Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Coming Attractions: BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (1978) Original ABC Promo


"One week from tonight..." Oh, yeah.

I was 14 years-old when this promo aired, and I can't begin to describe how excited I was. There had never been a sci-fi TV series with this sort of production value, scope, and action before, and this exciting promo - with the late, great Ernie Anderson narrating - really stoked the flames of Star Kid anticipation. ("The dazzling Athena," indeed!)

I know I've been posting a lot of Battlestar Galactica material here recently, but I've been on something of a BG kick of late, re-watching the original series with my wife (who was resistant at first, but I think she's warming to it now) and reading the first few Richard Hatch-Christopher Golden continuation novels from the late 90s. (I'll be writing about those, in some depth, soon.) When I stumbled across this video on one of my many YouTube safaris, I couldn't resist posting it here.

Enjoy!

12 comments:

  1. I've had a recent enthusiasm for the old series as well.

    Keep it coming!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've often felt like the lone defender of this show, especially when the remake series was at its peak and every article about it had to begin with a catty swipe at the original. I'm thrilled to find other BSG OS fans out there, so as far as I'm concerned, you can keep on posting this stuff until the Internet fizzles out.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I refused to go to a family function because it conflicted with the airing of this premiere. (Lots of whining and foot stomping and pleading before my parents agreed to that.) And I recorded the audio via a TV band radio with a built-in cassette recorder. I listened to that tape till it wore out.

    So, yes, I remember this promo. Very, very well.

    ReplyDelete
  4. My Galactica premiere memory: It was a three-hour film, starting at 8 PM EST, which meant that I had to negotiate with my folks to be allowed to stay up until 11 on a school night. That was a huge issue in those days. It took a lot of bargaining, but somehow I pulled it off.

    Then, about halfway during the third hour, the show was interrupted to cover the signing of the Camp David Peace Accords. A momentous event at the time, to be sure, but not only did 14-year old me not understand or care about it, I was extremely impatient for ABC to cut back to the movie because I was afraid my folks would send me to bed at 11 sharp, and I'd miss the end of the film.

    Fortunately, they had pity on me, and let me stay up to see the conclusion, even though it meant I didn't get to bed until almost midnight.

    Man, I was tired at school the next day, though...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Chris, I had the exact same experience with the premiere. As I recall (and I may be completely wrong about this), the interruption came right around the Nova of Madagon sequence, when Apollo, Starbuck and Boomer were clearing out the minefield in front of the fleet...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The interruption came later, just after the shootout with the Cylons on the Ovion bridge.

      Sort of ironic, interrupting a show about a sham peace accord to celebrate the signing of a peace accord.

      Delete
  6. I was 12 when it aired, and cassette recorded the pilot and the rest of the series. Staying up late wasn't my issue, it was talking the parents into letting me be late for school the NEXT day because Good Morning America had the making of Battlestar Galactica. I'm glad I talked them into that, I audio recorded it too and have never ran into anyone else who was fortunate enough to stay home to see it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I audio-taped most episodes of Galactica, though I didn't get the pilot. I also didn't get to see the Good Morning America show - that would have been pushing things too far with my parents.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Glad to hear I'm not the only one who did the audio cassette thing. I don't remember the interruption for the Peace Accords. You guys must have been in the Eastern time zone, because I don't think that happened on the West Coast. Either that or my affiliate just refused to cut away.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Yeah, with the time difference, West Coasters were spared the interruption...

    ReplyDelete
  10. Keep the BG posts coming Chris!Being that it's one of my favorite programs of our beloved era of science fiction,I never get tired of these postings.I never did do the audio taping of episodes but a cousin used to.I also recall that the fellow that put out the fanzine "The Adama Journal" offered high quality recordings of every episode.

    ReplyDelete
  11. That's a really cool shot of the Cylon Imperious Leader and his glowing green eyes, something we never got a good look at during the actual series. Despite its flaws, this was the show I grew up with and still prefer to the cynical and charmless "reimagined" version.

    ReplyDelete