Old SF TV Show: Logan's Run

[Broomstick]

I know this ran in the US, and I'm reasonably sure it ran in the UK as well, but probably not anywhere else. It was a short-lived series (Fall 1977-Spring 1978), meaning it hit TV screens just a few months after the first Star Wars movie was released which was a HUGE game-changer in the effects department.

For other reference points, that was two years before the first Star Trek movie, a year before the first Battlestar Galatica, and two years before the Buck Rogers TV show (the original Buck Rogers movie serials came out in 1939, so it was 38 years after that). The Six Million Dollar Man was still running, in its last season. Tom Baker was still playing The Doctor and the BBC effects were still on the level of bubble wrap painted green.

Logan's Run the TV series was based on the movie of the same name (to the point of including some footage of the actual movie in the pilot and a couple other episodes, the sandman costumes were from the movie, and the guns by the sandmen on the TV show were the actual movie gun props) which was based on but did not too closely follow the William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson novel of the same name, which was part of a trilogy. Some of the reasons for the changes between novel and movie were the difficulty and expense of trying to portray the scope and settings of the novel in a movie format at the time, something movies pretty much don't have have to worry about much any more, and some social issues such as drugs and recreational sex.

So - the movie was successful enough that the proposal for a TV show was accepted. Now, for a geeky SF fan in the 1970's there wasn't a whole lot on offer at the time (pretty much Steve Austin the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman was it at the time. Oh, and Star Trek re-runs if you were lucky enough to have a channel running them, and they weren't too chopped up to allow for more commercials). Unfortunately, the fan base for SF in general was much smaller back then, which made more than one season highly unlikely from the get-go, and sure enough, there was only one season.

I saw part of it during its first run (I forget what else I was doing at the time, but I know I missed about half of the series) and since it was never re-run that was it until I ordered a copy off Amazon last week. Gee, only a 38 year gap! But I remembered enjoying it as a kid and for $12 what the hell, right?

Wow, have things changed.

Well, for starters, when I was a kid I was watching it on a 15 inch standard resolution black and white TV. I knew what the colors were for the main actors' costumes and such, but it does look very different in color. I'm also watching it on a 70 inch TV, and whether or not you grok inches over centimeters the key point here is that now the picture is four and half times bigger. Which means some things you won't notice on a smaller screen will become painfully obvious on the larger one. Like drywall seams on the set. The effects are largely stage effects, basically, the ones that had been used since... well, since the Buck Rogers movie serials BUT - and this is important - there are a few, primitive CGI effects. Not many, they were budget-busters at the time (I don't think Industrial Light and Magic had started to hire their services out beyond Star Wars yet), but it's really one of the first time we see that on the small screen. Nevermind that in-story (except for robots and androids) computers were still the room-fillers of earlier decades and my spouse was amusing himself identifying which Radio Shack switches were incorporated into the props (he used to work for Radio Shack).

So, if you do check it out, expect some rather bare-bones sets and locations near the production studio (for some reason everything outdoors looks like southern California...). Based on appearances they probably had a slightly higher budget than Doctor Who did at the time, but walls and doors occasionally wobble. The writing isn't top shelf, although there are some very good scenes and lines from time to time, the occasional moment of funny or awesome, and while I am much more cynical in middle age than as a child I'm still enjoying it. My spouse was correct in that the writing is a bit more towards the kid than adult level, something I of course didn't notice way back when.

Some things were mellowed out for 1970's prime time TV. In the novel, sandmen are sociopathic killers raised and trained to execute people who didn't cooperate with society's rule about maximum lifespan. They were not nice people. Also, lots of sex which, given the maximum lifespans, meant almost exclusively underage sex. And drug use, lots and lots of drug use (at the time the novel was published in the 1960's LSD was still legal in most of the US so acceptability in a narrative, particularly in a novel, was a bit more liberal than when the movie was made). And violence. For the movie, the sandman Logan was made into more of a jerkass with some redeeming qualities, and the maximum age was raised to 30 rather than 21 and most characters also aged about 10 years because, first of all, mounting a production with actors young enough to pull off kids that young was going to be a problem, and also the problem with all that sex going on. And the drug use and violence was toned down. For the TV show even more so - despite Logan and Jessica basically living in a car for the series there isn't any overt clues that they were banging each other, little drinking, can't really recall any drugs (haven't re-watched the whole thing yet) and the sandmen guns now have a stun setting so instead of Logan pretty much killing anyone he shoots he just stuns them most of the time. Getting shot or killed is pretty clean, no blood puddles, if women are carried off by bandits there's no indication of rape... basically, "family friendly" as used in the context of TV shows of the time.

