Watching Buck Rogers In The 25th Century

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Well Canada is discount Hollywood.

Whenever this kind of thing comes up, I love to mention my favorite urban legend. Which is actually not an urban legend, because it really happened. It's regarding my favorite TV cop show, Night Heat.

That was the first ever Canadian TV series broadcast on American television. It was filmed in Toronto, but the producers wanted the show to appeal to American viewers, so they had to downplay the Canadianness - the city in the series is never named (although it's glaringly obvious that it is in fact Toronto, as anyone who's spent more than a couple of days there will know), the cops work in "precincts" rather than "divisions", nobody is ever shown handling money (or a flag), and American police ranks like "Lieutenant" and "Captain" are used (in Canada those are "Inspector" and "Chief Inspector").

The thing is, Canadian cities are, generally speaking, cleaner than American cities. So when they were filming one scene, the set dressers put down some associated garbage, graffiti, etc. Then they broke for lunch.

When they got back, helpful Canadian passersby had cleaned up the scene on their own!

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Whenever this kind of thing comes up, I love to mention my favorite urban legend. Which is actually not an urban legend, because it really happened. It's regarding my favorite TV cop show, Night Heat.

That was the first ever Canadian TV series broadcast on American television. It was filmed in Toronto, but the producers wanted the show to appeal to American viewers, so they had to downplay the Canadianness - the city in the series is never named (although it's glaringly obvious that it is in fact Toronto, as anyone who's spent more than a couple of days there will know), the cops work in "precincts" rather than "divisions", nobody is ever shown handling money (or a flag), and American police ranks like "Lieutenant" and "Captain" are used (in Canada those are "Inspector" and "Chief Inspector").

The thing is, Canadian cities are, generally speaking, cleaner than American cities. So when they were filming one scene, the set dressers put down some associated garbage, graffiti, etc. Then they broke for lunch.

When they got back, helpful Canadian passersby had cleaned up the scene on their own!

I love this story. I love Canada

 

[TRON JA307020]

I liked the finale, which had a lot of scenes set in the 'present day' (possibly as a budget saver) and a '7 Days in May' type plot involving a renegade group of generals and such like wanting to attack the Soviet Union against the President's wishes. But the rest of the season was just too different to the first. I missed New Chicago and Dr. Theopolis and Dr. Huer, even good old Princess Ardala. Un yet somehow, I don't mind Galactica 1980, go figure. The one story they didn't do in Buck Rogers was a time travel story ala 'Tomorrow is Yesterday'. It would have been interesting. Obviously the 25th Century cast members would travel back with him.

yeah the finale was good. I agree I missed Dr Huer and Aradala( she was a hotty also)

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

yeah the finale was good. I agree I missed Dr Huer and Aradala( she was a hotty also)

Which finale?

 

[RandyS]

They're talking about the last episode of Buck Rogers "Testimony of a Traitor". One of the better episodes of season two.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

They're talking about the last episode of Buck Rogers "Testimony of a Traitor". One of the better episodes of season two.

Oh..... I haven't got up to that one struggling through season 2. On the set I have the episodes are in a different order.

 

[Christopher]

They're talking about the last episode of Buck Rogers "Testimony of a Traitor". One of the better episodes of season two.

That was the second-last episode. The last was "The Dorian Secret."

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

That was the second-last episode. The last was "The Dorian Secret."

That's right. On my set there is a printed booklet with the episodes but the way they did the booklet it's not in a proper disk order.

 

[TRON JA307020]

That was the second-last episode. The last was "The Dorian Secret."

I honestly really enjoyed most of the show even the last episodes. I also like The Dorian Secret

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I also like The Dorian Secret

Me too. The twist ending gave me chills.

And those passengers were real dicks, weren't they?

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Me too. The twist ending gave me chills.

And those passengers were real dicks, weren't they?

