Im 62 and find a lot of stuff that I never knew where there back in the day! Found the CBS Mystery Theater about 2 yrs ago and every night when I go to bed, I at least listen to 2 or 3 episodes before I fall asleep.
Awesome! Settle Down there Dr. Brackett! (Robert Fuller) "...KMG 365.." and, a pre-shout out to Scotty, "...I'm giving it all we've got, Captain!!..." love it! Thanks!!
A few bits of trivia: actor Robert Gist, who played "Captain John Gates" on the crash-landed ship, went on to direct one of the Top 5 Original Star Trek episodes: "The Galileo Seven". Ron Hagerty, who played "Lindeman", had a varied career as a supporting character in many TV series in the 1950's and 1960's. His claim to fame? He's still alive, as of October 19, 2024 - at the age of 92. Actor James Callahan had a 50 year career and appeared in just about everything - from The Twilight Zone to Combat! to every TV Western ever made, and then later on in such shows as MASH and The Golden Girls to Mannix and The Fugitive and The Invaders to you-name-it. As for "Bill Cheyney" (played by actor Robert Fuller) he went on to star in the Western TV series "Laramie", "Wagon Train", and others, and frequently guest starred in just about every Western and TV Drama you can think of. And - yes! Robert Fuller is still alive - having just celebrated his 91st birthday!
I recognized James Callahan from all the 60's TV he did including the episode from MASH where he played a war journalist who was writing a book called "You Never Hear The Bullet".
IT is hard to believe that in less than ten years, it went from this, almost 1930s space sci-fi, to Star Trek which is still sci-fi now . I love the outer space small talk .
I kept thinking I was watching Star Trek. This was really good. I was born in 1953 and loved this sort of thing but never heard of this, thanks for posting. It's hard to imagine now but of course in those days you had to get the right channel and be watching on the right day and hour to catch something. I was something to see Theodore Marcuse as a good guy. He was Bones.
I was born in 1953 also, September 1953 to be exact, and I don't remember this show at all, back then we had to watch what our father wanted to watch, and dad God rest his soul probably never saw this. 🤔
i am 70 and just remember seeing a few of these episodes as a kid and dreamed of the future and then the New York world's fair came along which made this tv show all possible then.
Bad, but not bad ! I was 6 yrs old in ‘59 and didn’t know I was a nerd yet. Did anyone notice the usage of Krell power dials in the background ? One question: What was that business with everyone carrying a safety belt around with them to belt themselves to wall-mounted anchor points in the event of high/low accelerations or crashes? The budget was really showing there ! How about some war surplus Sabrejet ejection seats, at least?
@@bobjohnson1587 do you remember when the Lost in Space crew encountered a group of hillbilly aliens who’s spaceship looked like a broken down cabin complete with front porch and rocking chair?
Wow - this was great! Intense, mature-themed script with excellent character actors, and classic Forbidden Planet props, costumes and backdrops - thank you for posting this hidden gem!
Despite the low budget and half hour format they did a pretty good job of packing action, conflict and well drawn characters inyo this one episode. Its frontier theme also forshadows Star Trek a few years later with a bigger budget.
Wow... pretty good effects, for the available tech. I would have killed to see more like these, but apparently, veiwers weren't really into science fiction like I was... and milloins more like me.
The exterior set is the one from “Forbidden Planet.” It is great to see a young Robert Fuller and Ron Hagerthy (Clipper on “Sky King”). Director Boris Sagal was the father of actress Katey Sagal (Married with Children, Sons of Anarchy, The Conners).
Not bad for 1959 (the same year I was born) TV series pilot. It looked like it had potential. It reminded me of the original Star Trek pilot with the captain confiding doubts about his command with the doctor to spotlight the human condition and experience. The epilogue reminds me of the fact Star Trek was sold as a wagon train to the stars.
@@transitengineer Yup, sure did. But it wasn't surprising knowing the budgets for tv sci-fi where typically painfully low back in those days being typically reserved for Saturday morning children's TV programs to sell breakfast cereals.
I'm aprox 3.14159 years old and I've never seen this nor have I ever heard the name of this show. Many thanks to the algorithm and this channel for introducing me. I really do LOVE shows like this! Especially scifi B&W shows!
