With how absolutely amazing the new television version of ‘Battlestar Galactica’ has been, I’d honestly almost forgotten the other 80s version ever existed. No doubt so have most of you. That hasn’t sat very well with the original show’s creator Glen Larson. Apparently Larson is just about the only person on the planet who doesn’t like the new ‘BSG’, and so he’s standing in the way of Ron Moore and his team ever making a movie out of their much better, much more successful, current television version.
The news comes from IESB where they hung out with the BSG crew at a press event this weekend (Note to Sci-Fi, where’s our plane ticket?). With the series set to end after this next season, show runners Ronald Moore and David Eick were plagued with questions about the possibility of a feature film once the show’s TV run was over. Their answer was: It’s not up to them.
It seems Larson owns the movie rights to BSG, and since he hates the current show and has long fantasized about making his own BSG movie, he’s not likely to let them make one based on the current Sci-Fi channel show. Nobody’s saying it won’t happen, it just isn’t very likely as long Glen Larson is in the way, and it doesn’t sound like he’s inclined to move over.
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Thank You Glem Larson!! Trust me, he is NOT the only person who hates the so called new and improved BG. The originals were actually science fiction - different culture, different mores and rules, etc. If you got into the backstory, it was a fascinating concept. Sci-Fi channels' version is popular because it is essentially a carbon copy of typical life today. It's just set in space. Half the time, you can completely forget this little detail. There is no troubling thought required - just a long, dragged out soap opera that happens to be set in space - sort of. I was so excited when the new shows were announced. This excitement rapidly disappearred when I actually watched the shows. YUCK!!! HANG ON TO THE TRUE VISION GLEN LARSON, YOU ARE NOT ALONE!
Thank You Glen Larson is right!!!! I can't stand the new show which i call a travesty. I've tried to watch it but last maybe five minutes before i'm ready to throw the TV out the window. I Want A Movie From the Original and Only Battlestar Galactica!!! If I had the money, I would most gladly fund it too!!! Please Glen, Don't Make Us Wait Too Long!!!
I agree with Robin. I had the 1st Season of this "new" BSG but didn't get through all of it because there was nothing to it. I have the entire 80s series and I sold this set. This shows which version I love the most. I know that the 80s version existed and I am aslo someone who doesn't like the "new" BSG. Stick to your guns Glen Larson!
Nostalgia's a wonderful thing, it helps you think cheesy crap was deeper and more relevant than it was. I like original BSG, but the idea of digging up Dirk Benedict and co for a last hurrah is ridiculous.
Battlestar Galactica was a Star Wars cash-in at the time. Simple as that. No more no less, they even hired the effects guy to help them pad it out for crying out loud.
Glen Larson filled it with a bunch of Mormon allegory that most people missed and mistook for "mystique" and bobs your uncle. I wonder if that's how Scientology works.
I got my head busted by people for complaining Transformers (2007) changed too much about the cartoon. Now though, with the release imminent I realise that it will and should not be a new version of my old memory. It needs to be it's own thing, inspired by what came before. I wont be happy with a lot of the changes, but I realise that there's room for both in the world. It simply wouldn't work as an extention of what came before after all this time.
What came before and what has come now. Either way it can't be worse than the other 90s cartoons.
So there's room for both but not in co-existance. Original BSG had it's time. Quite frankly a modern day version of the 70s Galactica just wouldn't work. Hell Galactica 80 didn't work. It's the same reason the Star Wars prequels didn't work;
Product of their time.
You don't like the new version fine. Just go watch your boxset instead of whining about the new version. At least you have the boxset. If the original was being ERASED to make way for the new version as Lucas wants to do with his Star Wars movies I might have an iota of sympathy.
To me this whole thing with Larson stinks of sour grapes because his low rent continuation idea just isn't viable and the remake was a success, so the only road left open to him is to throw the toys out the crib and not play ball. Again.
Quite frankly all this whinging over nothing is rather pathetic.
I am all for people having the right to express their opinion. However, anybody who thinks the original BSG is better than the new BSG is obviously not even worth listening to.
Let Glen A. Larson and Tom DeSanto have their shot. Larson is not the only one who thinks Ron Moore went to far off the path. The "much more successful" version has had lower viewership from almost day one. Dark and Gritty became depressing laughable soap opera pretty quickly.
Glen Larson HAD his shot in the 70s. The series didn't last long, and it certainly didn't warrant a movie.
The "much" more successful version is on a CABLE CHANNEL not network, and it exists in a time when there are hundreds of channels instead of just THREE, you can't really compare those ratings.
What we do know is that the new version is one of the highest rated shows in the history of the channel it's on, and it's one of the most critically acclaimed shows on television.
