best unknown scifi show

[unowhoandwhy]

Originally Posted by Ioraptor

My friend was such a dork, everyone knows a chimp is more intelligent. Duh.

You've obviously never read Dean Koontz, then! Every Koontz fan knows that dogs are way more intelligent than chimps!

[PlaidSquadron]

Geez, talk about blowing the dust off of my memory!

I really liked Quark as a kid. Gene/Jean, Phicas and the Betty's. Very funny stuff,

As for other shows that I liked :

how about Mantis (from FOX) - a crippled scientist becomes a super hero with the aid of a Super Suit
Of course there have been other pretty good "super hero shows": The Flash and Isis (from Saturday morning tv as a kid) spring to mind

And speaking of "from Saturday Morning tv as a kid": Arc-II and Jason of Star Command. Even though I remember very little of these shows (other then overall themes) I have fond memories. Arc-II was scientists traveling around in a big RV helping the people of Earth many years after some kind of holocaust and Jason - space cops pretty much

[Ioraptor]

Jason of Star Command reminded me of its precurser series;
"Space Academy."
https://users.snowcrest.net/fox/SA/

'Dusting off memories is right!'
Now I know what inspired me to become such a science fiction nut.
It was ALL those fun 70's shows!

[Ioraptor]

Let me see if I can remember the gist of my 'twelve year old minds' arguement Unowhoandwhy.

Uh,....yeah, you see Chimps have HANDS. They can use sticks to beat each other up and pick out termites. Can dogs do that?

I think he said; "Dogs can rescue you from snowdrifts. They can bring you a newspaper!"

I had to admit defeat to his superior logic.

[gmd3d]

Originally Posted by Rowan

Hey potemkin
It's was a very tongue in cheek show I was very funny, campy, an odd mixture of wizards, magic, royalty and took place in medieval setting but full of terms and comments that were of todays world so it was always pretty crazy! here is a link to it if your interested

https://www.wizardsandwarriors.org/

ok that was fun just listened to the theme music ah memories, there are many screen captures , and audio clips of the dialogue, as well to look at and a ton of info.

Thanks for the link Rowan your right it looks like a lot of fun sorry I never saw it
it never got to Ireland that i know of anyway.

[nccdee]

FYI: When Space Academy was canceled, they took the set and used it for Jason of Star Command. Also, the Space Academy space shuttle was also used for Ark II (all made by the same production company).

Does anyone remember Cliff Hanger (1979). It was a primetime three serial one hour show.

Cliff Hanger: Curse of Dracula - Dracula is a College Professor, teaching European history in California. Von Helsing grandson is on the hunt for the famed vampire.

Cliff Hanger: Stop Susan William - Journalist investigates her brother's death and travels the world to find the murderer.

Cliff Hanger: Secret Empire - Old West Marshal chases bank robbers and find underground civilization. He helps rebel overthowl evil overlord.

[LucianG]

nccdee,

I hadn't thought of Cliffhanger in years! If I remember correctly, that show was cancelled and none of the serials was concluded, the near ultimate cliffhanger. There were a couple that may have been worse, though. In the season finale of Crime Story, the plane with most all of the main characters crashed. The next fall, I looked and looked for the show and finally discovered that it had been cancelled! The other was the season finale of Space: Above and Beyond, where most of the crew was apparently killed in a series of actions. That was a good sci-fi show killed before its time.

L

[Ioraptor]

All I remember of Cliff Hangers was a scene of Dracula running through a cemetary as the sun rises, smoke streaming from his form. I remember liking him though, like he was the hero of the show.... Oh, yeah, and a scene of a elevator decending down a cliff wall......that must have been "Invisible Empire".
There were cowboys in that one also, right?

[Ioraptor]

Oh cool, I am a 'shuttle pilot' now. When can I get an Avatar?

How about "V"? Or should I say"V"?The miniseries was really pretty good at first, but I think they changed writers and it sort of went down the toilet. And the TV series was just awful--my wife and I would complain each week that ANOTHER major character got killed off. But the original miniseries was pretty cool.

[gmd3d]

Yeah V was great and the main leads were very good, but I have not seen it in years When did it come out the 80s 0r 90s I can't remember.

