I wished they would have kept the tv shows “Space 1999” and “UFO” as well as the saturday morning “Space Academy”.
lol!!!
Clearly, we define “leading man” differently. His career before Planet of the Apes was characterized by leading roles in El Cid, Ben Hur and Touch of Evil. His career after–you don’t share my low opinion of Omega Man and Soylent Green, I’m not sure we have a common referent to discuss this–was characterized by SeaQuest 2032 and Dynasty.
No. Not a single non-nerd I’m aware of watched all five Planet of the Apes movies. I don’t think you know what the word means. Such an action defines nerds.
True. I remember.
So let’s go to Wal-Mart or any comic shop right now, and you can show me all the 2001 tie ins and merchandise and books and so forth.
I can still watch the first three Star Wars movies, and I still enjoy the old ST:TOS shows.
I adored Space Academy, and its sequel, Jason Of Star Command, when it was new. I recently found and bought both series on DVD. They do NOT hold up well, and very much qualify as part of the wave of Space Crap that came out to capitalize on Star Wars Fever.
Some have the oomph to become legend. Some do not. But I will agree with some who say that while some parts (ST:TOS, Star Wars: A New Hope) have it… some parts (Nemesis, ST5, the Star Wars prequels)… do not.
Some people seem to think I’m saying either that there was no SF before Trek and Wars, or that there was no merchandising. I said no such thing, nor did I mean it. One of the funniest things I’ve ever seen is a Space Patrol segment where the show was apparently running a bit long, and the stars of the show are shilling a space helmet that can be had with cereal box tops, and they’re obviously making it up as they go along to desperately fill the airtime until we cut to something else…
There was sf. But it wasn’t on demand, and short of buying a projector or Selectavision, depending on your time frame, very little of it was available when you wanted it. Trek and Wars managed this through sheer ubiquity and demand.
THAT’s what I’m saying.
Just this weekend, I Roku-ed a couple of eps of Space 1999. For what it’s worth, it’s held up pretty well for a show of its era. The costumes look silly, and the FX are low end, but the pacing, the diolog, the character interaction, all were decent. The premise? Eh… Needed talking apes.
Lucas started the flooding the market with product stuff. Before SW there was relatively little ST stuff around - my point was that it was on the order of 2001 stuff, with a few more books.
The question is whether all the shlock is a good thing. I’m really quite fine with 2001 stuff limited to interesting stuff like Richter’s memoir. I don’t really need Bowman and his wise-cracking sidekick Hal running around the solar system fighting crime.
And again, importance is not measured by shelf space in WalMart.
Which episodes? Did you watch it when it was new? I find one’s appreciation of S1999 depends a lot on which eps they see first. Episodes like Dragon’s Domain make you want to come back for more, eps like Missing Link make you go “what the hell was that”?
True. But I would argue that it’s a pretty major sign of societal impact.
And having grown up around the same time as ST and 2001, I remember the impact made by each one. And I recall a hell of a lot more ST still lying around in 1976 than there was 2001. If you found a Pan Am Space Clipper in a store in '76, it was because it had been sitting there gathering dust since '69. If you saw a USS Enterprise, it was because the AMT corporation was making more money off it than it was off any of their other products, and it had likely rolled off the line last Tuesday.
And as long as I’m yammering about societal impact, y’notice how you don’t see a whole lot of ET stuff any more?
Between 1982 and 1985, I literally could not go from my house to my job without seeing ET, either on a billboard, a Happy Meal, an ad, a commercial, or some damn thing or other. And yet, with the wave of 80s nostalgia, you don’t see ET, arguably one of the most impactful films of the eighties.""
And yet, the other day at Target, I saw action figures from Big Trouble In Little China, of all things.
No, shelf space and merch depth does not equal quality, nor is it the best measure of a film or TV series. But it can sure give you a hell of an idea how many people remember it…
I define leading man as being the lead actor in a film. The fact that he was the lead man in a number of high-profile films* (and at age 50) after his Sci-fi trilogy just adds more credence to him not being as ‘has-been’
*Midway
Earthquake
Airport 75
Yeah, they’re bloated or disaster films. No, he didn’t get the lead in films like “The Sting”, cause like I said, he was fifty. But they were money makers and seen by millions.
Then there’s the leads in the other Sci-fi films I mentioned, James Brolin, Richard Benjamin, Hal Holbrook, Bruce Dern, Elliot Gould. Those guys weren’t washed up at the time and were fairly hot property when they made their films.
If the right project came along, I could see a Redford or Newman signing on. It’s not like they didn’t sign on for dubious western or disaster films.
There have been movies I thought Samuel L. Jackson in where I thought he was brilliant, and there have been some I thought were not so hot.
But I would hesitate to call him washed up just because he was in “The Phantom Menace.” Even though I didn’t much care for the movie.
If anything, Star Wars dumbed down Sci-Fi films.
Soylent Green
Rollerball
THX-1138
A Boy and his Dog
Silent Running
Dark Star
2001
Those are some plodding films there. Most of which are cult high-concept films.
Yeah, I saw them new. I saw TOS new. :eek:
Watched the first three eps of season one. I decided to think about overall entertainment instead of my usual hyper alert nitpickery.
You ARE ancient! I had to wait for syndication in 1970.
Do you remember the dinosaurs?
Thems was good eatin!
Let Star Wars and Star Trek Die
[William Shatner]
Then LET them die!
[/dismissive hand gesture]
You Klingon BASTARD! You’ve Killed My SON!
NM
I have no response to that