible anyway.  He proposed, and Fox rejected, a plan to rerun the strips as the regular back-up in STAR WARS WEEKLY.  With that plan sunk, he created STAR HEROES as a new vehicle for the reprints.  He tested the new launch (which also included the Micronauts, a toy tie-in already established in SWW) with a 1979 Winter Special.  It may have escaped Skinn’s attention but the reprints of the 4^th and 5^th US issues teased a TV story that wouldn’t air in the UK for another year.

33.  STAR HEROES, deemed a success, returned the following year as part of the new (smaller) Pocket Books line.  It lasted for a year until the 23 US issues were all exhausted.  

34.  A weird bit of licensing meant that LOOK-IN was also able to publish a new BATTLESTAR strip for twelve months, overlapping with Marvel’s reprints.  A similar arrangement surfaced with THE A-TEAM a few years later. 

35.  The LOOK-IN BATTLESTAR strip was retired after a year, replaced by BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25^th CENTURY. 

36.  BUCK ROGERS star Gil Gerrard was embroiled in a long-running dispute with the show’s first season writing team over the quality of the scripts.  The battle culminated in a PR meltdown interview with STARLOG magazine.  The writing staff were all sacked, or quit, by the end of the season. 

37.  Recurring BUCK ROGERS guest star, Pamela Hensley, can be found as a series regular on the (unfortunately as it’s quite good) long forgotten MATT HOUSTON for three seasons.  One episode bangs her up in a reheat of Spelling’s earlier Angels in Chains CHARLIE’S ANGELS episode.

38.  The flying bikes from GALACTICA 1980 started life as Land Probes for the original series.  The bikes were built, but then mothballed, when the script was pulled just before shooting was due to commence.  They’re mentioned, but not seen, in merchandise published in 1978 suggesting they were planned from early in production.

39.  Despite some revisionist marketing for the DVD release decades later, GALACTICA 1980 wasn’t the second season of Battlestar that Larson planned when shooting wrapped at the end of season one.  The revival came more than six months after cancellation.  In the meantime, the original cast had been released to other projects (and most declined to return), the standing sets (including the expansive Bridge) demolished and everything else put into storage or handed down to BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25^th CENTURY. 

40.  GALACTICA 1980 had a very different remit.  It had to be cheaper to make, more accessible to Middle America, simpler to shoot and ready for delivery with a fast turnaround.  It was originally only a three-hour special intended to wrap-up the quest for Earth.  When ratings were higher than anticipated, the network ordered additional episodes to air within weeks.

41.  Richard Lynch was contracted as the show’s recurring villain… but he was already committed to filming overseas and didn’t make it back to the States until after the show was cancelled.  Britain’s Jeremy Brett was a one-episode stand-in, his new identity explained by a hitherto unmentioned ability to change faces at will. 

42.  William Daniels, the future voice of KITT, played a humanoid Cylon in the GALACTICA 1980 two-parter The Night The Cylons Landed.  The same story also revealed Centurions were susceptible to the damaging effects of a rogue domestic microwave.

43.  The revival’s finale, Return of Starbuck, was created (from an idea Larson had developed for the original series) out of desperation.  Larson needed a script that didn’t need the input of the principle cast (already flat-out shooting other episodes) and lured back Benedict (for what should have been the first of several appearances) to shoot the bulk of the episode off-lot. 

44.  Dirk Benedict encountered a Cylon one more time (he declined to be involved in the remake) in a famous improvised clip from his next regular gig THE A-TEAM.  He shot it, on the Universal backlot, for the episode Steel.  It later formed part of the main title sequence. 

45.  GALACTICA 1980’s dash-to-air left a dozen or so story ideas or full scripts at various stages of development but, ultimately, unfilmed. 

46.  The much derided Super Scouts, inserted into the format at the behest of the network, consisted of several members of Larson’s own extensive brood.  Another (not one of Larson’s own) graduated to be a murderer and was killed in a shootout with police. 

