WHEN WEIRD, SPACE MIME WAS STILL POPULAR AT AMUSEMENT PARKS
(I was talking to them the way I normally talk to people, BEHIND A PODIUM, USING A MICROPHONE.)
As I trust you recall, this was a dark ride on the Universal Studios Tour in the early eighties that was ENTIRELY NON FICTIONAL, and which I visited when I was a human child. The ride was a BSG 1.0 tie-in in which your Universal Studios tram is captured by Cylons who apparently are attempting to invade the San Fernando Valley. They then hold your tram hostage in a makeshift space station, shooting their lasers around until you are rescued by two Colonial Warriors.
(WHY do these trams get into so much trouble? The answer is unknown.)
As I stressed to the people of Washington, it is important to know that the Colonial Warriors were not animatronic -- they were played by ACTUAL HUMAN ACTORS. (The Cylons, by contrast, were indeed animatronic, which I guess is another way of saying they were played by ACTUAL INHUMAN ROBOTS).
BUT: what I did not discover until years later, as I was piecing together my strange memories of this attraction via internet, was that these actors NEVER SPOKE. Instead, their lines were pre-recorded years before, presumably by other, better actors, and played over a loudspeaker -- a weird kind of torture which makes the ride now seem much more scary.
RECENTLY I discovered some amazing behind the scenes videos of the ride, presumably shot by these very actors, including one in which you actually follow along behind a Colonial Warrior as he runs through the ride doing his weird space mime, gesturing his head as though he were speaking. See "Following a Hero" -- the video portion begins after a series of stills.
I AM ESPECIALLY FOND of the video of the Battle of Galactica break room called "Back Stage at Battle of Galactica." See if you can spot the barbell, the completely incongruous map on the wall, and the man dressed as a Colonial Warrior writing a letter home. A letter which presumably contains only the word "WHY?" written over and over and over.
AS AN accidental TV personality and wholly fraudulent "actor," I often enjoy looking at this video whenever my head gets too big (usually at 10AM, and then again at 4PM).
MANY THANKS INDEED to Dale Long of byyourcommand.net, which is pretty much your one stop shop for BATTLE OF GALACTICA photos and videos.
That is all.
the latest
latest episodes
Applause! The Cylon moment on the Universal tour had a big impact on me, even more than Bruce the Shark emerging out of the water to terrorize the tram riders.
I'm guessing that the reason the actor's lines were all pre-recorded was that the company wanted the freedom to hire cheap immigrants as actors, and not need to worry about English language skills...
WHY DO YOU INSIST on typing like that? It's entirely unnecessary and does nothing to help the READABILITY of your articles. I like your work and you're an interesting blogger. But, please, for the love of Boing Boing, stop with the UNNECESSARY uppercase throughout your posts.
If you're trying to make a point, write clearer, not in caps.
Very nice.
Trivia: Dale's TOS Cylon was used in the "Cylon Explains DRM" video from a few months ago:
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/06/21/cylons-explain-drm.html
I don't think he's trying to make a point. Just be a bit dramatic :P (which is OK by me).
I won a BSG poster at Universal Studios mid 80s in their Cylon laser tag arena... one Cylon was worth more points than the others so I kept my sights on him, ending up with more than double the next highest score in my group.
The poster is long gone, but the memory is still fun =)
BTW, The Cylons in the laser tag arena were humans in suits, I'm fairly sure...
SuperDoop, lay off The Hodge. That is his style. The rest of the blogsphere knows/loves him in spite of/because of it.
Choose to get on board, or sit quietly until the ride comes to a complete stop.
Also fun is watching the old Get Smart movie called The Nude Bomb which features a scene through the Battlestar attraction.
I was an "actor" in the commercial advertising the ride. The ride itself wasn't fully operational yet so the shoot consisted of driving up to the entrance
in the tram and getting "blasted" by the menacing smoke canon over and over again. Good times. Not as good as running amok on the lot as a teen a few years later. But a thrill nonetheless.
I would like to watch the Following A Hero movie, but I can't figure out how to view a Windows Media Player file in Quicktime. Do I need a PC for that?
The Galactica ride is from before my time, but Disney's Great Movie Ride (at MGM Studios) has a similar component. Or at least it did; I vaguely remember talk about them revamping it.
B-but John, you'd be behind a lectern, not a podium. A podium is a raised platform, sometimes upon which you would find a lectern.
I find your constant use of UPPERCASE disturbing.
And very very annoying. Stop it. Now.
