Jim Carlson
began his writing career working with comedian Morey Amsterdam, and also worked for Bob
Newhart and Phyllis Diller. His first break into television came as a staff writer on Laugh-in;
Morey Amsterdam introduced him to Dan Rowan and Dick Martin. Carlson also wrote scripts
for The Jeffersons, and then moved into drama, writing for Adam-12 and Emergency!
About Emergency!, Carlson said, That was an interesting show. It was a very
easy show to write for, and it was one of Jack Webbs shows. In fact, that was my
first hour show. You could write those scripts in no time flat because they were basically
little vignettes, there were four or five vignettes that you hung on what was called a
spine, something that was going on at the station. So structurally it was a very easy show
to write. It was fun. And they paid on time! It was while working on The Six
Million Dollar Man that Carlson met Terrence McDonnell and the two became a writing
team. Carlson describes their usual way of work as sitting down together to hash out
ideas, coming up with a script outline, and then retiring to their typewriters. Carlson
would write acts one and two, McDonnell would write three and four, and then they would
sit back down together and edit what they had written into a seamless whole.
When Carlson and McDonnell were hired
as story editors for Battlestar Galactica, they found the series in a state of
near-crisis. Originally intended as a series of specials, the change of BG to a
weekly series had left the producers with a shortage of material. Carlson and McDonnell
were brought in to write their own episodes and help edit some of the others. It is well
known that when they arrived, they were given a basic story idea for a Patton in
Space episode as a sample of what they could do. Some in fandom have assumed that
Glen Larson then stole the idea for Living Legend from the two writers, but Carlson
and McDonnell both confirm that what they wrote had little in common with what eventually
ended up on screen; Patton in Space was clearly an idea the producers had been
tossing around and served as a useful test for the new story editors; in fact the script
for Living Legend must have existed as a finished document at that time since the
two writers started work in October 1978 after seven episodes had already been shot.
Surprisingly, the production team never
sat down and talked out the direction they wanted the series to go. Carlson and McDonnell
found themselves working mostly with producer Don Bellisario. Don was very good at
trying to bring everything together. We would sit down with him. But Glen was gone so
much, and I dont mean to imply he wasnt working, he was working wherever he
was, but he would be in Hawaii, et cetera, so we saw very little of Glen at the time. But
we did have a lot of discussions with Don Bellisario regarding the direction of the show,
guest stars, premises for possible episodes, things like that. Don worked very closely
with us. Carlson and McDonnell felt that the series should focus more on characters,
and submitted story ideas that had the main characters interacting with people on other
ships in the fleet. Carlson explained, What we tried to do is bring them together
with other people in the ships to show how theyd interact, to give them a kind of
feel of being human, so that they could react to other people other than Adama and the
rest of the crew of the Galactica
.
thats where we came up with Two
for Twilly and we had other ideas that just never got approved. We usually found Don
was pretty much in agreement with us but somewhere up the line, whether it was Glen or the
network or the studio, we were never sure because we never asked and were told where some
of these things ended. What we would do is submit a list of story ideas, like a paragraph
each, maybe five or seven at a time that would go through Don and once in awhile Don would
pull one out, say, no, we dont want to do that, but usually he would
either add something to them or change them slightly or just let them go through as they
were, and then when they were passed on up the line, somewhere along the line somebody
would make a decision. Rather than a bunch of them being rejected, one would be accepted,
and we would go ahead and work on that one, like Take the Celestra.
Unfortunately, the story ideas that were rejected have vanished completely, although
Carlson has the impression that some of them might have made good episodes.
The two writers found Don Bellisario a
pleasure to work with. Carlson describes Bellisario (whose current hit series is JAG)
as
a good producer and a good writer. I think Dons brilliant.
After working hours he and McDonnell would relax with Bellisario in Bellisarios
office over coffee or beer. One of these sessions led, entirely by accident, to a name for
the series most memorable villains. Terry and myself and Don Bellisario were
literally standing in the doorway of his office, and the guy that played the main nomen,
Lance LeGault, he was there too. And we were all just kidding around and Don had said,
weve got to come up with a name for this group of villains. So we
bounced a whole bunch of things around and I think, I cant remember exactly, but I
think I said something like well, too bad this doesnt take place in the arctic
cause we could call them snowmen. And Don looked at me, he said,
Theres no snow where these guys are gonna be! So I said, then
knock off the snow and call them nomen, it was something like that, it was just off
the cuff, making a joke. And Lance and Terry and I laughed and Don looked and his eyes got
wide and he said, Thats it, thats the name. That feels right.
