Logan's Run: The Series. Short, but Sweet.
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- čas přidán 1. 07. 2021
- #LogansRun #ScienceFictionTV #retroTV #VaultOfAlmost
Stam Fine exhumes the TV series version of Logan's Run, an adaptation of the movie, which was itself an adaptation of a book. It ran for 14 episodes from late 1977, but I somehow have vague memories of it and decided to look at it with a fresh perspective. Logan (Gregory Harrison) is an ex-Sandman who escape from the City of Domes with Jessica (Heather Menzies), while being hunted by Logan's former buddy, Francis. Except now Logan and Jessica now have a car and a robot buddy.
Was Logan's Run unjustly curtailed by ratings-hungry networks, or was the show just not good enough to continue? The answer lies in this video. Unless of course this video is just full of lies.
Update: There are some great suggestions in the comments for other short lived series to cover in future videos! TV pilots and short lived shows in the Vault of 'Almost.' We've made a playlist of the shortlived shows covered on this channel
• Stam Fine's Vault of ...
Buy Logan's Run from Amazon
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Ark II!
Premiered in 1976, only had 15 episodes, and I saw it when I was a kid as part of the Sat morning line up, sometime in the 80s. It was on right before Hanna-Barbera's Thundarr the Barbarian cartoon, which is still a guilty pleasure of mine.
"Do you have memories of a short-lived TV show that you liked, but only you seem to remember?"
Yes, "Otherworld", an American science fiction television series that aired for eight episodes from January 26 to March 16, 1985 on CBS. It started with a family visiting one of the Egyptian pyramids, and during a once-every-ten-thousand-year alignment of the planets, they are transported to another world not unlike our own. It was described as "Lost in Space, on Earth".
The Logan’s Run series also had the same feel as Fantastic Journey. Endlessly wandering around and helping someone else at each town or settlement you came across all the while delaying your own quest.
One series recycled the unused scripts from the other. I don't remember which came first.
Agreed. But hey, Fantastic Journey had Roddy McDowell as a costar and D.C. Fontana as Story Editor.. Also, look at "Otherworld" in the '80s...similar concept.
@@tamaraclaw Also the Planet of the Apes TV series had a similar theme with the fugitives travelling from settlement to settlement helping someone out.
Most, if not all of these "lost dog" shows quickly ran out of ideas, ran out of steam, and quickly went nowhere fast.
@@evertonporter7887 I like the term “lost dog” for that kind of show, whether the characters are trying to find the lost dog (in which case the show cannot last beyond the eventual finding of the dog, so we quickly realise it’s never going to happen, and the series will end when it’s cancelled) or the characters themselves are the lost dog, wandering aimlessly.
Never thought as a kid I would end up a runner, but here we are, about to live out this shit for real.
I remember a short lived goofy sci-fi series called Quark. It's one of those blink and you missed it shows from the 70's, but it was a fun watch for a kid.
I saw Quark first run in the Seventies...a good sci-fi comedy!
May the Source be with you. 😏
The original sci-fi parody. Not all of it has dated well, but more jokes still hold up than not.
Pretty sure I watched some episodes of that on YT.
I remember thinking that was one of the funniest things I'd ever seen. It's mostly a Star Trek parody. I re-watched some episodes more recently, and, well, it doesn't hold up, not for me at least. But times change.
does anyone remember "the tomorrow people" - not the remake but the original - its one of the first show i remember seeing when i was a kid
yes but im old too
Yes. Great theme tune.
I was a fan as a kid.
A jaunting we will go!
Yea I loved that as a kid.
Absolutely - racing home from school to watch it. I thought i was soooo cool and wanted to be able to 'jaunt' like my heroes on TV.
This wasn't even on the SciFi Channel back in the day and they re-ran the David McCallum INVISIBLE MAN show (and GEMINI MAN) every six months. I finally caught it on TNT back when it was a pretty awesome cable network. It ran in the summer in the middle of the night which is about fair.
The best thing about the Sci-Fi Channel in the early days was a time slot called Sci-Fi Series Showcase, in which they ran the episodes from science fiction series that had been canceled quickly. Because they had too few episodes, those shows were not viable properties for syndication. So they hadn't been aired since their cancellation, years or even decades earlier. I got to see a few shows that I remembered, and some others that I had never ever known about.
And in the afternoons as filler. That's how I got here.
A short-lived show from the early 80s that I loved before it got cancelled was a series called The Adventures of Matthew Starr. He was a teen kid from space who had a mentor character to guide him who was played by Louis Gossett Jr., who was just coming off winning an Oscar for Officer and a Gentleman. It was right in the middle of the V mini series and Greatest American Hero era of time.
Don't know if you are posting from the UK or another market, but I remember this series as well. Here in the States it was called The Powers of Matthew Starr. 🍺
The Powers of Mathew Starr in the UK. Loved it
My youngest aunt was a high-school teen at the time; she didn't like sci-fi, but she was crushing hard on the young co-star!
I remember that! He was dreamy! 😍
In the pilot Gossett's role was a White guy with a robot multi-tool hand.
Great review of one of my favourite shows from my childhood. It's amazing how short the run was of this show but I still remember it fondly.
