Jonathan Harris was supposed to play Commander Gampu on "Jason of Star Command", as this was to be a spin-off of his series "Space Academy". In a personal interview, Harris related that while the stories about his demand for higher pay was not wrong, but also not completely accurate. According to Harris, Filmation planned to film the series like an old movie serial, with each episode running about 15 minutes. "Space Academy" was a half hour series, and Harris was asked to recreate his role of Gampu for half the money he was paid on "Space Academy". He felt just because they cut the running time in half, the producers felt they could get him for half the money. So when Lou Scheimer said he would have no problem getting Harris because they were friends, this meant that he thought he could con Harris into taking less money and save on his production costs. Harris refused to take the paid cut and James Doohan was brought in as a replacement character.
The issue of Playboy featuring guest star Rosanne Katon as Playmate of the Month was published during the filming of the first season, in summer 1978. Producer Lou Scheimer panicked, worried that CBS would raise hell about a nude centerfold appearing in a Saturday morning children's series (although CBS apparently did not care). To goad Scheimer, stop-motion animators Stephen Czerkas and Jim Aupperle cut a small photo of the nude Katon out of Playboy and inserted this into a special effects monster shot. They got the expected panicked reaction from producer Scheimer.
The visual effects crew used the same models of the Space Academy and the Seeker spacecraft from the Space Academy (1977) series, but made different shots using more advanced photographic technology for this program.
Originally, the role of Dragos was offered to actor Ted Cassidy who was best known as the butler Lurch on the original sitcom La famille Addams (1964). In July 1978, in a rare personal interview, Cassidy told how producers offered him the role, but because he had first refusals on a couple of other pilot movies, he was not able to give the producers a direct answer if he wanted to accept the role. When he finally got back to them, it was too late as they had already begun production and cast Sid Haig in the role. The producers would have had to recast the role anyway, as Cassidy died on January 16, 1979.
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