GD

Crop Circle — "Dark Skies" (NBC)

• Report rights infringement
• published: 26 Jul 2011
• views: 6396

You probably knew G.D. Spradlin best as Senator Pat Geary from The Godfather, Part II, where he played the corrupt politician blackmailed by Michael Corleone after he wakes up and finds himself drenched in a murdered prostitute's blood. (From MOVIE SMACKDOWN. Written by Bryce Zabel) I knew him as Elliot P. Grantham, the Idaho farmer who was Patient Zero, the first official victim of the alien Hive's infestation in the NBC series Dark Skies. My co-creator Brent Friedman and I knew we'd gotten lucky in casting. Who didn't cringe a little in The Godfather, Part II when Spradlin's Senator Geary treats Michael Corleone with contempt early in the film? You knew it wouldn't go well. We had gotten lucky early on by offering a series lead role to J.T. Walsh to play Frank Bach and he said yes. We tried again with Spradlin, wondering if he would find the part too small or, given the alien angle, too silly. But he said yes, too. We were thrilled. As it turned out, Dark Skies was the last television he ever did and the second to last acting job (he also appeared in the feature film, Dick). A native Oklahoman, Gervase Duan Spradlin died July 24 at his ranch in San Luis Obispo, Calif. He was 90. Everyone always called him "G.D." We did. He'd appeared in more than 70 films and television shows. But he wasn't just an actor. He drew upon real-life experience as an attorney, oilman and rancher. We cast him as a farmer, Elliot P. Grantham, who is quietly going mad as the alien parasite grows inside his head. Besides Senator Geary, the other role that made him famous was playing the general who assigns Martin Sheen to the search mission in Apocalypse Now. Watch that scene again if you get the chance. Besides Dark Skies, G.D. Spradlin appeared in TV shows like Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.; Mannix; It Takes a Thief; Dragnet; and Adam 12. He directed two films, The Only Way Home and Outside In, both released in 1972. I've just pulled out the clip from Dark Skies where the main character John Loengard (played by Eric Close) first encounters Grantham and is taken out to see his crop circle. And I've included the autopsy scene that follows because, in order to do it, G.D. had to let us make a plaster cast of his face which he did, patiently. G.D. lived a long life, and he has left some fine moments in film for us to continue to remember him. *** "DARK SKIES" -- created by Bryce Zabel and Brent V. Friedman -- was the first dramatic treatment ever of a possible connection between the JFK assassination and the UFO cover-up, told through the eyes of Majestic-12 agent John Loengard, his abductee girlfriend Kim Sayers, and their hybrid son created by the alien Hive. Join the Dark Skies Resistance @ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/darkskiesufo Sadly, we have to point out that the "Dark Skies" title has recently been appropriated by Dimension Films for use on a spooky horror film that they're releasing in 2013. They call their movie "Dark Skies," but true fans will know better. They will know that "Dark Skies" is a classic, original, and definitive expression that does not deserve this confusing treatment. To set the record straight, the vision for the authentic "Dark Skies" came from Bryce Zabel and Brent V. Friedman who created it for NBC as a primetime network TV series about an alien invasion in the 1996-1997 season. Columbia TV produced twenty hours of film of this "Dark Skies" series. In 2011, Shout Factory! released a critically praised DVD set of "Dark Skies." Get the Dark Skies Series @ Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Skies-Declassified-Complete-Series/dp/B00465I156 In short, "Dark Skies" has established itself in the minds of a signficant number of science fiction fans as a gripping piece of conspiracy drama set in the world of UFOs and abductions. It anchored NBC's Saturday night "Thrillogy" concept in the 1996 season premiere and starred Eric Close ("Nashville") and the classic character actor J.T. Walsh. Its main title design won the Emmy award and its pilot screenplay received a Writers Guild nomination. The Syfy Channel aired it multiple times. Since 2010 there's been a Facebook page where thousands of fans from many different countries push Sony for a revival of the series. In 2012, Sony talked to the creators about this very possibility. Supporters of the creative rights of writers should ask Dimension Films to let its film stand on its own merits and call it by a different title. "Dark Skies" is taken. See the Dark Skies Playlist @ YouTube http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5A1058EDE798E4B1&feature;=plpp Please share. http://www.afterdisclosure.com/dark-skies/