EDA DesignLine Blog
Cheesy Sci-Fi TV Series of the 60s and 70s
Clive Maxfield
8/22/2012 1:06 PM EDT
Do you recall the classic science fiction film Logan's Run from 1976 starring Michael York as Logan 5 and Jenny Agutter as Jessica 6? This is about a future society that – following an atomic war – lives in a domed city.
In many ways they live an idyllic life – the problem is that it's a somewhat short life. Due to limited resources, everyone is supposed to be euthanized at age 30 (they don't realize that they are being euthanized – they believe they are being renewed and reborn in new bodies). The story follows the actions of Logan, a "Sandman" charged with tracking down and killing citizens who "run" from society's lethal demand. But Logan starts to question things; he ends up "running" himself with Jessica and they eventually manage to make their way to the world outside the city.
Quite apart from anything else, I would like to meet whoever designed Jenny Agutter's costumes and shake him or her by the hand (actually I would probably give them a great big hug), because these costumes certainly enhanced the film for me when I watched it as a young lad!
Strange to relate, I only just discovered that Logan's Run started life (no pun intended, since the film itself is largely about ending life) as a 1967 novel by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson. Well, you learn something new every day!
The reason I mention this here is that I was travelling on business last week. When I'm spending hours in airports and on planes, I like to pass the time reading books and watching films and TV programs on my trusty iPad. Thus, the day before I set off, I took a metaphorical stroll around the iTunes Store, where I ran across a 1977/78 Television Spinoff of Logan's Run.
I couldn’t help myself. I downloaded the entire series to my iPad and then waited in dread anticipation for my journey to commence…
OK, I have to admit that this was just about as cheesy as these things can get. Having said this, I also have to say that it was a lot of fun. And it certainly reminded me just how sad and pathetic effects and props could be in the 1970s. Some of the effects were surprisingly good, but others made me want to laugh out loud.
Take the solar-powered vehicle that Logan and Jessica commandeer, for example. It's supposed to float above the ground in some way, but when it moves you can see the wheels underneath it. And when you get close, the vehicle's "futuristic shell" appears to be little more than badly-fitted (and badly painted) plywood.
One thing that struck me in the first episode was when Logan and Jessica end up in a Robot City whose cyber-inhabitants desire only to serve humans and make them happy … the problem being that the robots do not want to let their human visitors leave. This is where we meet a beautiful "lady" robot called Siri, which made me wonder if there was any connection between this Siri and the modern incarnation on iPhones?
Having plunged into this pool of nostalgia, I started thinking of some of the other classic science fiction TV series that I used to love as a kid; for example, Batman (starring Adam West), Lost in Space, Land of the Giants, My Favorite Martian, and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, all of which were from around the mid-1960s.
Of course the original series of Star Trek was also from around the middle of the 1960s, but this sort of stands apart in my mind. Similarly, the first episode of Doctor Who aired on Saturday 23 November 1963 (I remember it well – I was six years old and I watched this episode from my "safe place" standing behind the sofa in our family room), but – once again – this stands "proud in the crowd" as far as I am concerned.
And then we had the 1970s, which brought us such classics as Wonder Woman, The Six Million Dollar Man, Land of the Lost, and the original Battle Star Galactica.
But wait, there's more, because the name Flash Gordon just popped into my head. The original Flash Gordon, which started life as a series of short (like 20 or 30 minutes, I think) movies that were made in the mid-1930s and that starred Buster Crabbe. (When my mom was a kid, she says that all of her friends would go to the movies on Saturday morning, and that there were lots of little movie-series that always ended with a "cliff hanger" so that you had to go back the following week to see what happened.) This was followed by a Flash Gordon TV series in the 1950s, and this is where I get confused, because I remember seeing Flash Gordon in black-and-white on TV as a kid, but I don’t know if I was watching the original movie series being shown on TV, or if I was watching the later made-for-TV series (which many critics say was nowhere near as good as the Buster Crabbe version). What I do remember was that even something as mundane as turning an electric light on typically involved our hero straining to rotate a 4-foot diameter wheel mounted on the wall where one would normally expect to find a light switch.
I bet you thought I'd forgotten Buck Rodgers didn't you? I ask you – do I look like the sort of man who would forget Buck Rogers? Actually, like Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers started out as a 12-part movie serial in the mid-1930s. It was followed in the 1950s as a television series from ABC, which was in turn followed by the version I remember – the late-1970s television series from NBC.