47.  Universal built full-sized versions of the Viper and Star Fighter for filming.  Other craft were just partial sets.  After filming ended, they were stored at an LA USAF base. 

48.  The two Corgi toy BUCK ROGERS’ Star Fighters had to redesigned to reduce the danger of injury from the two prongs at the front. 

49.  The Vipers in the original series were one-seater craft (with the exception of the one that transported Apollo and Adama to the surface of Caprica) but, by the time of GALACTICA 1980, they had become two-warrior craft.

50.  The long-lived UK BATTLESTAR GALACTICA Fan Club, publishers of a newsletter and occasional fanzines, was THE THIRTEENTH TRIBE. 

51.  Dirk Benedict was once a contestant in the UK version of BIG BROTHER.  He survived to become a runner-up.  He also starred as COLUMBO in a British stage adaptation of the famous TV detective. 

52.  Gil Gerrard, who struggled for years with weight issues, also starred in 1990’s eco series E.A.R.T.H FORCE.  It was cancelled after three episodes.

53.  Jane Seymour left the BATTLESTAR set on her last day of filming convinced that her character was about to be killed-off off-screen thanks to a nasty dose of radiation poisoning.  Larson had other ideas and wanted to add her to the regular cast.  She declined… and only returned on condition that she was killed-off (for good… except an inadvertent stock footage blooper in a later show) again. 

54.  The first BUCK ROGERS tie-in novel was an extended version of the pilot/ movie.  The second, THE BETA PIRATES, was adapted from an ultimately unused script.

55.  War Witch, the finale of the first season of BUCK ROGERS, pushed the boat out with an expanded budget and more effects work.  Universal were trying to convince NBC to renew the series and were possibly also mulling a second theatrical release overseas.

56.  The second season of BUCK ROGERS (Larson had no direct involvement but continued to cash the payments) was radically retooled in an attempt to boost ratings and shave some costs.  The new version, that sent Buck (and a much diminished Wilma) out into space with a new supporting cast to hunt down lost human colonies.  They didn’t have time to find many before the show was cancelled. 

57.  Lee Majors star of THE FALL GUY, helped to sell the show to the network by crooning the Larson-penned theme tune at the show’s pitch meeting.

58.  THE FALL GUY highlights include a charming cameo by Major’s ex in the closing moments of the pilot and a reunion with former Bionic Woman Lindsay Wagner for season three.  Elvira appeared twice, in two Halloween-themed episodes, a year apart.

59.  Larson had to face losing his principal star in tragic circumstances twice.  And both times kept the show going, at least for a while.  Pete Duel committed suicide during ALIAS SMITH AND JONES and John-Erik Hexum died on the set of COVER UP when he accidently shot himself with a prop gun during a break in filming. 

60.   The COVER UP curse continued when, years later, JEH last-minute replacement, Australian model and future MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE star Antony Hamilton died of AIDS. 

61.  David Hasselhoff was already appearing in daytime soaps when NBC boss Brandon Tartikoff concluded he could be a star (The Hoff assumed he was hitting on him).  Ironically, Larson created the show because he wanted to update the LONE RANGER format and make the horse (KITT) the star and relegate the hero to unspeaking support.  It didn’t quite reach the screen like that.

62.  When the Hoff tried to demand more money to keep filming the hit show, he was told (in no uncertain terms) that “the car’s the star”.

63.  Larson swiped his own Cylon idea for KNIGHT RIDER’s KITT, borrowing both the scanner and accompanying sound effect. 

64.  William Daniels added KITT’s lines in post-production (a script assistant read them on-set) and the two stars didn’t even meet until the show’s first Christmas party. 

65.  Highlights from KNIGHT RIDER’s multi-year run included (the surprisingly dark) pilot movie, Trust Never Rusts and KITT Versus KARR (two episodes with KITT’s evil twin), Goliath and Goliath Returns (two epic confrontations with the Hoff’s evil – and campy – alter ego), Let It Be Me (the official start of the Hoff’s recording career) and Fright Knight (which features an extensive back lot tour… including a crashed Viper). 

