IKR?? Night Stalker was the doo-doo when I was 8 years old, couldn't wait to see the next episode each week - then suddenly it was gone...same with the planet of the apes series, which was probably better than the last 2 or 3 pota films of the 1970's.
The younger Miss Grey grew up in California with a very specific set of family-oriented, health minded values, after which she must have attended acting classes and done well, not to mention having a decent talent agent representing her. I wonder how lucky we were she did turn away from being socially naked in mixed sex company and go the straight and narrow path to celebrity? ... And they say one person cannot make a difference but, I think Erin Grey made a difference in my young adult life, in all the typical hormone-fueled ways, for which I am seriously grateful!
Buck Rogers and especially Battlestar Galactica had awesome theme music. Buck Rogers also had Erin Gray, which was the best reason for guys to tune in!
Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers might not have lasted that long, but it made an impression. Novels were writtens, toys were made, etc. I remember watching the first runs AND the re-runs of both these shows when I was a kid.
Growing up in Ireland in the 70s I watched and loved Fantastic Journey, The Invisible Man, The Omega Man, Man from Atlantis, and Logan's Run. We should all have such "failures".
At least, David McCallum did better as Illya Kuryakin with "MFU" and as Ducky on"NCIS". Not bad in "Sapphire and Steel" either. I was mad that "Invisible Man"' was replaced with "Gemini Man"-a too off-but happy the latter didn't last nearly as long and was soon cancelled. Glad that David has lasted longer in "NCIS".
I think these shows were fantastic and I totally agree. Sponsors are always uneasy with scifi shows and think their cancellation was really investors wanting to support a show with higher ratings rather than a show that pans to a dedicated audience. That fact I think would foster lifelong dedicated fans for their product because scifi fans are the most diehard fans out there.
+MERCS2046 This has come up often. The 'failure' is in terms of the shows' inability to sustain longer than brief runs, usually as a result of poor ratings. As the Uploaded note above explains, these are of shows that lasted a year and half or less, often less.
But their ratings were not high enough hits to justify their expensive productions. BSG and Buck Rogers were both the most expensive series on television. Ratings for both series dropped steadily after their premieres and neither were top ten shows.
Battlestar Galactica Finished 24th Overall in the Ratings But it's Price Tag One Million Per Episode (The Most Expensive Series on Air at the Time) abc Network Decide to Pull the Plug.
You need to understand that at the time "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" was decried by the critics as one of the worst sci-fi shows of all time. It actually did better than the original "Battlestar Galatica" in terms of run because it managed a whopping TWO seasons to "Battlestar Galactica"'s single season. And CBS basically killed "Battlestar Galactica", an ABC show at the time, because they moved two of their popular shows to the same time slot as "Battlestar Galactica" after it had high ratings when it first hit TV. Of course both have proven far more successful than they were viewed to be at the time.
Especially on Quark they did their own version of 'Mirror, Mirror' when they went through a Black Hole and their evil twins except of the Plant Man came through and started to destroy other ships and Quark had to fight his evil self and sent them back into the Black Hole! LOL!
AmusedChild ] SO IN THE BEGINNING ] I BELIEVED EVERY WORD THAT ] U ] SAID ] NOW THAT YOUR GONE MY WORLD ARE IN SHERADES ] U ] LEFT ME YOU TOOK ALL THE THINGS THAT I NEEDED SO BAD ] NOW AM WONDERING WERE IS THE LOVE WE ONCE HAD SO GIVE ME ] BLUE SILVER + GOLD ] THE COLOR OF THE SKY AM TOLD ] MY RAINBOWS OVER DO ] SO DONT FORSAKE ME COUSE I LOVE ] U [@¤
Whether we admit it or not, we grew up on these shows and looked forward to the nights they were on and had our parent buy or get the toys for Xmas. Failures never!! Just great memories from a childhood long ago.
Seriously though, both BSG and Buck Rogers had short lives due to budget issues and a change in public view towards Sci/Fi Operas. The series didn't fail as they both lived on for years in re-runs and unlike the others on this list were NEVER forgotten. Battlestar is bigger than ever and both series have had a number of home video releases.
Also for those that have never encountered it David McCallum's Invisible Man was a very entertaining gem for the time period. It was going for that same sort of 6 Million Dollar Man vibe and mostly pulled it off. Worth a look if you even find it. Project UFO is probably the strangest entry in this. It was very much to capture the moment of Close Encounters fo the Third Kind and played more like a documentary than a TV Drama. Kind of claiming to recreate stuff from Project Blue Book. Very much a piece of its time.
If you watch the credits of Project UFO carefully you notice how much they are thanking the USAF. The USAF heavily underwrote the cost of the show. Project Blue Book was in truth likely the most cost effective (dis) information campaign that the Air Force ever threw together on a shoe string budget. The height of the Cold War. The Air Force was flying and testing all sorts of unique, innovative and crazy planes and programs. All Top Secret. So to cover it up they sent a couple of respectable looking officers out to start asking questions about UFO’s. This had a remarkable level of success as it accomplished a ton of unexpected tasks. It inundated them with reports about who had seen their aircraft and where. Gave them valuable data about how detectable the craft was. It put out an implausible but highly addictive viral cover story about UFO’s and Aliens that persists to this day. And it helped the USAF detect if their were any stealthy aircraft in US skies that were not theirs. (Remember we were flying U-2’s over the Soviet Union at this point. It is likely the Soviets we’re seeking to do the same.) The effectiveness of the program was remarkable. A little too much so when they started getting questions from Congress about Aliens. But really Project Blue Book was just a cover story for a program to see who saw their secret test flights. The Air Force even kicked in a bunch of money for the show. And the scary thing is even though the truth is essentially out there. Even though the truth passes the Occam’s Razor test quiet easily, still few believe it. They prefer the UFO’s and Aliens.
Invisible Man was a top rater in New Zealand; I think it was the highest rated show of the year. David McCallum had a special video message for us as a result of this. It just shows with some programs it can simply be the environment it is playedin - the day, time slot, and what is up against it.
I watched Man from Atlantis, Project UFO, Logan's Run, Buck Rogers, and (of course) Battlestar Galactica back in the day. Thank you for this video! It brought back a lot of memories! I loved "The Man From Atlantis" as a kid, and when I would go swimming at the local pool, I would swim like the Man From Atlantis! "The Man From Atlantis" started out actually as a "TV Movie," and it was excellent and very well received. The sequel, "Return of the Man from Atlantis," was also well received, which I guess gave them the green light to make "Man from Alantis" a TV series, which, unfortunately, didn't last long. Patrick Duffy is remembered by most as "Bobby Ewing" on Dallas, but to me, he is the man from Alantis! I have litle recollection of "Logans Run" and "Buck Rogers," but I did have crushes on Heather Menzies and Erin Gray! Battlestar Galactica, though, is etched in my brain forever.
How I miss those days from Logan's Run,Spider-Man,Buck Rogers,Battlestar Galactica, Cliffhangers,Planet of the Apes,The Man from Atlantis,etc... shame the scifi channel stop showing these reruns & went for the so-called reality show crap & even changing their named wtf!!!
See if your cable company / satellite company offer El Rey network &/or H&I channel, also ME TV. Between the 3 channels they carry a bunch of the 70's + science fiction series.
I actually have a lot to say about this awesome video, but for now I just want to say that the Time Express theme is so catchy and I can’t get it out of my head!
The Buck Rogers theme had lyrics originally for it's pilot episode which actually had a theatrical run, for years afterward - until the internet - I thought I'd imagined them!
Buck Rogers: If they had kept the format of the first season instead of turning the series into an interstellar cruise ship, it would have continued. Battlestar Galactica was fantastic, but I guess pulled because it was too expensive.
