AUTOGRAPHED INDEX CARD SIGNED BY ACTOR JONATHAN BRANDIS FROM DEC 9, 1993 WHEN HE WAS 18. OBTAINED IN PERSON DURING THE BEGINNING OF THE SERIES OF SEA QUEST DSV AT UNIVERSAL PLAZA AT UNIVERSAL CITY, CALIFORNIA
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onathan Gregory Brandis (April 13, 1976 – November 12, 2003) was an American actor. Beginning his career as a child model, Brandis moved on to acting in commercials and subsequently won television and film roles. Brandis made his acting debut in 1982 as Kevin Buchanan on the soap opera One Life to Live. In 1990, he portrayed Bill Denbrough in the television miniseries It, and starred as Bastian Bux in The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter. In 1993, at the age of 17, he was cast in the role of teen prodigy Lucas Wolenczak on the NBC series seaQuest DSV. The character was popular among teenage viewers, and Brandis regularly appeared in teen magazines. He died by suicide in 2003.
Early life
Jonathan Brandis was born in Danbury, Connecticut, the only child of Mary, a teacher and personal manager, and Gregory Brandis, a food distributor and firefighter. At the age of two, he began his career as a child model for Buster Brown shoes.[1] At the age of four, Brandis began acting in television commercials.[2][3] He attended San Fernando Valley Professional School, graduating in 1993.[1]
Career
At age six, Brandis won the role of Kevin Buchanan on the soap opera One Life to Live. He moved to Los Angeles with his family at age nine and made guest appearances on shows such as Blossom; L.A. Law; Who's the Boss?; Murder, She Wrote; The Wonder Years; Full House; Webster and Kate & Allie.[4]
At age 13, Brandis was cast in his first starring role as Bastian Bux in The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter. He played the young "Stuttering Bill" Denbrough in the 1990 television miniseries Stephen King's It, based on the epic horror novel of the same name. Brandis' performance in the miniseries was lauded by critics and audiences. Brandis was cast as the lead in two films made close together, first as Barry Gabrewski in Sidekicks and then starring as Matthew/Martha in Ladybugs.
Around age 17, Brandis landed one of his best-known roles, as scientific prodigy Lucas Wolenczak in Steven Spielberg's futuristic science fiction series seaQuest DSV. The role propelled him into teen idol status.[5] At the height of his popularity, Brandis received approximately 4,000 fan letters a week and had to be escorted onto the set of seaQuest DSV by three studio security guards because of the many female fans present.[2] He voiced Mozenrath, an evil young sorcerer, in Disney's animated series Aladdin.[6]
After seaQuest DSV was canceled in 1996, Brandis appeared in the television film Her Last Chance.[7] His next role was in the television film Born Free: A New Adventure, which was shot in South Africa.[8] He continued his career in supporting roles in Outside Providence (1999) and Ride with the Devil (1999). In 2000, he costarred in Bad Girls from Valley High, which, because of distribution problems, was not released until 2005, two years after his death. Brandis had a small role in Hart's War (2002). In 2003, he was cast in 111 Gramercy Park, a pilot that was not picked up by the network. He made his final onscreen appearance in action drama Puerto Vallarta Squeeze. That film was also released posthumously.
Personal life
From 1995 to 1998, Brandis dated actress and singer Tatyana Ali. The then-couple appeared in an article in People magazine in July 1996.[9]
Death
On November 11, 2003, Brandis was found hanged in the hallway of his Los Angeles apartment. He was transported to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center[10] and died the following day of injuries sustained from the hanging. He was 27 years old.[11]
Brandis did not leave a suicide note.[12] After his death, friends reported that he had been depressed about his extended career lull and was reportedly disappointed when his appearance in the 2002 war drama Hart's War—a role he hoped would revive his career—was significantly reduced in the film's final cut. Brandis began drinking heavily and said that he intended to kill himself.[13]
In 2021, his father, Greg Brandis, noted that Jonathan was probably suffering from bipolar disorder. He told People, "[His death] wasn't due to the entertainment industry. I look back now, and in his 20s, he showed signs of manic depression. I hope that anyone suffering can go get help."[14]
Filmography
Film
Year Title Role Notes
1988 Oliver & Company Additional voices
The Wrong Guys Kid Tim
1989 Pet Sematary Narration
Stepfather II Todd Grayland
1990 Ghost Dad Additional voices
The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter Bastian Bux
1992 Ladybugs Matthew/Martha
Sidekicks Barry Gabrewski
1996 Born Free: A New Adventure Randolph Thompson
1998 Aladdin's Arabian Adventures: Magic Makers Mozenrath (voice) Direct-to-video
1999 Outside Providence Mousy
Ride with the Devil Cave Wyatt
2002 Hart's War Lewis P. Wakely
The Year That Trembled Casey Pedersen
2003 Between the Sheets Robert Avocado
2004 Puerto Vallarta Squeeze Neil Weatherford Posthumous release
The Slainesville Boys – Director and producer; posthumous release
2005 Bad Girls from Valley High Drew Filmed in 2000; posthumous release
2021 Kid 90 Himself Documentary; posthumous release
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1982–1983 One Life to Live Kevin Buchanan Unknown episodes
1984 Kate & Allie Chip's friend Episode: "Odd Boy Out"
1986 Mystery Magical Special Himself Special
1986 Sledge Hammer! Young Sledge Episode: "They Shoot Hammers, Don't They?"
1987 Buck James – Episode: "Sin of the Father"
Duet Danny Episode: "Jane's Getting Serious"
Good Morning, Miss Bliss Michael Thompson Pilot
L.A. Law Kevin Talbot 2 episodes
Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story Lance Reventlow (age 11) Television film
1988 Mars: Base One – Television film
Webster Bobby Episode: "Take My Cousin, Please"
1989 Full House Michael Monford Episode: "A Little Romance"
Who's the Boss? Paul Episode: "Your Grandmother's a Bimbo"
1990 Alien Nation Andron Episode: "The Touch"
The Earth Day Special Himself
The Flash Terry Cohan Episode: "Child's Play"
It Young Bill Denbrough Miniseries
The Munsters Today Matt Glover Episode: "The Silver Bullet"
Murder, She Wrote Kevin Bryce Episode: "If the Shoe Fits"
1991 Blossom Stevie Episode: "To Tell the Truth"
Gabriel's Fire Matthew Fixx Episode: "Truth and Consequences"
Our Shining Moment Michael "Scooter" McGuire Television film
Pros and Cons Danny Episode: "Once a Kid"
The Wonder Years Steve Episode: "The Yearbook"
1992 Crossroads Michael Stahl Episode: "Freedom of the Road"
Do Not Bring That Python in the House Gabriel Miller Television film
1993 Saved By The Bell: The College Years Himself Episode: "A Thanksgiving Story"
1993–1996 seaQuest DSV Lucas Wolenczak Main role; co-wrote episode "The Siamese Dream"
1994 Good King Wenceslas Prince Wenceslas Television film
Masters Of Illusion Himself Documentary
1994–1995 Aladdin Mozenrath (voice) 8 episodes
1996 Born Free: A New Adventure Randolph "Rand" Thompson Television film
1996 Fall into Darkness Chad Television film
1996 Her Last Chance Preston Altherton Television film
1997 Two Came Back Jason Television film
2003 111 Gramercy Park Will Karnegian Unsold pilot
Awards and nominations
Award Year Category Nominated work Result
Saturn Awards 1992 Best Performance by a Younger Actor The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter Nominated
Young Artist Awards 1990 Best Young Actor Guest Starring in a Television Series The Flash Nominated
1991 Best Young Actor Starring in a Motion Picture The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter Nominated
1993 Outstanding Young Ensemble Cast in a Motion Picture Lady Bugs (shared with cast) Nominated
1993 Best Young Actor Starring in a Motion Picture Lady Bugs Nominated
1994 Best Youth Actor Leading Role in a Television Series seaQuest DSV Won
1995 Best Performance by a Youth Actor in a TV Mini-Series or Special Good King Wenceslas Nominated
The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter is a 1990 fantasy film and a sequel to The NeverEnding Story. It was directed by George T. Miller and stars Jonathan Brandis as Bastian Bux, Kenny Morrison as Atreyu, and Alexandra Johnes as the Childlike Empress. The only actor to return from the first film was Thomas Hill as Carl Conrad Coreander. The film used plot elements from Michael Ende's novel The Neverending Story (primarily the second half) but introduced a new storyline. Upon its American theatrical release in 1991, the Bugs Bunny animated short Box-Office Bunny was shown before the film. This short was also included on the VHS and LaserDisc release later that year.
Plot
Bastian Balthazar Bux seeks to join his school's swimming team, but his ability to jump off a diving board is marred by his fear of heights. He revisits Carl Conrad Coreander's antiquarian bookstore to seek advice on courage, where he rediscovers the Neverending Story and hears the Childlike Empress call out to him for aid.
