Logan's Run TV Series (1977)

[Gemini1999]

I was wondering....

Have we discussed the Logan's Run TV series, or is the general consensus that it's just crap and we shouldn't bother?

The reason I'm asking is that I've been watching the series on a VHS tape to DVD transfer. The episodes were sporadically broadcast on TNT from 1989 to 1994. The reason I know that is from the commercials (that weren't edited out). It's interesting watching the commercials - it reminds me that TNT used to be quite varied in its programming. Everything ranging from classic silent films all the way up through 1970's programming.

The visual quality of the episodes ranges from 8.5 to 9.0 considering that they are tape transfers, it's not bad. At least everything is there from beginning to end. I literally haven't seen these episodes since the initial broadcast during the 1977-78 TV season.

Anyway, if people want to talk about it, I'm game...

Bryan

[Darth Marley]

I acquired the series run, but have not yet managed to sit though the whole thing.

The opening theme is annoying.

Much of the show was generic sci-fi scripts grafted onto a further weakening of the premises of the book. Not enough grit!

And yet, my principle memory of it from the time that it aired was that the local CBS affiliate air the damn thing past my bedtime. All for the controversy of television violence.

[Gemini1999]

Marley -

I must be in a minority when it comes to the TV theme, I've always liked it. As for the show itself...yes, it bears little resemblence to the book or the 1976 film. I always thought that there were some good opportunities there. Surprisingly, the list of writers for LR looks like a TOS Trek reunion.

D.C. Fontana was the story editor for the series and she also wrote 2 episodes. Harlan Ellison wrote one episode as did William F. Nolan, who wrote the original book in the 1960's. Shimon Wincelberg wrote 2 episodes - he previously wrote 2 episodes of TOS Trek and 7 epsiodes for the first season of Lost in Space. John Merydith Lucas had written 4 episodes for TOS Trek as well as the one episode for LR. You'd think with all that writing talent, that the stories would have been better, but I really think that most of all was that they didn't manage to capture even a fraction of the atmosphere that the 1976 film did.

I thought that the casting was quite good, even though the TV actors looked nothing like the film counterparts. Gregory Harrison was a newcomer in those days, but he's carved out a pretty busy and lucrative TV career over the past 30 years. Heather Menzies, who started out as a child actor (take a close look at the cast of The Sound of Music), and never really did have a stellar career before or after LR, was very attractive and a nice complement next to Harrison in the role of Jessica. She eventually married Robert Urich and became a stay at home mom raising a family.

The addition of REM to the LR cast was something that never agreed with me. REM was like a post-Trek Spock, although this android was definitely emotional enough, he usally came off like an android with the personality of Leonard McCoy at times. Donald Moffat, a versatile British actor has a resume of credits longer than your arm that starts back in 1956 and is current up through 2005. I always enjoyed Moffat's acting, but questioned the necessity of the character on a weekly basis.

Randy Powell, who played Francis, played the role well, but the character was pretty under utilized except for 1 or 2 epsiodes where Powell was on screen more than he was off. Powell was only in 10 out of the 13 episodes produced - the character disappears for the middle 3 episodes, but then reappears for the last 5 epsiodes.

The series did make use of footage from the 1976 film, but not always to the advantage of the show. It even used sets from Planet of the Apes that were still present on what was known as the "Fox Ranch" back in the 1970's.

One of the biggest drawbacks for me, both then and now, are in the way of visual effects. You'd think that with so many predecessors ranging all the way from Lost in Space, Trek and even Space:1999, that the special effects would have been better, but maybe MGM Television (who now produces the Stargate shows) just didn't have the budget or the right people back then.

When you look at the stories, I can see what they were shooting for, but they always seemed kind of watered down. I think that the writers might have wanted to do more, but given the landscape of SciFi TV in the late 70's, they just didn't have the backing for it. Star Wars had only just come out the year before while the show was in production, BSG came out the following year and ST:TMP the year after that. Maybe if the show came along a few years later, there might have been something different on our TV screens with "Logan's Run" plastered on it.

I've watched nearly all of them - like I said, this is the first time I've seen them since the 1970's, so it's almost like new to me. Because of the post-apocalyptic theme and setting, it feels like a marginally more grown-up version of Ark II.

A bit of a "blast from the past" for me, anyways.

Bryan

[Alternity Orange]

It's fine for what it is.

It's a standard sci-fi series of the time, and the decades to come, a handful of characters come together and travel about on a quest to find something or someplace but never really get anywhere due to the episodic nature.

It's not "Logan's Run" per se but it's fine for what it is. There are some gems in there written by D.C Fontana and Batman scribe Denny O'Neil.

The series has been on iTunes for awhile now (supposedly the true barometer of a series' success) so I imagine an official DVD release isn't too far off.