The Clone Master
The premise of this proposed 1978 TV series doesn't sound that bad, but only one pilot episode was ever made. NBC decided not to pick up the full show. Description from ioffer.com:
Unfortunately, the full pilot episode isn't available anywhere online. A clip is all that YouTube has.
The show was written by Frederik Pohl, who had this to say about it in a 1977 interview with Tangent magazine:
Scientist Simon Shane (Hindle) is working on a project which will create human clones of himself. Years of failed experiments with his mentor (Bellamy) at his side have yielded breakthroughs but not a successful final product though one is set to be unleashed within days. With his mentor kidnapped and a mysterious new party having presented itself with designs on the project which are suspicious at best, Simon accelerates the project and clones himself a dozen times maintaining a telepathic link with each of his fully grown "children" each of whom is an exact replica of him with all of his memories and capabilities.
Unfortunately, the full pilot episode isn't available anywhere online. A clip is all that YouTube has.
The show was written by Frederik Pohl, who had this to say about it in a 1977 interview with Tangent magazine:
TANGENT: What do you think of science fiction expanding into all of the different media? We have the records, tapes, comic books, television, etc. plus the books.
POHL: I think that the other media are peripheral. I get involved in them from time to time. I’m making a record and I have a contract to do the pilot script – and the treatment – for a new television series. It’s called “The Clone Master” at the moment. It’s not an anthology series, it’s a series series. They trapped me into it by promising me that it would be an anthology series. Now, this is one that I generated. The producer asked me for some suggestions and I told him that it should be an anthology series and ultimately badgered me down to where I am now. The process is one of badgering down. You get into television and you find there are twenty-five people who are being paid to criticize what you do and they all have to justify their salaries. It’s no fun, I don’t like doing it. I do like it in the sense that I like experimenting on my own in areas that I haven’t done before.
POHL: I think that the other media are peripheral. I get involved in them from time to time. I’m making a record and I have a contract to do the pilot script – and the treatment – for a new television series. It’s called “The Clone Master” at the moment. It’s not an anthology series, it’s a series series. They trapped me into it by promising me that it would be an anthology series. Now, this is one that I generated. The producer asked me for some suggestions and I told him that it should be an anthology series and ultimately badgered me down to where I am now. The process is one of badgering down. You get into television and you find there are twenty-five people who are being paid to criticize what you do and they all have to justify their salaries. It’s no fun, I don’t like doing it. I do like it in the sense that I like experimenting on my own in areas that I haven’t done before.
source: Made for TV Movie Wiki
Comments
I would have preffered a series based on Be Bova's "The Multiple Man" where a Joe Kennedy-like man cloned his son and raised all of the identical twins to be able to impersonate each other. The object is to have each clone learn in depth one of the skills needed for a President, and have them elected as POTUS. Of course, no one but the family know about the cloning.
Posted by mjbird on 10/01/18 at 06:52 AM
mjbird,
That sounds like it may have been inspiration for the Michael Keaton Movie, Multiplicity where an overworked guy gets multiple clones to help out at work and home.
That sounds like it may have been inspiration for the Michael Keaton Movie, Multiplicity where an overworked guy gets multiple clones to help out at work and home.
Posted by crc on 10/01/18 at 07:56 AM
I remember seeing this movie. As I recall Art Hindle did a credible job as the main character. I also recall stretching my imagination rather far to encompass their process for producing fully grown adult human bodies in a short time. I think they would have had their hands full with 12 clones running around the world to deal with. That's how they left it, they all split up.
Posted by Matchrocket on 10/01/18 at 07:17 PM
I once read a story in Analog Magazine (editor BEN Bova, not "Be" -- that's a typo) about a very prolific writer, Isaac Amizov. In the story, a young writer feels his story was stolen by said Dr. Amizov, and visits him at his home, only to discover that Amizov had cloned himself. Bova contacted Dr. Isaac Asimov before publishing the story, and got assurances that Asimov really was just one person; and published that in an editorial note.
I can't seem to find the story on Google. Maybe I misspelled the last name of Dr. Isaac.
I did find a logical explanation of how Asimov did it: https://www.quora.com/Where-could-Isaac-Asimov-possibly-get-the-time-to-write-all-that-material-he-seemed-super-human
I can't seem to find the story on Google. Maybe I misspelled the last name of Dr. Isaac.
I did find a logical explanation of how Asimov did it: https://www.quora.com/Where-could-Isaac-Asimov-possibly-get-the-time-to-write-all-that-material-he-seemed-super-human
Posted by Joshua Zev Levin, Ph.D. on 10/02/18 at 06:32 AM
About prolific writers, it's not really that hard to believe. I just pulled up my drop box folder, which includes all of my completed novels and short stories, and did a count. All of this has been done in the past 10 years or so. Completed novels that are unpublished: 41, completed novels on amazon (self publish): 39, short stories/novellas in total (some on my website, some not, yet): 24...the last category is wildly different on page count, but it's not that bad. Though, right now, I'll admit it's been a while since I could complete anything. More emotional difficulties than anything else, and I'm likely to get back into it sometime soon. And that's really just 10 years...
Posted by Alassirana on 10/02/18 at 09:37 AM
Remember when Michael J. Fox travelled back in time and his mum got the horn for him? How funny was the look on his face when he realised what was going on.... Can't remember if he threw one up her or not.
Posted by Big Ramifications on 10/02/18 at 12:36 PM
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Category: Television | Science Fiction | 1970s