seaQuest DSV - Behind The Scenes

Behind The Scenes

Roy Scheider's character was based on John C. Lilly. 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. 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, as did Don Franklin (except for "And Everything Nice").

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". 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.

After the series had moved production from Los Angeles to Florida in the second season, the filming crew was able to take advantage of some nearby landmarks. The exterior scenes in the episode "Playtime" were filmed in Lakeland, Florida, (specifically, the campus at Florida Southern College) to take advantage of the buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

In several instances in the series, outside footage was employed. In the pilot episode, the scene from The Hunt for Red October where the USS Dallas and the Red October are rising to periscope depth alongside each other was used. In this same episode, the home-movie segment employed footage shot at a Dolphin's Plus in Key Largo, Florida, by Steve "Finz" Finzelber. Images of the Airwolf helicopter from the television series of the same name was also used in "Hide and Seek."

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.

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".

After the change in title from seaQuest DSV to seaQuest 2032, a new opening credits montage was assembled, which included stock footage of The Regulator and his orangutan Verne from the first season episode “The Regulator”.

When the series was ultimately canceled in December 1995, no one working on the show knew that the final episode would prove to be "Weapons of War." Several episodes had reached script stages to follow it, but, ultimately never went into production. During the filming of the final scene in the final episode, Michael Ironside gave a small speech thanking the cast and crew for the time they spent working on the show. Following his words, Ironside tossed Jonathan Brandis into the moon pool on the sea deck set.

Two years after the end of the series, Jonathan Brandis, Don Franklin, Marco Sanchez, Ted Raimi, and Michael and Peter DeLuise reunited to film the motion picture Between the Sheets, which was written and directed by Peter and Michael DeLuise.

In the years following the show's cancellation, several cast members have died. Jonathan Brandis committed suicide in November 2003; Royce Applegate died in a fire on New Year's in 2003; Karen Fraction died in 2007 from breast cancer, and Roy Scheider died in 2008 from complications of a staph infection.