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 The boxed DVD set of the complete "Starlost" series now available. |
series with big ambitions
of TheColumnists.com
I was filled with
strange memories when I opened the new DVD boxed set of the long
lost Canadian sci fi classic series "The Starlost."
And then it all came back to me: I’d spent a day on the
cramped set of this hourlong TV drama, which ran for 12 episodes
and then disappeared into the ether.
The illustrations said it all. There was Keir Dullea, once the
star of Stanley Kubrick's "2001--A Space Odyssey,"
reduced to playing a sort of farmer lost in space after his earth
got blown away.
I was transported back to the fall of 1973 when I drove for several
hours to CFTO-TV Studios in Agincourt, just outside Toronto.
In those days, I was a young TV critic for The Hamilton Spectator
in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
On that particularly blustery day I wasn’t quite sure what
to expect. Dullea initially seemed nervous and aloof. Only over
lunch in the commissary did he warm up a bit.
He seemed tired of being asked the same old question about why
a big movie star would take on a syndicated series shot well
outside the big studios.
CFTO was then in an expansionist mode as the largest station
in Canada's CTV network and "The Starlost" represented
the first concerted attempt to jump into the lucrative U.S. market.
It’s a scheme that continues to this day: Grab some American
stars, make a series that could be set anywhere in America instead
of Canada and import U.S. names as guests. Later on CFTO and
CTV would try the same formula with "Night Heat" (1985-91),
starring Scott Hylands, which eventually landed a spot on CBS’s
Late Night lineup. Then there was "Loving Friends and Perfect
Couples" (1983) from the creator of "Knots Landing,"
starring--you guessed it--Keir Dullea.
But "The Starlost" was the first of the Canadian-U.S.
hybrids.
The day I visited, the U.S. star of the week was pert Angel Tompkins,
hardly a Grade A player, but a hoot with her take on Hollywood
and what was hot at that time on prime time TV. Also she looked
great in a long, flowing towel.
By the time I arrived at CFTO the series had been in production
about a month. The creator was none other than science fiction
writer Harlan Ellison, who had already decamped in high fury,
complaining his concept had been mangled. However, his attempts
to get his name removed from the credits came to naught.
Yes, the set was tiny but this was no "Battlestar Galactica,"
but a rather dreary version of a spaceship modeled after "Noah’s
Ark." All the inhabitants were some sort of farmers. Instead
of space gear, Dullea sported a bushy mustache and the kind of
clothes one might wear if one was going out to mow hay.
The pilot episode for the series was pretty good, I had to admit.
Mother Earth was about to be destroyed and a select few Earthlings
embark on this giant star ship and zip around the universe trying
to find a suitable landing spot, preferably with oxygen and running
water.
Lunch was another matter. Dullea had planned to visit a local
plaza to buy toys for his daughter–it was going to be her
birthday. But he gave money to an assistant and instead opened
a carafe of what looked like pureed carrots and squash. I turned
down an invitation to sample that and ate a chocolate bar instead.
It just so happened I had a folder with me containing still photos
of practically every movie Dullea had made so far. The strange
thing was how often this gifted young actor had worked in Canada.
In 1966 he’d made a dazzling CBC-TV production of "Pale
Horse, Pale Rider" from the Katherine Anne Porter novella,
shot in Toronto, with Dullea playing opposite Joan Hackett.
(Decades later Hackett asked me if I could find her a copy of
that show and the answer came back negative. CBC’s contract
stipulated two showings and that was that, although in recent
years there have been several screenings at CBC retrospectives.)
Dullea also made made the feature film "Paperback Hero"
(1973) in Saskatchewan with two other American imports--John
Beck and Elizabeth Ashley. The production company was CFTO which
also rehired him for "The Starlost."
Other movies he made in Canada include "The Fox" (1967),
a D.H. Lawrence lesbian love story; "Black Christmas"
(1974), the popular horror film; "Welcome To Blood City"
(1977) and "Leopard in the Snow" (1978). In the U.S.
Dullea had first made an impression in "The Hoodlum Priest"
(1959) and "David and Lisa" (1962) and then in such
varied fare as "The Thin Red Line" (1964) and "Madame
X" (1977), in which he played Lana Turner’s son.
In Otto Preminger's "Bunny Lake Is Missing" (1965),
he’d actually beaten out Anthony Perkins for the role of
Carol Lynley’s twisted brother and he should have taken
over from Perkins in the category of the movies' ideal twitching
man child.
Instead he found himself on the set of "The Starlost."
How did that make him feel?
He shrugged and said he neededthe stability in his career that
a TV series promised. He had a family to take care of and didn’t
want to be living out of a suitcase, switching cities every few
months in order to follow the movie roles he could get.
Dullea’s two "Starlost" co-stars were Canadians
Gay Rowan and Robin Ward. Rowan gravitated to Hollywood but never
could jumpstart a career while Ward became a local TV weatherman.
Sterling Hayden starred in the pilot and later onboard were a
diverse list of Grade B American imports: Ed Ames of the singing
Ames Brothers, Frank Converse, Simon Oakland, etc. Canadian talent
on board included Barry Morse from "The Fugitive" TV
series, John Colicos, Lloyd Bochner and Donnelly Rhodes.
The idea was to make 16 episodes the first year. But alas only
12 hours got made before CFTO pulled the plug.
Watching the shows today is a big letdown. They’re even
worse than I remembered , very stodgy as sci fi goes,, although
the essence of Ellison’s creative concept can occasionally
be glimpsed.
And now the whole shebang is out in a DVD collection, proving old TV shows never die they just get lost until they wind up in boxed sets.
©2009 by Jim Bawden. This column first posted Sept. 28, 2009.
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