Richard "Apollo" Hatch Field: Actor, Producer, and Apollo from BSG. Website: RichardHatch.com Email: webmaster@richardhatch.com

This is the audio to Richard Hatch's (RH) appearences on The Backstage Live Radio Show. It is hosted by Joe Scheibinger (JS) (joe@thesurf.com) - (Photo on Left) and it was on KFIZ from Wisconsin on 10/18/2000 . This interview has some of the latest information on the revival effort and Richard's new BSG novel. There is also an appearance by Shawn O'Donnell (SO) near the end of the interview where he discusses the Battlestar Fan Club! Special thanks to Joe Beaudoin (JoeBeaud2@aol.com) for transcribing this exstensive interview. Be sure to check out Page 5, it features an older panel discussion from 2/2000 done with P.N. "Pat" Elrod and Richard.

	Richard Hatch Backstage Live Radio Show Interview 10/18/2000 - ASF Format - 42 Mins - (5.2 M)

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With two Battlestar Galactica novels, "Armageddon" and "Warhawk", published and a third one pending release, Richard is continuing to chronicle the adventures of the wayward Colonial Rag-Tag Fleet from the destroyed 12 Colonies as it searches for the Thirteenth Tribe and Earth. Richard Hatch, ladies and gentlemen, has appeared in many, many television and movie-it's an incredible career. With "All My Children", remember All My Children back in the 70's? He was Philip Brent; he was the first Phil Brent. "The Hatfields and the McCoys", 75; "The Streets of San Francisco", 72; "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman"-which was one of my all-time favorite shows. That show was absolutely brilliant-1976. And, of course, "Battlestar Galactica". The series started in 1978, and with a little help from you, our listening audience here, Battlestar Galactica will hopefully come back again. In fact, there seems to be a trailer in the can, and were going to talk about that and all kinds of great stuff coming up with the man himself: Captain Apollo, Richard Hatch.

Good morning, Richard! Welcome to Backstage Live!

RH: Hey, good morning! It's great to be here! By the way, you forgot Jan Berry, "Deadman's Curve".

JS: Jan Berry, Deadman's Curve! I have the whole bio in front of me. The bio is fabulous.

RH: Thank you.

JS: Incredible history. Incredible! First off, congratulations on Battlestar Galactica, one of the most believable science fiction shows ever written. There's no question.

RH: It's an amazing show. Like Star Trek, which was done over thirty years ago, it has such a loyal following that it has never gone off the air. Syndication has kept it alive, playing all over the world for the past twenty years, and, I believe, it's unheard of for a show that only went twenty-three episodes. And the only reason for that was because a show of that magnitude, very much like Star Wars-not the story, just the magnitude of it-was very, very difficult to do for television back then because of time and expense.

JS: Can I ask why Battlestar Galactica discontinued?

RH: Because exactly what I just said: the money. They could not afford [it]. It took normally seven-days an episode for most shows. This show took ten to twelve days because it was just too big, too large for television. Usually movies, a project like this, [takes time]. They have three months to film it. Here we have seven days.

JS: One of the questions I asked you that question was-you know, I've been a big Battlestar Galactica fan-[because] I remember when it was taken off the air there were rumors out there that it had something to do with Star Wars episodes.

RH: No. They, Fox and Star Wars/George Lucas, had taken Galactica and Universal to court. And they lost. Just like every other show, we're always inspired by something that we see, and George Lucas, if anyone read any of the Japanese novels, a lot of Star Wars was based off other projects he had read. Not that Star Wars was exactly like them, but they were inspired by them.

Science fiction had a difficult time getting on television, until the success of Star Wars. And then lots of projects that had been written or developed even before Star Wars can now be given the green light because of the success of Star Wars. So Battlestar came on as a result of the success of the show, but it was a totally different story and never had any show had the ratings that Battlestar had in that year.

JS: The casting was fantastic. You couldn't have picked a better cast and crew, and everyone was believable. And especially Lorne Greene. Holy Cow!

RH: You had an incredible cast of people. Who would not want to have Lorne Greene as the patriarch, the father of the Fleet? The great commander of the Fleet. And I think we were fortunate to have him.

