Why the difference between seasons? - Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979) Discussion

[–] jocurtis28 16 years ago

Some of those questions are answered on the main IMDB page for the series.
The second season was retooled because of a writers strike and the series was made more into a clone of Battlestar Galactica because the people in charge incorrectly guessed that would boost ratings. Good to see that TV Execs have always been morons.
Mel Blanc was replaced at the start of the second season, but that was unpopular, so he was brought back.
Not sure on your other questions.

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[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Andy M. 16 years ago

Yeah, but would Tim O'Connor have agreed to come back for just one episode, only to have them write him out? Kinda doubt it.

As for the "retooling", there's a bit more to it than "the studio thought it'd get higher ratings"....

Behind the scenes, Gil Gerard and Bruce Landsbury (the show's producer) were more or less having a civil war. Gerard was complaining about the quality of the scripts and about Buck's character (being a jerk and not very serious). You can read some of Gerard's side of the story in back-issues of Starlog (somewhere around #40, I think). Landsbury quit.

John Mantley, who'd mostly done westerns previously, was brought in. He (and I assume Gerard and others) took a look at what they didn't like about the show and made changes. They thought the idea of the Earth being under attack every week sounded silly, so they came up with SEARCHER. I think Hawk was created to try to bring in some fresh blood and to have a strong male character for Buck to bond with.

Also, the budget was cut, and the network was only willing to initially commit to 13 shows. Mantley told Gerard up front that it'd almost take a miracle for them to be picked up beyond the first 13 (again, a back-issue of Starlog), so his seemingly being "surprised" at being cancelled sounds odd to me.

On paper, Mantely's ideas sounded okay enough, but they couldn't overcome the high-school-play budget (and acting).

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[–] psinatra 16 years ago

I wonder if a lot of the ideas for the show were actually taken from unused galactica ideas?

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[–] jammerjax 16 years ago

Stars like Gil were dumb there was no need to change to show.Any way we all love Princess Ardala comming back once in a month to do bad on Earth the show had charm at that time why make it serious.

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[–] ronpur 16 years ago

I know the TV market I lived in, Central Illinois did not even carry the second season on it's NBC station. I think they put a syndicated show on, Grizzly Adams or something like it. Have never seen the second season yet, to this day. But now, with the DVDs, I hope to fix that problem.

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[–] Courtesy_Flush 15 years ago

For the record, Gil Gerard absolutely hated the changes made for series 2. What he wanted was for Buck to stay on earth, have less snappy one-liners, and explore the outer cities and what happened to his people. He wanted a more serious direction for Buck and the show, but nothing like what they did with it.

Hope that helps.

Foo

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[–] Dark_Sithlord 15 years ago

For the record, Gil Gerard absolutely hated the changes made for series 2. What he wanted was for Buck to stay on earth, have less snappy one-liners, and explore the outer cities and what happened to his people. He wanted a more serious direction for Buck and the show, but nothing like what they did with it.

Hope that helps.

Which explains why Gerard was always so grumpy looking in season 2. He phoned in his performances in season 2 as far as I'm concerned.

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[–] jammerjax 15 years ago

That made no sense,Buck wanted to find his people they were a dead.Buck came back to the solar system 500 years later.I would of been good to check out the other crazies on earth and see how the muteted in some way.Because some human did have some kind of strange power.An would of been good to see Wilma's apartment too.

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[–] PatriotsRchamps 15 years ago

"Which explains why Gerard was always so grumpy looking in season 2. He phoned in his performances in season 2 as far as I'm concerned."

Well Dark Sithlord, in fairness to Mr. Gérard, the second season was embarrassingly bad and the writing was uninspiring to say the least. I realize that an actor/actress is supposed give 100% effort regardless of how bad the material is, but human nature would cause anyone to be upset with the drastic degradation of the show. The feelings of helplessness that Mr. Gérard must've felt during the second season were probably very distracting. Also, he undoubtedly realized that being associated with a bad show (like the second season) would jeopardize his future career as an actor.

I was only a teenager at the time of the show, but I clearly remember thinking that Mr. Gérard should quit the show because it had become so bad. However, he was probably contractually obligated to remain on the show.