66.  MANIMAL is one of Larson’s most famous creations… but it only lasted for six shows before being dumped for terrible ratings.  It was the butt of comedian’s jokes even before it debuted.  Critics took aim at its’ po-faced delivery, improbable premise (how did Jonathan Chase manage to get dressed again after his transformations?) and repetitive transformation effects. 

67.  Larson, once again well aware of what was selling at the cinema, created AUTOMAN.  The state-of-the-art technology, which (once again) weren’t matched by the scripts, utilised front-project material (and post-production) to create the Automan illusion. 

68.  THE HIGHWAYMAN started out as a pilot movie that combined BJ AND THE BEAR (the truck) with KNIGHT RIDER (it was super high-tech) in a contemporary setting.  It was notable for its star (former FLASH GORDON and b-movie regular) Sam Jones and Claudia Christian as his controller.  When it returned as a weekly series, it added MAD MAX to the mix and became a more overtly science fiction series.  The new supporting cast (in addition to a succession of regular Larson contributors as Guest Stars) included V’s Jane Badler.  It didn’t last long. 

69.  MANIMAL was a flop at home but sold well overseas.  Larson revisited the concept, and threw-in a daughter, time travel and Jack the Ripper for a back-door pilot masquerading as an episode of NIGHT MAN. 

70.  Another NIGHT MAN episode revisited THE HIGHWAYMAN by taking one of the trucks (Jetto’s) out of storage and mixing new material with stock footage.  Large chunks of the original script were also trotted out again. 

71.  William Conrad, paunchy star of CANNON, was Larson’s go-to man for title sequence voiceovers.  He also starred in Larson’s short-lived Hawaiian mystery series BATTLE.  

72.  NIGHT MAN, Larson’s last genre series, was based on the Malibu Ultraverse comic book character.  However, by the time the show kicked-off its two-season run, Malibu had been sold to rival Marvel Comics and, after an unsuccessful attempt to integrate the two universes, Marvel dropped the acquired characters including NM.  It’s the Marvel live-action series Marvel doesn’t like to talk about.  The character also appeared in one-episode of the short-lived animated ULTRA FORCE series, another victim of the company merger. 

73.  NIGHT MAN made extensive use of CGI SFX, although much of it (like the costume) looked pretty shoddy.

74.  Possibly returning an old favour, The Hoff returned to the Larson-verse for a cameo in the closing moments of the NIGHT MAN pilot. 

75.  British comic strip versions of Larson’s shows included BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (in LOOK-IN), BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25^th CENTURY (in LOOK-IN followed by TV TOPS), KNIGHT RIDER (in LOOK-IN), THE FALL GUY (LOOK-IN) and AUTOMAN (in BEEB). 

76.  KNIGHT RIDER has been revived, in various forms, four times to date.  Larson retained a contractual credit but wasn’t involved.  KNIGHT RIDER 2000 was a TV movie that reunited the cast and should have spawned a new, more futuristic, series.  KNIGHT RIDER 3000 was an in-name-only teleflick that also failed to spawn a sequel or a weekly series.  TEAM KNIGHT RIDER, also for syndication, adopted the more-is-more approach and introduced a bunch of high tech vehicles.  ITV aired a couple of episodes before quietly dumping the one-season-wonder.  KNIGHT RIDER returned as a TV movie (with Hoff cameo) that spun-off a weekly series (without Hoff) that only managed to last a year.

77.  Larson was well known for building a large troop of go-to performers so expect to see familiar faces in many of his productions.  Make it a drinking game in Glen’s memory.  

There's actually a lot more I could write but 77 seemed a good number (especially to hit my self-imposed deadline) so I may look at expanding this in the future, or breaking in out into more specific shows.  Stay tuned...

GLEN A. LARSON 1937-2014

It's not been widely reported here in the UK but GLEN LARSON, TV Super Producer and Show Runner, died of cancer at the weekend.  He was 77.

