Glen A. Larson

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deadline.com/2014/11/glen-a-larson-iconic-tv-creator-of-knight-rider-magnum-p-i-dies-at-77-1201285337/

Glen A. Larson, Iconic TV Creator Of ‘Knight Rider’, ‘Magnum P.I.’ Dies At 77

Emmy nominated TV creator Glen A. Larson, who was behind such ’70s and ’80s shows as Quincy M.E., Knight Rider, Battlestar Galactica, The Fall Guy and Magnum P.I., died Friday night of esophageal cancer at UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica, CA according to various trade and social media reports. Larson was 77. Born January 3, 1937 in Long Beach, CA, Larson cut his teeth in showbiz as a member of The Four Preps vocal group in 1956 which churned out three gold records for Capitol. Larson wrote such toons as “26 Miles (Santa Catalina)”, “Big Man” and “Down By The Station.” Larson racked up two Emmy noms for McCloud in the best limited series category in 1974 and 1975, and also earned an outstanding drama series nom for Quincy M.E. in 1976.

In time, TV writing, would become another one of Larson’s fortes, working under Quinn Martin Sr. (Streets of San Francisco, The Untouchables). Larson’s first scribe credit was on the 1966 episode The Fugitive, “In a Plain Paper Wrapper”. He landed a production deal at Universal early on his career with his first hit series being the ABC western Alias Smith and Jones which ran for 50 episodes across three seasons. Alias Smith and Jones followed the exploits of Hannibal Heyes and Jedediah “Kid” Curry (played by Pete Duel and Ben Murphy). Duel died from a self-inflicted gunshot in 1971 and Larson left the show. In 1980, Larson would leave Universal for 20th Century Fox.

When ABC rejected the original pilot of The Six Million Dollar Man based on Martin Caidin’s novel Cyborg, Larson took a second crack turning the action series about an ex-astronaut with bionic body parts into two 1973 TV movies which later spawned a mega hit with Lee Majors that lasted five seasons and 108 episodes.

Larson created Quincy M.E. starring Jack Klugman as a Los Angeles coroner investigating suspicious deaths. The show starred Jack Klugman and marked a change-up from the comedy he was known for on The Odd Couple. Quincy M.E. ran from 1976 to 1983 on NBC, clocking 148 episodes.

In the wake of the cinematic rebirth of sci-fi, spurred by Star Wars, Larson laubaunched Battlestar Galactica, an ABC sci-fi series which touched upon his Mormon beliefs. Fox sued Universal in 1980 over the show violation of Star Wars copyrights and lost. No surprise — the special effects for Battlestar were being overseen by Star Wars‘ John Dykstra. The show ran for 24 episodes from 1978-79, costing a whopping $1 million per show. ABC pulled the plug due to its cost, vying to recoup the money with a two-hour theatrical release of the show’s pilot “Saga of a Star World” which played in Canada, Europe and Australia. Larson would resurrect a second series at a lower budget for ABC, Galactica 1980, but it only lasted 10 shows. When Syfy rebooted a much darker, mature version of Battlestar Galactica and its spinoff Caprica in the early aughts, Larson received a consulting producer credit.

Together with Donald Bellisario, who Larson worked on with Quincy M.E. and Battlestar, they created the Hawaiian shirt private eye Magnum P.I., a mega-hit for CBS which solidified leading man Tom Selleck as a sex symbol of the 1980s. It did fine with a run from 1980-88 with 162 episodes. Larson applied the similar concept of hot guy in a hot sports car solving crimes to Knight Rider which ran on NBC from 1982-86. Like Magnum did for Selleck, it made David Hasselhoff a pin-up star. The show also played well with boys, who raised their eyebrows at the computer-talking Pontiac Trans-Am voiced by William Daniels. NBC rebooted Knight Rider for one season from 2008-09, but it didn’t resonate in a way that Battlestar Galactica did for a new generation.

Larson’s resume also boasted such shows as The Fall Guy, Manimal and Masquerade. In July 2011, Larson sued Universal Studios over unpaid profits that were due on such projects as The Six Million Dollar Man, Quincy M.E., Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Magnum P.I. and Knight Rider. He had previously sued the studio over ownership rights on Battlestar Galactica, after which it was decided that Larson owned feature film rights, not the TV rights.

