Wow, here's a fairly recent article from the actor (Dirk Benedict) who played "Starbuck" on the old (late 1970's) T.V. show "Battlestar Galactica", comparing the old "BSG" to the new one. It shows how much of a paradigm shift there has been in our culture (for the dramatically worse) and how the new "BSG" is a microcosm of the cultural paradigm in America today. It's fairly long, but well-worth the read:
http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/dbenedict/2009/01/19/lt-starbuck-lost-in-castration/
Lt. Starbuck ... Lost in Castration</font>
by Dirk Benedict</span>
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Once upon a time, in what used to be a far away land called Hollywood
(but is now a state of mind and everywhere), a young actor was handed a
script and asked to bring to life a character called Starbuck. I am
that actor. The script was called "Battlestar Galactica."Â
Fortunately, I was young, my imagination fertile and adrenal glands
strong, because bringing Starbuck to life was over the dead imaginations
of a lot of Network Executives. Every character trait I struggled to
give him was met with vigorous resistance. A charming womanizer? The
"Suits"Â (Network Executives) hated it. A cigar (fumerello) smoker? The
Suits hated it. A reluctant hero who found humor in the bleakest of
situations? The Suits hated it. All this negative feedback convinced me I
was on the right track.
Starbuck was meant to be a lovable rogue. It was best for the show,
best for the character and the best that I could do. The Suits didn't
think so. "One more cigar and he's fired,"Â they told Glen Larson, the
creator of the show. "We want Starbuck to appeal to the female audience
for crying out loud."Â You see, the Suits knew women were turned off by
men who smoked cigars, especially young men. How they "knew"Â this was
never revealed. And they didn't stop there. "If Dirk doesn't quit
playing every scene with a girl like he wants to get her in bed, he's
fired."Â This was, well, it was blatant heterosexuality, treating women
like "sex objects."Â I thought it was flirting. Never mind, they wouldn't
have it. I wouldn't have it any other way, or rather Starbuck wouldn't.
So we persevered, Starbuck and I. The show, as the saying goes, went on
and the rest is history for, lo and behold, women from all over the
world sent me boxes of cigars, phone numbers, dinner requests, and
marriage proposals.</span>
The Suits were not impressed. They would have their way, which is
what Suits do best, and after one season of puffing and flirting and
gambling, Starbuck, that loveable scoundrel, was indeed fired. Which is
to say, "Battlestar Galactica"Â was cancelled. Starbuck, however, would
not stay cancelled, but simply morphed into another flirting, cigar
smoking, blatant heterosexual called Faceman. Another show, another set
of Suits, and of course, if The "A-Team"Â movie rumors prove correct,
another remake.
There was a time, I know I was there, when men were men, women were
women and sometimes a cigar was just a good smoke. But 40 years of
feminism have taken their toll. The war against masculinity has been
won. Everything has turned into its opposite, so that what was once
flirting and smoking is now sexual harassment and criminal. And everyone
is more lonely and miserable as a result.
Witness the "re-imagined"Â "Battlestar Galactica,"Â bleak, miserable,
despairing, angry and confused. Which is to say, it reflects in
microcosm the complete change in the politics and morality of today's
world, as opposed to the world of yesterday. The world of Lorne Greene
(Adama), Fred Astaire (Starbuck's Poppa) and Dirk Benedict (Starbuck). I
would guess Lorne is glad he's in that Big Bonanza in the sky and well
out of it. Starbuck, alas, has not been so lucky. He's not been left to
pass quietly into that trivial world of cancelled TV characters.
"Re-imagining"Â, they call it. "Un-imagining"Â is more accurate. To
take what once was and twist it into what never was intended. So that
a
television show based on hope, spiritual faith and family is un-imagined
and regurgitated as a show of despair, sexual violence and family
dysfunction. To better reflect the times of ambiguous morality in which
we live, one would assume.
A show in which the aliens (Cylons) are justified
in their desire to destroy human civilization, one would assume.
