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Some history
A new producer
-- New characters (Hawk / others)
-- What went
wrong -- Read more
-- Sources
"Hawk" was introduced as a new character in the second season of Buck
Rogers
in
the 25th Century. This season was different from the
first
in almost all respects, except for the presence of Gil Gerard as Buck
Rogers
and Erin Gray as Wilma Deering.
A new
producer
Whereas the first season of Buck Rogers was geared towards action and
humor, filmed in a bright comic book style, the second season was
oriented towards a more adult audience, emphasizing the characters
rather than the special effects. To achieve this, a new producer was
hired: John Mantley, well known from western series such as Gunsmoke
and How the West Was Won. Mantley found the atmosphere of New Chicago
(the main location for the first season) restricting, and did not want
the characters to be constantly involved in an intergalactic war.
Therefore he decided to move the show out in space, placing Buck and
Wilma as crew members on the new spaceship Searcher.
Erin Gray and Gil Gerard were pleased with most of the changes that
were brought to the show. Erin Gray in 1980: "We're going to see a new
Buck,
and I'm delighted. I'm tired of just shoot-'em-ups - I don't want
that." 1 Gil Gerard, same year: "John's ideas
were exactly
what I'd been fighting for all year long. We both wanted to free Buck
from
the Directorate, not have Earth at stake all the time and get into
stories
that related to people!" 2 However, Gil had his
doubts about
going
off into space. He recalls: "I said to John Mantley at the time,
'You're
just ripping off Star Trek here! I don't understand it. Hawk is Spock,
and
so on. Can't we do something original? This is crazy!' He basically
told
me to shove it." 3
Thom
Christopher (Hawk) was
very enthusiastic about the approach taken by John Mantley. In 1981:
"The whole humanity aspect in the new show is great. All the scripts
involve relationships with people." 4 Looking
back after 20 years, he is still of the same opinion: "Almost all of
the
scripts had a wonderful kind of depth to them. John wanted to convey
messages
about innocence, intolerance and understanding. That's a thematic thing
that
runs all the way through the second season; a gentleness in the shows,
whether it involves Hawk or not. It was very different from the
fun-filled, lighter fare of the previous season." 5
New characters
The second season was set on board of the spaceship Searcher, exploring
space on a mission to find the lost tribes of Earth. Sadly, no
explanation was given of the sudden transfer of Buck Rogers and Wilma
Deering from Earth to Searcher. (According to Gil Gerard, John Mantley
did want to do a story that would bridge the two seasons, but the
network refused to pay for it.2) Besides the familiar faces of Buck, Wilma and Twiki,
several
new
characters were introduced in the new season. These included Hawk (Thom
Christopher), Dr Goodfellow (Wilfrid Hyde-White) and Admiral Asimov
(Jay Garner).
Hawk
-- The main new character was of course Hawk, who joined the Searcher
crew in the first episode. Thom Christopher explains where the original
idea for his character came from: "One day, it seems, Mantley's son
asked him if he had ever read anything about the bird people of Easter
Island -- which was brought out by Thor Heyerdahl in the book Aku-Aku.
John started doing some research and that's where he came up with the
concept of, basically an alien being who is the last of his people and
who, like Buck, is out of sync with his time -- and in this case is a
birdman." 6
When the character of Hawk was first conceived, he was supposed to have
been covered with feathers and to have talons for feet. Thom
Christopher was
very happy that these more bizarre aspects of the costume were later
abandoned.
"I mean I can't go walking around with claws on my hands and feet!" 6
Also, Hawk originally had a different chest jewel and a cape, which was
later removed (see picture). Hawk's headpiece was made of real chicken
feathers. As these kept molting, a new cap had to be made for each
episode, which is why the pattern did not remain consistent.
Others -- Season
two also introduced
the somewhat grumpy Admiral Asimov (Jay Garner), who was supposed to be
a 25th Century descendant of the original inventor of the Three Laws of
Robotics. However, it was the overly enthusiastic old scientist Dr
Goodfellow (Wilfrid Hyde-White) who was actually modeled after Isaac
Asimov, a good friend
of John Mantley's. Other new faces in the second season were those of
Lt.
Devlin (Paul Carr) and Lt. Carson (Dennis Haysbert). And then of course
there
was the snobbish and extremely annoying robot Crichton (voice by Jeff
David),
one of Dr Goodfellow's inventions. Twiki remained on the show, but
received
a new voice (Bob Elyea), which after audience protests was changed back
to
the original voice by Mel Blanc. The character of Wilma Deering also
underwent
some changes (for the worse): from commander of the Earth Forces in
season
one, her job was reduced to not much more than a stewardess in season
two.
What went wrong
Although the second season had been intended to increase the Buck
Rogers audience, its best ratings never even beat the previous season's
worst.
The existing audience, which had appreciated the style of the first
season,
did not like the changes and started watching other shows. This loss
was
not compensated as the show failed to win a new audience, due to poor
publicity
in combination with much preempting. It also did not help that the
second
season was delayed for about six months by a lengthy actor's strike.
Another
reason for the show's final failure is given by Thom Christopher: "I
think
that the show would have worked as an adult show -- purely as an adult
show
-- had they gone into it that way. But it just jumped around a little
bit
too much and it wasn't consistent, after the first two episodes -- and
one
very good one that I liked: Testimony of a Traitor. (...) If they had
kept
that and the Time of the Hawk level, I think we would've really made a
lot
of noise." 6
Read
more
Sources
- Starlog #39, October 1980
- Starlog #40, November 1980
- Starlog #232, November 1996
- Starlog #45, April 1981 (read it on The Buck Rogers Fansite)
- Starlog #283, February 2001
- Radio
interview with
Dave Hinman on WMT-AM, 18 March
1982 (transcribed by Joni Gillispie, copyright © 1982 by the
Thom
Christopher Fan Club)
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