Search Results for: Clive Revill

The Empire Strikes Back

Posted on by Dave

Star WarsIn the wake of their destruction of the Death Star, the Rebels are forced even further into hiding by the Empire’s relentless pursuit, especially now that Darth Vader has learned the identity of the Rebel pilot who toppled the Empire’s mighty space station. Luke Skywalker, while investigating a meteorite which has just crashed near the new Rebel base on the ice planet of Hoth, is attacked by one of the indigenous predators. Luke uses his budding skill with the Force to escape from the creature, but is too badly injured to return to base on his own. The image of Obi-Wan Kenobi appears, urging Luke to go to Dagobah, where he will find the last of the Jedi Masters, Yoda. But before Luke can ask any questions, Han Solo rescues him just in the nick of time.

What Luke doesn’t realize until it is too late is that the “meteorite” he sighted was an Imperial probe droid landing on Hoth. Darth Vader and his task force follow the probe droid’s lead to Hoth and launch a devastating ground attack, killing many of the Rebels and forcing the rest to retreat even further – but Vader’s real quarry, Luke, evades him yet again. Luke and Artoo slip away to Dagobah, while Han, Leia, Chewbacca and C-3PO escape aboard the Millennium Falcon. The Imperial forces pursue the Falcon through a treacherous asteroid field, while Luke crash-lands in the swamps of Dagobah and reluctantly befriends a small green creature who promises to take him to meet Yoda. During the pursuit of the Falcon, the Emperor contacts Vader with a new agenda – Luke Skywalker is to be turned to the dark side of the Force, not killed.

The creature who is helping Luke soon reveals that he is Yoda himself, and despite reservations about Luke’s lack of patience and his anger, both Skywalker pedigrees that led his father to a dark fate, the last living Jedi Master begins Luke’s training. Halfway across the galaxy, Han decides to find a safe haven for the Falcon and its beleaguered crew after too many close calls, ultimately choosing Bespin’s Cloud City, which is run by an old friend of his (and the original owner of the Falcon), Lando Calrissian. But shortly after arriving at Cloud City, C-3PO is blasted to bits, and Lando delivers Han and the others into the hands of Darth Vader and bounty hunter Boba Fett. Worse yet, as a test of a carbon-freezing process which he hopes to use to capture Luke as a gift for the Emperor, Darth Vader has Han frozen in carbonite before handing him over to Boba Fett. Lando, growing worried that the Imperial presence on Cloud City will become permanent, switches sides to join with Leia and Chewie, who are suspicious of his motives, but they trust him when he tells them where to find Fett’s ship.

In the meantime, Luke has experienced a vision of a future in which his friends are being killed by the Empire, and he hastily postpones his Jedi training to go to Bespin to help them, much to the dismay of Yoda and Obi-Wan. Luke arrives just in time to see Han’s frozen body being taken to Boba Fett’s ship, but he is unable to help his friends. Luke has just stepped into a trap carefully orchestrated by Darth Vader, who reveals, after a lightsaber duel with Luke, that he is actually Anakin Skywalker, Luke’s father.

Boba Fett escapes Cloud City with Han in custody, taking him back to Jabba the Hutt. Leia and Lando are unable to stop the bounty hunter, and Luke now faces the prospect that his destiny, like that of his father, may lead him to become a servant to the dark side of the Force.

Order the DVDsstory by George Lucas
screenplay by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kadsan
directed by Irvin Kershner
music by John Williams

Cast: Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Harrison Ford (Han Solo), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia), Billy Dee Williams (Lando Calrissian), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), David Prowse (Darth Vader), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), Kenny Baker (R2-D2), Frank Oz (Yoda), Alec Guinness (Obi-Wan Kenobi), Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett), John Hollis (Lando’s Aide), Peter Purvis (Chief Ugnaught), Des Web (Snow Creature), Clive Revill (Emperor Palpatine), Kenneth Colley (Admiral Piett), Julian Glover (General Veers), Michael Sheard (Admiral Ozzel), Michael Culver (Captain Needa), John Dicks (Imperial officer), Milton Johns (Imperial officer), Mark Jones (Imperial officer), Oliver Maguire (Imperial officer), Robin Scobey (Imperial officer), Bruce Boa (General Rieekan), Christopher Malcolm (Zev – Rogue 2), Denis Lawson (Wedge – Rogue 3), Richard Oldfield (Hobbie – Rogue 4), John Morton (Dak – Luke’s gunner), Ian Liston (Janson – Wedge’s gunner), John Ratzenberger (Major Derlin), Jack McKenzie (Deck lieutenant), Jerry Harte (Head controller), Norman Chancer (Rebel officer), Norwich Duff (Rebel officer), Ray Hassett (Rebel officer), Brigitte Kahn (Rebel officer), Burnell Tucker (Rebel officer)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Wizards & Warriors

