It's no secret that the music from Man From Atlantis, the short lived 1977 NBC series, is, was and always shall be my one and only original holy grail of releases. In particular, it's the music from the pilot movie that I've been wanting to own since, well, 1977.
While no cd is in sight as far as I know, I am pleased to see that Warner Brothers has released the pilot film on dvd as part of its Archive Collection. The disc is printed on demand and ships only to US addresses. It's no frills, just the movie, no bonus features or anything as far as I can tell.
For someone like me, the information found on the order page is telling. The copyright goes to Warner Brothers and Hanna-Barbera. So that, at least, gives me hope that the rights are fairly clear and maybe, just maybe, someone out there can license the music.
Disclaimer: I am a blogger, I am only a blogger, I have no knowledge or special relationship with anyone at any label, including but not limited to the fine folks at FSM. So I have NO IDEA AT ALL whether a soundtrack release of this music is, was or ever will be planned.
But here's hoping.
Fred Karlin scored the pilot film and the subsequent episodes. I haven't seen anything but the pilot film since, well, 1977. I haven't watched the pilot, released on vhs, for many years, but much of the music still lurks in the back of my brain. Especially, the wistful music that plays near the very end as the Man From Atlantis swims back to the sea, only to engage in flashbacks to his adventures, causing him to return for the possibility of a sequel. If you're familiar with Karlin's work on Futureworld, his music here is in much the same vein.
I seem to remember seeing a thread on the message board around the time that Fred Karlin passed away that indicated that Reel Music Down Under (who released the Futureworld cd) had the tapes for Man From Atlantis but needed someone to produce it.
Maybe someday someone will respond to that call and make my tiny little dream come true. In the meantime, I'd better order that dvd. Then I'm off to the pool to try that undulating dolphin-like swim technique. Just like I used to do in the summer of 1977.
From the Film Score Monthly blog
