Edward James Olmos, in a rare display (for Hollywood) of integrity and honesty, put a great big HUGE broadside right into the marketing for the new BSG mini sereis at a press conference for reviewers and media press.
His advice? If you love the original, DON'T WATCH THE NEW SHOW!
Despite Bonnie Hammer's best efforts at damage control, the session seems to have gone up like the Atlantia at the Peace Conference.
And, in case that gets taken down, here's the text:
Olmos tells Galactica' fans: Don't watch' 07/11/03 Mark Dawidziak Plain Dealer Television Critic
Hollywood - Integrity can be such a liability in Hollywood, a town that barely acknowledges its existence. Edward James Olmos sat through a meeting with TV critics, clearly uncomfortable as producers and Sci Fi Channel president Bonnie Hammer cheerfully promised that a remake of "Battlestar Galactica" would appeal to young science-fiction fans without alienating those devoted to the original 1978-80 series.
It all proved too much for the actor, whose performance in "Stand and Deliver" (1988) earned him an Oscar nomination. Suffering an acute attack of honesty, Olmos sat and delivered a filibuster that busted up all the lofty claims being made by Hammer, writer-producer Ronald Moore and executive producer David Eick.
"I must say one thing and will say this very clearly," Olmos told critics as the Sci Fi Channel's session was drawing to a close. "If you are a person who really has a strict belief in the original, I would not advise that you watch this program. It'll hurt them.
"We really don't stand true to the kind of characters that were built around the original. It definitely does break the mold. Some of the characters' names are the same, but the intent and the way that we are building the reality is completely not the reality that was built in the original."
It also wasn't the version of reality painted in response to critics' questions about the new "Battlestar Galactica," which the Sci Fi Channel will premiere in December. Such fits of truthfulness are rare when actors and producers detail the supposed merits of a television project.
So the stunned room quickly moved along the path that starts with disbelief and, illuminated by laughter, leads to appreciation.
"And so I tell them straightforward," Olmos said of the "Battlestar Galactica" purists, " 'Please don't watch this program. Buy yourself the new DVDs that they are putting out of the old episodes, and whenever we come on, just put that in. Don't watch this, because it will hurt.'
"I've gotten some really strong, strong mail. . . . They're really bitter. They're very angry. And I know the Sci Fi Channel wants to say that everybody's going to enjoy it. They're not."
The Olmos outburst was almost enough to make you feel sorry for a TV executive - almost. Hammer tried to joke her way out of what charitably would be described as an awkward moment. Her star, after all, was telling an entire segment of the science-fiction audience not to watch an expensive piece of prime-time programming.
"Kill me now," Hammer said.
But Olmos didn't put Hammer out of her misery. The former "Miami Vice" star went on airing reservations as the Sci Fi Channel's publicity department moved to put a quick end to this meeting with delighted TV critics gathered for their semiannual sampling of new network, cable and PBS shows.
"I'm going to be the first one to say it really clearly," Olmos continued after Hammer's death-wish jest. "Please tell your readers, do not watch this program."
It doesn't get any better than this. "I think we have a new marketing campaign for 'Battlestar Galactica,' " Hammer tried again. Yet her second attempt at humor did nothing to slow down Olmos now that he had worked up a full head of sincerity steam.
He had been reading the worried e-mails from "Galactica" fans who are sure that the Sci Fi Channel is going to trash their beloved series, which was launched by ABC after the first "Star Wars" film became a pop-culture phenomenon.
"You can take it that way," Olmos said in response to Hammer's lighthearted remark about a new marketing campaign, "but at least that way you give them an opportunity to not break their television sets. Because people get really, really angry. You've got to remember that this is a show that was only on . . . in the late '70s, and to this day has a very strong fan base. Tens of thousands of people who write to each other for 25 years over a program that is not on the air and is not even being rerun.
"They didn't want this at all, and I didn't know any of this. . . . All of a sudden, my e-mails went through the roof. Suddenly I was accused of teaming up with Ron Moore and creating just a slap in the face of all these people, and I didn't want to slap anybody."
Hammer must have been feeling hammered, all right, as her "Battlestar Galactica" star described what it felt like to be an embattled star, unprepared for an e-mail assault.
During January's critics press tour, the Sci Fi Channel president was besieged by persistent questions about "Farscape" fans' outrage over the cancellation of the acclaimed series. Six months later, the battleground was "Battlestar Galactica," a four-hour remake that probably will be turned into a series.
The original starred Lorne Greene as Adama, commander of the only battlestar to survive an attack by the ruthless Cylons. Richard Hatch played his son, Capt. Apollo, leader of Galactica's fighter squadron. Dirk Benedict, later recruited for "The A-Team," played ace pilot Lt. Starbuck.
