Battlestar Galactica (1978) | Galactica 1980 - Battlestar Galactica Retrospective, Part 1
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- čas přidán 28. 06. 2024
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In the late 1970s, following the release of Star Wars, the wider film industry was scrambling to find their own answer to George Lucas' monster sci-fi hit. For Paramount, this lead directly to the production of Star Trek The Motion Picture. Disney's response came in the form of Black Hole. But Universal's Star Wars cash in - Battlestar Galactica - would go on to have a far more unique legacy among the titans of science fiction.
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00:00 Squarespace Ad
00:56 Intro
01:45 Origins
03:28 Development
06:24 Casting
09:38 Production
14:55 Saga of a Star World
20:55 Lost Planet of the Gods
22:27 Mid-Production Changes
25:09 Standalone Episodes
27:15 Gun on Ice Planet Zero
29:35 The Living Legend/Sheba
30:57 War of the Gods
32:57 The Eastern Alliance Arc
33:39 The Hand of God
34:57 Cancellation and Fan Backlash
36:37 Spinoff Development
39:07 Galactica 1980
42:13 The Return of Starbuck
44:16 Cancellation and Legacy
46:15 Outro
#battlestargalactica #rowanjcoleman - Krátké a kreslené filmy
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Will you cover the reboot
🙃😉😊
#Algorithmic Engagement Comment
Six 'feet' tall? It is not the dark ages anymore, use standard units of measurement.
When will you be doing the reboot? I know you did it a while ago, but I’m looking forward to the updated version.
As a 9 year old in 1978 this was the best show ever!
Made a huge impression on me as a kid as well. For decades I always wanted to say "Fleeing from the cylon tyanny...." into a computer microphone and see the text on the screen.
In 1978 Battlestar galactica made it so special to be alive as a kid! Saturday morning cartoons and other TV series back then gave you a special feeling that is hard to put in words..so we turned to cereal instead!😂 go honeycomb!😊
My favorite episode was with Lloyd Bridges as Commander Cain of the Battlestar Pegasus! I hoped and hoped to see him again, but to no avail.
My favourite episodes were the ones involving Patrick McNee as the last surviving being that created the cylons representing the dark side and the angelic beings representing the light. Those brilliant episodes, the writing, the acting of Dirk Benedict and Richard Hatch were brilliant and represent the high point of the series for me.
@@rohanmarkjay I like both War of the Gods (w/ Patrick Macnee) and The Living Legend (w/ Lloyd Bridges) the best - indeed a toss-up between them!
It was a bad day to stop sniffin glue
There are those that believe the original show had a kick ass theme, incredible characters and stand out double episodes..but there are also those that believe it was a show that lost its way as a narrative ..but as a child when it came out it was a classic
@CyberPup 22 I absolutely love the reboot too. For me it was seminal viewing .. I loved the original as a child and see the flaws as an adult. As an adult I love the reboot
@CyberPup 22 The Cylons may have had a plan, but Ron Moore certainly didn't.
I loved the original as a kid and I also loved the reboot its about time they gave it another reboot with a different approach again
there are those that believe that life here began out there
The double or 2 part episodes stand out for a reason. Originally the show was supposed to be a series of 2 hour tv movies. Shown in rotation with others. Kind of like how Columbo used to be. So they planned and did extensive preproduction for those 6 movies. They were polished and ready to go. At the last minute they were told the network wanted it as a weekly series instead. All the single episodes were filler thrown together hurriedly to make that new mandate.
Something missed-the premiere was interrupted by live news coverage of Jimmy Carter signing a peace treaty with Egypt and Israel.
That’s not presented in the blu-ray, but it would be hilarious if it was as a separate edition.
I remember that si well! I Was young and so very frustrated- It seemed unimportant to 12 year-old me- compared to a sci-fi show on the TV at the time! :-/
I missed the whole third act. I didn’t know what I missed until I read the comic. I could not figure out where the four-eyed singers came from. Aliens really weren’t a factor in the show.
I don't believe all viewing areas were effected.
@@jyesucevitz I was west coast, so it premiered later than the east coast-so that probably is the case.
I'm already humming the kick-ass theme tune. I love that they used it as the Colonial nation anthem on Ron Moore's rebooted series.
Yeah, I was just thinking how much it sounds like the music from Rise Of Nations.