Indeed, let us not say who the good guys are and who the bad are. That
is being "judgmental,"Â taking sides, and that kind of (simplistic)
thinking went out with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan and Kathryn
Hepburn and John Wayne and, well, the original "Battlestar Galactica."Â
In the bleak and miserable "re-imagined"Â world of "Battlestar
Galactica,"Â things are never that simple. Maybe the Cylons are not evil
and alien but in fact enlightened and evolved? Let us not judge them so
harshly. Maybe it is they who deserve to live and Adama and his human
ilk who deserve to die? And what a way to go!
For the re-imagined
terrorists (Cylons) are not mechanical robots void of soul, of
sexuality, but rather humanoid six foot tall former lingerie models who
f**k you to death. (Poor old Starbuck, you were imagined too early.
Think of the fun you could have had ‘fighting' with these thong-clad
aliens!) In the spirit of such soft-core, sci-fi porn I think a more
re-imaginative title would have been "F**cked by A Cylon."Â (Apologies to
"Touched by an Angel."Â)
One thing is certain.
In the new un-imagined, re-imagined world of
"Battlestar Galactica"Â everything is female driven. The male characters,
from Adama on down, are confused, weak and wracked with indecision,
while the female characters are decisive, bold, angry as hell, puffing
cigars (gasp!) and not about to take it any more.
One can quickly surmise what a problem the original Starbuck created
for the re-imaginators.
Starbuck was all charm and humor and flirting
without an angry bone in his womanizing body. Yes, he was definitely
"female driven,"Â but not in the politically correct ways of Re-imagined
Television. What to do, wondered the Re-imaginators? Keep him as he was,
with a twinkle in his eye, a stogie in his mouth and a girl in every
galaxy? This could not be. He would stick out like, well, like a jock
strap in a drawer of thongs. Starbuck refused to be re-imagined. It
became the Great Dilemma. How to have your Starbuck and delete him too?
The best minds in the world of un-imagination doubled their intake of
Double Soy Latte's as they gathered in their smoke-free offices to
curse the day that this chauvinistic Viper Pilot was allowed to be.
But
never under-estimate the power of the un-imaginative mind when it
encounters an obstacle (character) it subconsciously loathes.
"ÂRe-inspiration"Â struck. Starbuck would go the way of most men in
today's society. Starbuck would become "Stardoe."Â What the Suits of
yesteryear had been incapable of doing to Starbuck 25 years ago was
accomplished quicker than you can say orchiectomy. Much quicker, as in,
"Frak! Gonads Gone!"Â
And the word went out to all the Suits in all the smoke-free offices
throughout the land of Un-imagination, "Starbuck is dead. Long live
Stardoe!"Â
I'm not sure if a cigar in the mouth of Stardoe resonates in the same
way it did in the mouth of Starbuck. Perhaps. Perhaps it "resonates"Â
more. Perhaps that's the point. I'm not sure. What I am sure of is this"¦
Women are from Venus. Men are from Mars. Hamlet does not scan as
Hamletta. Nor does Hans Solo as Hans Sally. Faceman is not the same as
Facewoman. Nor does a Stardoe a Starbuck make. Men hand out cigars.
Women "hand out"Â babies. And thus the world for thousands of years has
gone' round.
I am also sure that Show Business has been morphing for many decades
now and has finally become Biz Business. The creative artists have lost
and the Suits have won. Suits. Administrators. Technocrats. Metro-sexual
money-men (and women), who create ever more efficient formulas to
guarantee profit margins. Because movies and television shows are not
made to enlighten or even entertain, but simply to make money. They will
tell you it is (still) about story and character, but all it is really
about is efficiency. About the Formula. Because Harvard Business School
Technocrats run Hollywood and what Technocrats know is what must be
removed from all business is Risk. And I tell you, life,
real
life, is all about risk. I tell you that without risk you have no
creativity, no art. I tell you that without risk you have Remakes. You
have, "Charlie's Angels,"Â "The Saint,"Â "Mission Impossible,"Â "The A
Team"Â (coming soon), and "Battlestar Galactica."Â
All risk-free brand names, franchises.
