"Breakaway" was the first episode of the first series of Space: 1999. The episode was written by George Bellak and directed by Lee H. Katzin.
From Gerry Anderson's biography What Made Thunderbirds Go: 'The New York office assured me that Lee Katzin was "the best pilot director in America",' remembers Gerry. 'The schedule to shoot the first episode was ten days, but it overran and we were soon tens of thousands of pounds over budget. Katzin finish...
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"Breakaway" was the first episode of the first series of Space: 1999. The episode was written by George Bellak and directed by Lee H. Katzin.
From Gerry Anderson's biography What Made Thunderbirds Go: 'The New York office assured me that Lee Katzin was "the best pilot director in America",' remembers Gerry. 'The schedule to shoot the first episode was ten days, but it overran and we were soon tens of thousands of pounds over budget. Katzin finished editing his footage and screened the completed "Breakaway" for Gerry. 'It ran for over two hours,' he remembers, 'and I thought it was awful. He went back to America, and I sent a cutting copy of the episode to Abe Mandell. Abe phoned me in a fit of depression, saying, "Oh my God it's terrible — what are we going to do?" I wrote a lot of new scenes myself, and these were filmed over three days. I'm pretty sure I directed them myself. I then totally recut the episode to 50 minutes, integrating the new footage.'
The episode begins on...
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