Yeah well no one's perfect

 

[Skipper]

The one story they didn't do in Buck Rogers was a time travel story ala 'Tomorrow is Yesterday'. It would have been interesting. Obviously the 25th Century cast members would travel back with him.

Time-travel was a too much complex sci-fi high-concept, you know. They didn't want to scare their audience.

 

[N-121973]

Time-travel was a too much complex sci-fi high-concept, you know. They didn't want to scare their audience.

They did it in Galactica 1980. That was no more high concept than Buck Rogers.

 

[TRON JA307020]

Me too. The twist ending gave me chills.

And those passengers were real dicks, weren't they?

Yes yes they were. Lol The ending freaked me out as a kid. The episode was just as good as anything you would have seen on Star Trek. I think people judge BRIT25C way to harshly. They worked hard to entertain us and you can see the people making the show really cared.

 

[Christopher]

They did it in Galactica 1980. That was no more high concept than Buck Rogers.

But both incarnations of Galactica were willing to be science fiction. Bruce Lansbury's explicit mandate as Buck's season 1 showrunner was to avoid sci-fi plots and just do conventional action-adventure plots with a superficial sci-fi veneer -- e.g. kidnappers are after a beauty queen on a cruise ship, but it's a space cruise ship and they want her for her "perfect genes." Or Buck has to infiltrate a casino to rescue a mobster's daughter, but it's a space casino. (Though ironically it was Lansbury himself who wrote the one full on sci-fi episode in season 1, the finale "Flight of the War Witch.")

 

[diankra]

I liked the finale, which had a lot of scenes set in the 'present day' (possibly as a budget saver) and a '7 Days in May' type plot involving a renegade group of generals and such like wanting to attack the Soviet Union against the President's wishes. But the rest of the season was just too different to the first. I missed New Chicago and Dr. Theopolis and Dr. Huer, even good old Princess Ardala. Un yet somehow, I don't mind Galactica 1980, go figure. The one story they didn't do in Buck Rogers was a time travel story ala 'Tomorrow is Yesterday'. It would have been interesting. Obviously the 25th Century cast members would travel back with him.

Slightly surprising that they didn't do a remake of Man Out of Time. OK, as a Logan's Run episode it was only about three years old, but when did that matter?
ISTR someone mentioned David Gerrold being on staff for the version that didn't happen, so maybe that would have been an issue.

 

[Skipper]

They did it in Galactica 1980. That was no more high concept than Buck Rogers.

Uhmm, yes, it was, even with all its shortcomings.

 

[JD]

But both incarnations of Galactica were willing to be science fiction. Bruce Lansbury's explicit mandate as Buck's season 1 showrunner was to avoid sci-fi plots and just do conventional action-adventure plots with a superficial sci-fi veneer -- e.g. kidnappers are after a beauty queen on a cruise ship, but it's a space cruise ship and they want her for her "perfect genes." Or Buck has to infiltrate a casino to rescue a mobster's daughter, but it's a space casino. (Though ironically it was Lansbury himself who wrote the one full on sci-fi episode in season 1, the finale "Flight of the War Witch.")

This confuses me, if he didn't want to do a show with sci-fi plots, then why do a sci-fi show at all? Wouldn't it have made more sense for him to just do a cop show, or spy show or something then? Did someone force him to do Buck Rogers?

 

[Galileo7]

Galactica 1980 pilot "Galactica Discovers Earth" episodes with refit two seat time traveling capable Colonial Vipers was an interesting premise that was, unfortunately, aborted by the network. It would have been more interesting than what the series was without time travel with the exception of "Return of Starbuck". Exploring Earth's past might have been interesting if used on more episodes, but not all.

 

[Skipper]

This confuses me, if he didn't want to do a show with sci-fi plots, then why do a sci-fi show at all? Wouldn't it have made more sense for him to just do a cop show, or spy show or something then? Did someone force him to do Buck Rogers?

I suspect that the success of a certain film with space monks and exploding spaceships had somehow affected their genre choice.