In the second season, her character became considerably less interesting. Whereas in the first year, she had been one of the top-ranking officers (if not the top-ranking one) of Earth's Defense Force, year two had her assigned to the crew of the Searcher starship, where her duties were ill-defined, but usually involved opening hailing frequencies, looking worried, or sweating a lot while she waited for the men to save the ship from the peril of the week. We rarely saw her on missions, and I don't think she even piloted a fighter once in the whole second year. Her uniform - complete with skirt - made her look like a drive-in carhop.
Erin Gray is an icon of the Space: 1970 era, not just because she looked stunning in spandex, but because her Wilma Deering, while not always served well by the scripts, was still a memorably strong character. Over the 21 episodes of Buck's first season the actress managed to convincingly portray a genuine evolution from cold, remote military automaton to a warm, humorous, full-blooded woman, equal to the series' male lead in every way. Hell, the best-written moment of the season's last episode had Gray's character come right out and acknowledge that evolution... and Gray nails the scene.
That sort of character work was especially rare in network television of the era.
Too bad that when the re-tooled series came back for its second year, Wilma's character regressed to the stereotypes of 50s and 60s sci-fi, narratively subservient to the male characters, dressed in outfits that emphasized the sterotypes of her gender, virtually reduced to window dressing in the background.
I mean, there are a lot of problems with Buck's sophomore season, but it's the treatment of Gray's character that irritates me the most.
And... this has been your aging fanboy rant for the week. Funny, I started out just wanting to post a couple of publicity shots of the lovely Ms. Gray (because, let's face it - that's what most people come here for in the first place), but the differences between the outfits (and character attitude) in the two stills just started to get under my skin....
Great, great post. You're dead-on about Deering's treatment.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't stand the little robot-Twiggy??- and I was probably their target audience. Deering and the 'princess' were the best parts. Not just for the tight clothes, but that they had impact on what happened-IIRC. Buck was just a doofus. The Hawkman guy didn't work for me in the second season. Didn't his mate die? Didn't that remove any reason he had to cooperate with them? I barely remember it.
ReplyDeleteLoved the first season of BR25C, but, like most others, really thought the second season was a major disappointment.
ReplyDeleteI remember watching that first S2 episode and hearing Twiki's new voice, and thinking... what have they done?!!!???
So glad they swiftly changed it back to Mel Blanc.
And yeah, changing Wilma from a kick ass, no nonsense heroine to a glorified flight attendant was a bad, bad move.
Were the writers changed for the second season? I'll check and see if you did an article about why the show changed so much, but if you haven't, that might be a cool topic for the future. I for one am always interested in the behind the scenes stuff, and why shows ended up the way they did.
ReplyDeleteThe second season of Buck Rogers In The 25th Century had an almost entirely different production staff. The show only barely got renewed for the second season, so the network felt the show needed to be re-tooled. A new producer was hired, a new format was created (if you can call such a derivative premise "created"), and new writers were brought onboard. Gil Gerard also insisted that his character be reworked and made more serious. Making matters more complicated, a writer's strike delayed the season, forcing it to rush into production with undercooked scripts.
ReplyDeleteSo, there were a lot of problems with Buck Year Two. It just happens that tonight, the treatment of Erin Gray's character bugged me the most. :)
While I want to like the second season (c'mon, they thought to have an Admiral named Asimov, and referenced the good Doctor and his laws ), I just can't. I don't rewatch those episodes, but happily rewatch first season ones.
ReplyDeleteBuck Rogers was at best goofy fun and it works on that level. That was the first season and I still watch all of the first season fairly often. I remember thinking season two was lame when I was a kid. When Buck came out on DVD I bought and thought maybe I would appreciate season two more. If anything it's even worse to me now. It's like everything that worked in season was sacrificed or switched around.
ReplyDeleteYes, I vividly recall both years.. mercifully the 2nd year didn't last long. It was a disaster, so painful to watch.
ReplyDeleteThe 1st year was in it's groove and while I missed Galactica tremendously, Buck's first year had it's nice aspects, foremost that it was 'cool' in not taking itself seriously; more 'tongue-in-cheek', which when done well, is fun to watch.