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variety.com/2014/tv/news/glen-a-larson-dead-battlestar-galactica-magnum-p-i-quincy-knight-rider-1201357354/

Glen A. Larson, Prolific TV Producer of ‘Battlestar Galactica,’ ‘Magnum, P.I., ‘Quincy,’ Dies at 77

Glen A. Larson, the writer-producer behind such indelible TV dramas as “Battlestar Galactica,” “Magnum, P.I.,” “Knight Rider” and “Quincy M.E.,” has died, the Los Angeles Times reports. He was 77.

His son James told the Times that Larson died of complications from esophageal cancer on Friday night at UCLA Medical Center.

Larson had a string of TV hits in the 1970s and ’80s, and dozens of writing and producing credits to his name. His shows were rarely favored by critics, but his biggest hits enjoyed long runs in primetime and in syndication.

In reflecting on his long career, Larson credited his success to having a strong sense of the type of shows that would click with Middle America.

Larson said his milieu was defined as shows that were “enjoyable, they had a pretty decent dose of humor and they all struck a chord out there in the mainstream,” Larson told the Archive of American Television in 2009. “What we weren’t going to win … was a shelf full of Emmys. Ours were not the shows that were doing anything more than reaching a core audience. I would like to think that they brought a lot of entertainment into the living room.”

After growing up in Los Angeles, Larson got his start in the biz as a singer and a member of the pop vocal group the Four Preps, and he also worked as an NBC page. (Larson’s earliest mention in Variety is an item from the Aug. 7, 1957, edition of Daily Variety noting that the Four Preps were set for a guest shot on “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.”)

By the mid-1960s he had segued into TV writing and in 1969 he began a long tenure at Universal TV, starting with a spec script that he sold to “It Takes a Thief,” which starred Robert Wagner, whom Larson had known since his days at Hollywood High School. During his early Universal years, Larson was a key producer on “McCloud” with Dennis Weaver.

Larson created his first show, “Alias Smith and Jones,” in 1971, but left the ABC Western right after star Peter Duel committed suicide.

Larson also co-created “Quincy M.E.” with Lou Shaw. The NBC forensic drama starring Jack Klugman had an eight-season run from 1976-83, although Larson was ousted from the series early on.

He created “Battlestar Galactica” a few years later, after “Star Wars” ignited showbiz interest in space operas. Although the original series lasted only one season — ABC cut the cord in 1979 after two dozen episodes partly because of its hefty production cost — it had a “Star Trek”-like rebirth in the mid-2000s on Syfy.

Writers Ronald D. Moore and David Eick steered the Syfy revival that began as a miniseries in 2003 and expanded to a regular series that garnered critical acclaim for stars Edward James Olmos, Mary McConnell, Katie Sackhoff and Tricia Helfer.

“Magnum, P.I.” was a smash hit for CBS that launched Tom Selleck into stardom and ran from 1980-88. Larson created the show with Donald Bellisario, with whom he had already worked with on “Quincy M.E.” and “Battlestar Galactica.” Selleck played a Vietnam vet turned private investigator in Hawaii.

Larson was a key player in the career of TV leading man Lee Majors, who starred in the Larson-created ABC series “The Six Million Dollar Man” (1974-78) and “The Fall Guy” (1981-86).

Larson wrote and exec produced NBC’s “Knight Rider” (1982-86), starring David Hasselhoff as a crime-fighter whose work was aided by a talking car and supercomputer, K.I.T.T., voiced by William Daniels.

Larson earned three Emmy nominations during his long career, all for producing. “McCloud” was nommed for limited series in 1974 and 1975, while “Quincy” grabbed a best drama series bid in 1978.

More recently, Larson reunited with other members of the Four Preps in 2004 for a PBS special.

In addition to his brother, Larson is survived by his wife Jeannie; former wives Carol Gourley and Janet Curtis; and nine children.