JS: One of the things I liked about Battlestar Galactica the best was the fact that it really mirrored things that were in the Bible. There was the good side, the bad side. All the books of the Bible.

RH: I think all good movies, all good things, if you ever looked at it and broke it down, it's always good against evil. You know, the light against the dark. It's that continuing struggle and battle for Humankind to somehow find the way to bring everybody together to survive against incredible odds. And, in doing so, they come together and forge together to become a nation. Look at Moses and the Israelites, traveling around the desert for forty years, why did it take so long? In a sense, it was kind of a test to bring that group of people together, to develop their strength, to develop their camaraderie, to learn how to work together so they can survive; and everything that's ever happened in this world has taught people how to move through their biases and prejudices, learn how to love and do exactly as the Bible says: "Do unto others as you do unto you."

JS: Battlestar Galactica had a little of everything. A little romance, a lot of mystery, it had everything. Everything you wanted was in Battlestar Galactica! Please excuse me if I get a little excited!

(Laughter)

RH: I would have to say that science fiction-a lot of people think that it's weird, strange monsters, creatures but the best of science fiction is written by some of the great scientists, mathematicians, some of the great thinkers of our time. And, in many cases, like Jules Verne and many others, they were visionaries. They were able to look into the future and just by common sense: looking at where science would go, looking how our civilization was evolving. They could, in a sense, kind of look into what might happen and great science fiction is very much that. It takes a lot of science, in that it looks into the future and projects theoretical probabilities and possibilities of what might happen.

And then it brings in the human factor in there, and they explore its relationship. Life is about people and putting them in extraordinary circumstances which brings the best and worst out of people. And that's what creates drama, that's what makes us want to look at it, and I think Battlestar has the best of both. The best of theoretical probabilities, exploring that concept, it has mythology, and it also has character, humans, beings struggling to survive and I think all of us could relate to that. [A] great heroic journey that the crew of the Battlestar Galactica were on. [sic]

JS: And the best special effects of its day.

RH: Well, we had John Dykstra, who did all the special effects for Star Wars who came on board for the first twelve, thirteen episodes. And then, back then, special effects were really in their infancy in terms of the new technologies, which later developed and made it possible for lots of other shows to come on the air that couldn't have gone on twenty years ago. Because, again, the time and expense to do it was outrageous!

So, today, Battlestar could be done for a lot less money than it was done back then. And that's twenty years ago! And, today, it could be done for seven days. It can be done on the right budget without losing the quality and probably increased and improved on the value.

I did that with the new trailer that I went out and filmed. Which I leveraged my house, I paid for it on my credit cards, but the key was for a much lower amount of money we were able to put hundreds of thousands of dollars of quality on the screen as a result of doing it the right way. That means, you know we had CGI, special effects guys all over the world that were big Battlestar fans who came onboard to help us for free. We had them building models, creating stuff, doing design work and then we had a whole team here that had grown up on Battlestar who were willing to work on the show basically for free.

We filmed and developed, and put it together and blew everybody away. Everybody laughed in my face when I said, you know, that the only way to really show what a new Battlestar show, Galactica project would look like is to do it. So we did it. And it blew everybody away.

We've traveled around the world with standing ovations.

JS: Richard, how did this all start. How did Battlestar Galactica get off the ground?

RH: Well, I would say that way back when Glen Larson, the producer of many, many shows-[and] with the success of Star Wars-I think he had a thing called "Adam's Ark" which was a show about a journey of a group of humans traveling from Earth out into the universe. But I think after Star Wars, he kind of reworked the premise, and developed it into Battlestar along with another producer, I believe, who was working on the project with him. I think they went to Universal the day after and said, "Hey, you know, right now there's never been a better time to bring a show like this on the air." And I think they made a deal with them a couple of days [after] to do Battlestar, and then they began signing up the people.

