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Bud Brewster Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)

Joined: 14 Dec 2013 Posts: 17637 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2018 4:38 pm Post subject: |
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Great post, Maurice!
And I was delighted when I saw the way you'd formatted it! Nobody has EVER bothered to do that before!
I'm so damn flattered there will be no living with me after this!  _________________ ____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
Last edited by Bud Brewster on Tue Mar 05, 2024 6:32 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Bud Brewster Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)

Joined: 14 Dec 2013 Posts: 17637 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2019 11:29 am Post subject: |
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I found a 25 minute video about this wonderful miniseries.
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____________________ V Behind The Scenes
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
Last edited by Bud Brewster on Tue Mar 05, 2024 6:32 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Bud Brewster Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)

Joined: 14 Dec 2013 Posts: 17637 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2022 1:48 pm Post subject: |
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IMDB has several interesting trivia items for this production.
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~ The character Diana was ranked #5 in TV Guide's 25 Greatest Sci-Fi Legends (August 1, 2004 issue).
Note from me: Lord yes! Jane Badler was one badassed bitch. I loved her.
~ It is claimed in one of the V novels, that the Visitor technology was stolen from an alien species that the Visitors were fighting against. The Tzikk.
The space craft, the weapons, the shuttles, everything they utilized was stolen.
Also, the serious environmental difficulties were caused due to a last ditch effort by the Tzikk to inflict maximum damage by sending a mothership on a collision course with the Visitor home planet which on impact caused nuclear devastation on a level never before witnessed. The only way to survive was to capture the enemy vessels. One of the female visitors who was against the Earth invasion had a medal for taking part in this battle. The Tzikk were eventually wiped out.
Note from me: This trivia item is not well written, but what it seems to mean is that the TZikk sent a Mothership to collide with the Visitors' planet, but the Visitors captured it and then exterminated the Tzikks.
But if all the Visitors' ships were stolen from the Tzikk, thir own ships were apparently pretty good if they beat the Txikks and took all their stuff!
I just don't get it . . .
~ The cancellation of this series was unexpected; as a result, it ends with a cliffhanger. Though a lot of new shows in those days ended in cliffhangers hoping viewers would demand it be renewed. It rarely worked.
Note from me: The miniseries was good, and I bought the DVD, but the 2nd miniseries (V: The Final Battle) and the regular series sucked.
But I loved the dog fight when Donovan was pursued by the fighters, which ended with this great scene when Faye Grant stood her ground against Jane Badler's strafing run.
Her actions were foreshadowed by the early scene in the miniseries, when a South American resistance fighter does the same thing against an approaching military helicopter.
_____________V Miniseries - The visitors arrive
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V Mini Series - The visitors attack the mountain camp
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958) |
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Pow Galactic Ambassador

Joined: 27 Sep 2014 Posts: 3739 Location: New York
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Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2022 8:04 pm Post subject: |
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Jane Badler would easily transition from the evil alien, Diana, to heroic secret agent team member, Shannon Reed, on the 1988~1990 ABC revival of Mission Impossible.
Jane is also a professional singer and performs on the Mission episode "Banshee" from November 30, 1989. |
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tmlindsey Quantum Engineer

Joined: 18 Jul 2022 Posts: 397 Location: NW Florida
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Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2023 9:47 pm Post subject: |
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Loved the first V when it aired in 1983, and it was all anyone talked about at school the next day. Didn't like V: The Final Battle (1984) nearly as much, and V: The Series (1984) is best forgotten.  _________________ "Have you never wondered what it would be like to walk between the ticks and tocks of Time?" |
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Bud Brewster Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)

Joined: 14 Dec 2013 Posts: 17637 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2023 10:17 am Post subject: |
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I totally agree. I was extremely impressed by the original miniseries, and extremely disappointed by the second one. The weekly TV series sucked.
I own the DVD of the original miniseries.
I love that climactic scene when Marc Singer flies the alien aircraft while being pursued by an alien in another craft, and he arrives at the rebel mountain camp just in time to save Faye Grant from being blasted by Jane Badler.  _________________ ____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958) |
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Pow Galactic Ambassador