I ended up playing it in a few different keys and improvising around the main motif through the whole video. I thought I’d just figure it out quickly to save myself simply whistling it, but the very effective 3-2-1 motion (or indeed 4-3-2, the first time round, before the final 2-7-1) makes it very catchy indeed.
It was a beautiful nod to Philips' theme.
Yes indeed!
That the Lorne Greene voice over , will forever remind me of my childhood !!!
I really enjoy the 70’s Battlestar Galactic, to me it found the perfect balance between the “utopian society” of Star Trek with the “space adventure” of Star Wars. It’s such a fun comforting show.
The near annihilation of man is fun and comforting? Lol.
The underlying story is the hook. A mature culture is decimated by a rival culture. The human existence in the universe may have been from them. Mythology and parallels to the human condition.
The Return of Starbuck was why Doctor Z came to be.
yes, but it's still a great episode @@mlmcproductions4191
Regarding the casino segment in the original movie, I actually thought the revelation that the Ovions were capturing guests, cocooning them and feeding them to their young was deeply disturbing. You can briefly glimpse an Ovion larva emerging from a dead body, and this was right before Alien came out! I was scared as a kid.
Yep, that whole sequence freaked me out as a kid. It was awesome!
Me too.
It had great shock effect and stayed with me for a long while afterwards as well.
Yeah I remember that it was scary I was 10 years old but I also loved it, I was so excited every week when a new show would come on and I liked 1980 as well
Yes, this was a horror aspect woven into science fiction, love it and was revolted by it at the same time. Imagine on cows feel about us.....
Fantastic. I remember LOVING the ships of BSG, but never got into the story as a kid. Funny, as a kid, the things that I found off-putting were the very things the clueless execs put in to appeal to me. I always dreaded Boxy and Muffit being on screen because it meant whatever was going to happen was going to placid and dumb. Wonderful Retrospective, as usual.
I did love my Cylon and Viper ships!!! Though I had the child safe versions!!😂
Exactly my feelings about the kid and the daggett.
Same here
Ye I don't get why they keep doing it, as I had the same feeling with Wesley Crusher, and the other Crusher on SeaQuest DSV
So true about Boxy and Muffit. Imagine if every TOS had a “Tribble Moment”. Good Lord.
John Colicos was great value as a villain. He was also a superb Klingon in Star Trek. Much underrated as an actor, he was always fun to watch.
He was awesome as Mikkos Cassadine on General Hospital
KOR? Star Trek
@@teawaruaedwards274 Kor indeed. Colicos appeared to be having a lot of fun playing him, see the DS9 episodes too for some depth to the character.
Mikkos Cassadine
Also, as "The Governor" in an episode of "The Starlost" (1973).
I remember watching this on BBC 2 as a child and thinking I was dreaming when Galactica 1980 appeared. Such a bizzare spin off, but the original is amazing.
Tony J and Dr T,
We're you guys old enough to remember the magnifique
Space 1999 ?
@@FrostedSeagull Barely but yes, what about Blakes 7? Lol, proper hammy
So awful I only now remember I’ve seen it. The original series was great only bested by the new series which for me was fantastic.
@@FrostedSeagull oh yeah I loved 1999 as a kid and Battle star and 1980 and I loved the Battle star reboot as well its time to reboot it again
was it part of some wierd off the wall showthat had strange stop motion animation and rotated between BSG and lost in space original series ? I remember watching that when i lived in london always annoyed my sister she could not stand anything scifi
One of the coolest TV themes ever.
And i think it always will be.
Absolutely. Up there with Knight Rider, Airwolf and Streethawk.
The big question at the time was, "can a Star Wars style show make the transition to television?". The mini-series format was very dramatic, nothing so grand had been tried for sci-fi television. While the switch to a standard episodic series was a bit uneven, the pairing of John Colicos as Baltar with Lucifer, voiced by Jonathan Harris, was brilliant. Having those two hams together in a scene was to die for. I kept waiting for Lucifer to call Baltar a "bubble-headed booby".
In a regard of the "grand-ness", Space:1999 was pretty much comparable and it, of course, preceded the BSG by about three years.
@@subraxas Space 1999 was tedious. Never liked it. Battlestar was more fun.