Wow, I was expecting some corny kiddy show version of the future. Brother, was I wrong; it has an intense, serious script and good acting. I recognize several familiar faces here.
Born in 1953, a space junkie from Day 1 and believe it or not I actually remember this show. Parts at least. For what it is it's really not bad. And cool seeing so many familiar faces.
This wins my Space Captain Seal of Approval! Excellence in every category of Space Captain Excellence. Just EXCELLENT. Very space family friendly entertainment, but great for weirdos and hermits as well!😊
Thank you for uploading. I'm a Gen X Brit so this was before my time and I'd never heard of it before. This was considerably better than I was expecting. More of a proto-Star Trek than "The Brain Monster from Planet X" style that I was fully anticipating.
This was, for the time, really good. The actors played it straight. There was a minimum of cheesy dialog like "Set the astro-beam to 14 cosmo-waves!". The ship and building interiors were perhaps too sparse, but if it had been picked up, they would have the budget it to dress it up. Clearly, it was an attempt to do a mature, adult-oriented (not like that!) space drama in an era when it was mostly considered kiddie stuff. Which probably explains why it wasn't picked up.
Pretty cool stuff. I think I recognize Theodore from the haunted castle Star Trek episode. They sure tried hard to imagine the future, with whatever the science of the day was available. Thumbs up.
Wow!!! I was just kind of scrolling for old Sci-Fi and this popped up. I was expecting to be amusingly disappointed. In fact, I was quite impressed. Quite an ambitious effort for the time. Roddenberry must have seen this pilot!!
Irving Block and Jack Rabin were two totally underappreciated science fiction talents back in the 1950s. From the original story for "Forbidden Planet" to the giant-energy sucking battery alien in "Kronos," they were two guys who knew how to do a lot with a little.
Great show! I saw it a few years ago on TH-cam. Reminds me of a series I watched back in 1959 or 1960, called "Man Into Space" . I remember it as quite good(of course, I'm 73 now, and memories are tricky things!
A fun show, I always enjoy seeing the old sci-fi's and am always fascinated by some of the designs and background sets from the days when other planets were still a mystery and all was pure guess-work. It's still more captivating, to me, to see these old shows vs. the modern CGI nonsense. Thanks a lot for sharing this episode!
Good writing and good acting. I like Theo Marcuse as the Doc, nice change from his often roles as the Villain. Thanks for uploading this. Would love to see more.
Pretty good for the time. Definitely a "Forbidden Planet" vibe. I particularly liked the plexiglass vidscreens. STOS should have used those instead of the clunky tv type things they used. Maybe Roddenberry never saw this pilot.
Movie/TV producers often put on screen what their audience is used to rather than what they know will be. The computers shown in 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY look like 1950's computers - even though computer experts had correctly predicted to the executive producer what 2000's computers would look like.And an early British sci-fi film showed 2-way TV with no visible camera but did show a huge radio-style microphone... because the audience was used to those microphones.
Pretty cool!! Born in 54, Hadn't ever heard of this show!! Enjoyed!! Robert Fuller (Dr. Brackett from Emergency) There where a couple others faces that I recognized but can't remember there names. Really can see the change in Sci-Fi movies and shows with the advent of CGI!!
Rocky Jones: Space Ranger had two way video communication years before this. It was also the first sci-fi to depict a ship flown by instrumentation instead of windows (yes, it predates Forbidden Planet). It also was the first, iirc, to have electronic, sliding doors. And the budget, as in this show, was high for it's time, though it looks primitive to our eyes.
Never seen or even heard of this production until now. Considering its small budget, it wasn't bad. A 1950's precursor to Star Trek or even a back story from the universe of Forbidden Planet.
Good production values for 1959 sci-fi: whizzy, light weight survival suits; two-moon matte painting of planet landscape; realistic technology; lots of sci jargon; humorous dialog, with a touch of pre-Scotty; et al.
When compared to it's contemporaries, with the exception of Rocky Jones: Space Ranger, the VX, for it's day, are amazing. The planet sets were far more expansive than I was expecting and it looked better than many B-movies of the day. The rocket was pretty good, the little flight pods were a little too basic, but maybe if it had been picked up, they'd have looked a little better. All in all, I wish this had been picked up. Such a cool concept for a 50's sci-fi show and it's a shame this is all we got.
