Rest in peace, Glen A. Larson

Back in the days when your prime time entertainment choices were ABC, NBC, CBS or public broadcasting, you could always count count on some great prime time escapist television.  And if I were to mention the names of some of those producers, you could immediately recall their television resumes.

Let’s take a test.  Quinn Martin.  Yep, gripping dramas with “Act I” and “Act II” references after each commercial break.  Cannon.  Barnaby Jones.  The Fugitive.

Aaron Spelling.  Opulent dramas like Dynasty and The Love Boat, and action dramas like Charlie‘s Angels and The Mod Squad.

Glen A. Larson.  Not coming to you?  A little fuzzy?

Glen A. Larson produced some of the most iconic and memorable television dramas of the 1970’s and 1980’s.  He’s responsible for at least two cult science fiction shows, several distinctive detective programs, and some superhero shows that prove that with enough money – you could build a stronger, faster, more powerful hero.

Larson’s first big success was the hourlong drama It Takes a Thief, starring Robert Wagner as cat burglar Alexander Mundy. The show lasted for about three seasons, and was one of the last “super-spy espionage” shows of the 1960’s.

Larson later struck gold by producing a superhero program about an astronaut / test pilot whose spacecraft explodes, causing damage to the astronaut’s eye, arm and legs. And with modern technology, the astronaut is rebuilt as a secret agent. You might know the man I’m talking about.  Steve Austin.  No, not the professional wrestler.  This Steve Austin, as one of producer Glen A. Larson’s first big hits.

Larson and Robert Wagner reunited for another drama series, Switch, in which Wagner and Eddie Albert operated a detective agency for about three seasons.

Glen A. Larson also produced early episodes of the popular NBC forensic drama Quincy, with Jack Klugman as a pioneering coroner / detective. Can you see the recurring theme here? Catchy theme music? Video clips interspersed with letters and graphics?

Larson would later produce a series featuring the most popular detectives of young adult literature – Frank and Joe Hardy, and Nancy Drew. For a while, The Hardy Boys / Nancy Drew Mysteries alternated between both story lines, and sometimes all three of them worked together to solve a single crime. I think the biggest crime of this series was that there was too much Shaun Cassidy and not enough Pamela Sue Martin. But that’s just teenaged me.

Larson eventually worked on science fiction shows, and this one – Battlestar Galactica was his most far-reaching. Was it a reinterpretation of the book of Exodus? Was it a re-imagining of the origins of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints? Or was it just a really good science fiction show that got bogged down with budgetary constraints and recycled effects shots?

Remember what I said about recycling? How many Battlestar Galactica shots can you spy in this intro from Larson’s other science fiction program, Buck Rodgers in the 25th Century?

Larson was also able to take successful motion pictures and reinterpret them into small-screen series. You ever see the movie Every Which Way But Loose, with Clint Eastwood and a chimpanzee? Then of course you would remember B.J. and the Bear, with Greg Evigan and a cimpanzee…

You might also remember this 80’s classic TV series, The Fall Guy – another Larson production, featuring his old Six Million Dollar Man star Lee Majors.

Or this one, in which David Hasselhoff and his talking car KITT fight for justice. Oh yeah, anybody happen to notice that the oscillating red light at the front of KITT’s grille looks remarkably like that ping-pong red eye from the Battlestar Galactica Cylons?

I’m recapping and recounting these classic 70’s and 80’s TV shows because the producer of these programs, Glen A. Larson, passed away last Friday. He was 77. And in recalling these shows in today’s blog, I’m reminded of how many of these programs were popular prime-time shows, how many of them bring back great memories today.

And that’s without even referring to some of Larson’s flop shows – programs like Automan and Manimal and The Highwayman and Get Christie Love! and P.S. I Luv U – okay, the less said about those, the better.

Rest in peace, Glen A. Larson. Thanks for bringing us shows about bionic superheroes and Cylons and Pamela Sue Martin and Erin Gray and Heather Thomas… in other words, thanks for bringing us some wonderful television moments.