Bastian takes the book home while the AURYN amulet magically comes off the book cover, which Bastian takes and is summoned to Fantasia, where he meets a bird-like creature named Nimbly and is reunited with Atreyu in the beautiful Silver City. After the group encounters and escapes from armored giants, Bastian comes to understand that a force called the "Emptiness" is spreading across Fantasia. This force has been brought about by the evil sorceress Xayide, who seeks to seize power over Fantasia. To hinder Bastian's quest, Xayide's inventor Tri-Face develops an apparatus that strips Bastian of a memory each time he uses the Auryn amulet to make a wish. Nimbly was sent as a spy to persuade Bastian to make wishes until he is unable to remember why he came to Fantasia.
Bastian and Atreyu seek out and capture Xayide. She seems to abandon her quest for power and agrees to lead the two to the Childlike Empress. During the travel to the Empress's Ivory Tower, Xayide tricks Bastian into believing that his friends will turn against him and manages to get him to wish for a series of ridiculous wishes. It also becomes obvious to Atreyu that they are being led aimlessly.
Meanwhile, Bastian's father Barney has noticed his son's disappearance. He finds the Neverending Story in Bastian's room and sees a sticker on the front cover listing the bookstore's address. Barney rushes to confront Mr. Coreander, who simply tells him that he will find the answers to his son's whereabouts inside the book. Returning later with a police officer, Barney is shocked to see the bookstore abandoned. Eventually, Barney reads the book and is surprised to see his son's exploits in Fantasia being written by the book itself and that he is mentioned within.
Atreyu determines what Xayide is planning, while Bastian is fully persuaded that Atreyu has turned on him. In a struggle between the two, Atreyu is knocked over a cliff and falls to his death. Returning to Xayide, Bastian discovers the apparatus for himself and learns that he only has two memories left, consisting of his mother and father.
Bastian returns to the ruins of Silver City and uses his penultimate memory of his mother to wish Atreyu back to life. Xayide tries to force Bastian to use his last wish to return home. Bastian agrees to make his last wish, but instead wishes for the sorceress "to have a heart". This fills Xayide with emotion, negating the Emptiness within her and which she controls. Overcome with compassion, Xayide explodes in a blast of light, and Fantasia is restored, along with Bastian's memories.
Having been freed, the Childlike Empress thanks Bastian for his help, and Bastian gives her the Auryn amulet. She shows him the way home: a cliff overlooking a waterfall, to help Bastian overcome his fear of heights.
Encouraged by Barney and Atreyu, Bastian jumps off and returns home safely and reuniting with his father, while the Auryn amulet magically goes back onto the book cover.
Cast
Main article: List of The Neverending Story characters
Jonathan Brandis as Bastian Balthazar Bux
J. Michael Haney as Young Bastian Bux
Kenny Morrison as Atreyu
Clarissa Burt as Xayide
John Wesley Shipp as Barney Bux (Bastian's father)
Alexandra Johnes as Childlike Empress
Thomas Hill as Carl Conrad Coreander
Donald Arthur (voice) as Falkor
Martin Umbach as Nimbly
Christopher Burton as Tri-Face
Dan Fincher (uncredited voice) as Rockbiter
Helena Michell as Mrs. Bux (Bastian's mother, who appears in a flashback)
Production
Producer Dieter Geissler declared that he always intended to make a trilogy out of Michael Ende's The Neverending Story, finding the book "just too rich to leave" at one film. However, his plans to follow the original film, which only covers half of the novel, had to be postponed as Ende sued Geissler and the production company, insisting that he have a say in any future film treatments of his work.
As soon as the legal problems were solved, Geissler started a year-long pre-production working with conceptual artist Ludwig Angerer, to ensure the film's design and technical ambitions would fit into a lower budget, along with averting the problems the first film faced with its effects. Geissler also hired screenwriter Karin Howard, who contributed 14 drafts until the final screenplay, which draws inspiration from most chapters in the second half of Ende's novel.
Geissler opted to invite a director only when the development was finished, as he considered effects-heavy productions too demanding for a director when working on the project from the earliest pre-production stages. He eventually brought in the Australian George T. Miller, who was a fan of the original film.
Over 600 children were auditioned, given the original actors were now too old for their roles. In contrast to The NeverEnding Story relying on blue screen and scale model creatures, The Next Chapter would have more life-sized model work and matte paintings.
Principal photography began in early 1990 at Bavaria Film near Munich. The original plan was to build three separate stages, having first and second unit shooting simultaneously on the first two-stage and have the effects done on the third. The studio decided not to build the third stage at the last minute, forcing production to shoot first and second unit on the same stage at the same time; the stage being Stage 7 at Bavaria Studios.[4]
As labour rules regarding child actors limited their working schedules, Miller decided to only rehearse scenes once before filming, and maximized the time with the children on set by shooting with as many as three cameras on every scene. This created a problem as Miller's fear of falling late wound up making the film so ahead of schedule the effects team had not completed the necessary work for later scenes.[5]
Soundtrack
The Neverending Story II - The Next Chapter: Original Soundtrack
Soundtrack album by Giorgio Moroder & Robert Folk
Released 1990
Genre Score, Pop
Length 45:53
Label WEA
The Neverending Story soundtrack chronology
The NeverEnding Story: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
(1984) The Neverending Story II - The Next Chapter: Original Soundtrack
(1990) Music From & Inspired By The Neverending Story III: Here Come The Fantasians
(1994)
No. Title Writer(s) Performer(s) Length
1. "Searching For Fantasia" Robert Folk Robert Folk 2:19
2. "Dreams We Dream" Giorgio Moroder, Tom Whitlock Joe Milner 4:23
3. "Heaven's Just A Heartbeat" Moroder, Whitlock Joe Milner 4:10
4. "The Neverending Story" Moroder, Keith Forsey Joe Milner 3:29
5. "Dreams We Dream (Instrumental)" Moroder, Whitlock Giorgio Moroder 4:27
6. "Bastian's Dream" Folk Robert Folk 2:05
7. "Falkor's Quest" Folk Robert Folk 2:33
8. "Flight Of The Dragon" Folk Robert Folk 3:32
9. "Silver Mountains" Folk Robert Folk 1:29
10. "Morning In Fantasia" Folk Robert Folk 1:08
11. "The Childlike Empress" Folk Robert Folk 2:15
12. "The Giants' Attack" Folk Robert Folk 2:11
13. "Silver Lake" Folk Robert Folk 2:54
14. "Xayide's Castle" Folk Robert Folk 1:26
15. "Atreyu's Return To The Great Plains" Folk Robert Folk 3:10
16. "Bastian's Lost Memories" Folk Robert Folk 1:03
17. "Silver City" Folk Robert Folk 2:05
18. "The Neverending Story (Reprise)" Moroder, Forsey Giorgio Moroder 0:54
Total length: 45:53
Reception
The film has a 14% score on Rotten Tomatoes based on 7 reviews; the average critics' rating is 3.7/10.[6] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 30 out of 100 based on 13 critic reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[7] Richard Harrington of The Washington Post was critical to its plot and special effects, and commented that several new creatures came from the late-night comedy sketches.[8] Chris Hicks, writing for the Deseret News, was kinder in his review, writing that it would be enjoyable to children, whereas the first film was enjoyable to the entire family.[9] Common Sense Media gave a rating of 3 out of 5 stars; although calling the special effects "dated", they thought that the cleverness of a story that keeps changing as its characters and circumstances require will draw kids to the film. They also noted that the film has similarities to The Wizard of Oz.[10]
In its opening in Germany on 412 screen, it was the number one film for the week with a gross of 5.6 million Deutsch Mark ($3.8 million) from more than 800,000 admissions.[11] The opening was the biggest ever for Warner Bros. in Germany. It opened at the same time in Austria and French-speaking Switzerland, where it also opened well.[12] It eventually had 3,231,527 admissions in Germany, giving it the seventh-highest attendance of the year and making it one of the two German films to achieve domestic success in 1990, along with Werner – Beinhart![13][14] The film grossed $17,373,527 in the United States and Canada.[3]
The NeverEnding Story (German: Die unendliche Geschichte) is a 1984 fantasy film, co-written and directed by Wolfgang Petersen (in his first English-language film), based on the 1979 novel The Neverending Story by Michael Ende. It was produced by Bernd Eichinger and Dieter Giessler, and stars Noah Hathaway, Barret Oliver, Tami Stronach, Patricia Hayes, Sydney Bromley, Gerald McRaney and Moses Gunn, with Alan Oppenheimer providing the voices of Falkor, Gmork, and others. It follows a boy who finds a magical book that tells of a young warrior who is given the task of stopping the Nothing, a dark force, from engulfing the wonderland world of Fantasia.
