Paramount Pictures Learned Its Lesson From "Star Trek-The Motion Picture." Universal Studios Didn't Learn Shit From "GINO"

http://www.amazon.com/Universal-Studios-1978-Battlestar-Galactica/dp/1434895408/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319506711&sr=1-2

Paramount Pictures released "Star Trek-The Motion Picture" in December 1979. As early as the Spring of 1980, Paramount Pictures knew that they didn't have a hit on their hands, and they also realized at the same time that they had gone in the wrong direction with their "Star Trek" revival. They already knew at such an early time that a wafer thin script and endless special effects shots were not what "Star Trek" fans wanted. Paramount Pictures quickly corrected its course and got "Star Trek" back on track with "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn", released in the summer of 1982. It was a box office smash.

No such intelligence exists at Universal Studios, where this entire idiotic corporation has been clinging stubbornly to Ronald D. Moore's commercially failed rendition of "Battlestar Galactica" infamusly known as "GINO." And they are still clinging to it after almost a decade. After almost a decade of "GINO" itself failing commercially, and its spin-offs "Caprica" and "Blood & Chrome" failing commercially as well. Did Universal Studios miss something in the past eight years? What part of..."Hey Universal!! You have a fucking flop on your hands"....did they not understand? What part of "GINO" failing on the old Sci-Fi Channel (and NBC-TV) did they not understand? What part of "Caprica" failing on the old Sci-Fi Channel did they not understand? What part of "Blood & Chrome" D.O.A. did they not understand? What part of all three of these series having low DVD sales and failing in syndication did they not understand? What is it about a simple business failure and mass market climates rejecting your crappy products does Universal Studios not understand?

When you have widespread commercial failures of this magnitude repeating themselves again and again because Ronald D. Moore's sham take on "Battlestar Galactica" simply was / is not accepted by mass market audiences...you don't try and ram the same flawed project through the movie division of Universal Studios for an eventual theatrical release. You go in another creative direction instead. You say to yourselfs..."Alright, Ronald D. Moore failed to get "Battlestar Galactica" off the ground, now we'll try another producer / writer. Maybe we'll try Joss Whedon, James Cameron, even John Carpenter!!" Ronald D. Moore's flawed take on "Battlestar Galactica" simply failed. Get used to it Universal Studios, and live with it.

I think one of the things going on here (from a psychological standpoint) is that Universal Studios has always used the "Battlestar Galactica" copyright as a corporate instrument for expressing their hostility towards the general public. Even if their flawed takes on "Battlestar Galactica" continue to cost them dearly financially, that's alright with them because they are hurling all of their corporate venom at the general public in the process as a trade-off. They also seem to be using the "Battlestar Galactica" copyright as a corporate instrument for trying to assert some sort of delusional authority and dominion over the general public. "You will accept what we put on your television and movie screens whether you like it or not!! Comply!!" I have never in my life witnessed a corporation that so preoccupies itself with what the public doesn't like, and then obsessively always strives to give that same public exactly what it doesn't like. Even when these Universal Studios executives (Russell Sanders drinking buddies) talk about the currently nebulous "Battlestar Galactica" feature film, they immediately slam and rip into the general public. "Why weren't they watching 'Razor?' "Why weren't they watching 'Caprica?'  "Where were they when we threw them scraps and bones from the table?" "Languatron doesn't like us!!" "Well, if that's the way the general public is going to be, we're not going to give them anything at all!!" This isn't a professionally run, adult movie studio. It's Russell Sanders frat house drinking buddies, feeling sorry for themselves because the general public doesn't like them. What movie studio in their right mind would have allowed themselves to get so neck deep in the trenches of  "not supposed to be interacting with the general public in any way", that they actually forged a dysfunctional barbed wire relationship with the general public during the past 10 years? To the extent that Universal Studios executives actually mention the general public in a hostile manner whenever they discuss "Battlestar Galactica."

It is the creepiest...the most eccentric...and the most "Twilight Zone-esque" corporate behavior of a business I have ever objectively observed. Universal Studios is one strange business!!