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[–] dpcole7 13 years ago

>>>>>
For the record, Gil Gerard absolutely hated the changes made for series 2. What he wanted was for Buck to stay on earth, have less snappy one-liners, and explore the outer cities and what happened to his people. He wanted a more serious direction for Buck and the show, but nothing like what they did with it.

Hope that helps.

Which explains why Gerard was always so grumpy looking in season 2. He phoned in his performances in season 2 as far as I'm concerned.
<<<<<

All that helps immensely. Gil's ideas for season 2 sound fantastic - less one-liners would be a plus and really digging into the outer cities and what happened to people would have been nice...

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[–] grendelkhan 9 years ago

Don't know where in Central Illinois you were; but, Channel 20, in Springfield broadcast the second season, as I remember watching it.

Fortunately, Ah keep mah feathers numbered for just such an emergency!

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[–] janewaysman 10 years ago

two words to explain the downfall of the series...ITS NBC.they dont know a good series when they see one. they cant do a scifi series without F** it up.prolly why they are in 10 place out of 6th

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[–] hightech_redneck32446 13 years ago

to add to your comment there were no real space battles thats why the show did not do that good as well

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[–] Webslinger48 15 years ago

I read an interview with Gerard where he basically said that the season 2 producer Mantley decided to ape Star Trek and make the show about the Searcher. He and Erin Gray has unkind words to say about him (I think they used the word "lazy"). Had there been a season 3 it would have been back on Earth but the show didn't make it that far.

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[–] shakesphere1-geo 15 years ago

Except for the addition of Hawk I think the second season was awful. They had a good thing going on in the first season but like some shows they had to change it to something that didn't work.

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[–] S_Maxwell 14 years ago

I just came across this interview with Gerard that talks about some of the changes:

http://gilgerard.tripod.com/ArticleStarlognov1980.htm

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[–] Sovereign_Knight 14 years ago

Too bad the second season turned out to be worse than the first.

Signed, but not dictated

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[–] lferrigon-1 13 years ago

Season Two was bad which was a shame.

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[–] peterlc-2 12 years ago

At least the second season had a little extra eye-candy in the form of (Barbara) Luna.

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[–] angelheartk5 11 years ago

I hope someone retells the story as it should.

Just the song lyrics of the movie say it all.

This series could be better than Star Trek if they have writers with the same vision & determination.

Something totally new, explore 500 years in the future, battle tactics, love, honour, humor, advances in technology.

Buck learning, growing, gaining status, power, respect and wealth amidst being an outsider - a man alone, struggling with his past, himself and his future while still trying to understand how to live the rules and factions of the year +500.

If only we had visionaries ..

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[–] Blueghost 10 years ago

by mike-1871 » Sat Apr 19 2008 14:02:49 Flag ▼ | Reply |
IMDb member since September 2004
Hello:

Can anyone tell me what happened between season one and season two? Was the show dropped by it's studio, only to be picked up by a smaller one? I can't think of a reason to explain the numerous unexplained changes...

--No longer based on earth, but on a starship; with no explanation as to why, or what happended to Huer and Theo.

--Why does William Conrad no longer narrate the opening credits?

--Why Mel Blanc is no longer Twiki, and he no longer says DEBEBEDEEP or whatever before speaking?

--Episodes appear grainier and cheaper looking; even the current DVD of season two looks like it was made from a bad print.

Does anyone know what happened?

I know this is an old thread, but here's my two bits; I really didn't understand why the show was changed, although the new Buck Rogers had a "Star Trek's poor cousin" feel to it.

The first season, I thought at the time, was kind of campy, phony, and hard to digest at times. But that was because I was coming off of my serious Star Trek kick; serious drama about serious issues. Season two of Buck felt like that's the direction they were taking it, and probably to try and cash in on the Trek phenomenon that was still happening.

Reviewing the DVDs when they first came out, I can't understand why they just didn't stick with what they had, and tell a different set of stories on Earth. I really didn't understand that.

Viewers don't want the same old thing that was done before, and the TV execs thought otherwise and paid for it. Hopefully the next time a series like Buck Rogers comes around, there'll be a TV mogul who'll have some set and creative experience as well as good business sense to let the creative powers do their thing.

We can dream.

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[–] gatorstang23 10 years ago

It wax the early 80's. No space battles (didnt see a fighter except for 1 or 2 episodes), no real storyline, annoying characters and no babe of the week equaled fail. It was one of my favorite shows as a kid, but the dull angry robot, babbling scientist and grumpy captain were no fun to watch. Especially with no space battles and suddenly Wilma became Lil Miss Conservative dresser.

