Not too long ago, I got the first season of Battlestar Galactica on DVD. That’s the new SciFi Channel version, which is a good show if you’re not already watching it. Several of the episodes guest star Richard Hatch, who played Capt. Apollo in the original series, as a rebel leader named Tom Zarek.
I was pointing out to Angela how cool I thought it was that Richard Hatch was involved with the new show some. I explained to her that when I was a kid (around six or so), my friend Robert and I pretended that we were a couple of the characters from Battlestar Galactica. Robert always played at being Lt. Starbuck (played by Dirk Benedict, who would later go on to play Face on The A‑Team). I always played at being Apollo.
I told her, as a matter of fact, Robert and I had a rule: he’d play the blond guy and I’d play the dark-headed guy.
“He’d play Luke, I’d play Han.”
“He’d play Ted, I’d play Chris, the helicopter pilot from Code Red1.
“He’d play Baker, I’d play Ponch.”
silence
“You’d play Poncherello, from CHiPs?”
“Well, yeah.”
“Well, I wasn’t blond. Robert was.”
“Jason, you’re way too white for that.”
“But I’m not blond.”
- Okay, so you may not remember this show, which was about a family of firefighters in Los Angeles. The show also starred Lorne Greene as well as a dark-haired Sam J Jones (he was bleach blond in the previous year’s Flash Gordon. I loved Code Red so much, that I told everyone for about a year that I wanted to grow up to live in Los Angeles and fly a helicopter, just like the guy in the show I used to pretend to be. [↩]
I read somewhere a while back that Richard Hatch has tried for years to remake Battlestar Gallactica. He was not really onboard or in agreement with the current project but was brought along to shut him up. He agreed to come on board to at least have some involvement.
Come on man, PONCH?!?!
Perhaps the crazy mechanic guy (what was his name?) would be a better choice. He was the guy that worked on Ponch’s motorcycle’s whenever it was crashed. Please don’t be insulted by this character assignment. I always thought he was the cool guy that could fix anything.
From what I’ve read about the new series, I’d agree with that assessment of how Richard Hatch got involved with the new Battlestar Galactica. As far as the casting goes for me as Ponch, well, it always just seemed to fit that we played the parts of the two main buddies in buddy shows. What was it with all these blond/brown-haired guy buddy shows in the early 80’s?
I left out Bo & Luke Duke, by the way. Guess who played who?