Glen A. Larson made television from premises that were easy to grasp and built to last. We value his knack for straightforward entertainment, though the formulas could feel second-hand and the remakes need judging on their own merits.
Fi1m perspective
A car talks in Knight Rider (1982), and the premise has done much of the work before the hero needs to explain himself. In The Fall Guy (1981), a stuntman also works as a bounty hunter. Larson favoured a set-up that could be understood quickly and supply another evening’s action, with light humour to keep things agreeable. We value that practical gift, even when the results make it difficult to give him much credit for originality.
His run of creations and co-creations in the 1970s and 1980s also took in Quincy, M.E. (1976), Battlestar Galactica (1978) and Magnum, P.I. (1980). The forensic drama helped establish the medical-examiner procedural; the science-fiction series supplied the starting point for later adaptations. Writer-producer Donald P. Bellisario was among Larson’s collaborators, a useful reminder to be careful about giving one name all the credit. The recurring criticism of derivative premises is fair, but treating reliable mainstream entertainment as an embarrassment would be less fair.
The later Battlestar Galactica (2004) shows how far one of those premises could travel. Larson shares the creator credit with Ronald D. Moore, whose work puts relentless pressure on the characters. We were gripped and occasionally exhausted by how seldom those people were allowed any relief. The tense storytelling earns much of that severity, and the ensemble led by Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell gives us reason to stay with it. We recommend the series despite the gloom, not because gloom proves that science fiction has grown up.
That persistent gloom is also where we begin to resist the programme: the determination to keep everything sombre sometimes becomes a nuisance. Our enthusiasm for the later Battlestar Galactica cannot simply be transferred to Larson’s original, any more than that reservation can. We can credit him with the starting point without making him responsible for every decision in the later series. Start with the 2004 series for the tense storytelling and the cast; do not expect it to explain the appeal of a talking car.
Biography
Glen A. Larson was an American television writer, producer and composer. He created numerous series including Battlestar Galactica (1978), Quincy, M.E. (1976), Magnum, P.I. (1980), The Fall Guy (1981) and Knight Rider (1982). He began his career as a member of the vocal group The Four Preps in the 1950s before moving into television writing in the mid-1960s.
Larson received a consulting producer credit on the reimagined Battlestar Galactica (2004) series and a writing credit under the pseudonym Christopher Eric James on the preceding miniseries. He was nominated for three Primetime Emmys and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1985. Larson died in 2014.