At the time of its release, it was the most expensive film produced outside the United States or the Soviet Union. It is the first in The NeverEnding Story film series.[4] It adapts only the first half of the book, so it does not convey the message of the title as portrayed in the novel. The second half of the book was then used as a rough basis for the second film, The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter (1990). The third film, The NeverEnding Story III: Escape from Fantasia (1994), has an original plot not based on the book.
Plot
Ten-year-old Bastian Bux is a shy outcast who lives with his recently widowed father. One morning, Bastian's father tells his son of his concern after hearing he drew unicorns in his math book and tells Bastian he needs to stop fantasizing and start facing reality. On his way to school, Bastian is chased by bullies but escapes by hiding in a bookstore, annoying the bookseller, Mr. Coreander. Bastian's interest in books leads him to ask about the one Coreander is reading, but the bookseller advises against reading it, saying that it is not a "safe" story like regular books. With his curiosity piqued, Bastian secretly takes the book, titled The Neverending Story, leaving a note promising to return it. Arriving at school late, Bastian hides in the building's attic to read.
The book describes the fantasy world of Fantasia slowly being devoured by a malevolent force called "The Nothing". The Childlike Empress, who rules Fantasia, has fallen ill, and the young warrior Atreyu is tasked to discover a cure, believing that once the Empress is well, the Nothing will no longer be a threat. Atreyu is given a medallion called the AURYN that can guide and protect him in the quest. As Atreyu sets out, the Nothing summons a vicious and highly intelligent wolf-like creature named Gmork and sends him to kill Atreyu.
Atreyu's quest directs him to the giant, turtle-like adviser Morla the Ancient One in the Swamps of Sadness. Though the AURYN protects Atreyu, his beloved horse Artax is lost to the swamp, and he continues alone. Morla won't help Atreyu because of her allergies to young people and apathy, and says she doesn't have the answers he seeks; she instead directs Atreyu to the Southern Oracle, ten thousand miles distant before going back to eternal sleep. Gmork closes in as Atreyu succumbs to exhaustion trying to escape the Swamps, but is narrowly saved by the Luck Dragon Falkor. Falkor takes him to the home of two gnomes who live near the gates to the Southern Oracle. Atreyu crosses the first gate, but is perplexed when the second gate—a mirror that shows the viewer's true self—reveals a boy which Bastian is shocked to recognize as himself. Atreyu eventually meets the Southern Oracle, who tells him that the only way to save the Empress is to find a human child who lives beyond the boundaries of Fantasia to give her a new name. Bastian comments that he would name the Empress after his late mother. Atreyu and Falkor flee, as the Nothing consumes the Southern Oracle.
In flight, Atreyu is knocked from Falkor's back into the Sea of Possibilities by the Nothing, losing the AURYN in the process. He wakes on the shore of some abandoned ancient ruins, where he finds several murals depicting his adventure, including one of Gmork. Gmork then reveals himself and explains that Fantasia represents humanity's imagination and is thus without boundaries, while the Nothing is a manifestation of the loss of hopes and dreams. Atreyu battles and kills Gmork, as the Nothing begins to consume the ruins.
Falkor manages to retrieve the AURYN and rescue Atreyu. The two find themselves in a void with only small fragments of Fantasia remaining, fearing that they have failed, until they spot the Empress's Ivory Tower among the fragments. Inside, Atreyu apologizes for failing the Empress, but she assures him that he has succeeded in bringing to her a human child who has been following his quest – Bastian. She explains that, just as Bastian is following Atreyu's story, "others" are following Bastian's, making this part of the Neverending Story. As the Nothing begins to consume the Tower, the Empress explains that Bastian must call out her new name to save Fantasia. Disbelieving he has been incorporated with the story and remembering his father's words, he denies these events are actually happening. He gives in after she pleads directly to him to call out her new name, running to the window of the attic to call out "Moon Child".
Bastian awakens with the Empress, who presents him with a grain of sand – the sole remnant of Fantasia. The Empress tells Bastian that he has the power to bring Fantasia back with his imagination. Bastian re-creates Fantasia and flies on Falkor's back to see the land and its inhabitants restored, including Atreyu and Artax. When Falkor asks what his next wish will be, Bastian brings Falkor to the real world to chase down the school bullies. The film narrates that Bastian had many more wishes and adventures before returning to the ordinary world, but it is another story.
Cast
Main article: List of The Neverending Story characters
Barret Oliver as Bastian Balthazar Bux
Noah Hathaway as Atreyu
Tami Stronach as The Childlike Empress, to whom Bastian gives the new name "Moon Child".
Patricia Hayes as Urgl, Engywook's wife and a healer.
Sydney Bromley as Engywook, Urgl's husband and a scientist.
Gerald McRaney as Barney Bux, Bastian's widowed, workaholic father.
Moses Gunn as Cairon, a servant of the Empress.
Alan Oppenheimer as the voices of Falkor, Gmork, Rockbiter, and the Narrator (the latter three are uncredited).
Thomas Hill as Carl Conrad Coreander, a grumpy bookseller.
Deep Roy as Teeny Weeny, a messenger riding on a racing snail.
Tilo Prückner as Night Hob, a messenger riding a narcoleptic hang-glider bat.
Darryl Cooksey, Drum Garrett, and Nicholas Gilbert as Ethan, Todd, and Lucas, three bullies who torment Bastian.
Robert Easton as the voice of Morla (uncredited)[citation needed]
Production
Author Michael Ende was initially happy about his book being turned into a film. Ende worked with Wolfgang Petersen as a script advisor and was paid only $50,000 for the rights to his book. Ende claimed that Petersen later rewrote the script without consulting him, and that this adaptation deviated so far from his book that he requested that production either be halted or the film's title be changed. When the producers did neither, he sued them and subsequently lost the case.[3] Ende called the film a "gigantic melodrama of kitsch, commerce, plush, and plastic" (German: Ein gigantisches Melodram aus Kitsch, Kommerz, Plüsch und Plastik").[5]
Helmut Dietl was originally attached to direct the film, but later dropped out and was replaced with Wolfgang Petersen.[6]
The film only covers the first half of the book. German producer Bernd Eichinger saw his children reading the book, and they urged him to make a film out of it. He was reluctant to adapt the book, but agreed to do so and acquired the rights to the book. The bulk of the film was shot at Stage 1 of the Bavaria Studios in Munich, with the street scenes and the school interior in the real world shot in Vancouver, Canada (the Gastown Vancouver Steam Clock is in the scene where the three bullies are chased down Cambie Street past the steam clock at the intersection of Water Street and then on down Blood Alley[7]),[8] and the beach where Atreyu falls, which was filmed at Playa de Mónsul in San José, Almería, Spain.
Music
The film score of The NeverEnding Story was composed by Klaus Doldinger of the German jazz group Passport. The theme song of the English version of the film was composed by Giorgio Moroder, with lyrics by Keith Forsey, and performed by Christopher "Limahl" Hamill, once the lead singer of Kajagoogoo, and Beth Anderson. Released as a single in 1984, it peaked at No. 4 on the UK singles chart, No. 6 on the US Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, and No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song has been covered by Armonite, The Birthday Massacre, Creamy, Dragonland, Kenji Haga, New Found Glory, Echo Image, and Scooter. This Limahl song, along with other "techno-pop" treatments to the soundtrack, is not present in the German version of the film, which features Doldinger's orchestral score exclusively.
An official soundtrack album was released featuring Doldinger's score and Moroder's theme tune. Moroder also rescored several scenes for the version released outside Germany.[9] The track listing (Doldinger is responsible for everything from track 6 onwards) is as follows:
The NeverEnding Story (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)No. Title Length
1. "The NeverEnding Story" 3:31
2. "Swamps of Sadness" 1:57
3. "Ivory Tower" 3:10
4. "Ruined Landscape" 3:03
5. "Sleepy Dragon" 3:59
6. "Bastian's Happy Flight" 3:16
7. "Fantasia" 0:56
8. "Atreju's Quest" 2:52
9. "Theme of Sadness" 2:43
10. "Atreyu Meets Falkor" 2:31
11. "Mirror Gate – Southern Oracle" 3:10
12. "Gmork" 0:29
13. "Moon Child" 1:24
14. "AURYN" 2:20
15. "Happy Flight" 1:21
In Germany, an album featuring Doldinger's score was released.
