Misfits of Science (1985-86). Class Dismissed.
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- čas přidán 5. 08. 2024
- #80stv #80s #vaultofalmost
Stam Fine Reviews looks at a short lived 80s series Misfits of Science (created by James D. Parriot) was a show that channeled some of the energy of Ghostbusters by having whacky scientists working with people with super powers. An adventure series with a slightly absurd sense of humour, Misifts is fairly different to its contemporaries and perhaps a little ahead of its time.
Stars: Dean Paul Martin, Kevin Peter Hall, Mark Thomas Miller, Courteney Cox, Max Wright, Jennifer Holmes, Diana Civita.
0:00 Introduction
0:37 Origins and the Pilot
6:40 Characters
12:58 Weekly Series Episodes
22:42 Legacy - Zábava
This one was really special to me when I was 13. I saw the pilot once when it aired. I kept coming back each week for a long while.
Then it was gone.
Same here, age and everything. I most remember it just disappearing.
misfits blew me away when it came out, from the great opening, to the effects, to cox, who i fell in love with as a 13 year old as well. way ahead of its time.. couldnt wait till the next episode... it partially failed because every few weeks some weird event happened so it wasnt shown in its time slot...I kept thinking it was cancelled..then it would reappear.. craziest thing I ever saw on tv for a show. It was almost as if some executive was deliberately trying to sabotage it.
6:25 Joke's on you. Stetmeyer secretly had a cat-eating alien living in his laundry room, so herding cats wasn't really a big challenge to him.
Misfits of Science was an amazing show before its time. It played like a fun X-Men movie. Again, had it come out a few years later it would have been a super major hit. This show was amazing.
Courteny Cox as Gloria Dinallo Rocks.
As a teenager at the time I had a serious crush on her.
I just had a real "Holy Cow! Is that Courteney Cox???" moment. I guess I just subconsciously assumed she jumped directly from the Springsteen video to "Family Ties" to "Ace Ventura."
@@colormedubious4747 And Masters of the Universe 1987 live action movie. :)
@@Carnivius_Prime I completely forgot about that one. Not her role, but that the entire movie even exists. ;)
@@colormedubious4747 eh it's a fun enough movie especially given the low budget and the production issues (the infamous Cannon films). Dolph does fine with what he has and certainly looks the part. Him as He-Man, and Frank Langella and Meg Foster as Skeletor and Evil-Lyn have proven very popular with MotU fans including myself. I have the recent Masterverse action figures of these three. :D
Also it's kinda amusing that the Sorceress in that film, Christina Pickles, went on to play Monica and Ross Geller's mother in Friends. I like to think Courteney and Christina had a fun lil reuninon like "oh yeah we did that He-Man movie and now we're mother and daughter?" :)
but yeah it's a bit of a 'cult classic'. :)
I loved this show as a kid. Courtney was so beautiful in this show. I was about 8 years old and had a crush on her 😅
I was a comic-obsessed teen when this show hit the airwaves, and yes, I loved it simply because it was the closest thing to a superhero TV show that my 14-year-old self had seen up to that point.
Courteney Cox as Gloria Dinallo blinded me with science… SCIENCE!!!!
Beep bop boop
Loved Misfits! So sad that it didn't get the support and writing that it needed.
I loved that show back in the 80's when I was a kid.
She was a cutie and her power had the coolest effects
They really had it tough in that pilot, going up against not only Frank Burns, but Colonel Flagg, too!
I think the movies Real Genius and Weird Science were more of an inspiration than Ghostbusters though those two movies and Misfits all came out in 1985. I figure someone at the TV studio said, "we got two movies coming out about crazy science stuff, let's develop a show along the same lines."
And "My Science Project" too. I think "Revenge of the Nerds" was the spark that led to the whole craze. (If anyone is interested in checking these out... I'll just say that "Real Genius" was the good one.)
It may have only ran for one season but it always stuck with me. A truly fun part of my childhood Friday nights. Even now I remember the theme tune, the tv getting kicked off its stand and of course 'Goodnight Bunnies!'
Stam Fine's channel has a way of digging up those old shows that had completely slipped out of your memory and make you go "ooooooooooohhhh, yeah..."
It's wonderful--makes us children of the early 80s feel like we are temporarily evading our early-onset senility.
Criminally underrated show. Not groundbreaking but way better than it has any right to be. The chemistry of the main cast def helps
I loved watching this show back in the day and was sad when it was ended so quickly.
Could you cover Beauty and the Beast? It was the quintessential '80s fantasy/romance/adventure series, complete with Ron Perlman in beastface and Linda Hamilton as his above-ground love interest. The intro alone made it worth watching: "He lives in a secret world, safe from hate and harm. And though we cannot be together. . . (music swells) we will never be apart." The underground sets were actually quite impressive.
I'm rewatching that at the moment, having watched quite a few eps back when it first aired. Such a good show (at least for the first two seasons), and the makeup work for Vincent is still incredible.
