Dark Skies: The Write Stuff

I still get letters about this series. And e-mails. And questions. About when the DVD set will be coming out... about what happened to our characters after the last episode... about whether I really believe in UFOs or not...

Dark Skies was an NBC series with just possibly the most unusual twist on the UFO phenomenon that you've seen. We constructed an entire premise -- and shot 20 hours of episodes -- laying out the case that John F. Kennedy was assassinated because he was going to tell the nation the truth about UFOs if he was re-elected to a second term. It got weirder from there.

NBC -- 20 hours -- 1996-1997
Created by Bryce Zabel & Brent V. Friedman

In the course of that first and only season, we told the story of the years from 1961 to 1967. Characters who had a personal encounter with flying saucers included Ronald Reagan, Carl Sagan, Timothy Leary, Jim Morrison, Dan Rather, Bobby Kennedy, Jack Ruby and others, and we told stories set in Vietnam, the Civil Rights movement, the Space Program, etc. Man, was it fun.

In order to sell the series, Brent and I created an ultra-classified "Briefing Book" which laid out the entire history of UFOs going back to 65-milion BC through our present day. It was sealed with a gold foil seal and wrapped in brown paper tied in twine and stamped "Top Secret." The essence of the pitch was that Brent and I had met a man named John Loengard who wanted to get the truth out about UFOs and felt that telling the story as fiction was the only way. This led to the so-called "Loengard letter" which was the centerpiece of the notebook. Click on it to see a larger version if this isn't readable on your screen:

Is John Loengard a real person? Did he really write that letter? We always said that he was and he did.

Dark Skies has achieved at least a sub-cult status among certain sci-fi fans because of its NBC airing, followed by multiple cycles on the Sci-Fi Channel. As for the DVD question, the series has yet to be released on disks, although I'm not sure why. SONY, which owns the rights, is the place where opinions should be taken. Good luck. Anyway, here is the script for the 2-hour pilot episode:

Dark Skies, "The Awakening".pdf

This script was co-written with the amazingly talented Brent Friedman, someone who I'm friends with and collaborate with to this day. One of our main characters, the head of Majestic-12, Frank Bach, utters the line that became our mantra: "The truth is overrated." This is our JFK episode film.

And here is the script for my favorite episode, a solo sample, "Prey in Darkness."

Dark Skies, "To Prey in Darkness".pdf

This script deals with the New York City power black-out of 1965 and how it ties in with the death of columnist Dorothy Kilgallen and her investigation into the death of John Kennedy. It's pretty crazy stuff, but I like it.

I hope you enjoy reading these as much as we enjoyed writing and producing them. As we said in our main titles (which won an Emmy) --

"They're here. They're hostile. And powerful people don't want you to know."

Comments

[Info Freako]

Wow, that's some story about the origin of the show. Probably the most interesting story I've heard about how to sell a show. Very clever. And it's great to read the scripts you've put up. In my opinion, Dark Skies was the most believable UFO conspiracy story ever written.

Still, it's interesting to note that Majestic 12 and the rest of it has nothing to do with aliens, but drugs and mind control. Read Acid Dreams, it makes so much more sense than aliens. Also, maybe more scary.

That said, great work, and this was a great read. Well done guys!

Info Freako
Dark Skies Downunder

[Michael S.]

Any possibility that the series will either A:Be Resurrected OR B: A movie that would tell the rest of the story? Perhaps NBC would consider the latter for the SCI/FI Channel. I would REALLY like to see the series conclude in some way or fashion, even WEB Episodes! This was THE BEST Sci/Fi series I had EVER seen, bar none!

[Jeff]

What a great series! I watched it avidly until it was canceled.
I loved the twist of weaving the story with actual events!
I would snap up the DVD's if made available!

[The truth is here!]

We all know that "our" government would never put out information through disinformation - this show was not cancled by NBC, but by the government because it got too close to the truth! People were starting to see what the 12 were all about and that could not be allowed!
I have worked on the "inside" and I have seen the truth ........ sorry got to go - they are trying to hack my system.
Remember the X-Files was a joke -- Dark Skies was the truth!

[Eddie Venero]

hey,

please please please post the series bible that was posted way back when on that dark skies website.

but spare us the censorship :)

we need to know what would have happened in the series.

thanks,
eddie

[Ryan]

The show was fantastic. I watched and recorded each first-run episode. I also have the TV Guide clippings and the postcards displayed on this page. The series was a gem. I wasn't an X-Files fan at all, so Dark Skied was FAR superior in my opinion.

On one hand its terrible that the show only had one season. On the other, a show can lose its flair after 2 or 3 seasons, so its best left as remembered - a taut concise thriller with exceptional production values that entertained the hell out of me while it ran.

[Rand]

It really was a GREAT show. I just loved how you can mix fiction with real facts.

Like it was said above, ever thought of writing a novel to finish up the story?. We would be thrilled to read it(them).

Greetings.

[Sarah]

I looooooved this show! And I am so not a science fiction person - the show was so well written, so oddly believable! I can't wait to see this show again on DVD!

[Rich]

Beautiful. Make a storyline that conforms to a large set of facts about a subject, then conflate it with explosive deliberate BS you've ginned up, then light it off before millions of somnambulant Americans on NBC. Ka-boom! Propaganda that effectively neutralizes anyone who might want to know the truth about this situation. Create public confusion on par with Osama bin Hussein and 9-11.

Despite your oh-so-casual and too cool protestations, I smell a rat. Either you're an "asset" or your too stupid to know enough to be paid for putting out this disinformation. In the end we'll all paying many times more than the trillions they've already stolen -- those wonderfully patriotic "black operations" boys who of course have America's best interests at heart, that is, if they don't destroy the planet in their secret dealings.

Quick! Flag this one for disapproval, moderator!

[Mike Stack]

This series brought many of the UFO myth's together in an intelligent time-line. The problem I have with it, especially in today's administration with conspiracy reality so thinly veiled, if idiots like the ones controlling the country can get away with corruption in the open today, imagine what the truly intelligent, and perhaps arrogantly altrusitic politicians of the past must have gotten away with. Roswell had to be real.

[Antony Clark]

A great show. Sorely missed. would be great to have a dvd!

Ever thought of writing a novel to finish up the story?

[djzort]

it sure would be nice to find out what happens!

is kim saved from the hive (remember that a grey had its gangleon removed)? whats with johns son? what about these new digital gangleons?

its not the first good scifi series down the toilet. firefly springs to mind.

[irrelevant]

bryce, you had the balls to make an interesting idea come to fruition. One interesting aspect of media is that people like to see the sci-fi version of what is really happening, or what they believe to be happening. Whether that is what is really happenening or not is irrelevant, it preys on fear, urges, and ideological representations of what reality is to most people. I have *some* interesting ideas on this vein of thought, e-mail me if something catches your "eye" :P