As a 9 year old MASSIVE fan of the OG series who cried when it was cancelled and danced with joy when Galactica 1980 was announced, I watched the first 3 episodes with less and less excitement each week, then 2 of the scout ones before stopping in disgust. Then for some reason tuned in for Starbuck's return and was excited all over again.....and that was all she wrote. No more. I was cawkteased before ever being mature enough to realize it. Thanks for bringing back the pain, Stam Fine!
You have to be a Australian with that name. My dog was named Starbuck before the series even started and he had a long life My cousin gave him to us in 78 when I was 10 years old and he died 1991 after my little brother died in Australia and my parents bought him back home to New Zealand.
@@peterteohaere4986 you were fortunate that your dog lived as long as he did. Sadly they live such short lives, especially the large breeds, so you need to make every moment count. I'm sorry to hear about your brother's passing as well. Hopefully your dog was a comfort to you during that time.
I saw this ‘back in the day’ (I was about 10) and had all but forgotten it. I remember hating the kids, loving the bikes (of course - I was 10), and enjoying the last episode. Thanks for bringing back memories.
I was a little older, 12 at the time. I'd watched the original from the beginning (I've never forgiven Jimmy Carter for interrupting the premier for the Camp David Accord signing). The bikes and time travel was ok, but stopped watching once the kids came along.
I was 11 years old when this show was on TV. I watched the hell out of it and loved every minute. I have almost no memories of the actual episodes. This was a walk down memory lane.
I was 14 and all I remembered was scattered bits about the regular series but I keenly remembered the whole episode that was about Starbuck from the original. Spoilers!!! In a battle Starbuck suffers some ship damage and has to land on a desolate planet. The Cylon he was fighting also crashes on the planet. So basically it’s a TV version of the film “Enemy Mine.” Or that movie was a film of this show which was made 5 years earlier. Starbuck goes to salvage what he can from the Raider and he cobbles together one Cylon out of the three. They form a friendship. Then a pretty human woman shows up. I think she was pregnant. Starbuck then takes the remains of his Viper and the Raider and makes an escape ship. As more Cylons are arriving he puts the woman and the baby in the pod and launches it. It is programmed to go to the fleet. The friendly Cylon goes to stop his friends and Starbuck is left on the planet alone. Oh and that woman was from that Ship Of Lights, remember them? She was there to test Starbuck and he passes. The baby finds his way back to the fleet and grows into Doctor Zee the young genius that guides Adama. That is what I remember of the show, a bunch of meaningless things with flying motorcycles and one good episode with Dirk Benedict.
I love the way you edit in a clip where the main hero is pointing a gun at a defenceless woman and then go on to say this was targeted at young kids. I was 6 years old in 1980 and you're 100% correct 😊
My strongest memory of Battlestar was of Starbuck being stranded on a planet with a Cylon. Was honestly mentally shocked that Starbuck basically died on a planet away from all his friends and never got to fly again.
They weren’t dull, they were just copies of the real guys. As a kid then I had so many questions. If Bo and Luke had to “go to the NASCAR circuit.” Where did their replacements come from? Did Bo and Luke call them up to ask them to cover for them? Why did they leave them The General Lee? I thought that was Bo’s car? When Bo and Luke came back where did they go? And many more.
I guess I was just the right age when G80 hit the UK, because I really loved it. Even now, as an adult who can spot all of its faults, I still get a good nostalgic vibe from it. Dillon's my favourite, and check out Robyn "Jamie" Douglass' awesome spoken word CD! Glen Larson had hoped to eventually bring back Apollo & Starbuck as "Beings of Light", and in Richard Hatch's continuations of BSG'78, which completely ignored G80, Boxey *still* became Troy nevertheless. "Launch When Ready." 🚀🚀🚀
The original premise for Galactica 1980 was this: Galactica discovers earth five years after the end of the original show. BALTAR steals a time travel viper and heads back in time. Starbuck and Apollo head down to the surface and meet Jamie, get word of Baltar’s escape, and head back in time to stop him, but he gets away. Baltar would keep changing things in history, and Starbuck, Apollo, and Jamie would try fix it. Since they couldn’t communicate through time, Starbuck would be running messages back and forth between them and the fleet, while Apollo and Jamie would try to fix whatever. Baltar would not have been in every episode, but the show was essentially a time travel one, trying to set right what went wrong using Universal’s extensive library of period pictures and backlots to fake the past. If this sounds familiar, it should: since it didn’t get used in G-80, Donald P. Bellisario decided to strip down the premise, put it on a more intimate scale, and re-use it for Quantum Leap. Apollo became Sam, and gambling horndog Starbuck became Admiral Al.
@ well everybody who liked quantum Leap obviously thought it was a cool premise. :-) Nice call back with Paul Harvey. I have not heard that name in forever. Kind of miss him.
The idea of a SF time travel TV series that utilizes extensive library of footage from a studio's period pictures also sounds a bit like Irwin Allen's "The Time Tunnel" (1966-1967). Another amusing trivia bit about "The Time Tunnel" -- the person who composed the theme music.
@ I agree. There is a fundamental fault in the premise: Baltar/xavier’s idea of speeding up earths progress so that it can defend itself against the cylons Makes absolutely perfect sense. If it can be done in a nonviolent fashion (you know, without cozying up to the Nazis, for instance) Then it is an ideal solution. And we are never told why the colonial never even entertain this notion.
Even when it's about a show I'd rather not acknowledge existing, I'll often still watch a Stam Fine review purely learn more of Aunty Beryl's exploits - that woman has lived quite a life!
I never knew that the episode of Battlestar Galactica (2004) where Starbuck crash lands and repairs a Cylon Raider to get home was a loose throwback to Galactica 1980! That's crazy but also kind of cool.
I'm in the UK but I remember going on holiday to Los Angeles in 1981. While there I remember watching that episode with Starbuck and the Cylon stranded together. I also remember watching Buck Rogers with the cameo of Buster Crabb.
