Trivia for
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979) (TV) More at IMDbPro »

• Some footage was taken from "Battlestar Galactica" (1978), along with many props.
  
  
• This was the pilot for the TV series that followed ("Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" (1979)). When no network chose to air it, the film debuted in theaters.
  
  
• The Buck Rogers theme features lyrics that were not used for the TV series. It has been noted that these lyrics seem to parallel plot developments in the later Buck Rogers-inspired series "Farscape" (1999).
  
  
• Douglas Rain (the voice of HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)) was the first choice to do the voice of Dr. Theopolis. The actor chosen to do the voice ended up sounding very much like Rain/HAL.
  
  
• Catherine Bach was considered for the role of Ardala.
  
  
• To make Buck appear frozen in his space shuttle he was sprayed all over with an ordinary dry shampoo. Because of this he couldn't open his eyes or move, so while he was waiting for them to shoot the scene he supposedly fell asleep.
  
  
• The space dogfights were choreographed with the aid of a Hewlett-Packard "45" computer
  
  
• The ruined City of Chicago called Anarchia was shot on the back lot of MGM Studios.
  
  
• The white building corner shown just prior to the shots inside Dr. Huer's office is a side of an administration building on the San Diego State University campus.
  
  
• Originally, Twiki was just going to make unintelligible noises, the "B-d-d-bbb" sound.
  
  
• Kane's backstory was that he was a former student of Doctor Huer's who defected to the Draconians.
  
  
• The original script contained a subplot in which Counselor Apol - the chief prosecutor at Buck's trial - is discovered to be in league with Princess Ardala.
  
  
• Through a mix-up, instead of the original theatrical release, the edited TV version was released on VHS tape.
  
  
• The fighters on Buck Rogers were originally going to be upgrades on Glen Larson's "Battlestar Galactica" (1978). When that series was canceled, Larson imported them for Buck Rogers, just as he did with many other Galactica props and costumes.
  
  

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