And what was the "cheesiest" Sci-Fi TV Series from the 60s and 70s? Well, as far as I'm concerned, this honor simply has to go to Space 1999 which aired in the mid-1970s. The idea behind this (I am ashamed to say) British series is that nuclear waste from Earth is stored on the Moon's far side. This waste explodes in a catastrophic accident on 13 September 1999, knocking the Moon out of orbit and sending it and the 311 inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha hurtling uncontrollably into space. I could live with this premise – I could even live with the silly costumes they wore – but what I had real problems with was the "science" (or the lack thereof) underpinning the program. I mean to say … there was no concept of time or distance or anything … every week the moon ended up flying through a new solar system or something … I'm frothing at the mouth just thinking about it.
But enough about me; what about you? Did you used to watch any of these programs? If so, which did you like the best (and which did you hate the most)? And did I forget any that should be here (remember that we are talking only about programs fearuring live actors; we are not talking about cartoons or animation of even Supermarionation as discussed in my earlier Supercar, Fireball XL5, Stingray, and Thunderbirds blog)?
If you found this article to be of interest, visit Programmable Logic Designline where – in addition to my Max's Cool Beans blogs – you will find the latest and greatest design, technology, product, and news articles with regard to programmable logic devices of every flavor and size (FPGAs, CPLDs, CSSPs, PSoCs...).
Also, you can obtain a highlights update delivered directly to your inbox by signing up for my weekly newsletter – just Click Here to request this newsletter using the Manage Newsletters tab (if you aren't already a member you'll be asked to register, but it's free and painless so don't let that stop you [grin]).
In many ways they live an idyllic life – the problem is that it's a somewhat short life. Due to limited resources, everyone is supposed to be euthanized at age 30 (they don't realize that they are being euthanized – they believe they are being renewed and reborn in new bodies). The story follows the actions of Logan, a "Sandman" charged with tracking down and killing citizens who "run" from society's lethal demand. But Logan starts to question things; he ends up "running" himself with Jessica and they eventually manage to make their way to the world outside the city.
Quite apart from anything else, I would like to meet whoever designed Jenny Agutter's costumes and shake him or her by the hand (actually I would probably give them a great big hug), because these costumes certainly enhanced the film for me when I watched it as a young lad!
Strange to relate, I only just discovered that Logan's Run started life (no pun intended, since the film itself is largely about ending life) as a 1967 novel by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson. Well, you learn something new every day!
The reason I mention this here is that I was travelling on business last week. When I'm spending hours in airports and on planes, I like to pass the time reading books and watching films and TV programs on my trusty iPad. Thus, the day before I set off, I took a metaphorical stroll around the iTunes Store, where I ran across a 1977/78 Television Spinoff of Logan's Run.
I couldn’t help myself. I downloaded the entire series to my iPad and then waited in dread anticipation for my journey to commence…
OK, I have to admit that this was just about as cheesy as these things can get. Having said this, I also have to say that it was a lot of fun. And it certainly reminded me just how sad and pathetic effects and props could be in the 1970s. Some of the effects were surprisingly good, but others made me want to laugh out loud.
Take the solar-powered vehicle that Logan and Jessica commandeer, for example. It's supposed to float above the ground in some way, but when it moves you can see the wheels underneath it. And when you get close, the vehicle's "futuristic shell" appears to be little more than badly-fitted (and badly painted) plywood.
One thing that struck me in the first episode was when Logan and Jessica end up in a Robot City whose cyber-inhabitants desire only to serve humans and make them happy … the problem being that the robots do not want to let their human visitors leave. This is where we meet a beautiful "lady" robot called Siri, which made me wonder if there was any connection between this Siri and the modern incarnation on iPhones?
Having plunged into this pool of nostalgia, I started thinking of some of the other classic science fiction TV series that I used to love as a kid; for example, Batman (starring Adam West), Lost in Space, Land of the Giants, My Favorite Martian, and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, all of which were from around the mid-1960s.
Of course the original series of Star Trek was also from around the middle of the 1960s, but this sort of stands apart in my mind. Similarly, the first episode of Doctor Who aired on Saturday 23 November 1963 (I remember it well – I was six years old and I watched this episode from my "safe place" standing behind the sofa in our family room), but – once again – this stands "proud in the crowd" as far as I am concerned.
And then we had the 1970s, which brought us such classics as Wonder Woman, The Six Million Dollar Man, Land of the Lost, and the original Battle Star Galactica.
But wait, there's more, because the name Flash Gordon just popped into my head. The original Flash Gordon, which started life as a series of short (like 20 or 30 minutes, I think) movies that were made in the mid-1930s and that starred Buster Crabbe. (When my mom was a kid, she says that all of her friends would go to the movies on Saturday morning, and that there were lots of little movie-series that always ended with a "cliff hanger" so that you had to go back the following week to see what happened.) This was followed by a Flash Gordon TV series in the 1950s, and this is where I get confused, because I remember seeing Flash Gordon in black-and-white on TV as a kid, but I don’t know if I was watching the original movie series being shown on TV, or if I was watching the later made-for-TV series (which many critics say was nowhere near as good as the Buster Crabbe version). What I do remember was that even something as mundane as turning an electric light on typically involved our hero straining to rotate a 4-foot diameter wheel mounted on the wall where one would normally expect to find a light switch.