Olmos plays Adama, leading a cast that also includes Jamie Bamber ("Band of Brothers") as Apollo, Mary McDonnell as the newly appointed president and, faster than you can say gender switch, Katee Sackhoff as a female Starbuck. Vastly different in look and tone from the series, this two-part cable take on "Battlestar Galactica" will be darker, edgier and racier.
Some science-fiction fans will be happy to see the remake stray from the original, which was roasted by critics, sued for plagiarism by the "Star Wars" producers and roundly dismissed as inferior goods by many genre devotees.
Moore said that he believed the much-maligned ABC incarnation "was a good show" with "an extraordinarily interesting premise," while Olmos admitted that he didn't know anything about the earlier space vehicle until the e-mails started piling up.
So he's not passing any critical judgments on the quality of the first "Battlestar Galactica." He just wants fans of that show to stay away from the remake.
"Trust me, don't watch it," said Olmos, the star of the PBS series "American Family." "If you are a real, real staunch 'Battlestar Galactica' person, don't watch it. . . . Just don't write to me, all right. I warned you. I was honest."
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
[email protected], (216) 999-4249 Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
Hmm.. So maybe they should've cast Olmos as Baltar instead?
YES!! I GOT THERE FIRST!!
Posted by Triton (Member # 1043) on :
Well you cannot blame an actor for making a premptive strike for the hate mail he will receive from outraged "Battlestar Galactica" fans.
He is just an actor for hire trying to make a buck. You cannot get mad at him for playing the revised Adama. If you were expecting me to play Lorne Greene I am sorry to disappoint you.
Posted by darkwing_duck1 (Member # 790) on :
quote:Originally posted by Triton: Well you cannot blame an actor for making a premptive strike for the hate mail he will receive from outraged "Battlestar Galactica" fans.
He is just an actor for hire trying to make a buck. You cannot get mad at him for playing the revised Adama. If you were expecting me to play Lorne Greene I am sorry to disappoint you.
Actually, very few people have expressed any anger at the actors at all. In fact, Olmos himself is getting high marks from most of the fansites I've seen for his honesty.
The ire of MOST fans is reserved for the Hammer/Eick/Moore troika and their collective rape of BSG to suit their own artistic purposes.
Posted by ZARDOZ (Member # 1064) on :
The new BG is still months away and I'm sick to death of it! The new show still has "a rag tag fugitive fleet, fleeing Cylon tyranny in search of a shining planet known as Earth" (Earth? your planets' named after dirt?) That's pretty much all the resemblance I think it needs! I remember watching the old show when it first came out, and although nostalgia has tarted up my memory somewhat, it just looks cheesy today. The repetitive FX shots, tacky velour uniforms, clunky writing and dumb story gimmicks (Britt Eckland clones! High Noon with a robot! Fred Astair is Starbuck's dad! Vegas in Space!(or was that on Buck Rodgers?) None of this did anything to elevate SF on TV to any level of legitimacy higher than Lost in Space or Mork & Mindy. Since the people who make the choices about what we get to see seem more comfortable mining the genre's past for bankable ideas rather than support new ones,(see Farscape) we can only hope that they do a good job, and give them the benefit of the doubt. And expect more if they are successful! Personally, I can't wait for a new Knightrider show! I love that damn show! Don't worry about Mr.Olmos, he's always pissed about stuff he works in. He got mad because his character on Miami Vice never did much except deliver flat dialog and stare a whole lot, so Mike Mann lets him write an episode, and we find out that Cuban-American Miami police captain Castillo is really a Japanese trained samurai sword wielding super-cop. In my book, Olmos is a good actor, but only a bit less loopy than Richard Hatch! At least he hasn't based his whole career on a TV show that was shitcanned after one season.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
quote:! Don't worry about Mr.Olmos, he's always pissed about stuff he works in. He got mad because his character on Miami Vice never did much except deliver flat dialog and stare a whole lot, so Mike Mann lets him write an episode, and we find out that Cuban-American Miami police captain Castillo is really a Japanese trained samurai sword wielding super-cop.
He wrote that shit!?! I always considered that ep the moment when Miami Vice turned to total crap soap opera stuff. (like Crockett getting amnesia and going bad: shudder)
I watched the video of the pilot for BSG a week back (a pal is a big fan and had the movie). It was'nt bad at all....only everything that followed was crap. I had forgotten that Cylons were reptile aliens that just used robots as their military. That all switched in the series.....only John Calicos made any of the series watchable.
