Gil Gerard PSA (1981)

Buck Rogers himself, Gil Gerard, encourages young people to embrace technology and pursue high-tech careers in this Public Service spot from 1981. I love these sort of pop culture artifacts!

STAR TREK (1983) Arcade Game Flyer

Here's the flyer for Sega's cockpit model of their Star Trek "Strategic Operations Simulator" game, which appeared in arcades and bowling alleys a few months after Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan surprised everyone by becoming a huge box office hit and demonstrated that the Trek franchise still had plenty of exploitation potential left in it.

I honestly don't remember playing this game; does anyone know if it was the first authorized Star Trek electronic video game? I know there had been a couple of pinball machines, but I'm wondering whether there was a Trek video game before this one?

THE BLACK HOLE (1979) by Jack Kirby

Click on Image For Larger View

Back in 1979, the Disney folks hired legendary comic book artist Jack Kirby to adapt their new sci-fi epic, The Black Hole, into comic strip form for newspaper syndication. Like the Star Trek newspaper strip that appeared around the same time, it was intended to promote the expensive film. Apparently, it did get picked up by a few papers, but didn't last long - no doubt because the movie was a box-office disappointment.

In 2007, Disney published at least some of the strips - with new, digital colors - in their Disney Zone digest magazine.

LOGAN'S RUN (1977) TV Guide Preview

From the September, 1977 "Fall Preview" issue of TV Guide, here's the magazine's write-up for the Logan's Run television series. Based on the Michael Anderson MGM feature film of the year before, which was based, in turn, upon the novel by George Clayton Johnson & William F. Nolan, the Logan's Run television show only ran for 14 episodes. It was produced by the guys who had run The Fantastic Journey the year before, and starred Gregory Harrison, Heather Menzies and Donald Moffat.

I was - and remain - a big fan of the show. I've been told that the Warner Archive manufacture-on-demand DVD label has a complete series set in the works, but no release date has been announced as yet. In the meantime, the series is apparently available for online viewing and download from iTunes and at Amazon.

Behind -The-Scenes Pix #9: STAR TREK

William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, on location (at Vasquez Rocks, I'm guessing - doesn't quite look like Bronson Canyon to me, but I may be wrong) perusing some high-brow literary magazine between takes on the original Star Trek television series.

October's Space Babe: Sigourney Weaver

October 2011's Space Babe is Sigourney Weaver as Warrant Officer Ripley in director Ridley Scott's 1979 sci-fi Gothic, Alien. As portrayed by the then-relative newcomer, the strong-willed Ripley proved to be the ultimate survivor, not only escaping from the clutches of the titular extraterrestrial xenomorph, but going on to thwart its toothy brethren in three sequels. Of course, most of us here at Space: 1970 remember her primarily for her scanty panties at the original film's conclusion. Shame on us.

Born as Susan Weaver, the tall, striking brunette has appeared in a number of genre films, but has also garnered considerable acclaim as a serious dramatic actress. Among her sci-fi/fantasy credits are the aforementioned Alien franchise sequels, the Ghostbusters films, James Cameron's Avatar, Paul, and the delightful spoof, Galaxy Quest, which poked good natured fun at the kinds of TV shows we celebrate here at Space: 1970.

Captain's bLog: Supplemental

Been suffering from a stubborn head cold, but I'm starting to get back on track. I plan to have some new posts up here throughout the week, including this month's "Space Babe." Stay tuned.

PLANET OF THE APES (1968) Theatrical Posters

"It's a madhouse!" As Planet Of The Apes co-writer Rod Serling might put it: submitted for your approval... a selection of colorful theatrical posters and one-sheets from around the world, all heralding 20th Century Fox's first simian sci-fi epic back in 1968. Enjoy!

Fourth Coolest Toy Ever: Mego STAR TREK Communicators

When I was in fifth or sixth grade (circa 1975-76), my pal Mark Usher and I formed a short-lived Star Trek "club." There were four of us in all, as I remember, and once a week, we'd all go over to Mark's house after school and basically play Star Trek all afternoon. He lived on an old farm, and his parents cleaned out an old outbuilding for us to use as a clubhouse - or, in our case, "starship." His father even made a sign that said "U.S.S. Enterprise" and placed it over the door. (I vaguely recall that he misspelled it somehow, but I could be misremembering.)