Dons instincts are wonderful. I would have gone right by that, I just made a joke,
but Don heard it and it just rang in his ear, thats what he wanted to use.
When I mentioned that it seemed odd that Bellisario had written and casted his episode
without having a name for his villains, Carlson added, Wed been toying with
this off and on for I dont know, a week or ten days trying to find something.
I commented that fans had been wondering for years what on earth the name
nomen meant, and Carlson laughed, It meant it was about 7:30 in the
evening and we were standing around Dons office kidding around!
Carlson and McDonnells first
story assignment after their arrival was Fire in Space. Glen Larson and Don
Bellisario took the two writers to lunch and explained what they wanted from the episode,
then Carlson and McDonnell set to work. What the two men didnt know at the time was
that the idea for Fire in Space came from an early BG script of the same
title written by Michael Sloan. Carlson remembers being confused when Sloan, who was also
working at Universal at the time although no longer on BG, began to give him the
cold shoulder; it was some time before he found out why, but Sloan clearly felt that
Carlson and McDonnell had infringed on his territory (indeed Sloan confirmed to me in a
letter I didnt like the rewrites that were done on my script). Quite
inadvertently, Carlson and McDonnell found themselves nominated for an NAACP Image Award
for Fire in Space thanks to the extensive roles in the episode of Terry Carter as
Colonel Tigh and Herb Jefferson as Boomer. They were pleased, but as Carlson points out, BG
was a laudably colorblind show.
Richard Hatch always had useful
suggestions for the writers. The script for Fire in Space originally ended without
a meeting between Adama and Apollo; Hatch suggested there should be one, and the writers
agreed and added the final scene.
While Richard was making useful
suggestions, ABC was tinkering the series to death. Everyone who has worked on BG,
including Carlson, agree that network interference was at a high, and that it had a
negative influence. Carlson remarked dryly, The best thing that can happen to you is
you get on a mediocre show because most people dont bother monkeying with it. But
you get on a hit show, which Galactica was at the beginning, and everybody wants to
have their fingerprints all over it and wants to get their input. And that can get very
difficult because you have network executives who are out there trying to do a good job
but theyre hoping to make it better. No one wants to make a bad show, but they want
to be involved and what they dont realize is that in most cases, because there are a
few rare exceptions, that is not their forte, story and character development and scene
construction, all of those creative things that a writer has to exercise in order to make
something work. Sometimes you might meet someone who really knows about it and has a flare
for it and they understand, you can talk at the same level. But often you find yourself in
discussions with people that dont understand what youre talking about, not
because theyre stupid, because theyre not, its just that they dont
have the experience and the talent in that arena
you have to be quite a diplomat and
sometimes its very frustrating. Nobody really wanted to destroy the show, but they
all wanted to have an impact and they all felt they knew what they were doing.
Unfortunately they thought they knew more than the production staff, and thats not
the case, but thats not unusual in network television.
ABC interference hit home in two of
Carlson and McDonnells scripts. In their original draft for Fire in Space,
Starbuck and Apollo were setting explosive charges on the hull of the Galactica as
another Cylon attack wave closed in; ABC objected, as there had already been a Cylon
attack and they felt the second was repetitive. In fact, the excision removed what would
have been useful extra tension and urgency to the scene. In the second case, Carlson was
able to salvage the situation. In doing Take the Celestra we had a firefight
going on, and this goes to the quota of violence thats involved and ABC had some
kind of formula that you could have x number of incidents of violence within a show, and I
think it was like four or five but Im not sure. But meantime we had a B
story going on back aboard the Galactica and we had to cut away from that
firefight, then we come back to the firefight and then finish that. Well, I got a call
from this young lady at ABC who was new at that time in the Standards and Practices
division and probably very imbued with follow the rules and regulations as
theyre set down on paper. And she was counting that firefight as two instances
of violence because we cut away to go back to the Galactica and she said you have
to drop either the beginning or the ending of the firefight. And I said we cant do
that, its impossible, besides, its only one incidence of violence with this
cutting away, its not two. And she said no, its two, you have to drop one, and
I said we cant, its impossible, and she said, no, its not. And she
became very adamant about it and finally I lost my cool, I didnt swear at her or
call her names or anything, I just said I didnt think this was going to work and
invited her to come over and write the episode. So she hung up on me and I picked up the
phone again and called her boss and explained the situation to him. And he listened to
what I had to say and I didnt say a word about her except that she didnt agree
with me and he listened to my explanation and said, thats fine, go
ahead.