I bet you thought I'd forgotten Buck Rodgers didn't you? I ask you – do I look like the sort of man who would forget Buck Rogers? Actually, like Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers started out as a 12-part movie serial in the mid-1930s. It was followed in the 1950s as a television series from ABC, which was in turn followed by the version I remember – the late-1970s television series from NBC.
And what was the "cheesiest" Sci-Fi TV Series from the 60s and 70s? Well, as far as I'm concerned, this honor simply has to go to Space 1999 which aired in the mid-1970s. The idea behind this (I am ashamed to say) British series is that nuclear waste from Earth is stored on the Moon's far side. This waste explodes in a catastrophic accident on 13 September 1999, knocking the Moon out of orbit and sending it and the 311 inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha hurtling uncontrollably into space. I could live with this premise – I could even live with the silly costumes they wore – but what I had real problems with was the "science" (or the lack thereof) underpinning the program. I mean to say … there was no concept of time or distance or anything … every week the moon ended up flying through a new solar system or something … I'm frothing at the mouth just thinking about it.
But enough about me; what about you? Did you used to watch any of these programs? If so, which did you like the best (and which did you hate the most)? And did I forget any that should be here (remember that we are talking only about programs fearuring live actors; we are not talking about cartoons or animation of even Supermarionation as discussed in my earlier Supercar, Fireball XL5, Stingray, and Thunderbirds blog)?
If you found this article to be of interest, visit Programmable Logic Designline where – in addition to my Max's Cool Beans blogs – you will find the latest and greatest design, technology, product, and news articles with regard to programmable logic devices of every flavor and size (FPGAs, CPLDs, CSSPs, PSoCs...).
Also, you can obtain a highlights update delivered directly to your inbox by signing up for my weekly newsletter – just Click Here to request this newsletter using the Manage Newsletters tab (if you aren't already a member you'll be asked to register, but it's free and painless so don't let that stop you [grin]).
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Dr DSP
8/22/2012 4:05 PM EDT
Max-
Well I'm sorry to say I'm batting 100% (can that be a cricket reference too?) on your list of shows/movies. You missed a few however-
Time Tunnel, The Prisoner, The Avengers, My Favorite Martian, The Outer Limits, The Invaders, One Step Beyond, The Outer Limits, It's About Time, UFO, 6 Million $ Man, Incredible Hulk, Mork and Mindy...
As to the cheesiest, it's a difficult call, but UFO is a close one to Space 1999. (Both British, right?). Of those from the US I'd pick Land of the Giants. They got lots of cheese miles from just a big pencil and eraser...
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Max the Magnificent
8/22/2012 4:48 PM EDT
Hmmm, I never really thought of The Avengers or The Prisoner (which I watched with my dad) as being Science Fiction per se.
Something else has just popped into my mind... what was that one where two people (a man and a woman?) wandered into a hidden valley in the Himalayas or somewhere and came back having learned all sorts of mystic powers... Do you recall this one?
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David.Walker
8/23/2012 3:04 AM EDT
I think it was actually two men and a woman, The Champions.
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Max the Magnificent
8/23/2012 9:09 AM EDT
That's the one -- I don;t remember much about it, but I do remember that I liked it.
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Hughston
8/27/2012 11:17 AM EDT
I saw that one too. A lot of TV and movies programs in the 60s were from Europe or had a European story lines. The image in front of the fountain in Geneva is very memorable for me.
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Max the Magnificent
8/22/2012 4:49 PM EDT
"They got lots of cheese miles from just a big pencil and eraser..."
And that's not something you hear said very often (grin)
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garydpdx
8/24/2012 6:25 PM EDT
I loved UFO as a little kid and got to watch it again in the early days of the Sci-Fi Network (now SyFy)!
There are some fans who point out that Moon Base Alpha in Space: 1999 is the same as the one from UFO, meaning that the alien invasion was defeated in the 80's ...
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Hughston
8/27/2012 11:12 AM EDT
I liked the invaders but it's so inconvenient that they always dissappear when they die leaving you with no evidence of their existance. It was brought back in reruns for a short while when the SciFi channel started but it din't last long there either.
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OmegaMan
8/22/2012 4:41 PM EDT
Good list... I would add Superman, the Twilight Zone, the Bionic Woman, and the Invaders. Favorites were Star Trek and Lost in Space. Cheesiest? It's About Time or Land of the Giants.
