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1999 Gets Humanized

1999 Gets Humanized

by John Carmody
The Washington Post - January 2, 1976, pp. D1, D3

Reprinted as "Humanizing a Hit", Chicago Sun-Times, 4 February 1976

It didn't do well against Lawrence Welk (that crowd was into Buck Rogers anyway); the main characters were all as cold as a Pluto moonrise, and the plots didn't make a lot of sense.

But the animation on Space: 1999 was terrific. So in a TV season not judged to have been a network disaster, the British-made sci-fi series scorned by CBS, NBC, and ABC backed into nationwide popularity as an independent production.

Now its producers, the Independent Television Corp. (ITC), have decided to "humanize" the show. As it goes into production for the 1976--77 syndicated season, still without network affiliation, ITC has added former Star Trek writer Freddie Freiberger as story coordinator and producer, and has guaranteed a "19-year-old alien" will be a member of a slightly recast cast.

Channel 7 here- which had second thought about buying this years's shows- half already signed up for 24 new shows next season.

Not that Channel 7 had much to complain about once the series- which tells what happens on moon base Alpha after the moon gets blasted from its orbit around Earth by an explosion at its atomic waste dump- hit the local airwaves in mid-September.

Up against two situation comedy reruns, two talk shows and a Star Trek rerun in its 7 to 8 p.m. Saturday time slot, Space finished first four times and second three times in the eight weeks rated so far this season locally by the A.C. Nielsen Co.

Nationally, the record has been spotty. In markets like Seattle, Portland Ore., and San Francisco, viewers ate it up.

In Philadelphia, against Lawrence Welk, it got an early cancellation and Welk- who appeals to older folks- is reportedly killing it elsewhere in competition.

But with the younger crowd, Space is doing well in the so-called "demographics"- the "who's" rather than numbers in the all-important ratings.

In Channel 7's book, for instance, the sci-fi hour was very successful with both men and women in the 18-49 age group- the people who buy things.

The success of Space: 1999 was something of a surprise. Channel 7 executives kept the producers' agent cooling their heels most of last summer while they looked for something better to fill the key 7 p.m. Saturday slot against Channel 9's big ratings-getter Agronsky & Co. (Which still finishes first when Space doesn't.)

By this time, according to industry sources, ITC was desperate to get into the Washington market, and offered the 24-show package of Space for between $150 and $200 an episode. Certain syndicated properties can get as much as $2,000 a show in this size market- eighth largest in the United States.

Channel 7 programmers had shared the negative reaction of rival station executives here about the chances for Space after they all viewed it at a programmers convention in Atlanta last March.

Everyone knew that the three major networks had turned down the series. The reason was simple: Despite a remarkable budget of $6.5 mission for the 24 shows and the superb 21st-century animation that resulted, the characters featured in the series didn't seem very human.

Even co-stars Martin Landau and Barbara Bain generated no sparks in what Space viewers now realize was supposed to be a romance. Network programmers were willing to take a chance on the series only, if after the first few episodes, the show's producers would start tinkering with the interrelationships and warm them up. Unfortunately for ITC, all 24 programs were in the can when they were put on the market.

Nevertheless, ITC did well in syndication. Between March and September, when the new season began, they sold the show in 155 U.S. markets as well as in 100 foreign countries.

That success led to the announcement last week that 24 more programs will go into production in England this month with a budget boost to an unprecedented $7.2 million.

More importantly, while Landau and Bain remain as top stars, "many new, exciting enchanting characters will be added," according to Abe Mandell. "The full spectrum of human emotion- including humor, love, hate, fear, jealousy will be most imaginatively explored," Mandell declared.

Again, ITC will be producing all 24 programs for 1976-77 in one rush, which will again preclude sale to a U.S. network.

The new series has already been sold to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., as well as to Washington and other major markets like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago for the next season.

Despite its ratings success, Channel 7 was undecided about renewing Space until last week, when executives learned that a Star Trek writer and cast changes were in the works.

As a rival programming executive pointed out:

"I'm a sci-fi nut myself, and I turned the show down. I couldn't go for those cold fishes on that show. I really think Landau and Bain are just walking through their parts because they're not getting paid very much.

"There was no character development in the series," he went on, "And the plots were incredible. There's never an explanation for the most outrageous plot ideas.

"When you remember Star Trek, the programmer continued, getting to the heart- or heartlessness- of the matter, "even the silly plots worked once you accepted what Star Trek' asked. The people were all human. They got sore at each other and liked each other. The new Space: 1999 still has a lot of catching up to do."

Star Trek convention

By Sandy Rovner

WASHINGTON - Although Star Trek has been out of production for years, fans of the science fiction TV show are still faithful: 10,000 were expected at a Trekkie convention here on the weekend.

Some, like Michele Smith, 11, of Lexington Park, Md., clutched her tribble (a cuddly outer space animal invented la the series) at the check-in counter.

Michele arrived with her 9 year old brother, Michael, and their parents. All are devoted Trekkies and paid up to $18 each for the four day International Star Trek convention that opened Thursday.

For the Smiths and most other Trekkies at the meeting, Space 1999, the current science fiction effort on US television, can't hold a candle to Star Trek.

Andrew Cross, 16, a delegate from a high school science fiction club in suburban Fails Church, Va., sums it up:

"I watched 1999 about eight times and I never learned anyone's name."

Space 1999 may be easing into success, its producers recognizing its deficiencies and humanizing its characters, but the New Year's Day crowd of Trekkies - 10,000 were expected over the weekend - far prefer Star Trek reruns to anything else on the small screen.

At the convention, fans could pick up a few souvenirs while talking Trekkie. Books, buttons, posters, pictures, tee-shirts, transfers, and an electronic phaser gun ($75 each) all reportedly sold well.

The success of Star Trek is phenomenal. Its 79 segments are in almost continuous rerun in 58 countries and on more than 100 stations in the United States. Its fans are zealous, flocking to conventions wherever any of the show's stars may appear.

A $5-million Star Trek feature film, with the television Star Trek cast, is planned for production within the next two months with Gene Roddenberry, the TV show's executive producer, once more at the creative helm. [Preproduction was later scrapped, until resurrected in 1978 in the wake of Star Wars]

At the convention, Cornelia Suhler is poring over a Star Trek button display with her 14-year old daughter Janet. The Suhlers spent the early years of Star Trek in Burma, where her husband worked for the U.S. embassy.

She became a Trekkie on her return: "It was nice to come back and find something civilized on TV for a change. I like my trip off into the galaxy. It's like a fix."

She tried to like Space 1999, "but on the second episode all they can come up with is some big octopus."

Star Trek did much more than that, say its fans: "It gave people hope." proclaims James Doohan, who played Scotty on the show and was one of the stars helping draw crowds to the convention.

"It had great sociological content and there was a lucky combination of characters." Doohan says.

Jesco von Puttkamer of the National Aeronautic and Space Administration's office of space flight is a Trekkie.

"It offered" he says, "a possible future scenario that was positive. Against all the doomsday-sayers, Star Trek saw a future in which beauty is diversity, beauty is strangeness." [von Puttkamer was the technical adviser on the film Star Trek The Motion Picture (1979)]

Star Trek viewers could identify with the show's characters: they were people who were constantly inter-relating, painfully human and fallible, in and out of love, ever at the brink of disaster.