John Quade played Jolon Quince from the heavy gravity planet Cygnus in 'Buck Rogers In The 25th Century'. As such Quince had developed telekinetic abilities to survive. The 'Los Angeles Times' noted, "Although Quade's name might not be familiar to many moviegoers, his face was." Friend Gary North added, "You may not remember his name, but you will remember his face. His unique face was his ticket into films. He used Hollywood as a way to make a living. He did not regard it as his calling. He was a self-taught theologian of considerable insight. He was a committed activist in the widest sense. He did not believe in salvation by politics."
From 1929 to 1967, millions readers of 450 newspapers got "the earliest glimpses into space travel." In 1977, 'Star Wars' became the biggest box-office hit in movie history earning over $250 million at the time. In January 1978, Universal Studios began production of 'Buck Rogers'. The series tried to project what things might be in the 25th century. Gil Gerard remembered, "'Buck Rogers' is one of the 5 top grossing films of the year (in 1978) and is one of the best kept secrets in the industry. It became a 'secret' hit. It's done $35 million in the United States alone."
Buck Rogers was the astronaut suspended (or deep frozen) in space since 1987 for 500 years (using the science of cryogenic). He finally woke up in the 25th century when the series went on air and experienced culture shock when he came back to Earth. Gil emphasized, "This is not 'Galactica'. Also, Buck is not Superman." Glen Larson observed, "'(Battlestar) Galactica' has a biblical feel. 'Buck Rogers' is futuristic." It was reported 'Buck Rogers' had considerably lower production costs than the $600,000 per episode of 'Battlestar Galactica'.
Gil Gerard maintained, "It's not a camp show … My favorite term for it is a realistic fantasy. It takes an optimistic view of mankind." Medora Heilbron elaborated, "'(The Flight of The) War Witch' (episodes) could be played campily, but our policy is to go down the straight and narrow road on 'Buck' and play it straight, play against that camp." Gil made the point, "Twiki (featuring the voice of Mel Blanc) doesn't hurt dramatic scenes with gratuitous laughs."
Erin Gray expressed, "I feel in a way, Gil and I are like Prince Charming and Sleeping Beauty. He comes along and wakes me up. I also feel I’m doing more for the Equal Rights Amendment than I could do at any rally. I’m playing a woman who is in a very high position and is very efficient." Bruce Lansbury insisted, "The one thing we don’t want to do on 'Buck', is to tell concept stories. A concept story being: What happens if Kirk meets Apollo? Or what if a man finds himself trapped in a society of women that has never seen a man before. We want to tell basic people stories; find ourselves sympathetic characters that Buck can help, save, push on out of trouble.
"Some people can’t identify with science fiction," Bruce pointed out the science-fiction nucleus audiences at the time "doesn’t give you big enough numbers … We're against some hit shows: 'Mork and Mindy', 'The Waltons', and before that 'Laverne & Shirley'." Gil believed, "We're well balanced show from the standpoint of capturing a wide spectrum of viewers."
Bruce continued, "The hardware and the futuristic setting create an anxiety in some people. The real trick is to make Buck's observations and the observations of those in the 25th century creative, electric and full of humor that we can appreciate now (back in 1980). 'Buck Rogers' is a science-fiction show, but it is also a fantasy show. Everyone has his own expectations of what the 25th century will be, so you find experts at every level of scrutiny: the network, the studio, the actors, the art department and us – the producers and the writers. There’s a great conflict that is continuous. What is the 25th century going to look like?"
Due to "lack of time and materials, we shoot a show in about 24 days. Then we have anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks in post-production, where we cut the picture together and add the opticals (special effects). Then we find that we haven’t the time to make changes." Medora Heilbron made known, "I'm an associate producer on 'Buck Rogers' and among other things I handle all the post-production on the show. But contrary to what most people think, post-production begins the moment there is a script.
"I read it, and break it down, looking for process plates which are an area of my responsibility. Process plates are the backgrounds which are done on the stage with a rear projector while Buck sits in front of the screen in a cockpit. They give a sense of motion – flying through the vortex or the air, or in front of a starfield. We put things in motion as far as building the process plates which are needed for the live-action filming.