@@SonicAlpha Where has it disappeared to? I see so many videos on retro shows, especially from the '80s which was such a rich time for fantasy/adventure, often enjoyably cheesy. But no one talks about BATB any more. And yes, it DID jump the shark when Catherine had a baby and then promptly died. But I think they did it deliberately to wind the show up and have it not just end in mid-air.
@@ferociousgumby I rarely see anyone mentioning it either, perhaps due to its limited run it's slipped under the radar for most?
I haven't seen it aired on tv in about 20 years, and even then it was heavily edited because (for some reason) it was put on during the day, despite being somewhat violent in places. This was the first time I'd seen it anywhere since it's initial airing too (at least in my region).
I'm glad I was able to pick it up on DVD, it's been fantastic so rewatch it again after so many years 😊
I loved this show!
I had the pilot on VHS as a kid, all I remember is Kim Wilde's GO FOR IT playing
This is one of the ones I mention and people think I am making it up ' "No, it has Frank from MASH, the dad from Alf and Courtney Cox in it and it really happened!" and they look at you like you're mad.
I had never heard of this show, but the clips you showed demonstrated good chemistry between the cast. I agree that it had potential, a shame it got cancelled before they really nailed its identity
Never heard of it but it looks a show 12 year old me would have loved.
Another programme I want to see thanks to Stam Fine 😅
Its shows like this that deserve reboots.
I have the video trailer for this burned into my brain. Just like with the pilot of Greatest American Hero, I thought this only existed as a standalone movie (even as a kid I kind of knew it felt like an intro to a series - just without the series). Then as I got older I was pleasantly surprised to learn both this and GAH had whole series' to discover...
Just like other commenter's, the fact that the movie had people with superpowers made it a must for me. Back in the day, if you were comic book fan, there weren't too many options.
Courtney will always be the girl from Misfits and He-Man to me. _"'Friends'? Oh, you mean that show with the girl from 'Misfits of Science'?"_
Same here, never a Friends fan, but I loved how Glo used her powers to embarrass the mean girls in the mall.
Loved Misfits of science, Auto man, and Manimal.
Never seen it but a nice recap. Thanks.
I remember El wearing the Michael Jackson outfit and I think there was a joke about, "Okay, but why do you have to wear the glove?" Misfits seemed to get too easily dismissed as "Oh, it's another crap '80's genre show" by adults but as a kid I loved it and and as an adult now I respect that a lot of the people involved were trying to make something good. Even Max Wright.
misfits blew me away when it came out, from the great opening, to the effects, to cox, who i fell in love with as a 13 year old. way ahead of its time.. couldnt wait till the next episode... it partially failed because every few weeks some weird event happened so it wasnt shown in its time slot...I kept thinking it was cancelled..then it would reappear.. craziest thing I ever saw on tv for a show. It was almost as if someone was deliberately trying to sabotage it.
I remember so little about this series. I remember Billy pretending to be Crockett and Gloria suspending two of her coworkers over a hot grill. I guess the show did not leave much of an impression on me.
This wasn't shown here in the UK and, oh dear, I was already too old for its target viewer range.
Watched this in the 80’s in the UK where the pilot was distributed as a movie rental. Loved it!
Your description of Billy's character seems very reminiscent of many of the actor's dad:s roles.
Please do The Invisible Man tv series, 2000-2002. Hard to find on DVD, the second season was not released. I wish both couple be remastered released in original widescreen format.
Did well in Belgium of al places. Was even repeated a few times. Maybe that led to the European DVD.
I loved that series! Had a serious crush on Gloria back in the day :-)
I was like 12 and hooked but the show got real hard to find on the schedule and so I'm sure I've not even seen everything broadcast. That pilot was great though.
Thx for unearthing this series .. I’m fairly certain it didn’t come to a channel near me at the time. If you need more humour-riddled sci-fi than can I recommend Hyperdrive .. not many episodes but the structure and delivery are excellent IMHO.
Never knew about this show. Would have been about 8 when it was on.
It looks really good, clever for it's time. 👍🤘
I loved this show! Thanks for doing the review!
There are a lot of familiar faces in this short lived series, both past and future.
15:03 Wow yeah, that really is Dean "I know Kaiju... really" Devlin. This is almost as funny as the time I saw the guy in MST3k's "City Limits" episode.
20:10 Julius Carry?! Lord Bowler himself!! It's only a matter of time before Stam gets to Adventures of Brisco County Jr. Sho nuff!
Luved "Misfits of Science" back in the day! Think it also borrowed elements from "Fantastic Four" and "The X-Men" as well. It had clever writing, with great performances and spfx... shame it didn't have a longer run!
- Chris
..."Like sniffing paint with lead in it"...😂
LOVED Misfits of Science. Still do. Taped every episode (that's right).
This was such a great show, especially for the time. It's no wonder NBC killed it (because 1980s NBC was pretty antithetical to good television).
I remember that it was hard to watch because they kept on moving it around the schedule.
Thanks for the memories!
This seems like an inspiration for Mike Mignola's B.P.R.D.
