A new month, a new Celluloid Heroes update, this time taking us to the summer of 1979 and the Canadian theatrical release of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. This movie would of course spawn two seasons of the cult Sci-Fi tv series, Introduce a generation of 70s and 80s kids to Gil Gerard, Twiki, Dr. Theopolis, New Chicago, and my first ever TV crush, the luminous – and I mean it – Erin Gray as Wilma Deering.
Like Battlestar Galactica the year previous, the edited TV pilot of Buck Rogers played a brief run in Canadian Cinemas in the spring of 1979, and proved to be enormously profitable for NBC Universal, so much so Buck the TV show was already a hit before ever airing its first of two seasons worth of episodes.
The late 1970s were a strange time for cinema. Case in point: the pre-show short film. Sometimes we got some great National Film Board of Canada short cartoons like The Log-Driver’s Waltz:
And Ernie Fosselius’ classic spoof Hardware Wars which played before the main feature screening of Buck Rogers that I attended:
And this was also one of the last times you’d ever have to see Disney’s infamous and still very controversial Song of the South in cinemas:
So please me on a journey into the 46-years past world of 1979, and a leap forward into the 25th Century, with Celluloid Heroes Episode Four:
Play us off, Twiki:
I loved Buck Rogers and Battlestar Galactica when they aired back in the 1970s and you’re right as you say in the podcast that just having these fun space adventures on weekly TV expanded our imaginations and gave us something to play act at in the schoolyard and in the neighborhood. I remember being quite upset when Galactica was cancelled as I think it was better than Buck overall, though Buck had some amazing guest stars like Jamie Lee Curtis and Jack Palance!
Hey Brad – great episode and great show. I caught Buck on TV when it first aired and have very fond memories of it. I never new it played in Canadian movie theaters though so you guys had one up on us down in the US. I definitely have a fondness for the Buck Rogers theme music and song, same as I love the Battlestar Galactica theme as well. Do you collect movie soundtracks at all? I would imagine you do.
David – I have a fondness for the Buck Rogers theme music and the title song “Suspension” by Kipp Lennon” as well. I had planned to incorporate music from my vast soundtrack collection throughout the podcast but because of copyright issues, particularly on YouTube. I couldn’t use music from 2001, Star Wars, Battlestar, Buck, and subsequent movies as much as I would have liked to. Strangely if those songs/music are present in an audio clip from a trailer that’s okay, but I can’t use the actual music. In the 2001 episode I actually had to source a public domain version of The Blue Danube because I initially used the one from the 2001 soundtrack, and the copyright of it became an issue. But thanks for listening and writing!
Mike – I received the complete Buck Rogers on Blu-Ray a couple of Christmases ago and the first regular episode of the series – a 2-parter – had both Jack Palance and Roddy McDowall as guests, Jamie Lee, Sid Haig, Dorothy Stratten, and a lot of guests on that show which made it a cavalcade of late 70s celebrity.