Wizards & Warriors

  1. The Unicorn Of Death
  2. The Kidnap
  3. The Rescue
  4. Night Of Terror
  5. Skies Of Death
  6. Caverns Of Chaos
  7. The Dungeon Of Death
  8. Vulkar’s Revenge

The brainchild of veteran writer/producer Don Reo, Wizards & Warriors owes its birth to two primary influences. According to an interview on Wizards & Warriors fansite wizardsandwarriors.org, Reo was inspired by his son’s interest in Dungeons & Dragons, and at the time he was hardly alone; the game had already inspired an overwrought, cautionary movie-of-the-week, Rona Jaffe’s Mazes & Monsters, which warned against the game’s “dangerous” fantasy role-playing, but did at least serve the useful purpose of showing the world that young Bosom Buddies star Tom Hanks could act. Fortunately, Don Reo had something more entertaining in mind, which is where the other influence on his creation comes in.

Inspired by the “traditional fairytale with modern dialogue” twist of William Goldman’s novel “The Princess Bride”, Reo aimed for nothing less than bringing the feel of Goldman’s book to TV (years ahead of Goldman’s own adaptation of his book for the big screen). With costly location shooting and costuming, Wizards & Warriors was never going to be cheap, and it was doubly risky to build the show around a stylistic gag that the American TV audience hadn’t shown a knack for “getting.” Just a year before the show’s launch, the tongue-in-cheek Zucker-Abrams-Zucker series Police Squad had flopped in the ratings when viewers failed to latch onto the same brand of making-it-funny-by-playing-it-with-a-straight-face comedy that had made the same producers’ movie Airplane! a hit. Subtle, elaborately-constructed humor just wasn’t a diet staple of an audience weaned on laugh-track-drenched sitcoms.

Goldman was in on the joke, however – Reo consulted with the “Princess Bride” author on the tone and structure of the book so it could be matched in script form. (Even the “storytelling” framework of “The Princess Bride” is present in the two-part pilot, with the wizard Traquill recounting Prince Greystone’s adventures to a child; this element did not continue into the series proper.) Casting wasn’t a simple matter either; Reo and his casting directors ultimately settled on a proven combination of dramatic and comedic chops, in the form of an actor Wizards & Warriorswho’d had a rocky career. Actor Jeff Conaway had risen to public prominence in both the Broadway and Hollywood incarnations of Grease, and had since moved onto the sitcom Taxi, but during that show’s third season had been fired for a persistent drug abuse problem, an issue the actor had been battling since his teens. After Wizards & Warriors’ short stint, Conaway would work consistently on film and in TV, with his other notable genre credit being a lengthy stay aboard Babylon 5 in the 1990s as security officer Zack Allan. After struggling with drug addiction in the very public venue of the VH1 series Celebrity Rehab for several seasons, Conaway died in 2011.

Playing his faithful but out-of-shape squire was an actor well-acquainted with the comedy sidekick role, Walter Olkewicz. Julia Duffy, who would later gain fame in the ensemble cast of Designing Women, took on the role of the vacuous Princess Ariel. Possibly the most fortuitous casting was on the side of evil, Wizards & Warriorshowever: Wizards & Warriors brought Canadian actor Duncan Regehr into the public eye as the handsome but thoroughly evil Prince Blackpool; Regehr would become a frequent flyer in genre fare, from two iterations of Star Trek (a guest shot on The Next Generation and a recurring role as a Bajoran resistance leader – and Kira’s lover – on Deep Space Nine) to the short-lived original V series. And with mere hours to go before production on the pilot started, Richard Libertini bowed out of the part of Blackpool’s scheming wizard Vector, and the producers gave the role to one of the runners-up, Clive Revill, who had ample experience with the dark side, having played the voice and holographic image of the Emperor in the original 1980 cut of The Empire Strikes Back. (Revill has since been digitally excised from that movie as several successive revisions have replaced him with Ian McDiarmid, who portrayed the Emperor in the rest of the Star Wars movies.)