[Rowan]

1983 according to my tapes

[gmd3d]

thanks Rowan, your the best

[Rowan]

Originally Posted by Ioraptor

Jason of Star Command reminded me of its precurser series;
"Space Academy."
https://users.snowcrest.net/fox/SA/

'Dusting off memories is right!'
Now I know what inspired me to become such a science fiction nut.
It was ALL those fun 70's shows!

OMG OMG OMG I LOVE YOU Ioraptor !!!!
I had these vague memories of a few shows that I loved that came out and dissapeared so fast and this was one of them but for the life of me I could not remember the name of it or anything that would help me track it down!

Rowan happy

[gmd3d]

Originally Posted by Ioraptor

Oh cool, I am a 'shuttle pilot' now. When can I get an Avatar?

Check out (Forum Info and Feedback) the answers are there that how i found out about it, you can down load a picture from your pc as I have you can use mspaint to shink your picture or photoshop to fit the requirments of the site.

[Gemini1999]

Originally Posted by nccdee

FYI: When Space Academy was canceled, they took the set and used it for Jason of Star Command. Also, the Space Academy space shuttle was also used for Ark II (all made by the same production company).

Nccdee -

I remembered reading this bit of info in your post, but I forgot about it. I was watching my recordings of Ark II earlier this week and I had always remembered Ark II being broadcast previous to Space Academy. When I watched Space Academy, I noticed the strong design similarity between the Ark and the Seeker.

It was indeed Ark II that was produced first. Ark II was broadcast in 1976 and Space Academy in 1977 - both were productions of Filmation. The Ark and the Ark Roamer were built by the Brubaker Group - the Roamer was a customized design taken from the Brubaker "Box", which was a garage-built minivan design based off a VW chassis. When the Brubaker Group, built the Ark vehicle for the series, the external body component were built in fibreglass modular segments. When Ark II ceased production after its single season, the modular segments were removed from the wheeled chassis used so the Ark could be driven and were re-used for the Seeker in Space Academy.

This was a great cost-saving production move which was repeated when Jason of Star Command went into production and re-used the sets, models and some SFX shots from Space Academy.

It's amazing what info there is on the web, considering the fact that these shows were produced 25 years ago and were made for Saturday Morning viewing.....

Best,
Bryan
________
EASY VAPE 2011 REVIEW

I have run across references to an Australian show called "Phoenix 5". It was produced in the late 70s. It seemed to be a Star Trek type show where the characters cruise the universe saving the day. It seems to have been on for one year and has never (to my knowlege) been released in the United States. Has anyone ever seen this show? I am really curious to hear what this show was all about.

[thomas7g]

regarding Phoenix 5 I found this

<LI>"Phoenix Five" A low budget Australian sci-fi program, borrowing considerably from "Star Trek" except they apparently missed the good stuff. The 'Phoenix 5' is a ship in the Earth Space Control Fleet, crewed by Captain Roke, Ensign Adam Hargraves, Cadet Tina Culbrick, and Carl the Computeroid.

• 'Spark from a Dying Fire' Adam and Tina fall under the hypnotic influence of sparks from a dangerously destructive asteroid and start fighting.
  

[martok2112]

Originally Posted by gunnerk19

Anyone remember the old 80's series "Quark"? It was cheesy, but funny nonetheless

I definitely remember that show. Richard Benjamin played Captain Quark, who commanded a garbage scow in space. I think he had two uber-babe twins (blondes) in his crew...and the weapons they used were called "Gamma Guns".

Funny show for its short run. Was on when I was but a wee laddie.

Ahh...reminiscin'
Martok2112

[martok2112]

Ahhhh....we be goin' back into me youth! ARGHHH!!!!

I loved Jason of Star Command...it was the more militaristic of the two Saturday morning shows. Starfires were the coolest. I remember, as a kid, doing a hand drawn comic of Jason of Star Command, where Star Command was engaged in pitched battle against Drago's flagship. Starfires fought Dragon fighters.

As I recall, I think JoSC had a couple of fairly decent space battles itself. Both it and Space Academy sported surprisingly good Visual effects for their time as Saturday morning fare. (Effects that some reports stated were comparable to some of the big screen sci-fi of that era) The sound effects, of course, were stock Saturday morning cartoon fare. But I always loved the sound of hearing a Starfire or Seeker fire up their engines.