For you see, TV shows (and movies) are made and sold according to the
same business formula as hamburger franchises. So that it matters not
if it is the "best"Â hamburger, what matters is that you "think"Â it is
the best. And you do "think"Â it is the best, because you have been told
to; because all of your favorite celebrities are seen munching it on TV.
The big money is not spent on making the hamburger or the television
show, but on the marketing of the hamburger/show. (One 60 second
commercial can cost more than it does to film a one-hour episode.)
It
matters not to Suits if it is Starbuck or Stardoe, if the Cylons are
robots or lingerie models, if the show is full of optimism and morality
or pessimism and amorality. What matters is that it is marketed well, so
that all you people out there in TV land know that you must see this
show. And after you see it, you are told that you should like it. That
it is new and bold and sleek and sexy and best of all "¦ it is Re-imagined!
So grab a Coke from the fridge (not the Classic Coke, but the
re-imagined kind with fewer calories) and send out for a McDonald's
hamburger (the re-imagined one with fewer carbs), and tune in to Stardoe
and Cylon #6 (or was it #69?) and Enjoy the Show.
And if you don't enjoy the show, or the hamburger and coke, it's not
the fault of those re-imaginative technocrats that brought them to you.
It is your fault. You and your
individual instincts, tastes and
judgment â€" your refusal to let go of the memory of the show that once
was. You just don't know what is good for you. But stay tuned. After
another 13 episodes (and millions of dollars of marketing), you will see
the light. You, your instincts, your judgment, are wrong. McDonald's
is
the best hamburger on the planet, Coca-Cola the best drink, and Stardoe
is the best Viper Pilot in the Galaxy.
And "Battlestar Galactica,"Â contrary to what your memory tells you,
never existed before the Re-imagination of 2004.
I disagree. But perhaps, you had to be there.
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Turning the "womanizing" male character "Starbuck" from the old "BSG" into an aggressively sexual female called "Stardoe" in the new "BSG" has to be the most pathetic.
There were almost 700 responses to his article. Here are a couple that I thought hit the mark:
"Dirk B â€" a.k.a. Starbuck"¦ you nailed it, buddy. The de-balling of men and the all-knowing, evermore masculine women"¦boring. Starbuck was a cool character, and Athena was hot. The new women are hot but lack humanity, no femininity. Just watch the old movies, and women had personality, great lines, great screen presence"¦not a lick of butch, angry, dyke to be seen! The pendulum will swing back, but for now, we have to endure the bull-dyke and vixen with a weenie thing. How sad. Real women were so much more entertaining and sexy."
and...
"For once someone has the balls to stand up and speak the thruth. I too am a fan of the original show. Dirk is 100% corect!
It used to be (in the movies) that the girl would run screaming from a monster. Now, the girl beats up the monster! It is common to see 200lb. men on TV get beat up by a 110 lb. woman. The Scifi channel is the worst offender. In the show called Eurika, a woman grabs a male* by crotch and squeezes as hard as she can to get him to comply. Now, can you imagine if the rolls were reversed! *Notice I used the word male not man. In today's world there are very few men left.
You can still see tough guys in movies and on TV, but there is always a woman who is just as tough as his side kick. The problem today is that the average guy has been castrated. He is afraid to speak out. He can't even ask a girl he works with on a date, or risk losing his job.
All I can say to my brothers is WAKE UP! If you don't stand up now you will be the one wearing the apron baking cookies!"
I couldn't have said it better than those two posters, bravo!
Another poster said they (the PTB) did the same thing to the remake of "Knight Rider".
I was looking forward to the new version of "The Prisoner", but stopped watching it halfway through the first episode when a blatantly, man-hating, radical-feminist scene was allowed by a female character without being challenged by the male protagonist. Same thing with the new "Bionic Woman" remake.
Edited by: Highlander