Loved this show, the guns, the outfit, Jessicahhhhmn...
Same year, we had The Fantastic Journey starring Galen and Duffy Moon, that guy from here 04:37 the one-seasoner I always thought of whenever Barry Manilow (a work of '70's science fiction all his own;) sang Bermuda Triangle. Logan though was a hit in our house, my mum even named our dog REM, but he died of parvo, or made it to Dog Sanctuary. RIP REM. Love you Mum x
I am so glad you made this comment, I watched this a few hours ago and was thinking to myself what was that 70 Sci-Fi show starring that actor (Jared Martin), so I came back to the video and saw your comment, I had even forgotten he was lusty dusty from Dallas. Thanks for remembering it for me.
I liked the Fantastic Journey early on, but started losing interest when the female member of the team went MIA. I think she had some kind empathic abilities -- and maybe extra strength? Seem to recall she could communicate with her cat. The kid from 'Escape to Witch Mountain', though, got on my nerves.
The premise of the Logan's Run TV show is almost exactly the same as the Planet of the Apes TV show. 2 humans and one non-human are fugitives on the run, finding adventure and excitement (sorta) in each new locale they stumble upon every week. Actually it IS exactly the same premise. But I ate it all up because I loved the movies they were based on.
Yea I was going to something about Planet of the apes tv show.
Same California locations no doubt
@@stephenchappell7512 That dry-grass landscape dotted with oak trees, and the convenient dirt roads, so familiar. Now I'm thinking - Dukes of Hazard, Rockford files, and a lot of 6mill$ Man eps. Very familiar and comforting.
Yup, I finished the POTA series a week ago, currently watching the animated series which has much more of a continuing story. I had watched the Logan's Run series a few months ago and had exactly the same thoughts about the similarities. Logan's Run was fortunate to have D.C. Fontana as the senior writer.
I soo! would have loved to see one of the "Logan's Run" 📺-series !
-Now, that would have been something to see !
Really !!
(I truly love the film, but I can just about imagine a rather good show).
(-Even with 70's production values).
Anyhoo, best regards
from Iceland 🇮🇸
-K.
I remember a show called, "The Magician" with Bill Bixby that I know I liked when I was a kid, but have no solid memories of. Kinda like this Logan's Run TV show... which looks like they filmed the outdoor scenes in the same location that The Lone Ranger, Lash LaRue movies and The Dukes of Hazard were filmed.
I'm 49 now and remember Logan's Run :) i loved it but was very young lol. Great memories.
"You heard right. The Series." Uh, we millions whom saw the series *after* seeing the original movie and loving it, along with the comic-book versions, didn't need to "hear" anything, combat-wombat. 🤣 Then again, we also recall Jason of Star Command (r.i.p. Sid Haig)
Indeed - I am 51 and very clearly remember this series in first run. I just watched the movie with younger friends last Saturday and when it was finished told them there was a TV series and they didn't believe me!
@@tulinfirenze1990 Box was my fave! I shared the film with someone two years ago right before they turned 30, and it tripped them out... became one of their sci-fi treasures!
Ah yes , Jason and his sweet little robot friend :)
Weirdly enough, my entry into the fandom came in the form of filler reruns on TNT (a cable network) in 1990. Catch this, then in a few hours, catch TOS/TNG. It was a fun day when I realized some of the names in the credits matched.
Amen...... Don't forget Ark 2 and Space Academy
I happen to like the pew pew pew.
Brings back the nostalgia. The seventies had lots of great sci-fi shows.
...and also Logan's Run
Too much Woke in every movie the remake now
It was a great time to be a kid!
You are not kidding about the Star Trek connection.
I saw the credits at 5:50, and saw none other than DC Fontana. As much as Gene, she was a driving force behind that show.
I loved this series as a child but it is daft. Every episode they are on a quest to find Sanctuary but never stray very far from the City of Domes, and even return to it a couple of times!
I was sorry to see it get cancelled too as a kid.
The "quest you know won't be resolved this week" was very common at the time though, to be fair.
Even with the android with more personality than the humans, they probably went back and forth more times than they realized... but, yeah, the geographic distance still won't be too great.
I'm more amazed how they leave their oppressed city and find city after city that most of the time are no less oppressed. But week after week of picking berries and going behind the berry bush would get boring a lot quicker too...
@@ian_b
The quest is the quest.
(This comment will only be appreciated by those who get the reference!)
Additional afterthoughts:
1) That is what they should have done making the Lord of the Rings TV adaptation; each self contained story should end with Sam saying "do you think that's the last we've seen of Saruman and his orcs, Frodo?"
"Somehow, I don't think so Sam, but the important thing is we keep up our spirits as we head towards Mount Doom however long it takes!"
You had one job Amazon Prime! This should have been an easy one!
2: Monkey! is another example of this format. No plot development at all after episode two, just "and so our heroes keep travelling..."
I liked the David McCallum Invisible Man series but not many people saw it.
ha ha ha lol... neither did i...
I saw it.. several times
I used to watch it.
