All very good points. Additionally, Martin Landau and Babara Bain went on an extensive promotional tour of all the major talk shows of the day promoting Space 1999 before it ever aired.
The time slot that UFO was shoved in, as a summer replacement, was previously filled by a variety show (music/dance/comedy). The folks normally tuning in at that time would not (in my opinion) be a prime audience for UFO. I think most folks who really took an interest in the show did not find it for some time.
I think in the end it comes down to UFO was very poorly marketed and promoted. Perhaps Space 1999's greater success was largely in part to the lessons learned with UFO.
Brian C.
Dave_Copley <
[hidden email]> wrote:
Linking to the other thread currently running on Space 1999 vs UFO,
some more reasons I think the former is better remembered in the U.S
could be
* American Actors. Like many ITC live action series, the inclusion of
American actors in lead roles was felt to be key to getting a U.S
sale of the show. Space 1999 had the advantage in that American
actors, well known from classic series, were cast in the lead parts.
Martin Landau & Barbara Bain from 'Mission Impossible', and Barry
Morse, though from New Zealand, starred in 'The Fugitive' for many
years. In contrast, UFO's lead Ed Bishop, was perhaps at the time
more of an emerging actor, less well known in the U.S.
* Setting. Space 1999 is set on the Moon, in deep space and on extra-
terrestrial planets. UFO is largely set in a recognisable Britain,
and is perhaps thought of as more of a 'British' series than Space
1999. (despite the presence of British character actors in many of
the Space 1999 episodes)
* Cancellation. Space 1999 did enough to get commissioned for (in my
opinion) a poorer second series. The show thus ran twice as long and
thus the public consciousness of the show would be higher. It's also
more recent.
UFO was cancelled after one season, largely because of U.S ratings
falling off I believe. I wonder whether this was anything to do with
the more psychological subject material of several of the latter
episodes of UFO, requiring a higher degree of audience engagement
than other contemporary sci-fi shows.
--- In
[hidden email], Brian Clarke <601now@...> wrote:
>
> That's definitely it. As I remember UFO only ran as a summer
replacement here in the US with an early evening (dinner time) time
slot, not the best. Space 1999 ran for 2 or 3 seasons (don't
remember which) in regular seasons (Sept - June) not just as a single
summers replacement like UFO. The Prisoner also got the same bad
scheduling treatment here during the summer of '67. It only became
really popular here when it was re-run years later on Public
Television with a proper evening timeslot. I wish the same would
happen for UFO.
> Brian C.
>
> Marc Martin <marc@...> wrote:
> > From my point of view, I am not supprised at all. 1999
(first series) is
> > less dated and a better series (I still love UFO though).
>
> I find that in the USA, SPACE:1999 is better remembered than UFO
is...
> it must have been broadcast at better times, or on more channels
than
> UFO was... (or had better advertising?).
>
> Marc
>
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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