How the Cancelled UFO Series 2 Became Space:1999

[Music] in september 1970 at pinewood studios in england production began on the final episode of jerry and sylvia anderson's first fully live action television series ufo when are you coming again tomorrow around the same time the series was also receiving its television premiere somewhere in an area of 50 000 square miles in northern canada first in canada on september 14th and then in the uk from the 16th but for the century 21 productions team the end of filming on the long sleep marked the end of the road not only for the series but for the company as a whole thunderbirds are go just a few years earlier the century 21 studio complex had been producing such critical and commercial successes as thunderbirds and captain scarlet and the mysterons science fiction adventure stories for the whole family that combined state-of-the-art super marionation puppetry with spectacular model effect sequences but following the cancellation of the secret service and the disbanding of the puppet department only the effects team remained and now even they were surplus to requirements it means shutdown what with the end of ufo and no further work on the immediate horizon the century 21 studios were finally closed and their buildings soon acquired by other companies income tax probably with their own century 21 contracts expiring but still ever hopeful of further work from lou grade and itc jerry and sylvia along with producer reg hill decided to form a new production company group 3 productions i like it i like it group 3 received their first television commission early in 1971. when grade approached them with an order for a 26 episode live-action detective series the protectors starring robert vaughn and nyree dawn porter the series began filming in june and a second season of 26 more episodes would see production run until early 1970s yet not only was ufo about to rise from the ashes it was also about to take on another form entirely [Music] during their association with lou grade and itc jerry and sylvia anderson's shows followed a regular pattern of most ran for only one season and then it was on to the next oh dear how tiresome despite incredible success in their country of origin and many other international markets the anderson shows were always produced with american audiences very much in mind with the main prize being a sale to a major american network right let's go only fireball xl5 sold to nbc in 1963 would ever achieve this success with the others still airing around the usa in syndication a process by which local stations affiliated with a particular major network would air programming outside of that network's prime time schedule i didn't mention that lieutenant because uh well it's the obvious explanation although profitable a series airing in syndication would only earn itc and century 21 productions a fraction of the money that a network sale could so it's understandable that many of their shows only ran for one season why continue making more episodes of a show that the american networks have already passed on when a new show could potentially be a smash hit that all the networks will want there's a logic to it somewhere john in the case of ufo however it was a different story well almost just exactly what is that supposed to mean sold to 136 local american stations in 1972 many of them cbs affiliates ufo did particularly well on both wcbs tv in new york and knxt in los angeles good that's what i like to hear the reason for this was not so much to do with the show itself but more its position in the schedule ufo aired at 7 pm on saturday evenings and was followed at 8 by the top rated american network show of the 1972-73 season the sitcom all in the family which pulled in an average of 30 million viewers every week many of those viewers would tune in early in order to catch ufo in syndication with the result being that the series was frequently the most watched show of its time slot by a substantial margin everything has to be their way by now jerry anderson himself was too busy with production on the protectors to keep a close eye on how well ufo was performing stateside and so was surprised to discover upon returning to london from protectors filming in salzburg that a series which had not been a part of his life for two years was now apparently something of a hit in a key market with its american rating showing no signs of dropping it was decided that a second season of ufo would be produced with the working title of ufo2 we've got ourselves a deal entering pre-production in late 1972 the proposed second season of ufo would see the action move from the early 1980s into the 1990s and to a vastly expanded shadow moon base four new fully automated moon bases over the next 10 years believing that the show's most successful episodes were those set in space the second season was to see the war with the aliens escalate to the extent that very few ufos were now able to get past moon base's formidable defenses at least they wouldn't try that again we started to build everything for the new show which included a very new and very much bigger moon base and improved uniforms and so forth and so on the once small and vulnerable outpost would now become a vast lunar city and the new shadow headquarters with many episodes focusing on the latest alien plot to destroy the base it's going to come i want to be ready anderson's ufo2 team began to form with art directors bob bell and keith wilson designing the interiors of the new moon base and brian johnson the exteriors with a third season of the protectors also looking very likely and tony barwick already committed to that show christopher penfold was hired to be the new script editor i'll pass it along to the script department ed bishop was also very excited at the chance to return to the role of commander stryker and no doubt several other members of the ufo cast were also under consideration for the new series here we go again but unfortunately in early 1973 the project was to