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Max the Magnificent
8/22/2012 4:45 PM EDT
You cannot tell me that Land of the Giants was cheesier than Lost in Space (grin)
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Duane Benson
8/23/2012 2:16 AM EDT
Space 1999 was certainly legendary for it's cheesiness and absurdity. I'm not sure it will ever be topped.
Sadly, I didn't have TV during the 1960's so I didn't see any of that decade's shows until much later in syndication.
In terms of the cheesy 70's , I don't think it would be a complete listing without the animated Star Trek.
Then there was Blakes 7, also British. If I recall correctly, it had the best "never gonna be a sequel" ending of any series ever. All of the main cast members turned on each other killed each other in a final gun battle.
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Radionut
8/23/2012 3:00 AM EDT
If ever there was a series done on an obviously small budget then it was Blake's 7. But the episodes were incredible as science fiction with each one being a story in its own right. All thanks to Terry Nation (creator of the Daleks in Dr Who) who penned all 13 scripts of the first series and several in the following three. And as you rightly state, the best ending of any series. Thanks for the memory jog, Duane.
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Max the Magnificent
8/23/2012 9:13 AM EDT
I agree -- Black's 7 was actually pretty good science fiction
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Max the Magnificent
8/23/2012 9:12 AM EDT
I's forgotten all about Blake's 7 -- that was actually not bad in a cheesy sort of way.
There was also a kids sci-fi series now I come to think about it -- it was called "The Tomorrow People" -- the idea was that kids were being born with special powers like the ability to teleport -- they were the next step in human evolution, but there were nasty guys out to use them for their own ends...
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Hughston
8/27/2012 11:09 AM EDT
I have watched almost every program listed so far. Space 1999 at least had 2 of the lead actors from Mission Impossible. That's about all I remember from the show.
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ost
8/23/2012 2:47 AM EDT
I wasnt born until late in the 60's, but what I remember as a child was The Clangers! It was pretty sci-fi to me back then ;)
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ost
8/23/2012 2:51 AM EDT
It was actually in the early google-age - when watching one of the Lara Croft movies where the geek watches them on his monitor - that I rediscovered them and was able to find out the original name of the series.
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Max the Magnificent
8/23/2012 9:34 AM EDT
"...when watching one of the Lara Croft movies..."
This reminds me of when that film "Bill and Ted's Great Adventure" came out and it introduced a bunch of new kids to Queen for the first time...
I wonder if folks will remember Queen and even the Beatles in say 100 years' time .. .how about 200, or 500?
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Max the Magnificent
8/23/2012 9:34 AM EDT
PS Let me go on the record as saying I loved the Clangers...
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Max the Magnificent
8/23/2012 9:13 AM EDT
LOL But remember that we said we're talking about films with human actors
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pbleyer
8/23/2012 4:04 AM EDT
I'm glad that people are mentioning Blake's 7. It seems that the remake is finally on the go. I hope the new ORAC is as conceited as the original. However the real question is: will the girls also display a different wardrobe for each episode? ;-)
Space 1999 was really cheesy. But at least they had bigger budgets than Ark II and Space Academy/Star Command, aimed more to children. Watching those as an adult is almost torture. Other interesting series were Quark and Starlost, both short-lived. Trumbull was one of Starlost producers.
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Max the Magnificent
8/23/2012 9:16 AM EDT
@pbleyer: "...the real question is: will the girls also display a different wardrobe for each episode?"
If they do, we can only hope they are based on Jenny Agutter's costumes as shown in my column above (grin)
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studleylee
8/24/2012 2:08 AM EDT
I remember StarLost! Thanks for that!
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Max the Magnificent
8/24/2012 11:43 AM EDT
I never saw StarLost, but I've heard a lot about it. I got the DVD a while ago but never found the time to watch it -- now (as I noted in a comment below) I'm planning on having a "StarLost weekend" (grin)
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pbleyer
8/23/2012 4:19 AM EDT
Oh, and since you mentioned Voyage and Stingray, let's not forget "Man From Atlantis", with Patrick Duffy as you will never see him again afterward. I remember when I was little and saw the first episode of Miami Vice, I was amazed to see Belinda Montgomery there.
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Max the Magnificent
8/23/2012 9:17 AM EDT
I only very vaguely remember "Man From Atlantis" ... maybe my mind is shielding me from the horror...
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Pryderi
8/23/2012 7:14 AM EDT
The Starlost. Short-lived TV series (16 episodes) written by Harlan Ellison - except that he was so unhappy with how it came out that he insisted that his alternate name of Cordwainer Bird be used in the credits. Ben Bova was also involved, and was sufficiently disgruntled to later write a thinly fictionalized account, The Starcrossed, about his experience.
