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Sci-Fi Television

Battlestar Galactica Creator Glen A. Larson Dead At 77 186

Posted by timothy from the free-to-roam-the-galaxy-etc. dept.
schwit1 writes Glen A. Larson, the wildly successful television writer-producer whose enviable track record includes 'Six Million Dollar Man', Quincy M.E., Magnum, P.I., Battlestar Galactica, Knight Rider and The Fall Guy, has died. He was 77. From the article: Battlestar Galactica lasted just one season on ABC from 1978-79, yet the show had an astronomical impact. Starring Lorne Greene and Richard Hatch as leaders of a homeless fleet wandering through space, featuring special effects supervised by Star Wars’ John Dykstra and influenced by Larson’s Mormon beliefs, Battlestar premiered as a top 10 show and finished the year in the top 25. But it was axed after 24 episodes because, Larson said, each episode cost “well over” $1 million.
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Battlestar Galactica Creator Glen A. Larson Dead At 77 More

Battlestar Galactica Creator Glen A. Larson Dead At 77

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  • Seriously, a basic typo on the title of a news make it to the front page ? I'm all for giving /. a chance wrt. the poor quality of article and the associated criticizes, but this is pushing it a bit far...

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Seriously, a basic typo on the title of a news make it to the front page ? I'm all for giving /. a chance wrt. the poor quality of article and the associated criticizes, but this is pushing it a bit far...

      The best decade of timothy's life was second grade.

      And it's been all downhill from there.

      Don't be mean to him.

  • Somehow, I doubt that the poster meant "Creato" in the italian sense, being the past tense of for Cresco, or to "produce, create, bring forth"...

    • No, the submission had it spelled correctly. Timmay is the one who introduced the typo.

      • No, the submission had it spelled correctly. Timmay is the one who introduced the typo.

        If you use "Timmay" as an insult, you completely missed Parker and Stone's point.

  • Slashdot Editing: Dead At 0.

  • it seems like more and more old people are dying in hang gliding accidents these days.

    • it seems like more and more old people are dying in hang gliding accidents these days.

      What orifice did you pull that from? He died from esophageal cancer.

      • it seems like more and more old people are dying in hang gliding accidents these days.

        What orifice did you pull that from? He died from esophageal cancer.

        Esophageal cancer, hang gliding. Same thing. They both use many of the same letters after all. You should pay more attention!

  • 2 seasons 1978 and 1980 (Score:3)

    by Crashmarik ( 635988 ) on Sunday November 16, 2014 @07:26PM (#48399209)

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B... [wikipedia.org]

  • Doing my rock'n'roll duty for the title.

  • feel like a tiny bit of my childhood just died (Score:4)

    by ihtoit ( 3393327 ) on Sunday November 16, 2014 @07:45PM (#48399309)

    this is seriously sad news. I grew up on Glen A. Larson shows. Particularly BSG (two words: Laurette Spang. With her almost entirely off-the-shoulder wardrobe) and Knight Rider (it was the car. And the hot, hot Bonnie and April).

  • RA and GAL. RIP to both of 'em. :(

  • He has jumped (Score:3)

    by l0n3s0m3phr34k ( 2613107 ) on Sunday November 16, 2014 @08:25PM (#48399485)
    way beyond the Red Line into uncharted space. His work will not be forgotten.

    SO SAY WE ALL!

  • Grew up on, and enjoyed a lot of his shows -- BUT I always found the religious aspect of both BSGs (the original and reboot) a bit weird and distracting. I guess knowing now about his Mormonism it makes sense, and he's certainly allowed to write what he wants -- but the heavy handed religiosity really felt shoehorned in a futuristic show imo.

    • The {Mormon} thing and {x} (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 16, 2014 @10:51PM (#48400029)

      Personally, I am repelled by Mormonism. I will leave it at that because my intent is not to discuss a religious cult. Feel free to plug-in any other belief system and any other TV or movie show title to suit your own bigotries/preferences/tastes/beliefs.

