Larson the Magnificent

This guy is amazing.

Not as a writer or show creator, but as a salesman. First he mined the Star Wars craze to sell the 1978 version of Battlestar Galactica. The original, an excellent example of how lame 1970s television could be, combined metal robots, wooden actors and leaden dialogue to produce one season of sci-fi camp that included an episode where a human pilot had a high-noon showdown with a fast-draw robot.

And after 21 episodes, Galactica go bye-bye. But wait! The intrepid Lawson manages to convince Universal Studios to greenlight Galactica 1980, which featured a few of the actors from the original series and a two-part episode in which the Galactica crew had to save Wolfman Jack from the Cylons. This lasted 10 episodes, and except for occasional rumblings from Richard Hatch, that was that for the ragtag fugitive fleet and their quest to find Earth.

But wait! Come 2003, and we find humans and Cylons duking it out once again, over on the Sci-Fi Channel, in what is going to become one of the best and best-reviewed shows on television, and certainly a high-water mark for that network. Well, that show is winding up this season, and except for the planned "prequel" series Caprica, that seems to be it for the franchise.

But wait! Larson the Magnificent is at it again! He's in talks with Universal Studios, his old friends, about a big-screen version of Battlestar Galactica! This new version will not have anything in common with the re-imagined Sci-Fi Channel version, but will draw from the original series idea. Why do I say this is magnificent? Follow the steps with me here: 1) Larson sells derivative series idea to network to capitalize on Star Wars movie success. 2) Series stinks, and tanks, but Larson manages to sell it again to the same studio. 3) Some 30 years later, Larson negotiates with the same studio to produce movie of series based on the campy, schlocky earlier version, capitalizing on success of high-quality re-imagined version of that same show!

If he actually gets this made, he should be considered the best salesman ever.