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Max the Magnificent
8/23/2012 9:15 AM EDT
I never saw the Starlost, but I have the whole series on DVD here in my office (in the "pile of DVDs" to watch ... next to the "bookshelf of books" to read)
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Mario.Rivas
8/23/2012 9:27 AM EDT
Good stroll down memory lane. I read of a reboot for Space 1999 as Space 2099
http://collider.com/space-2099/144227/
Favorite was Star Trek.
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Max the Magnificent
8/23/2012 9:35 AM EDT
I don't know if my brain is strong enough to handle a remake of Space 1999 :-)
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Michael.Hasenfratz
8/23/2012 11:47 AM EDT
No! No! No! The cheesiest was Space Precinct.
As for Star Trek TAS (The Animated Series), the only thing wrong with it, was that it was not sanctioned by the “Great God of the Galaxy”. I remember thinking at the time, that this (TAS) was a really good Saturday morning cartoon show. Especially, since I couldn’t get the TOS (The Original Series) back. Same cast with “REAL” aliens :^)
Well, maybe Space 1999 is tied with Space Precinct...
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Max the Magnificent
8/23/2012 1:15 PM EDT
I don't think I ever saw Space Precinct ... I would probably have loved it at he time :-)
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Max the Magnificent
8/24/2012 11:32 AM EDT
I couldn't help myself -- I ordered the DVD of Space Precinct from Amazon last night...
In the meantime, I already had the DVD of "The Star Lost" here in my office in my "waiting to be watched" pile ... I'm planning on a "Star Lost" weekend...
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tcousins
8/23/2012 11:54 AM EDT
Not a TV series but sci-fi movie series from that time Planet of the Apes.
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Max the Magnificent
8/23/2012 1:15 PM EDT
Ah .. yes, they were good for their time ... have you seen the new movie from last year?
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David Ashton
8/23/2012 7:18 PM EDT
Not really Sci-fi, but has anyone figured out how they managed to make the spools of tape (not even cassettes) self-destruct in the TV Mission Impossible series?
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Max the Magnificent
8/24/2012 11:30 AM EDT
LOL
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Hughston
8/27/2012 11:05 AM EDT
Apply a lot of current from the recorder to a conductive recording tape once it's finished. As always, disavow any knowledge of your lost coworkers in the usual manner.
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Max the Magnificent
8/27/2012 11:09 AM EDT
"Apply a lot of current from the recorder to a conductive recording tape once it's finished"
That would do it :-)
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Douglas442
8/23/2012 8:00 PM EDT
Self-destructing tape? Simple! Just follow the clandestine message with a selection from among any of Barry Manilow's Greatest Hits.
Anyway...well, it's from 1982, but "Knight Rider"... which featured a robotically updated version of "My Mother, The Car" ( a "1928 Porter", I think... oh NO!... I'm remembering the theme song! Arrg! )... and saw the peak of David Hasselhoff's career... could still, I suppose, be classified as the... er... "cheesiest" ( ugh!... just don't eat it off the floor, David! ) of science-fiction.
Has it really been thirty years since that show? Yes... because that's exactly how old my still running Pontiac TransAm is.
As to whether one would include "The Avengers" ( THE Avengers... not the comic book/recent movie version ) as science-fiction... well, I do recall some definitely science-fiction-ish themes among the episodes. But you might then have to include "Get Smart" ( which once featured Vincent Price in an episode, as a "Mad Pharmacist" ) as being in somewhat of the same category... spy-ance fiction, perhaps?
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Max the Magnificent
8/28/2012 11:06 AM EDT
Knight Rider .. now that was Cheesy!!!
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palf
8/24/2012 1:36 AM EDT
My ex-wife and I enjoyed Logan's Run specifically for its cheesiness. Our favourite quote was "I hate outside! I hate it!" Now we're in the PC era, and I have young children, the popularity of this meme is certainly on the rise.
In the early sixties in England, they aired "Quatermass and the Pit" on B&W TV, which had extremely scary (for me as a nipper) intro music. I know this because I was forbidden to watch it and strained to hear from the bedroom.
The scariest show I watched back then was "A for Andromeda", a short series on the Beeb. The character Bruton made my hair stand on end, and the alien female was a paragon of beauty. Unfortunately, the tapes were lost, it seems.
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Max the Magnificent
8/24/2012 11:30 AM EDT
I remember watching "Quatermass and the Pit" -- you are right -- it was scary!!!
