But then there are many forgotten sci-fi shows, like these: Earth 2 (1994-1995) Set in 2192, Earth 2 took place in a world where most humans live in space stations, as the Earth itself can’t support life. Modern American audiences may not be familiar with Gerry Anderson’s sci-fi marionette shows like Thunderbirds, Supercar or Stingray. Fantasy stuff like Tolkien and Game of Thrones. Actually, the undersea hero was closer to Namor, the Marvel legend. My Teacher is an Alien Series Image: Filmation via stevesomething.wordpress.com. ", We're off to see The Wizard of Odds. The purpose of this site is to discuss/reminisce about old children's books. Future Archer creator Adam Reed was given free reign when it came to his re-editing of the unremarkable Sealab 2020, and what we got was one of the most bizarrely brilliant shows to ever air. THE FORGOTTEN UNIVERSE. … Look, it’s ultimately still a show about lifeguards, there’s not a lot one can do with an aquatic sci-fi setting. Along with getting the Robinsons “lost in space,” Allen took wild-eyed Baby Boomers to the Land of the Giants and on a Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. Miss Pickerell Series. 15 forgotten sci-fi and fantasy series of the 1970s 1. The result was a dry and lifeless drama, a hollow shell of the original series. After this endeavor, America was content to leave Gilligan and co. stranded. Indeed, most Americans would likely only recognize the style of Gerry Anderson from, well, Team America, the satirical film that spoofed Anderson’s stilted puppet style. If you're looking for the old list, those links are still there, but I've added more in the expanded list. That, or they wanted to see just how far they could push an audience’s willingness to tolerate shows that thought so little of them, and seemed almost spiteful in their patronizing premises. The song actually charted in Britain and even popped up in the 2000 gangster film Love, Honor and Obey. Popular online, winning several “Best Of” new show polls and garnering respectable DVR-ratings, ABC cancelled the show after a single season citing poor live ratings. Long before Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd were chasing Slimer, Forrest Tucker and Larry Storch of F Troop starred in this supernatural slapstick, which also featured a gorilla wearing a propellor beanie. Farscape is a novel science fiction epic that ran from 1999 to 2003 on the Sci-Fi Channel, now known as Syfy. No, not those Ghostbusters. Remember Kinvig, Clone, Not With A Bang? The dawn of the new millennium was an exciting time for science fiction cinema. Ancient aliens are a trendy subject for modern sci-fi, from shows on the History Channel to those recent Ridley Scott Alien prequels. With the riveting Lost in Space revival on Netflix, some younger fans are starting to discover the works of ‘60s sci-fi showrunner and later “Master of Disaster Movies” Irwin Allen. It would spawn a cartoon a decade later, which would lead to those other cinematic Ghostbusters having to title their cartoon The Real Ghostbusters. Dang it, Diane, they’re not dolls, they’re action figures and they’re only going to increase in value! Like the film, the show did revolve around secret agent Jim West, sent on a mission by President Grant to go undercover in Southern and Western society, foiling the plots of evil villains like Dr. Loveless. Hey, it was another attempt to remake The Invisible Man, a mere year later. But even in the decade between Star Trek and George Lucas' Skywalker saga, there were dozens of sci-fi programs. However, Sealab 2020 swiftly discovered the central problem that faces most aspirational sci-fi stories. Don't have any links but I bet that their are some - … Well, in the case of TV Guide’s #22 Worst Show of All Time, quite a lot. The most recent show on this list, Forever was a 2015 series starring the original cinematic Mr. Plenty of shows from the Nickelodeon ‘90s will awaken nostalgia in your average millennial, but few will elicit quite the awestruck “Yoooooooooo!” as The Secret World of Alex Mack. 5. Arguably ahead of its time, Forever Knight did maintain a small cult following after its cancellation, and is well overdue for a reevaluation. Before you jump to the comments with an “I remember Babylon 5, it’s not forgotten,” of course there are still plenty of us who have scenes of Babylon 5 resting in the back of our minds! Between the countless contrivances necessary for the villains to always reveal their plans in the presence of exotic animals, the atrociously stoic acting of lead Simon MacCorkindale and competing against smash-hit Dallas, Manimal was put to sleep after only four episodes. Sure, Hercules and Xena were fine family entertainment, but it’s hard not to feel the creator’s disdain for its audience with Cleopatra 2525, the story of a stripper whose breast