John Colicos and Lorne Greene were both Canadian and acted in the Stratford Shakespeare festival at Stratford Ontario. When they were together chewing up the scenery in the pyramid cave in we all laughed in our family and said “Stratford acting!”😅
@Maria CANCER
❤❤❤
"By your command..."
The title theme of this show was & still is brilliant to this day 🎵👌👌👌
SOME BELIEVE that there may be yet brothers of man....who even now.....fight to survive!
Iconic and powerful even to this day!
Who can forget that great BSG call back in the opening credits of The A Team.
One of Televisions most genius moments
Indeed; heck, still annoyed we never got the reveal that KITT was a Cylon...
I remember the AT opening credits where the cylon walks by. Genius?REALLY?
Let’s not forget the TA the episode at the movie studio where we get to see Dirk Benedict come face to face with a Cylon and the expression on his face.
After a theater performance, John Colicos was taking his bow when someone in the crowd yelled “BALTHAR LIVES!” To which Colicos broke into a wide grin and said “I love you!” Colicos said he thought it was awesome when BSG fans would talk to him about the show.
He looked like he enjoyed playing Baltar as much as we loved watching him.
His name is Baltar, not Bathar.
Lorne Greene gives off "best dad" energy in almost every role.
I loved the look of the Battlestar ship.
I used to sit at the back of the maths classroom and draw the Galactica instead of doing maths 🙂
The big crocodile!
On one hand, I like the idea of Galactica being a limited prestige mini-series, like Roots, etc. Then I remember that if the series didn't happen we wouldn't have had the Pegasus episode. That was such an intriguing development after viewers had gotten used to living with the idea of a single surviving Battlestar. Suddenly it was like we were seeing some other unknown spin-off Battlestar show doing a cross-over. It was just mind-blowing for me as a kid.
as your opening credits prove...dang if that theme isn't still one of most exciting and beautiful pieces of music ever. Well, in my opinion anyway. It is gorgeous.
The original Battlestar Galactica series has a special place in my heart as it was a favourite of my late grandfather. I spent many afternoons watching it with him as a kid when it was reran on British TV in the 90s.
The original version had the best intro of any series, the dialogue at the start followed by the music was perfect
I just started rewatching the original BSG, along with multiple other classic films and TV series. Having more fun watching the older stuff than new movies and TV shows.
The cylons also were prominent on the Universal Studio tour for many years after the show was cancelled.
Leading that GLORIOUS cameo in the opening credits in the first seasons of 'The A-Team': Dirk Benedict, as Face, just standing there, enjoying a quiet moment. A Cylon walks by, and he does this PERFECT 'don't I know that guy?' double take. A cheap laugh, and I laughed every damn time
@bartman231 I remember that! I was quite young when riding that tram tour thing. I had no idea when getting on the tram that it was still there. Had not seen the show since i was little almost forgetting about it by then. When i went back a few years later, after the Jurassic Park ride opened, i think the BSG set was gone.
It's "Count Baltar," the name "Gaias" was an invention of the RDM reimagining.
Thank you :)
It's Gaius, a Roman name, not Gaias.
It's actually Gygax, as a nod to D&D.
I saw BG movie in the theatre in 1978 about five times over two weeks. I remember my friend always calling and saying "Do you want to go to see Battlestar again?" That was way more than I saw Star Wars the year before. Tickets were cheap, around $2, so it was easy to just go there every few days. I really enjoyed the movie and was happily surprised to see it become a series two months after seeing it in the theatre. I thought the vipers were way cooler looking than Star Wars x wings and I bought both the viper and cylon ships models and had them in my bedroom for a few years.
The Egyptian styling and astrological names harking to some lost origin of Earth really appealed. Watching the cinema release, even as a kid I was sure this was a tv show bolted together, with it's rear projection, repeated use of shots and thick black lines around the ships, but the designs of everything from the Vipers, Galactica itself and even the uniforms really sold me on the story. Eventually arriving on tv it was the closest thing to Star Wars and I was hooked. The comic serialisation and especially the novelization all helped to solidify the world-building and as much as I saw through the inclusion of a kid-friendly character, something about the idea of that robo daggit worked for me!
You can also tell how great Anne Lockhart is as an actor. Even the way she stands as Sheba projects power.
I recently bought the series on blu ray. Sheba did stand out to me and the whole Pegasus storyline raised my interest in the story.