Yeah that's true... although it was "supposed" to be more of a "Star Trek" type ripoff than "cruise ship". The idea was to go "searching for the lost tribes of Earth", going off the premise introduced into the show in the first season in the episode with Gary Coleman and Ray Walston, where they explained that in the centuries immediately following the devastating nuclear holocaust, Earth was "looted by aliens", hence how Gary Coleman, who was a survivor of the holocaust and a child prodigy working on "suspended animation" who ultimately tested the technology on himself, and therefore was presumably "stolen" by aliens and handed down through the centuries til he ended up on Genesia, where they revived him and made him President of their planet, and he worked to improve their technology and quality of life. Anyway, also presumably, these aliens probably carried off captured humans from Earth, and probably fell prey to humans who took their ships and used them to escape, or who traded for their their technology and built ships or bought ships from them to leave Earth... Either way, a "lot" of humans were purported to have left Earth for deep space during the time after the nuclear holocaust but before the "Earth Federation" and the Defense Directorate were organized and created and society reestablished itself on Earth. Hence this was the "motivation" for Buck to go out on the "Searcher" looking for possible nuclear war survivors or their descendants he might have known. In reality, Gil Gerard had been pressing for a "reboot" or at least change in direction of the show through most of the first season. He disliked the "Bond in the 25th century" type flavor of the show with the one-liners, over-the-top stories, campy action, and babe of the week (God bless Spandex!!!) formula, even though it was working quite well. Buck Rogers had been blessed with many of the props and equipment and techniques used on Battlestar Galactica, which saved a lot of money, but it was still a fairly expensive show to produce. Glen Larson had pretty much had it with the studio pressure and difficulties producing BSG and trying to keep it going, and he was tired of fighting that battle and just pretty much decided to step back from Buck Rogers and let them have their way with it. In fairness the scripts and writing had steadily deteriorated through the first season of Buck Rogers; the first four episodes are noticeably better than the rest, and watched in sequence they go steadily downhill in production value, look, and storylines as the season progresses to it's end. The network decided to renew Buck Rogers for a second season, but major changes were afoot... basically Gil Gerard got his much wanted "reset" of the show, which was never properly explained, and no "closure" with the first episode was given... sadly the actor portraying Dr. Huer, Tim O'Connor, wasn't even informed that his character had been written out of the show and he was now unemployed... Instead we got the annoying Jay Garner as "Admiral Asimov", veteran actor Wilfrid Hyde-White as the rather cumbersome character of "Dr. Goodfellow", and Thom Christopher as the alien "Hawk", along with Erin Gray's "Wilma Deering" and a host of new "officers" on the ship, including Wilfrid Hyde-White's son or grandson and the guy that does the "Allstate" car insurance commercials... Even the actress who played "Hot Pants Hilliard" in "Smokey and the Bandit" was in an episode as a short-skirt sailor outfit crewman Buck passes in a hallway... The writer's strike hobbled the second season from before the get-go, and led to the short season with fewer than normal episodes, and the stories that got made were generally of poor quality and very nonsensical... The second season started off halfway decent witht he introduction of Hawk, but it rapidly went downhill from there. IMHO the best episode of the entire second season was the next to last episode "Testimony of a Traitor" where Buck is accused of war crimes and nearly sentenced to death after an old VHS tape is discovered in the bombed out ruins of the NORAD complex in Cheyenne Mountain, containing a record of Buck helping a group of rogue generals to obtain the missile launch codes to start WWIII on their own, with his only defense being an electronic memory probe by Dr. Goodfellow that shows most of his suppressed memories supporting the tape evidence, until flashbacks lead him and Wilma to Mount Rushmore and the President's "secret bunker" where his memory is restored when he recalls a secret meeting there when he was recruited to infiltrate the group of rogue officers under deep hypnosis in order to expose them... and promised his appointment to crew the next NASA mission as compensation... It was IMHO Gil Gerard's best performance as the character of Buck Rogers... The show went out with a whimper after the next episode. The whole second season couldn't really decide WHAT it wanted to be... a mish-mash of stories none of which really tied in to the new premise of the show, and adding an annoying admiral and forgetful if benign old man along with a TOTALLY ANNOYING new "robot" called "Crichton" didn't help AT ALL, neither did not getting Mel Blanc back until the second half of the second season to do Twiki's voice, after an unsettling and totally wrong recast of Twiki's voice by another voice actor... So the series went from good to okay to ho-hum, and came back as "uhh, what?" to "WTF" to "forgetaboutit" and was gone... Later! OL J R :)
Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, and Man from Atlantis were successful for a while. I would in no way call them failures just because they didn't go beyond 2 seasons (for Buck Rogers). Man from Atlantis and Battlestar only lasted 1 season but they were all great shows; I even purchased the DVDs for Battlestar and Buck Rogers. Battlestar did get renewed as a new show called Galactica 80 in 1980 for a season. They may have not been financially successful but they were great Sci-Fi shows in their day.
Nearly all of those shows came from the absolute powerhouse of the 1970s and early 80s...MCA-Universal Television. When Donald Bellisario scored with Magnum P.I. it was a culmination of many years of moving up in the business. Glen Larsen was probably the most prolific producer at MCA for 15 years. And while some probably called Battlestar Galactica a rushed show to capitalize on Star Wars, it had more depth and character than many other shows of it's time. Oh, it cost a lot of money to make, definitely. Still the 1970s could boast failed shows that were miles above today in quality. The three networks were serious about ratings and put their best up against promising looking shows on other networks. No pussyfooting around, money was being made and lost and no cable to cut into profits. What's more, when a producer had a hit show they had more power to bring other shows into the lineups. Totally different days. Days that were there to be dominated and owned.
I'm sure Battlestar lasted 2 seasons, though heavily revamped. Anyway, in the late 70s, if a show lasted even 1 full season, it was a success; most didn't last a half. Man from Atlantis lasted more than 1 season.
Buck Rogers and Battlestar Galactica may not have lasted long, but they had many fans. I do remember liking The Invisible Man (since I loved David McCallum) and hoped that it, along with The Man from Atlantis and Logan's Run would last longer than they did. I think these had potential, but were not handled as well as they could have been.
You can not consider Buck Rogers and Battlestar Galatica failures, two of the most popular sci-fi shows of all time..I suppose you consider Star Trek a failure also?
@@bob_._. No, Galactica 1980 was a "reset" or "soft reboot" of the original BSG... it was supposed to be a follow-on of the story a number of years later after the events of the first season, when they FINALLY made it to Earth and discovered that the "Thirteenth Colony" had suffered some horrible event that set the survivors back by centuries or even millennia technologically, so 20th century Earth was completely incapable of helping the Colonial survivors against the technologically advanced Cylons... Basically BSG suffered the same fate that Buck Rogers faced-- a "reboot" of the premise of the show that simply DIDN"T WORK worth a hoot in h3ll... and which ultimately sealed the fate of both shows in the end. In BSG's case it was to try to cut down the production costs by being on "contemporary Earth" as the settings thus cutting the sets and FX budgets, but it resulted in a show that bore virtually NO resemblance to the first season "Battlestar Galactica", didn't resonate or attract fans, and was ultimately and thankfully cancelled. Buck Rogers suffered the same fate for different reasons-- Glen Larson's departure and replacement by John Mantley, and Gil Gerard's continued pressure throughout the first season for a 'reset' of the show's premise away from the "James Bond in the 25th Century" type stories with the super-villain and sexy babe of the week (clad in Spandex of course!) got traction with the studio looking for cheaper production costs... The cast changed and the direction of the show along with it. The show suffered a months-long delay due to a writer's strike, and so had a "short season" of fewer then normal episodes, though on the whole the stories were pretty atrocious in the second season anyway, excepting perhaps the two-part introduction to the second season that brought Hawk onto the ship, and "Testimony of a Traitor", the next to last episode of the series. Other than a now "hippy looking" Gil Gerard and of course the always gorgeous Erin Gray, the two seasons had virtually NOTHING in common... Both shows died of the same shortsighted cost-cutting nonsense of the networks/studio and ill-advised money-driven "reboots" or changes to the show that turned it into something completely different from what it started out as... Later! OL J R :)
Star Trek almost was a failure, but Lucille Ball fought tooth and nail to keep it going. If it hadn't been for her, Star Trek wouldn't have been at all.
@@imperiallebaron2391 Watch the Herb Solow/ Bob Justman audio version of their book on UA-cam... Solow (who was intimately involved in the creation of Star Trek and bringing to the airwaves, and as a studio executive at Desilu was in prime position to know, recounts one of their executive board meetings with Lucy in attendance, as owner of the studio. Star Trek was just one of the many projects Desilu Studio was working on, and most of the studio executives were opposed to Star Trek, figuring it was a bad risk for the studio. Herb Solow had promoted it in earlier meetings, but no decisions had been made, and it hadn't even been discussed in quite a while. As the meeting was breaking up, Lucy came up to Herb Solow and asked him, "what about that South Seas thing you mentioned a few months back?" Solow drew a blank, "I'm not sure what you're talking about, we didn't discuss any South Seas series at all to my knowledge". Lucy was INSISTENT he described a series the studio was considering producing about the south seas and the USO. Again, Solow was confused and befuddled, and didn't know what she was talking about. It was common to discuss MANY different show ideas, some of which would be produced, some of which would never see the light of day, so he thought perhaps something had totally slipped his mind. Finally Lucy started describing it, "It's a show about all these celebrities travelling with the USO to entertain the troops in the South Seas during the war, oh, what did you call it... Ah... STAR TREK, that was it!" Solow immediately understood that Lucy had heard the name "Star Trek" but hadn't listened or remembered much about the description of the premise of the show, so she naturally assumed that "Star Trek" was about a group of "movie stars" travelling to the exotic locales of the South Seas to entertain the troops, which of course would have to be set in wartime, in the Pacific, in WW2. She didn't even know what Star Trek was! He said it was going very well and she gave tacit approval, as Lucy's involvement in studio management was actually pretty limited-- that's why she had a board of executives that actually ran the studio and handled the day to day work. Oh, of course she had the "final say" as studio owner, but she rarely if ever used it on way or the other, and she CERTAINLY didn't "campaign tirelessly" for Star Trek and solely ensured that Star Trek was given a chance. That is a completely erroneous statement and a Hollywood legend that has no bearing in fact. Later! OL J R :)
I remember "Future Cop" piecemeal, especially the scene where the 'droid whipped up some kind of granola for Ernest Borgnine's granddaughter. He just made a revulsed expression--"yeacchh!!"
loans run needs a reboot..just like westworld on HBO is getting now,and they are doing a fantastic job,just 2 episodes in and I'm hooked, he'll buck Rogers could do well too on HBO Netflix or Starz give it an r rating like daredevil or Luke cage.
How could a show about Vincent Price and Jerry Stiller on a time-traveling train be a failure? I guess the show just... *puts on shades* ...went off the rails. YYYYEEEEAAAAHHHH!!!!
@@John40ish I believe he is referring to Time Express. I remember that show- it was a time traveling train that allowed passengers to go back in time to give them a second chance to put things right (like finding a lost love, etc.).
I watched many of these series when I was a kid and I would generally not call them failures. Back in the '70s the deck was stacked very heavily against Sci-fi shows. They were generally considered filler by the networks and thrown into bad time slots where they were guaranteed poor ratings and quick cancellation. It was very rare for any sci-fi to even finish a single season. Let's not forget that Star Trek was cancelled after its first season Like I said, I watched most of these shows when I was a kid and they were the grist for the mill of my imagination. I mourned for every one of them when they failed to return.
PortMantoo Star Trek was cancelled after its first season and again after its second season, and was only saved by letter writing campaigns, so it is a valid example. Of course it doesn't really count, because it was not from the'70s. ;-)
Read "Inside Star Trek: The Real Story" by Herbert F. Solow and Robert H. Justman. They were THERE before ST was born and nurtured it all through its first 3 years! It was not cancelled after the first season. I was a tiny part of that letter campaign.
I enjoyed a lot of these in the 70's - I loved The Fantastic Journey, The Invisible Man, Logans Run, and Buck Rogers was far from being a failure! And we all wanted to look as good in satin pants as Erin Gray did!