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studleylee
8/24/2012 2:11 AM EDT
What about the US version of UltraMan? As an adult I hunted them down and have on DVD and VHS. I lived in NY at the time and remember many times it was preempted by other show to my great 5year old frustration :-)
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Max the Magnificent
8/24/2012 11:29 AM EDT
Ultra Man? You're making this up! (grin)
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Battar
8/24/2012 2:24 PM EDT
All those over-45 year old engineers commenting, and not one of them mentioned "Thunderbirds" with Dick Tracy and his video-phone watch. Those puppets moved with all the grace of Michael Jacksons' dance routines (and equally seemed eerily not quite human)
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Max the Magnificent
8/24/2012 2:36 PM EDT
@Batter: At the end of my column above I noted that we were considering only human actors (we covered Thunderbirds in an earlier column)
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LiketoBike
8/24/2012 4:10 PM EDT
Space: 1999 did have one redeeming quality...those Eagles. Someone did think about that at least a little. They were modular (you could make craft for different missions out of the engine unit, cockpit, and central section). Hmm, maybe inspiration came from Thunderbird 2, where one could change the central pod out for different mission requirements (am I a hopeless case because I know which of the Thunderbirds had that capability? :-) Also, a utility craft for lunar travel has no need of aerodynamics. They were purely functional. The whole blowing-the-moon-out-of-orbit thing was pitiful, but I liked the gadgetry, and the thought of a permanent lunar base (like we should have now, but don't).
Now I am American, and in my forties, but I always loved Dr. Who, anything with Supermarionation, and Blake's 7. I enjoyed the plots, the accents (yes, even though I'm from the South :-), but most of all...the British special effects folks really know how to BLOW THINGS UP!!! Those shows had absolutely the GREATEST explosions!
I liked all the rest of the mentioned shows, too. As a youngster, then a teen, then on into adulthood, I just learned to look beyond the shortcomings because I hungered for science and science fiction. Some of them I would not watch now. But I do love hitting some of them up on Netflix :-)
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Max the Magnificent
8/24/2012 4:15 PM EDT
Re "am I a hopeless case because I know which of the Thunderbirds had that capability?"
Yes, sorry, there is no hope for you. Having said that, I only recently bought the original "Supermarination" Thunderbirds on DVD from Amazoon, so there's probably no hope for me either....
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LiketoBike
8/24/2012 4:25 PM EDT
Well, then, here's to drowning in sci-fi, British or otherwise...cheers!
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Max the Magnificent
8/24/2012 5:15 PM EDT
I'll drink to that!!! Cheers :-)
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Wnderer
8/24/2012 4:28 PM EDT
My favorite Land of the Giants is when they find this broken time machine from thousands of years in the future. They fix the time machine by replacing some vacuum tube diodes with some from their spaceship. They even call them diodes. LOL
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Max the Magnificent
8/24/2012 5:16 PM EDT
I don't recall that one -- you're making me want to watch them again :-)
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Frank Eory
8/24/2012 5:51 PM EDT
Despite the cheesiness, I loved Spaced 1999 -- I looked forward to a new episode every week! I'm with LiketoBike -- I liked the gadgets, the vehicles, and the coolness of a self-sustaining permanent lunar base -- something that, back in the '70s, we surely thought would come to pass before mankind reached the distant future of the year 1999!
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Doug222
8/25/2012 4:39 PM EDT
You guys are all way too young. How about going back to the 50's for "Destination Moon". Great story about how a group of enterprising astronauts commandeered the rocket after the project was cancelled and headed to the moon.
They managed to escape Earth's gravity, land on the moon and take off again all in a single stage rocket ship. Although, as I recall, the movie ended before they explained how they were going to solve the re-entry problem.
Today's space engineers worry far too much about the laws of physics.
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seaEE
8/25/2012 5:09 PM EDT
"Today's space engineers worry far too much about the laws of physics."
LOL
Destination Moon was also a great song by the Ames Brothers.
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Max the Magnificent
8/28/2012 11:07 AM EDT
I never even heard about Destination Moon -- it sounds like I would have loved to have seen it when I was a kid...
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Douglas442
8/26/2012 10:46 PM EDT
One more from the early 1980's ( more than 30 years ago ):
"Greatest American Hero" ( 1981 ); average American guy is given a "Super-Suit" by aliens, that only he can wear. He immediately loses the instruction manual ( meaning that he has to figure it out on his own ) and super-powered comic misadventures ensue.
Amazingly, this premise actually lasted for three seasons.
That being said, I then have to wonder what sort of sci-fi movies/novels/ideas, from over the past fifty or so years, actually... deservedly... *should* be made into a tv-series/movie/remake/sequel.
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Max the Magnificent
8/27/2012 10:31 AM EDT
Hi Douglas -- how's the console coming on?
I'd never even heard of the "Greatest American Hero" (I didn't move to America until 1990) ... was this a good one?
The scary thing to me is that when you say "1981" I think "that's not so long ago" and then when you say it was "31 years ago" I think "wow ... that is a long time ago"...