"Then I look through the script again, checking for inserts, sound effects. I try to get an idea of what I will be faced with at the end of the show. During the production meetings we discuss, literally shot-by-shot, what's going to happen and who's going to do what. During filming I’m on the stage when they're using the process plates to make sure everything happens, and the right plate is used at the right time. On 'War Witch' we had 6 or 7 new plates made for that episode, so this show got a little crazy."
Daily screening sessions were also known as "dailies". Karen Willson reported Medora Heilbron would use the dailies to look for sound problems, production noise and checking the inserts. "Inserts are pieces of film which detail an action that is important to the story, but was not covered during principal shooting. The face of a clock to show the time would be an insert. After the show is finished shooting, we cut it together in the editing department, and put the shots in order, the director comes in for one screening after this to work with the film editor on any changes he might make.
"Then the producers come in and make the changes we want to make. Then the show is seen by the network and by Universal Studios prior to being turned over to the post-production unit. Everyone has a crack at making suggestion, or comments or changes. After the studio and the network have seen it and everyone is satisfied with it, the film is turned over to post-production – me. I take it to a spotting session, which consists of myself, the sound effects editor and the music composer. In a normal show, the music and sound effects are run together.
"Because of the complexity of a show like 'Buck Rogers', we have 2 separate runs. There's so much action going on from a music and sound-effects standpoint. We begin to lay down what we want … explosions, lasers, anything that's tied in with the visuals. Instead of having a composer come in, we had to track the show, which means taking music from the existing episodes and matching it to the action in 'War Witch'. I sat down with the music editor, Don Woods, to discuss where the music should go.
"He's very familiar with the music library that has accumulated over the past 21 shows (in the 1979-1980 season) so he picked the music to go with each scene, and he will lay it in. This session is known as spotting. While spotting, we find more dialog that needs to be cleaned up because of noise interfering with somebody's lines, or sometimes there's a performance we want to change.
"The actor hears the line that needs to be redone and repeats it. We're careful to be in tune with the packing and rhythm so it matches into the film, and we cut into the soundtrack. From the notes Don is making now, he’ll decide what music to cut into the tracks. The show will then move to the dubbing stage (also known as looping), and if there's something we don’t like, we’ll just pull that reel of film and strip out that section and put in something that fits better."
From 1929 to 1967, millions readers of 450 newspapers got "the earliest glimpses into space travel." In 1977, 'Star Wars' became the biggest box-office hit in movie history earning over $250 million at the time. In January 1978, Universal Studios began production of 'Buck Rogers'. The series tried to project what things might be in the 25th century. Gil Gerard remembered, "'Buck Rogers' is one of the 5 top grossing films of the year (in 1978) and is one of the best kept secrets in the industry. It became a 'secret' hit. It's done $35 million in the United States alone."
Buck Rogers was the astronaut suspended (or deep frozen) in space since 1987 for 500 years (using the science of cryogenic). He finally woke up in the 25th century when the series went on air and experienced culture shock when he came back to Earth. Gil emphasized, "This is not 'Galactica'. Also, Buck is not Superman." Glen Larson observed, "'(Battlestar) Galactica' has a biblical feel. 'Buck Rogers' is futuristic." It was reported 'Buck Rogers' had considerably lower production costs than the $600,000 per episode of 'Battlestar Galactica'.
Gil Gerard maintained, "It's not a camp show … My favorite term for it is a realistic fantasy. It takes an optimistic view of mankind." Medora Heilbron elaborated, "'(The Flight of The) War Witch' (episodes) could be played campily, but our policy is to go down the straight and narrow road on 'Buck' and play it straight, play against that camp." Gil made the point, "Twiki (featuring the voice of Mel Blanc) doesn't hurt dramatic scenes with gratuitous laughs."
Erin Gray expressed, "I feel in a way, Gil and I are like Prince Charming and Sleeping Beauty. He comes along and wakes me up. I also feel I’m doing more for the Equal Rights Amendment than I could do at any rally. I’m playing a woman who is in a very high position and is very efficient." Bruce Lansbury insisted, "The one thing we don’t want to do on 'Buck', is to tell concept stories. A concept story being: What happens if Kirk meets Apollo? Or what if a man finds himself trapped in a society of women that has never seen a man before. We want to tell basic people stories; find ourselves sympathetic characters that Buck can help, save, push on out of trouble.
