Tuesday, August 25, 2009

1978 "The Time Machine" TV remake

(Click to enlarge.)

Clipped from the November 4-10 1978 TV Guide. I was always a fan of George Pal's "The Time Machine," so it was with a skeptical eye that I watched this new made-for-tv version that Sunday. I even taped the audio, which I still have in a drawer somewhere with hundreds of old cassettes I can't bring myself to throw away. I shouldn't have bothered taping it, though, because it lived down to my low expectations and more.
These clippings still made it into my scrapbook, however, and they exist as proof that this telefilm did indeed exist. Did you ever see it, and if so, what memories do you have of it? My love for the Pal version probably colored my perception of this movie. For those that saw it when young, not influenced by the earlier film, it could have been something they really liked, I'm sure.


Wiki entry on the 1978 TV movie:
A low-quality TV version was made in 1978, with very unconvincing time-lapse images of building walls being de-constructed, and inexplicable geographic shifting from Los Angeles to Plymouth, Mass., and inland California. John Beck starred as Neil Perry, with Whit Bissell (from the original 1960 movie and also one of the stars of the 1966 television series The Time Tunnel) appearing as one of Perry's superiors. Though only going a few thousand years into the future, Perry finds the world of the Eloi and Morlocks, and learns the world he left will be destroyed by another of his own inventions. The character Weena was played by Priscilla Barnes of Three's Company fame.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Fantastic Films article on Outer Limits

(Click on images to enlarge.)


Scanned from my copy of the 5th issue of "Fantastic Films," published in December of 1978, is an indepth look at one of the most memorable science fiction series to come out of the 60's... which isn't Star Trek. The Outer Limits had a different monster every week, and at my tender age of six, when it first came out, it was too scary for me. Even the commercials would almost make me wet my pants, they were so terrifying! It was a few years later, when it was in rereuns, that I began to appreciate the show, and the delicious chills it brought to my spine. Even today when watching it, it takes me back to when I was 10 years old, watching it at my Grandma's house late at night. It had the best monsters anywhere, even counting the movies. I hope you enjoy this 30-year-old retrospective on this awesome 44-year-old series!

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Logan's Run TV show article



Clipped the day before Halloween in 1977, from the Macon Telegraph's local TV guide. Despite having a pretty cool intro theme, and the involvement of veteran Trek writers David Gerrold and D.C. Fontana, the series never got up to running at full speed and was pretty forgettable. Tooling around in an fugly car --one of the worst-designed sci-fi vehicles ever-- and saddled with a boring robot that would have made Data look like the life of the party, they hit too many potholes in a series that really should have been renamed "Logan's Drive" to be accurate.

Basically a retread of Roddenberry's failed "Genesis II" pilot (survivors travelling around a post-apocalyptic U.S. encountering splinter groups), rather than a real sequel to the theatrical movie, the viewer was left asking "are we there yet?"


Their wheels would have made Buck Rogers lower his thumb and let them drive on by.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

1978 Buck Rogers TV show clipping


Clipped from the Miami Herald on Oct. 15th, 1978.