I am guessing this was the pilot episode for a series that never got picked up. I was 10 in 1959. I don't know how I would have missed it as a weekly series. This was better than most Star Trek episodes.
This was so well done, and honestly holds up quite well to this day. I was engaged the whole time! The end bit was a nice touch. Pretty good set design too. Really felt real. The glass comms screens were awesome and unexpected given the year. And of course there's the fact that it wasn't a "pew pew" space show, but a much more Human, and timeless one. Thanks for sharing this!
This is an episode of the 1958-59 TV series Flight. it wasn't a scifi series but rather a series of stories ranging from WWII to the future centered around some form of aviation.
Robert Fuller, ( Cheyney ), is still around, bless him, age 91. After this he became a heartthrob in the tv prog 'Laramie'.He goes 'fishin' and shootin' all he can on his ranch.
This is the lost MGM-TV pilot film I have been wanting to see since I first heard about it in 1960. It was made in early 1959 at MGM Studios using sets and props from FORBIDDEN PLANET. It was made in black & white for television, and shown to CBS but they passed on it, in favor of Rod Serling's Twilight Zone in mid-1959. I have never seen this, and this is a pristine print! I don't know if this film was ever shown on television, but it should have had at least one broadcast in 1959. It is a lot like the sci-fi TV series MEN INTO SPACE (UA-ZIV-TV, 1959-1960). Sci-fi wasn't as popular then on TV but in the 1960s that really changed. A Raylock Production - Producers: Jack Rabin, Irving Block and Louis DeWitt, who produced KRONOS (1957), and were special visual effects supervisors and story writers. Irving Block was associated with FORBIDDEN PLANET, having written and pitched the original story to MGM as "Fatal Planet" in 1954. Filmed at MGM as an independent production. Sadly the story and the production values were not up to par, and the superb writing and personality of Rod Serling made his project an easy sell to CBS.
I'll echo what's being said - never knew about this one. Thanks, hope you find more! Even the intro credits are a hoot - and we know now where some of the ideas came from. Like the scrolling title... and I agree with the comment about the Forbidden Planet sets.
Well, c’mon, that’s hardly a bad thing. And it’s not just from other TV or movies, either. In fact, I read all the Captain Hornblower series of British naval novels when i was younger…..and I kept thinking, reading novel after novel, I know this guy, I know this guy (i.e, Capt. Hornblower); where do I know him from? Then I read The Making of Star Trek, where the author asked Gene Roddenberry if he modeled the character of Captain Kirk off of anyone, and he basically said: Oh, yeah, he’s just Capt Hornblower, straight out of the C.S. Forester novels…..and I was immediately….YES!!!! THAT’S how I ‘knew’ him; because reading the Hornblower novels, I was seeing Captain Kirk- on a British sailing ship, fighting Napoleon!1
I'm a sci-fi fan from childhood, I'm in my mid-60s, and I've never heard of this show before. Thanks for posting this video! The show was well done. Yes, the special effects and sets were rather fake looking, but remember, this was made in the 1950s, using a 1950s budget to create the sets and effects with 1950s abilities. However, the story and acting were good. I've seen movies with blockbuster budgets and sets and effects to match that turned out to be duds because the acting and story were lousy. Good acting and a good story can definitely carry a show.😊
I’m 66 , and I taught I knew all the sci fi and horror shows. This one is a new one on me. Thanks
I'm 69 and I totally agree with you guys! I wish this show had been picked up by a network, though--it's really pretty good!
Looks like a pilot show.
It is not a series. It is one episode of a series called Flight. Season 1, Episode 38.
I'm 59yo and thought I knew all the old series. Always learning.....
@@antonnym214 Do you know where we can find more of the series?
I'm 71 and never heard of this one, love old sci-fi. Thanks for uploading it.
My pleasure!
Im 62 and find a lot of stuff that I never knew where there back in the day! Found the CBS Mystery Theater about 2 yrs ago and every night when I go to bed, I at least listen to 2 or 3 episodes before I fall asleep.