I was asked to audition, actually, in the beginning. But I never did, because I had the same illusion a lot of people did. I thought, "You know, how are people going to do this for television?" And television so often takes wonderful movies and then it doesn't do a great job of turning it into a TV series. I thought they're going to do this science fiction space extravaganza for TV, and it isn't going to be too good. I turned down the audition, only to, six months later, have Glen Larson come out and take me out to a restaurant. Basically, they had gone through everybody, and for whatever reason they didn't find the perfect person. And I think I just happened to be in the right time, right place and they took me out and I basically looked at the script finally, looked at the pictures, the artwork, and thought "Boy, what an extraordinary project they were working on here," and I was blown away.

I had no idea how good it was and, fortunately, I said yes and the rest was history. Never before has a show been [the] highest, most successful show ever done on TV. It was publicized around the world on the cover of Newsweek, TIME, every major publication and it went out and got the highest numbers any network science fiction show that ever gotten, ever. We were in the Top Ten for just about half the season.

JS: And I can tell you never regretted that decision, I can tell by the sound of your voice.

RH: Well, you know something? I'm not just an actor. I'm a teacher, I'm a speaker, I'm a writer. I write books; I teach; I lecture all over the country for corporations, businesses as a professional hobby. But I love science fiction. I don't like corny science fiction, but science fiction that explores scientific probabilities and dramatic probabilities.

Science fiction, the best of it, is the best drama ever written or read. And what I like about it is that it puts situations into a fresh context where you can look at it from a new perspective, and maybe learn something; see something that you've never seen before.

You know, it's not corny, that monster B-movie science fiction type thing that most people associate with science fiction. [sic] But that onus is changing, and some of the best actors of our time are all in science fiction projects, and now they're starting to respect those shows.

JS: Let's explore the new Battlestar Galactica and find out if our listeners can help in any way get this thing off the ground. Maybe a little letter-writing campaign. We've done it before with other shows. Also, Richard, I want to talk about your radio connection. You still have your radio connection?

RH: When you say radio connection, what do you mean?

JS: Your show. Your weekly relationship show?

RH: Oh, no, I'm not on that show anymore, actually.

JS: Oh, really you're not?

RH: No-no. That was called-what was it called?-"Love Works".

JS: "Love Works"

RH: Yeah, I've been traveling though. I just, actually, did a John Denver memorial up in Blackstaff. Because I was a big John Denver fan and he had established Windstar to create a more sustainable future. Actually, I was up here hosting that event.

JS: I would like to talk a little more about that too, because we have a lot of John Denver listeners in this area. We just did a show on John Denver here last week.

Richard Hatch is with us. Of course, everyone knows Richard Hatch from Battlestar Galactica and many, many other great movies, including "Iron Thunder", 1998. I had no idea that you were in there, Richard. Who did you play in that one?

RH: That's not the final project. The thing that I just finished is called "The Ghost". Michael Madsen, Brad Duorf, Cary Tagawa. It's a new movie coming out this year.

JS: Wasn't Iron Thunder that Air Force One.

RH: No, that was a totally different project.

JS: Oh, okay. "The Ghost" is coming out when?

RH: "The Ghost" is coming out this year with Michael Madsen, Brad Duorf, Cary Tagawa. Brad Duorf is in "The Lord of the Rings", this new movie coming out. Michael Madsen everybody will know from many, many movies.

JS: Okay. You're bringing back Battlestar Galactica. You're really trying hard to bring back Battlestar Galactica. You also have a force of people that absolutely adore the project and they're the ones who contacted me.

RH: We're developing, believe it or not, I started about three years ago, four years ago, working on bringing back Battlestar Galactica. Then we started writing. I wrote the comic books, developing the books, and I started going to Universal to see what could be done. And, actually, I put together a consortium of investors and we went into Universal, offered to buy it, offered to do a CD-ROM game, we offered a number of things and Universal could not really make a decision. They seem to have a lot of problems and confusion around Battlestar, rights issues and a bunch of stuff they seem very unclear on. Not in terms of ownership, but just in terms of what they call "Separation of Rights", which Glen Larson, the original writer of the story "Battlestar Galactica", was claiming that he had an interest in Battlestar which came before. I don't know when it came or what point, but they were also trying to develop a project.

