ThinWhiteDuke

Buck Rogers cast interview On september 23, 2005, I had a couple of interviews with some real moviestars in Nieuwegein, the Netherlands. The first interview that I'm publishing is the one with Gil Gerard and Erin Gray (better known as Buck Rogers and Wilma Deering from the TV-series ‘Buck Rogers’) who I got to interview for 20 minutes. Since I watched this show when I was a child (the reruns back in 1986) it was an honor to have these two great people answering my questions. Ok, I won’t hold you up longer, here’s the interview: (Note: the actual interview is longer, I’ve left out some things) Hi Gil & Erin! What are you doing these days, 25 years after the series? Erin: I just finished a film called ‘Siren’ and I also just finished a play called ‘Same time next year’. I also represent Gil and about 50 other actors, teach Tai-Chi, do some speaking and I wrote a book. So, I’m still busy. Gil: I just sold a show to Discovery Health Channel. I can’t really talk about it too much now because we just started with it and are getting the crew together. I’m very excited about it! It's been 25 years since the series. Suppose Universal wants to do a remake with different actors, who would you pick to play your character, and why? Gil: I really have no idea… Erin: Wow, never thought about that! Gil: I guess that it would depend on the script…but I haven’t got any influence on that. Besides, I can’t imagine anyone besides Erin doing it. Erin: I like actresses like Jennifer Garner and Jennifer Connolly…I like Jennifers I guess. Gil: Erin had the tough part; she had the Dean Martin job, I had all the fun like Jerry Lewis. She was great, it’s hard to play someone who is stiff, but still has to be sympathetic and believable. She was able to do that. I don’t know who else could do this, although Jennifer Connolly is a good actress, but I don’t know if she could do this without looking silly. Buck Rogers was originally a television serial, and had a full length movie made back in the 30’s. Did either of you watch the old series? Gil: Well, the only similarity was the name. Erin: No, I never saw it before. Gil: I saw it as a child, in the USA I always went to the movies on saturday. We had no television, so you went to the cinema for the whole afternoon and watched all these serials: Tarzan, Flash Gordon…and Buck Rogers! With all the other kids you saw all these serials before the motion picture you paid for started. So, I saw Buck Rogers there for the first time, as well as Flash Gordon which starred Buster Crabbe. You paid for the movie, popcorn and a coke 25 cents back then! Can you imagine that? When he guest-starred on the new show, I talked with Buster Crabbe, and he made a very interesting comment: he said that “people laugh at the special effects of the old Buck Rogers series now, but 25 years from now, they’ll be laughing at the special effects of the new series!” Recently, I saw some episodes of Buck Rogers on DVD, and I was thinking: well, they still hold up, but they are starting to get close to the edge. Well, that’s the charm of the series, the whole retro-style! Erin: We’re called retro now! Gil: 25 years from now, we won’t be called retro, we’ll be called: oh my god, did they look silly! But, you know, with all the CGI now, they can do so much more, than they where able to do with the models back then. Models look way cooler in my opinion. Gil: Yeah, I actually have the model of my starfighter with my name on it! Erin: I have mine too! Erin, in the 2nd season Hawk was introduced. It is said that due to his popularity they gave him your lines in some episodes to enlargen his role, at the cost of yours. Is this true and how did you feel about this? Gil: They did? Erin: Let’s put it this way: I got less and less. He was an added character, my position on the show changed then. I became less commanding, was less in battle. Gil: And you got your dairy-queen outfit! Erin: Dairy-queen in space! Hawk became more Gil’s sidekick, so there was less room for me. But I wouldn’t say that he took my lines. Gil: It’ll be hard to tell because we get the script and I can’t recall seeing a script where Erin’s lines where changed so they where Hawks lines, and I would remember that because I was very watchful of her character. I fought very hard for her character in the first season to be more of a presence. Erin: It’s just a bad rumor. Some people prefer the first season of Buck Rogers, because it is showing Buck out of place with the post apocalyptic Earth. He just doesn't quite fit in, and everybody else is trying to figure out his speech and his customs. They also seem to be slaves to technology. With the second season, it seems more like Star Trek, where they are on a ship, out on exploration, and visiting new worlds. Whose idea was it to change the direction of the series? Gil: I hated that season, it was such a rip off of StarTrek and Battlestar Galactica. I was thinking: why are we doing this? I always wanted Buck to stay on earth, but we got a new executive producer who had no respect for the audience and the show. Erin: He had a big ego and he wanted to create something with his own look, so he could say ‘I created this’ Is this the reason the show was cancelled? Gil: Yeah, when ‘Time of the Hawk’; which was the kick-off of the new season was aired we lost a large percentage of our audience. I recall you saying that Time of the Hawk was your favorite episode. Gil: I may have said that when the show was on the air. I guess I was being loyal to the show then. I actually liked ‘Satyr’; it reflected the feeling that I wanted Buck to have. He was having adventures and exploring on earth. It was almost a pilot of the things I’d wanted to see. Erin: I thought we also lost some of our audience because cable was new? Gil: No, they just didn’t like the second season. I heard that Universal was planning to do a spin-off series of Hawk back then. Erin: They where? Gil: Never heard about that! There’s a lot of stuff on the internet, but this is not true. I tried for two years to go to the producers and writers with my ideas; to have Buck staying on earth, but I was told to forget it. Then I went to see the president of Universal and told him what I would like to see. The response after the meeting was that it was the best idea they ever heard in two years and why they didn’t hear this earlier. I said: because no-one would listen. They asked me to pitch the idea to the president of NBC, and I did. He told me that if the show would have a third season, that would be the direction they would go into. Unfortunately, the new producer had damaged the show so badly, the show was cancelled and didn’t get a third season. But, I felt vindicated because they liked my ideas. They should’ve gone back to Buck, Wilma and Twiki, because they were the main characters. We also lost Tim O’Connor, a fantastic actor in the second season. He was a line of strength, a fatherfigure. Erin: And a mentor. So, because the new producer he wasn’t in the second series? Gil: Yeah, all because of him. ‘Time of the Hawk’ was actually a script that he wrote for ‘Gunsmoke’. Barbara Luna was actually cast in the same role! Hawk's wife in Buck Rogers and the Apache-Chief's wife in Gunsmoke. He thought that it was great that he ripped off his own script. This just shows his lazyness… Erin: …and lack of imagination. I still like the second season! Gil: you did? I’m glad! Erin: Oh, good! Can you tell us your thoughts of these actors from the show in as few words as possible? Felix Silla – Twiki Erin: Short! Cute! Gil: Totally underappreciated. Tim O'Connor - Dr. Huer Erin: Wonderful actor to work with. Gil: Already said what I think of him. Wilfrid Hyde-White - Dr. Goodfellow Gil: Oh…fabulous! Erin: Always had a twinkle in his eyes. Thom Christopher – Hawk Gil: Great actor, good friend. Erin: Good friend, an angel in disguise Gil: He has the feathers! They're all good people... My last question: can I have a photo taken of the three of us? Gil: sure! Erin: come over! Later, they signed these photos: RETURN TO MY HOMEPAGE