I,m 74 and neither have I. interesting
Same here!
There's a reason. No one wanted too feel guilty for subjecting others to it.
Awesome! Settle Down there Dr. Brackett! (Robert Fuller) "...KMG 365.." and, a pre-shout out to Scotty, "...I'm giving it all we've got, Captain!!..." love it! Thanks!!
😂 I caught that one too 😝👌!!!
Who knew the Doc was an astronaut? 😮
" I'm giving it all we got, Captain !!"... Love that line ❤
A few bits of trivia: actor Robert Gist, who played "Captain John Gates" on the crash-landed ship, went on to direct one of the Top 5 Original Star Trek episodes: "The Galileo Seven". Ron Hagerty, who played "Lindeman", had a varied career as a supporting character in many TV series in the 1950's and 1960's. His claim to fame? He's still alive, as of October 19, 2024 - at the age of 92. Actor James Callahan had a 50 year career and appeared in just about everything - from The Twilight Zone to Combat! to every TV Western ever made, and then later on in such shows as MASH and The Golden Girls to Mannix and The Fugitive and The Invaders to you-name-it. As for "Bill Cheyney" (played by actor Robert Fuller) he went on to star in the Western TV series "Laramie", "Wagon Train", and others, and frequently guest starred in just about every Western and TV Drama you can think of. And - yes! Robert Fuller is still alive - having just celebrated his 91st birthday!
I also noticed many props from Forbidden Plant.
Theo Marcuse at the beginning of video:
He played Korob in Star Trek episode "Catspaw".
Thank you for the trivia details. They fill in a lot of gaps, and answer a lot of questions.
I recognized James Callahan from all the 60's TV he did including the episode from MASH where he played a war journalist who was writing a book called "You Never Hear The Bullet".
A side note on Robert Fuller, he was born in my hometown, Troy, New York.
Over 65 years old and still very enjoyable.
Yes, it helps when you have a real story-line (smile ... smile).
u r one of many
IT is hard to believe that in less than ten years, it went from this, almost 1930s space sci-fi, to Star Trek which is still sci-fi now . I love the outer space small talk .
Definitely better than your average 1950s Sci Fi TV stuff. Both the acting and the script are well up to par. More of these please.
I kept thinking I was watching Star Trek. This was really good. I was born in 1953 and loved this sort of thing but never heard of this, thanks for posting. It's hard to imagine now but of course in those days you had to get the right channel and be watching on the right day and hour to catch something. I was something to see Theodore Marcuse as a good guy. He was Bones.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Me too, but I don’t believe this was a series. Looks like a pilot show.
1954 here...😊
I was born in 1953 also, September 1953 to be exact, and I don't remember this show at all, back then we had to watch what our father wanted to watch, and dad God rest his soul probably never saw this. 🤔
New to me!! Love it. He even said "I'm givin' her all she's got captain!" Loooong before Star Trek
i am 70 and just remember seeing a few of these episodes as a kid and dreamed of the future and then the New York world's fair came along which made this tv show all possible then.
I went to the New York world's fair. I'm 72
This is way better than I expected it to be
Bad, but not bad ! I was 6 yrs old in ‘59 and didn’t know I was a nerd yet. Did anyone notice the usage of Krell power dials in the background ?
One question: What was that business with everyone carrying a safety belt around with them to belt themselves to wall-mounted anchor points in the event of high/low accelerations or crashes? The budget was really showing there ! How about some war surplus Sabrejet ejection seats, at least?
@@Nitedawg1 lol 😂 👍
You must have low expectations! lol
@@bobjohnson1587 do you remember when the Lost in Space crew encountered a group of hillbilly aliens who’s spaceship looked like a broken down cabin complete with front porch and rocking chair?
@@Nitedawg1 Unfortunately, or fortunately, I must have missed that one! lol
The engineer must have given Scotty his famous line...
" Captain, I've givin' you all she's got !"
And Theodore Marcuse, instead of being an evil guy was doing a good job as Bones.
That line was stolen with pride!
'I cannay given ya more power Captain!"🚫
You mean ‘There’s a second lever!’