CBS immediately proved to be far from the show’s best friend. Irregular scheduling meant that the two-part pilot episode – originally written as a single script – aired as the second and third episodes, introducing characters that had already been seen in the first episode aired. Promotional support for the show, which aired as a mid-season replacement, quickly grew sparse as the network demonstrated its inability to get a handle on its new series: was it a comedy? Was it swashbuckling drama? Would anyone “get it”? Genre shows hadn’t fared well in prime time, with the costs involved making them risky propositions with no guarantee of a return on that investment. Warner Bros., producing Wizards & Warriors for CBS, found useful corners to cut – such as the strange but effective practice of editing unused footage from the big-budget Warner film Excalibur into episodes requiring major battle scenes – but the show was still costly to make. And in any case, the prime time schedules of years past were littered with the bones of science fiction and fantasy shows that didn’t last: Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, and others had failed to consistently deliver the massive audiences that tuned in for their spectacularly expensive premieres.

After only eight weeks, Wizards & Warriors was also consigned the genre TV graveyard, a victim of soft support from the network, and possibly guilty of being slightly ahead of its time. (To be fair, the show’s inspiration didn’t set the box office on fire either: a few years later, The Princess Bride landed in theaters with a dull thud, only catching on once the movie was available for repeat viewing at home on videotape – an afterlife that, in the ’80s, most television series simply didn’t get.)

Don Reo would continue plying his trade in Hollywood, creating later hits such as Blossom and My Wife And Kids. With the interest in swords and sorcery waning with the brief, fad-like flaring up of public fascination with Dungeons & Dragons, Wizards was relegated to the status of “cult classic” and had seldom been seen since. Fans continue lobbying for a DVD release, though any such release is likely to be of the burn-on-demand variety, with the Warner Archive Collection service being the most likely source.

– Earl Green

The Unicorn Of Death

Posted on by theLogBook.com

Wizards & WarriorsThe wizard Vector presents the evil Prince Blackpool with a gift: a sculpture of a unicorn made from a substance that, when activated, will create an explosion large enough to wipe out a country. Blackpool decides to use this terrible weapon to win the affections of Princess Ariel… by holding her father’s kingdom hostage with the threat of fiery destruction. But Ariel is betrothed to Prince Erik Greystone, who is immediately given the task of recovering the key that will deactivate the explosive. With his squire, Marko, Greystone convinces one of Blackpool’s flunkies to talk and makes his way toward Blackpool’s citadel.

It never occurs to him that the key he’s risking life and limb to retrieve might be the wrong one.

written by Bill Richmond
directed by Bill Bixby
music by Lee Holdridge

Cast: Jeff Conaway (Prince Erik Greystone), Walter Olkewicz (Marko), Duncan Regehr (Prince Dirk Blackpool), Julia Duffy Wizards & Warriors(Princess Ariel), Clive Revill (Vector), Ian Wolfe (Wizard Traquill), Randi Brooks (Bethel), Tim Dunigan (Geoffrey Blackpool), Joseph Robert Sicari (Goz Dunder), Thomas Hill (King Baaldorf), Christine de Lisle (Belldonna), Phyllis Katz (Cassandra), Ken Hixon (Ariel’s Suitor), Brent Huff (Man in Bar), Lonnie Wun (Baaldorf’s Subject), Kathleen McIntyre (Lady In Waiting), Mark Douglas Sebastian, Steven Strong (Grox), Nancy Thiesen (Lady In Waiting)

Notes: Director Bill Bixby is the same actor who starred as the alter ego of The Incredible Hulk throughout that series’ run; even before he was Hulking out, Bixby was in demand as a director. He teamed up with Wizards & Warriors creator Don Reo on his later (and arguably more successful) series Blossom, directing 30 episodes (presumably Very Special ones) of that show. Bixby died in 1993 after a lengthy battle with prostate cancer.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

The Kidnap

Posted on by theLogBook.com

Wizards & WarriorsWar has broken out between the kingdom of Camarand and Karteia. Prince Erik Greystone and his squire Marko visit King Baaldorf and offers his help in battle; the King sends him to the front lines. Upon hearing that Greystone will be joining the fight, the evil Prince Dirk Blackpool steals a magical monocle from his court wizard, Vector, and holds it hostage. Despite the wizards’ code of honor, which prevents practitioners of magic from killing, Vector is left with no choice but to dispatch a deadly demon at Blackpool’s request. Marko overcomes the demon and bests Blackpool’s younger brother in hand-to-hand combat. But Greystone forgets the cryptic warning given to him by Belldonna, a ghostly image of a beautiful woman that only he can see or hear, and is unable to prevent Blackpool from walking into Castle Baaldorf and kidnapping the Princess Ariel.

