Words could not describe my delight. For me, this is a series I distinctly remember watching every week, and was excited about seeing every week, but now have little recollection over its actual content. I remember thinking Gil Gerard (Buck) was the MAN in the day and if you asked me before I picked this up what I remember about the show I would only be able to give you a few images here and there without any real substance to the plots and adventures. It is so weird how your brain retains memory though because the moment I fired this thing up so much of it came flooding back to me.
To give a brief overview of the show, an astronaut in 1987 (itself the future when the show aired in 1979) Buck Rogers, travels the last manned deep space probe. On his journey his orbit is thrown way out of whack and he is frozen, only to return to Earth in the year 2491… 500 years later! Mayhem and merriment of the space variety ensues.
This show is so cheesy it hurts. It is funny to see where the priorities were in late 1970’s TV, and kind of fascinating. A decade’s vision of the future belies so much of a generations hopes and fears and in the 70’s apparently they were very concerned with polyester and the return of pirate fashions. Whether this is a fear or a hope I cannot ascertain. The future Earth is a burned out husk as it seems no one at that time thought the Cold War would end with a whimper but a bang. This happened around 1990 in the show and I must admit they don’t say it was nuclear war directly, it could have been the debut of Color Me Badd (with two D’s for extra badness) that sent our global culture down the toilet. Granted there are mutants in this future which would seem a defense for the nuclear holocaust thing, but have you heard Color Me Badd for any period of time? Have you seen what that can do to a person?
Did this cause the end of all humanity!?!
What is awesome is that after all these years Buck Rogers is still the man. The big question I had when I picked this up is not only would it hold for me as an adult. I also wanted to know how they made a guy from the past cool. Really, he should be totally dumb by future standards, what with all the cool computers and stuff. But remember this is the 70’s and simply being a man meant having an advantage, and being hot helped. Meet a hot girl? Wink at her and give line about how you were frozen and she’s yours. Enemy beating you in a space battle? Turn off the fancy “computer” that is getting you killed and take em out 1980’s Top Gun style. While the cheese meter may occasionally approach “limburger” there are actually some terrific themes/thoughts/observations in this show I really enjoy like when dude goes to a space casino and wins a fortune at Blackjack when no one else can. The reason? Everyone else in the future is so dependant on computer they have become too stupid to figure basic strategy. This also applies to the Earth Defense Initiatives lack of ability to fight at all without assistance. Turns out Buck ain’t so dumb after all.
It’s bringing back a lot of memories watching this show. Twiki, Wilma Deering (played by Erin Gray, who even when I was like 5 was incredibly beautiful), that Hawk guy, the space battles. Yet another reason to thank Star Wars for coming along when it did. I’ll have to remember to thank my dad for instilling such a great love for sci-fi when I was so young.
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