Of note - several people from the original Star Trek were also involved in this, most notably DC Fontana, and both David Gerrold (who wrote Trek's "The Trouble with Tribbles") and Harlan Ellison (Trek's "City on the Edge of Forever") wrote scripts for Logan's Run, which not surprisingly are considered two of the better episodes ("The Crypt" and "Man Out of Time") although both were so heavily revised that it prompted Gerrold to use a pseudonym. One of the original novel writers, Nolan, and the original producer of the movie, Saul David, were involved at the beginning of the series which helps keep the flavor of the movie and to some extent the novels (the movie and TV being basically a much nicer continuity of the novel's crapsack dystopia).

Anyhow, the characters: Logan is even nicer in the TV show than in the movie. In the TV show he is clearly showing doubts about his society even before he runs away (in the movie and novel he is basically forced to become a runner, a rebel). However, he retains enough edge to still be somewhat interesting. He certainly doesn't have a problem with shooting people, even if he's not automatically in kill mode, and he's still basically his society's equivalent of a special forces dude. So he gets the action sequences and fights for the most part.

Jessica is a bit of a damsel in distress, but not too much. I won't comment on how appropriate her shimmery pink dress, white tights, and ballet slippers are or aren't for the terrain they encounter. This is also a show that seldom if ever brings up the issue of getting food while on the run (I sort of assumed Logan shot animals and cooked them over a fire), water in the dessert (occasionally it's a small plot point), and the only mention of bodily waste functions was a throw-away line in an early episode by Rem (more on him in a bit). Star Trek TOS didn't have toilets and never does Logan's Run. Jessica does, however, show some backbone and resourcefulness, occasionally will take out a baddie herself (usually a fellow female), and has the wit to stage an ambush against a better armed opponent. She's a girly-girl, though, and seems focused on motherhood and babies and traditionally feminine concerns as envisioned by mid-20th Century America. It's not so heavy-handed as to destroy the enjoyment of the show, but it's a bit obvious to me now.

Rem is the third member of the merry band of wanderers. He is totally an invention for the TV show, but probably accounts for it getting a full season rather than an early cancellation. He's an android, a ridiculously human AI, but with thank god no pinnochio syndrome. He doesn't want to be human. He looks human, he is clearly fond of Logan and Jessica as individuals, and in many ways acts human (on occasion he even fakes being human), but he's not. Rem is essential to Logan and Jessica because he can fix things that break down, like their hovercar, and because he knows a lot of shit (he's over two hundred years old and has a lot of knowledge simply loaded into his memory). He is, now that I think about it, sort of like The Doctor in that he's a much older and wiser member of the party with a lot more technical knowledge than the two protagonists. That said, he spent most of his first 200 years in the same city so he has no more idea about the people they encounter than Logan and Jessica do, or where the settlements of people are in this post-apocalyptic world (did I mention this is very post-nuclear war?). He has to figure things out, he doesn't just pull answers out of his ass all the time. He is also a technical pacifist - supposedly he's programmed never to harm humans but he's smart enough to intepret that very broadly ("You're pointing a gun at me? But you're programmed never to hurt humans, why don't I just take it?" Thoughtful pause "True, but if you try to take it from me it might go off in the struggle and kill you accidentally" Satisfied smirk) Emphasis on technical - he won't harm people directly but he doesn't have an issue in setting up a situation where they harm themselves or come to harm from something else. He's also a snarkmaster, and do NOT call him a robot or a "mere machine".

The fourth recurring character is Francis, a sandman explicitly tasked with bringing Logan and Jessica back to the City of Domes. As in the book and the movie, in the TV series Logan and Francis were originally teammates and, strongly implied, friends (to the extent sandmen could be said to have friends in the novel). They are now enemies. Inexplicably, in the TV series it is revealed that the City of Domes is run not by computers (as in the novels and movie) but by a council of elders, people selected to live past the allotted lifespan. Francis is told he can join them and live a lot longer than 30 if he brings back Logan and Jessica alive for use in propaganda prior to their deaths. This also keeps Francis from killing the two heroes out of expedience. Francis is frequently seen with other sandmen assisting him (many of whom get the redshirt treatment), and his constant chasing of Logan and Jessica prevent them from settling down (and the series ending). On the other hand, he does at times work with Logan and Jessica against a mutual threat, and even rescues them once or twice (since he does need them alive). He's basically a frenemy.

The format of the show is basically "encounter new group of surviving humans per week" although sometimes it's aliens they encounter. That can sustain interest for awhile, but honestly, by the end of the run it was getting getting a bit formulaic. The original Battlestar Galactica suffered from similar problems, to be honest. Just from plot summaries I can identify a couple of rehashed plots from Star Trek (not in the stories by Ellison, Gerrold, or Fontana though). It's not bad, but it doesn't have the sheer inventiveness of, say Firefly.