Galactica was AMAZING. It was just what I needed after Star Wars, and it fit in so well with my interest as a kid in Egyptology. "1980" was a missed opportunity indeed. Great video, Rowan!!
I remember being taken to the cinema by mum and dad and it was a double feature - Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (the two part pilot as one feature length movie) and Battlestar Galactica - best cinema day ever!!!
The Galactica and theme song continues to inspire me as I gone through ups and downs in my life.
The music of the Battlestar Galactica Theme composed by Stu Phillips is like to the theme of a venezuelan movie "La Epopeya de Bolivar". The author of this was the venezuelan composer Aldemaro Romero since 1 : 42 min czcams.com/video/SBHs0J2KwHU/video.htmlsi=_w6GlAdsJALV3W31 Battlestar Gallactica was premiered in 1978 and "La Epopeya de Bolivar", in 1969.
It was like watching Star Wars made on Dr Who’s budget. Great show
Each episode cost a million dollars to produce: it makes DOCTOR WHO and BLAKES 7 look like community theatre!
Had a serious crush on Dirk Benedict as Starbuck. Convinced my parents to buy most of the toys ...the figures, the Viper, the Galactica model.
The Viper toys were modular, so you could remove the engine section from the pilot section and make different vehicles, was a lot of fun.
Even had the Galactica hangar pod miniature that you could use rubber bands to launch small foam Vipers from. Those were the days.
That theme song. Always gets me. Battlestar has lived in my dreams for many decades.
There's so many great sci-fi shows that would really benefit from the RJC Retrospectives treatment.
Thunderbirds, Futurama, Earth: Final Conflict...
One day we'll reach Star Cops 🤭
@@kareliask
SPACE PRECINCT!!!
All gerry anderson super mariknation and live action shows
@@chheinrich8486 yep, Captain Scarlet, UFO, Space1999....
I'm all for the Gerry Anderson shows getting more coverage!
Can’t wait to listen! What I loved was that the show looked like Lost in Space and Star Wars, had stand-alone adventure episodes like Star Trek, but a modern overarching story connected it all together.
The original BSG was really hamstrung by the time time it was made. A lot of it has aged surprisingly well, even with the '70s sheen. You just have to contrast it with Buck Rogers (a weaker show that admittedly has its moments) to see how surprisingly well BSG was doing with its externally imposed constraints. BSG somehow (until 1980) managed to survive executive meddling surprisingly intact, which is to the credit of all involved.
2:54 "the bionic woman under his belt" 😮
He wishes.
"The Living Legend" was easily one of my favorite episodes, partially because of Lloyd Bridges, but it was fun to watch the stunned reactions to his appearance. The final space battle was awesome, and Anne Lockhart as Sheba (in addition to being really cute) played off well against Apollo and Starbuck. 😎👍
ending was also fantastic. He took on 3 basestar on his own and scare baltar so much he sac two of them while he retreated. On paper a single basestar should equal one battlestar. Yet Balter didn't want to the chance that he would be kill so he ran.
As a kid of the late 70's / early 80's and in awe of sci-fi, even I at the time switched off Galactica 1980.
Kids actually like the dark stuff.
Destruction of the colonies.
Serena's death.
Vader's bad-assery.
Imperious Leader's cold ruthlessness.
Kids know when they're being mugged off.
Same. I was only 6, but Starbuck, Boomer, and Apollo were my heros. Get that kid and his robot monkey outta here! Give me my heros!
Great video! After Star Trek Space 1999 then Star Wars then Battlestar Galactica then Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. They were all GREAT!
I read the novelizations back in the day and thought them pretty well done. They even added some extra plot elements and even new point of characters in some cases. The novels stuck with the show's original idea that the Cylons are lizard-like aliens in armour rather than robots.
Still one of my favourite epic sci-fi theme tunes.
“Starbuck, what do you hear?”
“Nothing but the rain.”
Can’t wait.
