As promised, here's my review of the pre-SAAB days. Before SAAB actually premiered, we got a few weeks of trailers and sneak-peeks to try and pique our interest in the show. Since we didn't really know a lot about how the show would develop, most of this article will focus on the creative side of series production. You've already struggled through my dissertations on the financial side, so now I'll try to give you a little peek behind the scenes of the creative side. Again, this is a simplified view of what actually goes on, but since this material is a little further out of my league, it's simplified more because of my lack of knowledge. ;)
First, the previews: When FOX started advertising SAAB, it looked like
an interesting show. Maybe that's just because I've always had a soft
spot for SciFi, but SAAB looked like it was going to be a slightly different
take on the 'classic' SciFi show. SAAB didn't appear to be basing itself
on creating peculiar aliens and then building episodes around them;
instead it seemed to be focused on Nathan West and his quest to reunite
with his lost fiance, set against a SciFi background.Okay, let's back up for a minute. Sometime back in the early eighties, I saw an advertisement in a computer magazine for a game, and I cut it out and saved it. That's pretty unusual for me to do, but I thought the ad was very effective. Of course it wasn't *that* effective, because not only did I not buy the game, I didn't even save the part of the ad that told me what the game was. (This should appeal to all those romantic types out there) The part of the ad I saved was a picture of a woman lying on a sofa with a caption underneath that read "Gwendolyn: There are some things you keep searching for... beyond reason" Simple, but effective. When I saw the previews for SAAB, it immediately reminded me of that ad.
With that in mind, maybe my memory of the SAAB previews is tainted a bit. The previews gave me this thumbnail sketch of what SAAB was about: Nathan West is seperated from his fiance as the result of a war with some alien race. His fiance is taken prisoner and, in an effort to be reunited with her, he joins the Space Marines and travels the galaxy in search of her. Looking back on SAAB, the series diverged quite a bit from that idea, but always had that basic story running as an undercurrent to the series.
That brings us to the 'creative process', or how an idea goes from idea to television series. There a couple of sides to this process. The first is from the side of the creators who have an idea and a story to tell. The second is from the side of the television execs (TPTB) who look at the story and try to decide if it will garner enough viewers (and hence advertisers) to make the series profitable. I've already covered the financial side in my previous articles, so on to the view from the creators side.
The very basic process works like this: Someone has an idea in mind for a story and develops it into a short pilot story and a general direction for a few future episodes. The story gets pitched to the networks, and if there's interest, the pilot is shot. If the pilot goes over well, the network orders a season of episodes and a series is born!
At the beginning of series creation, there aren't many people involved; usually only the person or persons who originally came up with the idea have been developing the story and the series direction. After acceptance, the series has to move into full production very quickly. Actors get screened and hired, sets get built, and (probably most importantly to this discussion) a small staff of writers is hired to develop new episodes.
Since the new writers are joining the series after the original idea, direction, and a few episodes have already been developed, they need a way to get 'up to speed' in a hurry. A new series usually has a 'bible' which gives the basics of the series idea and a little background on each of the characters. This gives the new writers a basis to develop stories which still adhere to the original story/series idea. Naturally, when you add new writers and their new creative ideas into the mix, the story line and characters start to move in slightly different directions from the original. The bible is used as a base to outline the basic plot, characters, and history, and then the series moves wherever the writers feel the characters take them.
So, this begs the question of where did SAAB really start as a story
and where did it get redirected to as it developed? If we look at the
work of Morgan and Wong, all their work has a dark conspiracy undertone
in the story line; the evil government connection in X-Files, the darker
side of the Millenium Group in Millenium, and, of course, the clandestine
motives of AeroTech in Space: Above and Beyond. Given what we've seen
of Morgan and Wong's work, it's highly unlikely that they intended SAAB
as a story about a love-sick Marine chasing Kylen Celina throughout
the galaxy, so is it just my imagination (and prior bias) that made
me see that story line in the pre-SAAB days? Maybe not, consider this:
In general, SciFi and fantasy shows don't really do well on the big networks. There are a few obvious exceptions, but there are many many more failures than successes. FOX was (and still is, honestly) struggling against the "big 3" networks to attract viewers (although FOX has done well enough to expand the field to the big 4). Morgan and Wong have this great idea for SAAB and pitch it to the networks. FOX is interested, but they read the idea and say "We like the idea, but we have better luck with Aaron Spelling-type shows. Change it". M&W still love their baby, so they say "Okay, we'll add a 90210 slant". A few changes, and SAAB gets accepted.
Of course this all gross speculation, but it would explain not only my take on the previews, but also the first few episodes which featured the Kylen Celina story line quite prominently. That story line was held throughout the series, but became a lot less prominent after the first few episodes.
We know that there was always some tension between FOX and M&W on SAAB, maybe this is part of the reason? Or maybe I'm way off base, and the Kylen story line was just a way to get Nathan (not your traditional Marine type) into the 58th? Thoughts?
Semper Fi!
/Cal
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