In that episode Buster Crabbe's character is called Brigadier Gordon -- in reference his role as Flash Gordon (in the 1930s and 1940). Since he'd also played the role of Buck Rogers in 1939 -- that episode also made for an interesting Buck Rogers meets Buck Rogers story. The ending has a great line where Crabbe's character says "I've been doing this sort of thing since before you were born, Captain" -- which is absolutely true (Gil Gerard was born in 1943).
I saw it in a cinema in Aus, I guess around age 11. Them finding Earth was a big deal, but I remember feeling super ripped-off that the attack on earth, that was in all the ads, was just an imagined scenario. I LOLd hard at the dimple joke.
Battlestar 1980 was one of those things I remember seeing as a little kid and feeling like it was a bit of a letdown after being so into the first season.. .but it was only upon rewatching (the barely watchable episodes at least) as an adult that I realised just how much of a letdown it was. It boggles the mind how a show with this premise could be made into such a mess, but given all the network meddling, budget constraints and weird content requirements they had to deal with as you explained in this video, it makes much more sense!
I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU SAY, GALACTICA: 1980 WAS AWESOME!!! I AND MY FRIENDS AT SCHOOL ALL LOVED IT! We were all really bummed when it was cancelled. But at least it was made!
Like Stam, I found the 2 parter Halloween and Starbuck ep the best of the show. Why do TV execs always seem to think to entertain kids you have to put kids in your show? Even I found the kids annoying back when it aired.
But... but! The waffles look like the floor of the Galactica! 😂 Ugh... I do like the Halloween episode setting up the idea of the human cylons, but the execution was- yeah, it was bad. The finale has its share of problems, but somehow feels stronger than a number of original BSG episodes!
Battlestar galactica was syndicated as part of Saturday morning cartoon programming and 1980 was a large part of that, as I was a kid and they made it kid friendly probably why I still have fond memories of it
Thanks for the laughs, I really needed it over here in the States. As to who is to blame for what ultimately happened to BSG, the blame is squarely on the network. Larsen's idea for a series of made-for-tv movies would have fit BSG better (same goes for the Hulk and Buck Rogers shows). It wouldn't have been in regular ratings competition with the other networks; and the two part episodes that were supposed to be those made-for-tv movies are the superior ones (along with Hand of God, which I wish was a two-parter).
Other than three, very distinct, memories I'd totally forgotten this show. I loved the Halloween episode as a kid, and the Starbuck episode was amazing. But, and this *is* a hill I'll die on, those motorcycles were ah-may-zing - I _desperatly_ wanted one of those when I was a kid and, in many ways, still want one today!
My intro to Galactica 1980 was also the Conquest of the Earth movie, seeing it at the Drive-in here in Australia around 1981..the inclusion of scenes from the original series and my desperation to see any new Galactica made the series appear much more impressive than it actually was. It was only after it was fully shown on our local TV station a year or so later that the reality set in..
This is a great example of a monkeys paw… You want more Battlestar Galactica, all right well here’s a scout troop… At least the Starbucks episode is satisfying and gives good closure
There was also a show in the 70s which was like Dragnet in style, called "Project UFO", where they reenacted claimed UFO sightings and subsequent "square" USAF officers investigating them. It was the first drama that was ever based on UFO sightings.
In the very first episode of the series, Troy says he wants to find out what happened to his father. “The Return of Starbuck” was originally written as “The Return of Apollo.” At that point in his career, Richard Hatch was trying to distance himself from Galactica so as to be taken more seriously as an actor. He wanted nothing to do with the episode, which was intended to resolve the mystery (barely) set up in the first episode. Hatch didn’t want to do it, they called Benedict and he said, “hell yeah!” So they adapted the script by simply replacing “apollo” with “starbuck” and made no other changes. Which makes sense of that *really* impassioned and kind of moving speech Adama gives when Boomer tells him thqt Starbuck is lost. Sure, Adama would be upset, but clearly not as upset as if he’d lost Apollo, certainly not upset enough to give a big soliloquy about how w love you, Starbuck. The mysterious lady in the episode was obviously one of the “ship of lights” folk, and her “judging this man as good” would have paid off later in the series when Starbuck (now one of the Ship of Lights folk himself) would show up from time to time as a recurring character. Of course this, too, had been intended for Apollo, but the concept got swung over to Starbuck.
I think it gave Starbuck a better character arc than it would Apollo though. The actions taken in the episode would have been 100% in character for Apollo, zero surprises. But for Statbuck it demonstrated that he'd grown past the inveterate gambler and womanizer stage of his life. Looking at it that way, Starbuck's sacrifice is a more meaningful one, and more worthy of being judged as good in the first place. I think that's why the episode still resonates so well with fans of the OG series.
@ oh I think it absolutely works better with Starbuck. He is a much more engaging character and we’ve seen him get shot down a lot more than we’ve seen. Apollo get shot down, so this provides a nice contrast to the original show because this time he knows there is no rescue coming. (they never explained the context of that big battle, but I remember all my eighth grade friends, and I concluding that it must have been the final battle with the Cylons before the fleet made its escape, because in the very first episode, Troy or Dylan comment that the combat alarm hasn’t gone off in at least 20 years. So clearly they got away clean and the cylons have no idea where they are) Starbuck, Even early on in the original show, would gladly have gone out of his way, or even risked his life to help a pregnant woman. He was a rake, but he was never ever portrayed as a bad guy. We never even see him cheat at cards. :) Also, meaning, absolutely no insult to Richard Hatch, I just honestly feel like at that. In time, Dirk Benedict was a better actor. I mean they’re both perfectly fine, but Dirk Haddaway of bringing something to the dialogue that wasn’t actually written on the page, if that makes sense. So the story is much more compelling with him than I would have been with Apollo. (and I can only presume given the emotionality of Adama farewell speech that Apollo must already have been dead by this point)
@ you know, I’ve watched the original Battlestar Galactica many many many times, and if you watch last planet of the gods, the Adamas are having dinner in Adama‘s quarters, along with Serena and Starbuck and boxy. And of course that’s when Serena and Apollo announced they’re getting married, but at some point re-watching that episode for the hundredth time I realized that I was probably trying to marry Starbuck into the family. Starbucks is dating his daughter. The implication is that it was pretty serious prior to the fall of the colonies. He is getting invited to very personal family dinners. Starbucks is an orphan who has no family of his own. So yeah, I have no doubt whatsoever that Adama views Starbucks as family, or the next best thing to family. Which then leads to a whole lot of fans speculation about whether or not the command of Battlestars is dynastic . I mean Kane had Sheba on his ship…
@@mahatmarandy5977 that's an very interesting question about command of Battlestars, and one which I never thought about until you mentioned it. Not to mention that Adama was also a member of the Quorum of Twelve and the political leader of Caprica, even before the fall of the Colonies. That's a lot of power to be vested in a single individual, it's a good thing that Adama had the morals to back it up, unlike Baltar.