augmentation surgery goes awry, freezing her and stranding her in a scantily clad, low-budget future where sexy gals fight robots. Wells classic. However, even if you toss the show to the rubbish bin of history, its jaunty theme tune is well worth remembering on its own. While reboots are typically maligned by TV critics and snarky internet writers as an example of network laziness, a recent wave of sci-fi reboots have served to bring a new audience to some underappreciated material. That’s right, in 1999, Art Montrastelli really wanted to make a Blade Runner TV show, but seemingly couldn’t secure the rights. Some forums can only be seen by registered members. Long before Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd were … Memory is a tricky thing -- it can hide, it can warp and distort. If you’ve seen these forgotten sci-fi films of the 1970s then you’re one of the few movie buffs who knows about esoteric science fiction outside of Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The U.K. was particularly into the genre, with shows such as Space: 1999, UFO, Survivors, Doomwatch and Timeslip. The ‘80s were the age of excess. Just one catch — he's a "biosynthetic android." Return of the Jedi and WarGames were keeping America’s minds hungry for tales of the fantastic. Then again, few shows on any network quite struck the balance of unabashed ambition, rich but uncomplicated mythos and broad storytelling potential like this teen sci-fi series created to replace Clarissa Explains It All. Do Not Sell My Information - CA Residents. But few remember Sci-Fi’s other original series, like the riveting The Lost Room. 1951-1983. The decade before RoboCop, cyborgs and androids were already policing the mean streets. The only limit was Chase’s imagination… and NBC’s budget, which meant if producers forked over the money for a panther, Chase was turning into a panther constantly that episode. Co-hosts the podcast You're Missing Out. Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke, Dick, Heinlein and other SF books. Star Trek inspired tablet computers, universal translators, and a whole slew of other cool things we have now. But few remember Sci-Fi’s other original series, like the riveting The Lost Room. The cast was great, including Roddy McDowall of Planet of the Apes, Devil in a Blue Dress writer-director Carl Franklin, and '70s child star Ike Eisenmann, a regular of ABC Afterschool Specials. etc. The show managed to blend elements of the fading Western genre with emerging spy and sci-fi tropes, and proved to be a huge hit, running for four seasons and cancelled only after Congress cracked down on depictions of violence on television. Here's the pitch: a serious mix of Gilligan's Island and Lost in Space. The spin-off from the 1976 sci-fi film roped in D. C. Fontana and other veteran Star Trek writers, yet frequent schedule changes lost any potential audience. From its groundbreaking use of computer effects to its anticipatory experiments with aspect ratio, Babylon 5 easily invites a revisit. Can you fill in these blank classic TV episode titles with the correct foods? Tweets at @NKOAS. When Stephen King came aboard, it seemed a match made in heaven… or more appropriately hell. Synopsis: Tales of the fantastic and supernatural are the focus of this sci-fi anthology, a remake of the 1960s series.... [More] Starring: Mario Van Peebles, Lou Diamond Phillips, Beau Bridges, Mark Hamill. The point is, when you walk around a Comic Con and still see such fervent love for dearly departed shows like Firefly and Stargate, it’s disappointing to see that this massively innovative work from comic and sci-fi writer J. Michael Straczynski hasn’t so fervently stood the test of time. Another sci-fi Filmation production, spun-off from Space Academy, this otherwordly adventure featured James Doohan of Star Trek, speaking with his normal North American accent, as well as Sid Haig and a host of awesome stop-motion-animated aliens. But even in the decade between Star Trek and George Lucas' Skywalker saga, there were dozens of sci-fi programs. Rather than settle for a hodgepodge of stoner giggle-worthy lines (though there were plenty of those), Sealab 2021 was rife with dadaist humor in a pre-meme time. Ironically, in real world 1967, James H. Berdford became the first man to ever be cryogenically frozen in the hopes of being revived in the future. Turns out folks focused too much on King’s literary skill, and forgot his failed attempts to translate those scares to the screen (his only directorial credit is Maximum Overdrive). The Brits had too many to … After 22 years, they found no evidence of extra-terrestrial landings and no threat to national security." The Questor Tapes (1974 TV Movie) 100 min | Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi. Director: Vincent McEveety | Stars: Cathy Lee Crosby, Kaz