"Some people can’t identify with science fiction," Bruce pointed out the science-fiction nucleus audiences at the time "doesn’t give you big enough numbers … We're against some hit shows: 'Mork and Mindy', 'The Waltons', and before that 'Laverne & Shirley'." Gil believed, "We're well balanced show from the standpoint of capturing a wide spectrum of viewers."
Bruce continued, "The hardware and the futuristic setting create an anxiety in some people. The real trick is to make Buck's observations and the observations of those in the 25th century creative, electric and full of humor that we can appreciate now (back in 1980). 'Buck Rogers' is a science-fiction show, but it is also a fantasy show. Everyone has his own expectations of what the 25th century will be, so you find experts at every level of scrutiny: the network, the studio, the actors, the art department and us – the producers and the writers. There’s a great conflict that is continuous. What is the 25th century going to look like?"
Due to "lack of time and materials, we shoot a show in about 24 days. Then we have anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks in post-production, where we cut the picture together and add the opticals (special effects). Then we find that we haven’t the time to make changes." Medora Heilbron made known, "I'm an associate producer on 'Buck Rogers' and among other things I handle all the post-production on the show. But contrary to what most people think, post-production begins the moment there is a script.
"I read it, and break it down, looking for process plates which are an area of my responsibility. Process plates are the backgrounds which are done on the stage with a rear projector while Buck sits in front of the screen in a cockpit. They give a sense of motion – flying through the vortex or the air, or in front of a starfield. We put things in motion as far as building the process plates which are needed for the live-action filming.
"Then I look through the script again, checking for inserts, sound effects. I try to get an idea of what I will be faced with at the end of the show. During the production meetings we discuss, literally shot-by-shot, what's going to happen and who's going to do what. During filming I’m on the stage when they're using the process plates to make sure everything happens, and the right plate is used at the right time. On 'War Witch' we had 6 or 7 new plates made for that episode, so this show got a little crazy."
Daily screening sessions were also known as "dailies". Karen Willson reported Medora Heilbron would use the dailies to look for sound problems, production noise and checking the inserts. "Inserts are pieces of film which detail an action that is important to the story, but was not covered during principal shooting. The face of a clock to show the time would be an insert. After the show is finished shooting, we cut it together in the editing department, and put the shots in order, the director comes in for one screening after this to work with the film editor on any changes he might make.
"Then the producers come in and make the changes we want to make. Then the show is seen by the network and by Universal Studios prior to being turned over to the post-production unit. Everyone has a crack at making suggestion, or comments or changes. After the studio and the network have seen it and everyone is satisfied with it, the film is turned over to post-production – me. I take it to a spotting session, which consists of myself, the sound effects editor and the music composer. In a normal show, the music and sound effects are run together.
"Because of the complexity of a show like 'Buck Rogers', we have 2 separate runs. There's so much action going on from a music and sound-effects standpoint. We begin to lay down what we want … explosions, lasers, anything that's tied in with the visuals. Instead of having a composer come in, we had to track the show, which means taking music from the existing episodes and matching it to the action in 'War Witch'. I sat down with the music editor, Don Woods, to discuss where the music should go.
"He's very familiar with the music library that has accumulated over the past 21 shows (in the 1979-1980 season) so he picked the music to go with each scene, and he will lay it in. This session is known as spotting. While spotting, we find more dialog that needs to be cleaned up because of noise interfering with somebody's lines, or sometimes there's a performance we want to change.
"The actor hears the line that needs to be redone and repeats it. We're careful to be in tune with the packing and rhythm so it matches into the film, and we cut into the soundtrack. From the notes Don is making now, he’ll decide what music to cut into the tracks. The show will then move to the dubbing stage (also known as looping), and if there's something we don’t like, we’ll just pull that reel of film and strip out that section and put in something that fits better."
Bruce Lansbury stressed, "Our primary concern in the show is production value – good stories and sympathetic characters. Surely, we will have occasion to utilize sharp hardware and intricate props. You need a certain amount of that in the science-fiction genre, but I feel, more importantly, we must stress interaction between characters. We also have guest stars (such as Juanin Clay) appearing regularly, so there is an added element that viewers will look forward to each week."
