Thank you for the travel down memory lane. I'm 78 and I remember some of the shows that you brought to our attention. One of the actresses appeared to look like Betty White! And Mr. Roddenberry gets reprimanded for mini skirts' but I noticed some in this Video. Our first TV was a Motorola BW [1952] cube on four stilts. I note 1952 for I do remember news reels of the Korean conflict. And what was that? Was that the earliest membership card with decoder ring offered? The westerns, Roy Rogers and others had a code of conduct. was there a code that came with that card? With different actors, some of these were on Radio way before television came along. Now, here is a project. THE INTERNET ARCHIVE may have some copies of the shows you brought to our attention. "Galaxy", "Amazing Stories", were other magazine that were published. Somewhere along the line there was even one labeled, "Asimov".
I'm 78 and I remember watching these shows in the early 50's... the Tom Corbet Space Cadet play set, the Captain Midnight decoder ring, "the flying man with a stovepipe on his back" (Commando Cody), Space patrol with a young "Scotty" (later to be on Star Trek). What memories! I'm still a Sci-Fi addict today. Much thanks for the video.
I'm your age, and also had a decoder ring. My favorite program was Rocky Jones, Space Ranger. When I saw Space X landing rockets on their tails, I told my grandchildren it took me back to Rocky Jones. Of course, they had no idea of what I was talking about.
I immigrated from Japan in 1952 at age 2. I learned English from watching Tom Corbett Space Cadet. When I joined the Air Force in 1973, I worked at the Space Defense Center of the North American Aerospace Defense Command inside Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado Springs, Colorado, writing computer programs to track Soviet spy satellites flying over Area 51. In 1984 I joined Strategic Air Command, including the study of several ways to base and launch the MX ICBM, and the preparation of Vandenberg Air Force Base as a base for launching and landing the Space Shuttle. The program should be amplified by telling the story of the kids who watched those TV shows and were inspired to work in the civilian and military space programs when we grew up.
That is a very cool story and well done to you. As it is, quite a lot of people enter the sciences field (and the arts) after being inspired by science fiction TV shows and movies. This is why it's such a great genre.
My second father in law was the star and producer of a Sci Fi show from 1953 -1956, this show was called Commander Comet. His name was Larry Harmon. Larry was also the owner of Bozo The Clown until his passing in 2008.
By golly you're right! Clearly whilst doing our research we missed this, possibly because it was a locally produced series only broadcast in San Bernardino. Either way it's on us and is definitely our mistake.
I'm a little younger but I was around for all this nonsense too! When I saw the scifi show it was called Commander Cody. I have no idea of the years tho tv was not very regular and turned on and off during the day. like news the the Capt K sent me to school , Later we got Sheriff John and his lunch brigade. those shows took off when Kellogs and post found they could sell breakfast foods and show old 1930's carttoons
Glad I found this channel I love Sci Fi thumbs up for your content a lot of very good Sci Fi TV series on your list most of them were before my time but I would love to see them I started watching Sci Fi in the seventies Space 1999 loved that series.
My friends and I talked about the day we would grow up and reach beyond (what we thought were facts) and bring the world to a new and glorious life. One of those friends became a nuclear engineer, the other a Football coach, and I went onto long haul driving The nuclear engineer helped make safer reactors, the football coach help boys he taught and coached become men of honor and character. I went into long haul driving and spent the better part of my career bringing food to people in the 48 continental states and the docks on both coasts. We did not fail our dreams, we just took them a different way
I remember Space Patrol as the best Sci-Fi program until Star Trek. When Star Trek came to TV, I was a student living in the dormitory at the University of Oregon. We had be in the TV room an hour before the show began to get a seat (otherwise standing room only). At that time, Dragnet was the program before Star Trek. So I watched Dragnet and Star Trek religiously every week.
Space Patrol's Buzz Cory's ship the Terra 5 was the first spaceship just about anywhere to have faster than light hyperdrive. They just shimmered it and added a whine. Spaaaace Paatrrool! Never missed a Saturday show--much to the puzzlement of my scientist father.
I'm lucky to have been born in 57'. By the time I was 4, the sci-fi genre was developing rapidly. It was a great time to be a kid. We had the very best westerns, great sci-fi, fun tv shows like My favorite Martian, Bewitched, The Addams Family, Munsters, Star Trek, Avengers, Get Smart, Batman.....plus all the sci-fi movies we could go see at the drive in. Fun days.
Same here, I feel lucky to have been a kid in the 60s when so many 50s sci-fi movies were on our local syndicated channel. I think the best ones were War of the Worlds, Them, and Earth vs the Flying Saucers, but there were tons of lower budget ones that were fun. Aliens that looked like giant eyeballs, brains, etc. Rocket ships galore.
I loved watching the Irwin Allen shows as a 7 year old in 1965. The technology was a stark contrast to the rotary dial telephones in most homes back then. I wondered when push buttons were going to become common place in the real world.
Funny thing is whenever I hear mention of Captain Video the first thing that comes to mind is Ed Norton on "The Honeymooners". I always remember Ed Norton wearing his Captain Video space helmet saying "I'm with you Captain Video wherever you are".
Thanks for the Blast from the Past! I loved watching these shows as a youngster. I still have my autographed picture of George "Commando Cody" Wallace. We kids ran around with improvised jet packs all day long!
When I was growing up there was a show called Men into Space. From what I remember it was actually fairly accurate in a number of its shows as far as the science was concerned. It also showed the dangers of space travel with a few episodes carefully showing the death of some characters as they saved their fellow astronauts.
Thanks for this. Literally one of my first memories is learning how to turn on the TV by myself so that I could watch Rocky Jones (I especially remember the “cold light” which made their spaceship invisible). Also, I still have my Men Into Space lunchbox (which I insisted on as my Christmas present the year it was on).
I remember remember how excited I was to finally receive my Captain Midnight decoder pin I had sent away for enclosing the seal from a jar of Ovaltine. First decoded message: "DRINK OVALTINE".