You always knew when he was about to go invisible as the quality of picture dipped as they created those sequences on video with chroma key I guess then converted it to film.... badly
My mum and I watched it weekly. We loved it
I’m old enough to remember waiting for this series and watching the pilot, and the full first time run of the show. You are totally spot on mate! The car and the Android stuck out as the best parts! I remember as a kid a reward for good behavior and pulling up my grades, my Mom would drive us by where this vehicle and the one from “ Damnation alley” where parked side by side! She’d drive really slow my face glued to the window scanning every detail 😂
Mark, fun fact:
The actress who played Jessica was one of the VonTrap children in Sound of Music.
Passed the same vehicles on the RTD in 1986!
@@mananimal3644 Yes, I, too, watched the video (3:17).
Fun fact. The actress who played
Brageta has a sister who stared in alien. 💯
Fun fact. Logan’s Run aired at 8:30 CT right after Planet of the apes 🦍💯
Again . . . Outstanding Stan Fine ! 😉👍💫
I was 10 when I first saw this on Aussie TV and yes, I saw the Logan's Run TV series before the movie.
I too was confused 😟🙅♂️ after I watched the official movie and thought.
Wtf . . .🤷♂️🤷♀️
I remember my friends,
(yes . . . we were sci-fi nerds) and I talking about Logan's Run the next day at school.
Then . . . the series just stopped.
Thank the good Lord we had Dr Who before dinner to look forward too, and 'ol faithful' the Six Million Dollar Man on Wednesday's at 7 30 pm on Channel 10 in Sydney, Australia.
From memory, the Logan's Run TV series was on Channel 7 Network at 7 30 pm on Monday evenings.
I think what also hurt 70's SCI-FI tv shows in the ratings was that overall most homes in the 1970s had just one big TV (maybe a 2nd small black and white TV in the garage) so us kids were forced to watch a show like Quincy (because that's what our parents wanted to watch) over shows like Logan's Run
Here's a one season show you probably don't remember: Delta House. Yes, they tried to make an ABC sitcom out of Animal House. As you can guess, it was kind of hard to recapture the movie on network TV. They even got John Vernon, Stephen Furst, James Widdoes, and Bruce McGill to reprise their roles as Dean Wormer, Flounder, Hoover, and D-Day. It's mostly notable for casting Michelle Pfeiffer as a series only character.
That theme song took me back, I haven't heard that in 30+ years.
I need to go to the carousel.
Uh, remember that today carousel means something completely different! ;-p
I remember watching "Logan's Run" and it was a little different from the motion picture. I wish it hadn't got cancelled, only lasted 14 weeks on CBS. The reason this was made was because of the huge ratings the movie got from being broadcast on TV. Logan's Run is still one of the coolest sci-fi films or TV shows around.
Those pew pews added over the ending music were a nice touch. Well played :)
That "pow pow" sound in the theme music stuck in my mind for decades but I could never remember where it came from. Thank you😊
'The gemini man' with his watch that granted him 15 minutes of invisibility
I loved that show. I watched every episode when it first aired.
Awesome as ever. How about Blake’s Seven, Automan, Fantastic Voyage, Star Maidens, Space 1999, The Gemini Man, The Tomorrow People, Buck Rogers, Sapphire and Steel, Terrahawks, Alien Nation, Red Dwarf and of course THHGTTG 👍👍👍👍👏👏👏👏
TERRAHAWKS! Yes.
stay on this channel.
Yes! Automan! Also, THHGTTG! Goddamn that theme.
sapphire and steel still stands up and its all on youtube
@@somthingbrutal And can we just say ... Joanna Lumley
I remember when I was a kid my dad used to drive thru Topanga Canyon in Hollywood in the early 80’s and you could see the Logan’s Run cars as well as the Damnation Alley vehicle. The custom car maker had his shop there so he left them on display till the mid 90’s. Those things were not fiber glass they were solid metal. I was too young to know what Logan’s Run was till I got older and watched the movie and was hooked but, couldn’t figure out where the cars were in the movie till years later where I found out they made a tv show and that’s where they appeared in.
A great point regarding..;
- "do you have a memory about a sci-fi show from the 80's " ?
- Not necessarily a specific scene, but the FEEL of the show !
I can't come up with one right now, but..I saw
DAMNATION VALLEY
on CZcams & remembered a scene that scared many nightmares into me
back then 😳 😁
...when they left the
LandMaster
vehicle & checked out a car...full of Flesh-Eating-Bugs !!
I watched an episode a few weeks ago. I never considered that Logan aways wore his Sandman uniform. Yes. Changing to normal clothes would make sense. Never did I consider that Jessica should wear pants, even on a cold day. Definitely worth a rewatch sometimes when waiting for new episode of another series. "Man our of time" is once of the best episodes.
Reminds me of 6 Million Dollar Man, regardless of the setting ... Urban, Desert, Jungle, always wore the same denims. Although, probably made of a special 'Kevlar' type material, with all the bionic running/jumping etc. Normal clothes would have shredded 🤣
Story editor D. C. Fontana. And now you know why it felt like original Trek.