      I enjoyed the original BSG back when it originally aired. It was, at that time, the best special effects to ever hit TV and with a network and budget that provided a large cast, bit sets, and famous actors. Yeah, the writing was hit-and-miss as was some of the acting, but compared toeverything else on TV??? not really so bad. Some characters were good, others not, some actors did better than others with the material they were given. Same thing with UFO, Space 1999, and Trek. Let's face it: in Trek there were better episodes (city on the edge of forever) while others stank (space hippies, anyone?). If you enjoy science fiction then you have to live with two basic facts: [1] the entertainment industry is NOT populated with SciFi people and does not "get it", so they will ruin everything to some degree saving money by dropping plot elements, trying to broaden demographics with wunderkind characters (wesley? boxee? will robinson?) and babes (wilma deering, maya, athena, etc), and [2] few episodes will be written by serious scifi authors. If you like the scifi genre and you want to get it from pop culture, you're gonna have to accept it watered-down and very flawed so you're either gonna get angry and frustrated or learn to take it for what it is.

      The thing I find truly dissapointing is NOT the flaws in Hollywood's presentation of scifi, but rather the more-recent development that so many people seem to want to hate any piece or art or literature becuase they disagree with some aspect of the beliefs of the creator of the work. I would find Hemingway to be a drunken lout, but I can enjoy his books. I would not embrace picasso's world view, but I can enjoy his art. As I indicated earlier, I reject Mormonism, but could enjoy BSG. I found many of Rodeberry's views to be ignorant and foolish, but I can enjoy Trek. I simply do not comprehend the warped idea that if you disagree with Larson you must dislike BSG, or if you think Rodenberry was a troll, you must reject Trek, or if you disagree with Orson Scott Card you must boycott Enders Game, etc. Whatever became of of all that "open-mindedness" and "tolerance for other viewpoints" people used to insist on? EVERY creator of a work has personal views and NONE completelty avoid letting those views seep into their work; this is human and unavoidable. If creators of works all stripped their particular beliefs and world views from their works, those works would be bland and would never inspire thought/debate/conversation/re-examination/introspection. Literature and Art USED to be the very forums where humanity went to examine life and existence from many perspectives particularly those perspectives foreign to them. We used to call this being "educated" and "elightened".

      "What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly - that is the first law of nature." - Voltaire

      "I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it." - Voltaire

      • I am balls to the walls on board with tolerance. I strive for open-mindedness. It's important to me.

        And yet, I expressed my distain for seeing the new Enders Game movie explicitly because it put money in Orson Scott Card's wallet, and he is actively campaigning for some really nasty ideas. I understand the view that the artist can be, and possibly even should be, separated from their works. It doesn't matter if $FAMOUS_PERSON made something, that doesn't make it meaningful. And no-name artists can make qual

      • others stank (space hippies, anyone?)

        Ah, c'mon, the space hippies were fun. Herbert!

        "Headin' out to Eden, yeah, brother..."

  • I remember watching the episodes though got bored watching the same approaches and barrel rolls of colonial fighters. I remember seeing the racks of Tektronix test equipment. Front panels of that gear was real "space age" (though trying to find power switch the o-scopes was always a challenge, other controls were easy). I wonder if the company got extra business with so much of the gear "advertised."

    When they did the remake, I found it amusing the only Battlestar that survived massive Cylon attack was Gal

    • I hate to be a dick about Larson because he's died and it's never a great idea to speak poorly of the dead but his "ideas" were mostly ripped off takes on other people's ideas that he saw in popular films. The guy was successful doing this but he really just cranked out cheap copies of things and trends he saw in films. OK, he did that often. Not always but quite often. I'll give him that. There was probably an original idea in there every now and then. Not many of course. He did work in Television after a

  • Battlestar premiered as a top 10 show and finished the year in the top 25.

    Which is mostly a testament to how freakin' desperate we were for SF on the little screen in 1978.

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