 The pilot cost $8 million, one of the most expensive made-for-television movies at the time.The theatrical version made use of Universal's Sensurround process, and was the last produced film to use it.Although produced for television, originally as part of a planned series of telemovies and eventually as a television series, Universal Studios decided to release a re-edited version theatrically in order to recoup some of the high production costs with producers believing the series "could be a fine shot at a corner of the "Star Wars" market."