Awesome as always ❤
Yes yes yes - Courtney Cox starred in Friends but who cars - she also starred in Cougar Town and Scream - those were two much better roles!
4:59 Johnny ⚡️ was my fav character 22:19 broke my heart had no idea he was dean martin’s son and heard about the crash on the news, but I thought a new episode of misfits would play on tv.
0:20 - is that where they got the idea for "Mystery Men" (1990) ?
I liked Misfits of Science, it was cool.
Omg. I had entirely forgotten this show!
Have you done Riptide?
i could have sworn you had already covered this... oh well, bonus!
I would watch "Aliens vs Webster". Also this lovely show featured Major Burns & Col. Flagg from M.A.S.H.-fame. Definitely belongs in the Stam Fine Vault of Almost
Loved this show.
Is it on streaming anywhere?
I enjoyed the show and was very disappointed when it disappeared from the airwaves... I liked Automan and Street Hawk too...
Not shown in the UK i do not think, so never saw or heard of it. Looks a bit wacky, is that correct?
Never even heard of this series
I never saw The Invisible Man :)
5:49 "K-9!" 😆
Was this ever broadcast in the UK? I don't remember it at all, and I was TV show obsessed during the 80s ...
Please can you do a video on Space 1999. It seems like your territory. X
I keep thinking that Craif Sheffer played Johnny. Maybe this is a Mandella Effect. Nah, I'm just wrong.
Great gags anyway!
tHiS lOoKs GreAt! I also have a fever.
Never even heard of this show...
2:50 - Like "The Tomorrow People" ?
21:02 Interesting leathers in the background
Monica's college years are weird...
What I’m mostly taking away from this is that if I had encountered 20 year old Courtney Cox before seeing Friends, Jennifer Aniston would not have been my crush on that show 😍
I always wanted to do a Fanfiction about a new Misfits of Science using Carrie White from Carrie who had a better life and didn't freak out, Charlie McGee from Firestarter grown into a mid-teen, and a young Chinese American woman who had a 'Language Power' including Computer Languages which her a 'Super Hacker' and was a Martial Arts expert on top of that. So, a Telekinetic, Pyrokinetic (also fiery speed), and a really Smart Kung Fu expert. Unfortunately, I never could come up with a decent plot so I never tried. It just seemed like a good idea.
Hey that Dude with the speaking scene in prison looks familiar! Wasn't he in Deep Space 9?
Is it me or was there a blink and you'll miss it appearance by the late James Laurenson? He was from New Zealand, mainly worked in the UK, has 116 credits on IMDB (including playing Nikolai in Episode 11 of this series) and is probably best know to "Stam Fire" viewers for playing Hector Ross in 5 episodes of "Sharpe".
Or familiar to many as Pinks father in 'The Wall'
@@SamLowryDZ-015 Fair enough. In my defence I've not seen "The Wall" but I was another brick in it.
Loved this show as a kid. But it seemed whenever I found a creative show to watch they pulled it in favor of boring drama series.
I was int he NAV when this had its first run.
I loved it at the time. Especially whining but softhearted Stepmeijer. A recent rewatch of the pilot however left me a bit unimpressed. Maybe I actually loved the regular episodes more. Or I simply grew up. 😁
The full Misfits of Science theme was posted to CZcams a few years ago, and as mentioned in the video is an absolute BANGER: czcams.com/video/bjq-LAqakHw/video.html
I don't think this was ever on in the UK.
Why so many Ghostbusters sequels/reboots and not a single Misfits of Science movie?
FOREVER KNIGHT is Legend.
Monica is Carrie :)
I liked this show as a kid. I used to read the TV guide, and I remember not seeing it one week, then the next. That happened a lot. Guess I just had bad taste in TV shows.
👍👍👍📺
I can totally see Matthew Perry in the lead role
ceti alpha 5 or ceti alpha 4?
Before I knew about the X-men, I watched this.
This is the first Stam video where I have never even heard of the subject, let alone seen it. Maybe it wasn't on here...
Where are you based?
@@TheNightBadger UK.
Ah... I don't think it was aired over here. The pilot was available as a video rental (though people renting it wouldn't have known it was a pilot - it was just released as a movie).
Oh no...the dad.from ALF.
👌
Kevin Peter Hall was The Predator, THE PREDATOR.
And Harry in Harry and the Hendersons.
1:39 MEENO PELUCI!
The name of this show makes it sound like its gonna be a horror anthology with science as the conceit...
But then i realize I'm thinking of another show...isnt there a spin off of showtime's "Masters of Horror" based around science?
Aliens vs. Webster, ROTFLMAO.
Kevin Peter Hall. The Predator.
10:55 It's wiff-waff! Get the name right.
Courtney Cox just sooooooooo cute. Out of the 4 women in The Friends cast she was by the far the best looking.
Ice man disappearing nothing to do with a cease and disist from marvel I'm sure
I vaguely recall this series as a kid. Specifically, I remember the guy that could shrink himself.
How did Johnny B take a shower or even wash his hands if he couldn't be near water? Are you telling he never bathed? It's kind of gross if you think about it.