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Watching Buck Rogers In The 25th Century

It was par for the course for Irwin Allen shows to start out relatively smart and serious and get increasingly campy and silly. It happened to all four of his SF series.
 
Some years ago I tried to watch some episode of "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea". I don't know if I was unlucky, but they were all episodes on aliens, ghosts or some permutation of these two. I had read that in theory there are more serious episodes, but during my (brief) watching I didn't see any ...


Yeah I believe there was also a episode with a leprechaun! I haven’t seen that one but my brother said it was there. The first season was very serious and quite realistic. The second not bad also. I never reached the 3rd to find out how far it went into camp. But a leprechaun? Lol!
 
Yeah I believe there was also a episode with a leprechaun! I haven’t seen that one but my brother said it was there. The first season was very serious and quite realistic. The second not bad also. I never reached the 3rd to find out how far it went into camp. But a leprechaun? Lol!
voyageseason4brap.jpg


....ok... :wtf:
 
I have read the synopsis of the episode Doomsday, and I have to say that I would like to watch it.

I would be curious to know what the actors thought when they went from a serious episode about the Cold War paranoia to fighting werevolves...
 
Worth remembering that there's a difference between the network (and their reasons for renewing), and the studio (and their reasons for cutting costs, or rather minimising episodic losses, given the usual gap between costs and network fee).
I would be interested to see a comparison, adjusted for inflation, between the 60's shows and Buck Rogers.

And I wonder if Buck could.have benefited from repeat scenes, like Filmation's Flash Gordon (I.e. The stock shot of Hawkmen being vaporized or Ming's robots falling apart)

But season 3 of LIS was its final run because the camp ratcheted up to 11 and it was competing head on with shows like Star Trek and Batman. And of course there is the vegetable episode which I think singlehandedly killed the series. By then the writers had run out of ideas. That's what I've read on various LIS blogs and director commentaries. I don't know why that particular episode sounded like they had run out of ideas. Didn't they have capable writers?

Are you talking about the melting pumpkinhead guy? Wasnt that used in at least 2 separate episodes?
 
But season 3 of LIS was its final run because the camp ratcheted up to 11 and it was competing head on with shows like Star Trek and Batman. And of course there is the vegetable episode which I think singlehandedly killed the series. By then the writers had run out of ideas. That's what I've read on various LIS blogs and director commentaries. I don't know why that particular episode sounded like they had run out of ideas. Didn't they have capable writers?
Actually CBS (and Irwin Allan) wanted to do a Season 4 - but Guy Williams in particular balked and said no during contract negotiations because he was tired of being a background character to Dr. Smith (Johnathan Harris), Will (Bill Mumy) and the Robot for two of the 3 seasons of the show.
 
The obvious problem with the majority of GIANTS episode was the endless capturing, saving, recapturing and resaving of its seven regulars. They tended to have two or three uncaptured just about any moment.....until they freed the others, of course. Rinse and repeat, week after week.

What was it David Gerrold stated in either "The Making of 'The Trouble with Tribbles'" or "The World of Star Trek"? "Concept begets format begets formula." That notion has stuck with me for some 45 years.
 
Are you talking about the melting pumpkinhead guy? Wasnt that used in at least 2 separate episodes?

No the episode was about plants... It was titled "The Great Vegetable Rebellion"

See here, 2nd to last episode on the list. Junkyard In Space was the final episode.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Lost_in_Space_episodes#Season_3_(1967–68)

Actually CBS (and Irwin Allan) wanted to do a Season 4 - but Guy Williams in particular balked and said no during contract negotiations because he was tired of being a background character to Dr. Smith (Johnathan Harris), Will (Bill Mumy) and the Robot for two of the 3 seasons of the show.

I don't blame him for feeling that way. I'd be bummed out as well and wanting to leave.
 
I have read the synopsis of the episode Doomsday, and I have to say that I would like to watch it.

I would be curious to know what the actors thought when they went from a serious episode about the Cold War paranoia to fighting werevolves...
Wow, I was reading through the episode descriptions of the first and last seasons of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea on IMDB, and the difference is pretty remarkable.
 
Yep, Gerrold's point was that it takes a lot of effort to stop format becoming repetitive formula.
 
Yep, Gerrold's point was that it takes a lot of effort to stop format becoming repetitive formula.

I think it was more that there's a temptation to get lazy and give into formula. It's not like it's some intense pressure you have to struggle against, more like it's what you'll end up settling for if you relax your standards or try to take the easy route.
 
I think it was more that there's a temptation to get lazy and give into formula. It's not like it's some intense pressure you have to struggle against, more like it's what you'll end up settling for if you relax your standards or try to take the easy route.
Um. In other words, it takes a lot of effort to stop a format becoming repetitive formula? :rolleyes:
 
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Wow, I was reading through the episode descriptions of the first and last seasons of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea on IMDB, and the difference is pretty remarkable.
Yep. If I had been one of the actors, I would have felt rather embarrassed...

History has told us the reactions of the protagonists of Lost in the Space about about the campiness of the later seasons, unfortunately the same has not happened for Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea...
 
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