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U.S. raves over the series we ignored

U.S. raves over the series we ignored

Aberdeen Evening Express, Saturday 16th October 1976, p13 "Inside TV" by Albert Watson

AGAINST all opposition a British television series has taken America, and the viewing world by storm. The first series grossed £6m. world-wide, and was shown in 20 countries. Only one major nation has failed to screen it at peak time: Britain.

Space 1999, is one of the most imaginative - and certainly the most costly at 30,000 dollars an episode- British productions of all time.

BAFFLED

In Chicago, San Francisco and other major American cities the series forced major network rivals like the "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.

"Space 1999 stars American husband and wife team Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, and has been hailed as the finest sci-fi series to be screened so far- despite the awesome popularity of "Star Treck"

And Landau himself is completely baffled by the casual lack of concern shown by the ITV networks over "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 they put us on against Dr Who, which had a 10-year jump on us- and that's hard to beat.

FROZEN

"In Los Angeles and New York, the show is on at seven in the evenings, and elsewhere X's always given prime time. New York ran it twice a week for an entire year, and we were beating all opposition.

"A situation like this would be inconceivable in the States. No home-produced 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."

Caption: MARTIN LANDAU ... hitting out.