The Starlost [SEP] creator
The Starlost
The Starlost is a Canadian-produced science fiction television series created by writer Harlan Ellison and broadcast in 1973 on CTV in Canada and syndicated to local stations in the United States. The show's setting is a huge generational colony spacecraft called "Earthship Ark", which has gone off course. Many of the descendants of the original crew and colonists are unaware, however, that they are aboard a ship. The series experienced a number of production difficulties, and Ellison broke with the project before the airing of
"Arlan Hellison" who screams at his producers, "Art defilers! Script assassins!"
Ben Bova's novel "The Starcrossed" (1975), a "roman à clef" about Bova and Ellison's experience on "The Starlost" TV series, features a character "Ron Gabriel" who is a pastiche of Ellison. Bova's novel is dedicated to Ellison's pseudonym "Cordwainer Bird", who was credited as series creator on "The Starlost" per Ellison's demand. In the novel, "