I used to watch Space Patrol in the early and mid-1950's when I was growing up in the mid-Los Angeles area adjacent to Hollywood. I still remember a couple of Space Patrol actors arriving home or visiting someone's home -- in costume -- to a house a few doors up and across the street from our house. Of course I was in awe and thought the Space Patrol was REAL! 🤣
Thanks for the positive feedback. This was a passiion project for everyone involved as we're all fans of classic Sci-Fi movies and TV shows. We also tried to be as historically accurate as possible, so we're glad it all paid off.
I'm 78 & watched nearly all of these Sci-Fi shows when my family got their first t.v. set in early 1950 at age 4! All but two of these series are familiar to me, i.e. the short lived "Buck Rogers", "Rod Brown" etc. It was great fun imagining a world of the future, but disappointing to see how little it has changed in 70 years! p.s. (Believe it or not, in June 1950, I was interviewed on a very early t.v. show, hosted by Buster Crabbe (aka Flash Gordon & Buck Rogers)!
Great stuff, even including the ubiquitous Whit Bissell at 17:17 - he brought gravitas to so many roles on TV, often in SF shows (I remember him in TIME TUNNEL especially).
This is a great video! I was born in 66, so I've never heard of most of these shows outside of the obvious stuff like Twilight Zone, Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. I've also heard of Captain Video, but have never ever seen an episode. My era of SCI-FI TV would be the shows from the 60s that were rerun throughout the 70s: Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Land of the Giants, Doctor Who, Lost in Space... I'd love to see another volume of this covering shows from the 60s then the 70s.
Rocky Jones is much more of a pattern piece for Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek than most realize. Several of the set and costume staff on that show went to work for Desilu. A Planetary Union Starbases A space navy A bridge with elevator behind and a flat video screen in front of the captain The on ship uniforms were tight T shirts with badges sewn on the left breast. The woman, Vina, wore a minidress and boots. Several of the plots were recycled as TOS episodes. Star Trek was very much a combination of Forbidden Planet and the kids show Rocky Jones Space Rangers....along with Space Cadet and Buck Rogers novels.
A few years ago, I saw nearly all of the "Rocky Jones" series, since the 50's & realized that it was very well done for that time! p.s I'm the one who wrote the comment, two above!
Rocky Jones came up with two Star Trek spaceship plot devices. They were automatic sliding doors and a cloaking device. It also featured John Banner (later "Hogan's Hero's" Sgt. Schultz) as the ruler of a small planet.
@@charlesyoung7436 it also had a plot very similar to Journey to Babble. TNG: Wesley Crusher is very much like The Boy there for no real reason, but somehow wonderful. Several Orville plots are very similar to RJ plots.
Around 1952 about half of U.S. households had a TV set. TV was delayed due to WWII. The first really popular TV show was “I Love Lucy” in 1951. The first sci-fi TV show was “Captain Video and His Video Rangers” (1949-1955). The first sci-fi TV show I remember watching as a young kid in the mid-1960s was “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” (1964-1968) and then other TV shows by Irwin Allen:“Lost in Space” (1965-1968), “The Time Tunnel (1966-1967)” and “Land of the Giants” (1968-1970). My mother thought “The Twilight Zone” was too weird and scary for kids. Other sci-fi TV shows we watched in the mid to late 1960s were: “Star Trek” (1966-1969), “The Invaders” (1967-1968), “Thunderbirds” (1965-1966) and “Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons” (1967-1968).
@@terrencemccoy8219 Gerry Anderson really hit his stride with Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet. I remember my mom getting me and my brother all the Corgi die-cast vehicles. I did watch his live action series “UFO” (1970-1961) and later “Space 1999” (1975-1977). The latter starred the husband and wife team from “Mission Impossible”: Martin Landau & Barbara Bain.
I gre up on Rocky Jones and the numerous reedited reruns. I even got a job at the driving range at a local golf course picking up the golf balls, but bailed on that as it overlaped the time Rocky Jones aired. One of the best of the pre-Star Trek shows presented.
Around 10 min I'm pretty sure I spotted a teenage Bob Hastings as the little brother of Captain Video. Hastings was a very familiar radio actor who voiced Archie and a ton of other characters, and later played Lt. Carpenter on the McHale's Navy tv show.
I remember watching Flash Gordon, Commander Cody. Then the Adventures of Superman in 1963 when I was 8 yrs old, the 1st run of Star Trek and Lost In Space in 1966. What a vehicle of remembrance.
As one of my favorite science fiction characters would say, FANTASTIC! The first SF TV show I remember is, Men Into Space and the first SF I was 'exposed' to was the 1950 movie, The Thing From Another World! And even though I didn't realize it at the time, science fiction would be come my favorite means of entertainment. A lot of the programs listed I never knew about, and would like to get some of them!
Yes we know. We only showed a segment of it on TV as an example of what SF on TV would look like, but later stated it was made for TV but ended up in cinemas instead.
i just got down to your comment. all of those kids shows were from 1940s theater serials and early cartoons Like BettyBoop. Same with the Little Rascals and Laurel and Hardy TV recycled the hell of that material.
One thing they didn't mention about the Flash Gordon series is that it was filmed in post-WWII Berlin. Of course, it was set in the future and most of the episodes were straight space opera but one episode in particular is very interesting. The villain goes back in time to plant a bomb to disrupt history. Flash and crew also go back to that time to disarm it. They wind up in early 1950s Berlin. Their strange appearance gets the attention of the local authorities, and the actors portraying the Berlin police are filmed driving VW Beetles to chase them around the real city. The show is a time capsule of what Berlin looked like in that era with the city in recovery from the war and the Berlin airlift.
Yes you are correct, Flash Gordon was indeed made in West Germany after WWII, however, we didn't mention it because we felt it wasn't relevant to the show's success (or lack thereof). 🙂
THis was my formative era! I am 82 and in the late forties we had a Dumont TV and Captain Video was my first TV sci-fi show, The Science Fiction Theater, which used stories from golden age SF writers , they started to replace westerns and I loved them! Thank you, Frederick "Rik" Spector
I just turned 80. Captain Video, Tom Corbett Space Cadet, Space Patrol. All broadcast live! On Space Patrol, the two female sidekicks, Carol and Tonga, wore little short skirts and were always climbing up ladders showing their lovely legs - which didn't do much for my seven year-old self. One time on Captain Video, the Ranger was struggling to get back to the ship on an ice planet with stalagmites on the ground. He accidentally kicked over one the stalagmites, and you could here it rolling around behind him, LOL. Captain Video's theme music was Ride of the Valkyries. There was an adult sci fi show called Tales of Tomorrow, but we had very poor reception in CT at the time. I've since found a lot of those episodes on Hulu, and they were pretty good for the time.