Seriously SuperDoop, stop using the comments to comment, just keep it to yourself.
Television coverage of big parades -- I'm thinking the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade -- sometimes includes plugs for plays. These often have actors standing in the street by where the TV cameras are stationed and lipsyncing to a recording of a stage performance.
That's FREAKY ENOUGH on TV; I imagine seeing it right in front of you would be way weird.
As someone who yells at people who type in uppercase professionally, I find the folie majuscule hysterically funny. It reminds me of a tiny, female art teacher that I had, who used to pronounce every tenth or so syllable in a booming basso profundo, quite unconsciously.
oh wow, until this very day i never made the connection between cylons and that ride. i have semi-sweet memories of the ride being that i was the scrawny, high strung child placed directly in the sites of that giant bastard fish. am i confabulating or wasnt there also an A-Team portion to that ride? tied in with the awful fright given to me by the steam horn on the Queen Mary and that was one pants-crappingly fun summer vacation. the highlight being my day at chino market looking for bootleg mixtapes, what has two thumbs and brought the flavor to a tiny piece of the midwest... this guy.
Thanks for posting the article about the Battle of Galactica (BOG) and pointing out my page a source to view items related to the show.
Dale
...I remember when this ride first appeared, and Starlog(*) ran an article on it. Apparently this was back in the days when everyone was paranoid about lasers hitting you in the eye, so they literally used smoke *and* mirrors to zap laser beams all over the place and never have to worry about a customer suing you over corneal burnout.
...IIRC, this ride also included a prop exhibit, and displayed the original 6' BSG model where lots of photos were taken by fans. What I don't recall is whether this got converted to a King Kong ride, and/or if it was itself a converted Earthquake ride. Anyone out there in Cali-forn-y from that era know the scoop?
(*) Remember when this was a magazine worth reading?
I totally loved this ride as a kid
PS -- your use of caps is a-ok with me. It's very old-timey newspapery!
Pfffbt to all you sensitive caps-haters. Sheesh.
My brother was responsible for developing the ride at Universal. John, ping me via separate e-mail and I'll put you in touch, if you are interested.
I, for one, like the capital letters. I read it as one would read a dramatic speech, or a sermon.
I grew up in LA, but only visited Universal Studios once. One of the few things I remember is the animatronic Cyclon standing watch over the entrance to that part of the ride. I don't remember the battle at all.
"ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive," try Flip4Mac. It doesn't always work, but it works for me in this case.
I'm fond of the caps. Starting a paragraph with them is a pleasant retro contrast to the nature of a post on boingboing.
@15
Err... Isn't that what the comments are for?
I experienced something similar at Six-Flags about 10 years ago. I had just gone on some cyclonic Joker-themed ride (I believe it spun in a fast circle, and was accompanied to constantly looped, demented laughter) and meandered my way like a drunk to this cave-like auditorium. My friends had abandoned me. Possibly they knew what was coming. Trying to hold down my fried dough in the summer heat, I, and the five other people in there, were surprised to see a lip-synced Batman extravaganza. While laser weren't shot at us, we did experience confetti bombs, and a shaky looking zip-line strung over our heads.
Truth be told, it was pretty impressive in a surreal way. But it was DEFINITELY* lip-synced. The theatrical gestures rarely matched the recording.
*The capitals in my comment are in solidarity with John Hodgman. Don't let them sully your good name!
There is a funny scene from an A-Team episode (also included in the opening credits) where Dirk Benedict is on the Universal Tour, sees a Cylon, and does a double-take.
Would you guyz stop?? First Denver Pop Culture, now this. You're making all the magic synapses in my brain fire :)
I remember this ride, with it's laser beams. I was as impressed as a 12 year-old can be by menacing robots mixed with bad actors.
-1 for the random-ish caps, It gives me a headache, and makes me reconsider buying a book written by you for fear that it will be full of the same abuses of formatting.
OMG, I remember as a kid being deeply affected by the photos of my grandparents visit to Universal studios - a wide ocean (of water and simple economics) separated me from Hollywood, so to know my un-hip grandparents had battled with Cylons and lived to show me the pics was utterly, utterly cool. It made me swear on the spot that one day *I* would see that battle of the Cylons.
Unfortunately, when I DID get to US, it was 25 years too late.
Those photos are a very shiny memory.
wow. I had completely forgotten about that attraction. I must have gone through it a fair number of times.
btw - as I look at one of the videos, I have to say that nothing says immersive fantasy like a glowing green EXIT sign. gah :(