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Douglas442
8/27/2012 11:14 PM EDT
The main selling point of "Greatest American Hero" was... I suppose... it's gently humorous spoof of the whole comic-book superhero genre. Aside from that, I can't say that I can clearly recall the details of even a single episode... except, now, for a "phone-booth" joke from one episode. And I also can now vaguely remember being disappointed by it's cancellation.
But I only remembered it, at all, because of a search to see if the old "I Spy" series might have qualified as "spyence-fiction" ( it definitely didn't ). The late actor Robert Culp had a co-starring role in "Greatest American Hero" as FBI agent "Bill Maxwell".
Oh, well... it was... after all... a long time ago.
The console? Slow progress, as usual. Though, lately, because I've been focusing more on tooling-up for it... and for other efforts. A bench-top mini-mill that I acquired a few months back is already helping. And I expect that the lovely new Lathemaster 8x16 bench-top mini-lathe ( "mini" meaning it only weighs 180 pounds! ), that came a few days ago, will provide a considerable boost to the project.
... but then, only time will tell.
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Max the Magnificent
8/28/2012 11:08 AM EDT
Keep us informed re the console -- we want to see photographs...
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Douglas442
8/27/2012 11:25 PM EDT
Speaking, again, of prospective possibilities for a new tv-series or movie...
... I do seriously wish someone would do something with that thoroughly wonderful '60's spyence-fiction spoof game from Monolith Games..."No One Lives Forever".
I actually became quite fond of super-spy Cate Archer, and her whole cast of looney co-stars, during the course of NOLF and NOLF2.
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Rcurl
8/28/2012 10:44 AM EDT
How about "Science Fiction Theatre" With Truman Bradley? The introduction "Let me show you something interesting" always seemed to lead to an example of scientific fact that was presented in a most hokey manner, like pointing a parabolic reflector emitting "high frequency sound waves" that actually sounded like a middle C note with tremolo, at a drinking glass on the other side of the room and causing it to explode.
Some of the actual stories were pretty interesting, though.
Does anyone remember Mr. Wizard with Don Herbert?
I'd love to see some of those episodes again.
-Rick
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Max the Magnificent
8/28/2012 11:20 AM EDT
Hi Rick -- I didn't see either of these -- but I dis used to love "Mystery Science Theater" ... does that count?
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drgambrell
8/28/2012 3:00 PM EDT
Surprised no-one has mentioned "Quark" with Richard Benjamin, and the Barnestable "twins", or would that be "quartets". Predated "Red-Dwarf".
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Max the Magnificent
8/28/2012 3:49 PM EDT
I don;t think this made it to England .. but I just looked it up on the Wikipedia and it sounds like I would have liked it...
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Max the Magnificent
8/28/2012 3:52 PM EDT
It gets good reviews on Amazon, but it's out of print and a new copy costs $80+ ... I wonder if it's available on iTunes?
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Bellhop
8/28/2012 3:59 PM EDT
I was in college when I saw "Logan's Run". What I remember is the whole audience (all college students) booing when Michael York wimped out and decided not to remove his wet pants (Jenny Agutter was totally nude).
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Max the Magnificent
8/29/2012 11:37 AM EDT
"Jenny Agutter was totally nude"
A good science fiction film certainly sticks in one's mind, doesn't it? :-)
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Bellhop
8/29/2012 11:44 AM EDT
I'm still waiting for someone to tackle the Robert Heinlein novels. He was a very good Sci Fi writer....
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Max the Magnificent
8/29/2012 11:46 AM EDT
I agree -- his books for younger readers would all make incredible films...
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OmegaMan
8/29/2012 12:39 PM EDT
Starship Troopers has been made into a movie... also The Puppet Masters? I would like to see "Tunnel in the Sky" made into a movie. A group of young people are dropped off on an unknown world for survival testing... but are never picked up, and have to fend for themselves.
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cshore
9/3/2012 9:57 AM EDT
"Glory Road", yes please! If you know a little of fencing, a wonderful book which would make a great film. Just remains to decide which starlet should play Star.
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Max the Magnificent
9/3/2012 12:17 PM EDT
That would make a real good film ... I think I can feel another blog coming on...
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cshore
8/28/2012 11:00 PM EDT
Thanks for dragging up some wonderful memories! My father an I watched almost all of this stuff - on of our many shared pleasures. Being a Brit, I especially remember Logan's Run, UFO, Space:1999 and Blake's Seven.
A piece of trivia for you...if you look very carefully at the picture here (http://starringthecomputer.com/computer.php?c=209) you'll see an Acorn System One playing the part of a computer in an episode of Blake's Seven. This was Acorns first venture into "personal computing". That venture ended with the Archimedes and the invention of what became the ARM architecture.