@@rikspector At some point I started to lose interest. I think was when Tom Corbett himself started selling Kellog's Corn Flakes - live. Then I started to notice girls a little more, ha, ha.
I vaguely remember Rocky Jones,Space Ranger. I was 7 in 1960, so most of the shows mentioned escaped me. The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits fascinated me. Stranger in a Strange Land (1963) hooked me on Sci-Fi as did A Wrinkle in Time.
Thank you for producing such a wonderful documentary. I hadn't heard of most of the programs you mentioned. I also would like to thank you for using a real persons voice. This made your production much more enjoyable to listen to.
If you think about it the 20th century saw several examples of accelerated development. We went from the Wright Brothers to Apollo 11 in under 70 years. We went from ether still being used in operations to gene therapy in 80 years.
An *excellent* depiction of *the Dawn of Science Fiction,* up to the appearance of *the Mother of ALL High Quality SyFy&Fantasy: The Twilight Zone.* ❤❤❤ Well done!! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Enjoyed this very much, Tales Of Tomorrow was a very ambitious TV show, they did adaptations of 20000 Leagues Under The Sea, Frañkenstein, and The Crystal Egg, all live, how did they do it?
I also loved all of the space magazines that came out of that time. "Amazing Stories" was one of the best, probably because of Isaac Asmof as one of the editors and story contributors.
16:40 I remembered some episodes that showed random items that we see today. Two such items included, the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner and a handheld scanner that sent texts to distant locations
The first family home television we had in Minnesota was in 1950. Up 'till then; the kids went to the Saturday movies for those "Rocket Man" classics out of Republic Studios, I believe. Prohibitions and limitations were expressed at the family level for certain darkly- themed sci-fi TV series; that along with post-war, pre-television family dynamics (card games with the relatives on a snowy night while listening to Paul Whiteman) --- all of which underwent an almost unperceptable series of major changes in dynamics in the 1950's. This theme is rather artfully shaped to cinema in the film "AVALON." 🎨 ART JAGRAF/X 🎨
Great trip down memory lane with a few shows I hadn't heard of to boot! Want to give a shout out to "Strange Tales of Science Fiction" which premiered a bit later in 1961.
Well done on a fascinating account of early TV SF....excellent narration by Natasha; clear and informative. I was around as a male brat back then. The Scala cinema in St. Ives, ( now Boots ), showed many of the early sci fi shorts including Flash Gordon. In reality, we were affect-wise, eg. Flash walking across a light beam; we could clearly see the plank! This sci fi beginning was accompanied in the newsagents by many sci fi comics such as Superman, Captain Marvel, Captain 'Space' Kingley, Dan Dare, etc.....but Superman reigned in St. Ives in 1950!
Great tv history, thanks! I obtained Men into Space on disc and watched it once. Angie Dickenson is in it, wink. They sent like 5 male and 1 female to the moon and the woman was up there cooking for the men, lol. I love Science Fiction Theater, they filmed the first season in color expecting tv sets in color to be the thing in the mid 1950s. To save costs they filmed the later season in black and white. A lot of the episodes are online now, good nostalgia and with actors you will see later in shows like The Twilight Zone and Star Trek.
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I feel the most fantastic aspect of of this era was the evolution of the sci-fi genre through the years from silent films to television to the CGI movies that look so real , it's magic or as Mr Spock would say "Facinating" and Interesting
We greatly appreciate the encouragement. We took this production on for two reasons 1) we felt the history of American Sci-Fi on TV hadn't really been covered anywhere, and 2) the people involved in making this are very passionate about Sci-Fi media from all eras. So now that the video has achieved some level of success, we'll look at producing other mini-documentaries along the same lines - and yes, we have some ideas already. Yet what's really important is that people are not only appreciating the videos we're creating, but are learning something from them too - as well as hopefully being entertained in the process. 🙂
Nice summary of things (many series I never caught here in Spokane WA, where there were fewer channels at that time). Thanks to modern DVDs and MeTV & such some of that has been filled in for me. For instance, I found that Ray Bradbury did two episodes on the early Alfred Hitchcock Presents series in mid 1950s, and one of the sci fi episodes of "Tales of Tomorrow" was recycled later as a Twilight Zone Epsiode "What You Need"
Al Hodge the best remembered Captain Video, had been the voice of the Green Hornet on radio. He was so good at it, his voice was dubbed into the two Green Hornet serials in 1940. Typecast as the Green Hornet, Al Hodge tried out for the new medium, TV. In short order he was so typecast as Captain video, he was again out of work.
I recall reading an article in advertising age magazine back in the fall of 1976, that said the owners of the captain video series, believed that the only value the old tapes held, was in the chemical's used in the old film, thus most were destroyed to recycle the chemicals in them.
That was brilliant. Thank you and, please, keep it coming. PS as a kid I loved Jet Jackson (and his flying commandos) but might you also cover "Roger Ramjet"?
Outer Limits scared the #@+* out of me as a kid. It was the one where actor Robert Culp allowed himself to be transformed into an alien like creature to create a panic that would unite a fractured world.
Here's a made for television movie from Warner Brothers that I only saw once as a child (I'm now 76) and never again. It was called DEEP FREEZE and starred CHARLES BRONSON, ALLISON HAYES and GERALD MOHR from around 1955 or 1956. I see it listed on science fiction movie sites, so I know it exists, but there's no physical video to be found anywhere. Does anyone know why this film has not been released to the public for home viewing? Maybe someone at Warner Brother's might read this and let me know the answer. NICE VIDEO....
