NORMAN JOLLEY  P.3

Q: How often do you get to L.A.?

A: We don't get up to LA except when we have to go there for a dental appointment or a Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters event, or to see some of my kids and grandchildren. We still have a residence in Studio City -- a condo near Universal Studios. When we do go to LA we might spend a night there.

Q: How did you and Dik Darley work together?  Did you guys work out the special effects in advance, before you wrote a script or did you just write it without worrying about how Darley would pull it off?

A: First of all, I was so busy writing scripts that I hardly ever was at the studio when SP was being shot -- so, I was not familiar with the technique Dik Darley employed. I just know that he did a fantastic job as a director. Once or twice I wrote specific directions, in the script, on just how to construct a difficult special effect (Using my engineering background). But that's the extent of my involvement in that area. Dik and I never discussed any of this stuff in advance. Dik's work was extremely important to the final appearance of the show.

Q: Was it a comfortable relationship?  Did you ever have disagreements? Did he ever change your scripts?

A: If he did I was never aware of it. I don't have any recollection of noticing that when I watched the shows. So, it must not have been a problem. I think that Dik and I had one discussion about a line he wanted to change. I didn't agree and we had an argumentative discussion about it. I didn't give in, so the change was not made. But, actually, that was the only time anything like that happened.

The last time I saw Dik was when I got my award from the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters. I invited him (and his son) to sit at my table with my family.

Q: What did you think of the competition back then -- Tom Corbett, Captain Video -- and what did you think of Star Trek later?  Also, what do you think of the state of sci-fi today?

A: About the SP TV competition -- I looked at them a few times -- but, not as a regular thing.  I never thought about being in competition with them. I have no idea if they ever borrowed from SP. There was one show, "Space Cadet" that I watched when it first came on TV -- but, that was only because it had been stolen from SP by an advertising agent who was involved with SP. Mike Moser and I watched it just long enough to confirm this fact -- then, Mike sued them and collected.

Q:  Are you talking about Tom Corbett, Space Cadet?

A: Tom Corbett, Space Cadet! Of course! It's the one. There were two guys involved in the theft. One from the Advertising Agency, and one from the network -- as best I can remember it.  I do know that Mike was reimbursed for the theft. How much or how often, I don't know. "Space Cadet" was taken from the original Space Cadet "Happy." And, as I remember, it was originated in and fed to the network from New York.

Q: What did you think of Star Trek?

A: I did believe that it was SP that inspired it. In the very beginning, I was offered the job of writing it by the ex-cop who owned it (can't remember his name). I flatly refused. Not interested. I felt, at the time, that they were stealing from us, although I never tried to prove it. I think SP had just gone off the air -- and, that's when I went to the Ziv studio to write "Science Fiction Theater." I never, really, watched Star Trek at all.

Q: What do you think of science fiction as it's depicted in movies and on TV today?

A: I'm afraid I can't be of much help to you, here. I don't watch it. Don't forget -- in 20 days (Feb. 21st) I'm going to be 85 years old! Why would I want to watch all that kid stuff that clutters up the tube these days? You do know, don't you, that, in the Writer's Guild (of which I'm still a member), if you are over the age of 40, you can't get a job. There's a WGA organized committee to fight this -- and just recently, a big law firm has been brought into the picture to sue the industry for age discrimination. For me, personally, there is excessive violence, excessive obscenity and excessive sex on TV today. And, I happen to know these things are not necessary for good drama. Even Steve Bochco, whom I knew and respected at Universal, is giving in to some of this, i.e., NYPD Blue, where we, frequently, get to see two naked bodies in bed screwing. Oops! This is probably not what you wanted to hear -- but, it upsets me so much, I can't keep my mouth shut. I told a young writer, once, about the viewers having to watch so much 'face sucking' on TV today, "Why do you think you have to teach us that? If we didn't know how, you wouldn't have been born."