I loved the sappy one liners, the fighting and the weekly harem. Only Hawk and his ship did I think were fun to watch in the 2nd season.

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[–] Blueghost 8 years ago

Yeah, the first season had some really hot actresses in alluring outfits. And when you discover they can actually act and play the role, well that's even better.

Season 2, thinking about it, may have been due to budget cuts.

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[–] johnnyb94109 10 years ago

Most puzzling was the dropping of Princess Ardala from the series. Many watched it just for her.

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[–] srb-3 9 years ago

Hello:

Can anyone tell me what happened between season one and season two? Was the show dropped by it's studio, only to be picked up by a smaller one? I can't think of a reason to explain the numerous unexplained changes...

--No longer based on earth, but on a starship; with no explanation as to why, or what happended to Huer and Theo.

--Why does William Conrad no longer narrate the opening credits?

--Why Mel Blanc is no longer Twiki, and he no longer says DEBEBEDEEP or whatever before speaking?

--Episodes appear grainier and cheaper looking; even the current DVD of season two looks like it was made from a bad print.

Does anyone know what happened?

This is what I heard:

1st season was caught in a 3 way war: 3 different people with 3 different takes on Buck Rogers:

Star Gil Gerard saw BR as S-F and therefore the forerunner of ST. He did *not* like BR s1 as a whole.

Producer Bruce Lansbury saw BR was the flip side of the WWW (which he worked on seasons 2 - 5), a spy show set in the future as opposed to the past.

Then NBC head Fred Silverman saw BR as campy comic book superhero like 1966 - 1968 Batman tv series.

This is why BR s1 is a mess. Bruce Lansbury was fired and replaced with John Mantly.

The plan was to do 2 2 hour specials: the 1st was to resolve the Earth-Draconian war and introduce the Searcher. The 2nd was to introduce the Hawk. NBC scrapped the 1st and just jumped to the 2nd. Obviously, this confused views and made Gil Gerard mad, rightly so. Later NBC made another 2 hour special which really didn't add to anything. Cutting the budget didn't help either.

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[–] belgol5671 9 years ago

I always thought Gil Gerard was proud of Season 2 based on an enthusiastic interview he did on Merv Griffin just before "The Guardians" aired .... but I was wrong. When I had a chance to ask him questions at MegaCon in Orlando he made it very clear that he did not like Season 2. He actually seemed angry that I even asked about it. I got a downright weird vibe from him ... like he really didn't want to be there.

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[–] Techto (1063) 4 years ago

That’s too bad. He probably gets asked that question a lot so it could have been a sore spot. But he should have expected to get such a question from fans at a con.

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[–] dpcole7 9 years ago

Same studio, but they wanted more ratings so the show was retooled. The Space Queen Ms. Galaxy ship given a slight refit and used, and either cheaper film stock was used or the prints used for the DVD set were in worse shape... but I recall a lot of season 2 looking darker as well, and certain types of film will show a lot of grain for darker scenes.

Getting rid of Mel Blanc was a mistake.

Season 1 was good, but the campiness did drive it down. Season 2 became far more serious, and even borrowing from Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica in that they're searching the galaxy for their ancestors...

Which is why I was hoping to see more of Hawk's civilization, since the premiere episode gives it prominence, then is ignored.

I actually prefer season 2, it felt more inventive and had harder sci-fi than the discotheque feel of season 1. But viewers were still disappearing... and season 1 had its own unique charms as well, though I wish they kept it more serious with its premise (post-nuclear war Earth, etc, the pilot movie that led to the TV show was pretty grim in some ways...)

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[–] trevorh321 (5495) 3 years ago

I started watching the second season last night and even though I was told the second season is not as good as the first, I was not prepared for all the changes. They are now on a ship away from Earth. Doesn't Earth need protection any more? The ship is the one used in an earlier episode as a luxury liner. Only Buck and Wilma have returned, at least so far. Twiki's voice is new and annoying. There is a new robot with an odd ego the size of an Obama. The new cast members are not very interesting so far and a step down. And there is a new alien called Hawk who appears to have a human face but feathers for hair. Odd.
But the show looks very good on blu ray.

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