Garas, Andrew Prine, Ricardo Montalban. The seemingly whimsical story of a man who discovers his dead mother’s soul is playfully imprisoned in a jalopy, My Mother The Car was infamously bad, staining the career of star Jerry Van Dyke and later dubbed the #2 Worst TV Show Of All Time by TV Guide. The show centered on Dr. Amazon Prime is nothing if not full of bingeable sci-fi series that have been forgotten, but this one deserves far more attention. Image: Filmation via space1970.blogspot.com. Instead, viewers simply left never wanting to recall it. The show's failure forced the Mego toy company to cancel its plans for Logan's Run action figures. The war in Vietnam was escalating and Americans didn't know how to feel about it. It would be his last series. Sci-Fi’s original miniseries certainly was original. Keep in mind, it’s not that those aren’t great films, they’re just the first … Smart sci-fi revivals like Battlestar Galactica, Lost in Space and Roseanne (in the new series, John Goodman is actually playing his 10 Cloverfield Lane character, fooling Roseanne into thinking he’s the deceased Dan Connor) have reminded viewers of tossed off gems of yesteryear that had much more to offer than audiences of the day realized. There were plenty of cynically crafted, stiltedly animated shows that relied on cheap intellectual property rights to take the place of plot, but none more nonsensical than Gilligan’s Planet. The madcap adventures of a space garbageman, this sitcom featured sexy twins, a plant man, a disembodied head and a transgender engineer. Edgar Pangborn (February 25, 1909–February 1, 1976) was active as a mystery writer for twenty years before he turned to science fiction in the 1950s. However, the demand was so strong for a resolution to Season 1’s cliffhanger finale that Fox finally relented years later, producing a series of TV movies to resolve the dangling threads. 49 terrific horror, sci-fi and dystopian series you should binge right now Therese Odell , Chron.com / Houston Chronicle April 10, 2020 Updated: April 10, 2020 9:59 p.m. An entrancing series with a rich, complex mythology and an easily digestible run time, The Lost Room is not one to miss. The overly complex story of Matthew Star, secretly the alien prince E’Hawke from the planet Quadris, and his bodyguard D’Hai was all laid out in a rushed introductory monologue delivered by Lou Gossett Jr. at the start of each episode, potentially turning off viewers who’d only just tuned in. He could, however, get the rights to Total Recall. (Well, it should be noted that the pilot originally aired in early May, a few weeks before Star Wars hit theaters.) After the success of Space Ghost Coast To Coast, Cartoon Network realized it could create the kind of edgy, adult-oriented late-night material that was a hit with the MTV demographic, and do it using only the archived Hannah-Barbera shows they owned and some truly twisted minds. Two grizzled, crusty, veteran beat cops (Ernest Borgnine and John Amos) are assigned a fresh new recruit. Votes: 883. More often than not, a hit show will yield a slew of cheap, forgettable knockoffs no one ever needed; but every once in a while it can inspire something truly noteworthy. Sealab 2020, the brainchild of Hanna-Barbera and Space Ghost creator Alex Toth, was one such program. The list is organized by recommended reading order, but also tagged with the main characters who appear in the series and the order they were written (which isn’t the same as the recommended reading order now that more of the books are done). Some may be reticent to label this Mr. Ed-esque farce science fiction, but if there’s a rational, non-sci-fi explanation for a woman’s restless soul residing inside a 1928 Porter, we’re all ears. And to be clear, we’re not going to sit here and pretend that Fireball XL-5 is some revolutionary work in Anderson’s oeuvre. Wells gave readers a glimpse of the horrifying Morlocks in The Time Machine, the ‘60s and ‘70s were rich with a subgenre now virtually unseen: aspirational sci-fi. In the age of binging and re-watchability, a streaming service would be smart to pick up this densely funny series and mine it for all its worth. With the help of her scientist sister and her best friend, Mack must evade the evil corporation hellbent on subjecting her to experimentation, or worse. The premise was that The Professor had invented a rocket ship to get off the island, and accidentally stranded our entire cast of characters on an alien planet. Ric Carrott, formerly the forgotten older brother of Happy Days, led the squad, and Jonathan Harris of Lost in Space gave the show some sci-fi gravitas. We hope to set the record straight, and highlight some remarkable shows that deserve a second look, and solidify the fact that some shows should stay forgotten. Buried in the DNA of time travel stories as