Set in the 7th millennium AD, 'Battlestar Galactica' reportedly cost Universal Studios $1 million per hour to film for the American Broadcasting Company back in 1978. Bruce Lansbury told 'Starlog' in 1979, "When we did 'Fantastic Journey' over at Columbia, we had nothing, nothing at all to work with. The whole production was given short shrift just from the budgetary standpoint. You tell them at Columbia that you want blue-screen, or a matte painting, or a miniature, and they throw a fit! The same, really, with Warner Bros., where I did 'Wonder Woman.'"
Swifter than Mercury, 'Wonder Woman' had been entertaining the masses since 1941, first in DC comic books (at one time attracting 2.5 million readers) then in the electronic medium with the first live-action movie went on air in 1974. Daughter of an Amazon Queen, Wonder Woman was one of the original members of the Justice League of America. At one time, Wonder Woman had to leave the ranks of the Justice League of America when she lost her powers after been bound by the Duke of Deception, the master of impersonating. Wonder Woman was also battling Dr. Cyber at the time.
Wonder Woman came from Themyscira, an uncharted paradise island featuring an all-woman population. The women secured the island around 200BC after defeating Mars, the God of War, who had enslaved them after taking them away from their husbands and families. The Duke of Deception was an underling of Mars, who primary duty was to provoke wars on Earth. During World War II, Wonder Woman took an army nurse's name of Diana Prince and returned to the mainland with U.S. Army pilot Major Steve Trevor to fight against evil, the Nazi threat.
Lynda Carter played Wonder Woman between 1975 and 1979. During the ABC years (1976-77), Wonder Woman faced the gorilla Gargantua played by Mickey Morton. During the CBS years (1977-79), the series 'Wonder Woman' was moved from its original World War II setting to 1970s society. With adequate budgets, 'Wonder Woman' attempted to do such stories as 'Anschluss '77', about a band of Nazis located in South America attempting to clone Adolf Hitler and ultimately rebuild the Third Reich; 'Time Bomb', about a scientist (played by Joan Van Ark) from the year 2155 traveling back to 1978 to use her knowledge to become an instant billionaire; and 'Gault's Brain', about the disembodied brain of billionaire Harlow Gault (John Carradine played the voice of Gault) who was still alive and seeking a healthy new body for a second home.
In one episode, Wonder Woman battled a Darth Vader look-alike. Wonder Woman was created by psychologist Dr. William Moulton Marston. Lynda Carter told the press, "Playing a caricature – a cartoon person with bubbles coming out of her mouth – and making it real and believable is very difficult. I have to put humor, drama, and conflict into it, yet still make it fun.
"It ('Wonder Woman') crosses the bridge between fun and reality. There's such a fine line between fantasy and reality in the show that it's probably the most difficult role I'll ever play. Wonder Woman possessed super powers (from her golden belt, silvery bracelets, golden lasso and tiara), but her special abilities did not solely define who she was. With 'Wonder Woman', people had a chance to see something that they hadn't seen before on TV – a physically able, emotionally and psychologically stable, independent woman with a fantasy element."
After 'Wonder Woman' wrapped in 1979, Bruce Lansbury moved on to 'Buck Rogers in the 25th Century'. With 'Buck Rogers', "high degree of technology (was) available to me at Universal. Universal's Hartland complex can provide us the highest level, truly state-of-the-art, special effects. They ought to be better than 'Galactica' last year (1978), because now the complex is better put together. We have an army of people over there working solely for 'Buck Rogers.'"
"Science-fiction does have a reputation for failure on TV, and we hope to break through that," Bruce declared at the time. "We're going to do a light action-adventure in the 25th century. Buck is a character out of his own time, our time. We're galactic-bound to a single galaxy. Alan Brennert invented a device for us whereby we don't have the time problem in star travel.
"He’s calling it a star gate – essentially a black-hole-related phenomenon. You punch out your destination on the ship's computer, arrive at a star gate, there’s an explosion of light, and you disappear – to reappear as many light-years away as you’d programmed yourself to be. On Earth, what we have after a holocaust and 5 centuries of recovery, is pockets of civilization.