grind to an unexpected halt the ratings started to drop in america the conclusion of all in the family's current run on cbs had coincided with the end of first run ufo episodes in syndication and while repeats of both shows continued in the same time slots their ratings obviously began to decline rather than investigate the source of this drop itc in new york began to lose confidence in the idea of a second season of ufo entirely and pulled the plug on the project stop it stop it stop it everything was going to be better we were poised for that and to not be able to realize it was a deep deep disappointment it'll be a long time to get over that by this time a substantial amount of money had been poured into preparing for the second season and anderson was determined that that money would not be wasted i went to silou and i said look we've done a lot of work and i reckon that i could twist this around and make it into another science fiction show and he said fine let's do it. however as had often been the case during production of ufo this new series was to be subject to certain conditions imposed by itc america the first of these was in response to the ufo episodes that had explored the personal cost that commander striker had had to pay in order to keep the shadow organization functioning a great hit with fans but apparently not so much with the executives oh no so we started work on the new show and then i got a call from abe mandel abe mandel who would continue to be a thorn in anderson's side for the next few years was particularly insistent that the format of the new series would make it absolutely impossible to shoot any scenes on earth in order to avoid as he described it people having tea in the midlands would you uh care for some more coffee and he said to me jerry i don't want any shows on earth i want you to do something to the show that will make it impossible for you to shoot a show on earth surprised by this reaction to episodes that they felt were among ufo's strongest the anderson's original proposed solution was to destroy the earth entirely it's that old bloody mindedness and when this was declared too grim for a family show we blew the moon out of orbit with everybody on it and i rang i even said it's okay and he said yeah fine much better jerry and sylvia then set to work writing a 30-minute pilot script named zero g for the new show the working title of which was menace from space but it is not ideal 0g told the story of the inhabitants of moon city manned by operatives of the organization wonder the world association of nations defending earth rights i've got a nasty feeling we're being watched with an alien spaceship constantly observing the base commander steve maddox is currently overseeing an unmanned space probe to be sent to investigate their planet and so afraid that this is the first step in humanity's attempted conquest the aliens would alter the moon's gravitation to send it spinning off into the unknown void of space can we make it back to earth many of the familiar elements of what would ultimately become the first episode of space 1999 are present in the script for zero g not steve maddox although the character names of steve maddox dr gordon mark miller and lieutenant caron did not survive to the series the lead roles of base commander chief medical officer science officer and head of the reconnaissance section were firmly established in the anderson script as was their primary mode of transportation the mtu or multiple transport unit i was summing through some nature magazines and i saw the head of this grasshopper and well because if you look at all aircraft all rockets they look basically like insects in one form or another and so it all happened from there really several sources over the years have indicated that the earliest versions of the script even retained familiar ufo elements including the shadow interceptors and moon mobiles sid and possibly even the same aliens but all were eventually dropped as the focus of the story moved from alien intervention to humanity's own short-sightedness [Music] with a basic premise and draft script completed many new titles were considered and rejected before finally in march 1973 the new series was first announced to the press as space 1999 space 1999 it's going to be a very good year the series was to be co-financed by rai the state broadcaster of italy who were at the same time co-financing another itc venture the mini-series moses the lawgiver starring bert lancaster unlike moses the nature of space 1999's story prohibited any filming in italy but the co-production deal with rai stipulated that italian actors must also be seen in guest roles over the course of the series there is a purpose and so two italian characters were created to join the regular cast head of reconnaissance captain alfonso katani and data analyst sandra sabatini however it had already been decided that the two lead characters would be american dr helena russell and yourself commander john kearney the casting of these roles would be crucial if the series was going to be sold to a major american network and in august 1973 jerry and sylvia anderson headed to los angeles where they met with their first choice for the role of commander koenig actor robert colp commander although sylvia anderson was in favor of culp her husband jerry and itc president abe mandel were alarmed by his demands to also write and direct episodes and negotiations were swiftly terminated their meeting with martin landau and barbara bain went much more smoothly with the two actors being very excited by the show's premise and possibilities come with us when the president of cbs robert wood agreed to buy the series if the pair were cast in the lead roles it looked like an anderson series might finally be sold to an american network for the first time since fireball xl5 over a decade ago what's going to establish i just felt it was going to be the next thing and i also felt that it was a great platform for saying things some of the space 1999's are very