Classic Lunch at Michael's "Who is the Twelfth Cylon?" with Mark Stern, Sci Fi Channel EVP Original Programming

Stern who was recently named CoHead Original Programming for Universal Cable Productions in addition to his role at Sci Fi wasnamp8217t referring to the food though we had enjoyed a fine meal He was talking about the resolution of the current mother of all television mysteries the Battlestar Galactica bombshell that has eclipsed even those nagging questions about the island on Lost Who the heck is the twelfth CylonquotDo you want to know who the final Cylon isquot Stern had asked me over coffee unable to prevent an Iknowsomethingyoudon39tknow grin from spreading across his facequotSurequot I had casually replied hoping that if I kept my cool he might actually tell me even off the recordNo such luckRealizing that I wasn39t going to leave the lunch with a direct answer I had decided to learn what I could so I asked Stern what his response was when he learned the secret millions of Galactica fans won39t find out until sometime next year when Sci Fi runs the ten remaining episodes of the series quotIt was just rightquot he replied after saying it was quotdeliciousquot quotIt39s one of those things that are right under your nose and you don39t expect it but it makes total sense I asked Galactica executive producers Ron Moore and David Eick quotHave you always planned this because it39s too well laid in over the last three yearsquot They wouldn39t tell mequotWhat39s great about it is it doesn39t feel arbitraryquot Stern continued quotIt feels like it could have been planned all alongquotAs Stern and I were talking dozens of people were walking past the window near our table and to judge by the bags they were carrying and in some cases the costumes they were wearing most of them were on their way to Day 3 of the 2008 ComicCon at the San Diego Convention Center In fact Stern would be walking there himself after our lunch to attend what can only be described in hindsight as a milestone for Sci Fi Channel and the Con A presentation featuring the lastever appearance by the cast of Battlestar Galactica at least during the actual run of the show By the time the 2009 Con rolls around Galactica will likely have reached its conclusion though two prequel movies are already in the works One of them is Caprica a pilot for a possible series The other does not yet have a title but will run on Sci Fi after Galactica endsIt is not an understatement to note that Galactica has played a critical role in Stern39s career at Sci Fi He joined the network six years ago just as casting was under way for the 2003 Galactica miniseries that would kickoff the phenomenon to come and bring the network unprecedented critical acclaim and industry cred quotWhen I first heard quotWelcome to Sci Fi the first thing you39re doing is a Battlestar Galactica miniseries39 I was like quotOh God no39quot Stern said with a laugh recalling the cheesy 1978 series that started it all quotBut then I read Ron39s script and it was amazing I got really excited about it People underestimate how difficult this genre is especially writers who have never done it before I39m biased but I think it39s very easy to get wrong and very difficult to get rightquotMichael Trucco as Sam Anders and Katee Sackhoff as Kara quotStarbuckquot Trace in quotBattlestar GalacticaquotWhen Stern talks about sciencefiction he isn39t doing so with the standard forcedinterest most television executives whip up for their project of the moment He39s been a scifi guy since his childhood in New York when Lost in Space and the original Star Trek were early favorites He was also a voracious reader with a passion for the works of Arthur C Clarke Robert A Heinlein Ray Bradbury and Kurt Vonnegut As a teenager in the Seventies his favorite movies included Star Wars quotwhich kind of rewrote the playbookquot Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Alien quotAll those movies really took science fiction to a whole new levelquot Stern said quotIt was a really interesting period for me formatively Those were the things that had a major impact on mequotStern39s love of sciencefiction and desire to work in movies took a back seat during his college years at Dartmouth where he intended to major in marine biology quotI quickly divorced that idea when I started taking real biology classes and realized how intense they werequot he said He changed his major to psychology which proved somewhat serendipitous given that he would end up working in Hollywood quotBelieve mequot he laughed quotI use it all the timequotAfter graduation Stern quotpacked up my Jetta and moved to Los Angelesquot He worked as a literary agent39s assistant at Writers and Artists Agency for about six months and then took a job as an assistant at Trilogy Entertainment Group where during the 15 years that followed he worked his way up to partner and president of its television division Among the projects he oversaw were the 2002 NBC movie Carrie and the longrunning Showtime series The Outer Limits like Galactica an updated version of a show from long ago The final season of Limits actually ran on