These shows have something most modern shows lack... especially science fiction... COLORS. Original Startrek and Logan's run had gorgeous colors and for the limited budget of the time, very very nice sets. Compare that to sets of Startrek Picard or Discovery for example... The 70-80's blow them all out oft the water. I always enjoy myself when watching these old shows/movies. And yeah writers REALLY knew how to create great stories back then, and format them at most into a 2-parters. They didn't need and entire season to tell the story. I miss great shows like this.
Remember watching it as a kid on Sunday afternoons in the UK. Used to love it. Shame it got cancelled so quickly
The touches in your intro and outro music really elevate these reviews. As well as the games-journalism-esque interleaving of jokes in-between actual opinion and exposition.
Great review. Brings back memories.Two shows that we’re short lived but was
Entertaining was The Invaders (David Vincent 60s) and The Night Stalker (74)
The Invaders is a huge favourite of mine. Saw it as a young child in the 70s and again recently. Still holds up well as a period piece.
I remember watching this when it was originally on, then never saw it again. It would be fun to see again, along with others-if only for the guest stars.
Always looked forward to a Saturday tea time when this show would come on. "Man Out Time" is the episode I remember most fondly. Very poignant ending particularly as this show was screened during the Cold War.
Ahh, the theme tune - possibly the first and last time a television show's theme made car alarms sound pleasing to the ear.
I watch all these shows Logan's Run, Man from Atlantis, Fantastic Journey, Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek (the original series), Buck Rogers, Far Out Space Nuts, Quark (which was a Star Trek Parody), Salvage 1 (which starred Andy Griffith), Doctor Shrinker, Planet Of The Apes (the series), Space: 1999, and even the show Doctor Who which then starred Tom Baker as the fourth doctor at the time!! Oddly enough the only way to watch the Doctor Who show where I live was late at night on Public Broadcast Service channel, which required me to hide myself and the TV under a blanket so my parents didn't know I was awake!!
I always loved science fiction and I should also add that I watched every episode of The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman as well!!! And who can forget The Incredible Hulk which was a weekly series also that starred Bill Bixby or the 1975 TV series The Invisible Man?! Of course there was no shortage of other shows to watch as well, like The Dukes Of Hazzard, and Knight Rider also!! But for me anything with a science fiction aspect caught my attention!! And I saw the Star Wars: A New Hope in the theater eight times when it first came out in 1977!! And I was in the theaters for Flash Gordon (1980) when it was released with the sound track done by Queen!!!
I even read the books Logan's Run and Battlestar Galactica. And I watched the movies of them as well! A couple of other 1970s movies I still love but you don't hear a lot about are Demon Seed, which is about a "smart home" that takes over control of the owners wife!! And the ORIGINAL movie WestWorld!! Both are cult classics and I feel are "must see movies"!!!
I loved Logan’s run the series, I remember making time for it every Saturday here in the U.K. How about Gemini Man with Ben Murphy, another short lived series I couldn’t wait to sit down and watch.
We had also Alas Smith and Jones with Ben Murphy and Pete Duel.Six Million Dollar Man.Space 1999.
I loved the movie and I remember watching the series but other than that vehicle being driven in the video that's about all I remember (I was 22 ) but I do remember the feeling about it as being cheesy and not very good.
@@Pfirtzer I liked Alias Smith and Jones until Pete Duel died.
I bought the complete series on DVD. Decent show for the day plus the actress playing Jessica ended up marrying Robert Urich.
Was actually on a Sunday, filling the slot previously filled by Space 1999.
On the other hand being ITV it might indeed have been broadcast on a different day in your area?
A show that only I seem to remember..? EARTH 2! One season in 1994/95 and sadly gone... There are basically no reviews of it on you tube, which is just amazing, considering the amount of creators and videos about even the smallest, most forgotten stuff... Please, PLEASE do a review of it!..
I remember Earth II, the tv series. However, the pilot movie from which was based was far more believable and interesting. Especially the predicted that China who became major military power just more so in Earth orbit than upon ground.
@@paulhunter6742 Yeah, the pilot was great, but it didn't have Tim Curry, who only appeared a few episodes later! And episodes with him are the best :)
Donald visited Ireland just after Logan hit the screens - he got a bit of a kick rambling around Dublin with folks just greeting him with "Hey Rem", "Howzit going, Rem?", "Having a good time, Rem?", "You running, Rem?" - good fun.
In the UK in the 70s we got a lot of these shows that had already been cancelled.
IIRC Logans Run was aired n the children's tea-time slot on ITV , but The Gemini Man, Fantastic Voyage and David McCullum's Invisible Man. both had prime time evening slots on the BBC.
My own favourite from that era that no one I knew remembered was Bill Bixby as the Magician - I only saw this when I was off school as it aired in the weekday afternoons.
Yeah, I watched this show first run as a kid. The lack of an overbearing mushy romance between the leads was just fine with me. I liked the android.
I watched it too and liked it a lot.
I watched this as a little kid before I saw the classic movie. I would still like to see a remake of Logan's Run as a big budget cable or streaming service TV show. Like Westworld or Brave New World, I feel the world of Logan's Run is too interesting to just do a movie remake.
@@saiberunato I loved this show as a kid, which I saw before the movie. I would love to see a remake too - but if not by the likes of HBO, which would ensure no kid could watch it.