After writing Fire in Space,
Carlson and McDonnell turned to Murder on the Rising Star, which led to a marathon
writing session. As Carlson told it, Pressure and time constraints never let up. And
some of that could have been avoided but certainly and probably not all of it. In the case
of Murder on the Rising Star, where Terry and I worked 36 hours straight through,
that was because Glen took almost a week to make up his mind what story he wanted us to
do. And the rest of the time, prior to getting the OK we were sitting around twiddling our
thumbs and he was in Hawaii reading over our premises and we kept trying to get an OK from
him and Don Bellisario called at least once a day and we just couldnt get an answer
out of him until we were right up against a very hairy deadline. ...you cant do your
best work in a situation like that. Carlson remembers xeroxing the script at 6:30 in
the morning.
Take the Celestra was their last
script for BG, and during rewrites, their contract ran out. Carlson described the
scene that ensued: We got one of those classic Hollywood notices
we were
working on Take the Celestra, we were supposed to have the script ready for
prep
this was on Thursday, we were supposed to have the script ready for prep the
following Wednesday. And our agent called and said our contract was over, which it was,
and that they werent picking us up for the rest of the shows because theyd
already been written, and that we had to have our desks cleaned out and be off the lot by
six oclock the following day. This wasnt throwing us off the lot, its
just that it was over and they want you out of there. So we went in to Don Bellisario and
said, Don, we cant finish the Celestra script, the rewrites, because we
only have tomorrow; and it was going to take a couple days. And he stood up behind
his desk and, What?! Who told you that? And he said hed see about that
right now, and go back to work. So we went back to our office and kept on working and he
came in about ten, twenty minutes later and said youre going to be
here
I cant remember if it was a week or two weeks. But the funny thing
is, by the time we got down to the parking lot that night they had already painted out the
names on our parking spots.
Carlson noted that he and McDonnell
seemed to have a fundamental difference of approach to Battlestar Galactica than
Glen Larson did. Glen is a very good writer, but he tends to write very expansively.
Take the episode with Commander Cain and the other one, War of the Gods. Those are
very expansive, broad-canvas shows and very good shows, very well written. But
theyre not particularly character-oriented, theyre immense and panoramically
oriented, which is fine, theres nothing wrong with that. But Terry and I were always
pushing for this other direction to go, and who knows? Terry and I may have been
wrong. Asked what he would change if he had the power to do so, Carlson said,
What I would have done is make the continuity more even. There was unfortunately
between episodes a lack of continuity. You get these very intense episodes, then you get a
light-hearted one, then another intense one or two or three and then you get some that
were right in the middle and it was like searching around trying to find the right light
switch in the dark.
In spite of the pressure, the
differences of opinion, and the problems with the network, Carlson enjoyed his work on Battlestar
Galactica. Galactica was one of those experiences that comes along once
in a lifetime. Ive worked on a lot of forgettable shows and Ive worked on a
lot of very memorable shows, but Galactica to me was, I just remember it with fond,
fond memories, cause it was so much fun, in spite of the hectic pace and all of that
it was just
we were on a high all the time, no matter how tired we were or anything
else, we were always on a high. And it seemed like everyone else on the show was. And the
whole production staff, Harker Wade, Jean-Pierre Dorleac, Stu Phillips
all the people
involved, we just all got along real well. It was like having party while youre
working hard and it was just so enjoyable. Everybody like everybody else and we all
enjoyed what we were doing. I pointed out that Galactica could have run for
ten years, easily, and Carlson agreed, It should have. It really should have. From
what I understand, there was a lot of politics going on, in the network, between the
network and Glens production staff, and I dont know what it was. I dont
think it had to have been canceled. Even knowing that with almost absolute certainty that
Terry and I wouldnt have been part of it for the second season, we would have both
loved to see the show go on, find its momentum, find its place. It could have done a
wonderful run. He summed up, It was the best of times and the worst of times,
and that was kind of really Galactica. All in all, if I have to shake it out and
say, what do you remember, I remember the fun.
�2000, Susan J. Paxton