I'm only 69, so I'm a bit young for most of these, but I do remember Science Fiction Theater, One Step Beyond, and Twilght Zone. And, of course, Superman. Looking back, it always struck me funny that, when the bad guys would shoot at Superman, he would stand there with his chest puffed out, letting the bullets bounce off. But, when they ran out of ammo and threw their guns at him, he always would duck. Curious. Anyway, while I don't remember Captain Midnight first hand, I did hear a lot about him from my older brother, who proudly hung onto his Official Captain Midnight Decoder Ring well into the 1960s, hoping he would make a comeback.
That was a very through review of the early era of television SF, but after that exhaustive list, when capping it off with the Twilight Zone, you failed to mention my personal favorite, the outer limits. Unconscionable! 😅
Surprised that TV actually was around in 1928, I remember one of the features of the 1939 World's Fair was television. I stream some of the radio versions of these, Space Patrol being one. Time Travel is my favorite Sci Fi genre
Rocky Jones had two cast changes, Scotty Beckett the sidekick was arrested In Mexico…the actor who played the Professor died, additionally, the production was a syndication program not a Network production. These types of tv programs were released to both independent TV stations, and also to network affiliates during non prime time hours, local programming. ABC showed films and programs from syndication distributors until the continued success of Bewitched and later Batman upgraded its program schedules to purpose produced content shows by ABC productions…such as Dark Shadows and Game Shows…
I love it. When I was a kid, quite a bit after these shows, Space Cadet was a great insult. A dim witted individual with a very loose grasp on reality.
As a Boomer the two that I remember from the early fifties were "Captain Video" and "Rocky Jones, Space Ranger." Watching them now on TH-cam now I can't believe how crudely they were produced. Except for the nostalgia aspect they're hard to sit through.
There's no doubt TH-cam has given these old shows a new lease life and that's great to see. It's also the reason why we wanted to make this video to showcase this unique aspect of history which for the most part is mostly forgotten .
Fascinating, as Spock might say a decade or two later: it's a period I've long wondered about. What I find striking is that for all the US lead in TV output & technology, there's nothing here to compare with the (mostly) earth-bound realism of the contemporary Quatermass serials (though cinema had been on the case since 1951's The Thing and The Day the Earth Stood Still, and radio since at least 1938's famed War of the Worlds, and Captain Z-Ro's time travel angle seems to foreshadow elements of Dr Who). The genre seems initially to be plagued by TV execs viewing it as filler rather than the flagship it became for the BBC: the US obviously wasn't short of writing or directorial talent, but perhaps Hollywood was just too powerful a magnet, at least in the early years.
Science Fiction was expensive to make. and needed props cowboys had been around and there were sets from the beginning of movies and outdoor scenes just needed trees and horses, Moyouivie producers like to use old crap floating around the studios. or WW2 flight gear you could buy from army surplus stores.
as a Kid, I remember an episode about a Computer in a cave, and a Mannequin who came to life in an a clothing store, both scared me to death............
I’m 74 and some of these shows are totally new to me . Thanks for the history lesson and some great reminders of the past.
Same age and I don't remember many. The Westerns, both movies and series took over and they are still watchable.
Thank you for the travel down memory lane. I'm 78 and I remember some of the shows that you brought to our attention. One of the actresses appeared to look like Betty White! And Mr. Roddenberry gets reprimanded for mini skirts' but I noticed some in this Video. Our first TV was a Motorola BW [1952] cube on four stilts. I note 1952 for I do remember news reels of the Korean conflict. And what was that? Was that the earliest membership card with decoder ring offered? The westerns, Roy Rogers and others had a code of conduct. was there a code that came with that card? With different actors, some of these were on Radio way before television came along. Now, here is a project. THE INTERNET ARCHIVE may have some copies of the shows you brought to our attention. "Galaxy", "Amazing Stories", were other magazine that were published. Somewhere along the line there was even one labeled, "Asimov".
I'm 78 and I remember watching these shows in the early 50's... the Tom Corbet Space Cadet play set, the Captain Midnight decoder ring, "the flying man with a stovepipe on his back" (Commando Cody), Space patrol with a young "Scotty" (later to be on Star Trek). What memories! I'm still a Sci-Fi addict today. Much thanks for the video.
I'm your age, and also had a decoder ring. My favorite program was Rocky Jones, Space Ranger. When I saw Space X landing rockets on their tails, I told my grandchildren it took me back to Rocky Jones. Of course, they had no idea of what I was talking about.
I'm 78 also and watched these shows.
I immigrated from Japan in 1952 at age 2. I learned English from watching Tom Corbett Space Cadet. When I joined the Air Force in 1973, I worked at the Space Defense Center of the North American Aerospace Defense Command inside Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado Springs, Colorado, writing computer programs to track Soviet spy satellites flying over Area 51. In 1984 I joined Strategic Air Command, including the study of several ways to base and launch the MX ICBM, and the preparation of Vandenberg Air Force Base as a base for launching and landing the Space Shuttle. The program should be amplified by telling the story of the kids who watched those TV shows and were inspired to work in the civilian and military space programs when we grew up.
That is a very cool story and well done to you. As it is, quite a lot of people enter the sciences field (and the arts) after being inspired by science fiction TV shows and movies. This is why it's such a great genre.
Yeah, sure Mack.
Is this "Raymond Swenson" of the Osaka "Swensons"??
@@TheUluxian 😀
WOW!
My second father in law was the star and producer of a Sci Fi show from 1953 -1956, this show was called Commander Comet. His name was Larry Harmon. Larry was also the owner of Bozo The Clown until his passing in 2008.
By golly you're right! Clearly whilst doing our research we missed this, possibly because it was a locally produced series only broadcast in San Bernardino. Either way it's on us and is definitely our mistake.
I'm a little younger but I was around for all this nonsense too! When I saw the scifi show it was called Commander Cody. I have no idea of the years tho tv was not very regular and turned on and off during the day. like news the the Capt K sent me to school , Later we got Sheriff John and his lunch brigade. those shows took off when Kellogs and post found they could sell breakfast foods and show old 1930's carttoons
Glad I found this channel I love Sci Fi thumbs up for your content a lot of very good Sci Fi TV series on your list most of them were before my time but I would love to see them I started watching Sci Fi in the seventies Space 1999 loved that series.