@@Blakeneyd I don't think I want watered down kiddie stuff for any potential new TV show. If that was the case, the show might as well be on one of the broadcast networks like CW instead of cable or streaming service. It's frustrating when dealing with hardcore sci-fi themes, and you're not allowed to even show the occasional bare breast/bare bottom, graphic violence, or naughty word. Look at the edited version of Total Recall 2070 shown on American TV.
@@saiberunato You can always dialup sex and violence. Dialing it back is much more difficult.
Remember this series from way back when...so glad I now have on DVD!
It was during the late 1980's through 2009, that I met and knew the co-author of the novel, and that's George Clayton Johnson (during Comic-Con International).
I absolutely loved this as a kid in the 1970s. So good. I loved the city of domes scenes best. 😊
Yes, I just about remember Logan's Run and Planet of the Apes tv series as well as the David McCallum Invisible Man being on TV as a Kid.
Time Trax, The Tomorrow People (the 90's version), and Bugs; all have a special place in my cold dead heart.
'Space Prius', love that one 🙂. You see, when the Prius came out, first thing that came to my mind was Logan's run , the series.
I learned some years ago that that 'Space Prius' is actually owned by a car collector here in Belgium (if I remember correctly, somewhere near Antwerp).
I got to know this series in the late seventies, when it was aired on A2 (short for 'Antenne Deux', France's second TV channel) every Sunday afternoon. My guess is 1979 (me , then ten), 'cause I used to skip the boyscouts only to watch what I thought was an amazing show, despite the fact that it was clearly American, dubbed in French. It was aired again on Belgian Flemish television in the mid-eighties. And I watched them all over again, this time in English, subtitled in Dutch. The BBC came on Belgian cable just a bit earlier, so thanks to Saturday Superstore and Terry Wogan I could do without the subtitling by then.
I've found an entire screenplay of one of the unaired episodes you speak of, on the net, almost 20 years ago. I still have it somewhere. I actually went looking, be it only momentarily, just before writing this. I had hoped to be able to give you its title, but helaas (that's a Dutch word, I know English understand 🙂).
A remake would allegedly be in the works since forever. IMDB reads: "When the project was in development in 2000, Leonardo DiCaprio was once slated to play Logan."
Back then I was really looking forward to that. However, if a new version would come out today, I think a lot of younger people would find it far from original, because a lot of elements from Logan's run can be found in other more contemporary sci fi movies and series. Imho 'The Island' 'borrowed' a big chunk of its story outline from Logan's run, the movie.
A movie and TV buff from an early age, it hadn't escaped me that Leonard Katzman was also the producer of Dallas, which started round the same period in Belgium and unsurprisingly a lot of guest stars from Logan also turned up in Dallas.
Anyway, glad to know that I'm not the only one who holds great memories of this series.
Thank you very much for the effort you have put in this video.
Best regards
😴
I remember "Afterlife" and "The Charmings" from the 80's. I really remember a super-short lived show from the 60's called "Convoy" with John Larch and John Gavin. I remember just one episode where the crew is trying to disarm a U-boat torpedo that got lodged in the ship's hull without going off. "Logans Run" is now on Tubi.
I used to watch this series as a child. I loved it
I agree the show has held up well, at least the stories have. I remember trying to watch this when I was a kid when it was originally on and it was always preempted and never really got to watch it again until it came om TBS and then finally DVD.
Some short-lived series I remember as a kid: "Misfits of Science", "Mr. Merlin," and "Tucker's Witch". I also liked "The Master" starring Lee van Cleef as a ninja, which got turned into a couple of movies shown on MST3K.
@theproplady. The Master was top TV. I loved that!!!
Watched as a kid. Always wondered how the hover car could go uphill. Finally built a hovercraft as a mechanical engineering student. Finally learned. Hovercraft can’t really go uphills. This show actually inspired my senior design project.
With slight tweaking the theme tune seems to have been used for Stargate.
Ironic since the final produced episode of Logan's Run was titled Stargate!
Totally disagree with the majority of the critics in this video. I much prefer the series to the movie, even if the movie is more faithful to the novels. The actors in the show have much more charisma than those in the movie and Rem is an excellent additional character who brings an enormous amount. I love the storytelling of the series, there was a lot of potential. One of the most unfortunate things is that they did not have the resources to show the crystals in the palm of the city's inhabitants. The producers should have given this excellent series a chance, which is probably not perfect like any other creation. Just let the best SF writers and scriptwriters of the time bring the series to at least one season more that would have brought a good ending. And the music of the opening is one of the best music series which exists, it is unforgettable.
I'll admit to being most fascinated with a Logan who chooses to run rather than having his hand forced.
Great video. The movie was terrific and way ahead of its time. I do remember the series, which while ok, felt a bit limp in comparison. But other spin offs based on movies such as "Planet of the Apes" were also of a similar quality. What is really unbelievable is how much science fiction was on TV in the 1970s compared to now - the networks much like the cinemas have lost their way. Surely there must be more to viewing than Superhero movies and reality TV shows.
My KidVid nobody remembers is Great Barrier Reef. Since the show never once referenced Australia in dialogue, I grew up thinking it was an imaginary setting!
