Conference noted::sf

    Edward Bryant and Harlan Ellison wrote a book called Phoenix Without
    Ashes, which is one of my alltime favorites!  It doesn't _read_ like
    Harlan Ellison, it's really good!  :+)  In a longwinded, Ellison-
    ascerbic foreword (or was it an afterword?) Ellison details how he
    wrote the pilot, which was then corrupted by the TV industry, so he
    made them use his 'pen name', Cordwainer Bird ("As in for the birds").
    
    I never really saw much of the show, but I'd like to see more of it,
    what channel is it on and when?  (Maybe it's on my cable somewhere).
    
    Willie

    As I remember (help, Jerry?) there was a roman a clef about the whole
    affair called "The Starcrossed"....

    Yes, written by Ben Bova, who had been "Science Advisor" on the
    show until he finally got pissed when they'd listen to him
    patiently, nod their heads in all the right places, and then
    completely ignore his comments.
    
    It's quite hysterical, and is (sad to say) the best thing Bova
    ever wrote.
    
    --- jerry

What day/time is it showing on New Jersery Network??

    Excuse me, I'm mistaken, it is not out of New Jersey.  Channel 21 is
    WLIW out of Long Island, its' a PBS station.  "The Starlost" is shown
    from Monday to Thursday at 1AM at night.
    
    I get channel 50, WNJN out of New Jersey mixed up with channel 21
    because they are both PBS stations.  They show a lot of similar
    programs which makes it confusing sometimes.  For example they both
    broadcast DR WHO, STAR*COPS, and Blake's 7.

       Could someone who's seen the show (within memory) and read The
    Starcrossed please post correlations between the book and the show?  I
    remember seeing the Starlost a long time ago, but don't remember it
    well.  I just finished reading the Starcrossed a few weeks ago and am
    dying to see if the Canadian hockey player is as bad as he was
    portrayed in the book, etc.
    
       So, Ben Bova was the science advisor?  That's interesting, given the
    book... (who was his wife?  Did he marry?  Was she really related to a
    network exec?)
    
    					-mjg
    

The show was filmed in Toronto (Canada). Only 13 episodes were made, 2 of which
had the guy who played 'Chekov' from Star Trek as 'Oro' an Alien who wanted
to steal the Ark for his home planet.

I was 13 when it was shown first - not a bad show for a kid.  Terrible acting 
though.


Mark

    Incidentally, one episode was scripted by Ursula K. LeGuin,
    though by the time they got through with it you'd never know
    it.
    
    --- jerry

    What I don't understand is why people who produced the show hacked it
    up so badly.  I had no doubts that if they had let people like Harlan
    Ellison, Ben Bova or Ursula LeGuin work on it the way they wanted to
    it probably would've been excellent. 

re. 9  Why?


$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

CTV (the network that produced the show) is notoriously cheap.

BTW, I still think the first episode, explaining what was going on, was
done pretty well.

    re: .10
    
    Hmmmm.....  Did they(CTV) also do shows like "War of the Worlds"(the TV
    show not the movie) and "Friday the Thirteenth"  Both I thought were
    pretty bad and they had a cheap feel to it.
    
    But then a show like "Dr Who" doesn't look like they spent a lot of
    money on it and yet I think it's pretty good.

    re:.11
    
    Yes, WAR OF THE WORLDS and FRIDAY THE 13TH were both produced in
    Canada, but they weren't necessarily produced by CTV (that would be
    akin to saying that every television show produced in the US is
    produced by ABC).
    
    It wasn't necessarily money. What it really was was producers who
    (a) thought they knew better than the people they hired, and (b)
    felt compelled to stick their fingers into the pie in order to
    justify their existence. CTV isn't the only one to do this. It's par
    for the course in television. That's why so many television shows,
    especially science fiction shows, are generally so bad.
    
    It should also be pointed out that Bova and LeGuin were brought in
    by Ellison. I wouldn't be surprised if the producers had absolutely
    no idea who either of them were.
    
    --- jerry

    re: .10
    
    Some of their movies are cheap as well. Take "Starship Invasions". Came
    out in 1977 among the Close Encounter/Star Wars craze. A good concept
    and I kinda enjoyed but the ham acting and rubber inflatable flying
    sausers....
    

Let's not trash all of the Canadian entertainment industry.  We do 
produce some excellent TV and movies, here, too, you know.  Even CTV 
has some good Canadian shows (ie, bordertown, the campbells).

Mark

    In fact, many people would be surprised at how many American TV
    series are actually filmed up in Canada (with a substantial
    amount of the cast and crew being Canadian).
    
    --- jerry

    not to mention the farm scenes from 'Superman', which were
    filmed in Alberta

    Yes, I remember CTV, especially a series called "Police Surgeon".
    A series about a doctor assigned to a police force in some way;
    I was never quite clear on the details. Essentially, the hero was
    a combination Joe Friday/Ben Casey/Quincy. M.E. who carried a scalpel
    and a gun.
    
    You think with these qualifications, he'd be a pretty fascinating guy,
    but that's where you'd make your first mistake.
    
    Then there was a CBC bilingual show ('Allo, Darling'? Something like
    that) which was premised upon an Anglophonic man married to a
    Francophonic nymphette, featuring a lot of mild nudity and soft
    pornography. We used to watch it in our early teens - I don't believe
    we EVER understood the plot of any of the episodes, since half were
    in French, but we'd watch 'em faithfully all the same...
    
    No, the Canadian contribution to television has not been overlooked.
    At least not by this loyal viewer.
    
    - M
    

Ellison wrote the original screen play, also titled Phoenix Without Ashes. I
thought it was even better that the book that Bryant and Ellison wrote
later.

A couple of years ago I found this is a collection of SF shorter works. I
continue to kick myslef that I didn't jot down the title of the collection.
Might anyone out there be able to supply it?

						-- Andrew

    
    
    I remember watching The Starlost years ago in NJ when I was a kid. I
    beleive it was on channel 9 (WOR) on Sat night.. I always thought it
    was a spinoff (read ripoff) of a R.A.H. book, Orphans of the Sky. Quite 
    an interesting book. Give it a read if you get the chance. I'd be
    interested to see if anyone else finds the same similarities between
    the two.
    
    Back Off Track.......
    Didn't SCTV come out of Canada? I still enjoy the reruns. IMO One of the
    best comedy shows ever, anywhere.
    
    
    mIkEy Z.

    re:.18
    
    The novel PHOENIX WITHOUT ASHES was written by Ed Bryant alone,
    based on Ellison's original teleplay.
    
    Ellison's teleplay can be found in the anthology FASTER THAN LIGHT,
    edited by George Zebrowski and Jack Dann.
    
    --- jerry

    I also saw "The Starlost" as a kid, and also thought it was
    terrible.  It did have one great scene in the first episode,
    though, where the heros reach one of the bridges of the
    generation ship.  After a lifetime of nothing but walls and
    corridors, they suddenly see the entire ship floating in space
    before them.  The ship model was gorgeous too.
    
    /jlr