Die Unendliche Geschichte — Das AlbumNo. Title Length
1. "Flug auf dem Glücksdrachen (Flight of the Luckdragon)" 3:12
2. "Die Unendliche Geschichte (Titelmusik) (The NeverEnding Story (Main Title))" 2:44
3. "Im Haulewald (In the Howling Forest)" 3:01
4. "Der Elfenbeinturm (The Ivory Tower)" 1:54
5. "Atréjus Berufung – AURYN Thema (Atreyu's Quest – AURYN Theme)" 2:47
6. "Phantásien (Fantasia)" 0:52
7. "Artax's Tod (The Death of Artax)" 1:13
8. "Die Sümpfe der Traurigkeit (The Swamps of Sadness)" 2:39
9. "Atréju's Flug (Atreyu's Flight)" 2:27
10. "Die uralte Morla (Morla, the Ancient One)" 2:27
11. "Das südliche Orakel (The Southern Oracle)" 3:19
12. "Die drei magischen Tore (The Three Magic Gates)" 3:25
13. "Spukstadt (Spook City)" 1:37
14. "Flug zum Elfenbeinturm (Flight to the Ivory Tower)" 3:02
15. "Mondenkind (Moon Child)" 1:19
16. "Die kindliche Kaiserin (The Childlike Empress)" 2:16
17. "Flug auf dem Glücksdrachen (Schlußtitel) (Flight of the Luckdragon (End Title))" 1:19
Charts
Chart (1985) Peak
position
Australia (Kent Music Report)[10] 69
Release
The film was released on 6 April 1984 in West Germany (Die unendliche Geschichte)[11] and on 20 July in the United States.[12][13]
Box office
The film performed very well at the box office, grossing US$100 million worldwide against a production budget of DM 60 million (approximately US$25–27 million at the time).[2][3] Almost 5 million people saw it in Germany, a number rarely achieved by German productions, resulting in a gross of about US$20 million domestically. It grossed a similar amount in the United States—only a modest sum in the American market, which director Wolfgang Petersen ascribed to the film's European sensibilities.[2]
Critical reception
The film has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 83% based on reviews from 46 critics, with an average rating of 7/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "A magical journey about the power of a young boy's imagination to save a dying fantasy land, The NeverEnding Story remains a much-loved kids [sic] adventure."[14] Metacritic gives the film a score of 46 out of 100 based on reviews from 10 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[15]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it 3 out of 4 stars and praised its visual effects, saying that "an entirely new world has been created" because of them,[16] a comment echoed by Variety.[4] Ebert's co-host Gene Siskel said that the special effects and art direction were cheap-looking and that Falkor the luckdragon resembled the stuffed toy. He also referred to Noah Hathaway as a "dullard" and said that the film was "much too long", even after Ebert pointed out that the film was only 90 minutes.[17] Joshua Tyler of CinemaBlend called the film one of a few true masterpieces in the fantasy genre.[14][better source needed]
Vincent Canby panned the film as a "graceless, humorless fantasy for children" in a 1984 review in The New York Times. Canby's criticism charged that parts of the film sounded like 'The Pre-Teenager's Guide to Existentialism'. He further criticized the "tacky" special effects and that the construction of the dragon looked like an impractical bathmat.[18]
Colin Greenland reviewed The NeverEnding Story for Imagine magazine and thought that the film and its story were clumsily edited.[19]
Accolades
Wins:
1984 – Bambi Award for National film
1984 – Goldene Leinwand (Golden Screen Award)
1985 – Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor (Noah Hathaway)
1985 – Bavarian Film Awards for Best Production (Produzentenpreis): Bernd Eichinger, Dieter Geissler and Günter Rohrbach
1985 – Film Award in Gold for Best Production Design
Nominations:
1985 – Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film and Saturn Award for Best Music
1985 – International Fantasy Film Award for Best Film
1985 – Young Artist Award for Best Family Motion Picture, Best Young Actor, Best Young Supporting Actress
Home media
LaserDisc
The film was released by Warner Bros. on LaserDisc with a digital stereo soundtrack in 1985.[citation needed]
A widescreen Laserdisc was released on 28 August 1991; no special features were included.[citation needed]
DVD
The region-1 DVD was first released in 2001 by Warner Bros, containing only the North American release of the film.[citation needed] The only audio option is a 2.0 stereo mix in either English or Spanish. The theatrical trailer is the lone extra feature presented.
There is also a lavish 2003 European version, which is a two-disc special edition with packaging shaped like the book from the film, and containing both the North American and German releases of the film. Various extras, such as a 45-minute documentary, music video, and galleries, are presented on the second disc.[20] There is no English audio for the German version of the film. This edition has gone out of print. The standard single-disc edition is also available for the region-2 market.
A Dutch import has also appeared on the Internet in various places, which not only contains the North American release of the film, but also includes a remastered DTS surround sound track, which is not found in either the German or the region-1 releases.[citation needed]
In 2008, Czech- and Slovak-language DVD versions appeared in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.[citation needed]
Blu-ray
The first Blu-ray release is a region-free Dutch edition on 24 March 2007.[citation needed]
Warner released a region-A Blu-ray edition of the film in March 2010. The disc includes a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track, which marks the first time a 5.1 surround track has been included in a US home-video version of the film. No special features or theatrical trailer are included.[21]
German releases feature the original Klaus Doldinger soundtrack with the original English audio track.[citation needed]
An 30th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray was released in October 2014, which duplicates the DTS surround track of its predecessor. Originally described as a "newly" remastered version of the film, Warner released a statement indicating that "the only remastered version is The NeverEnding Story II", while not elaborating further on this current US release.[22] The 30th Anniversary Edition contains the original theatrical trailer, a commentary track by director Wolfgang Petersen, documentaries and interviews from both 1984 and 2014, and a German-language/English-subtitled feature detailing the digital restoration process of the film.[citation needed]
In popular culture
In The Simpsons episode "New Kid on the Block", Lionel Hutz claims to have filed a suit against the film for fraudulent advertising.[23]
The metalcore band Atreyu is named from the film.
Korn's album The Nothing is named directly in reference to the Nothing in the film. Korn frontman Jonathan Davis chose the title as he was still struggling with the death of his estranged wife Deven Davis.[24]
In 2019, the theme song for the film was incorporated into the final episode of the third season of the science fiction thriller show Stranger Things, which takes place in 1985, furthering its status as a staple of 1980s pop culture.[25] After the episode was aired, the Internet paid streams for the original theme songs went from 300,000 to 1.5 million downloads a month.[26]
Possible remake
In 2009, Warner Bros., The Kennedy/Marshall Company and Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way Productions were in the early stages of creating another adaptation of Ende's novel. They intended to "examine the more nuanced details of the book" rather than remake the original film by Petersen.[27] In 2011, producer Kathleen Kennedy said that problems securing the rights to the story may mean that a second adaptation is "not meant to be".[28]
In September 2022, a bidding war for the film and TV rights of The NeverEnding Story between studios and streamers had emerged.[29]
In March 2024, Michael Ende Productions, in association with See-Saw Films, announced plans for a series of films based on the book.[30]
As a young technology whiz on the television show "SeaQuest DSV," Brandis, a blue-eyed Danbury native, made girls' hearts throb and inspired children to learn about computers. Some women never forgot their crushes on Brandis, and others never outgrew them. When the 27-year-old actor ended his own life two months ago in Los Angeles, his career and psyche were in a downward spiral. Fans such as Weaver - thousands of them - were distraught. "I followed his entire career. I wrote him a fan letter just three weeks before he died," Weaver said in an e-mail interview. "He is the only thing that was good about my childhood, and now I feel like my childhood has been shattered." She was not alone. Brandis' death unleashed a flood of emotion. Fans who once devoured Brandis' tidbits in teen magazines turned to a newer medium to learn about his death and express their grief. A Google World Wide Web search of the words "Jonathan Brandis memorial" turns up more than 1,800 results.