The show never had a particularly big budget, and while there are still fans around (like me) there aren't enough to justify a large outlay in restoring the video. Not only does the selection format for the DVD look like something from the late 1980's, the picture quality shows some age. Some clips show signs of fading, the sort of lack of reds that leads me to think the originals were film stock with some deterioration. It's all still quite watchable, just clearly not fully restored and certainly not in modern high definition. And, you know, I'm glad it's been preserved but even as a fan I wouldn't sink a ton of money into buying a restored version. It doesn't have the fan base required for that level of investment. I do think I've gotten my $12 and then some, and I'm still enjoying the show. Except for the theme music. I really, really hate the show's theme. It's.... got laser blasts in it. It's stupid and I fast-forward past it.

Here are some links to clips from the show. Unfortunately, some of these do have the "pew-pew" TV theme, for which I apologize in advance. There aren't a lot of clips out on YouTube, so I choose a few to give a feeling for the show's production values.

Here's Logan
These feature Jessica's pink minidress, which I'm sure kept some male viewers interested.
Preview clip from an episode
And another preview clip

If you don't want to own a copy, but just watch an episode or two, I'm pretty sure you can find such out on the internet somewhere, but since it never had a huge fanbase you'll have to do a bit of looking.

[SpottedKitty]

Odd: I remember that I did watch it (yes, it was on here in the UK), but I don't remember a single actual episode. I can't even remember if me-at-the-time thought it was better or worse than my other major favourites, Star Trek and Dr Who.

[Broomstick]

Like I said, I was a fan, too, but after nearly 40 years my recollection of any one episode is pretty murky, too. I find myself remembering particular scenes, but that's about it.

As the season progresses the show does get better, which is typical as the actors start to gel in their parts and get the character interaction down.

[B5B7]

It was shown in Australia as well. I also don't remember specific episodes. What I remember is Rem (who was played by Donald Moffat, who played Commander Garry in John Carpenter's The Thing in 1982).

[Broomstick]

Well, finished the run. So here are my thoughts after seeing all the episodes (finally! After thirty-seven years!):

Like every other SF show of the time the budget was low and the effects primitive by our standards, but that was largely due to a lack of CGI technology. The narrative was carried more by the actors than anything else. Another unfortunate effects failure was that at times the plot ceased moving forward to let the camera dwell on SFX to an inordinate degree. None of these effects is improved by continuing examination, nor is the lingering a convention of the era - Star Trek and Six Million Dollar Man both used very similar or identical effects and wisely did not linger on them too long. (The spouse also pointed out that some of the sound effects date back to the old Buck Rogers serials, which is actually OK. They work.) The effect of staring at SFX is like interrupting an action sequence for a lengthy exposition - it breaks up the flow.

Like every other SF show of the time, aside from the Rod Serling ones (because Rod Serling understood SF) there was distinct lack of understanding of what SF is by some of the writers. "Night Visitors" was a bit bizarre, being a ghost story/occult/horror story in a 19th Century mansion setting plopped into the middle of a futuristic post-apocalyptic world. It... didn't work that well. That it works at all is a credit to the actors but the character dialogue, in many ways, was out of character. It wasn't a SF story, it was a ghost story. Which is weird because that author was involved in writing the pilot episode, so you'd think he'd have some clue what the series is about but that episode is just out of place. In some ways this is more of a Dark Shadows script than one for Logan's Run. Not that confusing SF and horror/occult would be unique - my mother didn't see a distinction either, they both scared the pee out of her (which is too bad because two of her daughters were Dark Shadows fans, two were Trekkers, and everyone but her enjoyed Twilight Zone and Night Gallery, the latter two being Rod Serling series that had both sorts of stories)

On the other hand, when the stories are good they can be very good. The pilot was good and quickly established the main characters and what the show was going to be about. "Man Out of Time", "The Crypt", "The Judas Goat", "Turnabout", and "Stargate" are the ones I consider best of the lot and are faithful to the series concepts and SF. "The Collectors", "The Capture", "Turnabout" and "Futurepast" all have their appeal even if the SF is a bit squishy or (for "The Capture") it's a recycled version of The Most Dangerous Game - which is hardly the first time someone recycled that story and here it's done well enough, prompting Logan and Francis to ally with each other for survival. "Futurepast" and "Carousel" both make heavy use of previously shot footage, which is one way to cut corners on the budget, but both storylines make it work.