I'm not saying that this crap is on Star Trek, or any current science fiction shows, today. Just that there's so much of it on the screen that I don't watch much of anything anymore -- except Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, Law and Order -- and a few others, but not much. And, it's been nearly fifty years since I wrote any science fiction.

Q: Was Helen Moser a figure head or the show's actual Producer?

A: Mike's wife, Helen, knew nothing about TV in general nor SP in particular.
She, of course, inherited the Producer title, but, I don't remember that she did anything in that position. She did hire a guy, Mike Devery, to act as kind of a producer. I only talked to him once, I think. And, I don't think it had much, if anything, to do with the show. I think it's safe to say that Helen was nothing more than a 'figure head' as far as her participating in decision making was concerned.

Q: What did Bela Kovacs do in his title as "Associate Producer" and what was he like?

A: I faintly remember when Bela Kovacs was named "Associate Producer" -- but I don't remember what, if anything, he did in that position. He never communicated with me. Even Mike and I hardly ever discussed the show or my writing of it. He just left it up to me. I told you about the only time Dik and I had a 'discussion' about a line in one of my scripts. By the same token, I left the production of the show up to Dik. It was never an issue -- never a problem. Bela, by the way, was a very nice guy -- a good friend of mine -and everybody else on the show. Like I've said before -- "...everybody on SP was a family."

Q: Tell me about your acting days.

A:  It all started when I was studying radio and drama at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. I did dramatic radio shows on KSO, the CBS station in that city (where, incidentally, a couple of years later, I became a staff announcer and disk jockey). Also, did commercials on WHO, the NBC station there. Then, I became a radio announcer at KOME in Tulsa, Okla., then announcer and program director of KADA in Ada, Okla., where I also worked with the drama department of the local University, writing scripts and acting in them. After working as an announcer at KOME, Mason City, IA. and KRNT, Des Moines, I spent four years in the Marine Corps.  I've told you about my involvement in "The Halls Of Montezuma."  Here, I was strictly an actor -- for several years -- until Hank Richards, the writer, left the Corps, and I became the writer, still acting, however.

Then, after the war, you know about my two hour, comedy-variety show with my comedy partner, Archie Leonard. During the same era, I was also doing radio acting on the networks, acted in several motion pictures. You asked me what my acting days were like. There was no doubt in my mind that acting was my career. I did whatever I had to do to make it happen. I loved it. Then, along came Mike Moser -- and Agent X -- and writing SP. It was during this transition that I realized that writing was really my career. It was not a painful decision -- as much as I liked acting. The fact that I was steadily employed as a writer -- and was getting paid for it, regularly, plus the fact, that I really loved writing, too. Add to this the fact that once I decided to pursue writing as a career, I was never unemployed. Well -- except one time: when I had my heart attack. I was legally and clinically dead for three-and-a-half to four minutes. I was 55 years old and was not expected to live, at the most, more than five years. So, I didn't do any work for almost two months -- when Universal called me back. Oh, and how did I beat the five year limit? After five weeks confined to my home, the doctor called me and said he was going to let me out -- he told me to walk a half a block, today -- and a whole block, tomorrow -- to extend it every day -- just leave myself enough gas to get home. I did it. And, three weeks later, I was walking three miles in one hour. It made a believer out of me! The doctor said I should do it three days a week. I did it seven! Then, I learned that if I would ride a bicycle (stationary or not) and bring my pulse rate up to l20 per minute, and sustain it for twenty minutes, it would be as effective as the long walks. I've been doing that for thirty years.

Q: What do you remember about the experimental Space Patrol 3-D show done at KECA-TV and broadcast to a special press showing at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles?

A: A SP 3-D broadcast? I have no memory of it at all. Of course, there were lots of things that went on at the studio that I wasn't in on because I had very little time to spend there. I was glued to my typewriter almost every day of the week. Yes, including Sundays! I remember, cooking on the barbecue on Sunday afternoon and feeling guilty because I wasn't up in my studio (above the garage) working!

NORMAN JOLLEY PASSED AWAY ON TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2002.  HE WILL BE MISSED.