--photo1L-- "There was a groundswell of interest from his Internet fan base," said David Campbell, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office. "We had dozens of e-mails. First it was, 'Is it true? Is it true? Is it true?' then it was, 'How did he die? How did he die? How did he die?'" In the 1990s, fans were fascinated with how he lived. Through magazines Bop and Teen Beat, teenage girls knew Brandis like a boyfriend. His dog's name was Megan. He loved rafting with Dad. He slept with lots of pillows. "For about a year, he was the most popular of all the teen stars," said Scott Laufer, whose Laufer Media Inc. publishes Bop and Tiger Beat. "We ran a lot of stuff with Jon in 1993 and 1994, and we were close with him." Like many teen stars, Brandis' fame had faded as he grew up. Or so it seemed. But the World Wide Web made it easy for his fans to find each other and to keep tabs on their idol. Scores of fan sites featured photos of Brandis, shirtless on the beach or behind the wheel of his car. Now, after his death, such photos grace more than a dozen memorial Web sites. "There are dozens upon dozens of Internet communities devoted to Jonathan Brandis. After I learned about his death, I went to his message board at IMDb.com, which seemed to become a sort of jumping off point for other communities," a 30-year-old Orlando, Fla., homemaker said in an e-mail interview. "Another was the TO2B (True Obsession to Brandis) message board, which has over 400 members. I even have my own private message board called Jonathan's Angels," she said. Long Island natives Greg and Mary Brandis moved to Danbury in the early 1970s. Greg, who was in the U.S. Navy, was stationed in Connecticut. The couple attended Western Connecticut State University. Mary was pregnant with Jonathan when she graduated. Greg became a Danbury firefighter, and Mary went on to teach school. Jonathan modeled as a toddler. A Darien photographer told the couple the boy was animated enough to be on television. Soon, the couple was taking him to New York to shoot commercials. At 9 years old, Jonathan had more than 80 commercials under his belt. When he and his dad visited California for a week of auditions, the sunny weather convinced the family to move. Brandis landed guest spots on shows such as "Full House," and "Who's the Boss?" At 14, he starred in the 1990 film "Neverending Story II" about a boy's adventures in a fantasy land. Despite his acting career, the family was determined to stay down to earth. "We made a decision that we would pursue it, but family would always come first. This wouldn't interfere with our family values," said Mary Brandis. In 1992, Jon played opposite comic Rodney Dangerfield in the movie "Ladybugs." He starred in the martial arts comedy "Sidekicks," as a bullied asthmatic who fantasizes he is Chuck Norris' pal. Brandis' popularity peaked with "SeaQuest DSV," which aired from 1993 to 1995. His character, Lucas Wolenczak, made computer geeks cool for fans like Clinton Arnette, who is now 19 and a computer science student in Johnson City, Tenn. "I became the computer whiz I wanted to be as a direct result of a science fiction show," said Arnette, who has been trying to track down Internet rumors about where Brandis is buried. In 1994, Brandis was 18 years old and topped Seventeen magazine's list of "Sexiest Guys." Fan mags reported that he was getting 4,000 letters a week and ran photos of him with his characteristic grin, big blue eyes and floppy bleached blond hair. Reporters asked everything. Do you have pets? What position do you sleep in? Bop followed Brandis to his high school prom; his date was Brittany Murphy, who later starred in "Just Married" with Ashton Kutcher. "Don't worry, no romance between these buds," the magazine assured swooning readers. "He was my first crush. He was the type of boy you could take home to your parents and they would like him," said Frances Mollins, 21, a psychology student in Scotland who has posted on Brandis message boards. "He also had the most beautiful eyes." Brandis sometimes squirmed in the spotlight. "He was kind. He would always answer questions. He got interviewed a lot, so he was comfortable with it," said his mother. "We never went out looking for it." Brandis spoke often about wanting to get behind the camera. He often shadowed the directors he worked with and idolized the legendary Alfred Hitchcock. In a 1994 interview, he spoke of fame. "It's kind of difficult explaining how this feels - because you eat breakfast, you go to work in the morning, you do all the things anyone has to do every day," he said. "But there I am at the newsstand staring back at myself." By 19, Brandis had pretty much graduated from the teeny-bopper mags. In recent years, he acted steadily in modest roles in films such as the Farrelly brothers' "Outside Providence" and the Bruce Willis vehicle "Hart's War." Living on his own in Los Angeles, Brandis had grown from an impish boy into an intense man. He directed several independent films and wrote screenplays. Though he appeared to be in the middle of an extended career lull, he didn't seem to mind, said his mother. "He was very grateful and thankful. Everything he got, he'd earned." Weeks before he died, Brandis appeared in a segment of the E! video paparazzi show "Celebrities Uncensored," play fighting with a friend in a parking lot outside a nightclub. On the show, he had walked into the club, with an attractive woman on each arm. As the camera's bright light focused on him, he squinted. Later, Brandis visited his parents at their house for four days. "He wanted to be with us. We knew something was wrong," his mother said. "We knew something was weighing on him, but we didn't know what it was or how bad it was." Days later, on Nov. 11, a friend called 911 from Brandis' apartment just before midnight to report the actor had attempted suicide. He died the next day at the hospital. There was no note. Though it was not initially reported, Brandis hanged himself. Said his mother: "We chose not to speak to anyone in the press because of the nature of his death. We didn't want to glorify it in any way." Brandis had filmed a movie in Ohio in 2003, and somehow the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper was first to report Brandis' death. Hundreds flocked to T02B and other Brandis sites looking for confirmation, and then for details. "I'm sure everyone is praying it's all rumor!!" Ginger Lewis posted on TO2B, on Nov. 16. "I don't know what to say. I'm still in shock!!!!" Other newspapers carried news of Brandis' death after the Associated Press reported it on Nov. 20. Even more fans flocked to the Web. "The old fans of Jonathan came back after learning about his death," said Jason Humphrey, 20, of Bluff City, Tenn., who maintains a Brandis Web site. "My site's e-mail box was flooded with e-mails when I first opened it." Some fans consoled each other. "One fan wrote that she was heartbroken over the news about Jonathan, and that my site was helping her getting through the ordeal," said Humphrey. Others debated suicide. As someone who once tried to kill himself, Brian MacArthur, the 49-year-old father of a Brandis fan, hoped that actor's death would focus more attention on treating depression. "When a person makes a decision like that, they aren't thinking clearly," said MacArthur, of Winnipeg, Canada. "When you're not thinking, no one else exists." Some fans contacted the L.A. County Coroner's Office to ask for autopsy reports and other information. "There was extensive contact between his Internet fans and the coroner's office, almost to the point where it was a bother," said a coroner's spokesman. Among that group was Melanie Presson, 22, of Copperopolis, Calif., who maintains TO2B. She said she has felt connected to Brandis since she was a girl. "I'd like to visit his grave in a very reverent respectful way," she said. "I'm not a stalker, I'm someone who has followed his career." But where was his grave? Fans traded rumors. Many guessed he was buried in Danbury and at least one person called City Hall to check it out. Brandis' parents, who are private people, had their son cremated. They did not want a funeral, but their son's friends insisted. The family agreed on a small service - no press. Mary and Greg Brandis don't have a computer. Told by a reporter that there are more than a dozen memorial Web sites dedicated to her son, Mary Brandis gasped. She called her son's suicide "a sad act, and he must have been in a lot of pain to do it." "I think he didn't think of us and all the people who were his friends, and all the people he impacted. I feel bad for them because he hurt a lot of people." --photo2C-- On the Web: The American Foundation for Suicide
The Los Angeles Police Department, Wilshire Area Homicide Unit, is handling the death investigation of 27 year-old actor Jonathan Brandis.
On November 11, 2003, at about 11:40 p.m., a friend of Jonathan Brandis called police to report that the actor had attempted suicide at his apartment, located in the 600 block of Detroit Avenue. Paramedics from the Los Angeles Fire department responded and transported Brandis to Cedars Sinai Medical Center where he eventually died from his injuries. Brandis was pronounced dead by hospital staff on November 12, 2003, at about 2:45 p.m.
An autopsy will be performed by the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office and the official cause of death is still pending.
Anyone with information regarding this investigation is requested to contact Wilshire Area Homicide Unit, at
Maybe the problem was that in a town where appearance matters so much, former teen idol Jonathan Brandis still looked great. Sure, his friends knew that the star of the mid-’90s TV series seaQuest DSV was lonely and depressed about his extended career lull. They knew he drank heavily, and he’d even “told people that he was going to kill himself,” says one friend. But no one, it seems, took him seriously enough—until 11:40 p.m. Nov. 11, when friends called 911 after finding Brandis, 27, hanging from a nylon rope in the hallway of his L.A. apartment. Says Robert Katz, who produced Brandis’s final film, the indie Puerto Vallarta Squeeze: “When I heard about it, I said, ‘No, no, no, wrong guy.’ ”
During the movie’s shoot last year, Brandis impressed colleagues as an unassuming professional. Even at teen heartthrob apex in ’94, when he got 4,000 letters a week, Brandis’s sea-Quest costar Roy Scheider told PEOPLE, “he takes his incredible popularity with a grain of salt.” A former child actor who had starred in such family-oriented features as 1992’s Ladybugs, Brandis seemed to take it in stride when his career cooled in the late ’90s. But friends say he was upset when what he hoped would be his comeback-as a POW in 2002’s Hart’s War—ended up on the cutting-room floor.
Ironically, his role in the yet-unre-leased Squeeze, starring as a CIA hit man opposite Harvey Keitel, may have been his best showcase in years. “Harvey even said to me a couple of times, ‘This kid is good,’ ” Katz recalls. “When we were in the editing room looking at him, we all said, ‘This guy’s going to have a big career.’ ”
In making her new documentary, Kid90, Soleil Moon Frye combed through scores of old videos, audio recordings and diaries — and made some bittersweet discoveries regarding her friend, actor Jonathan Brandis, who died by suicide in 2003.
"I found so many voicemails Jonathan left me when we were kids," the actress, 44, who currently stars on Peacock's reboot of Punky Brewster, tells PEOPLE in this week's issue. "Some of them were 10 minutes long, his innermost thoughts. It just made me cry listening to them. He was a real friend."