The name probably needs no introduction but, to recap, he was the Hollywood producer that brought us the STAR AGE small (and big) screen juggernauts BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25th CENTURY as well as lesser SF shows MANIMAL, AUTOMAN, THE HIGHWAYMAN, NIGHT MAN and GALACTICA 1980.

His wider body of work included QUINCY M.E, McCLOUD, THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN (he produced the second and third TV movies and although his vision of a super-powered James Bond didn't continue, their success ensured the long-running ABC series), THE HARDY BOYS AND NANCY DREW MYSTERIES, BJ AND THE BEAR and its spin-off THE MISADVENTURES OF SHERIFF LOBO, BATTLES, the pilot for MAGNUM P.I, THE FALL GUY, KNIGHT RIDER, COVER UP, MASQUERADE and many more.

Not all his show's were a success (the much derided MANIMAL only clocked-up six episodes before being dumped) and many were rightly lambasted for being rather-too-obvious knock-offs of successful feature films but they were always great fun and were Star Age essentials.

I'm planning to do more on the man and his work but... in the meantime... here's a compilation of some very memorable title sequences. 

1988: JANE BADLER interviewed in STARLOG MAGAZINE

THE HIGHWAYMAN: "They started hitting each other... and the police came."

Here's a 1988 interview with the delightful Jane Badler (from STARLOG MAGAZINE 133, cover-dated August 1988) where she discusses her time on "V" and the short-lived THE HIGHWAYMAN.

THE HIGHWAYMAN is long-forgotten so this is a rare opportunity to get some behind-the-scenes insight and it sounds like it was not always a happy show to work on.

I had the pleasure of meeting Jane - briefly - during her recent visit to London (she's been living in Australia for many years now) and - to be honest - it was dream come true.  I'm pleased (and relieved) to say she was utterly charming (and still beautiful).  We spoke briefly and she said she enjoyed her time of the recent "V" revival (one of TV's great missed-opportunities). 

1983: MANIMAL

Jonathan Chase: master of the secrets that divide man from animal... animal from man... Manimal.

Remember MANIMAL, the blink-and-you-missed it show that, frankly, made no sense but has retained a cult following?

It's due to (finally) get a DVD release in the UK in the near future (Amazon.co.uk currently has a due date of 27 August 2012) so, to set the scene, here's the show's quintessentially eighties title sequence as well as a couple of Professor Jonathan Chase's (Simon Maccorkindale) painfully predictable transformations.

The short-lived show (a suprisingly-sparse 8 shows including the feature length premiere) was another of schlock meister Glen A. Larson's back-of-an-envelope creations and, like so many of his shows, was a neat premise that lacked any substance.  Manimal, by all accounts something of an industry joke even before its premiere.

Manimal hit US screens in September 1983 (and reached the UK, in a prime time BBC ONE slot, in June 1984).  At the same time, Larson was also producing his other short-lived gimmick show of the season: the ever-so-slightly-inspired-by-TRON AUTOMAN (which clocked-up a not-much-better 13 shows).

Even by Larson's undemanding standards, Manimal is a pretty juvenile show and it probably would have had more of a fighting chance as either a comic book or a Saturday morning animation.  It does borrow heavily from Ken Johnson's adaptation of THE INCREDIBLE HULK (still the best screen version despite Marvel's big spending blockbusters), specifically the child-pleasing several-transformations-per-episode formula.

Despite Larson's experience in the trenches of weekly TV drama production (this is the man that made BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25th CENTURY a few seasons earlier), it seems like he failed to anticipate the logistics of trying to replicate the Manimal formula episode-after-episode.  Chase's pre-CGI transformations (from professor-of-prosthetics Stan Winston) are technically excellent but quickly become boring when seen episode-after-episode.  Larson doesn't seem to have had the time or budget to add to Chase's repertoire so we see the same few on-screen transformations (panther and hawk, see below) ever week and anything else conveniently happens off-screen.

