As part of a pre-release agreement with George Lucas, they were not allowed to show laser beams when they use their blasters. All you see is the weapon lighting and then whatever damage was caused. The only time you see a laser or light trail is when they are in space, the Colonial Vipers and Cylon Raiders.
Muffit, the robotic daggit (dog), was played by a chimpanzee (which was obvious, by the way that it moved) named Evie (short for Evolution) who belonged to exotic animal trainer Ralph Helfer.
The original shooting model, restored for a display at Universal Studios several years after Galactica 1980 (1980) wrapped production, went missing when the display was removed. The model, viewed as stolen property by Universal, has yet to be recovered.
Set Decorator Mickey S. Michaels contacted computer hardware giant Tektronix, Inc. and got them to donate about three million dollars worth of hardware, as well as a large number of television monitors worth about thirty-five thousand dollars at the time, to be used on the Battlestar Galactica bridge and other sets, in return for a prominent screen credit.
In 1979, this was released theatrically in "Sensurround". This was the fourth film to be presented in this short-lived process, a special low-frequency bass speaker set-up consisting of four huge speakers loaned by distributors to select theaters showing the film. This system was employed only during certain sequences, and was so powerful, that it actually cracked plaster at some movie theaters. "Sensurround" was used in only four other films released by Universal: Tremblement de terre (1974), La bataille de Midway (1976), Le Toboggan de la mort (1977) and Galactica - Les Cylons attaquent (1979).