The follow up "The DiLithium crystals are overloadin" is missing
This has the feel of a Star Trek episode. I can just hear Kirk and Bones cracking these joke, "Bones, you and your Human element"
Bald guy was in the cat's paw episode.
Spock! Are you out of your vulcan mind?
Beginning of movie: Those look like the power gauges of the great machine in Morbius' lab, from Forbidden Planet.
They are.
Yes first thing I noticed.😊
Was thinking the same thing
And if you look quick you can see the astrogater from the ship
Well of course they want to ditch nuclear, they have Krell power!
Wow - this was great! Intense, mature-themed script with excellent character actors, and classic Forbidden Planet props, costumes and backdrops - thank you for posting this hidden gem!
Glad to oblige.
Nicely restored.
Thank you! Cheers!
@@MoviecraftInc you folks really put out some nifty stuff. I honestly love this channel.
Considering when it was made it was not to bad. Thanks.
Despite the low budget and half hour format they did a pretty good job of packing action, conflict and well drawn characters inyo this one episode. Its frontier theme also forshadows Star Trek a few years later with a bigger budget.
Never knew about this tv show📺Thank you 👍Nice to see some favorite players .🥰
Our pleasure!
Wow... pretty good effects, for the available tech. I would have killed to see more like these, but apparently, veiwers weren't really into science fiction like I was... and milloins more like me.
Thank you for showing this never saw this series because I was born.in 59 .I enjoyed it
You're welcome
It was never a series, only a pilot that was never picked up.
Born in 59 myself
I've been on this Planet for 73 years and have never seen this before........Gene Roddenberry you got some 'splainin to do!
Not at all. They couldn't cite it because if they had the studios had already rejected it.
Pretty cool with some great character actors included 👍
The exterior set is the one from “Forbidden Planet.” It is great to see a young Robert Fuller and Ron Hagerthy (Clipper on “Sky King”). Director Boris Sagal was the father of actress Katey Sagal (Married with Children, Sons of Anarchy, The Conners).
Back drops as well.
So was one of the panels in the command center.
Boris Sagal was also the director of The Omega Man (1971), and the miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man and Masada.
Not bad for 1959 (the same year I was born) TV series pilot. It looked like it had potential. It reminded me of the original Star Trek pilot with the captain confiding doubts about his command with the doctor to spotlight the human condition and experience. The epilogue reminds me of the fact Star Trek was sold as a wagon train to the stars.
Did you notice that, the "control panels" appear to have come from the1956, movie "Forbidden Planet" (smile ... smile).
@@transitengineer Yup, sure did. But it wasn't surprising knowing the budgets for tv sci-fi where typically painfully low back in those days being typically reserved for Saturday morning children's TV programs to sell breakfast cereals.
Gene Roddenberry certainly watched this one…..!🖖🏼🖖🏼🖖🏼
I love the Forbidden Planet/ Star Trek OS and a Captain Scarlett feel to this movie. I like it.
I'm aprox 3.14159 years old and I've never seen this nor have I ever heard the name of this show. Many thanks to the algorithm and this channel for introducing me. I really do LOVE shows like this! Especially scifi B&W shows!
Our pleasure!
I think that this is the first time that I’ve seen Theo Marcuse in a good-guy role.
Exactly
So many things wrong
Remember him playing a German Air Force General in Hogan’s Heroes.
@@sartainja and as "Korob" in the Star Trek episode "Catspaw"
Sadly, he died in an auto accident before the Trek episode could air.
@@joelbest2424 Actually, no. He passed November 29, 1967; Catspaw aired October 27, 1967.
Wow, I was expecting some corny kiddy show version of the future. Brother, was I wrong; it has an intense, serious script and good acting. I recognize several familiar faces here.
Anyone notice the guys are suited up like bus drivers or Luftwaffe Officiere ??
@@jimjones-d1p Why not? All three jobs require similar personalities.
3 minutes in and it's great. Some great lines. Can't wait to watch the rest. Some great lines
Born in 1953, a space junkie from Day 1 and believe it or not I actually remember this show. Parts at least. For what it is it's really not bad. And cool seeing so many familiar faces.
Best commercials I've ever seen.