I watched the original series as a kid when it aired. I'd heard about BSG '80 but never watched it. I did not get back into BSG until the 2004 series. I absolutely love that version. 🙂
I remember watching this on the ITV network (Tyne Tees region) in the UK when I was around 10. I'm sure it was on a Saturday early evening, a similar time slot to The A-Team, Street Hawk etc. The actor in the clown costume at 24:59 also played the voice of KITT in Knight Rider. I was able to re-watch the series recently when it was repeated on one of the Freeview TV channels, and was surprised how many of the storylines I remembered.
Definitely a series I only remember from the one good episode. Only just clicked that the second Xavier was played by Jeremy Brett of Sherlock Holmes fame!
Barry van Dyke WASNT the problem with this mess- it was those Galactica children Boy Scout troop with the super powers watching birds, bees and evolution in painful slow motion that made this show a proper mess!!!! Y’all point to 4th season Airwolf but Diagnosis Murder wasn’t bad
Loved the shows. Had waited and waited for them to finally find earth, so getting another series where they reach it I was grateful for. It was not as good but I still liked it. The watches and flying bikes were great. As a Kid I was always looking for a watch that was wide and went on your wrist like a mini-computer. Hated Dr Z character he creeped me out and reminded me of a young Jimmy Savile. The Starbuck episode reminded me of the film Enemy Mine film.
I remember we had all the toys and always ready to watch BSG, then it got cancelled and we were hugely disappointed. They then announce Galactica returning and we were so stoked! After it aired we felt that sinking feeling, that what we loved and lost was truly gone.
OMG I saw this on TV! I agree it wasn't as good as Battlestar Galactica, but I still enjoyed it. It created a "what if" of the fleet finally finding Earth.
I think it was at Universal Studios where they had an auditorium with a blue-screen set up with props of the two "viper cycles". A host would explain how the blue-screen process worked on the show and invite two members of the audience to get on the cycle props while aerial footage was projected behind them. The volunteers would do goofy stuff while everybody laughed. Seeing the actors doing it on the show makes the effect feel even cheesier after seeing how they did it for real. Funny thing is, at that time I was a Boy Scout so I had that very same uniform.
I remember seeing the ads for it when I was a kid. I got excited for it but it was never aired in Canada. Thank bloody god for that. Wait, was that Jeremy Brett?? Hilarious.
Omg for years i had remembered a episode of a show with kids from space going to earth but being able to jump high and you know....i swore it was a episode of buck rogers But could never find the episode and you have solved the mystery i remember watching this show now even though forgot about it or its name but remember the 2 main guy characters. Watched the repeats of it here on channel 4 in the UK i was born in 82 so may have been late 80s early 90s
One of the problems was it was put in the Sunday 7pm timeslot. At the time, there was an FCC rule that the networks had to schedule news (e.g. 60 Minutes) or educational content. That was the point of the kids and the time travel stuff. If the network didn't do that, the time slot had to be returned to the local affiliate for local content.
My favorite TV show as a kid was Battlestar Galactica. I was so happy that they brought the show back in 1980, than I saw it. Even at the age of 9, I knew it was stupid and highly disappointing. I hated that it was set in 1980 LA, and I grew up in LA. I was done after about 3 episodes.
I was nine and only enjoyed two episodes: the final episode and the one with Wolfman Jack. Actually in the earlier episode all I liked was Wolfman Jack.
I feel like "television reporter" was a standard TV character in the 70's/80's. No matter how sci-fi the plot/show is, there is always some TV reporter as a main character.
I love “Galactica 1980” - Yes, there, I said it. Call me names, insult me, it doesn’t matter. I loved it when I was nine years old and I still love it (with some caveats). The Super Scouts blindsided me even when I was nine - because it was so out of nowhere. I wasn’t against child characters (I was a kid myself). But at the time, I didn’t fully understand the concept of humans growing up in higher gravity environments than Earth - although, in hindsight, the concept of Earth being a lower gravity environment resulting in the appearance of superior strength and ability to leap tall buildings in a single bound, isn’t wholly implausible. However, what annoyed me even as a kid was that the show didn’t give the slightest hint that Dillon and Troy had these abilities, prior to the Scouts introduction. (Later, they did). Had that been previously established, it might have been more palatable to audiences. That said, people can whine and moan, but I don’t care what anyone says - those flying motorcycles were badass! And the tongue-in-cheek adventures of Dillon, Troy, and Jamie in modern day Los Angeles were a hell of a lot of fun. Do I own the DVDs? Yes, I do. Do I rewatch them often? Yes. Yes, I do. 😊
My memory of Barry Van Dyke involves feathered hair. Come to think of it, this is also my memory of Vince Van Patten. The late 70s-early 80s were rife with Actor Offspring with Feathered Hair.
Òn the Grudge-Match site - people voted on scenarios like, in this case, Voyager vs. Galactica struggling to get home - my explanation of what happens when they clash showed Boxey saving Voyager after bunches of satirical jokes and being kissed by Naomi, thereby being so embarrassed that he'll have cooties forever (as many boys that age would be) that, in the agreement where they do go through the wormhole but must go back to 1980, Boxey changes his name. I won a Bronze Grudgie. Had I realized they had changed the timeline to 30 years later, a very witty idea would have disappeared, as it could be argued to be Boxey's brother. But your video has just as many great lines. Thanks for bringing closure to a show I'd forgotten about except for knowing about it and seeing a few minutes of it. And yeah kind of being decent closure for the series considering that last episode sounds like a good one.
