Remember the BUCK ROGERS TV
show from the '70s? I always considered
GIL GERARD as a twin for LEE MAJORS,
but who cares about them anyway? The show's
main attraction was ERIN GRAY and TWIKI.
However, Twiki was a guy (yes, he's a robot, but
he's a guy robot), so he can't qualify as a 'babe'.
Therefore, it'll have to be Erin. Hope none
of you are too disappointed.
As intellectually stimulating as the episodes ("Planet of the Slave Girls," "Planet of the Amazon Women") were, I still suspect that fans watched it mainly for the hot chicks.
ReplyDeleteErin was pretty, and Pamela Hensley (Princess Ardala) was a fox.
And, yeah, Lee Majors and Gil Gerard were stamped out with the same cookie cutter.
To which I can only say, TC - "Biddi-biddi-biddi!"
ReplyDeleteThe only memory i have of the TV show is watching an episode where Twiki and another robot (Dr Theophilis, maybe?) had their brains transferred into each others bodies.
ReplyDeleteBut the big question is, do you remember Buck Rogers' Burger Bar in Glasgow?
Doesn't ring any bells, DS. Where was it situated? I wasn't into burgers back then, so it's not a place I would've used, hence, perhaps, why I don't immediately recall it.
ReplyDeleteIt was upstairs in a building at the bottom of the west side of Queen Street in Glasgow, near the corner with Argyle Street.
ReplyDeleteIt was like a Wimpy, but with Sci-fi style decor, black walls painted to look like spaceship viewscreens, instrument panels all around the walls that had been built from bits of arcade machines for kids to play with, and a midget dressed in a very accurate Twiki costume who would wander around. The windows were all boarded up too, presumably to give it a nice, dark outer-space ambience.
I was in it twice, i think it must have closed about 1983ish but remember playing with a joystick on the instrument panels and imagining I was flying a spaceship.
I'll be interested to hear if anyone else remembers this!
I just found a blog caked Retromash that has a post with loads of pictures and info about the Buck Rogers burger bar- not sure how to post a link on my phone but I'm sure a Google search will find it.
ReplyDeleteNah, still doesn't ring any bells, DS, but I'm going to Google it right now and take a look at those pictures you mention.
ReplyDeleteTook a look and found it pretty interesting, but still don't remember ever seeing the place or even hearing about it. I have heard people refer to Archaos, and knew it was a nightclub, but was never in it or knew where it was situated. Interesting to see Kevin Devine, as I sort of knew him a bit in the late '80s as he was a pal of someone I knew. Strange to think of all that going on and me being oblivious to it.
ReplyDeleteErin was a babe . Gil Gerard was a chemist who worked on NASA rockets before becoming an actor .
ReplyDeleteMaybe that explains the 'chemistry' between them. Hee hee.
ReplyDeleteI thought she was a blonde....
ReplyDeleteWith looks like that, LH, I'm quite happy to let her be whatever she wants to be.
ReplyDeleteApparently, they had Gil Gerard waiting in the wings to take over in the later seasons, in case Lee Majors' contract/pay demands couldn't be sorted. They did look very similar, but surely it would've had to have been a different character if Gil had stepped in? Monte (7 million dollar man) Markham was the studio's original first choice for the role - and that would've been a completely different show!
ReplyDeleteAs for Buck, I still love that show now - God forbid they ever reboot it for the modern age! Wilma would probably be a frumpish shop steward for Earth Defence (or whatever they were called), and Princess Ardala would be a benefits tourist trying to get a load of Botox for nothing...
Wilma was hot, but Princess Ardala was hotter! She writes cookery books now, I believe (Pamela Hensley, that is) - she's also in the Doc Savage movie!
Well, I dunno, HS. Dick Sargent took over from Dick York in Bewitched (playing the same character) because of his slight resemblance, so I think Gerard could've replaced Majors in the same way - especially as the resemblance was stronger. (I read somewhere that Sargent had been the original choice for Darrin, but was unavailable for some reason, though he got the role in the end.)
ReplyDeleteThe Six Million Dollar Man was originally more like a Bond character in a couple of the pilots, but this was changed for the series. I wish they'd played him more as a superpowered 007.
Hmmm...it was such a massive pop culture thing at the time that I think a lookalikey might've killed the show instantly - as it was, I believe it was Majors' dodgy 'tash that shaved numbers off the viewing figures? Those early Bondesque TV movies are pretty shite - the one possible improvement was having Darren McGavin has his original handler. It's weird watching those early episodes, 'cos all the clichés we associate with the show weren't fully formed yet, so it's feels like an ersatz version although it's the original (if that makes sense?)
ReplyDeleteFor all Buck's 2nd season's faults, I think the 2nd season opener introducing Hawk was a smasher! I've never understood how a show like that can fail so quick? Oh yeah, Star Trek...
I suppose they could have had Gerard play his brother if Majors had left, but it would be stretching coincidence to accept the bruv also requiring bionic parts. I liked the theme tune to the 2nd pilot - "He's the man, six million dollar man - catch him if you can, beat him if you can, love him if you can - six million dollar man!" (or something close to that).
ReplyDeleteI don't remember much about Buck Rogers - only Twiki and Erin - and the fact that the pilot was released in cinemas over here as a movie.
You'd really dig the Bond-style opening song sequence to the pilot film! It's totally it's own thing and a bit of a WTF moment as the kiddies say nowadays!
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised I don't remember it, HS, because I saw the pilot film in my local cinema. I'll see if it's on YouTube.
ReplyDeleteI seem to remember Steve Austin being portrayed as a playboy and womanizer in some of the early made-for-TV movies. That seemed to get dropped when it became a regular one-hour weekly series. Maybe they realized that a high percentage of the show's fans were kids.
ReplyDeleteAlso, IMHO, Majors didn't really do the James Bond/Simon Templar/Matt Helm shtick very well. He was no Sean Connery or Roger Moore. He was not even Dean Martin.
IIUC, Buck Rogers was planned as a TV series, but the movie/pilot episode got shown in theaters, to cash in on the space opera fad generated by the success of Star Wars.
I think when they did the series, TC, they returned it to the mood of the first pilot, but I'd still have liked to see it continue more in the theme of the 2nd and 3rd pilots.
ReplyDeleteAs for Buck, I think they did the same with Battlestar Galactica - released the pilot abroad (with some added sfx) first - mainly, as you say, because of the success of Star Wars. For all I know, they may even have released the pilot as a movie in the US as well.
The Buck Rogers and Battlestar Galactica pilots were both shown in theaters in the US in 1979, although the distribution may have been limited.
ReplyDeleteSome Man From U.N.C.L.E. two-part episodes were edited into feature-length movies, and were released theatrically in Europe. Don't know offhand if they were ever shown in theaters in the US, but they turned up on American TV fairly often, usually in the late night time slots.
Similarly, a couple of two-part episodes of The Baron were edited into features, and may have been shown in theaters in Europe.
I've got some of the Man From U.N.C.L.E. 'films' - extra footage was shot specially for some of them (The Spy With My Face, for example). I never saw any of them in cinemas, but they were shown on BBC TV in the '70s (and no doubt have been shown since). Two double episodes of The Saint were also combined into a couple of movies, which I have on my Saint DVD box set.
ReplyDelete