Jason of Star Command was the spin-off to Space Academy, first starting out as a mini-show (usually only 15 minutes long) on a montage Saturday morning show which also sported an animated version of Isis with a couple of other heroes. It eventually got to become its own stand alone half-hour sci fi adventure show. (In fact, it seemed to do so well that there would be advertisements played at night for an upcoming Saturday show.)

Ahhhh....me youth,
Martok2112 (can a brotha git a minit?)

[martok2112]

Originally Posted by Ioraptor

Luckily that issue was left behind when we discovered a more serious topic argueing over which animal was more intelligent; a chimp or a dog. My friend was such a dork, everyone knows a chimp is more intelligent. Duh.

"Did you know that pigs is smarter'n dogs?"
Casey Siemasko to Emilio Estevez in YOUNG GUNS , 1987

Irreverently,
Martok2112

[martok2112]

Originally Posted by Krystal

Yeah I love the series and Man From Atlantis too.

Krystal

Voyagers was a pretty cool show.
Meeno Peluce used to play the rogue kid in the television series of the Bad News Bears. And Jon Erik Hexum went on to play a Soldier of Fortune in some long forgotten action show that used Bonnie Tyler's "Hero" as the theme song. Jon Erik Hexum killed himself accidentally when he was playing Russian Roulette with a pistol that was supposed to be loaded with blanks. Sad news.

Originally Posted by nccdee

Does anyone remember Cliff Hanger (1979). It was a primetime three serial one hour show.

Cliff Hanger: Curse of Dracula - Dracula is a College Professor, teaching European history in California. Von Helsing grandson is on the hunt for the famed vampire.

Cliff Hanger: Stop Susan William - Journalist investigates her brother's death and travels the world to find the murderer.

Cliff Hanger: Secret Empire - Old West Marshal chases bank robbers and find underground civilization. He helps rebel overthowl evil overlord.

Ya know, it's funny, I was trying to remember the name of that montage show. It was okay. Secret Empire was my favorite because of its stylistic approach. Black and White in the Cowboy world above, and full color in the high tech underground world. Sound effects taken from Battlestar Galactica for the Secret Empire's high tech weaponry..


Ahhhh.. ...Dancin' in the dark, walkin through the park, and reminiscin''
Martok2112

Hurry don't be late...I can hardly wait, I said ------oops...sorry, breakin out into song there.

[Lexx-2]

I'm Australian, and I hadn't heard of Pheonix Five until I read about it in a British book! Given that it was made so long ago (1976, I believe?) it'll either be rotting in a vault somewhere, or it was wiped long ago (ABC did that with a lot of their shows, as did many Aussie channels, as sales and rerun potential for local shows was pretty limited back then). I'd love to see it if it does exist though!

Sad thing tends to be that unless a local show ran a long time, it usually doesn't get rerun. Even on cable.

Oh and shout outs to Brimstone, S: AAB and Crusade!

[Rowan]

Originally Posted by Bijou88

I have run across references to an Australian show called "Phoenix 5". It was produced in the late 70s. It seemed to be a Star Trek type show where the characters cruise the universe saving the day. It seems to have been on for one year and has never (to my knowlege) been released in the United States. Has anyone ever seen this show? I am really curious to hear what this show was all about.

I found 3 web sites that give a bit of detail about the show.



https://www.magicdragon.com/UltimateSF/tv.html https://us.imdb.com/title/tt0198205/

https://www.podster.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/bots_film/botstv_p.html

[nccdee]

Someone mention "Quark"...here a really good website on the show. https://www.snowcrest.net/fox/quark/ Have fun down memory lane.

Jason of Star Command...Jame "Scotty" Doohan played Commander Canarvin, I like he was the Chief Engineer

nccdee

[PingPongBallEye]

Wow, does this thread bring back memories (some of which should have just stayed buried in my subconscious where they belonged!) But four pages in and no props for The Greatest American Hero? ("Quick, Ralph, put on the suit!")

In the category of Saturday a.m. stuff I'd have to add in Land of the Lost. For a Krofft kiddie show it was very well done and rather high-concept. They did a remake a few years back but it wasn't very good, IMHO.

[thomas7g]

Oh I loved that show! I thought it was alot of fun! Poor Ralph and his horrible flying. If only he could find and KEEP that book!

[Rowan]

https://www.dwmdesigns.com/GAHANIM.html

[PingPongBallEye]

Thanks, Rowan! After listening to my Bengals get crushed by the Falcons for the last 2.5 hours, I needed a chuckle!