The show's other problem is that bugger-all makes sense.  Even as an undemanding child, I was left with a lot of questions (and even more after revisiting the show, via bootlegs, a few years ago):
- How do you "learn" to become a shape-shifter?
- He's clearly British (another example of Larson trying to make his James Bond fetish work on the small screen per chance?) but also a Vietnam Vet.  How so?
- Infamously, where do his clothes go when he transforms?  And how does he get them back afterwards?
- Why does it look (and sound) like Chase is having an energetic wank (specifically the "amusing" back-of-the-cab scene) when he transforms?
- If he's such as animal expert, why is Chase's repertoire of transformations so limited?
- How many animal-related crimes could the NYPD conceivably have to deal with?

Despite the sheer stupidity of the shape-shifting shenanigans, the cast do their best to make it work.  The late Simon Maccorkindale does it with dignity and Melody Anderson (FLASH GORDON.  Hurrah!) may not be a great actress but she's a lot of fun.  It's a shame Larson couldn't find something for her to do when he drafted in her former co-star for THE HIGHWAYMAN.

William Conrad (the - err - fat man in JAKE AND THE FAT MAN) provided the narration.  He was a frequent Larson collaborator, performing the same duties on BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25th CENTURY and THE HIGHWAYMAN.

The show made a greater impact in the UK thanks to its peak time slot on the BBC (and, besides, at that time anything from America had a whiff of glamour and sophistication... even when it was pants) and, according to perceived wisdom, also travelled well in other markets (France is often cited as a bastion of Manimal fans... but it it true?).  Larson's decision to revive the character over a decade later (November 1998) in a sneaky attempt to revive the franchise would seem to support that.

NIGHTMAN saw Larson (by now past his producing prime) return to super heroics by adapting the Malibu Comics character (by the time the show aired, Malibu had been snaffled-up by Marvel Comics).  The show is no-great-shakes (and the costume looks terrible) but it still managed to clock-up two seasons in first-run syndication.  The episode Manimal (what else?) surfaced early in season two and saw Maccorkindale reprise the role.  Inexplicably, not only is Chase still transforming... he's now also a time traveller hunting Jack the Ripper.  Nightman was not a show grounded in reality.  Chase's daughter has also grasped the powers of the beast and Larson was clearly using the episode as a back-door pilot for a possible spin-off.  It never happened.  Larson also plundered his back catalogue for a Hasselhoff cameo in Nightman's pilot and an episode which remade a HIGHWAYMAN script (as well as borrowing a shed-load of footage and getting one of the trucks out of storage).

The show's merchandising was, understandably, sparse although Britain did get a single annual, released in 1984 (top left).

THE TITLES:

THE TRANSFORMATIONS:

1987-88: THE HIGHWAYMAN

THE HIGHWAYMAN was a 1987-88 action/ adventure show from the fertile imagination of uber-producer Glen Larson (BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25th CENTURY, KIGHT RIDER, THE FALL GUY and a shed-load others).

It's been said that Larson is the ultimate TV salesman.  During the peak of his producing career (the late seventies to the late eighties), he seemed to have no trouble at all selling shows to the US networks.  However, many of them were gimmick-shows (or, notoriously, 'inspired' by a recent Hollywood movie) that quickly bored audiences (MANIMAL, AUTOMAN and others).

THE HIGHWAYMAN is a late Larson entry (although he was still producing into the nineties and boasted a producer credit on the new BATTLESTAR GALACTICA although this was purely a contractual nicety) and something of a greatest hits package: mixing KNIGHT RIDER with B.J. AND THE BEAR, adding more than a little MAD MAX to the mix.

It's another in the long-line of "hardware" shows including KNIGHT RIDER, AIRWOLF, BLUE THUNDER, STREET HAWK, VIPER and TEAM KNIGHT RIDER.

The Highwayman is a government law enforcement officer with a state-of-the-art, unfeasibly high-tech truck.  His assignment: enforce the law on the high roads and back roads of America.

The Highwayman (or "Highway") is the man with no name.  Played by ex-FLASH GORDON Sam J. Jones (now boasting black hair and an unfeasible amount of leather considering his desert beat).  The premise of the show immediately falls down at this point as "Highway" is one of a number of law enforcement officers, collectively known as Highwaymen.  It's like a police officer being called "Police".

