Tony Barwick

Hey, guys!
Does anyone know why Tony Barwick only wrote 12 episodes for UFO? Did theyportion them out episode by episode to different writers or did they just lose him somewhere along the way? Can anyone elucidate for me, please? Appreciate it.
Yours,
Denise

> Does anyone know why Tony Barwick only wrote 12 episodes for UFO? Did
> they portion them out episode by episode to different writers or did they
> just lose him somewhere along the way? Can anyone elucidate for me,
> please? Appreciate it.

Generally one person does not write every single episode of a TV series.
For UFO, they were planning on rotating between a few writers, although
people came and went, and it seems that Tony Barwick ended up writing
more than most.

Marc

I don't think it was ever intended that Tony Barwick would write all or even most of UFO - different writers bring different angles. He was probably the Anderson's most used writer in the later puppet years and his experiencemay be why he was chosen for a lot of the earlier UFO episodes. He did write throughout the series' two production blocks although only two of the final nine when the producers drafted in new writers like David Tomblin and Terence Feely as the show moved into new dimensions. Tony's two later scripts though - "The Psychobombs" and "Mindbender" - are both very good, especially the latter and both capture really well the more radical style of the later episodes. Tony remained script editor throughout though so his influence was always there.

--- On Mon, 9/11/09, neesierie <[hidden email]> wrote:


From: neesierie <[hidden email]>
Subject: [SHADO] Tony Barwick
To: [hidden email]
Date: Monday, 9 November, 2009, 17:24


 



Hey, guys!
Does anyone know why Tony Barwick only wrote 12 episodes for UFO? Did they portion them out episode by episode to different writers or did they just lose him somewhere along the way? Can anyone elucidate for me, please? Appreciate it.
Yours,
Denise









     

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

For one person to write all the episodes for such a series would be virtually impossible - certainly to a decent standard and without being repetitive.
Such a series at the time would usually be commissioned on the basis of a treatment, probably a single complete script and bare ideas for a few others. Therefore as soon as the series was commissioned there would be a mad rush to get scripts written as the series would immediately start to gear up for production. Shooting would begin as soon as possible and there were tight schedules. Scripts would sometimes only be finished with hours to spare before a particular episode started shooting.

With the unavoidable exception in the case of UFO of MGM closing, nothing must be allowed to hold up production. It's just too expensive. If the script was poor but that was all that was available to shoot, it would be shot.
It would be insane in those circumstances for a producer to rely on a single person to generate all the scripts even if it was possible.

The norm for ITC-type filmed series was for a "bible" - an outline of the format, characters, settings etc of the series - to be produced by the creator(s) and producer. This bible would be circulated among likely reliable writers and agents. The writers would pitch story ideas and those accepted would be commissioned.

As I've mentioned before, this accounts for the discrepancies between the scripts of different writers as the plotlines were not being centrally generated (although if a specific story was necessary - such as an introductory episode - then it was usually written by the creator(s) or a writer particularly close to the production).

I think it's more useful to think of the individual stories in ITC-type series as being "variations on a theme", rather then trying to torture them into being a completely consistent storyline.

P.S.
Another example of "centrally generated" stories on ITC-type series were those born of desperation.
When a series was running behind schedule or was overrunning its budget then an episode might be especially written either to be cheap and/or so that two episodes could shoot at the same time.

Hallmarks of such episodes might include:
-heavy use of clips from other episodes
-a very limited cast
-very limited settings
-an episode concentration on a single character who wasn't the lead, or theonly lead character, so that another episode could be shooting at the sametime  
-an episode shot by the 2nd Unit Director of Photography, or an imported DP(also so that the usual main unit could be shooting another episode).

Of course it doesn't mean that any single instance of the above indicates aproblem but certainly two or more is highly suggestive.

Regards
John


--- In [hidden email], jks@... wrote:
>
> (.....) As I've mentioned before, this accounts for the discrepancies between the scripts of different writers as the plotlines were not being centrally generated (although if a specific story was necessary - such as an introductory episode - then it was usually written by the creator(s) or a writer particularly close to the production).

Guys,
Thank you so much for all the feedback! I needed some background on Tony and hoped someone might have the story behind the stories. *grin* I didn't realize that Tony was script editor. Was that throughout the run of the show?
Always asking,
Denise

--- In [hidden email], "Marc Martin" <marc@...> wrote:

> I didn't realize that Tony was script editor. Was that throughout the run
> of the show?

Yes!

Marc

Woo hoo! Thanks!
--Denise

--- In [hidden email], "Marc Martin" <marc@...> wrote:
>
> > I didn't realize that Tony was script editor. Was that throughout the run
> > of the show?
>
> Yes!
>
> Marc
>