Sci Fi which is how he got to know Sci Fi Channel President Bonnie Hammer Hammer is now President of NBCU Cable and Universal Cable ProductionsquotFor me the most exciting project was The Outer Limitsquot Stern recalled ampamp quotWe did 100plus episodes and got to do a totally different show every week In terms of producing and writing it was never the same thing We would do a time travel story and then a creature story and a cloning story We got to explore all sorts of different forms That was a great training ground for mequotAfter Carrie an adaptation of the classic Stephen King novel which Stern described as quotthe master class of executive producingquot because of its challenging logistics quotreal fire with kids in a high school gymquot he said he felt like he had done everything he wanted to do as an executive producer It was at that time that Hammer started talking with him about a position at Sci Fi quotI never really wanted to be a network executive until I started talking to Bonnie Hammer and Dave Howe Howe now the President of Sci Fi Channel was Executive Vice President of Marketing ampamp Brand Strategy at the time Read our Lunch at Michael39s with Dave Howe I was tired of doing the straightahead latex spacedriven science fiction I really wanted to do other things That was exactly what they wanted to doquotStern noted that his wife Betsy and their 14 and 11yearold children are quotnot particularly scifi friendlyquot That39s a good thing he added quotBecause they have become my focus group Our whole agenda at Sci Fi is how do we invite people in That has been our mantra for quite a while and my specific agenda with our programmingquot The benefit of having a family quotthat is not particularly interestedquot in what does is that if his wife and kids take an interest when Stern watches dailies at home he gets quota sense that we39re on the right trackquot He knew he was doing something right with the series Eureka when he discovered that his family was TiVoing it without his knowledgeLike most parents of his generation Stern is struck by the influence of digital media on his children quotI remember rushing home on Friday nights to watch Emergencyquot he recalled quotI would shout 39Hurry up We have to get home It39s almost 8 o39clock39quot I couldn39t resist telling Stern that he is the first person I have ever met who rushed home to watch Emergency quotI39m proud of thatquot he replied His kids on the other hand quotapproach media in a whole different wayquot he said quotIt39s very much 39I want it when I want it on my time39 The immediacy of that is really interesting As a parent it39s something you have to manage You don39t get everything whenever you want itquotStern agreed when I suggested that an entire generation of parents has been caught completely offguard by the challenges of today39s technology In fact he had a lot to say on the subject quotIs it appropriate for my 14 year old to be on MySpace and Facebookquot he mused quotHow do I monitor that When I went out my parents saw me I went to the movies I came back they smelled my breath and it was done They knew my friends My daughter is online at 9 10 11 o39clock at night Who is she talking to What are they talking about At 10 o39clock at night she39s doing her hair because she39s about to get on iChat We are the first parental generation that has had to deal with something like that with things we never could have imaginedquotThis accelerating impact of technology and media is something Stern said he talked about a lot when he first arrived at Sci Fi Channel and it is still a primary topic quotWe39re kind of living in the land of tomorrowquot he observed quotThere is very little around us now that makes us say 39Oh my gosh That39s extraordinary I could never have imagined itquotquotOur time for astonishment feels like it is getting shorter all the timequot he continued quotThe iPhone is shocking and revelatory and then it39s just another thing What is that half life now about two weeks I still remember my first cell phone It was a big one that I wore around my shoulder It was amazing for quite a while I39m firmly in the generation that started life with five television channels and now has 500 My kids will never know that But I39m sure there are things they will be talking about at a table like this in 30 years saying quotI can39t believe it39quotTo contact Mark Stern email contactjackmyerscom

Click to Make Your 2025 Contribution to Support the MediaVillage Education Foundation

Classic Lunch at Michael's "Who is the Twelfth Cylon?" with Mark Stern, Sci Fi Channel EVP Original Programming

Author

Publish date

Channel

Archived in

Ed Martin

Empowering Women in Media: Insights from Industry Leaders (Video) - By E.B. Moss

More Videos:

Click to Make Your 2025 Contribution to Support the MediaVillage Education Foundation

Classic Lunch at Michael's "Who is the Twelfth Cylon?" with Mark Stern, Sci Fi Channel EVP Original Programming

Enjoying This Commentary? There's More to Love

Ed Martin

Empowering Women in Media: Insights from Industry Leaders (Video) - By E.B. Moss

The payment was successful

Cookies