Chris
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Max the Magnificent
8/29/2012 11:36 AM EDT
I used to have an "Acorn Atom" ... then there was the BBC Computer (which I would have loved, but could not afford) ... and as you say they then became ARM (who would have guessed?)
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Jonnie
8/29/2012 3:06 AM EDT
How about Kinvig which glamourized the role of a TV repair man by making the focus of a woman from Venus. And how many of us were entranced by the lovely Joanna Lumley in Sapphire and Steele?
Jon
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Max the Magnificent
8/29/2012 11:35 AM EDT
Kinvig?
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Paul A. Clayton
8/29/2012 11:03 AM EDT
I guess you are unaware that habitable planets are surrounded by a space-time distortion field. This explains why one can travel between stellar systems in hours but passing a (habitable) planet is a relatively slow process. This field also seems to draw ships to pass close to the planet. (Space: 1999 was not unique in this; Blake's 7 also had near-planet slowdown and attraction--sometimes even when just passing through a stellar system.)
Based on the frequency of extraterrestrial visitation on Earth, Earth's field might be unusually strong. (Since visitations tend to be more frequent in modern times, perhaps there is some psychic component to the field generation correlated with intelligent brain mass.)
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Max the Magnificent
8/29/2012 11:32 AM EDT
I remember as a kid thinking that if you were in space the planets would all just be "hanging there like fruit"...
It was reading books by Heinlein and Asimov where they explained that if you were in a spaceship entering a solar system all you would see were little points of light, and you would have to take lots of pictures and maybe change your location a few times (taking pictures each time) to locate any planets.
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Max the Magnificent
8/29/2012 12:50 PM EDT
@OmegaMan: Re your comment "Starship Troopers has been made into a movie... also The Puppet Masters? I would like to see "Tunnel in the Sky" made into a movie."
"Starship Troopers" was a wonderful book, but the movie was dreadful -- it didn't address any of the political issues in the book at all.
"The Puppet Masters" was an OK film for its time, but it could stand being remade with modern effects and technologies.
"Tunnel in the Sky" would make a WONDERFUL film, as would "Time for the Stars," "Red Planet", "Between Planets", and "Farmer in the Sky" (to name but a few)...
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squarewheels
8/29/2012 3:35 PM EDT
One series I liked as a young boy that I don't think ever made it to the US was "Adam Adamant Lives!" I don't believe that there was much science fiction in it apart from the McGuffin that set up the series, though.
The main character was a victorian "gentleman adventurer" who was trapped and frozen in a basement by his Moriarty-like nemesis. He was unfrozen in the 1960s when the building in which he was trapped was demolished.
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Max the Magnificent
8/29/2012 5:11 PM EDT
The only time I've heard that name "Adam Adamant" is in the "Nightside" series of books by Simon Green --
Until you posted this comment, I had thought that Adam was a purely fictional character (grin)
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Duane Benson
8/29/2012 4:17 PM EDT
Did we actually get through like a hundred comments without mention of "The Martian Chronicles" TV series and "Ray Bradbury Theater"? They were 80's TV, but that was so long ago that it seems close enough to me.
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Max the Magnificent
8/29/2012 5:10 PM EDT
I'd forgotten that the Martian Chronicles came out as a TV mini-series -- they were fantastic stories to read and I thought that (for the time) the TV interpretation was very well done indeed...
...I don;t think we got the Ray Bradbury theater in the UK (but I might be wrong on that)
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bwdodso
9/5/2012 2:21 AM EDT
I really hate to bring up Salvage I - an ABC series starring Andy Griffith as a junkman (all right - recycling specialist) who decided to build a spaceship and recycle NASA junk. Isaac Asimov was the science adviser, but this didn't really seem to help much, as you have to be able to follow advice... It ran a season and a half, then was forgotten until recently, when DARPA decided to spend big bucks on doing this in real life.
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Max the Magnificent
9/5/2012 9:15 AM EDT
I've never heard of this one -- so was it worth watching or not?
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Duane Benson
9/5/2012 10:28 AM EDT
Was that the one where Andy Griffith invented a new kind of fuel (Mytohydrazine, if I recall correctly)? His premise what that rather than massively accelerate and then coast, his fuel would allow slow but constant acceleration and thus get there using much less fuel than the NASA approach.
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Max the Magnificent
9/5/2012 10:32 AM EDT
Well, now it all makes perfect sense!!!
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ValarieRose
12/26/2012 4:54 PM EST
Hi, I am trying to find an outer space show from the late 60s early 70s that started with 2 astronauts in a rocket crashing on the moon. They were cartoons while the beginning credits rolled. It was on between the University Bowl then this show and then star trek in December. I really liked the show but I can't remember it.
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