This wins my Space Captain Seal of Approval! Excellence in every category of Space Captain Excellence. Just EXCELLENT. Very space family friendly entertainment, but great for weirdos and hermits as well!😊
Wow, thanks!
Loving this. Its a year older than me! Live seeing the early ventures into sci fi.
Thank you for uploading. I'm a Gen X Brit so this was before my time and I'd never heard of it before.
This was considerably better than I was expecting. More of a proto-Star Trek than "The Brain Monster from Planet X" style that I was fully anticipating.
Glad you liked it!
Thank you Moviecraft Inc. for uploading this rare gem!! Awesome!!
Our pleasure!
*70 here and never heard of this. And I thought I knew them all. great find, will enjoy (ray gun long gone I am afriad LOL)!!!*
This was, for the time, really good. The actors played it straight. There was a minimum of cheesy dialog like "Set the astro-beam to 14 cosmo-waves!". The ship and building interiors were perhaps too sparse, but if it had been picked up, they would have the budget it to dress it up. Clearly, it was an attempt to do a mature, adult-oriented (not like that!) space drama in an era when it was mostly considered kiddie stuff. Which probably explains why it wasn't picked up.
There was another adult-oriented space show in 1960, "Men into Space," but it only lasted one season.
ty guys - excellent sci fi years ahead of 1959
Same story for me, I'm 62 and never saw this show either. Thank You for posting.
Glad you enjoyed it.
This is just priceless!! Thank you!!
You are so welcome!
At 5:34 "I'm given her all we got, Captain." I bet his name is Scott.
I told somebody else in the comments that I bet Roddenberry was taking notes when he watched this.
Where was Ed Wood when they needed him ?
Thanks for posting the film. B&W Sci-fi flics are the best
Couldn't agree more!
Pretty cool stuff. I think I recognize Theodore from the haunted castle Star Trek episode. They sure tried hard to imagine the future, with whatever the science of the day was available. Thumbs up.
Yes! I couldn’t remember where I’d seen that actor before but that was the show and the episode. Thank you!
Yes of course! I thought he looked familiar but I couldn't pin him.
Wow!!! I was just kind of scrolling for old Sci-Fi and this popped up. I was expecting to be amusingly disappointed. In fact, I was quite impressed. Quite an ambitious effort for the time. Roddenberry must have seen this pilot!!
Glad you enjoyed it!
It's wild to think that less than 10 years later we would see 2001: A Space Oddyssey.
And less than 10 years after that, came Star Wars.
I'm 60 and same, never even heard of it. Sure did enjoy it.
It was so refreshing to see Theo Marcuse as the GOOD GUY for once.
Thanks for posting this rare gem!!😃👍
My pleasure!
Thank you for this. And thanks for streaming the credits.
Credits are important. I hate it when they are deleted or shortened by the uploader. We never do that. Thanks for watching!
Lol...never seen this one !! Grew up in the 50's, thought I've seen every sci-fi film from back then 😛
Some serious thought and effort went into this. Vantage for sure but serious science fiction.
Irving Block and Jack Rabin were two totally underappreciated science fiction talents back in the 1950s. From the original story for "Forbidden Planet" to the giant-energy sucking battery alien in "Kronos," they were two guys who knew how to do a lot with a little.
WOW! Never heard of this one! Thanks! Incredible number of familiar faces in this! First class show!
Our pleasure!
Ensign! Whats that crazy noise....!!!??? I call it WRAPP music sir- Future kids are gonna LOVE IT...!!!
Always glad to see Theo Marcuse's excellent performance
Great show! I saw it a few years ago on TH-cam. Reminds me of a series I watched back in 1959 or 1960, called "Man Into Space" . I remember it as quite good(of course, I'm 73 now, and memories are tricky things!
I'm 23 and I wish there were more shows like these :)
A fun show, I always enjoy seeing the old sci-fi's and am always fascinated by some of the designs and background sets from the days when other planets were still a mystery and all was pure guess-work. It's still more captivating, to me, to see these old shows vs. the modern CGI nonsense. Thanks a lot for sharing this episode!
Thanks for the feedback! We agree, the imagination in these old sci-fi films is more appealing than CGI.
Good one. I really enjoyed it.
Awesome, thank you!
Awesome. Great acting.,Well written and presented. Thanks for posting this show .