His mother was an artsy-craftsy sort, and she wanted to make sure that we weren't getting into trouble, so she actually created Trek-themed projects for us to do. We made plywood "control panels" for our "ship" - including a "transporter console" with sliding levers (wide beads on strings) - which Mark's father mounted on the walls of the shack. We made uniforms out of appropriately colored tee-shirts, which his mother helped us draw insignias on with fabric paints, and we made papier-mâché planets, which we suspended from the ceiling of our clubhouse/starship with fishing line.

But mostly, we role-played being crew members of the Enterprise, and explored the alien cornfields and woods on the Usher property. We kept in touch with the Mego Star Trek Communicators, which were - as the advertising proudly exclaimed, "real, working walkie-talkies!" But unlike the other walkie-talkies we had as kids, these had flip-up lids, just like the ones on TV. Of course, they were considerably larger than their television counterparts, colored blue, and had telescoping antennae - but they worked.

If you didn't wander too far apart, anyway.

Mark also had the "Command Communications Console," which was a nicely Trek-styled base set tuned to the same CB frequency, and the only actually working piece of equipment in our ramshackle starship. It didn't get used much, as I recall, because no one wanted to be the Communications Officer and stay behind "on the ship" while the rest went exploring.

For those keeping score, the coolest 70s toy ever was the Mattel Space: 1999 Eagle Transporter. The second-coolest toy of the Space: 1970 era was Kenner's 18" Alien. And the third was Kenner's Bionic Bigfoot from The Six Million Dollar Man.

ARK II (1976) Network Promo

Still under the weather, hence this quickie video post. A rare bit of 70s TV ephemera: a very brief (10 second) network promo for Filmation's Saturday morning, post-Apocalyptic sci-fi adventure series, Ark II.

What's with that weird art?

FAR OUT SPACE NUTS (1975)

"I said 'lunch,' not 'launch!'"

I recently commented to friends that with the release of Man From Atlantis on DVD, I now had virtually my entire TV childhood on my video shelves. There are still a few notable exceptions, though, including the Saturday morning sci-fi sitcom, Far Out Space Nuts, from 1975.

Produced by Sid & Marty Krofft, the show was basically a pared-down Gilligan's Island in space (ironically, Filmation actually produced a cartoon of that very premise in 1982, Gilligan's Planet), with a bumbling simpleton and his blustery, overweight companion stranded on an alien planet after accidentally being shot into outer space on a NASA rocket.

It made sense then, that the Kroffts cast Gilligan himself, Bob Denver, in the lead role of  "Junior." In the part of Space Nuts' "Skipper," the Kroffts cast chubby comic Chuck McCann as "Barney."

Their furry alien sidekick, "Honk," was played by Patty Maloney. The diminutive actress also appeared on Buck Rogers as distaff ambuquad "Tina" (and at least twice as Twiki, filling in for Felix Silla), and played Chewbacca's mischievous offspring, Lumpy, in the Star Wars Holiday Special.

Although I'm certain I watched it every Saturday morning when I was ten, I sincerely don't remember much about the show except that, like Filmation's Ghost Busters (another childhood favorite of the era), it was filled with lots of old fashioned, vaudeville-styled slapstick and juvenile wordplay, with every story taking place on the same "alien planet" set. I recall lots of cool space monsters, though, several of which appeared at the end of the show's titles - and probably re-appeared on the Krofft's The Lost Saucer, which aired the same year. (I also watched Saucer, but liked Nuts better.).

Goofy as it is, Far Out Space Nuts is still a part of the tapestry of space and sci-fi themed entertainment that shaped me as a Seventies Star Kid, and I would love to have the show on DVD on the shelf next to my Space Academy, Ark II, Land Of The Lost, Flash Gordon, Star Trek animated series, and Jason Of Star Command boxed sets. And, considering how many honest laughs I still get out of the Ghost Busters show (for example), I'd probably genuinely enjoy watching Space Nuts again, too!

Captain's bLog: Supplemental

Sorry for the lack of new stuff so far this week. Fighting a head cold. Regular posting will resume shortly...