TV REVIEW: Logan’s Run (CBS, 1977–78)
I know I just wrote a screed about 70’s sci-fi and how it was deeply callous when it came to the depiction of women, but sometimes you see it at a time in your life when it doesn’t matter…even though it should. That time for me was when I was a child: everything was new and I just went with it and accepted it as it came to me. Science fiction was the best, because it allowed me to be who I was without being what everyone wanted me to be. I didn’t have to be a muscle-bound idiot that spoke in dull rhyme or relegated to the back row because I wouldn’t be that idiot. I could be Lando Calrissian (and yes I know The Empire Strikes Back came out in 1980, but that’s practically the 70's). But I’m not here to talk about the Star Wars franchise or mythos, I’m here to talk about 1976’s Logan’s Run, or rather it’s TV spinoff from 1977.
The premise: Rehashing portions of the movie in its first episode, this TV series does not follow the movie after a certain point. The Sandman called Logan 5 (Gregory Harrison, “Trapper John, M.D.” [TV], “Falcon Crest” [TV]) is now a brunette, and he still runs with Francis 7 (Randy Powell, Battletruck) in the hunt for “Runners” who try to escape Carrousel on their 30th birthday. Logan still runs into Jessica 6, now a blonde played by Heather Menzies (The Sound of Music, Captain America [1979]) and they escape to the Outer World. They find a car and adventures are had when they find a third party, a human-looking android named Rem (Donald Moffat, License to Kill, The Thing [1982]).
The show: The show expands on what Logan and Jessica find in the Outer World, from cities of androids to Arabian-themed communities, psychic teenagers, laser-lance knights on horseback, Satanic ghosts interfering with the living, and even time travelers trying to prevent the Cataclysm that brought about their world. The show moved around the Outer World by a solar-powered hovercraft, which allowed the show to work as a “Wagon Train” moving between the different communities. You knew the episode was over when our main characters rode off into the dusty sunset.
A note on wardrobe: While Logan is dressed for the outdoors, Jessica is not. Constantly running about the wilderness in ballet slippers and a too-short silky tunic-dress should have ripped Jessica’s clothes to shreds like it did in the movie. Then again, this was network TV for children in the 70s; no way was that gonna fly. Depicting women in bondage and filming Jessica from low angles was always A-OK, though. A lot of “will-they, won’t-they” went on between Logan and Jessica; The android Rem borrowed heavily from C-3PO’s “major-domo” character, while acting as the show’s get-out-of-jail-free card for the entire run. If Logan couldn’t blast his way out, Rem could just science them out with no problem or he was simply immune to the dangerous hazard in question.
Instead of the main computer running the Domed City, Francis 7 answered to the men behind the computer. These were the Elders, a group of men much older than 30 that use Carrousel as a population control scheme. If Francis completed his mission, the Elders promised him, Francis could become a member of the Elders and not have to die at 30. Something to note was the conspicuous lack of life-clock crystals in the palm for this TV show. Given that the actors would be outside in the California wilderness a great deal, the attaching medium most likely failed and the idea was scrapped. This also points out a plot hole for the TV show. Logan runs in the movie b/c his life-crystal was accelerated by the computer for a mission, while the TV show makes Logan a Runner because he expresses his belief in Sanctuary.
There were a lot of good cameos from Angela Cartwright and Dick Tufeld (Penny and Robot from “Lost in Space” [TV]), Mariette Hartley (Zarabeth from the “All Our Yesterdays” episode of “Star Trek” [TV]), Kim Cattrall (“Sex and the City” [TV], Big Trouble in Little China, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country), William Smith (Red Dawn, Maniac Cop), and Warhol muse Mary Woronov (Rock & Roll High School Forever, TerrorVision, Night of the Comet). When they ever did encounter aliens (which was the one episode), the writers did such a good job I could only hope to see more of that in other sci-fi productions. The show could be all over the place when it came to tone, but it’s easy to forgive. The sets were what they could manage and I really liked the empty mall they used to represent the Domed Cities. The music could have been better though; some of the notes in the title theme were screaming, and episode music tended to be generic.
The verdict: Inconsistencies between the movie and the TV show most likely sank the show and made it unattractive to fans of the book and movie, as well as any new fans. The show had to compete with the likes of Star Wars and Saturday morning cartoons for the eyes of viewers. Not even Heather Menzies in a miniskirt could save this show, and I completely understand.
