Gen X Genius Behind Knight Rider Dies at 77
Sure, Aaron Spelling and Aaron Sorkin are well-known these days for cranking out popular TV shows. But do any of those shows have a talking car? A mustachioed private detective with a friend named TC who can pilot a chopper? A race of chrome-clad, bad-ass robots trying to stop the refugees of mankind on their search for Earth?
Nope.
Glen A. Larson did, and now he’s gone. The AP reports that the writer and producer behind Generation X staples such as the original “Battlestar Galactica,’’ ‘’Knight Rider,’’ ‘’Magnum, P.I.’’ and “Quincy, M.E.,’’ has died. He was 77.
Larson died at the University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center on Friday night of complications from esophageal cancer. It’s a bitter, ironic death for a writer and producer who was also an accomplished singer and composer. Larson was a powerhouse in the television landscape in the 1970s and 1980s, when he churned out hits that became staples in millions of living rooms every night, wrote the AP.
You know the part of Too Many Cooks with spaceships attacking each other? You wouldn’t have it without this guy. Larson also co-composed the theme songs for some of his hits, including the frequently sampled tune from “Knight Rider’’ and the orchestral music behind “Battlestar Galactica,’’ according to his son, James.
Larson was nominated three times for an Emmy, once for a Grammy for the original score of “Battlestar Galactica,’’ and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1985.
His TV career began with his first writing credit in 1966 on an episode of “The Fugitive.’’ He would eventually add “The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries,’’ ‘’B.J. and the Bear,’’ ‘’The Fall Guy’’ and the TV movie “The Six Million Dollar Man’’ to the list, among others.
Like Michael Knight, he was a lone crusader in a dangerous world. He will be missed.
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