Mike Lloyd
Ross
Mike Lloyd Ross was the
creator of the Salvage 1 television series Thanks to a couple of his
friends, I have learned a little bit more about him. He was born in
1933 or 1934. He was barely 50 when he passed away due to lung cancer
in the early eighties. He was an electronics technician aboard the U.S.S.
Pollux in the mid 50's just following the Korean war. He had
a vivid imagination back then, and used to put on little shows for the
crew. In addition to Salvage 1, Mike also wrote some scripts for the TV
show "Simon and Simon", along with William M. Whitehead. He also wrote
the script for a TV movie in 1981 called "Dream House".
Pete Matulavich Speaks About Mike Lloyd Ross
Producer/ writer/
director Pete Matulavich was a friend of Mike's in the 70s and 80s. He
was kind enough to answer some questions about Mike Ross. Pete started
with a few interesting facts:
He (Mike Lloyd Ross)
also created the short-lived series American Girls which was a take off
of Charlie's Angels. Mike was primarily known as simply Mike Ross and
only used Lloyd to
differentiate himself in the credits from another Mike Ross. While Mike
worked primarily as a producer-writer, he was a good director and was
frustrated that he couldn't convince the powers that be to let him
direct.
Q: Did you ever work with Mike Ross
professionally? If so, did you work on Salvage 1?
I first met Mike when he
and I were hired by the same production company (Hennessy Films) to
write and direct some Navy recruiting movies in 1973. One Mike did was
called "Pressure Point" and followed a cocky Navy flight school
candidate through the rigors of flight training. Business Screen, a
publication back then, named it the best industrial film of the year. I
would agree.
Another noteworthy
industrial Mike wrote/directed was called Firebugs (I believe), and was
made for the LA Fire Department. It was all about identifying
arsonists. It was cleverly done. Mike did quite a few films for the LA
Fire Department, before his big break with Salvage. By the way, the
pilot episode, the TV movie version, was called Salvage. I'm not sure
even Mike knew why they changed it to Salvage 1 for the series, other
than to differentiate it from the pilot movie.
I was attempting to
develop an episode of Salvage 1 for Mike when the series was cancelled.
Q: Did Mike Ross ever get the chance to direct
anything in the business?
No, afraid not. Not
outside of industrials. And I knew why. He was just too valuable as a
producer for the executive producers to let him be taken away from his
primary job, which was to keep the series on track. While Mike was only
about 5'8, and around 140 pounds, he had boundless enthusiasm and
excuded energy and positivism that was contagious. He could be a
pain-in-the-ass sometimes, though.
Q: Do you know if Salvage 1 was a good or bad
experience for him? How did he feel about it once it was a series?
All in all, it was a
great experience for him, but frustrating as well. He was not satisfied
with the caliber of writers nor directors that were available for the
series. One writer/director, though, Mike Robe, a close friend of
Mike's, did do an episode, and it helped launch his career, as he
has done lots of TV movies and series since. I forget which episode
Mike Robe did for Mike.
Q: What was he most proud of among the shows he
worked on? Did he have a "dream" project that he never got to work on?
He was probably the most
proud of the pilot episode of Salvage. It was a very good show.
Q: Do you know how much creative input Mike had
regarding the series?
Actually, I believe he
had considerable creative control. The problem he had with directors
stemmed from the fact that the best ones were generally working on more
established series of that time. Mike felt he was scraping the bottom
of the barrel when it came to finding directors. He couldn't hire just
any director. They had to be DGA, of course. As far as problems he had
with some scripts, those could be mitigated by Mike since he could
re-write them. I remember he liked the script about the race horse.
Perhaps you recall that episode.
Q: Did Mike Ross have a particular enthusiasm for
spaceflight and science?
Yes, I feel he did. When
he and I flew on one of the first jumbo jets (I guess it was a 747), he
was excited just like a kid, marveling at how something that large
could get off the ground.
Q: You and Mike started out in industrial films.
Do many people make the leap from that to the general entertainment
field?
A few do. Others whom I
personally know about, include the two guys (S.S.Wilson and Brent
Maddock) who went on to write/produce Batteries Not Included, Short
Circuit, Tremors, etc. In fact, Short Circuit was inspired by a robot
they designed for an educational video. Ron Underwood and I worked for
the same company producing educational and childrens videos, and he
went on to direct City Slickers and have a dozen other major features.
Industrials and educationals afford a way for people to learn the craft
and make a living while they do so. It is a not a major avenue to major
entertainment projects, but it is something of an avenue. There are
literally thousands, if not tens of thousands, who are employed in the
making of industrials, educationals and training films. The vast
majority, though, never get into TV or motion pictures.
By the way, the plot for
the pilot episode of American Girls was based on an arsonist character
Mike developed for that LA Fire Department video I mentioned to you,
Firebugs.
Many thanks to Peter
Matulavich for the enlightening information!
|