Here is an interview with Larson about his long career from the Archive of American Television:

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variety.com/2014/tv/news/glen-a-larson-8-busted-projects-from-the-prolific-creator-of-knight-rider-battlestar-galactica-1201357651/

Glen A. Larson: 8 Outlandish Projects From the Creator of ‘Knight Rider,’ ‘Battlestar Galactica’

In his prime, Glen A. Larson could have sold a pilot for ice to the Eskimo Network.

The prolific producer, who died Friday at the age of 77, was not afraid of stretching the limits of physics and credulity in the pursuit of a hit series. He gave us K.I.T.T., the talking supercomputer car of “Knight Rider.” He gave us Steve Austin, the astronaut whose creaky atomic-powered implants gave him superhuman strength. He put Lorne Greene in a track suit and cape to lead “Battlestar Galactica.” And he sicced a mild-mannered NYU professor who turns into fierce animals on NBC with “Manimal.”


But even with a track record of success that also included “Quincy,” “Magnum, P.I.,” “The Fall Guy” and, yes, “B.J. and the Bear,” Larson had plenty of ones that got away. Culled from the pages of Variety, here’s a look at a few Larson pilots that never made it to series and some other short-lived efforts. Most of them did see the light of primetime eventually, airing as TV movies or busted pilots during off-peak periods.

“The Wonderful World of Sin” — three half-hour pilots produced for NBC in 1973. The idea was to focus on a cardinal sin in each episode. The prototype half-hours dealt with sloth, lust and envy, with a cast that included a post-“Bewitched” Dick Sargent and Julie “Catwoman” Newmar. The pilots were eventually strung together and ran in 1974 as a telepic under the title “Fools, Females and Fun.”
“Prisoners in Paradise” — a 1974 pilot for ABC. At least it was proposed as a pilot, before disappearing off the face of the earth (and the pages of Variety).
“The Islander” — first developed for NBC in 1977, the project shifted to CBS and got made as a pilot but went no further. Dennis Weaver, who Larson worked with on “McCloud,” starred as a retired lawyer who buys a hotel in Hawaii. Bernadette Peters and Sharon Gless co-starred. The setting was clearly a warm-up for planting “Magnum” in the 50th state.
“Fitz and Bones” — a series that lasted four episodes in 1981 that brought the Smothers Brothers back to CBS, in a detective drama that also starred Diana Muldaur and Roger C. Carmel.
“Rooster” — a 1981 buddy detective vehicle for ABC starring Paul Williams and Pat McCormick, the notoriously out-there comedy writer known for his association with Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show.”
“Half Nelson” — 1984 NBC pilot starring Joe Pesci as a New York City cop who moves to Beverly Hills to break into the movies, but joins the force after failing to become a star. Dean Martin played himself. CORRECTION: As a reader notes, this did become a short-lived series in 1985 after airing as a TV movie.
“Harper’s Bizarre” — a 1984 CBS pilot about a male model who spies for a covert intelligence agency. CLARIFICATION: This concept was adjusted slightly and became the CBS series “Cover Up.”
“Free Spirits” — a 1985 CBS pilot about five former musicians who uncover the murder of a friend and decide to form a detective agency.
Yet the masterwork of busted Larson pilots has to be “Benny and Barney,” a 1976 effort for NBC that revolved around rookie cops in Las Vegas.

When it ran as a telepic (“Benny and Barney: Las Vegas Undercover”) in January 1977, Variety’s reviewer noted that the show bore more than a passing resemblance to ABC’s “Starsky and Hutch.” “Benny” was so bad, so riddled with cliches that it inspired the introductory disclaimer below from the critic ID’d only by the pseudonym “Mor” (as was the paper’s cryptic custom for reviews back then).

“One school of thought maintains that the worst examples of popular art become classics in 20 years, the implication being that judgment should be suspended on the junk-food diet of television lest some future cultural dietitian find it nutritious and delicious. If that dubious proposition holds water, then ‘Benny and Barney’ should be put into a time capsule along with a nomination for best potential for future schlock.”

Mor was undoubtedly comforted in later years to see “Manimal” consistently voted among the worst TV shows of all time. But Larson by his own admission didn’t care much for the opinion of TV critics. He kept selling, writing and producing shows into the 1990s — and laughed all the way to the bank.