My thoughts precisely. Imagine the mere thought of the rag-tag survivors of the Twelve Colonies guided to their eventual destiny under the influence of Commander Adama's beard, making him totally susceptible to the whims of the intergalactic equivalent of the Milky Bar Kid.
I remember seeing the cobbled together film version of this in the UK on VHS. I enjoyed it, but when it was shown as the series, we stopped watching when the scouts storyline started as it was boring. It was only years later as an adult that I watched the Starbuck episode, which was actually worth seeing.
I forgot Jeremy Brett took over as Xavier. For a minute, I thought that was Jonathan Fridd, of Dark Shadows. Lynch was the go-to baddie, from the late 70s up through the late 80s, on tv and in low budget films (from the Cannon Group). The novel tie-in series actually adapted the three-part pilot, but only that. It is the 5th novel in the series, after the original novel, adapting the Saga of a Star World script (from an early stage, with some differences in the Cylons) and Cylon Death Machine (Gun on Ice Planet Zero). They were followed by The Tombs of Kobol and The Young Warriors, before Galactica Discovers Earth, adapting the Galactica 1980 pilot. The series then goes back to the original, with The Living Legend and stays there through book #12. The last two, Apollo's War and Surrender the Galactica, were original stories. Only the pilot and The Return of Starbuck got released on home video, aside from the home video release of Conquest of Earth, the patchwork film of the pilot and the Cylon's landing on Earth. That is, until the dvd set.
Despite not being willing to sit all the way through a single episode and giving up on it quickly, it was still worth being made purely on the quality of the Starbuck episode which I thankfully lucked out and caught when it aired. I do think tying the series to BG hurt far more than it helped; had it been tooled as an original series with just hints and homages to the first series I think it'd have at least gotten slammed less over the years. I mean, look at Far Out Space Nuts and Electra Woman & Dyna-Girl; those aren't exactly Star Wars or even Star Trek TOS but we sure loved them and they're given miles of slack nowadays (when recalled). Which now makes me wish this had been reimagined as the third part of the Jason of Star Command/Space Academy trilogy.
I read somewhere that Starbuck was brought into the series to revitalize it, and in future episodes would have been brought back using that Temple of light thing. But it was too late, of course. As UFOs get mentioned a lot, perhaps a look at "Project UFO" would be good?
Correction: There's an incorrect caption for Kent McCord. He played Captain Troy. Phew! That's a load off my mind!
HOW HAVE YOU NOT DONE "TV 101" EVERY EP IS ON UA-cam, NOBODY HAS DONE A VIDEO!! This one has been done, As have many you have done.
ua-cam.com/video/5PxB4RbEHjI/v-deo.html
And yet you didn't correct the fact that you referred to Troy McLure as Barry Van Dyke, must try harder!
*off my mind. And, I couldn't get through the video. 10 minutes of information spread over 26.
@@denverleatherboy Who gives a fuck !
As a 9 year old MASSIVE fan of the OG series who cried when it was cancelled and danced with joy when Galactica 1980 was announced, I watched the first 3 episodes with less and less excitement each week, then 2 of the scout ones before stopping in disgust. Then for some reason tuned in for Starbuck's return and was excited all over again.....and that was all she wrote. No more. I was cawkteased before ever being mature enough to realize it. Thanks for bringing back the pain, Stam Fine!
You and me both what a letdown the future is /was.
Starbucks return was kind of like the last season of Picard not great but probably as good as it’s gonna get.
The Return of Starbuck was a great episode. One of the best of the two seasons.
Yes, it was very emotional.
You have to be a Australian with that name. My dog was named Starbuck before the series even started and he had a long life My cousin gave him to us in 78 when I was 10 years old and he died 1991 after my little brother died in Australia and my parents bought him back home to New Zealand.
@@peterteohaere4986 you were fortunate that your dog lived as long as he did. Sadly they live such short lives, especially the large breeds, so you need to make every moment count. I'm sorry to hear about your brother's passing as well. Hopefully your dog was a comfort to you during that time.
@OptimusWombat he was and the original battlestar galactic was Jane Seymour was 🔥 when she was young .It was way better than Buck Rogers.
Thank you for re-opening the healed scar. I was a kid when this was on. it was terrible as a 7-8 year old child, then too.
I feel your pain brother, I feel it.
Yeah, the original was great......then there was this nonsense....
Except for that one episode with Starbuck?! That one was superb!
@ One good episode does not make a good series.
I saw this ‘back in the day’ (I was about 10) and had all but forgotten it.
I remember hating the kids, loving the bikes (of course - I was 10), and enjoying the last episode.
Thanks for bringing back memories.
I was a little older, 12 at the time. I'd watched the original from the beginning (I've never forgiven Jimmy Carter for interrupting the premier for the Camp David Accord signing). The bikes and time travel was ok, but stopped watching once the kids came along.
I was 11 years old when this show was on TV. I watched the hell out of it and loved every minute. I have almost no memories of the actual episodes. This was a walk down memory lane.
I was 14 and all I remembered was scattered bits about the regular series but I keenly remembered the whole episode that was about Starbuck from the original.
Spoilers!!!
In a battle Starbuck suffers some ship damage and has to land on a desolate planet. The Cylon he was fighting also crashes on the planet. So basically it’s a TV version of the film “Enemy Mine.” Or that movie was a film of this show which was made 5 years earlier.
Starbuck goes to salvage what he can from the Raider and he cobbles together one Cylon out of the three. They form a friendship.
Then a pretty human woman shows up. I think she was pregnant. Starbuck then takes the remains of his Viper and the Raider and makes an escape ship.
As more Cylons are arriving he puts the woman and the baby in the pod and launches it. It is programmed to go to the fleet.
The friendly Cylon goes to stop his friends and Starbuck is left on the planet alone.
Oh and that woman was from that Ship Of Lights, remember them? She was there to test Starbuck and he passes. The baby finds his way back to the fleet and grows into Doctor Zee the young genius that guides Adama.