written by Don Reo
directed by Richard Colla
music by Lee Holdridge

Wizards & WarriorsCast: Jeff Conaway (Prince Erik Greystone), Walter Olkewicz (Marko), Duncan Regehr (Prince Dirk Blackpool), Julia Duffy (Princess Ariel), Clive Revill (Vector), Ian Wolfe (Wizard Traquill), Julie Payne (Queen Lattinia), Randi Brooks (Bethel), Tim Dunigan (Geoffrey Blackpool), Jay Kerr (Justin Greystone), Thomas Hill (King Baaldorf), Christine de Lisle (Belldonna), George McDaniel (Hook), Robert Alan Browne (General), Phyllis Katz (Cassandra), David Ankrum (Robber), Michael Crabtree (Robber), Elyse Donalson (Woman), M.C. Gainey (Robber), Emerson Hall (Robber), Chuck Hicks, Fred Lerner,
George Marshall Ruge, Steven Strong, Steven Williams

Notes: The Kidnap and The Rescue – originally written as a single script titled The Wizards & WarriorsRescue and then broken up into a two-episode cliffhanger at the request of CBS – were two halves of the pilot episode of Wizards & Warriors, which is the reason for the numerous elements that make little sense when The Unicorn Of Death aired the week before: The Kidnap depicts Prince Erik’s first visit to Castle Baaldorf and his first meeting with Princess Ariel. It also shows Blackpool confiscating Vector’s magical monocle, which he is missing in Unicorn. The Kidnap and The Rescue are also much darker than most of the rest of the series. Battle scenes seen at the beginning of The Kidnap were unused battle footage from the movie Excalibur, which was – handily enough – also produced by Warner Bros. Also be on the lookout for a young M.C. Gainey, who would later play the recurring role of “Mr. Friendly”, one of the Others ruling over the island in Lost.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

The Rescue

Posted on by theLogBook.com

Wizards & WarriorsGreystone’s quest to recover the kidnapped Princess Ariel from Dirk Blackpool isn’t going to plan. And that’s assuming that he even has a plan. Worse yet, the increasingly impatient King Baaldorf is becoming as much of a threat to their health as anything Blackpool has up his sleeve. En route to Blackpool’s castle, by way of Marko’s home town, Greystone discovers that the evil wizard Vector has deployed every trick in the book to stop them from rescuing Ariel. But Vector and Blackpool aren’t counting on Greystone’s sheer determination (or Marko’s ability to strangle a slime monster). And Greystone isn’t counting on Ariel’s sheer indifference at being rescued.

written by Don Reo
directed by James Frawley
music by Lee Holdridge

Wizards & WarriorsCast: Jeff Conaway (Prince Erik Greystone), Walter Olkewicz (Marko), Duncan Regehr (Prince Dirk Blackpool), Julia Duffy (Princess Ariel), Clive Revill (Vector), Ian Wolfe (Wizard Traquill), Thomas Hill (King Baaldorf), Art LaFleur (Michael), Piper Perry (Lucille), Tara Perry (Margaret), Bobby Porter (Lendar), Toru Tanaka (Baaldorf’s Aide)

Notes: Ian Wolfe was always seated in his appearances as the wizard Traquill due to health issues at the time of filming. Bobby Porter, who has a long history as a stunt coordinator working on such shows as The A-Team, Tales From The Crypt, the American version of The Office and both TV episodes and movies in the Planet Of The Apes franchise, had a recurring role in the 1991 remake of Land Of The Lost and wore the metal suit of Andy the robot in the ’70s SF spoof Quark. There’s not a man alive who could strangle a slime monster.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Night Of Terror

Posted on by theLogBook.com

Wizards & WarriorsHaving survived life and death battles together, Greystone and Princess Ariel move on to something that the prince finds much more stressful: a simple picnic. Ariel has chosen to set up the picnic on the grounds of a haunted castle, and when her dog runs toward the castle, she and Greystone follow and become trapped inside. Naturally, it’s all a carefully laid trap that Vector has arranged, and the evil wizard is so certain that the happy couple is doomed that he begins bargaining with Prince Blackpool for his magical monocle. But with help on the way from Marko, Greystone isn’t ready to give up just yet.

written by Bill Richmond
directed by Bill Bixby
music by Lee Holdridge and Alf Clausen

Cast: Jeff Conaway (Prince Erik Greystone), Walter Olkewicz (Marko), Duncan Regehr (Prince Dirk Blackpool), Julia Duffy Wizards & Warriors(Princess Ariel), Clive Revill (Vector), Julie Payne (Queen Lattinia), Thomas Hill (King Baaldorf)

