Category: TV Terror Guide
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Rocky Jones, Space Ranger (1954)
If you were watching television in February of 1954, you would have had your choice of five different sci-fi adventures. You would already be watching Captain Video (although it was winding down), Space Patrol, Tom Corbett Space Cadet, Rod Brown of the Rocket Rangers (also winding down), and a new show called, Rocky Jones Space…
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And the Bones Came Together (1973)
Mr. Shim (Herbert Berghof) is being evicted from his home for an urban renewal project… and he doesn’t want to leave. All his friends and neighbors have gone and one is even used by the developers to try to convince him. Most of “And the Bones Came Together” is a drama about the battle of…
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Captain Z-ro (1951-1953 +)
While similar in some ways to every other 1950s sci-fi space opera we’ve discussed in this series, Captain Z-ro came to us a bit differently. It was originally a 15-minute children’s show produced locally in California, airing only on KRON-TV in San Francisco and KTTV in Los Angeles. While its run lasted for two years,…
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The Screaming Skull (1973)
I’ve never seen The Screaming Skull (1958) and didn’t realize it was an adaptation of the short story by F. Marion Crawford. Of course, now that I’ve seen the 1973 version from “The Classic Ghosts” that I knew was an adaptation, I’ll have to watch it. I’m curious if it shares the same flaws, although…
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The Classic Ghosts (1973)
We’ve mentioned The Wide World of Mystery several times as we’ve discussed the TV movies The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr.Hyde, The Invasion of Carol Enders, and The Werewolf of Woodstock. Also buried within the first year of ABC’s efforts to counter program Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show was a set of five…
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Flash Gordon (1953-1954)
When have you ever heard Flash Gordon say, “I’ll be in my office taking care of some work?” I’m no expert on the character, but the statement seems odd to me coming from the famous space adventurer. Such is the case in an episode of the 1954-55 series, Flash Gordon, called, “Akim the Terrible.” Syndicated…
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Rod Brown of the Rocket Rangers (1953-1954)
It’s a shame that no episodes exist for the series Rod Brown of the Rocket Rangers (1953-54), because it sounds like it had potential to be one of the best of the early 1950’s television space operas. It certainly had one of the best casts if future success is an indicator. Cliff Robertson played the…
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Buck Rogers (1950)
An anomaly among the numerous television space adventures of the early 1950s was a short-lived series you may have expected to be the biggest. After all, by 1950, Buck Rogers was a familiar and popular character in a newspaper comic strip that had been running since 1929. (It continued its run until July, 1967.) He…
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Space Patrol (1950-1955)
The descriptions of early sci-fi television series are getting repetitive. We’ll learn next week about a show that was cancelled due to copyright infringement, but there’s little difference in the ones we’ve discussed so far, so I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner. I suppose the thing to remember is that some of these shows began…
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Tom Corbett, Space Cadet (1950-1955)
Any science-fiction fan is undoubtedly aware of author Robert A. Heinlein (The Puppet Masters, Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land.) His third novel, Space Cadet, was published in 1948 and (depending on your source) inspired another author, Joseph Greene, to create a character named Tom Ranger. Other sources say that Greene was first with…
Classic Horrors Club 