Scrapbook

Broadcasting
August 18, 1975
Pages 19-20
(Author: Unknown)

---

Programing

Huge promotional push to get ITC's 'Space: 1999' into orbit

Syndicated show said to be costliest ever receives commensurate PR efforts by stations, some of which will pre-empt networks for it

Promotion directors at many TV stations around the country are doing more tub-thumping for a new syndicated show, the one-hour Space: 1999, than for the new prime-time programs they'll be carrying from their networks.

One reason is that their managers in many cases are scheduling the science-fiction series at least partly in prime time, pre-empting or delaying the affected network program. Network station-relations executives confirmed last week that Space: 1999 was giving them more displacement problems than they needed, although some also tended to minimize the difficulties.

Planetaria and museums--or more conventional sites decked out in space-flight style--are being used by a number of stations for preview parties for clients, local opinion leaders and newsmen.

WTVJ(TV) Miami, for one, entertained 350 guests last Monday night at the Miami Space Transit Planetarium, previewing both Space: 1999 and the new CBS-TV schedule under a multimedia projection of the Miami skies as astronomers determined they will appear on Sept. 13, 1999--the date when, in the space series, the moon is blasted out of orbit and the adventures of Space: 1999 begin. Similarly, WUAB(TV) Cleveland-Lorain, an independent, showed the first episode of Space: 1999 to some 300 guests last Wednesday under a simulation of Sept. 13, 1999, skies at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

KDNL-TV St. Louis, another independent, is having a preview party for about 200 guests at the McDonnell Douglas Planetarium on Sept. 8. In a somewhat different tack, KHJ-TV Los Angeles, also an independent, reports that it is working with the California Museum of Science and Industry on a Space: 1999 display opening there Oct. 1 for eight weeks. KTIV(TV) Sioux City, Iowa, will have it's "Space: 1999-NBC Preview Party" at the local Hilton but with sets built to resemble a space ship's control room. KFSN-TV Fresno, Calif., a CBS outlet, will have several hundred guests in to a combined preview and grand opening of it's new plant on Sept. 10.

Linkups with museums and use of space-age mock-ups are among the more exotic additions to conventional advertising and promotion. Costumes used in the series which were designed by Rudi Gernreich, the noted fashion designer are being traveled around the country and put on display in shopping malls and other traffic centers by a number of stations, including WFLA-TV Tampa, Fla.; KTVV-TV Austin, Tex., and KFSN-TV Fresno.

In Sioux City, KTIV not only plans to have costumes on display for a full week but among other things is working with 11 local department stores to install video cassette players for continuous playing of Space: 1999 promos, with Roger Mansfield, station manager, narrating highlights.

Some stations, such as KRON-TV San Francisco, are going after the Star Trek cult in particular. KRON-TV, an NBC affiliate, is doing a mailing to the 6,000-plus names on the mailing list of the Trading Post in Berkeley, Calif., a store dealing solely in Star Trek memorabilia, and is thinking of holding a special preview in Berkeley for the Trekkers. In Cleveland, WUAB is scheduling Star Trek as lead-in to Space: 1999, KMSP-TV Minneapolis-St. Paul, an ABC outlet, hopes to reach a larger, if less preconditioned, potential audience by passing out special promotion material at it's space at the Minnesota State Fair from Aug. 20 through Sept. 1.

Many stations are launching the series on Sept. 13 to coincide with the moon-blast date in the first episode. Many others are starting earlier--or broadcasting "previews"--to get the jump on new network programming and in the process to get more extensive play in local newspapers and TV supplements.

Independent Television Corp., which produced and is distributing the series, has produced a wide range of promotional support. "I've never known a syndicator, ever, to put this much behind a promotion," said Larry Kellogg, promotion manager of WFLA-TV Tampa. "It's just never happened. And it's quality material." Jerry Bronston, promotion and public relations director of KMSP-TV Minneapolis-St. Paul, said "they're sending us everything you can think of."

Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, stars of the series, have made 151 personalized promos for individual stations, given 74 telephone interviews, made personal appearances in nine cities, and are slated to appear on all major national talk shows. ITC is also providing 30-second promos--usable as 30's, 20's or 10's--for each of the series's 24 episodes, plus promos for the series as a whole. Beyond that, stations have been furnished with slides for on-air use, suggested copy for local on-air origination along with background music on audio tapes, a selection of photos--on contact sheets in both color and black and white--from each episode and for generic use, materials for TV Guide ads and for newspaper ads of all sizes from full pages down, plus sales kits and press kits as well as access to merchandising material that already ranges from T-shirts to pocket books, comic books and $15 models of the series's space ship and eventually is due to include more than 100 products.

Abe Mandell, ITC president, who initiated plans for the series, says it is clearly the most expensive in TV history, with costs to date totaling $6.5 million, but that it is already assured of being profitable with sales thus far in 146 U.S. markets--including 48 of the top 50 and predominantly to network affiliates, and in 101 other countries around the world.

Mr. Mandell says he has been surprised--but is obviously pleased--that one early forecast proved wrong. He said last winter in announcing the show that he expected many stations to delay starting it until they could determine which network shows proved weak, and then work it in as a prime-time substitute (Broadcasting, Jan 20). Instead, he said last week, stations haven't waited. He said that 98 of the 146 station buyers' thus far have already reported time slots and over 60% of these are in prime time, displacing network shows by shifting them to other periods if not pre-empting them completely.

Among the ABC shows most frequently displaced reportedly are Barbary Coast (Monday, 8-9 p.m. NYT) and Happy Days and Welcome Back, Kotter (Tuesday, 8-9); on CBS-TV, Big Eddie (Friday, 8-8:30) and Good Times and Joe & Sons (Tuesday, 8-9), and on NBC-TV, Invisible Man (Monday, 8-9) and Montefusco and Fay (Thursday, 8-9).

---

Article content copyright © by the respective copyright holder(s).