Our pleasure!
I think the "blip, blip" heard in Tuscan 2 control was a vocal actor. Terrific find.
Good writing and good acting. I like Theo Marcuse as the Doc, nice change from his often roles as the Villain. Thanks for uploading this. Would love to see more.
This pilot is one of a kind I'm sorry to say.
@@MoviecraftInc Bummer, that. I can dream though.
Pretty good for the time. Definitely a "Forbidden Planet" vibe.
I particularly liked the plexiglass vidscreens. STOS should have used those instead of the clunky tv type things they used. Maybe Roddenberry never saw this pilot.
The controls in the background are from the Krell lab at 1:20
I think Roddenberry did see it... the engineer on the freighter said "I'm giving her all we've got, captain!"
Movie/TV producers often put on screen what their audience is used to rather than what they know will be. The computers shown in 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY look like 1950's computers - even though computer experts had correctly predicted to the executive producer what 2000's computers would look like.And an early British sci-fi film showed 2-way TV with no visible camera but did show a huge radio-style microphone... because the audience was used to those microphones.
The video screens look like modern laptops! Amazing! Like others have said,I’ve never heard of this one before!
Pretty cool!! Born in 54, Hadn't ever heard of this show!! Enjoyed!! Robert Fuller (Dr. Brackett from Emergency) There where a couple others faces that I recognized but can't remember there names. Really can see the change in Sci-Fi movies and shows with the advent of CGI!!
Not into this show five minutes and it foretold our future by showing the two way communication device. I chuckled!
We are living in the future.
Rocky Jones: Space Ranger had two way video communication years before this. It was also the first sci-fi to depict a ship flown by instrumentation instead of windows (yes, it predates Forbidden Planet). It also was the first, iirc, to have electronic, sliding doors. And the budget, as in this show, was high for it's time, though it looks primitive to our eyes.
Thanks for sharing.
Our pleasure!
Never seen or even heard of this production until now. Considering its small budget, it wasn't bad. A 1950's precursor to Star Trek or even a back story from the universe of Forbidden Planet.
Good production values for 1959 sci-fi:
whizzy, light weight survival suits;
two-moon matte painting of planet landscape;
realistic technology;
lots of sci jargon;
humorous dialog, with a touch of pre-Scotty;
et al.
When compared to it's contemporaries, with the exception of Rocky Jones: Space Ranger, the VX, for it's day, are amazing. The planet sets were far more expansive than I was expecting and it looked better than many B-movies of the day. The rocket was pretty good, the little flight pods were a little too basic, but maybe if it had been picked up, they'd have looked a little better. All in all, I wish this had been picked up. Such a cool concept for a 50's sci-fi show and it's a shame this is all we got.
Been a 50's sci-fi fan for a very long time. This was a new one for me. Would like to see more and thanks for sharing.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Don't recall this show. Better than most that are on today. The Doc, Theo Marcuse was also in Star Trek appearing in The Catspaw.
Never heard of this one, but very good acting and top-notch everything else for the time period! Thanks so much for sharing!
My pleasure!
This was really well done!
I am guessing this was the pilot episode for a series that never got picked up. I was 10 in 1959. I don't know how I would have missed it as a weekly series. This was better than most Star Trek episodes.
This was so well done, and honestly holds up quite well to this day. I was engaged the whole time! The end bit was a nice touch. Pretty good set design too. Really felt real. The glass comms screens were awesome and unexpected given the year. And of course there's the fact that it wasn't a "pew pew" space show, but a much more Human, and timeless one. Thanks for sharing this!
Appreciate your input!
I was 12 in 1959 and would have been into this show. But, alas, I’ve never heard of it until now. 🤷🏽♂️
This is an episode of the 1958-59 TV series Flight. it wasn't a scifi series but rather a series of stories ranging from WWII to the future centered around some form of aviation.
Robert Fuller, ( Cheyney ), is still around, bless him, age 91. After this he became a heartthrob in the tv prog 'Laramie'.He goes 'fishin' and shootin' all he can on his ranch.
I was a little too young for "Laramie" I guess, but I remember him as Dr. Brackett on "Emergency!"