The show's gimmick is the truck: it's packed-full of the latest state-of-the-art gadgets (ala Knight Rider although it doesn't talk and doesn't sound like a Cylon) including a sports car in the trailer, high tech communications gear, a cab that converts into a helicopter and (only in the pilot) the ability to become invisible ("stealth"), with the help of a satellite and a control room full of government boffins ala WAR GAMES.

The show debuted with a stand-alone TV movie THE HIGHWAYMAN (aka Terror on the Black Top) which is significantly different from the series that followed.  In the pilot, the only overt science fiction/ fantasy element is the truck itself.  The setting is contemporary USA.  The plot, a biker gang menaces a small town, is a familiar eighties stand-by already used by Larson in The Fall Guy and Knight Rider.  Indeed, the whole thing feels like a reheated KR episode.  Familiar TV faces in the first instalment include Claudia Christian (Highway's controller who, unbelievably, doubles as a late-night sultry DJ allowing her to issue instructions to her agent over the airwaves), Jimmy Smits, Mikey Jones, Wings Hauser, Rowdy Roddy Piper and even G. Gordon Liddy.

The short-lived 1988 weekly series significantly reworked the format.  The (unstated) time frame moved several years into the future and story lines revolved around aliens, clones, androids, ghosts, time travel and spare-parts surgery.  Unfortunately, few of these make much sense and the show gives the impression that Larson is choosing plots by flicking through a book of unexplained phenomena.

Highway is now part of a team of law enforcers collectively called Highwaymen (you can see the confusion), each apparently issued with a high-tech truck (although none are as impressive as the show's "hero" rig) and lots of leather.

Christan, and her DJing, were ditched in favour of genre favourite Jane Badler, fresh from V (and about to decamp to Australia for the revived MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE), as Highway's new controller. Cue lots of predictable "you won't follow orders" frustrations.

Also added to the cast was the way-too-annoying Mark "Jacko" Jackson as uncouth Australian (this was the CROCODILE DUNDEE era) Jetto.  Jackson was an ex Australian footballer who became flavour-of-the-month in a number of US TV commercials.

Another series regular was Tim Russ: Tuvoc in STAR TREK: VOYAGER.

The series was filmed in and around Phoenix, Arizona: a location which created its own problems with heat and inhospitable conditions.  Phoenix unconvincingly doubles as New York (the palm trees are a giveaway) in the episode Send in the Clones.

Badler complained about the heat, and the tensions in caused amongst cast and crew, in a STARLOG MAGAZINE interview.

Send in the Clones reunited several supporting cast members (but not Dennis Weaver) from Larson's seventies hit McCLOUD.  Ever the salesman, Larson intended the episode as a back-door pilot for a spin-off show revolving around the clone character.  Unsurprisingly, no-one signed the deal.

The episode Frightmare, with flashbacks to several previous episodes, was clearly intended to be the season finale but aired earlier than planned when NBC jumbled the broadcast order.

The episode The Hitchhiker was, improbably, remade as an episode of Larson's NIGHT MAN during its first season.  The script was reworked and a large amount of footage reused.  New scenes included Jetto's truck (which suggests that Highway's rig was either unavailable or too expensive to hire as this would have given Larson a lot more opportunities to intercut footage from the original show).  The low-budget syndicated show was based on the Malibu Comics super hero, by this point under the ownership of Marvel Comics.  Another episode revived Larson's MANIMAL, in the hopes of attracting interest in a full revival.

Oft-time Larson collaborator William Conrad (CANNON, JAKE AND THE FAT MAN) supplied the opening narration.

Familiar guest stars (and former Larson collaborators) throughout the nine episodes include Anne Lockhart, Kent McCord, Lloyd Bochner, Pamela Susan Shoop and Terry Carter.

The show was cancelled after a single season.

In the UK, it aired on ITV as part of its late-night/ overnight service.  It's not been seen on TV in decades.