This reminds me how well crafted the original Battlestar Galactica prologue was, with Patrick MacNee's voice-over followed by four orchestral notes that still give me chills, before the Battlestar theme comes in blowing in with horns.
Yes, the opening shows how far above a standard "sci-fi adventure show" of that era BG TOS was. Much bigger, more expensive, better thought-out, movie-grade props & modeling, etc.
Made it even more sinister when McNee also voiced the Cylon leader and later in the series, a "fallen Angel" who presumably created the cylons in the first place.
Westworld was reimagined by HBO. Spider-Man became a successful series of blockbuster movies. The only ones I can imagine a "reboot" are Time Express (as an anime) & Tales Of The Unexpected (Netflix or Hulu).
I see your point. In terms of numbers of seasons, yeah, total failures. But when looking at overall influence on future Sci-fi shows, books and movies, Battlestar and Buck Rogers were not failures. We remember these shows. We want to know about them and the people involved. There is still a demand out there. Especially for Battlestar. Not so much the others on the list. Very interesting vid. Thanks for making.
Thanks for this. Many of these (not all) were shown in the UK. None seemed to take off, except the early series of Buck Rogers, and Battlestar Galactica. The latter two weren’t really failures.
BSG TOS was uber-cool. It just got pole-axed later by the studio into being overly family friendly and set on earth, instead of roaming the stars etc. Buck Rogers was excellent also.
Buck Rogers and Battlestar Galactica are classics and can't be called failures. I was 13 when I first saw the pilot show for Buck Rogers. Two things stuck with me. The amazing theme and Erin Gray in that flight suit. Alright I should say three things. What 13 year old boy could forget Princess Ardala.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I love the way John Amos nailed the line of, "That's the fastest white boy I've ever seen!" Cracked me up then; cracks me up now.
First time viewer. Great video and I'm looking forward to seeing what else you do. Whilst they might have been a failure in the ratings, some of them were great fun to watch.
I remember many of these series. I would not describe many of them as failures. Where do you get this idea from? I accept that they are a bit cheesy by today's standard but many were quite good.
Maybe they were failures from a ratings standpoint when compared to other shows at the time. Maybe someone just wanted to generate full video views for advertising revenue from youtube. Who knows?
The android cop thing must have been tried at least a half-dozen times over the years... From "Holmes & Yo-Yo" in the '70s through "Almost Human" just a season or two ago... Somehow I never saw "Future Cop". Borgnine and Amos? I'd've watched the hell out of that one!
+rajvader That was probably because SF writers Ben Bova and Harlan Ellison tried to sell a series called "Brillo" that ABC rejected before they released this too-similar series. Bova and Ellison sued them and won! They threatened to do the same when "Holmes & Yoyo" was released. Even NBC tried to revive "Future Cop" as "Cops and Robin!" The Suits never learn I guess!
+rajvader Anyone remember "Mann and Machine"? That was a fun, short-lived series. The idea, just as itself, has been done to death, but the slightly dystopian future, combined with great chemistry from the leads and some good writing, made for a highly enjoyable show.
+David T. Smith Harlin Ellison is greedy and loves to be litigious. Terminator was not based on any episode of Outer Limits, not Demon With A Glass Hand nor The Soldier. What the hell, Cameron could've have ripped off Cyborg 2087 made in 1966 - hell, why did not the makers of that film not sue, it is the American way, good or bad, and increasingly bad! I think Harlan Ellison should get the L. Ron Hubbard award, you know him, a good friend of Ellison's
Jeffrey314159 I'm glad to read that you know Harlan so intimately. What happened? Did he threaten to sue YOU for attempting to make a tacky fan video based on one of his short stories? Was it one of your friends? I guess you've never heard of Intellectual Property! I guess that you didn't know that Harlan and Ben Bova submitted a treatment based on a short story that they collaborated on called "Brillo" and I guess you think that it was just a coincidence that "Future Cop" was released not long after it! I didn't know you were an ABC groupie! Do you have a picture of Leonard Rule posted on your bedroom wall? I'm so happy for you!! As for LRH, you make HIS conspiracy theories sound reasonable by comparison, you KAZOONIE!
Many of those were shown here in the UK. The Invisible Man, Man From Atlantis, Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers were big hits. The Galactica pilot - with edits and new scenes - even got a successful cinema release. Planet of the Apes - not featured here - was scrapped mid-season in the US but a massive ratings success in Britain. I remember as a small boy really liking Fantastic Journey, but I don't know how popular it was here.
Fantastic Journey could work now. With a lot of the world believing the Bermuda Triangle is a doorway into another time or world, UFO's are extraterrestrial craft, and time travel is possible. It would have to be a little grittier than the original and a little more sophisticated for the sci-fi fans of today. I liked Buck Rogers in the 25th Century when it premiered back in 79.
I agree with a lot of these comments! Some of these shows were hits in the 70"s! Man from Atlantis, Buck Rogers in the 24th century, Battlestar Galactica! But, there were some of these shows, that I never even heard of and I grew up in the 70"s! But, your video did bring back some fond memories! So, Kudo's for that!
Several of those shows were far from failures - while some of the derivative shows (Logan's Run, Beyond Westworld) were absolute failures, several of the others were quite successful. Man From Atlantis ran for a couple seasons before its unceremonious cancellation, featuring Patrick Duffy in the titular role years before he starred in Dallas. Buck Rogers not only lasted for a number of seasons, but introduced newer characters that have continued to live on in the public consciousness, such as Twiki. Fantastic Journey was well-produced with an excellent cast, but was more a victim of network stupidity (late 70's NBC) with regards to scheduling than anything. If Battlestar Galactica were considered a failure on any level, it was in the mind of Glen Larson, its creator, who never got to create the actual vision of the universe he'd created for the show. It was not until the SyFy reboot series many years later that Larson's original narrative was nurtured by a network that wasn't afraid to address concepts like holy concubines and the like that ABC wouldn't go near unless it were entirely excised from the story. Even with the story compromised as it was, the 70's BG was as successful an American SciFi series of the period (though paling, by comparison, to the global success of Dr. Who at that time) as The Six Million Dollar Man & The Incredible Hulk.
Thanks! Even though the show was only on for a short time it was so enjoyable that it has stayed as one of my favorite tv memories. It is fun to learn things about it after all of these years. :)
how dare they call buck rogers a failed series sure the show only lasted 2seasons but that doesn't make it a failure?? what because it wasn't on for like 5-10 seasons it was a flop?? no just no
I grew up watching most of those shows. It's kind of funny they got all this new technology and still can not make movies as good as some of these. Did not know that West world and Logan's Run. Had a TV series. Project UFO looks kind of cool to. Perhaps someone will post them. Great Video !!!!
Oh yeah I grew up with all of these :) I think the only one I don't recognize (and remember watching all the episodes of the others) is Time Express. Although on a related note I think you missed a few like Holmes and Yoyo a comedy version of Futurecop and the incredibly uniquely 70's Supertrain. Also I thought Buck Rogers got 2 full seasons, which was generally viewed as a successful SF show at the time. also thank you OP you are one of the few I have seen that categorizes that Spiderman show as a series and not "tv movies". It was a failed series that got cut up into tv movies later.
David McCallum missed a big opportunity in the 70's. He could have been the Invisible Man from Uncle. All they had to use was his voice. The network could have saved a ton of money.
The producer Glen Larson quit after the first season, and Gil Gerard got uppity and worked with the second producer to turn the show into Star Trek, which didn't work.
I remember Patrick Duffy as the Man From Atlantis when I first saw him on television. My guess the series was short-lived is because he received a better offer to play the more famous Bobby Ewing from Dallas.
I don't consider any TV Show that was popular to be a failure, granted they can be screwed up by the producers, but I wouldn't call the show itself a failure. Battlestar Galaticia aired two years and was renamed Battlestar Galatica 1980 in it's third year, which was the same year the network messed it up. Wonder Woman had three seasons yet IMDB shows it as airing from 1975-1979. When the story line changed to the present, Wonder Woman too went the way of the DoDo bird. Buck Rodgers aired from 1979-1981 and was canceled in it's second season after the network changed the show. All three shows were popular until the network made changes to their format. I wouldn't call theses failures, that implies they were unpopular and bad ideas. Fantastic Journey was one of my favorite shows and it got canceled because the network failed to see its potential. Might want rename your list.
Battlestar Galactica was originally axed after one season. Then it proved really popular and did very well in syndication. The studio then tried to resurrect with Galactica 1980 but a lot of the sets had been destroyed and they tried running it on a much smaller budget. That ended again after one season. The reason it was originally axes was because the special effects were top notch for its time and that made it expensive. Just compare it to the much cheaper Buck Rogers, which was also an attempt to recapture the success of the original Battlestar Galactica.
MasterJediDude Yeah, its funny because i remember them from when i was a kid, vaguely, And when i bought the set to watch now as an adult i thought that they wouldn't be all that good, or not as good as i remembered them being. But they were great!. If any ones a fan of the Logans run movie, and the books then they would deffo get a buzz out of watching the t,v, series, for sure. Just a shame the series didn't run longer than it did. Also got the Buck Rogers in the 25th century box sets, great show!. I should think many of us who saw that show as a kid have fond memories of it. Although watching it now i can see season one was more impressive than the later ones. No way was that show a failure though. And what the hell is B-Galactica doing in this video. That show was awesome!
@@MasterJediDude The Harlan Ellison scripted "Crypt" and the David Gerrold(credited as N. Ward) scripted "Man out of Time" are the standouts of the series.
@Darryl Ruiz SHE was the reason a lot of us watched. Though, you could kind of tell she wasn't happy with the direction her character took as it went on.
Came here to say this. Saw you had it covered. Left happy. On the other hand; it is nice to see all these intros together in one place... even if it is a bit of a misnomer when it comes to Buck and BSG.