Girard wanted it more like Trek in the 2nd year, messing up the charm and chemistry built in the first year, and like Space:1999, whenever a show wants to 'go Trek' in it's 2nd year, that's unfortunately what you get. It's no longer original, fresh, you never get 'that audience' you wanted, and it ends up doing creatively just what you intended, in the worst ways.
Let Trek be Trek.
Let Space:1999 be Space:1999.
Let Buck be Buck.
Just saw Ms Gray at Detroit's ComicCon, and she's STILL gorgeous and sweet..!!
I saw Gil Gerard and the lovely Erin Grey at a convention a couple of years ago and they both disliked the direction the 2nd season took. Mr. Gerard said that the first few episodes of the 1st season were his favorites as the producers tried to add a little tragedy and pathos to his character of a man out of time, but it quickly devolved into fist fights and "babe-of-the-week" cliches as the season went on. As a kid, those nuances were lost on me, but I loved Buck and Wilma's derring-do as they were sent on missions by Dr. Huer. I wish they had stuck with that format for the 2nd season, just adding a little more drama and realism to the tone. I hate the 2nd season with a passion. I remember as a kid seeing "Time of the Hawk" and thinking they had ruined my favorite show. It only got worse from there. I re-watch the first season al the time and pretend the 2nd season never happened.
ReplyDeleteI think the second season opener which introduced Hawk was pretty decent, but it was all downhill from there. I had the good fortune of meeting Erin Gray at MegaCon in Orlando back in 2002 and she was really sweet...and still just as dropdead gorgeous as she was on Buck Rogers.
ReplyDeleteRewatched the series from start to finish a couple of years ago. I remembered it as being cheesy fun for kids and... well, mostly kids. I was surprised at how complete the world created for the show was filled out in the first season. They had a pretty developed government and military structure. Different colored uniforms for different services, etc. And Wilma was the perfect vehicle to guide us through the military side of it. Of course, for the second season all of that was scraped and the show really became what I thought I remembered it as being. If Gerard could have played Buck like he did in the second season, but set in the first season, I think the show would have had a chance.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Christopher. The best part of season 2 was Hawk.
ReplyDeleteJust looked at 'Space 1970' for the first time in a week and got greeted by the breathtaking Erin Gray in skin-tight spandex. Ain't life great?
ReplyDeleteI loved Erin Gray in both seasons but that outfit in season 2 was the worst she looks like a Love Boat Reject.I did read that when the new Producer took over season 2 he was cheap and was cutting corners in every dept.I mean heck he got rid of the Twiki's Mel Blanc voice for gods sakes,Gil Gerard demanded Mel return to do the voice and he did
ReplyDeleteThey did the same thing in "Man From Atlantis." In the 4 original movies Elizabeth Merrill is clearly in charge and Mark turns to her for insight/advice. When the series started Mark was in charge of the cetacean, occupying the center seat and giving orders and Elizabeth was shunted off to to be just another crew member. It didnt even really makes sense .. Mark was still learning about the world etc and Merrill was a scientist. I always wondered if that was why she left prior to the 13 episode series was cancelled.
ReplyDeleteIsn't this sort of par for the course for Glen Larson in that era, though? They wrecked Battlestar Galactica much the same way with Galactica 1980 in the second season. Both times, a passable show with some attraction for younger viewers in its first season became positively juvenile.
ReplyDeleteWhile I'm no great defender of Larson, an efficient but creatively-uninspired and imitative producer, I sincerely think most of the blame for the final form of these shows can be laid squarely at the feet of the networks involved.
ReplyDeleteThey dictated the direction and content of shows back then (and still do). Producers had little choice but go along, otherwise they'd be out of a job.
I really like the retro look of the flight attendant costume, but that ain't Wilma.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post, and putting into words one of the great frustrations not only with this show, but other series that couldn't commit to decent female characterizations back then. It was like the Seventies scared the crud out of the Suits, and they reacted to what was going on around them by trying to roll the clock back. And sadly, much like BATTLESTAR GALLACTICA, a version of that reaction too has also been revived for our times...
