UFO Cover-Up ? Part 2

File: UFO136

Initially, the producer who will remain nameless throughout this piece professed to having a strong and sincere belief in Ufology. For all intents and purposes that appears to have been true, except for occasional asides where he demonstrated a far stronger interest in butts; both that of cigars and young women.

About a third of the way into production, the first dark clouds appeared, signaling something ominous on the horizon. The producer, after having several meetings during production with "Condor" and "Falcon"--both alleged clandestine government intelligence sources for the show-began showing marked symptoms of paranoia. He became quite irascible, demanding and dictatorial to all of the production staff. One particular demonstration of the came when he spoke with me saying, "I want you to get into the possible government cover-up and conspiracy based on the data we've collected, but at the same time I want you to remain neutral in your approach." To say that his request was a contradiction in terms would be an understatement, not to mention an impossibility for any writer. My job as the writer was to be as objective as possible, which accordingly meant that I was to demonstrate, based on the voluminous data at our disposal, that a U.S. government conspiracy had in fact occurred over the last 42 years and was still in effect.

After repeated meetings with "Condor" and "Falcon", the producer's attitude and orientation toward the show altered even further. His increasing paranoia and loss of objectivity caused him to ignore virtually every significant piece of information and event presented to him in the treatment and original screenplay. All attempts to persuade him to take seriously the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) documents and data from books like Clear Intent, Sky Crash, Intruders and Above Top Secret, along with facts on the cattle mutilation mystery, were fruitless.

Under normal circumstances, a producer waits for a finished first draft of a treatment and/or script before asking for a re- write if such is desired. With the frenzied state of mind the producer was now in, he would demand to see every page as it was written, frequently lose it after it was turned in and if not, would ask for it to be re-written because it didn't meet with his approval. Because of his confused state of mind, he really had no idea exactly what he wanted. The producer's incredible indecisiveness drove the creative staff to distraction and finally to their wits end, as the show was on a very short-term deadline.

Yes, we did have the cooperation of several government intelligence sources. Emenegger said he would talk to his sources about furnishing never-before-seen footage of a supposed UFO landing at Holloman Air Force Base. Tracking camera footage of a missile launch depicting a UFO paralleling the missile flight, was also, at one point, made available from another associate of Emenegger's. Unfortunately, both of these potentially incredible pieces of film footage were ultimately withheld.

When the final treatment and partially completed teleplay were presented to the producer, his response was shocking. He rejected them because they were too serious. In the producer's own words: "What you've given me here is totally useless. I can't use a single page of it. I want copy, schlock, camp...not screenwriting." My response was simple and straightforward, "Don't you want a serious show that will blow people out of their chairs? Aren't you concerned with the integrity and quality of the program?" The producer simply stared into my face with a blank expression.

End of part 2