That is what I remember of the show, a bunch of meaningless things with flying motorcycles and one good episode with Dirk Benedict.
same here
I love the way you edit in a clip where the main hero is pointing a gun at a defenceless woman and then go on to say this was targeted at young kids. I was 6 years old in 1980 and you're 100% correct 😊
I was six years old myself at the time.
The Starbuck episode was, indeed, the only gem of the entire 1980 series.
I loved this show. I dont care how bad it was, it was awesome.
My strongest memory of Battlestar was of Starbuck being stranded on a planet with a Cylon. Was honestly mentally shocked that Starbuck basically died on a planet away from all his friends and never got to fly again.
Wait... he hid fly away in the end of that episode, if I remember corectly
@paledawn363 nope. The craft only had space for his lady friend. Turns out it was a test of his worthiness to become a celestial type being.
So basically, The Coy and Vance Duke of BSG 😂.
Awesome vid as always! Nailed it again!
LOL I understood that reference.
....that when the og Dukes went on strike ...er racing circuit, and the cousins stepped in?
But they were so dull, Meanwhile Adama is afraid of seeing his own ALPO commercials. All Said Robyn Douglass was very hot
They weren’t dull, they were just copies of the real guys.
As a kid then I had so many questions. If Bo and Luke had to “go to the NASCAR circuit.” Where did their replacements come from?
Did Bo and Luke call them up to ask them to cover for them?
Why did they leave them The General Lee? I thought that was Bo’s car?
When Bo and Luke came back where did they go? And many more.
I wanted one of those motorbikes as a kid
I guess I was just the right age when G80 hit the UK, because I really loved it. Even now, as an adult who can spot all of its faults, I still get a good nostalgic vibe from it.
Dillon's my favourite, and check out Robyn "Jamie" Douglass' awesome spoken word CD!
Glen Larson had hoped to eventually bring back Apollo & Starbuck as "Beings of Light", and in Richard Hatch's continuations of BSG'78, which completely ignored G80, Boxey *still* became Troy nevertheless.
"Launch When Ready." 🚀🚀🚀
I was so sad to watch this when it came out, but happy to see it again!
The original premise for Galactica 1980 was this:
Galactica discovers earth five years after the end of the original show. BALTAR steals a time travel viper and heads back in time. Starbuck and Apollo head down to the surface and meet Jamie, get word of Baltar’s escape, and head back in time to stop him, but he gets away.
Baltar would keep changing things in history, and Starbuck, Apollo, and Jamie would try fix it. Since they couldn’t communicate through time, Starbuck would be running messages back and forth between them and the fleet, while Apollo and Jamie would try to fix whatever.
Baltar would not have been in every episode, but the show was essentially a time travel one, trying to set right what went wrong using Universal’s extensive library of period pictures and backlots to fake the past.
If this sounds familiar, it should: since it didn’t get used in G-80, Donald P. Bellisario decided to strip down the premise, put it on a more intimate scale, and re-use it for Quantum Leap. Apollo became Sam, and gambling horndog Starbuck became Admiral Al.
Really?!?! Sounds like that should be one of Paul Harvey's Rest of the Stories. That sounds like a cool premise.
@ well everybody who liked quantum Leap obviously thought it was a cool premise. :-) Nice call back with Paul Harvey. I have not heard that name in forever. Kind of miss him.
The idea of a SF time travel TV series that utilizes extensive library of footage from a studio's period pictures also sounds a bit like Irwin Allen's "The Time Tunnel" (1966-1967).
Another amusing trivia bit about "The Time Tunnel" -- the person who composed the theme music.
That would have been so much better than what we got. Still cheese, but better cheese.
@ I agree. There is a fundamental fault in the premise: Baltar/xavier’s idea of speeding up earths progress so that it can defend itself against the cylons Makes absolutely perfect sense. If it can be done in a nonviolent fashion (you know, without cozying up to the Nazis, for instance) Then it is an ideal solution. And we are never told why the colonial never even entertain this notion.
Loved it. Those flying motorbikes left a impression.
Even when it's about a show I'd rather not acknowledge existing, I'll often still watch a Stam Fine review purely learn more of Aunty Beryl's exploits - that woman has lived quite a life!
she likely one of those who will never see but her life is as crazy as it can be
It's okay. I don't acknowledge the remake exists. 😂
I never knew that the episode of Battlestar Galactica (2004) where Starbuck crash lands and repairs a Cylon Raider to get home was a loose throwback to Galactica 1980! That's crazy but also kind of cool.
It also threw back to an episode where Starbucks and Apollo steal a cylon raider and have to convince the Galactica that they are not cylons
"The Return of Starbuck" really was about the best episode of either season of BSG.
I'm in the UK but I remember going on holiday to Los Angeles in 1981. While there I remember watching that episode with Starbuck and the Cylon stranded together. I also remember watching Buck Rogers with the cameo of Buster Crabb.
Buster Crabbe had a full guest starring role, not a cameo.
In that episode Buster Crabbe's character is called Brigadier Gordon -- in reference his role as Flash Gordon (in the 1930s and 1940). Since he'd also played the role of Buck Rogers in 1939 -- that episode also made for an interesting Buck Rogers meets Buck Rogers story. The ending has a great line where Crabbe's character says "I've been doing this sort of thing since before you were born, Captain" -- which is absolutely true (Gil Gerard was born in 1943).
I remember that episode! Planet of the Slave Girls, right?
I remember liking the flying motorcycles. I've blocked all the rest from my memory.
I'd totally forgotten that Jeremy "The Good Sherlock" Brett was in the middle of this mess.
Wait, what? I totally missed that, lol.
@@OptimusWombat He was the 2nd actor to play Xavier
@@SJHFoto 😲
@@OptimusWombat I'm sorry-I don't know what your face means. (The face you posted)
@@SJHFoto it's an expression of shock or surprise.
It’s a bad omen when Cousin Oliver is in at the get-go. It’s like putting Ted McGinley in your pilot episode.
Or putting Ted McGinley in at all.
New series idea. Pilot episode: Jumping the shark! Ten if you get on the air, its all down hill from there.
@@OptimusWombat Hey, Ted McGinley was always cool!
@@toddkurzbard as an old fan of both Happy Days and The Love Boat, I respectfully disagree, lol.