I was 8 when this show came on, and couldn't wait each week for a new episode. BSG. Buck Rogers, and space 1999 made up my core tv, along with project bluebook
My biggest criticism of Battlestar Galactica is: not enough Maren Jensen 18:15
Maren Jensen and Jane Seymour, man…
The power of this show (I was 10 in 1980) was that it brought big "Star Wars" production values & special effects to TV and it did long before the second "Star Wars" movie was even released. Kids my age were too young for Star Trek's original series, it looked like your grandpa and ran on syndication late on weekends. This level of effects was even rare in cinemas then. BSG had come and gone by the time "Battle Beyond the Stars" & "Empire Strikes Back" hit the big screen. What passed for TV special effects then was Steve Austin doing things in slow-mo to bionic sounds or the Hulk doing things in slo-mo to Hulk music. For boys addicted to "Star Wars" this was methadone as the years went by for the next sequel. It happened the same way "Alien" happened- Producers didn't want anything on their desks other than sci-fi scripts in the wake of 77's Star Wars, but it happened on TV, the only place where something like this could play second fiddle to things like Mork & Mindy and All In The Family. It has a haunting legacy for guys my age. It was never the surprise smash TV event of "V" years later. I have absolutely nothing to say about the ridiculous reboot, what nonsense. It could totally be resurrected for the big screen, which is what it was all along - a big screen space opera shoehorned into the "idiot box."
Loved the show as a kid in the early 80s. Being from a small village on the West coast of Scotland, sci-fi was a bit of an escape.
Although I have nostalgia for Galactica 80, I still maintain you could tack Return of Starbuck onto the end of the original season and it'd be an excellent finale episode.
One thing that never gets mentioned on the 80 series is that it includes the Actor Jeremy Brett who only really came to major fame later in the 80s as Sherlock Holmes and was by far the most perfect Holmes ever on screen
In the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s a lot wonderful shakespeare trained actors of the British school were trying to break into America. Mainly because being an actor in Britain at the time was no fun despite your immense talent. You were living in a three bedroom house and struggling to pay the bills underpaid and under appreciated for your talents and no one really gave a shit about you in UK. Whereas in the U.S. actors were treated like Royalty. So a lot of highly trained and talented British actors went to America. Not everyone made it, but if you look carefully at American tv and movies that came out in the late 1970s and1980s you see a lot of British actors on American television and movies who were prominent in the 1970s in British TV. British actors who moved to the States some permanently in the late 1970s into the 1980s, to name a few Simon McCorkingdale, Malcolm McDowell, David Warner, Stephanie Beecham, Lesley Ann Down, Marina Sirtis and Patrick Stewart etc a lot of them became wealthy after moving to the U.S. during the 1980s. Jeremy Brett was probably part of the British acting exodus to America in the late 1970s going into the 1980s.
No way, Basil Rathbone was OG
Loved this every bit as much as Star Wars, and never compared them, or even Star Trek. They're all excellent, imo, but this has a place in my heart because it was weekend viewing during my school days
The most memorable moment about Galactica 1980, Mr William Daniels is in the driver's seat with a Cylon Centurion sitting in the back seat.
Loved this show as a kid. And I still think it stands up well 40 years later.
I always thought it would have been good if the Galactica turned up at an Earth that is way in the future and able to help/protect the fleet.
BSG was hands-down my all-time favorite show when I was a kid. I was heartbroken when it was canceled and I will never forgive them for it. The series was left in a cliffhanger that was never resolved. My favorite story ever on television was never finished. It still hurts to this day.
And don’t get me started on Galactica 1980. That show was a hollow shell of the original and a great disappointment.
And the Reboot in the 2000’s was great, but it was so different I don’t even consider it the same story at all.
time to move on....😒😒😃😃
I didn't care for "Galactica 1980" either. Except for two episodes, the scripts were generally lacking in the drama, action, suspense and character interplay of the original.
I was 6 when this came out, and this is my childhood comfort TV. Just the mythological music from the beginning speeds up my heartbeat to this day. Had the Colonial Viper, the Cylon Raider, and a Muffet the Robotic Dog action figure as well as the mandatory Cylon. Much love to you for making this video!
Such fun to see those Star Trek creatives showing up in BSG's history. No wonder it turned out so well! 👍
"There are those who believe that life here began out there" intrigued me more than "space the final frontier"
Funny you saying that......i also believe that "life here...started OUT THERE!"
Loved that and the original intro!
czcams.com/video/8hrd767Xzfk/video.html
That OG theme is an absolute banger
Was a little boy and watched the show when it originally aired way back when. Hearing that theme song again paired with footage from the show made my heart soar!
I remember watching it as a kid back in the day but I was too young to appreciate it.
If absolutely nothing else, "Battlestar Galactica" has to be one of the single most fucking amazing scifi titles ever.