Wow! I forgot about so many of those shows! And two of them I never heard of (Time Express and the Invisible Man). The opening for Buck Rogers still gives me chills. It was better by far than the show ever was. Actually, the same goes for Battlestar Galactica. It's too bad Fantastic Journey and Gemini Man never took off. I loved those as a kid!
There was an other series also called "The Invisible Man". It was a bit low tech. "Buck Rogers" might have lasted longer if we saw more of Pamela Hensley (no double meaning intended) as the Princess! Trish Noble's one appearance was one of my favorites.
That is so cool that you got to see them film the pilot for Fantastic Journey! It was one of my favourite shows when I was a child. Was it filmed in Los Angeles?
Great vid. I wouldn't call Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers failures though. They have stood the test of time and are still popular. Gemini Man...not so much,
"Faliures", in terms of ratings strong enough to stay on the air. BSG and BR25 do still stand up well. ST:TNG's early sfx look more dated than BSG's, despite being 17 years newer.
To call some of these series failures overlooks the fact that in the `70`s and early `80`s few SF series ever ran to more than a single season due to the way that US networks worked at the time. And the fact is a couple of these `failures` did actually run beyond a single season.
I'm not sure you're aware that someone dropped a load of those shows here. However, If I remember correctly, Walter Koenig, who played a recurring character named Oro, thought those involved in "The Starlost" were better suited to making soap operas than SF.
I HAVE to find those. They WERE like soap operas, now that I think of it. A lot younger then. I was totally into SCI-FI, so I'm pretty sure that sappy stuff went over my head! Thanks for commenting!
If a show is killed at 3 episodes, call it a failure. Buck Rogers & Battlestar Galactica had complete seasons (I admit Galactica 1980 was disappointing). For the 1970s these shows were state of the art. I still watch such shows in 2015, so the so called "failures" survived decades of more modern shows, yet are still being enjoyed today.
I remember the pilot for Battlestar Galactica was released as a feature movie (cashing in on the success of Star Wars), and it's sell was sensaround or some such, basically massive cerwin vega speakers (audiophiles wet dream of the day) that shook the floorboards. It was cool for it's time.
Buck Rogers pilot movie was also released for theatrical showing in many countries outside the US. I watched it first on the big screen. which means both BG and BR were filmed on film, and not video taped.
I would guess that what killed Logan's Run was the lack of merchandising between the movie and TV series; so that by the time it finally aired, the viewers had moved on to the next new thing.
Battlestar Galactica wasn't a failure. It was contracted to have 2 seasons (Battlestar Galactica/Galactica 1980). These 2 shows are one show. Buck Rogers was also contracted for 2 seasons. Back then, before 1980, it was common for shows to be 2 to 3 seasons long. After 1980 shows were expanded past 3 seasons. I think you need and should go back and do more reasearch.
Michael Hinxman what? The average time span of a successful series since the Sixties was five seasons, like Star Treks Five Year Mission. The point by that time was syndication and four to five seasons was considered the minimum necessary to have enough episodes to have a profitable syndication. Only comedies escaped that to a small extent.
No. BSG was canceled after one season, but, after huge fan protests, Galactica 1980 was created. The thing about BSG was that ABC thought it was too expensive, so, when Galactica 1980 was created, they did tons of cost cutting, and, well, it showed. So, yes, in a sense, the two shows were closely related, but they weren't planned that way from the outset.
Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, Gemini Man, Man From Atlantis and Tales of the Unexpected were the ones I remember watching as a yute... I'd watch 'em again.
TheAnubis57 They even did the barely-noticeable little 'shift' of Buck Rogers's floating body where it slightly centers itself. I just love the attention to detail South Park gives their parodies.
lynchie137 There are a couple of episodes on UA-cam of the hour-long Quinn Martin version from which the intro is derived, just type Quinn Martin's Tales of the Unexpected in the search to find them. The others you'll come across are half-hour British versions.
One show that I REALLY liked that only lasted one season was 1974's "The Night Stalker" with Darren Mcgavin as Carl Kolchak. It was a shame.
trooper32556p 'The Night Stalker' was a fantastic show. I caught the show back in the 90s on BBC2 in the UK.
I agree night stalker should have had more than just 1 season
IKR?? Night Stalker was the doo-doo when I was 8 years old, couldn't wait to see the next episode each week - then suddenly it was gone...same with the planet of the apes series, which was probably better than the last 2 or 3 pota films of the 1970's.
One of the best.
trooper32556p It was a good show but it had too many well known guest stars. Hurt the believability of Night Stalker
Many of these shows I did not consider failures. They were highly underrated as far as I'm concerned.
Erin Gray was the hottest woman on TV in the 70's. You can have Farrah Fawcett. I keeps it Wilma, baby. XD
Grant Rhodes Connie Sellecca wasn’t chopped liver either.
The younger Miss Grey grew up in California with a very specific set of family-oriented, health minded values, after which she must have attended acting classes and done well, not to mention having a decent talent agent representing her. I wonder how lucky we were she did turn away from being socially naked in mixed sex company and go the straight and narrow path to celebrity? ... And they say one person cannot make a difference but, I think Erin Grey made a difference in my young adult life, in all the typical hormone-fueled ways, for which I am seriously grateful!
I had a MAJOR crush on Erin Gray.
Nope, Linda Carter
...i wonder what Erin looks like now(?)
Buck Rogers and especially Battlestar Galactica had awesome theme music. Buck Rogers also had Erin Gray, which was the best reason for guys to tune in!
I just looked up erin gray what a pig
Buck was a good series - especially first season. I'm glad MeTV is showing it. Part of my Saturday night routine.
Fun Fact: Twiki’s head was shaped like the tip of a penis!
Buck Rogers and Battlestar Galactica failures? Says who
BSG only ran for 1 season. BR25 only ran 1 1/2 seasons, which was 1/2 a season too long.
Wesley Adams Space: Above and Beyond only ran for one season. Firefly only ran for one season. Were those failures too?
BG was just too expensive. It got ok ratings and if it had been cheaper to produce it would have lasted longer
Chris Cooling I think Project: U.F.O. ran for almost three seasons.
Soussherpa Robert T. Baumer Only a season and a half, Feb. 1978 to Aug. 1979.
I'd call Buck and Battlestar marginally successful - Buck went on into syndication for years and BG still maintains a huge cult following.
Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers might not have lasted that long, but it made an impression. Novels were writtens, toys were made, etc. I remember watching the first runs AND the re-runs of both these shows when I was a kid.
They also exported those shows to other countries. I live in Chile and I grew up watching Buck Rogers, Battlestar Galactica and Spiderman :D
Yes, I like those shows as well.
They were the Firefly of their time. That show only lasted one season and new merchandise based on it is still being made.
Growing up in Ireland in the 70s I watched and loved Fantastic Journey, The Invisible Man, The Omega Man, Man from Atlantis, and Logan's Run. We should all have such "failures".
At least, David McCallum did better as Illya Kuryakin with "MFU" and as Ducky on"NCIS". Not bad in "Sapphire and Steel" either. I was mad that "Invisible Man"' was replaced with "Gemini Man"-a too off-but happy the latter didn't last nearly as long and was soon cancelled. Glad that David has lasted longer in "NCIS".
@@virginiaconnor8350 invisible man was way better than gemini.especially because of melinda fee
I think these shows were fantastic and I totally agree. Sponsors are always uneasy with scifi shows and think their cancellation was really investors wanting to support a show with higher ratings rather than a show that pans to a dedicated audience. That fact I think would foster lifelong dedicated fans for their product because scifi fans are the most diehard fans out there.
Same but in England. I really liked Logan's Run.
We had to watch Man from Atlantis. Galway boy does good.
You need to check your facts dude, I swear I can't stand this too cool for school shit. Buck Rogers and Battle Star were not failures.
+MERCS2046 This has come up often. The 'failure' is in terms of the shows' inability to sustain longer than brief runs, usually as a result of poor ratings. As the Uploaded note above explains, these are of shows that lasted a year and half or less, often less.
Yeah you should've done your homework better Buck Rogers and Battle Star were not flops
But their ratings were not high enough hits to justify their expensive productions. BSG and Buck Rogers were both the most expensive series on television. Ratings for both series dropped steadily after their premieres and neither were top ten shows.
Battlestar Galactica Finished 24th Overall in the Ratings But it's Price Tag One Million Per Episode (The Most Expensive Series on Air at the Time) abc Network Decide to Pull the Plug.
You need to understand that at the time "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" was decried by the critics as one of the worst sci-fi shows of all time. It actually did better than the original "Battlestar Galatica" in terms of run because it managed a whopping TWO seasons to "Battlestar Galactica"'s single season. And CBS basically killed "Battlestar Galactica", an ABC show at the time, because they moved two of their popular shows to the same time slot as "Battlestar Galactica" after it had high ratings when it first hit TV. Of course both have proven far more successful than they were viewed to be at the time.
Actually love these shows and the days when most sci fi shows didn't last that long. You never got a chance to be bored with them.
God, Buck Rogers had such a great intro
Battlestar wasn't a failure! And you forgot Salvage and Quark.
+AmusedChild Salvage I! Loved that show!
But yeah, Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers were both rather successful.
Cool, someone else remembers Quark. Some of the episodes were quite good.
Especially on Quark they did their own version of 'Mirror, Mirror' when they went through a Black Hole and their evil twins except of the Plant Man came through and started to destroy other ships and Quark had to fight his evil self and sent them back into the Black Hole! LOL!
AmusedChild ] SO IN THE BEGINNING ] I BELIEVED EVERY WORD THAT ] U ] SAID ] NOW THAT YOUR GONE MY WORLD ARE IN SHERADES ] U ] LEFT ME YOU TOOK ALL THE THINGS THAT I NEEDED SO BAD ] NOW AM WONDERING WERE IS THE LOVE WE ONCE HAD SO GIVE ME ] BLUE SILVER + GOLD ] THE COLOR OF THE SKY AM TOLD ] MY RAINBOWS OVER DO ] SO DONT FORSAKE ME COUSE I LOVE ] U [@¤
Damn right Salvage! Best show ever!