'A stock footage attack'... gold!
Best way to begin a Friday morning. Greetings from Denmark 🇩🇰
I remember watching this and I thought it was great.
I saw it in a cinema in Aus, I guess around age 11. Them finding Earth was a big deal, but I remember feeling super ripped-off that the attack on earth, that was in all the ads, was just an imagined scenario.
I LOLd hard at the dimple joke.
Battlestar 1980 was one of those things I remember seeing as a little kid and feeling like it was a bit of a letdown after being so into the first season.. .but it was only upon rewatching (the barely watchable episodes at least) as an adult that I realised just how much of a letdown it was. It boggles the mind how a show with this premise could be made into such a mess, but given all the network meddling, budget constraints and weird content requirements they had to deal with as you explained in this video, it makes much more sense!
I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU SAY, GALACTICA: 1980 WAS AWESOME!!! I AND MY FRIENDS AT SCHOOL ALL LOVED IT! We were all really bummed when it was cancelled. But at least it was made!
Dr Z was cousin Oliver on the Brady Bunch so he pretty jumped the shark before it started😊
Loved the episode with the stranded cylon ship!
Another Fine review, thank you for explaining what happen to the old Battlestar Galactica. Cheers Stam
Oh God it’s coming back to me, I watched this cobbled together series in the cinema when I was 10
Like Stam, I found the 2 parter Halloween and Starbuck ep the best of the show. Why do TV execs always seem to think to entertain kids you have to put kids in your show? Even I found the kids annoying back when it aired.
But... but! The waffles look like the floor of the Galactica! 😂 Ugh...
I do like the Halloween episode setting up the idea of the human cylons, but the execution was- yeah, it was bad.
The finale has its share of problems, but somehow feels stronger than a number of original BSG episodes!
They think kids will identify with the kids, but most kids want to be Batman, not Robin.
I never wanted to be Boxey on Galactica.
Galactica 1980 walked so V could run.
And Star Trek IV could too?
Cool!! I really thought I had dreamt Galactica 1980. I loved Battlestar Galactica and I didn’t know it was on for only one season! That’s crazy!
Absolutely loved Original BSG. I went into depression when 80 came out, Sucked then, and sucks now.
45 years later I'm still crying into my ambrosia 🍺😥
@neotek303 Frack! 😆
Saw this aged 7. Liked it
I saw this when I was 8, thought it was great!
Battlestar galactica was syndicated as part of Saturday morning cartoon programming and 1980 was a large part of that, as I was a kid and they made it kid friendly probably why I still have fond memories of it
"You turkeys pull off!" " I want to tell you about my mother."
Perhaps he was a "toaster" salesman. Besides, I've seen what happens when he talks about his mother.
That got a good belly laugh outta me! Thanks!
Thanks for the laughs, I really needed it over here in the States. As to who is to blame for what ultimately happened to BSG, the blame is squarely on the network. Larsen's idea for a series of made-for-tv movies would have fit BSG better (same goes for the Hulk and Buck Rogers shows). It wouldn't have been in regular ratings competition with the other networks; and the two part episodes that were supposed to be those made-for-tv movies are the superior ones (along with Hand of God, which I wish was a two-parter).
Other than three, very distinct, memories I'd totally forgotten this show.
I loved the Halloween episode as a kid, and the Starbuck episode was amazing. But, and this *is* a hill I'll die on, those motorcycles were ah-may-zing - I _desperatly_ wanted one of those when I was a kid and, in many ways, still want one today!
My intro to Galactica 1980 was also the Conquest of the Earth movie, seeing it at the Drive-in here in Australia around 1981..the inclusion of scenes from the original series and my desperation to see any new Galactica made the series appear much more impressive than it actually was. It was only after it was fully shown on our local TV station a year or so later that the reality set in..
I loved the flying motorcycles!
This is a great example of a monkeys paw… You want more Battlestar Galactica, all right well here’s a scout troop… At least the Starbucks episode is satisfying and gives good closure
The night the cylons returned was released in New Zealand as a feature length movie
Conquest of the Earth?
Dr Mark Sloan's son & John Crichton's dad sure had some adventures together
The good old days.
He was also Tom Hansen's dad as well.
"What are you guys, martians?" 😱
[Beep beep boop]
"Close." 😁
Best delivered line of the series.
"Close... we're Egyptians, can't you tell from our helmets?"
Stam Fine is Damn Fine
I watched it as a kid when it first aired and I really loved it. Right along with Buck Rodgers in the 25th Century.
There was also a show in the 70s which was like Dragnet in style, called "Project UFO", where they reenacted claimed UFO sightings and subsequent "square" USAF officers investigating them. It was the first drama that was ever based on UFO sightings.
WHAT??? This was amazing for a 10 year old me watching it then!!! could not have enough lasers in my life!!!
In the very first episode of the series, Troy says he wants to find out what happened to his father. “The Return of Starbuck” was originally written as “The Return of Apollo.” At that point in his career, Richard Hatch was trying to distance himself from Galactica so as to be taken more seriously as an actor. He wanted nothing to do with the episode, which was intended to resolve the mystery (barely) set up in the first episode.
Hatch didn’t want to do it, they called Benedict and he said, “hell yeah!” So they adapted the script by simply replacing “apollo” with “starbuck” and made no other changes. Which makes sense of that *really* impassioned and kind of moving speech Adama gives when Boomer tells him thqt Starbuck is lost. Sure, Adama would be upset, but clearly not as upset as if he’d lost Apollo, certainly not upset enough to give a big soliloquy about how w love you, Starbuck.
The mysterious lady in the episode was obviously one of the “ship of lights” folk, and her “judging this man as good” would have paid off later in the series when Starbuck (now one of the Ship of Lights folk himself) would show up from time to time as a recurring character. Of course this, too, had been intended for Apollo, but the concept got swung over to Starbuck.
I think it gave Starbuck a better character arc than it would Apollo though. The actions taken in the episode would have been 100% in character for Apollo, zero surprises. But for Statbuck it demonstrated that he'd grown past the inveterate gambler and womanizer stage of his life. Looking at it that way, Starbuck's sacrifice is a more meaningful one, and more worthy of being judged as good in the first place. I think that's why the episode still resonates so well with fans of the OG series.