By the way, I watched the Logan's Run TV show. One of my fan fics was a crossover between the TV show characters & setting, with the world & Logan & Jess from the book.
I was fascinated by imagining crossovers, in those days.
Another crossover story I recall writing: the Cylons from Galactica 1980 meeting the Hardy Boys from their TV show.
It would be funny if returning to the dome-city was always an accident. They drive over a hill, and the domes appear. "Oh, not again! You said we were driving in a straight line, Rem!"
Dammit, I knew I should have taken that left turn at Alberquerque!
Memorable/forgotten TV series - ‘Planet of The Apes’. They say you shouldn’t meet your heroes, my variation is ‘You shouldn’t eventually buy the DVD of a series you have fond memories of from your youth’! Broadcast in 1974 in the UK, when I was in my late teens, I was fascinated by this series and watched it avidly, particularly those episodes showing the ‘lost’ pre-Ape’ world. Sadly, this series was the first time we experienced the ‘series cancelled’ phenomenon and it was cruelly disappointing. Still, at least I had all those fond memories. Then, some 30+ years later, I bought the DVD - let’s just say, it hasn’t aged well. Always liked Ron Harper though, from his role in ‘Garrison’s Gorillas’, but that’s another story (and TV series).
"You shouldn't eventually buy the DVD of a series you have fond memories of from your youth." Yeah, I dodged this bullet once. Back when they released DVD sets of the original Transformers and Real Ghostbusters cartoons, I bought both and was quite happy; Ghostbusters mostly holds up even to today's standards while Transformers... Doesn't.... But is still watchable from a nostalgia standpoint. So I was gonna buy the G.I. Joe DVD sets too. Before I got a chance, some obscure broadcast channel started showing reruns late at night and, yeah... I honestly can't figure out how I was able to watch it even as a kid. No purchase there.
It must have been difficult for actors to project characters through all latex Ape make up. And they had cheat by just showing face. hands and feet of Apes become full suit would had actors passing out from dehydration.
Not Si Fi but anyone remember the 90s Bandit TV movies and TV show? It was on the Action Pack with Hercules with Kevin Sorbo. The Bandit was played by Brian Bloom or one of the Bloom Bros. And his Snowman was the guy who is played Holly Combs husband on Charmed. The Car in this wasn’t a Trans Am, but a black Dodge Stealth or Mitsubishi 3000 GT.
Okay here's a shout out to the 70's and a sci-fi one hit wonder. Who remembers The Starlost? It originally had Harlan Ellison as the idea man behind it but he became so incensed with the way producers were taking the show that he wanted his name removed from the credits. As I recall they wouldn't let him off the hook and I remember the show vividly. 2 seasons I think. Loved it. Can still quote the opening credit's narration.
Land of the giants, ha e great memories of that
The Lost Saucer comes to mind.
I thought I was the only one who remembered "Automan" but you've already covered that! Personally, I liked the 2002 one series wonder "John Doe" (with pre-Prison Break Dominic Purcell), the man who knew everything except his own past.
Had vague memories of seeing this as a kid, and finally found it streaming last year.
It's fun, but I get why it never became a bigger hit.
Rem is great, I like the car and Jessica and Logan had a nice, low-key romantic vibe.
There's a chunk of episodes in the middle that are pretty solid, but towards the end, you can feel it running out of steam.
One of the better 'endless quest' shows.
The android looks like Recorder 451 from the Iron Man comics.
“Otherworld”, anyone remember that one? A family get transported to anOtherworld while touring one of the pyramids of Egypt. They are on the run on an oppressive planet, while trying to find a way home back to earth.
No, but I do remember a TV show called "The Fantastic Journey", about a family that disappears in The Bermuda Triangle and ends up in another dimension, which sounds like they rewrote the script from the show you mentioned and swapped out thePyramids for The Bermuda Triangle.
@The Storm Actually, the Fantastic Journey came out first. It debuted back in the year 1977. Otherworld had first come out 8 years later back in the year 1985. The only similarity between The Fantastic Journey and Otherworld was that normal, ordinary human beings from the Planet Earth in the late 20th century A.D. had space traveled to another Earth-like planet with an atmosphere, environment and gravity similar to the Planet Earth's. The rest was completely different.
Someone named Commander Kroll would like a word with you? About an ID thingy and an upside down pistol..?
Oh, yes. And never found a quality DVD or stream for it!
