Catacombs Reference LibraryUK Press
Why TV Men Stub Top Space Show
Catacombs Reference Library
Evening Mail (London), Thursday 7 October 1976. Strap-line on the front page, and full page p10. Journalist David Gemmell later became an author of heroic fantasy novels.
It's a British series and it's smashing all records in America and 120 other countries. So why is it getting the brush off in England? DAVID GEMMELL tried to find out.
Against all opposition a British television series has taken America, and the viewing world by storm. The first series grossed £6m worldwide, and was shown in 120 countries.
Only one major nation fails to screen it at peak time.
Britain.
Space 1999, one of the most imaginative - and certainly the most costly at 300,000 dollars an episode - British productions of all time is screened in London and Southern at 11.30am on Saturday mornings.
In New York the last series was shown on Saturdays and Sundays at 7pm peak time. In Chicago, San Francisco, and other major American cities, the series forced major network rivals like Invisible Man and Barbary Coast off the screens.
Both network series flopped catastrophically, despite huge budgets. They just couldn't cope with the British opposition.
But the Americans recouped some of their losses on these flops they sold them to Britain, where they were shown once more at peak time.
In the crazy world of television events like this are treated more or less as everyday happenings - but to average viewers they rank as sheer lunacy.
Space 1999 stars American husband and wife team Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, and has been hailed as the finest sci-fi series so far despite the awesome popularity of Star Trek.
And Landau himself is completely baffled by the casual lack of concern shown by the ITV networks over the screening of "Space". "It makes no sense at all to me. Some people have written it off as a children's show, because it's screened in the mornings. And before that we were put on against Dr Who, which had a ten year jump on us and that's hard to beat.
"In Los Angeles and New York the show is on at seven in the evenings, and elsewhere it's always given prime time. New York ran it twice a week for an entire year, and we were beating all opposition.
"In France they have a show where the programme that gets the most viewers' letters is shown again. Space is almost invariably shown twice a week!
"I really can't understand why it's not being given a chance over here, First of all it's a home product and the sort of product that is needed to keep the sound stages filled and people in work.
"A situation like this would be inconceivable in the States, that a show would be frozen out in this way. We filmed at Pinewood for 15 months on the first series and eight months on the second that's 23 months employment for a hell of a lot of people."
The show's producer Gerry Anderson is hurt and angry that the show has had no chance to register in the home ratings. It's more a case of personal pride than worrying about where the next penny is coming from. "The show has been a huge success all over the world and that's without any assistance at all from British television," he says, bitterly. "People say it's a children's programme. Who is going to spend 300,000 dollars an episode on a children's show?"
Sir Lew now Lord Grade put up the cash to launch the show, and then found, not surprisingly, that the major American networks NBC, CBS, and ABC wouldn't touch it.
In America they cater first for home produced programmes, and don't allow any foreign production to get a stranglehold. Unlike friendly Britain an open market for every new American series, no matter, it seems, how shoddy.
So Sir Lew sold Space 1999 to the smaller stations competing with the major networks. The rest, as they say, is television history. The series took off like a sky rocket. Finding out why the show is not networked at peak time in Britain is a confusing business. At first glance the answer is obvious. It was shown at 5.15 on Saturday evenings against the BBC's smash hit children's show Dr Who.
Against that opposition it flopped. But then so would Hawaii Five-O or Kojak. More than 12,000,000 youngsters tune in to Dr Who. No-one in their right mind would have expected an adult family show to dent those figures.
Yorkshire Television carried the programme at 7pm on Thursdays and later switched it to Sundays, following the Big Match at 3.15.
"It had reasonable audience figures," said a company "and we do plan to show the series again in spokesman, the future."
On the question of nationwide ratings he conceded: "Obviously if a programme is shown at different times in different regions then its impact will be considerably less great. Perhaps this is one of the weaknesses of the ITV system but that's not for me to say."
A spokesman for Anglia - which also screen repeats of the show on Saturday mornings claimed: "We've had dozens of queries about when the new series is to be screened. We originally screened it at peak time on Thursdays but it only claimed about 35 per cent of viewers which isn't very high. This was a surprise because we get quite a lot of letters from fans. Some of them really devoted to the show."
Southern Television have only recently acquired the rights to the first series, and also screen on Saturday before midday. "We've had several requests, both by letter and telephone to screen the show at peak times," said a spokesman. "And we do have plans to show the second series.
"To me," he went on, "Space 1999 makes Star Trek look like a 1936 Flash Gordon film. I'm an avid viewer myself, and always get up on Saturday mornings to watch it no matter how late I get to bed on Friday nights.
"But there you go, unfortunately we don't get a say in when it is shown.
So while a top series like Space 1999 is getting the British elbow it will be interesting to count the number of sub-standard new American shows scheduled for our screens this winter.
Caption: Scenes from the most expensive British television production of all time. INSET producer Gerry Anderson-hurt and angry over decisions not to screen it at peak times.
As far as we know, Anglia never showed the series on Thursdays (they started on Saturday mornings, shifted to Friday peak time only in January 1976, before pausing the series. Southern did show the series on Thursday evenings, with the repeat run on Saturday mornings, but they never picked up the second series.
Space: 1999 copyright ITV Studios Global Entertainment