@@jamesrobertson9597 Start an IV with D5W.
I liked Laramie, a series from the late '50s.@@jamesrobertson9597
Good story,Would like to see more of them & I never heard of this tv show
This was really good. I was not expecting a serious decent story.
Special effects are very good and the ball cap uniforms remind me of the Atriedes troop uniforms in the 1984 DUNE movie.
This is the lost MGM-TV pilot film I have been wanting to see since I first heard about it in 1960. It was made in early 1959 at MGM Studios using sets and props from FORBIDDEN PLANET. It was made in black & white for television, and shown to CBS but they passed on it, in favor of Rod Serling's Twilight Zone in mid-1959. I have never seen this, and this is a pristine print!
I don't know if this film was ever shown on television, but it should have had at least one broadcast in 1959. It is a lot like the sci-fi TV series MEN INTO SPACE (UA-ZIV-TV, 1959-1960). Sci-fi wasn't as popular then on TV but in the 1960s that really changed.
A Raylock Production - Producers: Jack Rabin, Irving Block and Louis DeWitt, who produced KRONOS (1957), and were special visual effects supervisors and story writers. Irving Block was associated with FORBIDDEN PLANET, having written and pitched the original story to MGM as "Fatal Planet" in 1954. Filmed at MGM as an independent production. Sadly the story and the production values were not up to par, and the superb writing and personality of Rod Serling made his project an easy sell to CBS.
I'll echo what's being said - never knew about this one. Thanks, hope you find more! Even the intro credits are a hoot - and we know now where some of the ideas came from. Like the scrolling title... and I agree with the comment about the Forbidden Planet sets.
I always had the inkling that Roddenbury "borrowed" from some other source. Here it is. This was terrific, just ahead of it's time.
Well, c’mon, that’s hardly a bad thing. And it’s not just from other TV or movies, either. In fact, I read all the Captain Hornblower series of British naval novels when i was younger…..and I kept thinking, reading novel after novel, I know this guy, I know this guy (i.e, Capt. Hornblower); where do I know him from? Then I read The Making of Star Trek, where the author asked Gene Roddenberry if he modeled the character of Captain Kirk off of anyone, and he basically said: Oh, yeah, he’s just Capt Hornblower, straight out of the C.S. Forester novels…..and I was immediately….YES!!!! THAT’S how I ‘knew’ him; because reading the Hornblower novels, I was seeing Captain Kirk- on a British sailing ship, fighting Napoleon!1
I'm a sci-fi fan from childhood, I'm in my mid-60s, and I've never heard of this show before. Thanks for posting this video! The show was well done. Yes, the special effects and sets were rather fake looking, but remember, this was made in the 1950s, using a 1950s budget to create the sets and effects with 1950s abilities. However, the story and acting were good. I've seen movies with blockbuster budgets and sets and effects to match that turned out to be duds because the acting and story were lousy. Good acting and a good story can definitely carry a show.😊
Love all the repurposed Forbidden Planet props, from the Krel Lab, and the panorama scrim
Splendid!
This was pretty good. Not what I was expecting from the era of Rocky Jones, Space Ranger.
This is better SciFi than much of the AI-generated crap
I was impressed that they had the radio operator using wireless earbuds! Prescient much?
Those "Forbidden Planet" props popped up everywhere! Theodore Marcuse, we just lost him way too early, at 47.
This was really good!
Que buena serie era!,, yo me crié en los 70 con esa serie y otras mas!⚘️🌲😊
This fits into a genre of sci-fi that included Space Patrol at one end and Star Trek at the other.
This was done well for the time period it was produced. I had never seen this before.
That was great. Very watchable. I'd love to see the whole series.
I wish I could have seen the commercials that went with the show.
A word from our spons...
This is just a pilot; there were (and never were) any sponsors - those are just place holders.
@@robertdoherty2001thanks. Well I didn’t miss anything at least
James Callahan was memorable in The Time Tunnel. The power readouts behind him have been borrowed from the Krell lab in Forbidden Planet.
This is an episode from the anthology series "Flight" from 1959. Only one or two episodes were science fiction.
This was a Pilot episode for a series that was never picked up as a series, but Flight aired it as an episode of that series because it was so good.