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December 11th, 2004, 04:37 PM
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#1
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out there somewhere
 | Former Admin (ret) | | Colonial Fleets | | BattlestarGalactica-Fleets.com | | Owner | | Ship Of Lights Forum |
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Relative cost of producing Galactica
http://www.tvhistory.tv/Cost_of_Hr_Series70-80.JPG
I found the above link. Pretty interesting. Galactica was definitely a cost spike. 
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December 11th, 2004, 04:48 PM
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#2
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Also Present
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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.....
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December 11th, 2004, 05:07 PM
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#3
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Strike Leader
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Wenatchee, Soviet of WA., Ex U.S.A.
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If you want quality, you must pay for it.
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December 11th, 2004, 05:29 PM
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#4
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Also Present
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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....
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December 11th, 2004, 05:29 PM
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#5
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Snowball, My Angel Baby
 | Admin | | Colonial Fleets |
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Looks like anything with special fx kicked up the cost.
Still, can someone tell me why 60 Minutes cost almost $200,000?
Salaries? 
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December 11th, 2004, 06:53 PM
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#6
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Also Present
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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 !!!!
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December 12th, 2004, 06:40 AM
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#7
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Bad Email Address
Join Date: May 2004
Location: colorado
Posts: 2,915
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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 
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December 12th, 2004, 07:14 AM
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#8
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Snowball, My Angel Baby
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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?

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Lay down
Your sweet and weary head
The night is falling
You have come to journey's end
Sleep now
And dream of the ones who came before
They are calling
From across the distant shore .
Children are a message that we send
to a time that we will never see.
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December 12th, 2004, 07:25 AM
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#9
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Bad Email Address
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 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?

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maybe filming on location for the story...travel costs camera crews.....
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December 14th, 2004, 04:38 PM
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#10
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Guest
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BST
I just couldn't figure, outside of salaries, what drove the costs for 60 Minutes?

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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.
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December 14th, 2004, 05:38 PM
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#11
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Strike Leader
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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.
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December 14th, 2004, 09:46 PM
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#12
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Warrior Ace
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Roseville, MI
Posts: 848
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 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.
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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 
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December 21st, 2004, 10:07 AM
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#13
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Stablemaster, Livery Ship
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What Jim said.
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.
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December 21st, 2004, 11:06 AM
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#14
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out there somewhere
 | Former Admin (ret) | | Colonial Fleets | | BattlestarGalactica-Fleets.com | | Owner | | Ship Of Lights Forum |
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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.

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