ReplyDeleteI re-watched the entire series over a couple of days (The first time I saw it was as a child). I LOVED it, but it was really striking how the first season felt and looked very "Seventies" while the second was very "Eighties". There was a very clear line of pop-cultural demarcation.
ReplyDeleteThings I liked about the (mostly joyless) second season:
1) Hawk (despite the fact he never got the big action moments: It's like if the X-Men introduced the character of Wolverine and then mostly kept him in the background triming hedges at the mansion), 2) The satyr on a lizard-horse with an energy whip (a character that could have stepped right out of a Marvel comic of the era...in the middle of a grim, "Important" episode about domestic abuse. Talk about ridiculous and sublime...), and 3) Buck just running around in a 20th Century flight suit in some episodes (The "Nazi SS uniform in reverse" with a pride flag armband that he wore in the first season was awesome in a "We're from the future, we're here to help you" utopian sort of way, but Buck in the flightsuit emphasized the "Man out of time" element).
Correct assessment as usual Sir. I have a very special place in my heart for Buck Rogers, and especially Col. Deering. I think 1st season was flawless while 2nd season was the advent of the anti-buck.
ReplyDeleteThe 2nd season does not exist. Much like the first 3 Star Wars, Galactica 1980, nor the 4th season of Airwolf.
ReplyDeleteErin Grey was the first lady to make me think girls might not be so yuck.
ReplyDeletePS
Great site.
Yes, yes, yes to everything you write here-- I was just a little kid when BUCK aired, but it was my favorite show during its first season, and Wilma was a big reason why. I couldn't have articulated it at age six, but there was something about her confidence and strong sense of self I found really attractive, and I remember being utterly confused when the show finally came back following the next year's writers' strike: everything felt different, and not in a good way (and I always disliked Hawk). And it just got worse as that season when on. Thanks for this great, on-point post, and great site-- just discovered it a few minutes ago!
ReplyDeletePS-- There used to be a Buck Rogers fan site that contained a STARLOG two-parter from...1996, maybe?...where Alan Brennert and some of the other writers go into detail on the development of the show, working with Gil Gerard, dealing with network interference, and trying to write good scripts for Erin Gray (who they all adored). Even before the disastrous second season, that seemed to be a difficult task, as there was a great deal of pressure to just make Wilma the sidekick. I just tried to find the link, but it seems it doesn't exist anymore. But it's worth tracking down the articles, if you're a fan of the show, and especially Wilma.
By the time this came out I had been in college a couple of years and my education has been very heavy on the math and science end so I probably see it a bit differently. The science in these shows suck-but that is true today too. but I really liked some of the 2'nd season story concepts. Some of them were silly- the golden dudes and the dork that could take his head off (I bet Mark Lenard never lived that role down). But so were some of the first season -like the Space vampire. And I never had much use for the so-called Princess or that tiger looking dude. I thought Erin Gray was much more attractive and appealing than the glitzy slut princess.
ReplyDeleteMy first thought of Col. Dearing was that she was one of the the top kicks in Earth Defense Directorate and her characterization showed why. A very capable and ambitious officer but possibly promoted too soon. Happens in the real services. I was really teed off at her demotion in the 2'nd season.
One of my favorites was the Return of the Fighting 69'th. The backstory was that she had previously had to make that difficult decisions top kicks make- retiring senior officers. Then comes a mission where their experience and insights are more valuable than fighter pilot reflexes and she has to deal with the bitterness the forced retirement generated. But I noticed that she did what was necessary to accomplish the mission. Also learned why it is so important to keep officers like that around. One of the best episodes and they nailed the most important aspect- told a good story..
I have to ask for your apology though. Although I didn't like her character in the 2'nd season I did like the carhop outfit and I liked the scenes where her uniform was being "Off-thinked". After all I was a young male in my 20's and -a space babe is still a space babe.
Absolutely agree with you, was actually just moaning on Twitter about this last night.
ReplyDelete