I watched the original theatrical release in 1978 in a cinema equipped with "Sensurround". This was fancy way of saying that the seats vibrated every time the Battlestar appeared on the screen. It was developed in the 1970's as an attempt to keep cinema audiences which were rapidly dwindling as a result of the competition from the improving production values on television. I also saw a Charlton Heston movie about the Battle of Midway in the same theatre with the "Sensurround" system. Your seat vibrated with every explosion on screen!
I appreciate your videos and was looking forward to this one. I will note two things of importance you left out: 1. Lt. Zac Adama, portrayed by soon-to-be hit musician Rick Springfield, and his tragic death in the initial episode (although you did mention later that Adama had lost all of his children), and 2. The many BSG novels, some of which are wholly new stories that continue to expand the OG BSG universe.
1: Zac Adama. I'm still grieving.
Very well researched and put together. We could tell the "Eastern Alliance" plot was just padding and had no real focus. The ships of light gave the show more of a mythos which could have been explored more along with Iblis, two of my favourite episodes. The series still holds up well overall.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. As a kid in southern Ontario rural farmland, I built my own viper out of hay bales, affixing wooden boards with nails to be my control panels. I also worked some leather to create my own holster and with a thick piece of dowling and wooden blocks I hammered together my own blaster fashioned after Buck Rogers and the 25th Century. Two other blocks of thinner square pieces of wood with a single hinge operated as a crude Star Trek communicator, and a broomstick glued solidly into the end of a worked lathed cyllinder of wood operated as an effective light saber that I used (to my farming neighbours great frustration) as superior method to cut down the vicious attacking corn plantmen of Mongo. In a time where recreations of your favourite science fiction properties were too expensive- I had to create my own R2D2 costume out of cardboard boxes, glued paper and coloured markers, and it just took four safety pins, a crudely cut out letter "S" insignia and a long towel to transform myself into Superman- creativity and imagination reigned.
That being said, I loved this look back with some additional information I wasn't aware of. I'm surprised you made virtually no mention to some of Battlestar's more inventive lore like the Pyramid and Triad. The creation of their leisure pursuits added some needed background to the story.
I still despise the modern word "tropes" being used because it has become an overly used- and mostly poorly understood description of "conventions". Tropes is often used as a pejorative, and I'd prefer to see it relegated to one of those words that came into prominence in the "teens' and was just as quickly forgotten as TV Tropes website is no longer used as it once was either.
My experience with BSG didn't end however as in the aoughts, the incredible Bill Hollweg from Broken Sea Audio sought to create his own Battlestar Galactica fan audio. He asked me who I wanted to play- Apollo of course, and myself and my girlfriend, already engaged in a lot of my own works including the world's first Firefly fan audio drama, settled into the roles.
A friend of mine met with Richard Hatch and purchased one of his books and got him to sign it for me. I was pretty overwhelmed as Hatch hat not only found great love in the series, but had his own vision of how he saw BSG progress and unable to get the networks onboard started seeing his vision of it take place in books before his untimely death.
Still would like to interview you at some point, if you're interested. In the meantime, keep on flying.
As a kid in the 70s, I had a neighbor who had one of those old synthesized voiceboxes that he got from 6 decades of heavy smoking and throat surgery. It made him sound like a Cylon Centurian. For that reason, I always called him 'The Cylon' or later, 'Cy' It somehow stuck and everyone started calling him 'Cy.' He was a combat-experienced WW2 Vet and unlike most Cylons, a really good shot. A real character too, even into his 80s. He'd try to hit on young girls even with that awful voice, so he was arguably more like Starbuck. I dont think he ever saw the show, but he liked the nickname. I saw his grave a few years ago, and someone keeps leaving little Battlestar Galactica items there. Guy's been dead for 30 years, but he's still a local legend. I know this story's inane, but I thought I'd waste a little of your time with it. Youre welcome. 😅
That theme is incredible.
The original BSG holds a special space in my memory. I loved Star Wars, but BSG gave me something else - not just the epic space opera, and heroic characters. The loss of a character felt meaningful because it wasn't galaxy spanning but in this handful of ships and people, and within a family - and it even left family responsibilities. It brought up ideas such as class disparity and grand mythology and even theology. In places it was a mess, but when it worked, when it was what they'd wanted it to be, it was way ahead of its time. Starbuck and Apollo were the duo I wanted to be part of. It was something special for it's time, and this retrospective reminded me why! BSG 1980 was a mess I half thought I'd imagined, apart from that Starbuck story.
