BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY 🌟 THEN AND NOW 2020

you [Music] when we were kids watching a show about an astronaut being whisked hundreds of years into the future made us believe we were being given a real-life glimpse of what the 25th century might look like watch Buck Rogers in the 25th century now and you'll realize how unrealistic and daft it all looks but that doesn't take away from the fact that it's a brilliantly fun and imaginative show with some really interesting plot lines so almost 40 years to the day that it first hit our TV screens please join how they changed steam and jump into the future with the following fascinating facts about the brilliant Buck Rogers in the 25th century Buck Rogers in the 25th century arrived on UK shores why the medium of cinema despite being shot as a TV movie and potential pilot for a television revival the money Battlestar Galactica had accrued when it was recut as a two-hour theatrical release was enough for a universal picture to try the same tack with buck only this time unlike Galactica which only had a Canadian and overseas release initially the pilot was released in North America before the series debuted on US television in September 1979 a worldwide release followed in the UK this cinema release meant that when ITV bought the series for transmission in the early evening Saturday tea timeslot the pilot was omitted from transmission which meant the UK screenings began with two-hour episode the planet of the slave girls the film received a fair amount of publicity as I recall with full-page ad words in the likes of starburst magazine and in a few of the Marvel UK comics of the times plug in the release date of 26th of July 1979 given that the TV show would only land on UK shores in August 1980 that gave it almost a solid year of villain in matinee double features before the series debuted I know I saw it as a double bill with Mission Galactica the silent attack the second feature to be cobbled together from episodes of Battlestar Galactica a number of scenes were cut from the theatrical release that were present in the pilot version which we'll look at here along with pertinent alternations to the novel the pilot to Buck Rogers is a thing of beauty if once idea of beauty is a date at 70s disco flick attempting to be futuristic the movie opens with a prologue voiced by the fat man of Jake and The Fatman Fame William Conrad not dissimilar to the one that would open the series Conrad sets up that buck played by Gil Gerard and now renamed William Rogers for the traditional no good reason was alone astronaut launched by NSA and an ambiguous deep-space mission in the year 1987 buck was frozen by forces beyond comprehension a great way of ducking out on using annual science and from there the credits roll and we are subjected to wonderfully cheesy James Bond pastiche ostensibly supposed to represent bucks past and future melding together bark instead seize call Wilma Dearing played by Aaron gray and princess ARLA the Magnificent Pamela hands Lee a numerous and named plants with Farah hair and large day dress backs writhing around on the film's logo in silver bikinis and Wang pieces as the theme song suspension sound by Kip plannin warbles on about being far beyond the world have known far beyond my time the series premiered in cinemas rather than on TV rather than begin life on the small screen the II Buck Rogers says TV movie was actually released into cinemas on the 30th of March 1979 it did very well at the box office so TV network NBC immediately commissioned a weekly series the show recycled props costumes and special effects from Battlestar Galactica Buck Rogers in the 25th century reused many props costumes and special effects shots from Battlestar Galactica which was still in production at the time for example the Landrum vehicle was made for the Battlestar practical serious and the control sticks in the Tehran starfighters were the same as in Battlestar Galactica's Viper craft and some huge actors made cameo appearances a number of big-name TV and movie actors made cameo appearances in Buck Rogers in the 25th century examples include appearances from Jamie Lee Curtis as well as the late Gary Coleman star of popular u.s. sitcom Diff'rent Strokes the actor playing Buck Rogers was not a fan of the show despite playing Buck Rogers himself actor Gil Gerard was not a big fan of the show preferring the more serious tone of the movie rather than the lightest Tara lines are the TV episodes he was even quoted as saying that he hoped the show wouldn't be renewed for a second series as he didn't like the direction it was taking there were only ever 37 episodes believe it or not there were only ever 37 episodes of the show before it was cancelled with the second series only have an 11 episodes due to writers strike the show ended without a bang simply on a regular standalone episode that didn't bring any closure to BARC story and it bid Doctor Who in the ratings Buck Rogers in the 25th century went up against the 18th series of Doctor Who and it warned the Saturday evening ratings war by quite some margin this forced the BBC to move the next series of Doctor Who to weekday evening slot instead even though Buck Rogers had been cancelled by then many critics believe it is one of the worst sci-fi TV shows of all time whilst we have mostly fond memories of buck and his adventures many critics to this day believe that the show was a long long way from being a classic for example Jon javanese book the best of science fiction TV sees Buck Rogers in the 25th century on the list worst sci-fi shows of all time alongside space 1999 and Manimal there were books comics and action figures based on the show you may not be too surprised to hear that the chose pond two novels as well as a 14 issue comic book series but did you ever come across the Buck Rogers in the 25th century action figures two sets of action figures were produced by mango as well as a series of scaled spaceships diddy on any the Buck Rogers character is over 19 years old the 40 years since the classic TV show first aired may sound like a long time but the Buck Rogers character is actually over 90 years old Buck Rogers was created by Philip Francis Nowlin in 1928 and had already featured in comics books on TV and even on the radio before to return to the small screen in 1979 as with all movies of this type in this period Italian novel was subsequently produced written by Edison East steel a pseudonym for Richard a loop of the novel is best described as workman like it features very little enhancements and very little in the way of flashing out characters or motivations unlike the telefilm it does feature small prologue said in 1987 establishing the political situation behind an essay in working upon this mission and a few short paragraphs about the reaction of the world bugs disappearance an interest in deviation in the novel has the trial scene from the midpoint of the movie moved up following the confrontation in the hangar bay Wilma does shoot buck and he's tried and thanks to a council member named dr. April who has a different voice in the theatrical version convicted of treason and then dispatched to the outside world the world's now ravaged by the effects of the nuclear war Theo and twiki are sentenced with him which seems a tad harsh can you imagine if lawyers that failed were given the same sentence as their clients in the film but we can Thea go outside of their own volition this reordering means well my retrieving buck from Anna care is so he can tell them about the draconian flagship but also to save his life her throwing towards him being a more prevalent subplot in the book and the theatrical versions than the TV version the novel however does have an interesting ending and ties up a loose and left dangling in the film the final chapter has dr. April found guilty of being a pre-programmed double agent highlighting the problem of relying on automatons for everything this explains how that requires got so far with their peace negotiations they had an Inside Man in how the draconians were able to counteract their directorates computer control I presume this subplot was filmed for the movie but dropped for whatever reason as April is the only other member of the council apart from Thea to have a decent speaking part ultimately Buck Rogers in the 25th century is an entertaining diversion from a bygone era much like baaah himself the performances are better than they would be in the series that followed and it's a good example of the kind of TV sci-fi they don't make anymore not as Poe faced as Galactica nor as formulaic as the TV version of Logan's run but Rogers shows that as much as sci-fi Canon should be about big ideas sometimes there is nothing wrong with ray guns rocket ships and robots and thats all for now don't forget to leave a like subscribe and share this video with fans take care

Channel: HOW THEY CHANGED

Views: 320,936

Rating: 4.8320246 out of 5

Keywords: how they changed, then and now, before and after, tv, film, actor, actress, boy, girl, tv series, celebrity, celebrities, famous stars then and now, Antes e Depois, Avant et Après, sitcom, top 20, top, top 15, viral, filmography, nostalgia, aging, thenvsnow, 70s, 80s, 90s, where are they now, fair use, soap, soap opera, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Gil Gerard, Erin Gray, Capt. William 'Buck' Rogers, 2020, Felix Silla, Twiki, Mel Blanc, Peter Graves, Jamie Lee Curtis, Sid Haig, Buck Rogers

Id: 8Y9i93yq6vo

Length: 10min 35sec (635 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 21 2020