As I had read in a scholastic or some sort of kidlike news magazine it said that science fiction is hard to carry off into a Weekly TV Series.This also told how not even an android could save them but maybe because there wasn't one in The Movie.But while in The Movie logan is sent to out by the computers' voices to find Sanctuary and destroy and Francis only thinks Jessica alone changed him. Also only to find out there's no Sanctuary .While on The TV Show The Secret Society of Elders on Council and of whom are behind The Computers Voices have sent Francis out to bring back Logan and Jessica for saying there's Sanctuary when there isn't with Francis being awarded upon returning them to sit on Council with the Elders. Logan gets a hit with a dart giving him partial Amnesia so that he willingly returns to the Domed City with Francis. When Jessica returns to rescue Logan and gets to see her best friend of who's African American and of which we don't see any of them in the Movie.She's happy to see jessica again after she never thought that she would then Jessica explained to her how she'd need her help to get Logan to leave with her again. Jessica finds a video message to her aka of Geraldine 4 telling how he remembers everything now Francis is going to take him to the council where he'll tell everything and after doing so with the help of a man dressed in red putting something up Francis' nose then he faints with a # of girls screaming and then he gets up saying I'm alright Logan and Jessica then run away together Francis follows then Logan tells him stop there and takes away his gun and sensors saying "Sorry Francis."he then said "I'll bet. "Then he says "You'll never admit it will you? "He then said we've been through this before Sanctuary doesn't exist outside."He then said "No but life does that'll be all for now. Then when another Sandman comes Francis grabs his sensor to try to track Logan and Jessica down. Then Rem, Logan, and Jessica leave the city without it exploding like it did at the end of the Movie and only for it to go a little further 3 episodes more that won't be seen until the 1990-91 rerun time and beyond on TNT of which later plays The Movie on TNT's Monster Vision But back to the TV show it's seen in an episode that upon being given a chance to eliminate Francis instead Logan chose to have him held back long enough for them to escape because though in agreement with what Jessica said that he did hunt them but it's still because of him that they're still alive. Later on in The 14th and final episode to follow Logan and Jessica finally find love.But please do watch and enjoy these for yourselves whether on CZcams, VHS, or DVD. The Logan's Run remake of which was originally for release in 2005 has been postponed indefinitely and may so thusly it may never come out at all.
I remember loving Logan's Run, Oh course I was 7 when it came out. :)
I watched the entire run about a year ago. I was alive when it was out in syndication but I barely remembered it. It was after Star Wars that I saw the original Logan's Run, and it captivated me. Anyway, like Land of the Lost there are some good concepts that are ruined by an infinitesimal production budget. As you rightly say, in the 70s and early 80s, the execs were not willing to accept the profit margins they were getting from science fiction shows, instead opting for sitcoms where people wore "modern" clothing, and the sets were only a couple of rooms in a house. Battlestar Galactica suffered because of this. I agree with you about REM. He was, surprisingly, one of the best things about the show. There were a couple episodes that were really good, but too many that were filler, unfortunately, but all-in-all, i agree with you review.
The actor who played Logan was just plain boring. The main character has be able to carry series. And why God's name didn't he ditch Sandman uniform?
Yep, watched it as a kid, but I was so little I don't remember it anymore. I think I learned the word "android" from this series.
The cars, the Android ( who was constantly losing limbs - very cool to see as a kid ) , and the muzzle effect on the guns are the things which stuck in my mind all these years.
Favorite 80’s tv shows: Automan, Manimal, The Phoenix, and Blue Thunder
Fantastic Voyage. (Okay, my little 5-year-old self was SO in love with Valerian!)
Was a teenage crush of mine!!!
The telepathic Lady with the ability to communicate with a black & white cat, damn she was lovely. Give me a break I was only 10!
His name was Varian.
@@johnnycooper7019 Liana and Sil-El were my favorite part of the show.
Dear Patrick, I think you jogged my memory (without google assist) The sexy cat Lady was named Liana. Varian was played Jared Martin.
PEW PEW PEW!
Pew
I always regarded the annoying sound effect on the opening theme as a stylized police siren - more a "woo-woo-woo" than a "pew-pew-pew," appropriate to symbolize escaping from a police state and Logan's previous role as an enforcement agent of that state.
Short-lived show I remember that NO ONE ever does is called "The Sword of Justice". It ran on NBC for one season in 1978 about a guy that was unfairly sent to prison and learned skills to become a vigilante. I must have been 11 when it aired and I loved it!
Omg! You mentioned Time Trax with Dale Midkiff.
I love and remember Capt. Power and the Soldiers of the Future
I bought the Planet of the apes T.V. series box set, and was disappointed that it wasn't as good as i remember.
I've wanted to get the Logans run and Buck Rogers T.V. series but worried that they would also not be as good as i remember.
Perhaps nostalgia should just be left as a vague memory.
Logan run is good but buck Rodgers wonder women and t.j. hooker are not.
There was a 70's cop show called "Dog and Cat", starring a young Kim Basinger. The theme tune is on CZcams but sadly no episodes.
Two shows of particular interest to me: Tuesday night at the movies, McCoy (1975), of which I saw one episode in which he rigs up a hearse to open its back door and release a quantity of pink bogus money ("There's going to be a new money to replace the old inflating money, but it is a secret until tomorrow night's reveal.") The other was a one-shot television movie of Don Quixote aired only once, in 1972. This featured a hauntingly beautiful, melancholy, wistful music I can still hear bits of in my head to this day.
There was British SF series called Saffire and Steel, about pandimentional agents who assigned to correct timeline. David McCallum and Joanna Lumley (of Absolutely Fabulous series in 1980s) were the Stars. The series only had about 10 episodes. But some of concepts were interesting. A being who could manipulate time through photographs; A story set in Train station dealing with Soliders from WWI; group of futuristic researchers study Earth's past culture sealed inside capsules which appear to be present day condominiums. And an industrialist who recreate 1930s mansion for Special party with friends, which somehow causes shift in timeline when a business associate from the past creates a virus which destroyed Earth population..