Who cared if it sucked?!
Erin Grey in a cat suit....
I was halfway through clicking over to amazon.com to look for the slave auction before I realized you meant in the show.
chalkwalk Rofl, Rofl Rofl. If you find that auction on Amazon please let me know.
mike5556 I had forgotten how beautiful she was.
mike5556 that poster....
meow
Whether we admit it or not, we grew up on these shows and looked forward to the nights they were on and had our parent buy or get the toys for Xmas. Failures never!! Just great memories from a childhood long ago.
Who else tried to swim like the Man From Atlantis?
I definitely did more than once. Glad it wasn't just me! Ah, youth!
Haha! I was going to comment the same thing! Damn, we're old!
Porch Fyre .. I am not bloody old! Just well developed. And the best program ever was Thunderbirds!
Porch Fyre no , if you can remember the flying nun then youre old , guilty as charged hahaha
Robert Luben.
Underrated but not failures: Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, and Project UFO.
Seriously though, both BSG and Buck Rogers had short lives due to budget issues and a change in public view towards Sci/Fi Operas. The series didn't fail as they both lived on for years in re-runs and unlike the others on this list were NEVER forgotten. Battlestar is bigger than ever and both series have had a number of home video releases.
BSG was the most expensive sci-fi show of its time!
Also for those that have never encountered it David McCallum's Invisible Man was a very entertaining gem for the time period. It was going for that same sort of 6 Million Dollar Man vibe and mostly pulled it off. Worth a look if you even find it. Project UFO is probably the strangest entry in this. It was very much to capture the moment of Close Encounters fo the Third Kind and played more like a documentary than a TV Drama. Kind of claiming to recreate stuff from Project Blue Book. Very much a piece of its time.
If you watch the credits of Project UFO carefully you notice how much they are thanking the USAF. The USAF heavily underwrote the cost of the show. Project Blue Book was in truth likely the most cost effective (dis) information campaign that the Air Force ever threw together on a shoe string budget. The height of the Cold War. The Air Force was flying and testing all sorts of unique, innovative and crazy planes and programs. All Top Secret. So to cover it up they sent a couple of respectable looking officers out to start asking questions about UFO’s. This had a remarkable level of success as it accomplished a ton of unexpected tasks. It inundated them with reports about who had seen their aircraft and where. Gave them valuable data about how detectable the craft was. It put out an implausible but highly addictive viral cover story about UFO’s and Aliens that persists to this day. And it helped the USAF detect if their were any stealthy aircraft in US skies that were not theirs. (Remember we were flying U-2’s over the Soviet Union at this point. It is likely the Soviets we’re seeking to do the same.) The effectiveness of the program was remarkable. A little too much so when they started getting questions from Congress about Aliens. But really Project Blue Book was just a cover story for a program to see who saw their secret test flights. The Air Force even kicked in a bunch of money for the show. And the scary thing is even though the truth is essentially out there. Even though the truth passes the Occam’s Razor test quiet easily, still few believe it. They prefer the UFO’s and Aliens.
Invisible Man was a top rater in New Zealand; I think it was the highest rated show of the year. David McCallum had a special video message for us as a result of this. It just shows with some programs it can simply be the environment it is playedin - the day, time slot, and what is up against it.
I remember the invisible man. I was born in 78, so I must have seen reruns on something, but I watched it
Totally Agree...
Don't forget Project Bluebook another UFO-themed show!
Holy shit, Ernest Borgnine and John Amos in a TV show together? That's the most amazing thing I've ever seen.
I just made that exact observation. Two such fine actors in such a shitty show. Amazing
Even if it flopped, nothing with Ernest Borgnine was a flop, I remember thinking the TV movie pilot of Future cop was great.
Hulu dumped me into a marathon of Airwolf and I just rolled with it for Borgnine.
Harlan Ellison sued Future Cop off the air for copying his short story "Brillo".
Don't you mean that's the the most amazing thing you've NOT seen, actually?
I watched Man from Atlantis, Project UFO, Logan's Run, Buck Rogers, and (of course) Battlestar Galactica back in the day. Thank you for this video! It brought back a lot of memories!
I loved "The Man From Atlantis" as a kid, and when I would go swimming at the local pool, I would swim like the Man From Atlantis! "The Man From Atlantis" started out actually as a "TV Movie," and it was excellent and very well received. The sequel, "Return of the Man from Atlantis," was also well received, which I guess gave them the green light to make "Man from Alantis" a TV series, which, unfortunately, didn't last long.
Patrick Duffy is remembered by most as "Bobby Ewing" on Dallas, but to me, he is the man from Alantis!
I have litle recollection of "Logans Run" and "Buck Rogers," but I did have crushes on Heather Menzies and Erin Gray! Battlestar Galactica, though, is etched in my brain forever.
How I miss those days from Logan's Run,Spider-Man,Buck Rogers,Battlestar Galactica, Cliffhangers,Planet of the Apes,The Man from Atlantis,etc... shame the scifi channel stop showing these reruns & went for the so-called reality show crap & even changing their named wtf!!!
Amazed planet of the giants wasn't listed.
Land of the Giants was a 1960s series. He listed those of 1970s.
I had forgotten about Cliffhangers. That was a LOT of fun recreating the old style serials.
See if your cable company / satellite company offer El Rey network &/or H&I channel, also ME TV. Between the 3 channels they carry a bunch of the 70's + science fiction series.
Logan's run needed better scripts
I actually have a lot to say about this awesome video, but for now I just want to say that the Time Express theme is so catchy and I can’t get it out of my head!
The Buck Rogers theme had lyrics originally for it's pilot episode which actually had a theatrical run, for years afterward - until the internet - I thought I'd imagined them!
Buck Rogers: If they had kept the format of the first season instead of turning the series into an interstellar cruise ship, it would have continued. Battlestar Galactica was fantastic, but I guess pulled because it was too expensive.
My dad and I liked this.
The only good thing about season two: Wilma in that sexy sailor suit. Damn!
Oh, and Hawkman was pretty cool, too.
Yeah that's true... although it was "supposed" to be more of a "Star Trek" type ripoff than "cruise ship". The idea was to go "searching for the lost tribes of Earth", going off the premise introduced into the show in the first season in the episode with Gary Coleman and Ray Walston, where they explained that in the centuries immediately following the devastating nuclear holocaust, Earth was "looted by aliens", hence how Gary Coleman, who was a survivor of the holocaust and a child prodigy working on "suspended animation" who ultimately tested the technology on himself, and therefore was presumably "stolen" by aliens and handed down through the centuries til he ended up on Genesia, where they revived him and made him President of their planet, and he worked to improve their technology and quality of life. Anyway, also presumably, these aliens probably carried off captured humans from Earth, and probably fell prey to humans who took their ships and used them to escape, or who traded for their their technology and built ships or bought ships from them to leave Earth... Either way, a "lot" of humans were purported to have left Earth for deep space during the time after the nuclear holocaust but before the "Earth Federation" and the Defense Directorate were organized and created and society reestablished itself on Earth. Hence this was the "motivation" for Buck to go out on the "Searcher" looking for possible nuclear war survivors or their descendants he might have known.
In reality, Gil Gerard had been pressing for a "reboot" or at least change in direction of the show through most of the first season. He disliked the "Bond in the 25th century" type flavor of the show with the one-liners, over-the-top stories, campy action, and babe of the week (God bless Spandex!!!) formula, even though it was working quite well. Buck Rogers had been blessed with many of the props and equipment and techniques used on Battlestar Galactica, which saved a lot of money, but it was still a fairly expensive show to produce. Glen Larson had pretty much had it with the studio pressure and difficulties producing BSG and trying to keep it going, and he was tired of fighting that battle and just pretty much decided to step back from Buck Rogers and let them have their way with it. In fairness the scripts and writing had steadily deteriorated through the first season of Buck Rogers; the first four episodes are noticeably better than the rest, and watched in sequence they go steadily downhill in production value, look, and storylines as the season progresses to it's end. The network decided to renew Buck Rogers for a second season, but major changes were afoot... basically Gil Gerard got his much wanted "reset" of the show, which was never properly explained, and no "closure" with the first episode was given... sadly the actor portraying Dr. Huer, Tim O'Connor, wasn't even informed that his character had been written out of the show and he was now unemployed... Instead we got the annoying Jay Garner as "Admiral Asimov", veteran actor Wilfrid Hyde-White as the rather cumbersome character of "Dr. Goodfellow", and Thom Christopher as the alien "Hawk", along with Erin Gray's "Wilma Deering" and a host of new "officers" on the ship, including Wilfrid Hyde-White's son or grandson and the guy that does the "Allstate" car insurance commercials... Even the actress who played "Hot Pants Hilliard" in "Smokey and the Bandit" was in an episode as a short-skirt sailor outfit crewman Buck passes in a hallway...
The writer's strike hobbled the second season from before the get-go, and led to the short season with fewer than normal episodes, and the stories that got made were generally of poor quality and very nonsensical... The second season started off halfway decent witht he introduction of Hawk, but it rapidly went downhill from there. IMHO the best episode of the entire second season was the next to last episode "Testimony of a Traitor" where Buck is accused of war crimes and nearly sentenced to death after an old VHS tape is discovered in the bombed out ruins of the NORAD complex in Cheyenne Mountain, containing a record of Buck helping a group of rogue generals to obtain the missile launch codes to start WWIII on their own, with his only defense being an electronic memory probe by Dr. Goodfellow that shows most of his suppressed memories supporting the tape evidence, until flashbacks lead him and Wilma to Mount Rushmore and the President's "secret bunker" where his memory is restored when he recalls a secret meeting there when he was recruited to infiltrate the group of rogue officers under deep hypnosis in order to expose them... and promised his appointment to crew the next NASA mission as compensation... It was IMHO Gil Gerard's best performance as the character of Buck Rogers... The show went out with a whimper after the next episode. The whole second season couldn't really decide WHAT it wanted to be... a mish-mash of stories none of which really tied in to the new premise of the show, and adding an annoying admiral and forgetful if benign old man along with a TOTALLY ANNOYING new "robot" called "Crichton" didn't help AT ALL, neither did not getting Mel Blanc back until the second half of the second season to do Twiki's voice, after an unsettling and totally wrong recast of Twiki's voice by another voice actor... So the series went from good to okay to ho-hum, and came back as "uhh, what?" to "WTF" to "forgetaboutit" and was gone...
