"Space: Above and Beyond" Ray Butts (1995)

Director:

Charles Martin Smith

Writers:

Glen Morgan (creator) and
James Wong (creator) ...
(more)

TV Series:

"Space: Above and Beyond" (1995)

Original Air Date:

22 October 1995 (Season 1, Episode 5)

Genre:

Drama | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Morley Cigarettes | Marine | Alien | Fictional War | Space

Cast

Morgan Weisser	...	Lt. Nathan West
Kristen Cloke	...	Lt. Shane Vansen
Rodney Rowland	...	Lt. Cooper Hawkes
Joel de la Fuente	...	Lt. Paul Wang
Lanei Chapman	...	Lt. Vanessa Damphousse
James Morrison	...	Lt. Col. Tyrus Cassius 'T.C.' McQueen
Steve Rankin	...	Lt. Col. Raymond Thomas Butts
Tucker Smallwood	...	Commodore Ross
Lar Park-Lincoln	...	Bowman
John Voldstad	...	Sailor
David Prudhomme	...	Cochran
John L. Bennett	...	Master of Arms

Directed by
Charles Martin Smith

Writing credits
Glen Morgan		(creator) and
James Wong		(creator)
Glen Morgan		(written by) &
James Wong		(written by)

Produced by
Herb Adelman	....	co-producer
Ken Dennis	....	associate producer
Dan Dugan	....	coordinating producer
D. Howard Grigsby	....	producer (as Howard Grigsby)
Tim McHugh	....	producer
Glen Morgan	....	executive producer
Tom Towler	....	supervising producer
James Wong	....	executive producer
Stephen Zito	....	co-executive producer

Original Music by
Shirley Walker

Cinematography by
Anthony R. Palmieri

Film Editing by
James Coblentz

Casting by
Lisa Miller Katz		(as Lisa Miller)

Production Design by
Bernard Hides

Art Direction by
Thomas P. Wilkins		(as Tom Wilkins)

Set Decoration by
Lynn Wolverton-Parker

Costume Design by
Giovanna Ottobre-Melton

Makeup Department
Linda De Andrea	....	hair stylist (as Linda DeAndrea)
Angela Levin	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Herb Adelman	....	unit production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Kelly A. Manners	....	second assistant director (as Kelly Manners)
Venita Ozols	....	first assistant director (as Ventia Ozols-Graham)

Art Department
David E. Duncan	....	illustrator (as David Duncan)
William 'W' Gilpin	....	construction coordinator
Scott Herbertson	....	assistant art director
Joseph A. Hodges	....	set designer (as Joseph Hodges)
Allan Johnson	....	gang boss
Geoffrey Mandel	....	graphic artist
Jim Millett	....	assistant art director
Ian Scheibel	....	property master
Theodore Sharps	....	set designer
George Denes Suhayda	....	illustrator (as George Suhayda)

Sound Department
Mark R. Crookston	....	supervising sound editor
Gregg Harris	....	second boom operator
Maury Harris	....	sound recordist
Jerry Jacobson	....	sound effects editor
Don MacDougall	....	sound re-recording mixer
Todd Orr	....	re-recording mixer
James G. Williams	....	re-recording mixer

Special Effects by
Kim Bailey	....	playback effects supervisor
Gary F. Bentley	....	special effects (as Gary Bently)
John Eggett	....	special effects
Edward J. Franklin	....	department coordinator for electronic effects (uncredited)
Christine Onesky	....	special effects (uncredited)

Visual Effects by
Glenn Campbell	....	visual effects supervisor
Karl Denham	....	computer animator
David Jones	....	computer animator

Stunts
Bobby Burns	....	stunts
Jeff Cadiente	....	stunt coordinator

Camera and Electrical Department
James J. Gilson	....	chief lighting technician (as Jim Gilson)
Jason D. Hodges	....	key grip (as Jason Hodges)
Adam Kane	....	camera operator (as Adam M. Kane)
Greg Mayer	....	lighting technician
Arianne Peckham Palmieri	....	second assistant camera
John Scott	....	assistant camera

Casting Department
Randy Stone	....	original casting

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Joseph A. Kerezman	....	costumes
Renee Alaina Sacks	....	costume supervisor (as Renée Alaina Sacks)

Editorial Department
Jennifer Vejar	....	assistant editor

Music Department
Robert Fernandez	....	scoring mixer (as Bobby Fernandez)
Mark Green	....	music editor

Transportation Department
Bill Myers	....	transportation coordinator
Gina August	....	driver (uncredited)

Other crew
Robert Boyle	....	location manager
Ann Christman	....	production assistant
Susan Ellis	....	production office coordinator
Marilyn Osborn	....	executive story editor
Hope Williams	....	script supervisor
Laurie Morgenthal	....	crane/remote head technician (uncredited)

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Glen Morgan		creator
James Wong		creator

Special Effects by
Greg C. Jensen II	....	special effects assistant (uncredited)

Production Companies

• 20th Century Fox Television

Distributors

• 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• Fox Network (1995) (USA) (TV)

Other Companies

• West Productions  post production sound

Filming Locations:

Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park - 10700 W. Escondido Canyon Rd., Agua Dulce, California, USA

Company:

20th Century Fox Television

Makes you want to eat some pancakes and listen to Johnny Cash

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

A spoiler doesn't really follow, but I've outlined the plot a little. To me, "Ray Butts" marks the point where this series gained its legs. A viewer can see in the pilot episode and the first couple after the show debuted, that the actors were getting to know each other and the writers were kind of figuring out how the military works. By "Ray Butts," the production had settled in pretty well. "Ray Butts" is about one Lt. Col. Raymond T. Butts. He's a hard charging, hard drinking and well, just hard, person and Marine who spouts off funny sayings like "Easy as eating pancakes." A lifer who holds some sort of Recon or special forces "black" (meaning he doesn't exist) position within some command or other, Butts comes along and spirits off the 58th on a special mission. The mission is pretty standard fare. Recover some "Hammerheads," the show's spacecraft/aircraft combo that they use to fight the "Chigs" (insect type bad guys the Earth is at war with). Butts has his own ideas and his own mission. Of course, those wiley "Chigs" are out there trying to stop them. Throw in a black hole that could pull everybody apart in space during a dogfight, and you've got some pretty good tension and drama. Mostly the plots of Space Above and Beyond are World War II driven. It's pretty much the Pacific in space. That's cool. Lot's of interesting drama and heroism happened in the Pacific theater. So it's a rich vein to mine. "Ray Butts" isn't entertaining or classic television because of the plot, though. It's the performances and the characters that drives this episode. Vansen comes to Butts cabin after a pretty bad day of Butts' specialized training and confronts him about his intentions with the 58th. Butts is tired, drinking and sitting in his cabin like a man who doesn't care who lives or dies (something Lt Col. McQueen has just told him a scene or two before). Vansen: (With Johnny Cash's "So Doggone Lonesome" in the background) What do you think about in the dark? Butts: (Swallows his shot of whiskey and breathes a tired sigh) I think about the first man I ever killed. Vansen: What about him? Butts: I wonder what he's doing now (looks at his whiskey he just poured) . . . and if he got the better end of the deal. Now that's good writing anyway you slice and dice them pancakes. The special effects of the 58th fighting the "Chig" fighters is pretty good. Still holds up today more than a decade after this episode was created. For a television show that says something, to me. The DVD's of Space Above and Beyond are out now, and this episode, along with the two about "Chigi" Von Richtofen are worth the price of the set. These war dramas are mini-movies and marks a time when Fox programmed good television. I wish this production team (actors, writers, producers) would reunite and produce a television mini series or show about World War II in the Pacific.