The original BSG and Buck Rodgers were my childhood
I watched it at the theatre in Penticton B.C. in the late 70s. Watched it again on US tv and noticed it was censored or changed in a couple spots. Enjoyed it immensely.
What a great summary of The Battlestar Galactica legacy! I was born in 72 so that was a big part of my childhood. I met the actor who played Boomer in San Diego in a 1996 he didn’t look much older then he did when he was on the series. Not too long before he sadly passed away I met Richard Hatch at a comic convention in San Jose California while he was promoting Star Trek Axanar.
Boomer actor is still alive?? HERBERT JEFFERSON he's 70
This channel is so underrated.
I was too young to watch BSG when it came out and still quite young for the repeats so my memories of it are fuzzy at best - since I haven't revisited as an adult. The only things that really stuck with my nostalgia memories was Face from the A-team 😋😋, the masterpiece of a theme (which never gets old) and the super cool chrome Cylons (how interesting that they tried a bronzy colour, but I'm glad they didn't, the silver ones are iconic). Sadly I do have a vague emotional memory of the tiresome kid and dog! 😁😁 We're here for space ships and pew-pew battles and those aspects were annoying.
Great retrospective as always, off to watch the sequel.
Oh boy, can't wait! 😃
AND BATTLESTAR GALACTICA was My favorite series of all time
I was a huge fan of the original show when I was a kid (I'm in my early 50s now). I had a few of the toys -- I remember the early versions of the Viper and Cylon Raider toys shot out little red bullets, but they changed them later because a kid swallowed one of the bullets. I guess they should've seen that coming.
Thanks for this. I saw some of the original broadcasts, but in the late 70s, I started working and more or less stopped watching TV for several years. Never saw a single episode of "1980" and actually wasn't aware of it at all. I wouldn't mind seeing the 1978 show again, but really, I don't think it can hold a candle to the 2000s revival
"His voice alone carries an Orson Welles-like power..."
As a newsreader on CBC Radio in the 40s, Lorne Greene was known as "The Voice of Doom."
The opening theme music to Battlestar still gives me shivers. Also love that you Mentioned the Phil Silvers Show, it still makes me laugh to this day!
As someone that grew up (old as dirt) with BSG and Star Wars, I really never made a connection between them. Back then there was a ton of space movies and stories well before Star Wars. Star Wars set a bar and I remember watching BSG when it first came on and it still sticks with me today, so that is iconic. That, Star Trek and Space 1999 were were IP's that story wise stuck with me. There were other stories that I remember just nothing that really moved the needle. Things like Lost in Space, Buck Rogers and others were fun shows just not mind changing.
The main theme is my ring tone. Epic it is. It's been so long since I've watched it. On my to do list. Good work on the retrospective as usual.
Great video! Can't wait for part 2.The reboot of Battlestar Galactica blew me away! 🤩
Say what you will about the show itself, but that opening theme was awesome!
Oh what a great time it was to be 14 and watch this glorious show. It's not just a "membaberries" thing, either; this show was good. Great acting, very original storyline (I loved Star Wars but even as a kid I thought this had a better story), wonderful effects, incredible music. Such a shame it didn't get a couple more seasons to really shine. What could have been. And no, I had no interest in the new show; without the people I had grown to love and care about, it just didn't matter. And I was so happy to hear the show was coming back in 1980...until I saw what had become of it. Sigh. Another case of terribly wasted potential; but still, great memories of that year!
For me, Star Wars blew everything else out of the water in SFX (much like the Avatar movies are visually so good, even if not the story), but each SW movie was a grand adventure and fun, but for all intents and purposes self-contained. BSG kept me wondering what's going to happen next. So many arcs and personal development of characters, even where it's gone episodic and the story of the week is drawn from a familiar trope.
One early evening when I was about seven years old, I was suposed to go to my aunt and uncle who lived just a short walk away. For some reason the tv was on and going through the very few channels we had, I stumbled on this program. They flew through space in starfighters, they landed on a rock, there were these robots, and the humans lived on a massive ship in space. I just couldn't move myself away from this. I HAD to see this.