Later! OL J R :)
Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, and Man from Atlantis were successful for a while. I would in no way call them failures just because they didn't go beyond 2 seasons (for Buck Rogers). Man from Atlantis and Battlestar only lasted 1 season but they were all great shows; I even purchased the DVDs for Battlestar and Buck Rogers. Battlestar did get renewed as a new show called Galactica 80 in 1980 for a season. They may have not been financially successful but they were great Sci-Fi shows in their day.
Nearly all of those shows came from the absolute powerhouse of the 1970s and early 80s...MCA-Universal Television. When Donald Bellisario scored with Magnum P.I. it was a culmination of many years of moving up in the business. Glen Larsen was probably the most prolific producer at MCA for 15 years. And while some probably called Battlestar Galactica a rushed show to capitalize on Star Wars, it had more depth and character than many other shows of it's time. Oh, it cost a lot of money to make, definitely. Still the 1970s could boast failed shows that were miles above today in quality. The three networks were serious about ratings and put their best up against promising looking shows on other networks. No pussyfooting around, money was being made and lost and no cable to cut into profits. What's more, when a producer had a hit show they had more power to bring other shows into the lineups. Totally different days. Days that were there to be dominated and owned.
Patrick Dempsey was horribly miscast
You mean Patrick Duffy?
LordSathar ????
I'm sure Battlestar lasted 2 seasons, though heavily revamped. Anyway, in the late 70s, if a show lasted even 1 full season, it was a success; most didn't last a half. Man from Atlantis lasted more than 1 season.
Regardless of failure vs. success, this was great to watch. Thanks.
Buck Rogers and Battlestar Galactica may not have lasted long, but they had many fans. I do remember liking The Invisible Man (since I loved David McCallum) and hoped that it, along with The Man from Atlantis and Logan's Run would last longer than they did. I think these had potential, but were not handled as well as they could have been.
man oh man, these grest shows bring back sum great memories. The music is what really sticks with me.
Project UFO was awsum.
Buck Rogers and Battlestar?? Failures? Hm. Must be in a different dimension then.
You can not consider Buck Rogers and Battlestar Galatica failures, two of the most popular sci-fi shows of all time..I suppose you consider Star Trek a failure also?
Youre thinking of Galactica 1980, right?
Galactica only ran one season, so that may be why it's on the list. Buck Rogers was on for two seasons though.
@@bob_._. No, Galactica 1980 was a "reset" or "soft reboot" of the original BSG... it was supposed to be a follow-on of the story a number of years later after the events of the first season, when they FINALLY made it to Earth and discovered that the "Thirteenth Colony" had suffered some horrible event that set the survivors back by centuries or even millennia technologically, so 20th century Earth was completely incapable of helping the Colonial survivors against the technologically advanced Cylons... Basically BSG suffered the same fate that Buck Rogers faced-- a "reboot" of the premise of the show that simply DIDN"T WORK worth a hoot in h3ll... and which ultimately sealed the fate of both shows in the end. In BSG's case it was to try to cut down the production costs by being on "contemporary Earth" as the settings thus cutting the sets and FX budgets, but it resulted in a show that bore virtually NO resemblance to the first season "Battlestar Galactica", didn't resonate or attract fans, and was ultimately and thankfully cancelled. Buck Rogers suffered the same fate for different reasons-- Glen Larson's departure and replacement by John Mantley, and Gil Gerard's continued pressure throughout the first season for a 'reset' of the show's premise away from the "James Bond in the 25th Century" type stories with the super-villain and sexy babe of the week (clad in Spandex of course!) got traction with the studio looking for cheaper production costs... The cast changed and the direction of the show along with it. The show suffered a months-long delay due to a writer's strike, and so had a "short season" of fewer then normal episodes, though on the whole the stories were pretty atrocious in the second season anyway, excepting perhaps the two-part introduction to the second season that brought Hawk onto the ship, and "Testimony of a Traitor", the next to last episode of the series. Other than a now "hippy looking" Gil Gerard and of course the always gorgeous Erin Gray, the two seasons had virtually NOTHING in common...
Both shows died of the same shortsighted cost-cutting nonsense of the networks/studio and ill-advised money-driven "reboots" or changes to the show that turned it into something completely different from what it started out as... Later! OL J R :)
Star Trek almost was a failure, but Lucille Ball fought tooth and nail to keep it going. If it hadn't been for her, Star Trek wouldn't have been at all.
@@imperiallebaron2391 Watch the Herb Solow/ Bob Justman audio version of their book on UA-cam... Solow (who was intimately involved in the creation of Star Trek and bringing to the airwaves, and as a studio executive at Desilu was in prime position to know, recounts one of their executive board meetings with Lucy in attendance, as owner of the studio. Star Trek was just one of the many projects Desilu Studio was working on, and most of the studio executives were opposed to Star Trek, figuring it was a bad risk for the studio. Herb Solow had promoted it in earlier meetings, but no decisions had been made, and it hadn't even been discussed in quite a while. As the meeting was breaking up, Lucy came up to Herb Solow and asked him, "what about that South Seas thing you mentioned a few months back?" Solow drew a blank, "I'm not sure what you're talking about, we didn't discuss any South Seas series at all to my knowledge". Lucy was INSISTENT he described a series the studio was considering producing about the south seas and the USO. Again, Solow was confused and befuddled, and didn't know what she was talking about. It was common to discuss MANY different show ideas, some of which would be produced, some of which would never see the light of day, so he thought perhaps something had totally slipped his mind. Finally Lucy started describing it, "It's a show about all these celebrities travelling with the USO to entertain the troops in the South Seas during the war, oh, what did you call it... Ah... STAR TREK, that was it!" Solow immediately understood that Lucy had heard the name "Star Trek" but hadn't listened or remembered much about the description of the premise of the show, so she naturally assumed that "Star Trek" was about a group of "movie stars" travelling to the exotic locales of the South Seas to entertain the troops, which of course would have to be set in wartime, in the Pacific, in WW2. She didn't even know what Star Trek was! He said it was going very well and she gave tacit approval, as Lucy's involvement in studio management was actually pretty limited-- that's why she had a board of executives that actually ran the studio and handled the day to day work. Oh, of course she had the "final say" as studio owner, but she rarely if ever used it on way or the other, and she CERTAINLY didn't "campaign tirelessly" for Star Trek and solely ensured that Star Trek was given a chance. That is a completely erroneous statement and a Hollywood legend that has no bearing in fact. Later! OL J R :)
So you basically put clips of most of the best 70's and 80's sci-fi shows and labelled them as failures? great job.
I remember "Future Cop" piecemeal, especially the scene where the 'droid whipped up some kind of granola for Ernest Borgnine's granddaughter. He just made a revulsed expression--"yeacchh!!"
Loved Logan's Run! Had a crush on Heather Menzies. Used to play Logan's Run in the school playground.
I loved Heather Menzies and enjoyed the show.
loans run needs a reboot..just like westworld on HBO is getting now,and they are doing a fantastic job,just 2 episodes in and I'm hooked, he'll buck Rogers could do well too on HBO Netflix or Starz give it an r rating like daredevil or Luke cage.
Steve Joseph Give me Yul Brynner any day.
I think ed harris is playing yul in the reboot,and he's doing great,have you watched it?..very well done. but you are right yul was great.
Now that is a memory, "Which tv show characters did you play during recess" :)
How could a show about Vincent Price and Jerry Stiller on a time-traveling train be a failure? I guess the show just...
*puts on shades*
...went off the rails.
YYYYEEEEAAAAHHHH!!!!
What show is this, I don't remember that series?
Serenity now!
@@John40ish I believe he is referring to Time Express. I remember that show- it was a time traveling train that allowed passengers to go back in time to give them a second chance to put things right (like finding a lost love, etc.).
@@asnrobert Sounds like Fantasy Island before Fantasy Island became a thing LOL:) OL J R :)
"Boss, Boss, the TRAIN, the TRAIN!!!!" just doesn't have the same ring to it... Later! OL J R :)
I loved the Spiderman movies and series. Cheesy, yes, but still loved it! The music was awesome!
I watched many of these series when I was a kid and I would generally not call them failures. Back in the '70s the deck was stacked very heavily against Sci-fi shows. They were generally considered filler by the networks and thrown into bad time slots where they were guaranteed poor ratings and quick cancellation. It was very rare for any sci-fi to even finish a single season. Let's not forget that Star Trek was cancelled after its first season
Like I said, I watched most of these shows when I was a kid and they were the grist for the mill of my imagination. I mourned for every one of them when they failed to return.
Star Trek ran for 3 seasons; '66 thru '69. You might want to amend that.
PortMantoo Star Trek was cancelled after its first season and again after its second season, and was only saved by letter writing campaigns, so it is a valid example. Of course it doesn't really count, because it was not from the'70s. ;-)
Read "Inside Star Trek: The Real Story" by Herbert F. Solow and Robert H. Justman. They were THERE before ST was born and nurtured it all through its first 3 years! It was not cancelled after the first season. I was a tiny part of that letter campaign.
Way late... but agree 1000 percent. I did too. TV was a wasteland for Scifi and fantasy. We were happy to see the Wizard of Oz once a year.
Who ever put this list together must have been born post-1990 because I remember a few of the shows and loved them.