Living in the UK in the 1970s meant seeing US cult TV shows only after they'd already been cancelled (or, if you prefer, canceled). Still, this eventually trained me to watch the first seasons of Lost and Heroes, and declare, "That was great... I have absolutely no intention of investing in the rest of it."
I love this show. Not as good as the movie but still quite entertaining. It would have been nice to see Logan, Jessica and REM run for a few more seasons and finally find "Sanctuary". Perhaps it would have been a better idea though if they had made a movie sequel based on William F Nolan's direct book sequel Logan's World. Anyway, I occasionally watch my DVD set to relive old memories of the show.
After a long journey they find out that "Sanctuary" was the city they came from.
Space Precinct is a programme I remember watching as a child and then hearing nothing about since.
Awesome 👍 I was a wee lad when that show was out LOL
Loved this series, it had so much potential.
Another series I liked was called “Search,” with Burgess Meredith, and I believe it was originally titled “Probe” in the pilot. There seems to be very little about it on CZcams.
I remember this very well. Burgess Meredith as the controller, and those astonishingly predictive tiny camera/mics they called scanners. If I remember correctly there were 3 different operatives that took turns, one of which was Doug McClure?
I think Hugh o Brian of Wyatt earp fame was also in it.
Nice that you mentioned TimeTrax. A really good series that's been all but forgotten.
The tv series I remembered, for years, that no one else seemed to, was the British kids show, Here Come the Double Deckers, which was shown on NBC Saturday mornings, in the early 70s. I had visions of it for years, with a scene of people entering a secret clubhouse via a drawbridge-style door in a fence, and something about a London Double Decker Bus. I thought they were two different things, until I came across a mention of the show, in a book about the Harlemn Globetrotters, which mention the Globetrotter's cartoon was broadcast opposite it. By this point, the internet was a thing and IMDB existed and I looked up the show and there were some pictures and a link to fan site, which confirmed I didn't dream the whole thing and that it was one show (the clubhouse was the bus, a derelict in a junkyard, which was behind the fence with the drawbridge door). Jane Seymour even appeared in an episode and Pter Firth, who played one of the kids, later played the political officer murdered on the Red October, by Sean Connery, in the film adaptation of The Hunt For Red October, as well as a regular on the tv series Spooks (MI-5, in the US).
I remember seeing it as a kid and I kind of like liked it. It was sort of screwy but build a half an hour every day or an hour can't really remember how long It ran!
I watched it...
Loved your review. Brings back fond memories. How about reviewing "The Fantastic Journey", "Man from Atlantis," or "Beauty and the Beast" (Ron Perlman/Linda Hamilton)?
A series nobody else seems to remember: Lucan. This would be around 77 or 78, right around Logan's Run and Man from Atlantis. A feral child, raised by wolves, is discover. In trying to 'civilise' him, a teacher tells him, 'You can,' which he repeats as 'Lucan,' which then becomes both his name and the series'.
I seem to remember everything about this show! Great editing BTW! Too funny!
I am watching it on Tubi. I find it to be a much better show than expected. Except that theme music. I have to skip that every time.
My favourite "short lived sci-fi series that few others seem to remember" is The Gemini Man. Loosely based on "The Invisible Man", it only ran 11 episodes + pilot.
Also a great show!
Wait, so what *was* that kissing scene? Seems passionate enough to me...
So, spoilers: There are 2 kissing scenes. This one happened when Logan was mind whammied and returned to the City with no memory of the last year. ("Carousel") Jess was sent to seduce him for information to see if the mind whammy had worn off. The second kissing scene is in "Night Terrors" where they were both in their right minds. Is]t's more awkward, heartfelt, and cute at the same time.
PEW PEW PEW...
40 years later and I finally watched the whole series...
Is it just me , or was the plot for each episode...
Drive in and find someone lying on the ground, being chased or in distress...
Saving that person and being introduced to their colony...
Being Abducted !
Escaping.. often destroying any automation advancements on the way out...
and escaping the Sandmen in the doing...
Side plot, capture the sandman, but don't take their weapons, don't tie them up. walk away. (definitely don't disable their vehicle)
R.E.M standard... Tell the upcoming captors that your an android.
Clothing staple, no matter how many civilisations you encounter, stick with clothing designed to be used in an enclosed dome environment....
Faced with new equipment.... (which will always be in an empty room and have no labeling)... Throw every switch, often 2 at a time.
Travel days and days awaay from the dome city but at no time be more than a days journey back.
Never park next to your destination.
Any technology will plug into any other technology, even alien tech (Where we can't even plug an apple charger into an android... and even same brand laptops have different power supplies.)
Useless fact only non LR fans might not know. Heather Menzies was married to Robert Urich until his passing in 2002.
Kim Cattrall's 4th roll... (IMDB)
Even more useless Angela Cartwright (Karen in the Collectors episode) was Penny in Lost in space, and one of the kids in The Sound of Music.
The Sandman's car was repurposed in an episode of Knight rider..
... I spend too much time on the interweb.
I loved the show called the Phoenix. It was on for a very very brief time but made a deep impression upon me