Gene Coon and Spock’s Brain
- Thread starter EnriqueH
- Start date
Generals win the war; soldiers lose it. Fred was the producer, so gets the lion’s share of the blame.
The autobiography of Cagney and Lacey producer Barney Rosenweig is interesting; he says that because it was a late pick up, he had to hire anyone who was available for season one, and for season two he replaced them with the people he actually wanted. FF was a key staffer on season one, and only one.
ITC US boss Abe Mantel said about Freiberger and 1999 season 2 "We hired him because he was American and available. In hindsight we should have asked why he was available."
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Spock's brain may of been better if they turned it into a fantastic journey type. Kirk
Mcoy
Are shrunk and actually go into his brain or it may of been worse.just a idea.there was a episode with alice and wonderland and in trek Lincoln was killed by gengis
Neither star trek nor batman.man from uncle ever came up with anything like lost in space vegetable rebellion
stocks brain is not academy award material buts its not as bad as vegetable rebellion and I like most of lost in space.
Mcoy
Are shrunk and actually go into his brain or it may of been worse.just a idea.there was a episode with alice and wonderland and in trek Lincoln was killed by gengis
Neither star trek nor batman.man from uncle ever came up with anything like lost in space vegetable rebellion
stocks brain is not academy award material buts its not as bad as vegetable rebellion and I like most of lost in space.
I have a vague memory that Robert Justman said he was the one that came up with this idea in the Inside Star Trek book. Unfortunately I don't have the book anymore to check.
I think he says it was his idea that Spock instruct Bones on the surgery. Just going off of memory here, though.
Ugh, not again....First, Freiberger worked with the money he was given. It was his job to stay on budget. You wanna blame anyone, blame Paramount for cutting the money and the schedule. The fact that so many episodes of the third year were as good as they are isn't an accident or in spite of Freiberger.
All of the shows you mention were on their way out before Freiberger came on.
Star Trek was shunted to the Friday night time slot of doom. Roddenberry, Justman and anyone brilliant could have jumped on and the series would have still died. Whether or not NBC or Paramount was actively trying to kill it is unimportant; they certainly didn't do anything to save it. Freiberger was a lame duck producer.
Space:1999 was on a downward slide in the ratings in America after its first year and Sylvia and Gerry Anderson's split. ITC was on the fence about another expensive year in 1999 and they were looking to "Americanize" it, because it was primarily popular in the States. Freiberger's idea of transforming alien Maya sold them on it - along with cut schedules and budgets. The series was doing well enough to be considered for a 13 episode third year when Lew Grade pulled the plug and used the 1999 money to promote Raise the Titanic. While the second year of 1999 wasn't as adult or as abstract as year one, many of the episodes still work very well under the retooled format. ITC America demanded monsters and then turned around and told them to stop. The episodes at the start and the very end of the year were very strong.
The Six Million Dollar Man was well past its prime. The 4th season had turned the series into a show reliant on gimmicks and stunt casting. Lee Majors had to be cajoled into doing a 5th year and he was noticibly bored throughout. The concept had run dry and at least Feiberger (and Allan Balter - don't leave him out) tried shaking up the format with 2 part episodes and getting Steve back into space. Both Six Mil and The Bionic Woman were ended the same year and Freiberger had nothing to do with the other one. A number of episodes in year 5 were really quite good, but Lee Majors' raised eyebrow was in overdrive.
Freiberger wasn't perfect or brilliant. He was a TV producer, a solid craftsman who probably would have been more suited for either straight up adventure shows or (as he did) Saturday Morning TV. He restored The Wild Wild West to its original and successful tongue-in-cheek/spy western format after anther producer (Collier Young) nearly killed it (Robert Conrad loved Freiberger). He was ousted as part of network politics. So, calling him a show killer is unfair and leaves out the shows he worked on that didn't get cancelled and also neglects to take into consideration the circumstances under which he took control of these already dying shows. He apparently did just fine on Ben Casey and had no trouble getting writing jobs. Man, let's give the guy a break already.
Wait... How did someone with a nuanced opinion of something get on the internet? 
Well yes, I've heard that without Freddie then series two of Space 1999 wouldn't have been made! There were some very good episodes near the end of his tenure although Martin Landau had numerous arguments with him about changing the integral format of the show!!!
Maybe it was just coincidence that he was on board when all those shows died?
You're correct that The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman were exhausted in their final season with alien invasion episodes a plenty and the answer to the question of what happens to a bionic person when they no longer want missions was finally resolved!
JB
Maybe it was just coincidence that he was on board when all those shows died?