I'd happily watch them all. Thanks for sharing.
I enjoyed a lot of these in the 70's - I loved The Fantastic Journey, The Invisible Man, Logans Run, and Buck Rogers was far from being a failure! And we all wanted to look as good in satin pants as Erin Gray did!
I remember allot of these tv shows :-) thanks for posting them.
This reminds me how well crafted the original Battlestar Galactica prologue was, with Patrick MacNee's voice-over followed by four orchestral notes that still give me chills, before the Battlestar theme comes in blowing in with horns.
No argument there buddy. Greatest show opening of all time. I am 50 and it still sends chills up my spine.
I can listen the BG theme over and over. It was one of the greatest of all time.
Yes, the opening shows how far above a standard "sci-fi adventure show" of that era BG TOS was. Much bigger, more expensive, better thought-out, movie-grade props & modeling, etc.
Made it even more sinister when McNee also voiced the Cylon leader and later in the series, a "fallen Angel" who presumably created the cylons in the first place.
I loved The Man From Atlantis!
They couldn't just call him Aquaman?
@@tenhirankei nah...... how 'bout Marine Boy.
Hollywood executives are watching this right looking for properties to "re-imagine."
Westworld was reimagined by HBO. Spider-Man became a successful series of blockbuster movies.
The only ones I can imagine a "reboot" are Time Express (as an anime) & Tales Of The Unexpected (Netflix or Hulu).
I see your point. In terms of numbers of seasons, yeah, total failures. But when looking at overall influence on future Sci-fi shows, books and movies, Battlestar and Buck Rogers were not failures. We remember these shows. We want to know about them and the people involved. There is still a demand out there. Especially for Battlestar. Not so much the others on the list. Very interesting vid. Thanks for making.
Thanks for this. Many of these (not all) were shown in the UK. None seemed to take off, except the early series of Buck Rogers, and Battlestar Galactica. The latter two weren’t really failures.
This is very aesthetically pleasing
Its amazing, I watched ever one of these on TV when they aired.
Some of these aren't failures. Just short runs. Man from Atlantis, Spider-man, Buck Rogers, Battlestar Galactica, all good Sci Fi series for a kid.
BSG TOS was uber-cool. It just got pole-axed later by the studio into being overly family friendly and set on earth, instead of roaming the stars etc.
Buck Rogers was excellent also.
WTF!!!
They threw "Buck Roger's" and "Battlestar Galactica" in together with the rest of that dogshit???
That's blasphemy!!!!!!
Masculine Buddha Agreed. BR was the best and BG was amazing. I was only 13 and I had the biggest crush on Starbuck.
Cool crush.
"By your command"
RightURKen7
I even use this sound on my cell hehehe
Buck Rogers and Battlestar Galactica are classics and can't be called failures. I was 13 when I first saw the pilot show for Buck Rogers. Two things stuck with me. The amazing theme and Erin Gray in that flight suit. Alright I should say three things. What 13 year old boy could forget Princess Ardala.
I loved these shows. So sad at the time that Fantastic Journey and Man from Atlantis were canceled. Now few remember they even existed.
Fantastic Journey was great, big fan of Roddy McDowell.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I love the way John Amos nailed the line of, "That's the fastest white boy I've ever seen!" Cracked me up then; cracks me up now.
Project UFO. I actually liked that one, because most were debunked, but a couple of episodes never came to a conclusion as to what happened.
It had two seasons as well.
First time viewer. Great video and I'm looking forward to seeing what else you do.
Whilst they might have been a failure in the ratings, some of them were great fun to watch.
You can watch all the others here: ua-cam.com/users/RwDt09videos
I remember many of these series. I would not describe many of them as failures. Where do you get this idea from? I accept that they are a bit cheesy by today's standard but many were quite good.
Maybe they were failures from a ratings standpoint when compared to other shows at the time. Maybe someone just wanted to generate full video views for advertising revenue from youtube. Who knows?
It still hurts me that Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rodgers, Logan's Run, and Spiderman were canceled. Bring them back! Where's the petition
The android cop thing must have been tried at least a half-dozen times over the years... From "Holmes & Yo-Yo" in the '70s through "Almost Human" just a season or two ago...
Somehow I never saw "Future Cop". Borgnine and Amos? I'd've watched the hell out of that one!
rajvader Heh, "Holmes & Yo-Yo"
What memories.
+rajvader That was probably because SF writers Ben Bova and Harlan Ellison tried to sell a series called "Brillo" that ABC rejected before they released this too-similar series. Bova and Ellison sued them and won! They threatened to do the same when "Holmes & Yoyo" was released. Even NBC tried to revive "Future Cop" as "Cops and Robin!" The Suits never learn I guess!
+rajvader Anyone remember "Mann and Machine"? That was a fun, short-lived series. The idea, just as itself, has been done to death, but the slightly dystopian future, combined with great chemistry from the leads and some good writing, made for a highly enjoyable show.
+David T. Smith Harlin Ellison is greedy and loves to be litigious. Terminator was not based on any episode of Outer Limits, not Demon With A Glass Hand nor The Soldier. What the hell, Cameron could've have ripped off Cyborg 2087 made in 1966 - hell, why did not the makers of that film not sue, it is the American way, good or bad, and increasingly bad!
I think Harlan Ellison should get the L. Ron Hubbard award, you know him, a good friend of Ellison's
Jeffrey314159 I'm glad to read that you know Harlan so intimately. What happened? Did he threaten to sue YOU for attempting to make a tacky fan video based on one of his short stories? Was it one of your friends? I guess you've never heard of Intellectual Property! I guess that you didn't know that Harlan and Ben Bova submitted a treatment based on a short story that they collaborated on called "Brillo" and I guess you think that it was just a coincidence that "Future Cop" was released not long after it! I didn't know you were an ABC groupie! Do you have a picture of Leonard Rule posted on your bedroom wall? I'm so happy for you!! As for LRH, you make HIS conspiracy theories sound reasonable by comparison, you KAZOONIE!
Many of those were shown here in the UK. The Invisible Man, Man From Atlantis, Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers were big hits. The Galactica pilot - with edits and new scenes - even got a successful cinema release. Planet of the Apes - not featured here - was scrapped mid-season in the US but a massive ratings success in Britain. I remember as a small boy really liking Fantastic Journey, but I don't know how popular it was here.
Fantastic Journey could work now. With a lot of the world believing the Bermuda Triangle is a doorway into another time or world, UFO's are extraterrestrial craft, and time travel is possible. It would have to be a little grittier than the original and a little more sophisticated for the sci-fi fans of today. I liked Buck Rogers in the 25th Century when it premiered back in 79.
I agree with a lot of these comments! Some of these shows were hits in the 70"s! Man from Atlantis, Buck Rogers in the 24th century, Battlestar Galactica! But, there were some of these shows, that I never even heard of and I grew up in the 70"s! But, your video did bring back some fond memories! So, Kudo's for that!
"Tales of the Unexpected" wins "best intro" out of all of these. Catchy theme song too.
Wished they made a gruesome remake for Shudder. 💀
10:43 is it just me or does the STARGATE theme seem to be a riff on this? Without all the WOO WOO WOO of course
Several of those shows were far from failures - while some of the derivative shows (Logan's Run, Beyond Westworld) were absolute failures, several of the others were quite successful. Man From Atlantis ran for a couple seasons before its unceremonious cancellation, featuring Patrick Duffy in the titular role years before he starred in Dallas. Buck Rogers not only lasted for a number of seasons, but introduced newer characters that have continued to live on in the public consciousness, such as Twiki. Fantastic Journey was well-produced with an excellent cast, but was more a victim of network stupidity (late 70's NBC) with regards to scheduling than anything.
If Battlestar Galactica were considered a failure on any level, it was in the mind of Glen Larson, its creator, who never got to create the actual vision of the universe he'd created for the show. It was not until the SyFy reboot series many years later that Larson's original narrative was nurtured by a network that wasn't afraid to address concepts like holy concubines and the like that ABC wouldn't go near unless it were entirely excised from the story. Even with the story compromised as it was, the 70's BG was as successful an American SciFi series of the period (though paling, by comparison, to the global success of Dr. Who at that time) as The Six Million Dollar Man & The Incredible Hulk.
Thanks! Even though the show was only on for a short time it was so enjoyable that it has stayed as one of my favorite tv memories. It is fun to learn things about it after all of these years. :)
Buck Rodgers and Battlestar were two of my faves too.Remember the character of Hawk and his woman Koori?
Yes...Yes I do. Wow that was a long time ago now.
how dare they call buck rogers a failed series sure the show only lasted 2seasons but that doesn't make it a failure?? what because it wasn't on for like 5-10 seasons it was a flop?? no just no
So many good shows were pulled before their time like Salvage starring Andy Griffith the Gerry Anderson's UFO.
Let's not forget Gerry and Sylvie Anderson's
SPACE:1999... The first season of which featured the legendary theme and score by Barry Gray.
@MOONBASE ALPHA Gerry should have made it how he wanted it and ignored American interfwerence.
Andy Griffith's show was named, "Salvage 1", yeah, I watched that one also!
I remember watching Salvage 1 in the early 80s .
The Salvage TV movie rocked. The series was boring.
Loved these-I'd forgotten Futurecop, and I loved Man from Atlantis, I could even swim like him!
I grew up watching most of those shows. It's kind of funny they got all this new technology and still can not make movies as good as some of these. Did not know that West world and Logan's Run. Had a TV series. Project UFO looks kind of cool to. Perhaps someone will post them. Great Video !!!!
Agreed, William. Studios today have all the special effects they can afford, but none of the fantastic writing or story ideas.
Oh yeah I grew up with all of these :) I think the only one I don't recognize (and remember watching all the episodes of the others) is Time Express. Although on a related note I think you missed a few like Holmes and Yoyo a comedy version of Futurecop and the incredibly uniquely 70's Supertrain. Also I thought Buck Rogers got 2 full seasons, which was generally viewed as a successful SF show at the time. also thank you OP you are one of the few I have seen that categorizes that Spiderman show as a series and not "tv movies". It was a failed series that got cut up into tv movies later.
