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I think most others on it were British. But like has been said it's an ITC and Gerry Anderson thing just to make the shows more acceptable to US networks. Even as a pre-teen I could tell what was going on. These shows all had that mid-atlantic feel.
Mind, I did wonder if 'Brit' was some sort of language when I first saw the thread title...
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Plus with all the ITC shows made by Lew Grade in the 1960's - it was a given that the series would have to be sold to the American market, so a kind of "non-specific" voice was needed.
This. Lew Grade was always keen to sell his series to American networks where the BBC was like US shows in that they made them for their own home audiences. Aside from a few popular exceptions, BBC shows were unseen by US audiences until the 70's and 80's. Once the (non ITC) series The Avengers was filmed and sent over, it was a "little" less British, but still more than the ITC shows.
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I haven't even bothered with Season 2 on Blu ray. The first season might be pretentious but it had ambition. Series 2 is just tacky looking and cheap. Adds nothing to the series and looks like a cheap copy of something else.
And yeah, the sets and everything looked so much better. In fact it still looks stunning today in my opinion.
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At the right age I can see a kid liking Season 2 better. Mind, I was 12 when it started! But I love Barry Gray's music and the whole Gerry Anderson feel. It lost that for me with Season 2, and of course we know why. But still....
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I hate how they cut the command center in half in season two. That was an awesome set. The command center in season two is so claustrophobic.
Agreed. But they had to do it. Year 2 had a lower budget, and one way they saved money was by moving to a smaller sound stage. You can even see the floor space reduction in the Eagle interior: they eliminated the connecting module between the cockpit and passenger compartment. It defied the miniature, but what can you do?
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Actually, according to ITC publicity, they raised the budget.
SPACE:1999, the spectacular space science fiction series, starring Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, will have a record budget of $7,200,000 for the second year, it was announced by Abe Mandell, president of Independent Television Corporation, an ATV Company.
To make SPACE: 1999 even better, more thrilling and more entertaining for its second year, Mandell said "We have boosted our budget from the first year high of $6,500,000 to an unprecedented $7,200,000 for the second year."
Since it's not that high of a boost, I'm sure general inflation took up some of it. Nobody got raises (unless Landau and Bain got them and kept it quiet). Freiberger wanted the main control room set to be more intimate.
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That makes a lot of sense. Unlike Doctor Who which was decidedly "British", Space 1999 was intended for an international audience. I believe they saw it as a replacement for Star Trek in the US. I didn't know Nick Tate was Australian. I just assumed everyone else on the series were British.
I'm pretty sure that actor Barry Morse (from T.V's THE FUGITIVE with David Jansen) was Canadian. One thing is for sure, I remember watching it on New York City WPIX Channel 11 as a kid back in 1975/76 thinking that this was a replacement for STAR TREK. STAR TREK reruns were also broadcast on WPIX at 6pm nightly on the channel.
Very
MaxB
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Barry Gray's music is so great in the episodes but can be a bit sleepy on album, depending on my mood. Wadworth's scores are frequently over the top in the episodes but are dynamite on album. That's my experience, anyway.
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Hell, it was even in the pilot episode!