@@scifizone Not that many people lived in San Bernardino in the fifties.
😮
My friends and I talked about the day we would grow up and reach beyond (what we thought were facts) and bring the world to a new and glorious life. One of those friends became a nuclear engineer, the other a Football coach, and I went onto long haul driving The nuclear engineer helped make safer reactors, the football coach help boys he taught and coached become men of honor and character. I went into long haul driving and spent the better part of my career bringing food to people in the 48 continental states and the docks on both coasts. We did not fail our dreams, we just took them a different way
I remember Space Patrol as the best Sci-Fi program until Star Trek. When Star Trek came to TV, I was a student living in the dormitory at the University of Oregon. We had be in the TV room an hour before the show began to get a seat (otherwise standing room only). At that time, Dragnet was the program before Star Trek. So I watched Dragnet and Star Trek religiously every week.
Space Patrol's Buzz Cory's ship the Terra 5 was the first spaceship just about anywhere to have faster than light hyperdrive. They just shimmered it and added a whine. Spaaaace Paatrrool! Never missed a Saturday show--much to the puzzlement of my scientist father.
I'm lucky to have been born in 57'. By the time I was 4, the sci-fi genre was developing rapidly. It was a great time to be a kid. We had the very best westerns, great sci-fi, fun tv shows like My favorite Martian, Bewitched, The Addams Family, Munsters, Star Trek, Avengers, Get Smart, Batman.....plus all the sci-fi movies we could go see at the drive in. Fun days.
Same here, I feel lucky to have been a kid in the 60s when so many 50s sci-fi movies were on our local syndicated channel. I think the best ones were War of the Worlds, Them, and Earth vs the Flying Saucers, but there were tons of lower budget ones that were fun. Aliens that looked like giant eyeballs, brains, etc. Rocket ships galore.
I loved watching the Irwin Allen shows as a 7 year old in 1965. The technology was a stark contrast to the rotary dial telephones in most homes back then. I wondered when push buttons were going to become common place in the real world.
I've always been a SciFi fan, but I never knew about pre-Star-Trek TV SciFI. Thanks for a new rabbit hole to go down!
Funny thing is whenever I hear mention of Captain Video the first thing that comes to mind is Ed Norton on "The Honeymooners". I always remember Ed Norton wearing his Captain Video space helmet saying "I'm with you Captain Video wherever you are".
That was his favourite show.
Thanks for the Blast from the Past! I loved watching these shows as a youngster. I still have my autographed picture of George "Commando Cody" Wallace. We kids ran around with improvised jet packs all day long!
When I was growing up there was a show called Men into Space. From what I remember it was actually fairly accurate in a number of its shows as far as the science was concerned. It also showed the dangers of space travel with a few episodes carefully showing the death of some characters as they saved their fellow astronauts.
I`m 72 from the UK. After school cinema club played Captain Video every week. It was magic to us.
Thanks for this.
Literally one of my first memories is learning how to turn on the TV by myself so that I could watch Rocky Jones (I especially remember the “cold light” which made their spaceship invisible).
Also, I still have my Men Into Space lunchbox (which I insisted on as my Christmas present the year it was on).
I remember remember how excited I was to finally receive my Captain Midnight decoder pin I had sent away for enclosing the seal from a jar of Ovaltine. First decoded message: "DRINK OVALTINE".
Straight out of A Christmas Story! :)
I used to watch Space Patrol in the early and mid-1950's when I was growing up in the mid-Los Angeles area adjacent to Hollywood. I still remember a couple of Space Patrol actors arriving home or visiting someone's home -- in costume -- to a house a few doors up and across the street from our house. Of course I was in awe and thought the Space Patrol was REAL! 🤣
Thanks for taking the time and putting in the effort to make this. Interesting and a nice trip down memory lane.
Thanks for the positive feedback. This was a passiion project for everyone involved as we're all fans of classic Sci-Fi movies and TV shows. We also tried to be as historically accurate as possible, so we're glad it all paid off.
Thank you for posting something I am too young to remember 😅
Good job! Fascinating stuff. Hats off to all the work and research in putting this together!
I'm 78 & watched nearly all of these Sci-Fi shows when my family got their first t.v. set in early 1950 at age 4! All
but two of these series are familiar to me, i.e. the short lived "Buck Rogers", "Rod Brown" etc. It was great fun
imagining a world of the future, but disappointing to see how little it has changed in 70 years! p.s. (Believe it or not,
in June 1950, I was interviewed on a very early t.v. show, hosted by Buster Crabbe (aka Flash Gordon & Buck Rogers)!
What a great experience to have had!
Well done!
Now I want to see these early shows. Too bad so much has been lost.
Thank you. I've live for sis decades and never heard of some of these gems!
Great stuff, even including the ubiquitous Whit Bissell at 17:17 - he brought gravitas to so many roles on TV, often in SF shows (I remember him in TIME TUNNEL especially).
If ya don't get Richard Carlson, ya hire Hugh Marlowe. If no Hugh Marlowe, Whit Bissell!
This is a great video! I was born in 66, so I've never heard of most of these shows outside of the obvious stuff like Twilight Zone, Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. I've also heard of Captain Video, but have never ever seen an episode. My era of SCI-FI TV would be the shows from the 60s that were rerun throughout the 70s: Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Land of the Giants, Doctor Who, Lost in Space... I'd love to see another volume of this covering shows from the 60s then the 70s.
An exceptionally well-done "micro-documentary" that hits the highlights of television sci-fi.
Rocky Jones is much more of a pattern piece for Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek than most realize. Several of the set and costume staff on that show went to work for Desilu.
A Planetary Union
Starbases
A space navy
A bridge with elevator behind and a flat video screen in front of the captain
The on ship uniforms were tight T shirts with badges sewn on the left breast. The woman, Vina, wore a minidress and boots.
Several of the plots were recycled as TOS episodes.
Star Trek was very much a combination of Forbidden Planet and the kids show Rocky Jones Space Rangers....along with Space Cadet and Buck Rogers novels.
A few years ago, I saw nearly all of the "Rocky Jones" series, since the 50's &
realized that it was very well done for that time! p.s I'm the one who wrote the
comment, two above!
