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"Buck Rogers in the 25th Century"
Theatrical Film (1979) and TV Series
(1979-81)
Articles
John Mantley interview, April 6,
1981
By Jerry Buck, AP Television Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) - John Mantley,
who has a reputation as a doctor of sick TV shows, has been attending to an anemic Buck
Rogers this year.
The patient has shown signs of
improvement, but the likelihood of a full recovery seems remote.
''What I'm putting on the air today is a
far cry from what I ought to be doing,' said Mantley. ''The holes in some scripts are
embarrassing, but we don't have time to correct them.''
Mantley, who previously produced Wild
Wild West, Gunsmoke and How the Wes Was Won, took over the NBC series
after it had limped along for two years.
''This is absolutely the most difficult
project I've ever done,'' he said. ''You've got to create a new world every week. You've
got a new wardrobe, new location and all kinds of effects. We have enormous wardrobe
problems, enormous set problems, enormous makeup problems, enormous budget problems.
''You spend so much time on the effects
you don't have time for the human stories. Without the actors' strike, which gave us time
to prepare, this show would have self-destructed in a few weeks.''
In the Thursday night series, Gil Gerard
stars as Buck Rogers, a present-day astronaut who is frozen while on a space mission and
wakes up in the 25th century. Erin Gray stars as Wilma Deering. The series is adapted from
the comic strip created in 1929 by Dick Calkins and Phil Nowlan.
Mantley said he agreed to take over the
show for several reasons. For one, he owed favors to people, not the least of whom was
Fred Silverman, president of NBC. ''Fred said it has potential, and maybe you can fix
it,'' he said. ''I owed a lot to Fred.''
Another reason, he said, ''I've always
loved science fiction. My first book, 'The 27th Day,' was science fiction and was made
into a movie. I wrote science fiction for the pulps, and I own the rights to Isaac
Asimov's I, Robot and The Rest of the Robots.
''And the third reason,'' Mantley said,
''is that the remuneration was extraordinary.''
He wouldn't mention a figure, but reports
in the industry indicate his salary is not merely extraordinary - it is astronomical. Few
television stars make as much. The reason he was able to command such a salary was that
Universal was anxious to recover its enormous investment in the show. If Mantley could
just keep Buck Rogers going a few more years, the syndication and merchandising
value of the series would increase greatly.
After looking at only a few shows,
Mantley said he knew he had to drastically revamp the show. ''For my taste, I thought the
shows were empty,'' he said, ''but I don't think I've done a hell of a lot better.
''The first thing I did was get them away
from Earth. I felt it as a restrictive atmosphere, and so did the network. I came up with
the concept of the Searcher, a spaceship looking for the 'lost tribes of Earth.' In every
great civilization there have been migrations, from the Puritans to the boat people. It
seemed to be to be logical that after the atomic war people would have left Earth.''
He also set out to give Buck Rogers more
dimension as a character. ''I wanted to stretch Gil Gerard as I did James Arness on Gunsmoke,
'' he said.
Some of the changes caused controversy.
Some viewers had complained that the voice of Twiki the robot was too cute. But even more
viewers demanded the return of Mel Blanc as the voice. ''So we brought Mel back and got
still more letters,'' Mantley said.
One characteristic of science fiction
fans is that they are not reluctant to take pen in hand to express a thought about a show.
''It seems astounding,'' said Mantley.
''A thousand years ago when I did Wild Wild West I never got letters telling me how
to do the show. Now we get some very intelligent letters that go into great detail. And
some are violently opposed to the changes. In 11 years of Gunsmoke I don't think I
got more than a handful of letters expressing anger over a show. But science fiction has
very, very devoted fans.''
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