I love all of these. I wish they were all on tv today so I could watch them again :)
David McCallum missed a big opportunity in the 70's. He could have been the Invisible Man from Uncle. All they had to use was his voice. The network could have saved a ton of money.
An interesting trip back in time. I wonder what happened to many of these people; one day you're starring in a network series, next day, you're gone.
Buck Rogers should of stayed on earth. Stay with the earth's defense directorate and Dr. Hewer
I would've taken one look at the first script for season two and quit on the spot. For added measure I would've sent back the script shredded.
the second season was sick
Yeah, Buck Rogers really jumped the shark when they permanently put him on that spaceship and added that hawk-man character.
The producer Glen Larson quit after the first season, and Gil Gerard got uppity and worked with the second producer to turn the show into Star Trek, which didn't work.
I remember Patrick Duffy as the Man From Atlantis when I first saw him on television. My guess the series was short-lived is because he received a better offer to play the more famous Bobby Ewing from Dallas.
I don't consider any TV Show that was popular to be a failure, granted they can be screwed up by the producers, but I wouldn't call the show itself a failure. Battlestar Galaticia aired two years and was renamed Battlestar Galatica 1980 in it's third year, which was the same year the network messed it up. Wonder Woman had three seasons yet IMDB shows it as airing from 1975-1979. When the story line changed to the present, Wonder Woman too went the way of the DoDo bird. Buck Rodgers aired from 1979-1981 and was canceled in it's second season after the network changed the show. All three shows were popular until the network made changes to their format. I wouldn't call theses failures, that implies they were unpopular and bad ideas. Fantastic Journey was one of my favorite shows and it got canceled because the network failed to see its potential. Might want rename your list.
Battlestar Galactica was originally axed after one season. Then it proved really popular and did very well in syndication. The studio then tried to resurrect with Galactica 1980 but a lot of the sets had been destroyed and they tried running it on a much smaller budget. That ended again after one season.
The reason it was originally axes was because the special effects were top notch for its time and that made it expensive. Just compare it to the much cheaper Buck Rogers, which was also an attempt to recapture the success of the original Battlestar Galactica.
@@rogerwilco2 You'd think it wouldn't be that expensive since they reused effects a LOT.
@@rogerwilco2 Some of the sets and costumes for BSG were also used on Buck Rogers.
there was this weird trend in the late 70s where the best way to get bookings as an actor is to be old enough to collect social security
there's always an old dude on a phone...
Wow. Thanks 4 the trip down memory lane. :-)
Got the Logan's Run complete series on blu-ray. For me it was not a failure. It was awesome.
I agree. Some of those episodes are really good.
MasterJediDude Yeah, its funny because i remember them from when i was a kid, vaguely, And when i bought the set to watch now as an adult i thought that they wouldn't be all that good, or not as good as i remembered them being. But they were great!. If any ones a fan of the Logans run movie, and the books then they would deffo get a buzz out of watching the t,v, series, for sure. Just a shame the series didn't run longer than it did.
Also got the Buck Rogers in the 25th century box sets, great show!. I should think many of us who saw that show as a kid have fond memories of it. Although watching it now i can see season one was more impressive than the later ones. No way was that show a failure though.
And what the hell is B-Galactica doing in this video. That show was awesome!
Yeah, I still like going back and watching these old shows. Even Buck Rogers is a guilty pleasure of mine -- especially the Andromeda episode. LOL!
MasterJediDude I agree buddy. Watching these old sci-fi t,v, series again really does take you back.
Awesome!
@@MasterJediDude The Harlan Ellison scripted "Crypt" and the David Gerrold(credited as N. Ward) scripted "Man out of Time" are the standouts of the series.
Project UFO was toally cool! Thank you for the trip down memory lane!
Buck Rogers started out promising, but got silly.
Ha, silly, did you ever watch the Starlost? Now that was silly!
@Darryl Ruiz SHE was the reason a lot of us watched. Though, you could kind of tell she wasn't happy with the direction her character took as it went on.
So did the re boot of Battlestar Galactica. It started off as a decent sci fi show, then turned West Wing in space on us.
Yep-Battlestar Galactica,Buck Rogers ,Logan's Run and Fantastic Journey were not failures. Even Man From Atlantis had its followers.
Even the gemini man did
Really, Battlestar Galactica a failure? Or Buck Rogers... Interesting
Came here to say this. Saw you had it covered. Left happy. On the other hand; it is nice to see all these intros together in one place... even if it is a bit of a misnomer when it comes to Buck and BSG.
I liked the Original Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers
Wow! I forgot about so many of those shows! And two of them I never heard of (Time Express and the Invisible Man). The opening for Buck Rogers still gives me chills. It was better by far than the show ever was. Actually, the same goes for Battlestar Galactica.
It's too bad Fantastic Journey and Gemini Man never took off. I loved those as a kid!
There was an other series also called "The Invisible Man". It was a bit low tech. "Buck Rogers" might have lasted longer if we saw more of Pamela Hensley (no double meaning intended) as the Princess! Trish Noble's one appearance was one of my favorites.
That is so cool that you got to see them film the pilot for Fantastic Journey! It was one of my favourite shows when I was a child. Was it filmed in Los Angeles?
Great vid. I wouldn't call Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers failures though. They have stood the test of time and are still popular. Gemini Man...not so much,
"Faliures", in terms of ratings strong enough to stay on the air. BSG and BR25 do still stand up well. ST:TNG's early sfx look more dated than BSG's, despite being 17 years newer.
To call some of these series failures overlooks the fact that in the `70`s and early `80`s few SF series ever ran to more than a single season due to the way that US networks worked at the time.
And the fact is a couple of these `failures` did actually run beyond a single season.
wow! the Starlost!!! I didn't know there was any other person who had even SEEN that show.
I'm not sure you're aware that someone dropped a load of those shows here. However, If I remember correctly, Walter Koenig, who played a recurring character named Oro, thought those involved in "The Starlost" were better suited to making soap operas than SF.
I HAVE to find those. They WERE like soap operas, now that I think of it. A lot younger then. I was totally into SCI-FI, so I'm pretty sure that sappy stuff went over my head! Thanks for commenting!
If a show is killed at 3 episodes, call it a failure. Buck Rogers & Battlestar Galactica had complete seasons (I admit Galactica 1980 was disappointing). For the 1970s these shows were state of the art. I still watch such shows in 2015, so the so called "failures" survived decades of more modern shows, yet are still being enjoyed today.
I remember the pilot for Battlestar Galactica was released as a feature movie (cashing in on the success of Star Wars), and it's sell was sensaround or some such, basically massive cerwin vega speakers (audiophiles wet dream of the day) that shook the floorboards. It was cool for it's time.
Buck Rogers pilot movie was also released for theatrical showing in many countries outside the US. I watched it first on the big screen. which means both BG and BR were filmed on film, and not video taped.
Awesome! I remember most of those,and loved Fantastic Journey and The Gemini Man.
I remember Project Blue Book, The Invisible Man, Logan's Run, and The Man From Atlantis.
Lynn Jepson You mean Project: UFO.
Lynn Jepson it's Project U.F.O.
it was called project blue book in some other countries such as Australia.
It was called Project Blue Book in the Boston area also. My brothers and I all remember it by that name.
I too remember Project Blue Book, as it was called in the UK. I seem to recall they called it that in the pilot episode too.
I would guess that what killed Logan's Run was the lack of merchandising between the movie and TV series; so that by the time it finally aired, the viewers had moved on to the next new thing.
Battlestar Galactica wasn't a failure. It was contracted to have 2 seasons (Battlestar Galactica/Galactica 1980). These 2 shows are one show. Buck Rogers was also contracted for 2 seasons. Back then, before 1980, it was common for shows to be 2 to 3 seasons long. After 1980 shows were expanded past 3 seasons. I think you need and should go back and do more reasearch.
Michael Hinxman what? The average time span of a successful series since the Sixties was five seasons, like Star Treks Five Year Mission. The point by that time was syndication and four to five seasons was considered the minimum necessary to have enough episodes to have a profitable syndication. Only comedies escaped that to a small extent.
No. BSG was canceled after one season, but, after huge fan protests, Galactica 1980 was created. The thing about BSG was that ABC thought it was too expensive, so, when Galactica 1980 was created, they did tons of cost cutting, and, well, it showed. So, yes, in a sense, the two shows were closely related, but they weren't planned that way from the outset.
Logan's run, battlestar and buck Rogers were amazing.
I just realized that the guy who played Spiderman, Nicholas Hammond, was in The Sound of Music
That guy was in everything in the 70s.
Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, Gemini Man, Man From Atlantis and Tales of the Unexpected were the ones I remember watching as a yute... I'd watch 'em again.
Buck Rogers in the 25Th Century wasn't a failure. It was just ahead of its time.
Even South Park made a "parody" episode with Cartman as BR --same into too.
TheAnubis57
L
TheAnubis57 They even did the barely-noticeable little 'shift' of Buck Rogers's floating body where it slightly centers itself. I just love the attention to detail South Park gives their parodies.
Many might have been a failure by season renewal, but I have fond memories of many. Thanks for the nostalgia trip !
I kind of want to watch the Tales of the Unexplained just because the intro looks so awesome. Anybody know where I can find the episodes?
lynchie137 There are a couple of episodes on UA-cam of the hour-long Quinn Martin version from which the intro is derived, just type Quinn Martin's Tales of the Unexpected in the search to find them. The others you'll come across are half-hour British versions.
RwDt09 Cool. Thanks for the info. :)
That was an unusually cool intro, especially for the time.
This is not the same as the Roald Dahl Tales of the Unexpected? The British versions you mention?
Me too, I've never heard of that one before tonight but it looks like a cool show even in 2018.
This is so cool, thanks for posting