This was Battlestar Galactica. My very first encounter with Science Fiction. It set in motion a love for space and sf that still exists today. It lead to getting Lego (classic) space sets, it lead unintentionally to Star Wars (I had no idea what Star Wars was, but I used the figures to play BSG), Star Trek, Blake's 7, a whole shitload of SF books, etc...etc... All because of this program.
(Funny side story, I arrived late and explained it to my uncle who was also a bit into future science. He told me that it was a science fiction show. But english not being my language, I misunderstood him and though he said it was a s3x show. Well, thought seven year old me, if this is what that s3x is about, then maybe it's pretty good :-D)
As a LONG TIME FAN of the original BSG (not the distorted miniseries and later full series of the 21st century), thank you.
BSG, Larson, Stu Phillips and the magnificent actors deserve a lot more praise than they had.
Great documentary.
Takes me back to my childhood
While most kids were glued to Saturday morning cartoons this was the show that caught my interest... Although I didn't fully understand it... BSG was still my had to watch escape from reality..
As budget as it looks today I still do the odd marathon viewing from time to time with the DVD collection
Yes! BSG was the first non-cartoon show that I got into. I was 4 years old when I watched Galactica 1980 and reruns of the original. It is the show that reminds me of happier and innocent times as a pre-teen growing up. My family loved it, my friends loved it. And yeah I cried at the end of Return of Starbuck. It is one of my favourite stand alone episodes of any tv show of all time. Great show and I love everything about it, even the bad episodes.
Commander Cain- “Looks like I picked the wrong secton to quit sniffing glue.”
I was around 10 years old n absolutely loved this program 🎉
The Universal Studios attraction was one of the very best at the time!
I grew up watching this. Even the 1980 version..sigh. I was 9 years old. Loved it SO much. I never understood when a show I loved would be gone in a year or two. Shows like BSG and Buck Rogers. I also loved the music from both shows and can hear them now in my head. Ive got the YT videos of each saved. Both give me chills and warm feelings. Takes me right back to amazing times. And at the end of each ep I was sad...it was gone a week, I had to go to bed, and school the next day..boooo. :) And the ladies from each show were so beautiful. I had crushes on all of them. And they all still look amazing today. Id date any of them now at my 53 of age. Yummy.
I always figured "The Return of Starbuck" episode was a reward for those BSG fans who endured Galactica80.
@Daegawk, I would love to have a complete reboot, with the Original Story, and Imagine what we could accomplish now...
"There are those who believe... that life hyaaaa begon out thyaaaaaa... " This is a really well made video. I really didn't want to watch anything this long at this time of night, but this flew by.
My favorite series ever. Great story, great cast, both old and new versions
And the Viper cockpits were based off of Air Force T-38 cockpits. All the avionics are very familiar!
Love the 1979 series, I remember watching it on early 80s British TV, now have it on blu ray myself, and I prefer this longer style retrospective to the last one you did for BSG 4ish years ago. I’d love to see the 2000s Battlestar Galacria get this longer more in-depth style retrospective treatment. Thanks for the work you put into these videos. EDIT after reaching the end, I’m really looking forward to part 2 now.
8:04 Funny how once in a while a memory from the SyFy version bleeds in! I remember thinking "So Say We All" was from the original until recently.
Battlestar Galactica was not released in U.S. theaters before the television premiere.
The theatrical version of Galactica was released in the U.S. in 1979 after the series had already been canceled on television.
It was only after I bought the Blu-ray release that I realized I had only seen about half of the episodes. Admittedly, we didn’t have a TV when it was first airing, but I thought I had seen them all in reruns. (I saw the movie many, many times in the theaters, and kept checking out the soundtrack LP from the library.)
That was a great way to see the flaws and the gems of the original BSG series. I too grew up and saw the big 3, Star Trek, Star Wars, and Battlestar Galactica live as it were! I can't wait to see how Ronald D. Moore was influenced by what was shown and what he worked to get us such a different take on the same premise! Highly awaiting your Part 2! 💫🖖🏼 😉
Dude, your retrospectives showcase your talents in research, summary, and everything else that goes into them! I probably appreciate your vids so much because my opinions are pretty much the same but when they differ you have a coherent and logical reasoning behind them. Feelings? Sometimes, yes but very well explained. You're obviously an intelligent person and I hope your dream of a production company comes true one day.