Brandis, a teen heartthrob who starred in Ladybugs and seaQuest DSV, was just 27 when he died.
soleil moon frye and jonathan brandis
Soleil Moon Frye (left); Jonathan Brandis. Getty(2)
Soleil Moon Frye Opens Up About Being Objectified as a Young Teen — 'There Was So Much Shame'
"Jonathan was very smart and he was very polite and always easygoing," his father Greg Brandis tells PEOPLE. "In a sad way, he was probably bipolar. [His death] wasn't due to the entertainment industry. I look back now, and in his 20s, he showed signs of manic depression. I hope that anyone suffering can go get help."
For Frye, reflecting on Brandis' death, as well as the losses of other friends to drugs and suicide, revealed an important lesson.
"I had some elements of guilt not seeing [the pain]," she says. "How often do we really look at each other and go, 'How are you?' and actually hear what someone is saying? I learned that I just wasn't listening in the way I do now."
Soleil Moon Frye Says Making Her New Doc Kid 90 Was a 'Healing' Process — 'I Rediscovered My Spark'
And Greg Brandis still communicates with his late son. "I talk to him and it makes me smile," he says. "I get the feeling he's looking down at me."
Frye feels the same way. "I feel him around more than ever," she says. "And I carry his memories with me."
SeaQuest DSV (stylized as seaQuest DSV and also promoted as simply seaQuest) is an American science fiction television series created by Rockne S. O'Bannon. It aired on NBC between 1993 and 1996. In its final season, it was renamed seaQuest 2032. Set in "the near future" (the year 2018 in the first season), seaQuest DSV originally mixed high drama with realistic scientific fiction.[4] The first two seasons star Roy Scheider as Captain Nathan Bridger, designer and commander of the eponymous naval submarine seaQuest DSV 4600, the ship prefix standing for "deep-submergence vehicle".
Jonathan Brandis portrays Lucas Wolenczak, a teenaged computer genius placed aboard seaQuest by his father, and Stephanie Beacham portrayed Kristin Westphalen, the chief medical officer and head of the seaQuest science department. In the opening episode of the third season Bridger departed DSV 4600 and was replaced by Captain Oliver Hudson, played by Michael Ironside. Also present was a dolphin character called Darwin who, due to technological advances, was able to communicate with the crew. Steven Spielberg expressed interest in the project and served as one of the show's executive producers during the first two seasons.
Production of the first season was marked by disputes between the producers, NBC and cast members, changes in the production staff, and an earthquake. The second season saw changes in the cast, as well as continued disputes between cast members and producers. The third season introduced a new lead actor and title. While initially popular, the series began to decline in ratings throughout its run and was abruptly canceled in the middle of its third season.[5]
"The twenty-first century. Mankind has colonized the last unexplored region on earth, the ocean. As captain of the seaQuest and its crew, we are its guardians. For beneath the surface lies the future."
- Opening Narration
Overview
Season 1
The first season cast
The series follows the adventures of the high-tech submarine seaQuest DSV 4600, a deep-submergence vehicle operated by the United Earth Oceans Organization (UEO), a global coalition of up-world countries and undersea confederations, similar to the United Nations. The UEO was created following a major showdown of nations and confederations at the Livingston Trench in the North Atlantic Ocean that occurred circa 2018 as depicted in the pilot episode, "To Be Or Not to Be", and it remained a recurring element for the duration of the series.
The seaQuest was designed by retired naval captain Nathan Bridger and built by NORPAC (a military organization mentioned in the pilot) and given as a loan to the UEO after its creation. The storyline begins in the year 2018, after mankind has exhausted almost all natural resources, except for the ones on the ocean floor. Many new colonies have been established there and it is the mission of the seaQuest and its crew to protect them from hostile nonaligned nations and to aid in mediating disputes as well as engage in undersea research, much of which was still in the preliminary stages when the show began production in 1993.
Bridger, though originally reluctant due to a promise he made with his wife after their son, Robert, was killed in a naval military action before her death, is convinced to return to the navy, under the auspices of the UEO, and assume command of the seaQuest. The first season's storylines primarily dealt with plausible oceanographic research, environmental issues, political machinations of the world and the interpersonal relationships of the crew.
Season 2
The season two cast
In the first-season finale, Bridger sacrifices the seaQuest to prevent an ecological disaster and for a short time it was not known if the show would be renewed for another season.[6] The series had suffered in the ratings, as it was pitted against Murder, She Wrote on CBS and Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman on ABC. When it was decided the show would return, NBC and Universal used this opportunity to change the show's format, beginning by relocating the show's production from Los Angeles to Orlando.
Several cast changes were also made as both Royce D. Applegate (Chief Manilow Crocker) and John D'Aquino (Krieg) were released by NBC as the network wanted a younger cast for the second season. D'Aquino returned for a guest appearance in the third season. Stacy Haiduk (Hitchcock) informed producers that she did not wish to relocate to Orlando for the second season, having just returned to Los Angeles after spending four years in Florida during the production of The Adventures of Superboy.[7] Stephanie Beacham, who as Dr. Westphalen was one of the first season's strongest characters, was also hesitant to relocate to Florida.[8] Beacham also blamed continued disputes between the network and the show's producers as a major reason why she did not return.
Joining the series for season two were Edward Kerr as Lieutenant James Brody, seaQuest's weapons officer; Kathy Evison as Lieutenant Lonnie Henderson, ship's helmsman; Rosalind Allen as Dr. Wendy Smith, the boat's new chief medical officer; Michael DeLuise as Seaman Anthony Piccolo, an ex-convict who has genetically engineered gills and Peter DeLuise as Dagwood, a prototype genetically engineered life form (G.E.L.F. or "dagger"—a racial slur) who serves as seaQuest's custodian. As the seaQuest itself was rebuilt in the storyline, it allowed for the sets to be redesigned for the new Florida location and a shortened version of the Emmy award winning main title theme was instituted as the series returned to the airwaves on September 18, 1994 with the two-hour television movie season premiere, "Daggers".
NBC and the show's producers also decided they wanted more traditionally science-fiction oriented episodes this season, a direction that was explored toward the end of the first season when seaQuest discovered a million-year-old alien ship entombed in the ocean floor in the episode "Such Great Patience". The second season explored heavy science-fiction concepts such as genetic engineering, aliens, parapsychology, time travel and various "monsters of the week" (including killer plants, a giant fire-breathing worm, a prehistoric crocodile and an ancient demon.)
Roy Scheider was vocal in his anger at the show's new direction. In an interview given during the second season, Scheider averred: "It's childish trash... I am very bitter about it. I feel betrayed... It's (the new season) not even good fantasy. I mean, Star Trek does this stuff much better than we can do it. To me the show is now 21 Jump Street meets Star Dreck."[9] Scheider felt the series had strayed too far away from its premise, and that he "became more of a combat commander than a scientific commander and I hadn't signed up for that."[10]
Scheider added that after moving production to Florida, the show was "going to present human beings who had a life on land as well as on the boat... we've had one script that has done that (the episode 'Vapors')," Scheider said. "The other shows are Saturday afternoon 4 o'clock junk for children. Just junk—old, tired, time-warp robot crap," making reference to the much maligned episode "Playtime."[11]
As Scheider explained, "I don't do this kind of stuff... I said (to the production executives), 'If I wanted to do the fourth generation of Star Trek, I would have signed up for it. I wouldn't have done seaQuest. You guys have changed it from handball into field hockey and never even bothered to talk to me.'"[12] Scheider's comments left him in trouble with some of the executive producers, including Patrick Hasburgh who, in reply, had strong words for Scheider as well: "I'm sorry he is such a sad and angry man. seaQuest is going to be a terrific show, and he is lucky to be part of it."[13]
By the end of season two, seaQuest DSV was again suffering, partly attributed to a perceived decrease in the quality of the writing as well as preemptions by NBC due to sports coverage.[14] The possibility of cancellation appeared likely but NBC kept the show in production after plans for a new series titled Rolling Thunder to replace seaQuest DSV were canceled. Producer Lee Goldberg claimed the new series was canceled because the premise was "awful."[15] The season finale, written as a possible series finale, involved the seaQuest and its crew being abducted by aliens and forced into a civil war on an alien world where the ship appeared to be destroyed and the crew presumed dead.
Season 3
The world is not a nice place, it's not comfortable...corporate entities have grown to the point where they rival and sometimes are more powerful than actual national governments. UEO is not the big kid on the block anymore, seaQuest is no longer state of the art; it's a boat and it's a military vehicle and I'm going to take it places it has never been before
Michael Ironside, in an interview promoting season three
Blaming continued disputes with producers and abandonment of the show's original premise, Roy Scheider requested to be released from his contract with NBC. However, the network only partially agreed and demanded that Bridger would make several appearances throughout the third season. Edward Kerr had been very frustrated with the episode entitled "Alone" (Reportedly, Kerr hated the script so much that he left the set. Brody is absent from that episode)[16] and also wished to exit the series in the third season, which is why his character was critically injured in the season finale, "Splashdown".[16]
NBC would only agree to release him from his contract if he continued to play Brody for a few episodes in the third season so his character could be killed off for more dramatic impact in the episode "SpinDrift".[16] Because of rescheduling, the episode "Brainlock", with Brody still alive, aired after the character's death. Rosalind Allen was released as Dr. Smith proved to be unpopular with the audience and because producers felt that her character's telepathic abilities would not fit with the more serious tone planned for the new season.