wide-ranging as Stargate and Austin Powers, there’s a measured elegance to the writing of The Time Tunnel that runs parallel to its surprisingly textured visuals, which allows it to still stand up where many shows of its ilk fell to the wayside of history. However, alarmed by low ratings and desperate to cash in on some of that sweet, sweet X-Files money, producers dumped Williams’ detective in favor of paranormal investigator Diamont McTeague. Some might forgive My Mother The Car by suggesting that, for its day, it might have been all the sophistication sci-fi fans could handle But this was 1965: In cinemas, Jean-Luc Godard debuted Alphaville, Doctor Who was traversing screens big and small, and Lost In Space and The Outer Limits were beaming into American homes every night. Duffy did have a nice butterfly kick, though. The show followed Knight’s attempt to once again become mortal, and his constant conflicts with the charismatic Lucien LaCroix, whose alter-ego as a talk radio host is one of the show’s more satirical elements. That’s Alien Nation. A show created by the writer of Die Hard, written and directed in part by Star Trek alum, and featuring an Oscar winner? In 1994, Lars Von Trier brought Riget to Danish TV screens. Can you guess the show by the first and last episode titles? 15 Sci-Fi TV Shows You Totally Forgot Existed 15 M.A.N.T.I.S.. Fox tried for sci-fi superhero glory in the '90s with this odd piece. The pilot would allow the former Mayberry sheriff to explore new action-adventure territory while maintaining the rustic charm of his TV persona. It's also vastly increased the amount of dangerous space debris, and someone has to clean it up. Obscure/forgotten sci-fi series (movie, Lost, cancelled, shows) User Name: Remember Me: Password : Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Alas, only 10 episodes aired. It was the decade where sci-fi … Shortly after American audiences took their final trip to Twin Peaks (before the recent revival), an equally demented auteur was melting minds across an ocean. Even to those fond of Anderson’s work, Fireball is little more than a bland space romp, lacking the vibrancy of Thunderbirds or Stingray. But who was first, guys? There they meet a man named Varian, from the year 2230. Read on for 20 Terrible Sci-Fi Shows You Completely Forgot. The Iron Giant, while now universally recognized as one of the finest animated films of all time, was brushed off in its day. Directed By: Brent Karl Clackson, Jimmy Kaufman, Neill L. Fearnley, Matt Hastings. A super-hero uses her powers to thwart an international spy ring. Running for four seasons and launching the careers of star Larisa Oleynik, Will Estes and Jessica Alba, the series inexplicably went without a home video release until 2017. 28 short-lived and easily forgotten television series from the 1980s. The production also attempted to utilize a new special-effects set-up dubbed the Magicam. These were shows that endeavored to explore what we as a society could be; visions of utopia, of mankind united in a common cause, using new technology not for destruction, but for exploration and innovation. The limited run of 16 episodes aired in syndication around the United States. "I wanna build a spaceship, go to the moon, salvage all the junk that's up there, bring it back, and sell it," his character Harry Broderick proclaims in a succinct summary of the plot. It was not quite as catchy as "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away," but the Andy Griffith series could probably thank Star Wars for its existence. Only four episodes aired before it was canceled. The year 1977 alone served up a load of space shows. Episode 10: The Undersea Express, by J. Roaman. "Once upon a time, a junkman had a dream…" So began the opening to Salvage 1. Sci-Fi TV: 1979 – The Forgotten Cult-TV Series that Ended the Disco Decade Just a few years after Star Wars (1977) bowed to international acclaim, the major American TV networks were still figuring out how to capitalize on the nation’s thirst for genre entertainment. Forgotten Sci-Fi Movies From the Early 1990s. Whoo-boy, whether it’s the original show, this absurd spin-off or the recent Rock-led reboot film, Baywatch is a cultural sin we’re all going to have to explain to our children some day. A good number of them lasted mere weeks. This time, the main character is a scientist for the Klae Corporation working on "molecular disintegration." Can you recognize these stars on the cover of TV Guide in 1970? You might think that modern television is riddled with superheroes and spaceships, but the 1970s were just as rich with science fiction and fastasy. The crew also zipped around in an awesome ATV and jet pack, too. Initially maligned films like The Rocketeer and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow are receiving recent reevaluations.