The reason what we were doing, which started three to four years ago, was we wanted to see what the fans told us: the original show back, not 1980. They want to bring back the original characters, and my premise was to add a generation born in space, our kids, growing up to become this extended family in space; use the original designs, but add new technologies and update the show, move it twenty years into the future and we're still searching for the Thirteenth Tribe. And that's what all the fans on the web seem to want to do.

Glen wanted to, as he did with 1980, wanted to go another direction, wanted to do a Commander Cain and the Pegasus story. We couldn't understand just because the majority of the people we talked to thought that Battlestar, the original show, had never been explored fully. It only had twenty-three episodes, and it was kind of silly to go off again doing another tangent without having really explored the main one.

So it turned into a little bit of an adversarial battle between their group and our group, but we just said, "Hey, you know, we're for whoever does a Battlestar projects we think is great. We just happen to believe that the original show is what the fans want to see and anyone who wants to do a Battlestar project is certainly welcome to do it, and Glen has every right to do what he wants to do.

But I think there's room for everybody out there, and we wish him well, and we hope that we can make a deal with Universal and do a series, or a project with Battlestar. But our company is also doing other shows as well, we're developing right now my own project, which is called the Great War of Magellan, which is a new sci-fi show and we're moving forward. We've been filming for nine months on that, and if for whatever reasons Battlestar is tied up for the next year or two, we'll bring out The Great War of Magellan.

My feeling is that the time is coming that Battlestar will be coming back. I don't think it'll be too far into the future, but the question is how will it come back. We can't make that decision, Universal, as far as we know, owns the rights to that ultimate decision about who does it. Usually a company like that would like to do it themselves.

JS: Next time you have the argument about Battlestar Galactica and Pegasus just bring up New Coke. Remember New Coke?

RH: What's that now?

JS: Just bring up New Coke. Remember what happened?

RH: Yeah!

JS: The name Battlestar Galactica is an icon, it's a-

RH: I know. How can you make Battlestar Galactica without having Battlestar Galactica's essential themes? It just doesn't make sense.

JS: No, it doesn't make sense at all.

RH: The trouble is too many producers-you know, I don't default them, they're always trying to second-guess the fans, and I don't think they listen enough to what the fans want-they go and do what they want to do and, unfortunately like so many writers, many times the person who creates something is not even aware of what was so special about it. I think the fans out in the world are very, very clear about what they loved about that show and, again, the key is you want to grow something, add new things, but you don't want to lose the very thing that made that show special.

JS: Take "Star Trek" for instance. The new "Star Trek" that's playing right now is nowhere near, and doesn't have the special qualities of the old "Star Trek".

RH: You know, the "Star Trek", when they brought it back twenty years ago after it had been off the air for ten years. They were actually going to use a new cast and turn it into a TV series, and they filmed for one day and the fan response was so outrageously upset and angry that they actually stopped production, hired back the original cast and turned it into a movie.

And that just goes to show you that if they made that a series, I believe with a whole new cast, it wouldn't have made it because when they brought back "Next Generation" was failing miserably-until they started bringing back the original cast to guest star on the show, and brought the audience to watch it.

The key is [to] use the heart and soul of the show to be a bridge from the past to the future, and then as the future grows you don't know which characters will be center stage or which ones will move into the porphyry. Let the fans, let the people watching let you know what is working and what is not. But don't sit there and guess the fans, and don't always try to turn something into your own. Too often producers wanted to side with the audience, who want-I remember Jerry Bruckhimer saying, either him or his partner, that made a statement, you know, "We want to tell the audience what we want to see," which is such an arrogant statement.

Producers need to listen to the audience to find out what they want, not tell the audience what they want.

JS: You are absolutely right. Absolutely right. We just had another actor on here last month, remember Sulu from Star Trek.

RH: Right.

JS: And he was on here. They were already talking about a new type of Star Trek and bringing back some of the original cast. So you're right on track on this. How can my listeners help?

RH: Universal has just been sold, believe it or not. We didn't realize what was happening and why Universal seemed to be out stalling or having problems making decision. But they just sold to a huge French telecommunication company, Vivendi. I believe it's tied to this other company, Canal Plus, which is a huge, huge company in France.