However, there are a couple of what I consider stinkers - one of them being "Night Visitors". It just doesn't work for me. Coming near the end of the run, when the show had been pre-empted multiple times already and was bleeding viewers it didn't help the series at all. I'm really not a fan of "Half Life", either, largely because I'm not a fan of the "divide a person in two and have functional human beings" school of SF. And in some ways Star Trek did this one better. AND far too much lingering on SFX in this one, honestly, did they just need to pad out the time?

So, overall, I like the concept and I think the cannon immigrant, the android Rem, is the standout character and is responsible for a lot of the appeal of the series. Not that Logan and Jessica aren't important, either, but at at times you think the show should be called "Rem's Roadtrip with Logan and Jessica". Oddly enough, the character becomes dominant without being the main driver of drama and action - that belongs to the two humans. Certainly, the actors were doing their best with what they were given and if Gregory Harrison (Logan) and Heather Menzies (Jessica) don't hit it out of the ballpark quite as often as Donald Moffat (Rem) that might have been because they are half his age and considerably less experienced. The acting is solid enough to carry the show through primitive effects and occasionally wobbling set walls, but the writing is, unfortunately, uneven. While good acting can gloss over a little of that (and the actors certainly try) if the story isn't there not much else matters.

So... the reasons this show was cancelled were (in my opinion) a combination of the SF audience being much smaller back then and uneven writing, which led to loss of viewership and a resulting tendency for the networks to pre-empt that show rather than others, which lead to more loss of viewers and a deathspiral. In fact, the last three episodes weren't even shown on the West Coast.

One thing that I didn't realize until the show was over was that there were no two-parters or end-of-episode cliffhangars and no series arcs. After watching the pilot you really can watch any of these shows in any order without being lost or really losing anything. This also results in one good thing about how the show's final episode ended: no loose ends. Well, they haven't found Sanctuary but no cliff-hangar, nothing unresolved, no big "series finale" or "season finale", just the 14th story in a series of stories with nothing to tell you this is the final one. So there's that, at least.

I think if the writing had been better, and more even, this show might have survived another season, but then the question would be how many original stories can you come up with in the given format of "meet new group of people every week, have problem, resolve problem, on to next week, rinse and repeat"? I still like the concept, and the interactions of the four main characters (yes, even the girly-girl because she can act intelligently and take care of herself when necessary). I wish it had been a bit better done, and there had been more of it. I am glad I added it to my library.

As noted, this was the first TV show that had honest-to-goodness computer special effects. It is notable for another reason which is not nearly as apparent: the actress playing the female lead is actually slightly older than the male lead - the opposite of normal Hollywood casting where the male lead actor is almost invariably older, sometimes much older, than the female lead. Didn't know that until recently, either.

The good news, I suppose, was that all four of the main actors continued with active careers (I think Moffat is retired now - which is hardly surprising for someone now 85) with this series as a nice entry on their resumes. Good for all of them.

[Q99]

I find it interesting to hear about old shows like this, it was such a different landscape

[Broomstick]

Thanks for the feedback. I enjoy the occasional stroll down memory lane but I'm not always sure if there's interest here.

[Tsyroc]

I remember watching a few episodes of the show when it aired originally but don't recall much about it. I think the Planet of the Apes tv show was on around the same time, and something about Captain Nemo whose Nautilus had a laser gun built into it.

It is interesting watching or hearing about old sci-fi shows. Back when they were rather rare I tended towards trying to watch them all but now it's possible to be a little more picky, or at least more shows make past a few episodes before being cancelled.

A couple of years ago I watched season 1 of the Six Million Dollar man for the first time since it had originally aired. I almost think it held up better than I was expecting because enough time had passed that when something looked a little cheesey I didn't assume it was just a bad effect or set. Maybe it was close to how things looked (I know I'm deluding myself). It was also kind of cool to see someone who was in the military who was getting some of that old school respect because he was an astronaut. It was also nice to go back to when it hadn't been that long since we put people on the moon, and when Skylab was still around.

[Broomstick]

I remember watching a few episodes of the show when it aired originally but don't recall much about it. I think the Planet of the Apes tv show was on around the same time, and something about Captain Nemo whose Nautilus had a laser gun built into it.

Gosh, haven't thought about that Planet of the Apes TV series in a long time. I did watch it and enjoy it, but not the way I enjoyed some others. It ran in the 1974-1975 US TV season, so 3 years before Logan's Run. Notable for the prosthetic work, some of the actors spent a lot of time in make-up chairs before their time on screen. Might have appeared in later years overseas, so it's possible some folks saw it concurrently with Logan's Run.

[Tsyroc]

I think the little that I saw of the Planet of the Apes tv show was on reruns because I know it was 77-78 that I saw it because of the house we were living in at the time. We were only there for one year.

I moved there while Star Wars was still in its first few months of its original run. I saw it once before I moved and once after.