It's nice that the old show has at least one fan group left out there, with dedicated enough members that it can send them over to us to support the original show... and the original show was nice in its time.
But there is simply no denying that it has been completely eclipsed by the new show in every way. Larson had his chance, it's time for him and anyone who is still stuck on the original show to get out of the way.
Well Josh you seem well versed on Battlestar, did you know inside politics by Bonnie Hammer and David Eick ripped Battlestar away from successful film producer Tom DeSanto? Tom DeSanto and Larson seem to agree about mistakes in handling the franchise, they discuss options for the future. If Transformers does well this summer I see Larson teaming up with success over poor ratings and the critical acclaim of elites who write articles such as “The Best Show You Aren’t Watching”.
As much as I L-O-V-E the new BSG, I won't be heartbroken about not seeing a big screen adaptation. I can't think of many or any television programs that worked that well as feature films. The dynamics is completely different. How many Star Trek movies are really worth watching twice? A few aren't worth the first viewing.
As for the old BSG, I can't believe there are that many purists out there keeping a candle burning for it. Even as a kid in junior high in the early '80's, I can remember watching reruns thinking, "Man, this show is really bad!"
When I was a kid, I though the original BSG was great, watching as an adult, well except for a few exceptions the writing was very weak, the acting in most cases exceptionally bad, and don't even get me started on the constant use of stock footage. You could barely call the original series science ficition, it was more of a cheesy space opera. and regardless of what Mr Larson claims, it was a bit of a rip off of Star Wars.
Yes, new BSG is basically a look at modern events in a Sci-fi setting, but what a ride. And except for a few episodes, it is the far superior product. It will go to four seasons, the original never did that, in a time when networks were a heck of alot more forgiving then they are now (hello, Firefly!) That is quite a feat for a science fiction show, and yes regardless of a couple of comments, it is still science fiction. Very few science fiction shows make it this far, some make the leap to five seasons, some seven, and in an exceptional case Stargate SG-1 has gone to 10 seasons, but most have gone one to four seasons.
I cut my teeth on the original, and appreciated it in its time for opening my imagination, but I have to throw my support behind the new series, better stories, better acting, a far superior product.
I can understand people feeling season one of the new Moore show being superior to a point. A serious drama set in space with excellent actors, I love Benedict’s Starbuck but he was not a serious thespian. The writers had a much better grasp on the science, some of the sets and FX where outstanding. The show quickly became a parody of it self because Ron Moore’s team took their show to seriously but started writing schlock. The original show never pretended to be more than epic fun for a wide audience. I say bring the adventure back.
Perfect. Ron Moore killed any hopes I had of seeing a continuation/improvement of one of my favorite shows; Glen Larson kills any hopes Ron Moore has of continuing to scavenge from Galacitica's memory.
"Apparently Larson is just about the only person on the planet who doesn’t like the new ‘BSG’,"
REALITY CHECK: Galactica In Name Only has lost 69% of its original viewership, since the miniseries debuted. The show sux and the ratings suck, deservingly. GINO had about 3-4 million weekly viewers...
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THE ONE AND ONLY BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (as created by Glen A Larson)
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"Battlestar Galactica, the definitive battle between the last surviving human colony and an evil robotic race, premiered on ABC in 1978 to an audience of 65 million viewers. The show remained a top-15 series throughout its brief run, and was eventually cancelled due to the prohibitively expensive special effects. From legendary television series creator Glen A. Larson (Magnum P.I., The Six Million Dollar Man), this science fiction adventure starring Lorne Green, Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict quickly established itself as an epic and powerful television saga.
Considered cutting-edge for its time, Battlestar Galactica took home Emmy Awards for Outstanding Costume Design for a Series and Outstanding Individual Achievement - Creative Technical Crafts."
The '78-'79 version of BSG was my favorite show when it was out but if I, a guy full of '70s childhood nostalgia, can know and accept that the old version doesn't even hold a candle to the new version, then really EVERYONE ELSE should as well. This new version is simply what the original should have been and then some (understatement). Very solid plot, very character driven, and while I say 'not just Colonials and Cylons blasting each other' I say that when those scenes DO occur, you're still in for a treat with the awesome/original-in-approach special-effects. A previous post states something like that it isn't true sci-fi because a lot looks the same as here on Earth. That SPECIFICALLY is one of the key reasons why it's such a groundbreaking show in the first place. Not everything in a sci-fi show has to look or seem 'out of this world'. Things can be low-tech/down to earth. There's an added feature in the Season 1 DVD that goes into that very thing; makes you respect the approach all the better. Heck, I like the bullets and missiles instead of laserbeams approach. Quite original for sci-fi if you ask me.