Rocky Jones came up with two Star Trek spaceship plot devices. They were automatic sliding doors and a cloaking device. It also featured John Banner (later "Hogan's Hero's" Sgt. Schultz) as the ruler of a small planet.
@@charlesyoung7436 it also had a plot very similar to Journey to Babble.
TNG: Wesley Crusher is very much like The Boy there for no real reason, but somehow wonderful.
Several Orville plots are very similar to RJ plots.
@@charlesyoung7436I remember the "Cold Light" cloaking device installed on the Orbit Jet, Rocky's best spaceship.
Good information,I never knew this,but,I guess Star Trek had to be modeled after another sci-fi tv show.
Big fan of 50's Sci Fi movies to this day, but but was unaware of much of the TV sci-fi. Thanks so much for filling in the gaps.
Around 1952 about half of U.S. households had a TV set. TV was delayed due to WWII. The first really popular TV show was “I Love Lucy” in 1951. The first sci-fi TV show was “Captain Video and His Video Rangers” (1949-1955).
The first sci-fi TV show I remember watching as a young kid in the mid-1960s was “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” (1964-1968) and then other TV shows by Irwin Allen:“Lost in Space” (1965-1968), “The Time Tunnel (1966-1967)” and “Land of the Giants” (1968-1970). My mother thought “The Twilight Zone” was too weird and scary for kids. Other sci-fi TV shows we watched in the mid to late 1960s were: “Star Trek” (1966-1969), “The Invaders” (1967-1968), “Thunderbirds” (1965-1966) and “Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons” (1967-1968).
Don't forget Super Car, Fireball XL-5, Astro Boy & Prince Planet, Gigantor
@@terrencemccoy8219 Gerry Anderson really hit his stride with Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet. I remember my mom getting me and my brother all the Corgi die-cast vehicles. I did watch his live action series “UFO” (1970-1961) and later “Space 1999” (1975-1977). The latter starred the husband and wife team from “Mission Impossible”: Martin Landau & Barbara Bain.
I'm now aware of all of these but the only one I ever watched was Science Fiction Theater.
I gre up on Rocky Jones and the numerous reedited reruns. I even got a job at the driving range at a local golf course picking up the golf balls, but bailed on that as it overlaped the time Rocky Jones aired. One of the best of the pre-Star Trek shows presented.
Thanks. I'm only 70 so I missed out on all these old shows. Good recap.
Around 10 min I'm pretty sure I spotted a teenage Bob Hastings as the little brother of Captain Video. Hastings was a very familiar radio actor who voiced Archie and a ton of other characters, and later played Lt. Carpenter on the McHale's Navy tv show.
He was also Kelsey in "All in the Family."
And voiced superboy and commissioner Gordon.
I remember watching Flash Gordon, Commander Cody. Then the Adventures of Superman in 1963 when I was 8 yrs old, the 1st run of Star Trek and Lost In Space in 1966. What a vehicle of remembrance.
Superman intro train scene was filmed in simi valley, train was west bound just east of Tapo street.
Loved Science Fiction Theater and One Step Beyond
One Step was a favoite ofmine anything wierd. There was one I never saw to much maybe it ws too primitive was the creaky Door to THE INNER SANCTUM
As one of my favorite science fiction characters would say, FANTASTIC! The first SF TV show I remember is, Men Into Space and the first SF I was 'exposed' to was the 1950 movie, The Thing From Another World! And even though I didn't realize it at the time, science fiction would be come my favorite means of entertainment. A lot of the programs listed I never knew about, and would like to get some of them!
Commando Cody was released in theatres BEFORE it appeared on television; it was filmed for contractual reasons.
Yes we know. We only showed a segment of it on TV as an example of what SF on TV would look like, but later stated it was made for TV but ended up in cinemas instead.
i just got down to your comment. all of those kids shows were from 1940s theater serials and early cartoons Like BettyBoop. Same with the Little Rascals and Laurel and Hardy TV recycled the hell of that material.
Great documentary. I'm 63 but missed all the early SciFi programs. Your video was educational to me. Thanks.
One thing they didn't mention about the Flash Gordon series is that it was filmed in post-WWII Berlin. Of course, it was set in the future and most of the episodes were straight space opera but one episode in particular is very interesting. The villain goes back in time to plant a bomb to disrupt history. Flash and crew also go back to that time to disarm it. They wind up in early 1950s Berlin. Their strange appearance gets the attention of the local authorities, and the actors portraying the Berlin police are filmed driving VW Beetles to chase them around the real city. The show is a time capsule of what Berlin looked like in that era with the city in recovery from the war and the Berlin airlift.
Yes you are correct, Flash Gordon was indeed made in West Germany after WWII, however, we didn't mention it because we felt it wasn't relevant to the show's success (or lack thereof). 🙂
THis was my formative era!
I am 82 and in the late forties we had a Dumont TV and
Captain Video was my first TV sci-fi show, The Science Fiction Theater, which used
stories from golden age SF writers , they started to replace westerns and
I
loved them!
Thank you,
Frederick "Rik" Spector
I just turned 80. Captain Video, Tom Corbett Space Cadet, Space Patrol. All broadcast live! On Space Patrol, the two female sidekicks, Carol and Tonga, wore little short skirts and were always climbing up ladders showing their lovely legs - which didn't do much for my seven year-old self.
One time on Captain Video, the Ranger was struggling to get back to the ship on an ice planet with stalagmites on the ground. He accidentally kicked over one the stalagmites, and you could here it rolling around behind him, LOL. Captain Video's theme music was Ride of the Valkyries.
There was an adult sci fi show called Tales of Tomorrow, but we had very poor reception in CT at the time. I've since found a lot of those episodes on Hulu, and they were pretty good for the time.
@@MrRezillo ahhh memories memories grazie
@@rikspector At some point I started to lose interest. I think was when Tom Corbett himself started selling Kellog's Corn Flakes - live. Then I started to notice girls a little more, ha, ha.
There was a time when Science Fiction did not exist on television. That time was when television itself WAS Science Fiction.