Marco Sanchez (Sensor Chief Miguel Ortiz), who had requested to remain with the series, was also released after NBC decided it wanted the principal cast number dropped from ten to nine, leaving Jonathan Brandis (Lucas Wolenczak), Don Franklin (Commander Jonathan Ford), and Ted Raimi (Lieutenant Tim O'Neill) as the only three cast members who remained with the show since the first episode. The marine trivia presentations at the end of the show, formerly hosted by oceanographer Dr. Bob Ballard in the first season and the principal cast in the second season, were dropped entirely. The show itself was renamed to seaQuest 2032, with the storyline pushed ahead ten years after the end of season two.
The season three cast
In the season premiere, the seaQuest reappears on Earth, its crew mostly intact, ten years after their abduction at the end of season two. Captain Bridger retires to raise his new grandson and Michael Ironside joins the cast as the more militaristic Captain Oliver Hudson. Originally, Ironside refused to take over from Scheider as star of the series. "I saw so many problems that I couldn't see where I'd be able to do the work I wanted to do." claimed Ironside.[17] Also considered for the lead of the series was actor Jonathan Banks, who had previously appeared in the first season episode "Whale Songs" as radical environmentalist Maximilian Scully.[18]
After weeks of negotiations where Ironside offered producers a number of changes to the storytelling structure of the series, which were agreed upon, he finally signed on. "You won't see me fighting any man-eating glowworms, rubber plants, 40-foot crocodiles and I don't talk to Darwin." he said. Though not cast as the new lead of the series, Jonathan Banks reprised his character of Scully in the third season. Also joining the cast was Elise Neal as Lieutenant J.J. Fredericks, who served as seaQuest's sub-fighter pilot.[19]
Steering story lines back towards more reality-based themes, the third season attempted to blend the sense of the first season with some of the unique elements of the second season, while at the same time, pushing forward in an entirely new direction altogether as the UEO faces the threat of the Macronesian Alliance and the ever growing corporate conglomerate Deon International. The series was perceived as becoming much darker than it was in the previous two seasons, focusing less on science (as it had in the first season) and science fiction (as it had in the second season) and more on international politics. While these changes were met with mostly positive reactions, ratings continued to decline and NBC canceled the series after thirteen episodes.[19] The 57th and final network airing of seaQuest 2032 took place on June 9, 1996.
Cast
Main
Main article: List of seaQuest characters
Season 1
Roy Scheider as Captain Nathan Bridger (47 episodes)
Jonathan Brandis as Lucas Wolenczak[20] (57 episodes)
Stephanie Beacham as Dr. Kristin Westphalen (22 episodes)
Stacy Haiduk as Lieutenant Commander Katherine Hitchcock (23 episodes)
Don Franklin as Commander Jonathan Ford (56 episodes)
John D'Aquino as Lieutenant Benjamin Krieg (22 episodes)
Royce D. Applegate as CPO Manilow Crocker (22 episodes)
Ted Raimi as Lieutenant Tim O'Neill (54 episodes)
Marco Sanchez as Sensor Chief Miguel Ortiz (40 episodes)
Frank Welker as voice of Darwin
Dr. Bob Ballard as himself, marine trivia during credits
Season 2
Rosalind Allen as Dr. Wendy Smith (19 episodes)
Edward Kerr as Lieutenant James Brody (26 episodes)
Michael DeLuise as Seaman Anthony Piccolo (33 episodes)
Kathy Evison as Lieutenant Lonnie Henderson (32 episodes)
Peter DeLuise as Dagwood (31 episodes)
Season 3
Michael Ironside as Captain Oliver Hudson[21] (13 episodes)
Elise Neal as Lieutenant J.J. Fredericks (10 episodes)
Recurring
Main article: List of recurring characters on seaQuest DSV
Shelley Hack as Captain Marilyn Stark
Richard Herd as Admiral/Secretary General William Noyce
W. Morgan Sheppard as "The Old Man", Professor Martinson
Dustin Nguyen as CPO William Shan
Jesse Doran as General Francis Gideon Thomas
Kent McCord as Commander Scott Keller
Robert Engels as Malcolm Lansdowne
Mark Fauser as Weapons Officer Dalton Phillips
Timothy Omundson as Dr. Joshua Levin
Dan Hildebrand as Helmsman Carleton
Roscoe Lee Browne as Dr. Raleigh Young
Sarah Koskoff as Julianna
Denis Arndt as Navy Quartermaster Bickle
James Shigeta as Montegnard Confederation President Chi
Jonathan Banks as Maximilian Scully
Michael Costello as Secretary General McGath
Sam Jenkins as Mariah
Mark Hamill as Tobias LeConte
Karen Fraction as Dr. Perry
Michael York as President Alexander Bourne of Macronesia[22]
Andrew Stahl as General Stassi
Tim DeKay as Larry Deon
Ralph Wilcox as Mason Freeman
Patricia Charbonneau as Elaine Morse
Episodes
Main article: List of seaQuest DSV episodes
Season Episodes Originally aired
First aired Last aired
1 23 September 12, 1993 May 22, 1994
2 21 September 18, 1994 September 13, 1995
3 13 September 20, 1995 June 9, 1996
During the first and second seasons, NBC aired the show on Sundays at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time; however, the series was frequently preempted in the second season in favor of NBC Sports coverage. During the third season, NBC moved the show to Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET; seaQuest continued to face frequent preemptions in favor of sports coverage and other television specials. Several of the show's producers, including Carleton Eastlake, believe these preemptions led to the show's cancellation.
After cancellation, the series aired on the Sci-Fi Channel in the United States, Horror Channel in the UK, Space: The Imagination Station in Canada and Network Ten in Australia.
Production
In October 1992, it was announced NBC had given a 22-epsiode order to Sea Quest which was co-created by Rockne S. O'Bannon and Steven Spielberg.[23] The budget for the first season was estimated to be around $30 million with Universal Television's televisions ambitions for the series being to serve as part of a larger multimedia franchise[24] Spielberg had been friends with Roy Scheider since he starred in Jaws and was instrumental in getting him as the lead in the series with Scheider saying of the experience "“It’s the best part offered me this year. If it gets to be half as good as it reads — it will be wonderful. It’s time for a show like this on TV.[24]
During development, the original title for the series was Deep Space, though this was changed after the announcement of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.[25]
Roy Scheider's character was based on John C. Lilly and Bob Ballard, who was also the technical advisor for the series in the first season. Lilly was a pioneer researcher into the nature of consciousness using as his principal tools the isolation tank, dolphin communication and psychedelic drugs, sometimes in combination. He was a prominent member of the Californian counterculture of scientists, mystics and thinkers that arose in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Albert Hofmann, Gregory Bateson, Ram Dass, Timothy Leary, Werner Erhard, and Richard Feynman were all frequent visitors to his home. The character's name, Nathan Hale Bridger, was in homage to Nathan Hale.
When producers began developing new characters for the second season, they named Lieutenant Brody after Police Chief Martin Brody, Roy Scheider's character in the first two Jaws films.[26] Ralph Willcox and Karen Fraction, who both became recurring guest stars in the third season, had previously appeared as different characters in the second. Despite the numerous cast changes, Jonathan Brandis appeared in every episode of the series, Don Franklin in all but one episode ("And Everything Nice"), and Ted Raimi in all but two episodes ("Nothing But The Truth" and "The Siamese Dream").
Several of the cast's family members were brought in to play characters, as well. Brenda King, Roy Scheider's wife, portrayed Carol Bridger; Todd Allen, Rosalind Allen's husband, portrayed Clay Marshall in "The Siamese Dream"; Michael and Peter DeLuise's father, veteran actor Dom DeLuise, portrayed Nick Piccolo in "Vapors". Several cast members also dabbled on the creative side of the show, as both Ted Raimi and Jonathan Brandis penned episodes during the second season. (Brandis wrote the aforementioned "The Siamese Dream" and Raimi, "Lostland".) Conversely, Robert Engels, one of the show's executive producers (and writer of two episodes, "Greed For a Pirate's Dream" and "Hide and Seek") during the first season, portrayed the recurring character Malcolm Lansdowne.
