American musician, television producer, writer and director, his best known work in television was as the creator of many television series including Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, and Knight Rider.
Glen Albert Larson was born January 3, 1937 and began his career in 1956 as a member of the vocal group the Four Preps who had three UK Top 40 singles between 1958 and 1961[1]. After working for Quinn Martin (The Invaders), Larson signed a contract with Universal Studios where his first hit series was Alias Smith and Jones (1971-73). He was then involved in the early development of The Six Million Dollar Man (1973-78).
Larson then secured $1m per episode for Battlestar Galactica (1978-79), which was intended to be called Adam’s Ark. He had been working on the concept since 1968. some of the episodes were re-edited into theatrical movies (Battlestar Galactica, 1978 and Mission Galactica: The Cylon Attack, 1979)The show was cancelled after one season but demands from fans allowed Larson to produce a low budget sequel in Galactica 1980 (1980), set many years later – and on Earth – but that was less successful and cancelled after only 10 episodes.
Some of the sets, props, costumes and effects work were reused for Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979-81). A feature-length pilot episode was released theatrically before the series aired.
Larson then worked on Magnum PI (1980-88) and The Fall Guy (1981-86). His next prominent series was Knight Rider (1982-86), which featured science-fiction elements with humour and limited violence. He continued to use these elements throughout the 1980s on Automan (1983-84), Manimal (1983), and The Highwayman (1987-88). these were all unsuccessful, only lasting a single series, and Larson’s star began to wane. However, he did return with Night Man (1997-99).
In 2003, Battlestar Galactica was remade as a miniseries, and enjoyed multiple season after that, but Larson was not involved.
Larson died from esophageal cancer on November 14, 2014, aged 77.
All sourced from Wikipedia: Glen A Larson except:
Science Fiction TV Shows and Films
Battlestar Galactica
(1978-79)
Glen A Larson’s first science-fiction show, in which human survivors of a war with the Cylons flee their enemies in a huge convoy of ships, led by the Colonial flagship Galactica, on a journey to find Earth.
Battlestar Galactica
(1979)
The first story from the TV series, “Saga of a Star World”, was re-edited to form a theatrical version.
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
(1979)
The pilot movie for the television series was released in cinemas.
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
(1979-81)
The exploits of 20th century astronaut after a freak accident sends him back to Earth 500 years later.
Mission Galactica: The Cylon Attack
(1979)
More stories from the Battlestar Galactica TV series re-edited to for theatrical release.
Galactica 1980
(1980)
Battlestar Galactica returned for a second, much shorter and cheaper, and less successful second series in which the human survivors of the war with the Cylons have found Earth but their enemies are not far behind…
Conquest of the Earth
(1980)
A television movie based on episodes of Galactica 1980 was released theatrically in 1981.
Knight Rider
(1982-86)
David Hasselhoff was Michael Knight, a lone crusader…but with KITT, a talking car.
Manimal
(1983)
Shapeshifter Dr Jonathan Chase uses his abilities to fight crime in this short-lived series.
Automan
(1983-84)
Another short-lived series, this time featuring an intelligent hologram that fights crime at night.
The Highwayman
(1987-88)
Set in the near future, a new breed of lawman patrols the outlands…
Night Man
(1997-99)
A jazz musician becomes a superhero that can telepathically recognise evil.
Sci-Fi TV UK 