I vaguely remember Rocky Jones,Space Ranger. I was 7 in 1960, so most of the shows mentioned escaped me. The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits fascinated me. Stranger in a Strange Land (1963) hooked me on Sci-Fi as did A Wrinkle in Time.
Thank you for producing such a wonderful documentary. I hadn't heard of most of the programs you mentioned. I also would like to thank you for using a real persons voice. This made your production much more enjoyable to listen to.
By 1966, Kubrick would start production on 2001. From the early 50s TV to the masterpiece in so short of time.
If you think about it the 20th century saw several examples of accelerated development. We went from the Wright Brothers to Apollo 11 in under 70 years. We went from ether still being used in operations to gene therapy in 80 years.
In the early days maybe into the late 50's rural areas didn't receive TV signals and then they had to put antennas on their houses.
nice lightning rods
Born in 51 what a great time to grow up 💯😎
This video is well awesome in billions of ways, and well made too.
An *excellent* depiction of *the Dawn of Science Fiction,* up to the appearance of *the Mother of ALL High Quality SyFy&Fantasy: The Twilight Zone.* ❤❤❤
Well done!! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Enjoyed this very much, Tales Of Tomorrow was a very ambitious TV show, they did adaptations of 20000 Leagues Under The Sea, Frañkenstein, and The Crystal Egg, all live, how did they do it?
I loved these crazy shows as a kid ( early 50's) but it was Flash Gordon serials that had rooms full of kids every evening watching.
I also loved all of the space magazines that came out of that time. "Amazing Stories" was one of the best, probably because of Isaac Asmof as one of the editors and story contributors.
16:40
I remembered some episodes that showed random items that we see today. Two such items included, the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner and a handheld scanner that sent texts to distant locations
My name is Truman Bradley and I am your host......goosebumps remembering this brilliant series first aired on Italian TV in 1958
As a kid, my favourite was Captain Midnight.
Fantastic stuff! Thanks to Darren and the team.
(I remember Jet Jackson. I must be old)
The first family home television we had in Minnesota was in 1950. Up 'till then; the kids went to the Saturday movies for those "Rocket Man" classics out of Republic Studios, I believe. Prohibitions and limitations were expressed at the family level for certain darkly- themed sci-fi TV series; that along with post-war, pre-television family dynamics (card games with the relatives on a snowy night while listening to Paul Whiteman) --- all of which underwent an almost unperceptable series of major changes in dynamics in the 1950's. This theme is rather artfully shaped to cinema in the film "AVALON." 🎨 ART JAGRAF/X 🎨
Great trip down memory lane with a few shows I hadn't heard of to boot! Want to give a shout out to "Strange Tales of Science Fiction" which premiered a bit later in 1961.
Well done on a fascinating account of early TV SF....excellent narration by Natasha; clear and informative. I was around as a male brat back then. The Scala cinema in St. Ives, ( now Boots ), showed many of the early sci fi shorts including Flash Gordon. In reality, we were affect-wise, eg. Flash walking across a light beam; we could clearly see the plank! This sci fi beginning was accompanied in the newsagents by many sci fi comics such as Superman, Captain Marvel, Captain 'Space' Kingley, Dan Dare, etc.....but Superman reigned in St. Ives in 1950!
Great tv history, thanks! I obtained Men into Space on disc and watched it once. Angie Dickenson is in it, wink. They sent like 5 male and 1 female to the moon and the woman was up there cooking for the men, lol. I love Science Fiction Theater, they filmed the first season in color expecting tv sets in color to be the thing in the mid 1950s. To save costs they filmed the later season in black and white. A lot of the episodes are online now, good nostalgia and with actors you will see later in shows like The Twilight Zone and Star Trek.
I feel the most fantastic aspect of of this era was the evolution of the sci-fi genre through the years from silent films to television to the CGI movies that look so real , it's magic or as Mr Spock would say "Facinating" and Interesting
I do hope this will be the start of an ongoing series...
We greatly appreciate the encouragement. We took this production on for two reasons 1) we felt the history of American Sci-Fi on TV hadn't really been covered anywhere, and 2) the people involved in making this are very passionate about Sci-Fi media from all eras.
So now that the video has achieved some level of success, we'll look at producing other mini-documentaries along the same lines - and yes, we have some ideas already.
Yet what's really important is that people are not only appreciating the videos we're creating, but are learning something from them too - as well as hopefully being entertained in the process. 🙂
Nice summary of things (many series I never caught here in Spokane WA, where there were fewer channels at that time). Thanks to modern DVDs and MeTV & such some of that has been filled in for me. For instance, I found that Ray Bradbury did two episodes on the early Alfred Hitchcock Presents series in mid 1950s, and one of the sci fi episodes of "Tales of Tomorrow" was recycled later as a Twilight Zone Epsiode "What You Need"
By the way, many of the programs mentioned can be found here on TH-cam. Their copyrights have long expired and can be viewed without issue.
Red Dwarf is great, but it’s really The Odd Couple meets Lost in Space.😅
Another local show from this time period was Captain Jet. You can find some episodes here on TH-cam
Al Hodge the best remembered Captain Video, had been the voice of the Green Hornet on radio. He was so good at it, his voice was dubbed into the two Green Hornet serials in 1940. Typecast as the Green Hornet, Al Hodge tried out for the new medium, TV. In short order he was so typecast as Captain video, he was again out of work.
I love this
I remember seeing a series called Captain Video at the childrens cinema shows.
Interesting//informative/entertaining. Vagely remember some of those ( B&W ) episodes🤔 enjoy viewing 👀 the ( 1920's 30's 40's ) movie/TV filming equipment🤗
I enjoyed watching Commando Cody in the early 1960s when episodes were shown on local TV in Los Angeles.
Little Trivia Note: The 1950's Space Patrol series was produced from the soundstage that was used to film Lon Chaney's "Phantom of the Opera".
I loved to view Captain Video at our road trip motels when I was 10 so this video is very interesting! Thanks for showing it!
I recall reading an article in advertising age magazine back in the fall of 1976, that said the owners of the captain video series, believed that the only value the old tapes held, was in the chemical's used in the old film, thus most were destroyed to recycle the chemicals in them.
