Glen A Larson (1937-2014)

I’ve just heard that American TV Writer and Producer Glen A Larson has died at the age of 77. It’s sad news because he was a huge, almost mythical and yet mysterious figure in my childhood entertainment.

The name Glen A Larson was a hallmark of quality, okay maybe not actual quality but certainly the qualities I was looking for in my entertainment. “Battlestar Galactica” (the original one, with the mangy robot dog and Face from “The A-Team”, not the later, amazing reboot), “Buck Rogers In The 25th Century”, “Manimal” and “Automan”, everything he touched turned to glittering gold in my eyes. There was the stuff that I watched with my Mum, like “Quincy”, “The Fall Guy” and “Magnum PI” and although I may not have followed all the storylines, I knew it was good because of that golden logo against the brightest blue background.

Of course, he was also responsible for one of the greatest Television shows of all time: “Knight Rider”. The peerless combination of the classy Edward Mulhare and the even classier William Daniels in Trans-Am form with the irony-free action lunkheadedness of David Hasselhoff made for TV heaven, and the two episodes where KITT faced down his evil nemesis KARR rank very highly in my personal nostalgia charts.

Looking back, it’s easy to see what a pioneer he was, especially when it came to identifying the ‘cool factor’ of recent cinema blockbusters and distilling them down into a workable TV format. He never achieved high art, but what he did was highly entertaining. TV may have grown up and outgrown his cheery, cheesy blend of light-hearted action, adventure and sci-fi shenanigans but I’d like to thank him for bringing some of the most awesome moments to my young TV viewing life.

Rest In Peace, Mr Larson. And thank you.