"Earth's surface is a desert. The cities are domed or underground or under the sea. There's very little life on the surface. But Buck likes to eat fresh vegetables, so we invented the gypsy people – who roam the surface and grow their own food. In our world, we can find vestiges, pockets, of surface life – as the stories need them. We have colonies on the near planets, and space stations."
"'Fantastic Journey' got about a 25 share of the ratings – opposite '(Welcome Back) Kotter' at its peak with (John) Travolta – and that was really pretty good," Bruce remembered. Jared Martin played "the man from the future" added, "In the first 4 episodes we were really high; we drew good ratings. Then the ratings plunged into nothingness. The handwriting was on the wall. I'm not used to thinking objectively about the show. It’s still such a subjective collection of attitudes."
Speaking to David Houston, Jared made known, "The original idea was to go both directions in time. In the pilot, we had gone back in time. NBC didn’t like that. They said the past was boring and that we should only go forward in time … I didn’t realize before how difficult mounting a science fiction show is. I never watched 'Star Trek' (1966-69) until it came on in reruns. Now (in 1977) I watch it and wonder: why couldn't we get scripts like that? What happened to those writers? Where have they gone?
"The show was originally to be called 'The Fantastic Island', which offered a geographical texture that would have helped. We're on an island; we have to start out here and wind up there. And on this island there is a definite geography, topography and ecology … We had to stay close to the studio to save money. Unfortunately, nowhere in the scripts were dates mentioned. You never knew whether we were in the 22nd, 26th, or 100th century.
"The show was originally to be called 'The Fantastic Island', which offered a geographical texture that would have helped. We're on an island; we have to start out here and wind up there. And on this island there is a definite geography, topography and ecology … We had to stay close to the studio to save money. Unfortunately, nowhere in the scripts were dates mentioned. You never knew whether we were in the 22nd, 26th, or 100th century.
"In the first one, the 'Atlantium' episode, someone mentioned 30,000BC which is so long ago it’s almost like the future – but that’s about the last mention of a specific time. There was a note in the 3rd or 4th script that we were in the 24th century; but nobody ever said that – so only the actors knew. I don’t think television has a holy mission to explain the future to its audience. It can’t.
"But I think certain thought-provoking questions could be brought up about where we’re going, what our choices are, how we could solve the problems we’ll have, what it’ll be like on planet Earth 2 centuries from now (say the 23rd century). There’s only one chance in a hundred for a show to get above being only popular entertainment. 'Fantastic Journey' had the chance; it was virtually handed a mandate to do that; and it never did." In all 10 episodes were made and shown between February and June 1977.
In November 1976, it was reported, "There is now over $1 million budgeted for sci-fi films in the coming year (1977)." That season, 1976-77, NBC showcased 'The Gemini Man' in which Ben Murphy played a special agent working for INTERSECT who had the power to make himself invisible at will as a result of the effects of an underwater radiation explosion. Also on NBC at the time, 'Man From Atlantis' with an episode showing Atlantean Mark Harris uncovering water-breathing aliens from another planet scouting planet Earth for possible takeover.
"But I think certain thought-provoking questions could be brought up about where we’re going, what our choices are, how we could solve the problems we’ll have, what it’ll be like on planet Earth 2 centuries from now (say the 23rd century). There’s only one chance in a hundred for a show to get above being only popular entertainment. 'Fantastic Journey' had the chance; it was virtually handed a mandate to do that; and it never did." In all 10 episodes were made and shown between February and June 1977.
In November 1976, it was reported, "There is now over $1 million budgeted for sci-fi films in the coming year (1977)." That season, 1976-77, NBC showcased 'The Gemini Man' in which Ben Murphy played a special agent working for INTERSECT who had the power to make himself invisible at will as a result of the effects of an underwater radiation explosion. Also on NBC at the time, 'Man From Atlantis' with an episode showing Atlantean Mark Harris uncovering water-breathing aliens from another planet scouting planet Earth for possible takeover.