politically grounded in terms of some of the things that were going on in the world were reflected in that in a very subtle way at the time you must remain neutral i would love to remain neutral but my idea of neutrality is not being a sitting duck and being shot out by both sides you couldn't do that in the streets of san francisco now this is two years before star wars there was no science fiction verb virtually a star trek at that point had been a failure it was a couple of years later that the whole kind of phenomenon started with star trek in in america i guess we weren't sufficiently entertaining i just felt it was time that was the next thing so that kind of stuff you know and it just sort of coagulated jerry and sylvia anderson had come over to the states to see martin and i about doing it we didn't know any of them they arrived at our doorstep one day and it was august in 1973 and they presented the concept to us and they had a lot of sketches a lot of story outlines and a fantastic amount of enthusiasm and we started talking and the more we talked more excited we all got about it the whole concept of the show was appealing to us everything about it also recruited during this trip was george bellack a prolific television writer who would pen the first episode and with whom martin landau had previously worked on broadway another important meeting took place in california this time between the andersons and the world-renowned austrian fashion designer rudy gernreich which was easily arranged thanks to gunrush's friendship with barbara bain gurnrich's name added further prestige to the production and he would receive on-screen credit for the design of the costumes near the beginning of every episode aren't we doing well the choice of director for the first episode was once again of paramount importance for the americans and barbara bane suggested lee h katzen with whom she and her husband had worked previously on mission impossible having helmed many american television pilots katzen seemed a safe pair of hands to get the new series up and running back in england lou grade offered the as yet unnamed character of the professor to actor barry morse having recently spent much time filming abroad including lead roles in the itc action shows the zoo gang and the adventurer morse was keen to commit to a project shooting much closer to home although was startled when grade told him that there were no completed scripts he could take a look at the casting of landau and bane however enticed him to accept the project although he remained frustrated by the lack of attention to the show's characters throughout the course of its production i just hope it's interesting instead he devised a backstory of his own for the professor beginning with the premise that the young victor bergman was a refugee from austria during the second world war morse continued to flesh out the bare bones of the character's outline in his own mind throughout the course of production and the result would ultimately be one of the show's most popular and beloved characters meanwhile the show's regular models and sets were also being designed and constructed we assume that these people are in a controlled environment they wouldn't have a great deal of resources so the idea was to make it as simple as clean as clinical as possible and as easy to wear as it possibly would be if you were living in a city on the moon now no way would i have time or room to keep on building different sets every week so i spoke to the producer jerry anderson and we had the idea of making a modular system so it's like a big jigsaw puzzle or a logo set every week i could change all the sets very quickly in late august george bellac arrived at elstree studios and quickly formed a good working relationship with christopher penfold together they set to work fleshing out the anderson's initial concept and on september 3rd turned in a writer's guide for the series that explored the world of moon base alpha in more detail it was here that many more familiar elements of the series began to take shape including the various sections that the moonbase alpha staff worked in as indicated by their coloured uniform sleeves as well as their weapons communication devices and medical monitors the guide also included brief biographies of the main characters of commander john koenig dr helena russell and the still to be named professor some landmark with the format for the series now firmly established belack got to work on his script for the first episode now to be titled the void ahead by the time this was completed however the relationship between bellack and anderson had grown decidedly frosty with anderson expecting an absolute commitment to space 1999 that conflicted with bellack's other writing engagements well that's completely out of the question belak soon departed the series but enjoyed a close friendship with christopher penfold over the subsequent decades until bellack's death in 2002 things are far more serious than i suspect you've been told in october the first major disaster befell the production's base at emi mgm l street studios when mgm pulled out of their collaboration with emi and the studio faced potential closure you cannot stay here the situation was all too familiar to the andersons as the previous closure of the mgm boronwood studio had interrupted production on ufo for nine months until the series could find a new home at pinewood studios so what are we gonna do about it with the landaues due to arrive in england before the end of the month jerry and sylvia were extremely reluctant to risk shooting at elstree and instead made the drastic decision to relocate the entire production to pinewood before the new series could get underway over the course of a weekend the show's sets were dismantled and moved to pinewood in secret it's good to believe it the standing main mission set was established on stage l while stage m would be used for episode specific sets we must at least go on with the preparations this unorthodox and