Friday, June 18, 2010

Cover Gallery: BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (1978) on TV Guide

 

Even as a kid, I thought that top TV Guide cover by "Byrd" was really odd - the likenesses of the Battlestar cast are okay, but just a bit "off." (And the spaceship is clearly not anything from the show - it looks like the artist used a shot of 2001's  Discovery and just changed it slightly!)

On the other hand, there's nothing even remotely off-putting about the Maren Jensen portrait. Damn, she was gorgeous!

10 comments:

  1. Lorne Green looks like Gene Simmons on that cover. How disturbing would it have been to see him with that long tongue? (shudder)

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  2. I did a similar post regarding this cover a while back, and yes, you're right about Maren !!!

    Dodgy sf movie poster and book art etc...

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  3. I'm OK with the illustration, it's just the artist's style. I'm sure he could do something more photorealistic (at least, I assume TV Guide hires professional artists). But usually, you learn the rules first, then learn how you want to break them.

    OTOH, I totally agree about Maren. She totally mesmerized me at the time.

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  4. Cover 1: Close, no cigar.

    Cover 2: Yes, more please!

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  5. Check this out. An amazing visualization of a "Sci-Fi Air Show" featuring some Vipers, Eagles and other favorite classic spacecraft. The site is the brainchild of ILM visual effects artist Bill George....

    http://www.scifiairshow.com/

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  6. Jef - I never checked out your link 'til my wife stumbled across the site separately - but I didn't want you to think that I was denying you credit for pointing it out in my other post.

    Thanks!

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  7. Yeah, that was definitely the back of the Discovery from 2001.

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  8. ...What's interesting is that the Discovery originally had a pair of radiators that stuck out to the sides of the engine section. Kubrick had them removed when he first looked at the finished model and realized that the radiators made it appear as if Discovery had *wings* - something -not- needed in airless space! So Doug Trumbull cut them off, but left the mounting points to imply that they'd been jettisoned after the engines had been "shut down and mothballed", as Sir Art Clarke put it.

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  9. I had saved the Battlestar Galactica TV Guide issue in my desk draw (had it for a long time), but my father threw away everything that was in my desk one day without asking, because he needed extra garbage to add for the regular service. Ugh! Additionally, he got rid of the BG Photostory book, too.

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  10. Is that TV Guide cover of Maren Jensen from a Canadian edition? The only cover I have seen of her was from 1979 and was dated April 7th - 13th of that year. This image shows the date of April 14th - 20th and I am assuming it would also be from 1979. I checked a site that has covers from the 50's through the 2000's and looked through everything from 1977 - 1981 and this cover is not there. Just wondering what/when this one was published.

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