And John ain't around to save the new series, I'm sad to say.
Posted by CaptainMike[1].mp3 (Member # 709) on :
quote:Originally posted by ZARDOZ: I remember watching the old show when it first came out, and although nostalgia has tarted up my memory somewhat, it just looks cheesy today. The repetitive FX shots, tacky velour uniforms, clunky writing and dumb story gimmicks... Since the people who make the choices about what we get to see seem more comfortable mining the genre's past for bankable ideas rather than support new ones, we can only hope that they do a good job, and give them the benefit of the doubt. And expect more if they are successful!
*cough*ENTERPRISE*cough*
Posted by Cartmaniac (Member # 256) on :
A HA U R SALMMNIG BREMAN AND BRGAA!! U SHITFACE U CANT CRITISISE TEHM U MSUT BE A RABID B&B HAETR OBSEESD WIHT CONTIUITNY!!!! Posted by Balaam Xumucane (Member # 419) on :
Well I mean to be honest the original 'intent' of Battlestar Galactica wasn't really even as focused as, say, Star Trek. I mean, they had some kind of cool ideas, and I found the Pilot/movie to be very enjoyable, but I'm not entirely sure I'd be all that upset if the pivotal Starbuck crashes on a strange planet (with inevitable local nook)/Boxey's Muffit is almost like a real dog/Apollo is acting out a bit/Hitting "Turbo" on our joysticks and turning sharply somehow always takes those kooky Cylons by surprise/Colonel Tigh is a tight ass/Adama is wise/Baltar is probably insane felgerkarb, well let's just say I wouldn't be real upset by taking some liberties and making some departures.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
I'd have kepth the original Galactica prop though with only a few improvments and not re-do the entire thing. Care to bet the new Galactica is obsenely large?
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
I had forgotten that Cylons were reptile aliens that just used robots as their military.
IIRC, they WERE reptile aliens. The robots wiped out their creators, then decided to wipe out everyone else. The original Cylons are long dead.
Posted by The_Tom (Member # 38) on :
quote:Originally posted by darkwing_duck1: The ire of MOST fans is reserved for the Hammer/Eick/Moore troika and their collective rape of BSG to suit their own artistic purposes.
I'd pay good money to see exactly how one goes about raping a piece of intellectual property. Especially if there's three guys involved.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
The article indicated that Bonnie Hammer is female.
Posted by Ultra Magnus (Member # 239) on :
"Hammer must have been feeling hammered, all right."
Examples like this only serve to prove to me why I will never be a writer, and help fuel my overangsty depression which is nearing fishnet shirt levels.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
quote:Originally posted by Omega: I had forgotten that Cylons were reptile aliens that just used robots as their military.
IIRC, they WERE reptile aliens. The robots wiped out their creators, then decided to wipe out everyone else. The original Cylons are long dead.
The Reptile versions ae in the original movie (the introduction to BSG, before the series) and were replaced with the single queerest looking robots ("Lucifers")ever concieved later. Twekki the metallic penis-bot from Buck Rogers would have handily kicked the Cylon leader's ass: he was that pansy.
Posted by Triton (Member # 1043) on :
If I remember the novel by Glen A. Larson and Richard Thurston correctly, Imperious Leader wore a dried reptile-like dead Cylon head over the top of his real head. Something like the Imperious Leader has more credibility if he assumed the appearance of their creator race that they annihilated long ago.
I also seem to remember that the Imperious Leader model had three brains, the Lucifer-style had two brains, and the silver and copper(gold) colored Centurions had just one. Can't remember what name they gave to these mechanical brains, I don't think they ripped off Asimov and called them positronic brains. But I just don't remember.
Also I seem to remember that in the book Baltar was beheaded during an audience with Imperious Leader, part of that "Your time is at an end" speech by IL. And I remember a photo of a very worried looking John Colicos with a sword at his throat from the "Battlestar Galactica: The Photostory" book, which was a collection of stills from the movie with dialogue balloons so the story of the film could be told like a comic book.
They also mention in the book that his body was dumped into space with the other garbage from the Basestar using an airlock.
I think they decided to add the "You will be spared" scene in the BSG movie later when ABC approved the television series.
Boy I wish I hadn't gotten rid of this stuff over the years. Never knew I would need to refer to it when discussing a Battlestar Galactica remake.
Posted by Kosh (Member # 167) on :
I think I wuill take Olmos advice, as I was planning on skipping it anyway. Nice to se someone stand up and tell it like it is for a change. So rare in Hollywood.
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
Never knew I would need to refer to it when discussing a Battlestar Galactica remake.