Joined: 27 Sep 2014 Posts: 3739 Location: New York
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Posted: Mon Mar 04, 2024 1:37 pm Post subject: |
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From the Fall Preview TV Guide, September 8, 1984, a profile of the debuting V weekly TV series.
V is NBC's favorite letter of the alphabet. The networks 1983 mini-series was such a whopping hit that it came back with a six-hour sequel last May. And that did so well that V is now a series.
But here's a question for you, trivia fans: what does that V stand for anyway?
By now most people know the story: V is about aliens who come to earth under friendly pretexts, looking just like humans. But underneath they're really disgusting lizards who want our water ---- and they want us for food?
They also go around swallowing rodents, impregnating our teen-agers and brain-washing our scientists: you can see how they'd be a nuisance. The saga continues with many of the original cast. As for that V, it depends on whose side you're on. It stands for Visitors, meaning aliens. But the good guys ---- and NBC ---- would tell you that V is for Victory.
Pictured for this article: Faye Grant, Jane Badler, Marc Singer. |
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Bud Brewster Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)

Joined: 14 Dec 2013 Posts: 17637 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Mon Mar 04, 2024 3:46 pm Post subject: |
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Mike, I was very impressed with your dedicated research and your skillful transcription of the TV Guide review.
So, i pasted "Fall Preview TV Guide, September 8, 1984" in the YouTube window and found this!
TV GUIDE SEPTEMBER 8-14, 1984 FALL PREVIEW!!
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Somebody videoed every page and posted it on YouTube, with a pleasant musical accompaniment. I took a screenshot of the page with the V article, and then I reconstructed it, using your text in place of the illegible text in the video.
And here's the result! It was fun! And it only took a few hours . . . :
TA-DAAAAA!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
Last edited by Bud Brewster on Tue Mar 05, 2024 6:34 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Pow Galactic Ambassador

Joined: 27 Sep 2014 Posts: 3739 Location: New York
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Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2024 9:23 am Post subject: |
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Excellent work o Fearless Leader. The photos are frosting on the cake.  |
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Pow Galactic Ambassador

Joined: 27 Sep 2014 Posts: 3739 Location: New York
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Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2024 10:09 am Post subject: |
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From the Youtube interview with V creator, writer, director, producer Kenneth Johnson.
"V is my legacy piece and the one I'm most proud of."
"The inspiration for V came from the Sinclair Book It Can't Happen Here. The book was published in 1935 and tells the fictional story of how fascism rises up in America. I set it in our current era and wrote a screenplay about a grassroots group becomes huge and brings fascism to the United States."
"I had lunch one day with my friend Brandon Tartikoff, who was then the head of NBC. He asked what I was working on and I told him about this screenplay about fascism taking root in America. He wanted to read it, but I told him that I intended this project to be a feature film if I could sell it to a studio. Brandon read it and loved it. He then suggested it as a television miniseries."
"Brandon was afraid that Americans wouldn't get what fascism is about. He suggested that instead of fascism growing here in America by Americans that we have either China or the U.S.S.R. as an occupying force in the United States. I didn't care for that idea at all. Brandon's V.P. suggested aliens which I found to be a horrendous concept. I had written and produced The Bionic Woman & The Incredible Hulk for TV. I was proud of my work, but this industry has a way of pigeon-holing you, and I loathed the idea of becoming known as the sci-fi guy. When I went home and pondered it, I came to the conclusion that it was actually a brilliant idea."
"V is all about how people respond to power. Some will cooperate with it, others just want to keep their heads down and hope they are ignored, others want to resist and fight it. We saw all of those reactions in real life when the Nazi's rolled over other nations in Europe."
"I wrote the 231-page screenplay for the miniseries in 19-days in longhand on a yellow legal pad."
"Brandon asked me to send it to him for he and his staff to read. I said absolutely not, that I would come in and read it to them from the first page to the last. I did this because I knew how TV networks operate. They'll read your screenplay, add all types of notes and suggestions and have a thousand questions. If I was in the same room as all of them, I could head off any of that stuff right there and then."
"My background is in the classic literature of the Greeks, Romans, Shakespeare, and the contemporaries. So I wrote the dialogue in iambic pentameter. The actors would later come up to me and tell me how much easier it was to memorize the dialogue for V compared to other series of films."
My prep-time was just two-and-a-half weeks. Insane for a four hour miniseries, quite impossible. The only reason I was confident that I could pull it off was because I was working with my terrific crew. We had worked together for years on Bionic Woman and Hulk. We could read each other's minds. With these marvelous people I knew we could tackle this incredible task together and make it happen. And we did!"
"NBC's ratings were in the toilet at the time. That's why they were so willing to take a chance on doing an epic science-fiction miniseries. V turned out to be a massive hit. It was what networks call a four-quadrant show which means that it appeals to kids, teens, and adult men & women." |
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Bud Brewster Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)