This all said, I can respect Glen's resentfullness being that it was HE who came up with the original premise and I know he intended to make a better product back then in the face of ABC bigwigs surrounding him with bad writers, rushing the show to get started w/out allowing him time to better develop it, and it certainly wasn't Glen's idea to rush the Galactica to Earth (1980) either.
Unfortunately for him though, that version of BSG never was allowed the time nor momentum in that lone season to fully develop into a real legacy with time while Moore & Eick's vision 30 years later has THREE solid seasons already on record, each one incredible/arguably the best science fiction ever. For Glen to actually make an updated BSG movie in the '78 vein would be similar to when Steven King tried doing his own (made for TV) movie version of the Shining. What's the point? It just isn't going to work. If he succeeds at releasing his own BSG movie, most aren't even going to see it and treat it like it don't exist...like Galactica 1980.
I know I'd be a bit insecure as well if I were him but there would come a time where sportsmanship would settle in and I would just, with an open mind, accept it and fully realize how great a job they have done. Respect Glen first and foremost for COMING UP with the premise in the first place (as Moore & Eick do by way of including his name in opening credits each ep) and respect both Moore & Eick for PERFECTING it while also allowing them to keep the reins and ride on with it the rest of the way.
Glen Larson is correct. The new BSG is in name only and is just a soap opera. I can't imagine what the members of the 13th colony will look like if those on Galactica look like and dress like us today. It is stupid for a civilization to have FTL starships but have guns with bullets instead of blasters, and trucks that look exactly like Humvees on another planet. And just only two races in the entire universe, humans and human made cylons is utterly ridiculous!
I tried to be open about the re-make but it just didn't make any sense. It's just a stupid soap opera. That is NOT what Battlestar Galactica is about.
It is about humans trying to survive in the universe, and trying to find their place in it using mormon ideas. Okay, so the original was cheesy but that was the 70's. However, it was a huge success. The only reason it was canceled was how much it cost per episode, this used Star Wars FX technology as compared to Star Trek 15 or so years earlier. So it was expensive.
I would love to see a major motion picture version of the ORIGINAL BSG.
Moore and Eick did NOT perfect BSG with a remake, they RUINED IT!!!!
I'm glad that Larson has kept the movie rights.
Bravo!
The "reimagined" BSG series is much too violent. I'd rather have a quality show than quantity.
Look at how well the orginial BSG series has stood the test of time and people still love it and still talk about and after 30 years.
Moore has shown disrespect to the viewers of the original BSG series and to Glen Larson.
I also would love to see a major motion picture version of the original and "REAL" Battlestar Galactica
For some reason I am unable to embrace the new BSG. I hate soaps and it seems to be a bunch of drama and scandal more than sci fi. I agree that laser blasters are far more sci fi than guns. I know the original is dated and had flaws, but it had a certain thing about it that made it cool. It was high budget at the time and it was SUPER popular. I think the writing was OK, it had good episodes and bad ones but it was just building momentum with Count Iblis. People rip on the stock footage but cmon, it was a tv show in the 1970's. No computer gen effects. I have tried to get into the new show and it has some nice special effects. Making characters liek Starbuck or Boomer girls was lame. I just want to see an upgraded version of the original.
Its like taking Star Wars and making Han Solo a girl, and obey 1 a girl. Then making Darth Vader a girl, and then make Princess leigha a man trapped in a girl's body. Sure it would be a complex soap but is it Star Wars?
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With how absolutely amazing the new television version of ‘Battlestar Galactica’ has been, I’d honestly almost forgotten the other 80s version ever existed. No doubt so have most of you. That hasn’t sat very well with the original show’s creator Glen Larson. Apparently Larson is just about the only person on the planet who doesn’t like the new ‘BSG’, and so he’s standing in the way of Ron Moore and his team ever making a movie out of their much better, much more successful, current television version.
June 11th, 2007 at 08:13
Thank You Glem Larson!! Trust me, he is NOT the only person who hates the so called new and improved BG. The originals were actually science fiction - different culture, different mores and rules, etc. If you got into the backstory, it was a fascinating concept. Sci-Fi channels' version is popular because it is essentially a carbon copy of typical life today. It's just set in space. Half the time, you can completely forget this little detail. There is no troubling thought required - just a long, dragged out soap opera that happens to be set in space - sort of. I was so excited when the new shows were announced. This excitement rapidly disappearred when I actually watched the shows. YUCK!!! HANG ON TO THE TRUE VISION GLEN LARSON, YOU ARE NOT ALONE!