Posted on May 19, 2000

A Message From William F. Nolan To All of Logan's Friends 

Now...it may seem that not a lot has been happening on the Logan Front over the past two decades since MGM's big movie came out, but this is not true. Each year, there's been new Logan 
activity. Not on the massive level of the Star Trek/Star Wars phenomenon, yet on a more subtle but no less tangible level.

Back in the 1970's, when I was in direct touch with the execs at MGM, I told them that if they were smart and handled this property correctly Logan could achieve a mass audience pop-culture status. The potential was there. My advice: follow Logan's Run with two more sequel films. (I had already written a film treatment for Logan's World, and had Logan's Search in mind.) Issue Logan games and toys. Let the project build with the public. Then take the series to primetime television. I told them: "There's a basic audience appeal here that can be expanded into a major franchise."

They didn't listen. After the first film was a hit they got greedy and immediately threw Logan into television, accepting an offer from CBS. The timing was wrong, and the TV show was not properly handled.  Saul David, who produced the film, was set to helm the new series, but they fired him and hired an inept team of producers who knew nothing whatever about science fiction. I remember saying to them that what they proposed to do with Logan would not work and that the casting for Logan and Jessica lacked "chemistry" (unlike the marvelous mix of York and Agutter). Again, I was ignored.

When the series was canceled after ten episodes (with three more shown only in Europe), both the studio and network turned their back on Logan. "He's dead," they told me. "Forget him."

Oh, yeah!

So powerful was Logan's basic appeal that he kept on running despite being abandoned by MGM and CBS. Maybe he wasn't on the main Star Trek/Star Wars track, but he was never slowed down.

• 1977: (with the series about to be killed by CBS) Logan's World is published--and LROF (Logan's Run Organization of Fans) issues their fanzine, The Circuit.  The book quickly goes into a second printing.
  
• 1978-1979: The Circuit continues to be published, along with another important Logan-based magazine, The Sandman Sentinel. (And other I never saw, such as The 23rd Century.)  A "Logan Lexicon" is issued.
  
• 1980: A third novel, Logan's World, is published by Bantam.
  
• 1980's: MGM releases a disc version of their movie.
  
• 1986: Logan: A Trilogy, the first book to feature all three novels in hardcover, is published by Maclay.
  
• 1989: I narrate Logan's Run for audio cassette format via Dove Books on Tape.
  
• 1990: Malibu Graphics begins a 6-issue comic book series, based directly on the first novel.
  
• 1991: Malibu repeats with a 6-issue adaptation of Logan's World.
  
• 1992: Dell, for their "Classic SF" line, publishes the Logan Trilogy in a mass-market trade paperback.
  
• 1993-1994: The film version of Logan's Run in shown numerous times on TV, garnering solid ratings.
  
• 1995: Logan becomes part of Space Movies: Classic SF, from England.
  
• 1996: Several books and magazines feature Logan material.
  
• 1997: John Rorke creates the Logan site, reflecting a steady increase in Internet interest in Logan--and Image Entertainment issues a "Special Edition Laser Disc" of the MGM film, containing much additional material.
  
• 1998: Logan is excerpted in the U.K.'s Classic Science Fiction--and MGM releases a visually-enhanced version of the film in a state-of-the-art DVD.
  
• 1999: Buccaneer Books brings out a limited hardcover edition of the first novel--while Dark Con '99 stages a Logan-themed convention in Arizona, the Nolan and George Clayton Johnson as Guests of Honor.
  

• 2000: Warner Bros. announces its tie-in with a writer/director for their mega-budget remake of Run--and the first three novels are issued in revised trade paperback editions, along eith the exclusive Internet release of a new Logan adventure. 
  
  Logan, dead? Hardly. In fact, a whole new Logan era is just beginning.