the passing of a good man..

Sad news to share..

Everyone, I know I have been rarely around, And what a hell of a way to come
out of lurk mode..(other then SHADO)) But I felt you should all know.. The
article below came directly from the Fanderson website..

Agent April Dancer

PS.. I heard this news first off the 2 s1999 groups I am on.. I only belong
to the The Wild, Wild West, Bionicfans, Fugitive and SHADO groups.. Please,
if any of you who are on these 4 groups are members of other groups for the
other series he worked on.. Please do pass this article on..

This article has a very nice pic of Fred Freiberger. You all can go and see
it with the article at this url.. http://www.fanderson.org.uk/news.html#Fred 
Freiberger

---------------------------------------------------------------
Space:1999 Producer Fred Freiberger Dies
Updated: March 5th, 2102

Legendary television writer and producer Fred Freiberger, producer of the
second season of Gerry Anderson's Space:1999, has died aged 88. A producer
on American television series such as The Wild, Wild West and Star Trek
prior to his involvement on Space:1999, Fred Freiberger became head writer
and producer on Space:1999's second series of 24 episodes, instigating many
changes to the original format including the addition of the Psychon
metamorph Maya (portrayed by Catherine Schell) and security chief Tony
Verdeschi (Tony Anholt). Apart from rewriting the majority of the Year Two
scripts, Freiberger also contributed complete scripts for three episodes
(The Rules Of Luton, The Beta Cloud and Space Warp) under the pen name
Charles Woodgrove. He later worked with Gerry Anderson on abortive attempts
to develop the series concepts Rescue 4 and Starcruiser for American network
television.

Born on February 19th, 1915 in New York, Freiberger began his career in
advertising in the late 1930s and was then stationed with the US 8th Air
Force in England during the Second World War. In November 1943, he earned
the Purple Heart after being shot down over Germany, where he spent 22
months in a prisoner of war camp. Liberated at the end of the war, he moved
to Hollywood where he began his career in the film industry as a film
publicist. A Hollywood strike and the subsequent shortage of films to
promote led Freiberger to try his hand at writing. He became closely
involved with Comet Productions, run by Mary Pickford's husband Buddy Rogers
and Ralph Cohn, and wrote the screenplays for 13 feature films including The
Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953), Egypt By Three (1953), Big Chase (1954),
The Black Pirates (1954), The Beginning Of The End (1957), Blood Arrow
(1958) and Crash Landing (1958).

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Freiberger became increasingly
prolific as a television writer and worked on series such as Zane Grey
Theater, Ford Theater, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Have Gun Will Travel,
Wanted: Dead Or Alive, Rawhide, Bonanza, The Fugitive and The Big Valley. In
1961, he became one of the producers of the ABC medical drama Ben Casey, and
went on to produce CBS's fantasy western series The Wild, Wild West in 1965.
Three years later, he replaced Gene L. Coon and John Meredyth Lucas as
producer on the third season of Star Trek, overseeing the classic series'
final 24 episodes. Here, Freiberger produced many memorable episodes
including fan favourites such as All Our Yesterdays, The Tholian Web, Is
There In Truth No Beauty?, Spectre Of The Gun, The Enterprise Incident and
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield, in addition to the infamous Spock's
Brain, The Empath and The Way To Eden episodes.

Further television writing assignments followed on Josie And The
Pussycats In Outer Space, Petrocelli, S.W.A.T. and Starsky And Hutch before
he relocated to England in the autumn of 1975 for 18 months' work on
Space:1999 at Pinewood Studios. Although many of Freiberger's ideas broke
the boundaries of what Gerry Anderson considered to be 'credible' within the
context of the programme, often infuriating series star Martin Landau, he
nonetheless produced a wide variety of entertaining and memorable episodes
that remain popular with fans, including The Metamorph, Journey To Where,
Brian The Brain, New Adam New Eve, The AB Chrysalis, Devil's Planet and the
two-part story The Bringers Of Wonder. After Space:1999 was cancelled,
Freiberger returned to Hollywood where he became executive story consultant
on Kaz and producer on the fifth season of The Six Million Dollar Man. On
the latter series, he deliberately introduced more science-fiction elements
into the scripts with episodes such as Dark Side Of The Moon, Return Of The
Death Probe, The Lost Island, Date With Danger (all two-part stories),
Bigfoot V and Just A Matter Of Time. He later wrote for The Dukes Of
Hazzard, produced the short-lived CBS series Beyond Westworld, script edited
the first season of Cagney & Lacey and became executive story consultant on
the long-running Superboy series.

Fred Freiberger died at his home in Bel Air, Los Angeles on Sunday, March
2nd, aged 88. He leaves his wife Shirley, a daughter, son and two
grandchildren.

Donations in his memory can be made to the New Israel Fund, c/o P.O. Box
91588, Washington D.C. 20090, United States.






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