Relative cost of producing Galactica

[thomas7g]

http://www.tvhistory.tv/Cost_of_Hr_Series70-80.JPG

I found the above link. Pretty interesting. Galactica was definitely a cost spike. :D

[ernie90125]

Yes it was....

It is only matched by Buck Rogers, another Glen Larson production which matched the amount spent and was made the following year.

You can understand why Glen Larson sc-fi productions were perhaps looked on the way they were by the suits...you could have two years of Dallas for the price of one year of BSG or Buck Rogers.....

I know what I would choose to watch, but as value for money goes in a studio boardroom.....

[Senmut]

If you want quality, you must pay for it.

[ernie90125]

If you want quality of that particular genre(sci-fi), then you must pay for it....

But from a boardroom point of view, they were getting quality in other types of shows for less..... Initially, this would appear like the start of basic reasoning behind the decision to cancel...I wonder how many of them didn't take into account merchandising etc...

This is a really interesting document to see....

[BST]

Looks like anything with special fx kicked up the cost.

Still, can someone tell me why 60 Minutes cost almost $200,000?

Salaries? ;)

[ernie90125]

Good Point BST. I must admit that I think that actors salaries, like footballers etc, are sometimes just too much.

For example, Arnie got a reported $30mil for Terminator 3. When he said that he would not reprise the role (except for a guest spot) some film makers commented that his not being there would make T4 better as it would have a quarter more budget !!!

Of course this is a modern day example, there is no way of knowing what the percentage of the budget for the TOS was spent on salaries. And I am sure that they were well deserved.

But $750K an episode seems like an awful lot !!!!

[julix]

very interesting it shows you get what you pay for! something I have learned the hard way.......sigh. Just think if we had at least gotten a second season :)

[BST]

Yep, salaries do chew up a fair percentage of the budget but, my point was that the shows with special FX are dramatically more expensive than a show using a "real-life" Earth setting like, The Waltons, Gunsmoke, Dallas, Love Boat, Kojak, etc.

I just couldn't figure, outside of salaries, what drove the costs for 60 Minutes?

:D ;)

[julix]

Yep, salaries do chew up a fair percentage of the budget but, my point was that the shows with special FX are dramatically more expensive than a show using a "real-life" Earth setting like, The Waltons, Gunsmoke, Dallas, Love Boat, Kojak, etc.

I just couldn't figure, outside of salaries, what drove the costs for 60 Minutes?

:D ;)


maybe filming on location for the story...travel costs camera crews.....

[Antelope]

I just couldn't figure, outside of salaries, what drove the costs for 60 Minutes?

:D ;)

60 Minutes was and to many still is considered the superstar of television journalism. They did have a very large salary base. 60 minutes however could handle that since it had very bankable ratings for a long time. It's still on the air and is considered the star of CBS News.

In general however news shows are low cost productions. It is for this reason that your Datelines, 20/20s, 48 Hours etc. have a long television life.

Scifi tends to be expensive. In addition if it gets popular the actors can drive up the cost in salary demands killing the golden goose. Comedies don't have the start up cost of scifi but definitely suffer long term as the actors kill the golden goose with salary demands.

Reality TV is some of the cheapest shows to make. Unfortunately as long as they stay moderately popular we are stuck with them.

[kingfish]

I doubt it was SFX costs that killed BG but actors or should I guest star salaries. Lloyd Bridges, Fred Astair, Patrick Macnee, ect don't come cheap.

[dilbertman]

I doubt it was SFX costs that killed BG but actors or should I guest star salaries. Lloyd Bridges, Fred Astair, Patrick Macnee, ect don't come cheap.
Three things killed Galactica.

1) Over all price of the show was one.

2) The main one was, filming took so long for the show, they could not meet air dates. This was talked about a few times at Galacticon. Most 1 hour shows took at week to film, Galactica was two weeks or more.

3) The last one is the airheads at the network.

Jim :salute:

[jewels]

What Jim said. :D

And Glen was the main person that mentioned #2 from what I remember. He said it was such a challenging show to make technically because of the technology of the day that eventually why it was canned.

Some will say it also had too high of expectations put on it and it was a victim of it's own hype in the execs heads.

[thomas7g]

I don't think it was so much a victim of its own hype as a victim of Star War's level expectation.

I think they really expected a Star Wars level rating every week. And well...that's never been done.

:(