While in production, seaQuest DSV won and was nominated for a number of awards. John Debney won the 1994 Emmy for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Main Title Theme Music" for his composition of the seaQuest DSV theme song and in 2000, it was named the 48th best theme song of all time by TV Guide. Don Davis also won an Emmy in 1995 for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music Composition for a Series" (Dramatic Underscore) for his score for the second season premiere, "Daggers". Russ Mitchell Landau was also nominated for his work on the third season premiere, "Brave New World", in 1996. Kenneth D. Zunder was nominated for the Emmy award for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Cinematography for a Series" for the episode "Such Great Patience". Jonathan Brandis won the 1994 Young Artist Award for "Best Youth Actor Leading Role in a Television Series" for his portrayal of Lucas Wolenczak and the series was nominated for a 1994 ASC Award for "Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Movies of the Week/Pilots" as well as the Saturn Award for "Best Genre Television Series" in 1995.
A seaQuest DSV feature film was in pre-production stages, however, it never materialized.[27]
Despite being scripted in at least one episode, Captain Bridger never refers to Dagwood by name. The closest he ever got was calling him "Dag" in the episodes "Special Delivery" and "The Siamese Dream".[28]
Despite popular belief, Darwin was not a real dolphin but rather an animatronic animal designed and created by Walt Conti, who had created other similar effects for films such as Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, The Abyss and Free Willy. Alien creature effects were designed and created by Tony Gardner's Alterian, Inc.
Home media
Title Ep # DVD release date
Region 1 Discs Region 2 Discs Region 4 Discs
Season One 23 December 26, 2005 4 November 20, 2006 6 December 5, 2006 6
Season Two 21 January 1, 2008 8 March 31, 2008 8 August 20, 2008 8
Season Three 13 TBA TBA TBA TBA October 5, 2011 4
In 2005, Universal announced that the first season of seaQuest DSV would be released on Region 1 DVD along with a week-long marathon of the show on the Sci Fi Channel. The DVD release included never before seen deleted scenes on selected episodes. The second season was released in 2008 in region 1. As opposed to the first season, the second season was released on eight single-sided discs and does not contain any extra features such as deleted scenes. The third season was not released on DVD in region 1 but was released in Region 4 in 2011.
On December 12, 2015, the Australian DVD label ViaVision, through its distributor Madman Distribution, released season 1 on Blu-ray in full 1080p High definition.[29] Although presented in 1080p, the program is presented Pillarboxed to maintain the original 4:3 aspect ratio. Season 2 was released on Blu-ray on March 2, 2016.[30] On April 15, 2020, selected episodes were made available on the early preview of the streaming service Peacock,available to Xfinity subscribers with qualifying devices.
On May 6, 2019 Mediumrare Entertainment released the complete series on DVD in Region 2 however two episodes are missing, 'Dagger Redux' and 'The Siamese Dream' instead two episodes from the previous disc are overlapped in their place. Despite this, the correct episode titles are listed in the DVD menu.
Mill Creek Entertainment announced the complete series of SeaQuest DSV on Blu-ray was released on July 19, 2022.
Merchandise
A short series of novels based on the characters and concepts depicted on seaQuest DSV were available during the first season of the show. They were:
seaQuest DSV: The Novel (a novelization of the pilot episode) by Diane Duane and Peter Norwood. Published October 1993. ISBN 978-0-441-00037-1
seaQuest DSV: Fire Below by Matthew J. Costello. Published January 1994. ISBN 0-441-00039-8
seaQuest DSV: The Ancient by David Bischoff. Published March 1994. ISBN 0-441-00042-8
Nemesis Comics published one issue of a seaQuest DSV comic book in March 1994. It contained a 23-page original story titled Deep Faith, blueprints for the Renegade submarine and for the seaQuest bridge, and two one-page "Logbook" character bios for Captain Bridger and Dr. Westphalen. The cover for the planned second issue was included on the final page of Issue #1, but it was ultimately never published.
A video game was released for the Super NES, Game Boy, and Genesis consoles in 1994.
A series of action figures designed by Playmates Toys were released in 1993. Captain Bridger, Commander Ford, Lucas Wolenczak, Lt. Commander Hitchcock, Lieutenant O'Neill, Chief Crocker, Darwin, Dr. Rubin Zellar, and The Regulator were released as part of wave one. Additional characters such as Dr. Westphalen, Chief Ortiz, and Lieutenant Krieg and a Darwin with sound effects were planned as part of wave two, but they were never released. Additionally, prototypes of the seaQuest, the Delta 4 Pirate sub, the Stinger, a seaLaunch, and a Deep Sea Mini Pickup, all with electronic lights and sounds, are known to exist but were not released.
A series of trading cards produced by SkyBox were released in 1993, depicting characters, scenes, and episodes from the first season. It consisted of 100 standard trading cards, plus four foil chase cards and two promotional cards.
Various models were produced by Monogram, including the seaQuest, a Deep Sea Mini Pickup, The Stinger, and Darwin (actually a remolded Flipper) were released.
Various pieces of clothing, including T-shirts, baseball caps, and embroidered patches of the seaQuest and UEO logos (replicas of the ones used on the show) were released.
A non-fictional large format book was released in the UK during the first season, titled seaQuest DSV: The Official Publication of the Series. It contained comprehensive interviews and production information, artwork, and design histories, as well as a production report of the episode "Hide and Seek". (Published October 1994. ISBN 0-752-20978-7)
Other merchandise made available included a shot glass in cobalt blue with gold logo, key chains and pins, a book cover, 'magic rocks' sets, journal, and a set of bookmarks.
Soundtrack album
seaQuest DSV
Soundtrack album by John Debney
Released 1995 (initial release), 2020 (Deluxe Edition)
Recorded Universal City Studios, Stage 10
Genre Soundtrack
Length 29:46 (original release); 131:28 (Deluxe Edition)
Label Varèse Sarabande
Producer John Debney
Philip Neel
John Debney composed the original theme music and scored the pilot and season one shows, with Don Davis working on season two. When the series was revamped as SeaQuest 2032 in the final season, Russ Landau composed a new theme and scored all the episodes. In 1995, Varèse Sarabande released an album of Debney's music from the show, featuring the series main and end title themes and selections from "To Be or Not to Be" (tracks 2-8), "Knight of Shadows" (tracks 9 and 10) and "Such Great Patience" (tracks 11-13). In 2020, the label released a 2-CD expansion, with music from "To Be or Not to Be" on disc 1. Disc 2 contained music from the season one episodes “Brothers And Sisters” (tracks 1-7), “Knight Of Shadows” (8-11), “The Regulator” (12-14), “The Good Death” (15-23), “Such Great Patience” (24-31) and “The Devil's Window” (track 32).
1995 album
Main Title (1:03)
Preparing for Battle (2:51)
Bridger's Dream (:52)
Uncharted Waters (2:06)
First Engagement (3:18)
Darwin Speaks (:58)
Dangerous Adversary (1:34)
To Adventures Bold (1:31)
Waltz With the Dead (2:48)
The Forgiving/Resurrection (4:53)
The Discovery (2:15)
Lucas Meets the Alien (2:30)
Solemn Oath (2:26)
End Credits (:37)
2020 Deluxe Edition
CD 1: "To Be or Not to Be"
SeaQuest Opening Credits (3:29)
SeaQuest Arrives (4:01)
Military Welcome (:37)
To The Island (1:30)
Come See Her (1:38)
seaQuest (3:32)
Playon To SeaQuest (:37)
Hitchcock Retreats (1:50)
Darwin Speaks (:59)
Stark Prepares (1:02)
Act In To SeaQuest (:46)
Transition (:34)
Attack Formation (2:48)
At The Precipice / Into The Rift (7:48)
Stark Plots (:42)
Damage Assessment (:52)
Hyper-Probe (2:05)
Impending Battle / Play On (1:51)
Bridger Returns (2:42)
Battle Stations (2:50)
Caught (1:21)
To The Bottom Of The Sea / A Tag To Bonnie The Bad Girl (6:57)
To The Ocean (4:15)
SeaQuest: End Credits (:57)
SeaQuest Opening (alternate version with Choir mixed down) (1:45)
SeaQuest (alternate version) (1:36)
CD 2: Season One Highlights
SeaQuest Series Promo (2:33)
Of Treasures In The Deep (1:14)
The Discovery (1:41)
Mind Meld #2 (1:23)
Big Tension (3:38)
Exploring The Depot (1:30)
Saying Goodbye (2:40)
Into The Ghost Ship (1:43)
The Possession Of Kristini (2:47)
Lukas Confronts Captain (3:14)
The Forgiving (4:51)
Vern Leaves (2:09)
Monkey Fish (1:42)
Inside Us All (:56)
Attacked (1:12)
Cynthia (1:20)
Drug Store (1:38)
Narrow Escape (1:57)
The Plan (1:41)
Close Call (3:31)
The Escape (4:21)
Darwin Save Malik (1:03)
Cheo Checkmate (1:08)
Discovery (2:14)
Of Gods And Astronauts (2:28)
Encounter (1:44)
Wolf In The Fold (1:37)
Intruder (4:28)
Communication (2:29)
Understanding/Possible Pickup (4:31)
Invitation Extended (2:26)
SeaQuest: End Credits (:35)
See also
List of underwater science fiction works