You're correct that The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman were exhausted in their final season with alien invasion episodes a plenty and the answer to the question of what happens to a bionic person when they no longer want missions was finally resolved!JB
From what I understand, Freiberger was chosen to head up 1999 primarily because he did produce the final season of Star Trek. We also have to keep in mind that unlike the previous two seasons of Star Trek, the third season had far fewer people looking at the scripts and editing them. When Trek was going full out, they had GR, Coon, DC Fontana, Justman and the folks at Kellam Deforrest looking at them. By the time they were deep into year 3, it was Freddie and Arthur Singer. Justman was on his way out and probably didn’t put in as much effort. Roddenberry was trying to get other properties launched. I wouldn't be surprised if Fred skipped the fact checking in order to save time and money. So, two guys and a lot of new writers - all of these people new to the series which had steep budget cuts and strict schedules. It was always going to be a different show and it’s amazing we got as many good episodes as we did. But in the end, with only two guys left on staff, I totally understand why many episodes were shot in the condition they considered merely “good enough.” They had to get to the next one.
So it’s the 70’s: with a number of strong episodes of a suddenly hugely popular series under his belt and with episodes coming in on budget and on time for the most part, damned skippy Freddie was hired to run aging shows on the bubble. Network execs don’t look at whether fans liked his episodes, they look at the money.
So it’s the 70’s: with a number of strong episodes of a suddenly hugely popular series under his belt and with episodes coming in on budget and on time for the most part, damned skippy Freddie was hired to run aging shows on the bubble. Network execs don’t look at whether fans liked his episodes, they look at the money.
Script comments were sent by de Forest regarding every third season script. Roddenberry was certainly far less involved, since he moved off the lot and sent far fewer story/script memos. But it's hard to judge Justman's participation, since Freiberger (like John Meredyth Lucas) didn't like communicating via memos and there's much less of a paper trail as a result.
The Fantastic Journey was a ten episode series starring Jared Martin and later Roddy McDowell of Planet of The Apes fame! I think you are thinking of The Fantastic Voyage movie starring Stephen Boyd and Raquel Welch!
JB
Yep.
AND de Forest research was used to clear scripts for legal reasons, noting if character names were problematic due to being similar to notable people and if stories were too close to works by Robert Heinlein or Fredric Brown.
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Were they required to have the scripts checked to see if they didn't tread into actionable territory? Like, did every show have to use them or a simoilar organization? Outside of Star Trek, you don't hear a lot about KdeF.
The problem with Space:1999 was the lack of balance. S1 was so serious and dark. I don't think anyone ever laughs in S1. Not sure anyone cracks a smile.
S2 is the polar opposite, so silly and goofy. If it could've struck a more balanced toned, it would've been a much better show.
That's not to say it didn't have some good episodes, especially in S1.
I grew up with 1999, so I know a ton of my love for this series can be chalked up to nostalgia. Year two memories are actually the most vivid as my family and I watched it back to back with Star Trek in the late 70's. I even asked my grandmother to make me a sweater for my Commander Koenig figure to reflect the year 2 wardrobe (she never did).
However, I did do a rewatch last year when I got the complete Shout blu ray set and while it takes a little while to adjust to the format changes when you do a marathon, I still found both years to be just as enjoyable....just in different ways.
Year One is absolutely a Gerry and Sylvian Anderson production.
Year Two....isn't.
However, I did do a rewatch last year when I got the complete Shout blu ray set and while it takes a little while to adjust to the format changes when you do a marathon, I still found both years to be just as enjoyable....just in different ways.
Year One is absolutely a Gerry and Sylvian Anderson production.
Year Two....isn't.
Desilu/Paramount had to show they did their due diligence regarding script clearance in case a legal claim popped up after broadcast (e.g. if they had made "Arena" without doing clearance and then Fredric Brown had sued, they would have been in deep shit.) An outside research firm like de Forest Research was the most common solution in the 1960s, although some studios had their own clearance/research departments in-house.
All of the Desilu shows employed de Forest in the '60s, including Mission: Impossible and Mannix. They donated *some* of their scripts to UCLA (though, sadly, not the research reports), which you can see here: https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf6w1007vj/
Sometimes the reports were just about legal clearance, but I've read just about every de Forest Research memo on file at UCLA and the Academy Library, and they typically provided input beyond the area of clearance. Star Trek was not an outlier in that regard, at least as far as I've been able to tell.
Analogy: director Herb Wallerstein was called a "fireman" when they brought him in to quickly finish "The Tholian Web" which was behind schedule.
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