August 1976 and ITV’s big summer movie was ‘Spartacus’, featuring Kirk Douglas who told TV Times readers, “I’m impressed every time I see ‘Spartacus’. It really stands the test of time. It was a helluva gamble, the most expensive film made in Hollywood up to that time. I’d love to do another film like it but the cost would be prohibitive.”
He mentioned his eldest son, Michael, who was beginning to make his way in producing films such as ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, which his dad had cannily bought he movie rights too. Other Douglas children were in the business too, but dad warned, “I’ve tried to keep them away from movie making. It’s so difficult. The gods are against you – there are a lot of heart-breaks along the way.” That’s probably why nobody has heard of Michael Douglas since…
Elsewhere in TV Times, another Hollywood producer, Ken Johnson, explained about these weird things called ‘silicon chips’ that were the science behind the ITV hits ‘The Six Million Dollar Man’ and ‘The Bionic Woman’. “Science fiction is fast becoming science fact”, he told us. Read all about it here.