@ oh I think it absolutely works better with Starbuck. He is a much more engaging character and we’ve seen him get shot down a lot more than we’ve seen. Apollo get shot down, so this provides a nice contrast to the original show because this time he knows there is no rescue coming. (they never explained the context of that big battle, but I remember all my eighth grade friends, and I concluding that it must have been the final battle with the Cylons before the fleet made its escape, because in the very first episode, Troy or Dylan comment that the combat alarm hasn’t gone off in at least 20 years. So clearly they got away clean and the cylons have no idea where they are)
Starbuck, Even early on in the original show, would gladly have gone out of his way, or even risked his life to help a pregnant woman. He was a rake, but he was never ever portrayed as a bad guy. We never even see him cheat at cards. :)
Also, meaning, absolutely no insult to Richard Hatch, I just honestly feel like at that. In time, Dirk Benedict was a better actor. I mean they’re both perfectly fine, but Dirk Haddaway of bringing something to the dialogue that wasn’t actually written on the page, if that makes sense. So the story is much more compelling with him than I would have been with Apollo.
(and I can only presume given the emotionality of Adama farewell speech that Apollo must already have been dead by this point)
@@mahatmarandy5977 I think Starbuck was very much a like another son to Adama, especially after Zac bought it.
@ you know, I’ve watched the original Battlestar Galactica many many many times, and if you watch last planet of the gods, the Adamas are having dinner in Adama‘s quarters, along with Serena and Starbuck and boxy. And of course that’s when Serena and Apollo announced they’re getting married, but at some point re-watching that episode for the hundredth time I realized that I was probably trying to marry Starbuck into the family. Starbucks is dating his daughter. The implication is that it was pretty serious prior to the fall of the colonies. He is getting invited to very personal family dinners. Starbucks is an orphan who has no family of his own. So yeah, I have no doubt whatsoever that Adama views Starbucks as family, or the next best thing to family.
Which then leads to a whole lot of fans speculation about whether or not the command of Battlestars is dynastic . I mean Kane had Sheba on his ship…
@@mahatmarandy5977 that's an very interesting question about command of Battlestars, and one which I never thought about until you mentioned it. Not to mention that Adama was also a member of the Quorum of Twelve and the political leader of Caprica, even before the fall of the Colonies. That's a lot of power to be vested in a single individual, it's a good thing that Adama had the morals to back it up, unlike Baltar.
I watched the original series as a kid when it aired. I'd heard about BSG '80 but never watched it. I did not get back into BSG until the 2004 series. I absolutely love that version. 🙂
I remember watching this on the ITV network (Tyne Tees region) in the UK when I was around 10. I'm sure it was on a Saturday early evening, a similar time slot to The A-Team, Street Hawk etc. The actor in the clown costume at 24:59 also played the voice of KITT in Knight Rider. I was able to re-watch the series recently when it was repeated on one of the Freeview TV channels, and was surprised how many of the storylines I remembered.
Definitely a series I only remember from the one good episode. Only just clicked that the second Xavier was played by Jeremy Brett of Sherlock Holmes fame!
Unless his dad was in it, Barry Van Dyke showing up truly was poison to a now beloved show.
Just look at what happened with the fourth season of Airwolf.
Barry van Dyke WASNT the problem with this mess- it was those Galactica children Boy Scout troop with the super powers watching birds, bees and evolution in painful slow motion that made this show a proper mess!!!!
Y’all point to 4th season Airwolf but Diagnosis Murder wasn’t bad
Loved the shows. Had waited and waited for them to finally find earth, so getting another series where they reach it I was grateful for. It was not as good but I still liked it. The watches and flying bikes were great. As a Kid I was always looking for a watch that was wide and went on your wrist like a mini-computer. Hated Dr Z character he creeped me out and reminded me of a young Jimmy Savile. The Starbuck episode reminded me of the film Enemy Mine film.
I was a kid and loved it.
I remember the disappointment when i was 10. But watching this now i spotted 3 legendary actors. (But not the leads)
WOW, you know the 405? I just realized you must have seen CHIPs too🏍
CHiPs was a big show here in Australia so there's a pretty good chance he saw it.
I remember we had all the toys and always ready to watch BSG, then it got cancelled and we were hugely disappointed. They then announce Galactica returning and we were so stoked! After it aired we felt that sinking feeling, that what we loved and lost was truly gone.
OMG I saw this on TV! I agree it wasn't as good as Battlestar Galactica, but I still enjoyed it. It created a "what if" of the fleet finally finding Earth.
i love it when a plan comes together
I think it was at Universal Studios where they had an auditorium with a blue-screen set up with props of the two "viper cycles". A host would explain how the blue-screen process worked on the show and invite two members of the audience to get on the cycle props while aerial footage was projected behind them. The volunteers would do goofy stuff while everybody laughed. Seeing the actors doing it on the show makes the effect feel even cheesier after seeing how they did it for real. Funny thing is, at that time I was a Boy Scout so I had that very same uniform.
Is there a possibility of a shared universe where Megaforce got their flying bike tech from these guys ?
I remember even as a kid not liking this. What a letdown after the original show.
ANOTHER damaStam Fine video 🎉
I loved Galactica 1980. 🙂👍
Robbie Rist has always been and will always be, Whiz. lol Thanks for letting me know this exists... ...like the Star Wars Holiday Special 🤣
I remember this, also remembering on why Star Buck wasn't in the movie.
I remember seeing the ads for it when I was a kid. I got excited for it but it was never aired in Canada. Thank bloody god for that.
Wait, was that Jeremy Brett?? Hilarious.
Omg for years i had remembered a episode of a show with kids from space going to earth but being able to jump high and you know....i swore it was a episode of buck rogers
But could never find the episode and you have solved the mystery i remember watching this show now even though forgot about it or its name but remember the 2 main guy characters.
Watched the repeats of it here on channel 4 in the UK i was born in 82 so may have been late 80s early 90s
One of the problems was it was put in the Sunday 7pm timeslot. At the time, there was an FCC rule that the networks had to schedule news (e.g. 60 Minutes) or educational content. That was the point of the kids and the time travel stuff. If the network didn't do that, the time slot had to be returned to the local affiliate for local content.
