Brandon Stoddard Has Passed Away. The Man Who Cancelled The "1978 Battlestar Galactica" Series And Leslie Nielsen's "Police Squad" Series

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/24/business/media/brandon-stoddard-77-abc-executive-who-brought-roots-to-tv-is-dead.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20141224&_r=0

The "1978 Battlestar Galactica" series was developed under Fred Silverman at ABC-TV when Silverman was still at the network. Unfortunately, Fred Silverman left ABC-TV in the Fall of 1978 to manage NBC-TV before "Battlestar Galactica's" premiere date. This prompted a swift regime change at ABC-TV with Brandon Stoddard moving up through the ranks to programming before the ABC-TV Fall season began. "Battlestar 1978" was one of the first casualties of a Brandon Stoddard managed ABC-TV as Mr. Stoddard simply didn't like the series. Evidently, Brandon Stoddard was always at odds with the late Glen A. Larson over the most idiotic details of "Battlestar 1978" inluding the casting of Dirk Benedict as Starbuck. I firmly believe that if Fred Silverman had stayed at ABC-TV during the first season of "Battlestar 1978" it would have seen a second season instead of only one, and "Battlestar 1978" would have been treated better overall that first season since "Battlestar 1978" was Fred Silverman's baby in terms of its development in the early stages, including the original plan of it being only a 7 hour mini series.

Moving on to 1982 Brandond Stoddard cancelled Leslie Nielsen's "Police Squad" series not because the ratings were necessarily low, but because in Brandon Stoddard's own words...."Police Squad required too much attention on the part of viewers to understand all of the visual sight gags, and Police Squad diverted too much attention away from the commercials."

My condolences of course go out to Brandon Stoddard's family, but in terms of Brandon Stoddard's work ethic at ABC-TV beginning 36 years ago, I remain slack jawed....stunned....and deeply disappointed in some of his decisions. Some "Red Flag" events in terms of judgement remain in Brandon Stoddard's work history at ABC-TV. His cancellations of "Battlestar 1978" and "Police Squad" among them.

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