Customer Reviews

Kids Sci-Fi TV of the 50s and 60s

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This DVD is a nice collection of assorted episodes of 1950s sci-fi space shows like Buck Rogers and Rocky Jones. One can see the inspiration for later shows like Star Trek and Lost in Space.There is also an episode of the rarely seen Space Angel, an early 1960s animated show in which Scott McCloud, alias -The Space Angel- and his crew zoom about in a rocket finding adventure. My favorite episode in this collection is the Buck Rogers episode -Akin the Terrible. Akin is the evil ruler of a planet who tries to trap Buck in a brain altering machine. I like this episode because the machine is so goofy looking, but the bizarre costume on the evil Akin is this ridiculous shower curtain, complete with tassles! It looks like they just rolled the actor into it. Great!I also like the announcer introducing -CAPTAIN VIDEO! AND HIS VIDEO RANGER!- It reminded me of that Honeymooners episode where Norton was so big a fan he would watch the show in a Captain Video helmet!
Clutch Cargo is another animated show. Like Space Angel, Clutch Cargo uses an unusual form of animation in which the image is stagnant except the mouth moves. But what's weird is, its a real humans mouth matted in, ala the Conan O'Brien Show. They did this to save on animation costs, but it does work, and gives the show a weird trippy feel.
There is also a Rocky Jones episode, where Rocky and his pal Winky are having problems with a spy and evil space queen Cleolanta.
I was too young to catch these shows when they went over the TV airwaves, so it's nice to see them on this DVD. A cool collection.

I tried playing this DVD in two different players and found the last half of the disc would freeze no matter what I did. In addition, there is no written information about the programs, not even a title. Sent back to Amazon and got my refund quickly. Programs would rate a five star, disc a two star for the two programs I did get to watch.

I bought this DVD because the Amazon listing said it contained an episode of the lost and all but forgotten 1950's Buck Rogers TV series. I am a collector of Buck Rogers and the 50's TV series is the only adaption of the original space hero that I don't have an example. For years I've read that no episodes from this short lived series survived and I had made up my mind that this was one version of Buck that I would never get to see. So you can imagine my joy when I saw the Amazon listing for this item and my great disapointment when I found that there were no Buck Rogers episodes included in this collection. I'm not saying that this isn't a fun collection of old stuff (I love old stuff) but it is not what I laid down my "Bucks" for. I think Amazon and one of the earlier reviews have confused Buck with Flash Gordon.