'Battlestar Galactica' producer dies

Harvey Frand, Emmy-winning producer of "Battlestar Galactica," died in Los Angeles after a brief hospitalization for respiratory problems. He was 68.

Frand began his TV producing career in 1985 with "The Devlin Connection," Rock Hudson's final series. He went on to produce the 1985-87 version of "The Twilight Zone" as well as "Beauty and the Beast," "The Young Riders," "Lazarus Man" with Robert Urich, "Pretender" and "Strange World." For his work on "Battlestar Galactica," he won an AFI Award, the 2005 Peabody Award and a 2008 Emmy and is currently nominated for a second Emmy Award.

Mary McDonnell, star of the series, said in a statement, "Harvey had a remarkable gift as a producer. He always made the person who was voicing needs and concerns know that he was truly listening despite the fact that you knew he was juggling hundreds of others simultaneously."

Writer/producer Bradley Thompson said, "He would constantly challenge us find creative ways to make the piece work within the constraints of physical and financial reality. And if he felt we needed that something extra... say a nuclear explosion or two... to make the story play, he'd go to the mat to make it happen."

Born in Philadelphia, he studied political science at the U. of Pittsburgh. After working with Students for Kennedy in college, he started out at NBC news. As an executive for Warner Brothers he oversaw production on the 1973 David Janssen series, "Harry O."

In addition to his work in series television, he produced more than 20 pilots and movies of the week. He also produced the 1974-75 Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams' "Sweet Bird of Youth" starring Christopher Walken and Irene Worth.

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Star Trek Original Series Season 2′ and movies are coming to Blu-ray!

More ‘Star Trek’ titles on the horizon as Paramount announced it will release “Star Trek: The Original Series Season 2″ on a seven-disc Blu-ray set, as well as individual Blu-ray releases of the original motion pictures. Both Blu-ray products will hit stores on Sept. 22.

The Blu-ray release of Season 2 of the original series will contain all 26 episodes including one of the more well known titles “The Trouble with Tribbles” (1967). The beautifully remastered episodes (if Season 2 is anything like Season 1) will be presented in 1080p at 4:3 format, with audio options of DTS-HD Master 7.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono.

A feature of “Star Trek: The Original Series Season 2″ on Blu-ray will allow you to seamlessly toggle between the digitally enhanced and original broadcast versions of the series.

The seven-disc set will contain hours of interactive bonus features, featurettes, and clips via BD-Live. iPhone users will have additional toys to play with as they will be able to use their iPhones as remote controls (a feature branded ‘Mobile Blu’) to download Star Trek content. The disc set will be released on Sept. 22.

Jump 13 years to the motion picture releases starting in 1980 which featured the original ‘Star Trek’ cast. The “Star Trek: Original Motion Picture Collection” was released back in May ‘09 on Blu-ray and contained all six of the original ‘Star Trek’ films. Now the films will be available individually, when they also hit the streets on Sept. 22.

Those films headed for Blu-ray Disc as individual titles include:

‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture’
‘Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan’
‘Star Trek III: The Search for Spock’
‘Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home’
‘Star Trek V: The Final Frontier’
‘Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country’

None of the films are available for pre-order yet. I’ll keep you posted on any artwork and availability.