Seen today, “Saga of a Star World” bears the obvious influence of Star Wars, particularly in the Dykstra-choreographed interstellar dogfights pitting the Galactica’s Viper fighters against the Cylon Raiders. “The effects were the same, and maybe I feel guilty about that,” he admitted in Dale Pollack’s seminal 1983 biography, Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas. As McQuarrie is quoted as saying in Rinzler’s account: “It was a problem for George, because they had an emperor, stormtroopers, rocket fighters they had a lot of things that figured in Star Wars, and it was beginning to look like a Star Wars rip-off.” For his part, Dykstra fessed up to certain similarities in his work on both properties. In fact, the 500-page draft that landed on Lucas’s desk was titled Galactica: Saga of a Star World, and that title was just one of the things that the filmmaker objected to. He also tweaked the title to incorporate that all-important S word. Meanwhile, Larson had tweaked the original Adam’s Ark premise so that his futuristic “ark” began its journey in space rather than on Earth. (Photo: Universal Pictures/Courtesy: Everett Collection) The robotic Cylons were the primary villains of Battlestar Galactica. “ Star Wars comes along,” he said, “and every network desk has scripts on it.” At the time, the studio had little to no interest, but as Larson recounted in a 2009 interview, that changed practically overnight when kids across the country started talking about lightsabers and X-wings. Meanwhile, Larson - whose résumé at that point included shows like Alias Smith and Jones and Switch - reminded the powers that be at Universal about a sci-fi story he had pitched them back in the late ’60s called Adam’s Ark about a Howard Hughes-like recluse who assembles a group of Earth’s finest minds and blasts them into the cosmos to avoid a looming terrestrial apocalypse.
Paramount, for example, redoubled its efforts to get its own space-based franchise, Star Trek, out of dry dock, fast-tracking a new TV series that soon morphed into a feature film.
Larson’s success was something many in the industry had been trying to achieve since Lucas rewrote the rules for the movie industry in the summer of 1977. More important, Larson forced the usually forward-thinking Lucas to play catch up two months after Galactica premiered, Star Wars made its initial foray into television in the form of The Star Wars Holiday Special - a legendary disaster that kept the franchise off the airwaves until the mid-’80s. Produced by Universal and premiering on ABC, Galactica follows the titular spaceship on its journey across the cosmos, transporting the human survivors of an apocalyptic attack in a distant galaxy to the mythical planet Earth, while their enemies, the robotic Cylons, give unrelenting pursuit.īoasting a budget that was only $4 million less than George Lucas’s space opera (a reported $7 million versus $11 million) and a runtime that was almost a half-hour longer (148 minutes in its original airing versus 121 minutes), Galactica’s pilot episode, “Saga of a Star World,” made a ‘Forceful’ showing in the ratings and launched a sci-fi brand name that’s endured across four decades through additional TV shows, comic books, and video games.
17, 1978, to be exact - in a Hollywood far, far away, TV producer Glen Larson cracked the code for how to bring a Star Wars-size spectacle to the small screen with the series debut of Battlestar Galactica. (Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection)Ī long time ago - Sept. Let's dig into this classic show.Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict in Battlestar Galactica. It spawned an acclaimed remake in 2004 and still dazzles today.
Those Starbuck and Apollo action figures from Mattel fit right in next to your Luke and Han from Kenner. Though it ran for just one season (well, two when you count the sequel, Galactica 1980) the series mesmerized children of the era, remaining a fan favorite for decades. Adorable, furry alien sidekicks hung out with our heroes.īattlestar Galactica was the grandest of these late-'70s space operas.
Troops in gleaming armor marched in step.
There was far more fantasy and swashbuckling, a return to the serial adventures of Flash Gordon. Yet, after Star Wars, science fiction took on a distinct new flavor. Of course, Star Trek launched it all a decade earlier. Earlier that decade, series like Space: 1999 took viewers beyond Earth. Of course, TV shows set in outer space were hardly new. Even Andy Griffith hopped aboard a spaceship. George Lucas' influence would be felt on primetime television, as numerous sci-fi adventures quickly popped up across the networks. In May 1977, suddenly every Hollywood studio wanted its own space epic.