There was a claymation Space Patrol on Sunday morning along with Davy and Goliath.
Man, we waited for Superman ever week.
The very first show I can remember watching is Men Into Space.
At 17:13 is Whit Bissell who is a veteran of Star Trek, The Time Tunnel, The Magnificent Seven...
If Whit is in it it's a hit!
As a child I enjoyed "Rocky Jones, Space Ranger," "Supercar," and "Fireball XL5."
That was brilliant. Thank you and, please, keep it coming. PS as a kid I loved Jet Jackson (and his flying commandos) but might you also cover "Roger Ramjet"?
Glad you enjoyed the video. As for Ramjet, alas that show came out in the mid 60,s so it missed our cutoff point by 6 years 🙂
Great piece, thanks.
Very informative thank you
3:11 - 3:13 I think I spotted a young Patrick Troughton on stage there, with some noticeable makeup, but it looks like him.
Well spotted! Yes that was indeed Patrick in the R.U.R. production photo.
Just a note to remember the first sci fi fan on television, Edward Norton (space helmet on o Captain Video!
)
For Me at 7 yrs. old It was 1964 The Outer Limits. (smile)
Outer Limits scared the #@+* out of me as a kid. It was the one where actor Robert Culp allowed himself to be transformed into an alien like creature to create a panic that would unite a fractured world.
@@Brunoburningbright Good Episode, When the Xenomorphs Comes They Eat They Eat Europeans & Africans & More.
This is a great documentary.
Here's a made for television movie from Warner Brothers that I only saw once as a child (I'm now 76) and never again. It was called DEEP FREEZE and starred CHARLES BRONSON, ALLISON HAYES and GERALD MOHR from around 1955 or 1956. I see it listed on science fiction movie sites, so I know it exists, but there's no physical video to be found anywhere. Does anyone know why this film has not been released to the public for home viewing? Maybe someone at Warner Brother's might read this and let me know the answer. NICE VIDEO....
I'm only 69, so I'm a bit young for most of these, but I do remember Science Fiction Theater, One Step Beyond, and Twilght Zone. And, of course, Superman. Looking back, it always struck me funny that, when the bad guys would shoot at Superman, he would stand there with his chest puffed out, letting the bullets bounce off. But, when they ran out of ammo and threw their guns at him, he always would duck. Curious. Anyway, while I don't remember Captain Midnight first hand, I did hear a lot about him from my older brother, who proudly hung onto his Official Captain Midnight Decoder Ring well into the 1960s, hoping he would make a comeback.
I remember "Science Fiction Theater". It was my favorite show.
Just like to say that I enjoyed that
That was a very through review of the early era of television SF, but after that exhaustive list, when capping it off with the Twilight Zone, you failed to mention my personal favorite, the outer limits. Unconscionable! 😅
The Outer Limits came out four years after TZ, so alas it didn't make the team. 🙂
Surprised that TV actually was around in 1928, I remember one of the features of the 1939 World's Fair was television.
I stream some of the radio versions of these, Space Patrol being one.
Time Travel is my favorite Sci Fi genre
Rocky Jones had two cast changes, Scotty Beckett the sidekick was arrested In Mexico…the actor who played the Professor died, additionally, the production was a syndication program not a Network production. These types of tv programs were released to both independent TV stations, and also to network affiliates during non prime time hours, local programming. ABC showed films and programs from syndication distributors until the continued success of Bewitched and later Batman upgraded its program schedules to purpose produced content shows by ABC productions…such as Dark Shadows and Game Shows…
Rossum's Universal Robots is where we got the word robot, a Czech word meaning worker.
I stumbled across Tales of Tomorrow on Tubi recently which was pretty cool, though it looks like many of the episodes did not survive to the present
seeing this the Steve Austin rendition of buck rogers looked awsome.
Great little vid
10:12)Spock's older brother Bok?
12:49)Repeated in "Star Trek: The Journey To Babel". Season 2, Episode 10.
14:53)"Space Academy" was revive 1977.
I love it. When I was a kid, quite a bit after these shows, Space Cadet was a great insult. A dim witted individual with a very loose grasp on reality.
As a Boomer the two that I remember from the early fifties were "Captain Video" and "Rocky Jones, Space Ranger." Watching them now on TH-cam now I can't believe how crudely they were produced. Except for the nostalgia aspect they're hard to sit through.
There's no doubt TH-cam has given these old shows a new lease life and that's great to see. It's also the reason why we wanted to make this video to showcase this unique aspect of history which for the most part is mostly forgotten .
Fascinating, as Spock might say a decade or two later: it's a period I've long wondered about. What I find striking is that for all the US lead in TV output & technology, there's nothing here to compare with the (mostly) earth-bound realism of the contemporary Quatermass serials (though cinema had been on the case since 1951's The Thing and The Day the Earth Stood Still, and radio since at least 1938's famed War of the Worlds, and Captain Z-Ro's time travel angle seems to foreshadow elements of Dr Who).
The genre seems initially to be plagued by TV execs viewing it as filler rather than the flagship it became for the BBC: the US obviously wasn't short of writing or directorial talent, but perhaps Hollywood was just too powerful a magnet, at least in the early years.
Science Fiction was expensive to make. and needed props cowboys had been around and there were sets from the beginning of movies and outdoor scenes just needed trees and horses, Moyouivie producers like to use old crap floating around the studios. or WW2 flight gear you could buy from army surplus stores.
as a Kid, I remember an episode about a Computer in a cave, and a Mannequin who came to life in an a clothing store, both scared me to death............
Twilight Zone??
It also recorded the first live Blooper when the fake cut out microphone fell over, would have made Dick Clark proud.
At 17:21 of this video, that was to be the General on the Time Tunnel series.
Whit Bissell I believe. He was also on Star Trek once or twice.
@@peterwyetzner5276 Yes seen him in many things, surprised me to see him so young but the voice was the same.
@@timprussellWhit Bissell was a very prolific actor for many years. From 'Man From Planet X' to 'Patty Duke Show'. 😊
Correction: I was thinking of William Schaller, not Whit Bissell! 🙄