Joined: 14 Dec 2013 Posts: 17637 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2024 7:31 pm Post subject: |
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Wow!
Mike, All Sci-Fi is proud to have intelligent, literate members like you, who make such wonderful contributions.
Your detailed description of what Kenneth Johnson went through to produce this amazing miniseries is inspirational!
Archive.org has V parts 1 and 2, so I downloaded it and put it on WeTransfer for anyone who'd like to have it!
Man oh man, is All Sci-Fi a great message board or what?
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V Part 1 — Link is NOW active!
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V part 2 — Link is NOW active!
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__________________________________________ _________________ ____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958) |
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Pow Galactic Ambassador

Joined: 27 Sep 2014 Posts: 3739 Location: New York
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Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2024 1:54 pm Post subject: |
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More from V creator, writer, director, producer Kenneth Johnson.
"I wanted a female for the leader of the resistance movement. Television and movies weren't exactly overflowing with intelligent, strong women characters. My mom was a businesswoman and leader in our family. She was an empowered lady who held her own in a man's world. I felt that women were not well represented in our industry."
"One of my big inspirations was Andre de Jongh (1916~2007). She was a young woman who rescued downed airman during World War II. She would take them over the Pyrenees Mountains to safety. The airman were stunned to meet this young woman who was going to lead them to safety. She was just a kid to them. When she would deliver the airman to safety in Spain, the resistance leaders meeting her for the first time were just as stunned as the airman. Andre established numerous safehouses and was known for how swiftly she got the downed airman to safety. She was eventually caught by the Nazis. She was tortured but never revealed to them any information about her operation. They sent her to a concentration camp. Later on, the Nazis felt she was important enough to question again. They could not figure out which prisoner she was because she was so terribly emaciated. There are many other woman just like her from World War II."
"When we finished the miniseries we watched the rough cut before the special effects and music were put in. We knew we had a winner because it stood up well with just the scenes with the actors performing."
"I told Brandon Tartikoff that it was terrific. However, we had a problem in that it ran four hours and fifteen minutes. I could not see how to edit out those fifteen minutes, it was all crucial to the storyline. Brandon thought about and said that he'll go to the affiliates and ask them for the extra time. This would delay their local newscasts. I asked him if he could even do such a thing. Brandon said he didn't know, but he'd try it. They did give us that time and the miniseries was a massive hit in the ratings for NBC."
"Another thing unique about V was our cast. We decided not to go with big name film or TV stars. Every other miniseries made up to that time always had some big names. We didn't"
"NBC wanted me to produce a weekly series after seeing how V was a smash. I told them no. It would be too difficult and expensive to do this as a weekly show. They then asked for a follow-up miniseries. They told me they did not want me as the director again. They said that were afraid I would not do it as quick and cheap and dirty as they'd like. That's when I parted ways with them and never had anything to do with either that miniseries, or the weekly series."
"I was told that the first miniseries was 2 to 3 million over budget. I knew it wasn't. I found out later that Warner Brothers resorted to a deceptive bookkeeping practice that is the model for all the studios. When we filmed V there were no other productions going on at the WB lot. So the various other departments that had a little overage in their budgets were passing them off to V, even though they were not at all connected to our production at all. We supplied a lot of fine carpeting to executive offices and fuel for the private jet."
"I never watched the follow-up miniseries or TV show. I was crushed at having my baby taken away from me by foster parents I did not trust." |
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