Battlestar was huge in France theatrically as a feature, they love it there. So that actually bodes well for Battlestar, but right now I think the TV rights are owned by Barry Diller and USA Networks. So you should be writing USA Networks to let them know how much you'd like to see the original show with the original cast. You should also be calling and talking to Universal to let them know. Sci-Fi Channel is another big one, but you can find this information at my website at BattlestarGalactica.com.

Also, for anybody interested, you can go to RichardHatch.com, which is another web page, which talks more about who I am, what I do. I write articles in publications all over the world and I teach and lecture, and find out a little bit about that.

JS: How are your novels doing right now?

RH: The novels have sold out. We have novel one and two out, and then right now I'm getting ready to sign a deal to finish the third novel and do two more novels of Battlestar. Which will extend the story of the rag-tag fleet twenty years in the future, searching for the Thirteenth Tribe and trying to, in a sense, discover ways to survive out there in the far reaches of space against incredible odds.

I love the premise of Battlestar Galactica.

JS: I do too, and that's one of the reasons I'm hooked on it and I've always been a fan. Even the reruns are great. I love to see them again, I love to see Lorne Greene. I understand that you're going to have Lorne Greene come back as a hologram or something like that.

RH: We talked to the family and I wanted to somehow find a way to have his presence in the show. We wouldn't bring him back. You can digitally recreate Lorne Greene as a real character, they're actually creating a movie with old stars that they're bringing back. For some reason, that's a little violating to me and to the audience as well.

What I would like to do is to have him come back periodically as a hologram where he, maybe, prerecorded messages or information about the ancient Kobollians forefathers, what information he needs to impart. Maybe before he died he prerecorded all this and, periodically, based on certain timeframes maybe that information is supposed to be brought forward. That would kind of, in a sense, expand the show and we can do that with Lorne Greene. We can, literally, have him speak new words, we can have him in a holographic form. I think that would allow us to have him as part of the show from time to time. Same thing with John Colicos, who played Baltar, everybody's favorite villain.

JS: He did a good job.

RH: He was with the Cylons for so long and, who knows, maybe. The Cylons, believe it or not, were always one brain, two brain, three brain-biological brains but in technological bodies. And maybe they programmed John Colicos into one of those drones or robotics, and therefore we can still have John Colicos' personality as part of the show. And now, of course, he's really a Cylon.

These are all creative ideas, but the key to me is the journey of these human beings. Men and women having to fight together, work together, overcome incredible odds together and really bonding and becoming the kind of family that maybe we're missing in this world. You know, when people really need to depend upon each other, they really, really come together and I think that that family traveling through space, really working together is something that could be very inspiring for people to watch.

JS: Absolutely. Richard Hatch, ladies and gentlemen, also known as Captain Apollo on Battlestar Galactica. Thank you so much for being on Backstage Live, I really appreciate it.

RH: Oh, you're welcome! I enjoyed it!

JS: Have a great day and good luck to ya!

RH: Thank you very, very much. Bye, bye!

JS: How'd you like that interview with Richard Hatch? What a guy, huh? And what an incredible history of acting, and what an incredible show "Battlestar Galactica". Do you like to know more? I have the co-president of the Battlestar Galactica Fan Club on the line. Shawn, how're you doing?

SO: I'm doing really good there, Joe.

JS: Good morning to ya. Is it Shawn O'Conner or Shawn O'Donner?

SO: Shawn O'Donnell, actually.

JS: Shawn O'Donnell. There ya go, okay. Where're you located?

SO: Actually, I'm located out of Vermont.

JS: Oh really? What makes you such a great aficionado of Battlestar Galactica?

SO: I think, you know, watching it as a child and it's just been a very enduring show. I think is one of the most enduring shows that's been off the air, just like Star Trek.

JS: You know, back when I was in the watcher it was in the news after the last episode played, Richard talked a little about it. He kind of shied away from it, but he did say a few things about it. I always felt that the Star Wars people actually sued Galactica to take them off the air. Now, of course, according to Richard, Battlestar won the lawsuit but he didn't really get into detail. I'd like to know why that lawsuit was brought up.