My favorite TV show as a kid was Battlestar Galactica. I was so happy that they brought the show back in 1980, than I saw it. Even at the age of 9, I knew it was stupid and highly disappointing. I hated that it was set in 1980 LA, and I grew up in LA. I was done after about 3 episodes.
This video is great and you're hilarious.
13:23 - Clever putting the Cylon Raiders over the old ChucK Heston/Victoria Principal "Earthquake" Film
ah you knew! - whoops
Galactica 1980 was ok, but did have 1 fantastic episode!
@shallendor It did? I must have missed it.
Agreed.
@@americansupervillain4595 you missed The Return of Starbuck?
They always used the same shot when they flew away. No matter what location that had taken off from🙂I loved this show as a kid.
Wow, Brion James and Mickey Jones!
This show is a perfect example of what not to do. It should be compulsory study in any type of media studies out there.
I was nine and only enjoyed two episodes: the final episode and the one with Wolfman Jack. Actually in the earlier episode all I liked was Wolfman Jack.
I feel like "television reporter" was a standard TV character in the 70's/80's. No matter how sci-fi the plot/show is, there is always some TV reporter as a main character.
I love “Galactica 1980” - Yes, there, I said it. Call me names, insult me, it doesn’t matter. I loved it when I was nine years old and I still love it (with some caveats). The Super Scouts blindsided me even when I was nine - because it was so out of nowhere. I wasn’t against child characters (I was a kid myself). But at the time, I didn’t fully understand the concept of humans growing up in higher gravity environments than Earth - although, in hindsight, the concept of Earth being a lower gravity environment resulting in the appearance of superior strength and ability to leap tall buildings in a single bound, isn’t wholly implausible. However, what annoyed me even as a kid was that the show didn’t give the slightest hint that Dillon and Troy had these abilities, prior to the Scouts introduction. (Later, they did). Had that been previously established, it might have been more palatable to audiences.
That said, people can whine and moan, but I don’t care what anyone says - those flying motorcycles were badass! And the tongue-in-cheek adventures of Dillon, Troy, and Jamie in modern day Los Angeles were a hell of a lot of fun.
Do I own the DVDs? Yes, I do. Do I rewatch them often? Yes. Yes, I do. 😊
My memory of Barry Van Dyke involves feathered hair. Come to think of it, this is also my memory of Vince Van Patten. The late 70s-early 80s were rife with Actor Offspring with Feathered Hair.
THIS SHOW WAS GREAT!!! Lots of fun!
Òn the Grudge-Match site - people voted on scenarios like, in this case, Voyager vs. Galactica struggling to get home - my explanation of what happens when they clash showed Boxey saving Voyager after bunches of satirical jokes and being kissed by Naomi, thereby being so embarrassed that he'll have cooties forever (as many boys that age would be) that, in the agreement where they do go through the wormhole but must go back to 1980, Boxey changes his name. I won a Bronze Grudgie. Had I realized they had changed the timeline to 30 years later, a very witty idea would have disappeared, as it could be argued to be Boxey's brother. But your video has just as many great lines. Thanks for bringing closure to a show I'd forgotten about except for knowing about it and seeing a few minutes of it. And yeah kind of being decent closure for the series considering that last episode sounds like a good one.
My thoughts precisely. Imagine the mere thought of the rag-tag survivors of the Twelve Colonies guided to their eventual destiny under the influence of Commander Adama's beard, making him totally susceptible to the whims of the intergalactic equivalent of the Milky Bar Kid.
I remember seeing the cobbled together film version of this in the UK on VHS. I enjoyed it, but when it was shown as the series, we stopped watching when the scouts storyline started as it was boring. It was only years later as an adult that I watched the Starbuck episode, which was actually worth seeing.
For a young kid, the second seasons of Galactica and Buck Rogers really messed with my head.
I forgot Jeremy Brett took over as Xavier. For a minute, I thought that was Jonathan Fridd, of Dark Shadows. Lynch was the go-to baddie, from the late 70s up through the late 80s, on tv and in low budget films (from the Cannon Group).
The novel tie-in series actually adapted the three-part pilot, but only that. It is the 5th novel in the series, after the original novel, adapting the Saga of a Star World script (from an early stage, with some differences in the Cylons) and Cylon Death Machine (Gun on Ice Planet Zero). They were followed by The Tombs of Kobol and The Young Warriors, before Galactica Discovers Earth, adapting the Galactica 1980 pilot. The series then goes back to the original, with The Living Legend and stays there through book #12. The last two, Apollo's War and Surrender the Galactica, were original stories. Only the pilot and The Return of Starbuck got released on home video, aside from the home video release of Conquest of Earth, the patchwork film of the pilot and the Cylon's landing on Earth. That is, until the dvd set.
Starbuck later started a very successful Coffee franchise on Earth.
I was waiting for them to be pulled over by Ponch and Jon after the freeway accident.
Despite not being willing to sit all the way through a single episode and giving up on it quickly, it was still worth being made purely on the quality of the Starbuck episode which I thankfully lucked out and caught when it aired. I do think tying the series to BG hurt far more than it helped; had it been tooled as an original series with just hints and homages to the first series I think it'd have at least gotten slammed less over the years. I mean, look at Far Out Space Nuts and Electra Woman & Dyna-Girl; those aren't exactly Star Wars or even Star Trek TOS but we sure loved them and they're given miles of slack nowadays (when recalled). Which now makes me wish this had been reimagined as the third part of the Jason of Star Command/Space Academy trilogy.
I read somewhere that Starbuck was brought into the series to revitalize it, and in future episodes would have been brought back using that Temple of light thing. But it was too late, of course. As UFOs get mentioned a lot, perhaps a look at "Project UFO" would be good?
Chin dimples? Thanks, I never would’ve noticed.
I loved the motorcycles!
I remember seeing this being released as a full-length film and seeing it in the cinema. Maybe I'm remembering it wrong?
I truly got a laugh that turned to disgust, even being 10 at the time .