Notes: This was the first credited composing assignment for Alf Clausen, who would move on to provide music for such shows as Moonlighting and Alf before becoming the resident composer for The Simpsons, scoring all but a handful of that show’s episodes over its 20+ year run.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Skies Of Death

Posted on by theLogBook.com

Wizards & WarriorsPrince Blackpool’s sneak attacks have given away to something more aggressive: he has declared open war on Castle Baldorf. Greystone and Marko lead the defense from the front line, only to discover that Blackpool has added ballistic weaponry to his arsenal. Airborne explosives land at the feet of King Baldorf’s army, causing devastating damage, while Blackpool’s men don’t even have to advance. Worse yet, Blackpool’s cannon is sitting atop the Cliffs of Death, a climb that has killed many a man in peacetime. Greystone tries to lead a force of Baldorf’s best men to the cliff face, but Blackpool’s cannon fire drives them into retreat. Greystone and Marko set out to do the job themselves, with a little help from Greystone’s brother Justin – though Greystone worries about whether his brother will even show up. Greystone has a plan to make Blackpool’s cannon backfire, not only destroying the cannon but whatever force is amassed on the Cliffs of Death to fire it. Climbing the Cliffs will be a challenge. Getting back down alive will be nothing short of a miracle.

written by Don Reo
directed by Bill Bixby
music by Lee Holdridge and Alf Clausen

Wizards & WarriorsCast: Jeff Conaway (Prince Erik Greystone), Walter Olkewicz (Marko), Duncan Regehr (Prince Dirk Blackpool), Julia Duffy (Princess Ariel), Clive Revill (Vector), Jay Kerr (Justin), Julie Payne (Queen Lattinia), Thomas Hill (King Baaldorf), Robert Gray (Injured Soldier), Robert Carnegie (Guard #4), Chris Hendrie (Guard #3), Warren Munson (Peasant), Alex Daniels (Blackpool’s Soldier), George Marshall Ruge (Blackpool’s Soldier), Lonnie Wun (Blackpool’s Soldier)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Qpid

Posted on by theLogBook.com

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 44741.9: Picard is readying a speech on the subject of the planet Tagus 3, whose archaelogical digs are off-limits to outsiders, to be delivered to a group of distinguished archaeologists, and is surprised to find that Vash, a very fondly remembered acquaintance from his visit to Risa, is present as well, no doubt to fulfill her nefarious urge to go treasure-seeking. She and Picard seem to be able to agree on nothing, which catches the attention of Q, who, to force Picard to admit that he does indeed love Vash, sends the crew, Vash, and even himself, into Sherwood Forest. Picard, of course, becomes Robin Hood, his crew become Robin’s merry men, Q becomes Guy of Gisbourne, and Vash, naturally, is the damsel in distress…a role she doesn’t play willingly, or, indeed, correctly!

Order the DVDsteleplay by Ira Steven Behr
story by Randee Russell and Ira Steven Behr
directed by Cliff Bole
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Jennifer Hetrick (Vash), Clive Revill (Sheriff of Nottingham), John de Lancie (Q), Joi Staton (Servant)

Notes: Clive Revill, the Sheriff of Nottingham in this story, also has another well-known science fiction saga in his resume: he provided the voice (and a shimmering but fuzzy image) of the Galactic Emperor in The Empire Strikes Back in 1980 (Ian McDiarmid took that role over in 1983’s Return Of The Jedi when the Emperor finally made a personal appearance in the saga).

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Born To The Purple

Posted on by theLogBook.com

Babylon 5Londo stalls negotiations with the Narn – and infuriates G’Kar – when he wishes simply to partake of a seedy bar whose agile young Centauri dancer intrigues Londo; when he winds up in bed with her, talks are delayed even further. But the girl is in the employ of an information trader who plans on using her to get to Londo’s Purple Files, detailing various dirt on many Centauri families – information the Narn Regime would pay handsomely for in order to gain blackmail material against their former masters. When Londo discovers that his secrets have been taken, he begins a desperate quest to track down the culprit and free an innocent pawn.

Order now!Download this episodewritten by Lawrence G. DiTillio
directed by Bruce Seth Green
music by Christopher Franke

Guest Cast: Fabiana Udenio (Adira Tyree), Clive Revill (Trakis), Mary Woronov (Ko D’Ath), Jimm Giannini (Ock), Robert Phalen (Andrei Ivanova), Robert DiTillio (Norg), Tom Lowe (Gunman #1), Katharine Mills (Dancer), Mike Norris (Butz), Laura Peterson (Gera Akshi), Marianne Robertson (Tech #1), Momo Yashima (Dr. Goyokin)