SO: The reason why it was [brought up] was that the Star Wars folks felt that maybe in some ways it copied Star Wars. That's the reason the lawsuit went through. Of course, this is twenty years ago. I think it was just the timing, really, obviously any show, any kind of science fiction adventure have some of the same qualities. They're all in space, they all have spaceships. I really don't want to get into the technicalities of it, but the fact was that the lawsuit did fall through.

JS: You know what, there's something about science fiction that really goes deep into the heart of a lot of television viewers, I, for one. But I like realistic science fiction. There's some stuff out there that is so bizarre and so unrealistic it isn't even fun to watch, it's a pain to watch.

The first Star Trek was great, the second Star Trek, I thought, was great, I just love Jean-Luc Picard. This new Star Trek, it's ok, I'm not going to say it's great. This year will be the greatest part, of course, because they will find Earth. But the next one's going to be hot, Sulu is working on a project just like Richard Hatch is right now.

SO: Right, the Excelsior project.

JS: The Excelsior project, and I think that one's going to be hot. Richard touched on something, he said that he put in the original cast members, and people will follow.

SO: Right, that's really the premise here and when you go and remake something, and you don't incorporate what made it special, then you don't have the show.

Star Trek found that out by incorporating and making sure that the original cast is [in] with Patrick Stewart and etc. And it holds true with Battlestar Galactica with the old crew with new faces, and update it without losing what is special. Again it's more than special effects, it's the story, the characters, and the themes and those original people. They're available, they're here.

JS: What do you do in a fan club? You're the co-president of the fan-club, what do you do in a fan club? Obviously it's all done by e-mail, the way it looks.

SO: Right. What we do is try to encourage the fans, let them know that there are other fans out there. Try to connect, because you're a lot stronger when you're together. If people think they're one person here, one person there then [come together, get news and information, interact with each other, talk with the powers that be, get out there and write letters and we have members all over the world.

JS: That's my next question, of course, what are you guys doing to help bring back the new Battlestar Galactica and how can my listeners help?

SO: Well, the best thing is to do, I can give you a web address here for people to go to is: BattlestarFanclub.com. The newest, most updated information is there, they can also go to BattlestarGalactica.com. There's also BattlestarPegasus.com, and I'm sure Richard probably mentioned RichardHatch.com.

JS: Right.

SO: All these sites have up-to-date information. We're all linked together and working together and it's great. We have people as far away as Australia, Germany, and here in the States and Canada.

JS: Richard said that Battlestar Galactica was big in France too.

SO: Yeah. All over the place. It's just phenomenal.

JS: What about this infighting that's going on between Pegasus and Battlestar Galactica?

SO: As far as the "factions", it's really the question of where the rights belong and I think Richard's made a point over and over that he doesn't have the rights. He never said he did. And, again, a legal issue that I know apparently what is known Universal Studios has the actual rights to it and USA Studios has the television rights. And certain parties are planning something different, and it's basically an effort to find out where those rights actually reside.

I wouldn't say so much as infighting, but that it's really that issue and certain disagreements where that is and why. That's really the question.

JS: What do you think the chances are, Shawn, for this Battlestar Galactica to come back and why?

SO: I think in one way, shape, or form things are very good. I think with the fan involvement, enthusiasm, and Richard's hard work putting together the trailer, going out to the conventions, meeting with people. I think the key thing is for the fans to get involved, get out there and write letters. Get involved with the fan club, involved with local groups, or just a variety of things. With the fan involvement I think we have a chance.

JS: Possibly for next year?

SO: I would hope. I hope so.

JS: Shawn, I would like you to keep in contact with me by e-mail to let my listeners know how things are going. And we'll probably have you again, back on here on Backstage Live when it looks like we have one in the can, and the best of luck to you and the fans. And if anyone wants to join up and join your club, what's your website?

SO: Once more it's BattlestarFanclub.com and the address is www.BattlestarFanclub.com.

JS: Shawn O'Donnell is the co-president of the Battlestar Galactica Fan Club. Shawn, it's a great pleasure having you on. Have a great day.

SO: You too, thanks!

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