@RUTGERS.ARPA,@CISL-SERVICE-MULTICS.ARPA:Dave-Platt@LADC (05/07/85)
From: Dave Platt <Dave-Platt%LADC@CISL-SERVICE-MULTICS>
For those of you who may be interested in delving further into the
somewhat sordid history of _The Starlost_, the following may be of
use:
_Phoenix without Ashes_, by Edward Bryant and Harlan Ellison. Bryant
took Ellison's original plot script for _The Starlost_ (apparently very
different than the version actually shot) and turned it into a full-length
novel. Included is Ellison's 30-page telling of how the powers-that-be
scrod him and the show. Note that the original script was awarded
"Most Outstanding Film/TV Screenplay" by the Writers' Guild of America
(Ellison's third such award). This may be out of print today; the edition
I have is Fawcett M3188, dated February 1975. Worth digging up at your
favorite used-paperback store.
_The Starcrossed_, by Ben Bova. A lightly-fictionalized retelling of the
whole mess, involving 3D television, Vitaform Process bodies, pink perfumed
smog, a hockey-star lead actor who speaks only Neanderthal, The Mob, and
panic flights to Ulan Bator. Ron Gabriel, iconoclast / romantic storywriter,
nicely fills the shoes of The Small but Mighty God of Thunder ("May Elcin
strike you in the kneecap!"). Pyramid A4105, dated 12/76. I'm fairly
sure this is currently in print; I think I noticed a copy out of the corner
of my eye in A Change of Hobbit (Santa Monica CA) last week. Definitely worth
a read for the laughs, even if you're not a _Starlost_ fan [Ellison
writes in _Phoenix..._, "Friends call me when they see _The Starlost_ (which
still has some small syndication in outlying areas), and they tell me how
much they like it. I snarl and hang up on them."].