I started assembling a McCLOUD index on my computer over the weekend, and was shocked to find out something I had NEVER noticed or realized before!
That is, the guy responsible for starting the McCLOUD series was actually Leslie Stevens, the creator of THE OUTER LIMITS. My favorite TV writer, Glen Larson, had NOTHING whatsoever to do with that AWFUL, ghastly pilot.
When the show went to series (or, mini-series, if you look at the 6 FOUR IN ONE episodes that way), Stevens promoted himself to Executive Producer, and hired Glen Larson as Producer! The show improved drastically.
However, after those 6 episodes, perhaps being unsure of the series fate, Larson left to do ALIAS SMITH AND JONES, which debuted in late 1970 or early 1971. When McCLOUD continued as part of the new NBC MYSTERY MOVIE, its 2nd season was produced by Dean Hargrove, with Peter Allan Fields as his assistant.
Apparently, when ALIAS SMITH AND JONES was cancelled in the wake of Pete Duel's suicide, Larson decided to return to McCLOUD, while Hargrove moved on to do MADIGAN (which lasted one season). I've only recently seen a video of Larson describing loking at season 2 and realising they were treating Dennis Weaver all wrong. He said they made McCloud seem like "Chester" from GUNSMOKE, when he should have been more like John Wayne or Clint Eastwood-- more aggressive, confident & pro-active.
In a weird way, McCLOUD as a series REALLY hit its stride with season 3. And to think, until recently, seasons 3-7 have NEVER been released on tape or disc!
Strangely enough, Leslie Stevens worked with Glen Larson again, on both BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY and BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. I mention BUCK first, because, the pilots for both shows were done almost at the same time, with BUCK being done first. However, massive re-writes, re-shoots & re-edits were done between the time the original, NEVER-aired version of the pilot was done, and the 2nd version was released theatrically in early 1979. More re-shoots were done before the 3rd version was broadcast on NBC in September 1979.
I'd say they kept making it worse, not better. Apparently, the Western Publishing comic-book adaptation followed the origiinal unaired version of the film, which contained several bits of explanation completely missing from the 2 later revised versions. (This included that Kane had tampered with the programming of the computer council, who were responsible for convicting Buck to death, and also screwing with the Earth fighter battle computers, which made it impossible for them to beat Draconian fighters. You'd think those would be IMPORTANT details not to remove from a story!)
It seems clear to me that Stevens was a bit like Irwin Allen-- he had connections and could get s series made. But unlike Allen, he was at his best when he would hire SOMEONE ELSE better than he was to actually take charge of a show-- as he did when he hired Joe Stefano to be producer & story editor on THE OUTER LIMITS.