unpublicized solution to the problem resulted in space 1999 being blacklisted by the unions well i suppose that's an understandable reaction but it did allow the series to enter production on time and relatively unaffected by the problems at l street seems all right so far soon after another major setback occurred when cbs abruptly cancelled their order for space 1999 in favor of a new science fiction series of their own damn it having just enjoyed a massive rating success with the us television premiere of the 1968 film planet of the apes the networker decided to produce a spin-off television series and space 1999 being produced on the other side of the world was no longer of interest to them why how could they do it no other networks were willing to take the series either [Music] but by now it was too late to prevent space 1999 from entering production i refuse to believe we have no future despite these setbacks the script for the first episode was now entering its final form on november 5th the title changed from the void ahead to turning point turning point right although george berlack is still credited as the sole writer on the finished episode the shooting script had been almost entirely rewritten by christopher penfold although it still largely followed the basic outline of bellack's original story so far on november 5th the visual effects team under the command of brian johnson began shooting the episode's model shots and special effects sequences at braze studios in buckinghamshire only to run into another major problem what is it for the next six weeks every shot they filmed was rendered unusable by a fluctuating exposure this instrument's given me a lead the problem was eventually traced to a dragging break on a film magazine but only after hours of testing and experimentation and a loss of thousands of leap for mankind it's beginning to look like a stumble in the dark meanwhile other regular roles were being cast thanks to having recently worked with the andersons in the protectors two-parter wham prentice hancock was cast as main mission controller paul morrow originally devised as a russian named verconon medical section the japanese dr fujita became dr matthias after casting director michael barnes spotted anton phillips performing in a play at the king's head pub in islington obviously for computer specialist benjamin umar barnes selected an american actor and singer named lon saton who had most recently appeared in roger moore's first james bond film live and let die for the minor role of eagle pilot collins barnes cast an eager australian actor by the name of nick tate collins check commander however tate had his side set a little higher than just a couple of scenes and insisted on a meeting with the andersons and director katzen i don't think we should wait for them to make the next move his persistence finally paid off when the italian actor cast as chief eagle pilot alfonso katani had to depart the production due to a prior filming commitment in italy tate was then tested for the role playing a variety of nationalities before suggesting that his own natural australian accent was perfectly acceptable come on come on let's cut the talking and get going ever aware of the all-important american audience the andersons made the mistake of observing that an australian accent might sound like cockney to stateside viewers you gotta be joking after firmly setting them straight about that tate signed a contract to appear in the first six episodes of the series and alfonso katani became alan carter how are you talking the show's other italian character sandra sabatini was proving even harder to cast after two trips to rome in search of suitable actresses proved unsuccessful the solution was finally found back in london in the shape of borneo born actress xenia merton i will be waiting suzanne roquette was cast in the recurring role of german maine mission operative tanya alexander security while tony allen and quentin pierre made their first appearances as recurring security guards tony allen and pierce quinton additionally sylvia anderson selected a group of background artists who became familiar faces in main mission over the course of the series several of whom she had previously employed on ufo you're ready to go yeah we're ready to go the cast spent the last two weeks of november reporting for various costume fittings film tests and rehearsals at pinewood studios and on november 22nd the script was retitled one last time from turning point to breakaway just what we're looking for at long last live action filming for space 1999 began on monday december 3rd 1973 on m stage at pinewood studios to remember but if the cast and crew thought it would all be smooth sailing from here they were to be sorely disappointed as breakaway would go on to be one of the most troubled productions of any anderson series but that's another story now we're sitting on the biggest bomb man's ever made is this the end of the beginning what do you make of the tractor some saw a creative evolution a stage in its development perhaps the beginning is a birth while jerry anderson fans will always debate the merits of ufo versus space 1999 the story of how one became the other demonstrates how dependent all his television productions of that era were on achieving success in america and how an odd sequence of events brought one of them back to life before transforming it into something else entirely that's how space 1999 came about let's do this it's it's exciting we you know lived in london for several years and it was a good change creatively personally in every way we did our best to make the show as interesting and an artistic achievement but it wasn't kicked off that way more importantly though it serves as yet another example of the andersons and those around them overcoming adversity and aiming for the stars and in this case literally yes maybe there [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

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Published: Sat Sep 18 2021