The Chicago Tribune posted a long series of interviews with various people involved in the making of episodes 12 an d 13 of the tv series Battlestar Galactica, which were aired in January. This is a portion of the interview with David Weddle on the making of Sometimes a Great Notion, which he co-wrote with Bradley Thompson:
The day the staff finished putting the cards up on the board with Ron, and the day before we began writing, I flashed on my favorite American novel, Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey. It is a much underappreciated and towering work. Anyone interested in fine literature and great story telling should read Kesey’s masterpiece.
The book opens with a childish rhyme that enunciates the theme of the book and what to me was the theme of our show. “Sometimes I live in the country. Sometimes I live in the town. Sometimes I get a great notion. To jump in the river and drown.”