CLASSIC ART: WHEN 'BUCK' MET 'GALACTICA'!

Brought to life by the same talents behind Galactica, it would be no surprise that Buck Roger in the Twenty-Fifth Century would have certain similarities in production design and reuse of certain costumes, props and visual effects. Legendary artists Drew Struzan's 'comprehensive' b/w art for the BR pilot movie would even feature a couple of Colonial Viper images, accidentally supplied reference material having been sent to him from Galactica by Universal!

CLASSIC MERCHANDISE: MODEL MAGIC!

Surely one of the best selling aspects of Classic Galactica merchandise (and Buck Rogers too) back in the day- the superb space vehicles created by ILM/ Universal Heartland available in model kit form via Monogram, as compiled for this great comic advert. In the UK, I had the Cylon Basestar, and it looked awesome.

CLASSIC ART: UNDER ALIEN SKIES!

A lone Colonial warrior surveys the incredible alien expanse around him from atop his Starhound fighter craft, in an early piece of Ralph McQuarrie concept art for Star Worlds, later to become Battlestar Galactica.

Though the fighter concept was ultimately abandoned in favour of the longer, sleeker Colonial Viper development, McQuarrie's ship design would ultimately form the basis to the Earth Defense Directorate starfighters used in the classic Buck Rogers in the 25th Century TV series of 1979, which has now been released in its two season entirety on remastered DVD format in the UK, via Universal/Fabulous Films.

More info here:
https://kooltvblog.blogspot.com/2019/06/beyond-his-time-buck-rogers-in-25th.html

Get The Complete Series here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Buck-Rogers-25th-Century-Complete/dp/B07S28TGRS/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3CURYV7E1HBDV&keywords=buck+rogers+in+the+25th+century+-+the+complete+remastered+series&qid=1563726833&s=gateway&sprefix=BUCK+ROGERS%2Caps%2C154&sr=8-1

OUT NOW ON UK BLU-RAY: 'BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY - THE COMPLETE SERIES'

Future fantastic! Buck Rogers comes to Blu-ray at last! Images: UNIVERSAL.

Arriving just in time for next year's landmark Fortieth Anniversary within the highest realms of Cult TV-dom, it's time for fans of the Gil Gerard starring incarnation of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century to start going 'Bidi-Bidi-Bidi' with joy at the super news that the series will finally (and well deservedly) be coming to home entertainment systems in complete unedited and HD remastered form via those space classic veterans at Universal/Fabulous Films, this April 2nd, 2018.

Developed for television by stalwart producers Glen A. Larson and Leslie Stevens, both of whom had prior given us Battlestar Galactica, the seventies incarnation of Buck Rogers, with its hints of space-age James Bond meets Star Wars, was a huge success worldwide, especially beloved in the UK, of which Gerard's amiable space pilot/kick-boxing lead, alongside the sexy and capable space colonel, Wilma Deering (the exquisite Erin Gray), plus beloved little 'Ambuquad', Twiki (Felix Silla, voiced by cartoon legend Mel Blanc), encountered and fought a diverse assemblage of weird, wacky and wonderful humanoid villains and aliens (played by a wide variety of notable guest stars- everyone from Jack Palance to Roddy McDowall, and then fresh-faces like Jamie Lee Curtis), amidst a universe populated by some of the most gorgeous intergalactic heavenly bodies ever seen on television sci-fi! Combined ingredients in a lively series that would make it an enduring family favourite!

Series One title sequence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1obwMjzUY9M

So, get ready to enter your nearest Stargate for a healthy dash of enjoyably colourful fun, looking better than ever in HD, alongside some fine 'Special Features'- most notably the series TV pilot Awakening, not previously released on VHS or DVD in the UK- prior individual/box set releases of the series (from CIC and UNIVERSAL) having past favoured the pilot's theatrical version (perhaps due to right issues ?)- first released in European/International cinemas during 1979.

Heroes of the space ways: Buck Rogers (Gil Gerard) and Wilma (Erin Gray).

FABULOUS FILMS release info on the set:

Sit back and enjoy all 33 episodes across 2 seasons of this timeless sci-fi classic, now fully restored and in Hi-Definition. 

Following the success of Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica, Glen A. Larson developed Buck Rogers in the 25^th Century for television. Props, costumes, effects shots and sets from Battlestar Galactica (1978), which was still in production at the time, were recycled for the series.

The series ran for two seasons in America from 1979 – 1981. ITV began showing Buck Rogers on 30^th August 1980. It was in the same Saturday timeslot that the BBC began screening season 18 of Doctor Who. Due to Buck Rogers’ popularity, Doctor Who’s ratings fell from a series high of 16.1 million to a low of 3.7 million - the lowest ratings in the programme's history. This prompted the BBC to move Doctor Who to a weekday evening slot. The BBC began airing repeats of Buck Rogers on BBC Two in 1989 and again in 1995-96.

Synopsis: The year is 1987 and NASA launches the last of America's deep space probes. Aboard this small starship is a lone astronaut, Captain William Buck Rogers. In a freak mishap Ranger 3 and its pilot are blown out of their trajectory into an orbit which freezes his life support system and returns Buck Rogers back to Earth 500 years later. He is forced to readjust to a new world and its people - who blame his generation for a nuclear holocaust which left the earth a radioactive wasteland. Buck is soon enlisted to help save the Earth from an alien threat, working with Colonel Wilma Deering and a robot-droid known as Twiki. They roam space and planets to welcome back the lost and dispossessed.

Twiki was mainly played by Felix Silla and voiced by Mel Blanc. Felix Silla also played "Cousin Itt" in The Addams Family. Mel Blanc, was an American voice actor who voiced pretty much every cartoon character you can think of including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, Sylvester the Cat, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, Pepé Le Pew, Speedy Gonzales, Wile E. Coyote, Road Runner and the Tasmanian Devil.

Cast: Gil Gerard, Erin Gray, Pamela Hensley (Season 1), Tim O'Connor (Season 1), Felix Silla, Mel Blanc, Eric Server (Season 1), Thom Christopher (Season 2), Jay Garner (Season 2), Wilfrid Hyde-White (Season 2).

Extras: 'Buck Rogers in the 25th Century'- Theatrical version of the pilot episode 'Awakening’, feature Length version of ’Flight of the War Witch', syndicated 2 Part Version in Hi-Definition of 'Journey to the Oasis'.

Get the Blu-ray set here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Buck-Rogers-Century-Complete-Blu-ray/dp/B079V9GW1Z/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1520612712&sr=1-2&keywords=buck+rogers+blu-ray

CLASSIC IMAGE: SMASH-DOWN!

Galactica's shuttle 356 had a bad time of it crashing onto the ice planet Atilla in the classic two-parter The Gun on Ice Planet Zero, now it endures a similar, and worse, fate on the desert planet of R-4, for an episode of GALACTICA's sister series from UNIVERSAL: BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY- in the extended-length second episode of Season Two: Journey to Oasis. (It was later presented as a two-parter in syndication). The shuttle, its model prop and the set mock-ups for studio filming, were primarily used for budget saving reasons in this and the previous season launcher, Time of the Hawk. By the third episode onwards, however, another less well-recognised model from the series would be used by the Universal Hartland effects facility for shuttle duties.

For more on this episode, check out the excellent BUCK ROGERS blogsite: Buck Rogers in the 25th Century Guide: Ep 203 Journey to Oasis, Part 1 January 22, 1981

For more on the series: 'KOOL TV' FEATURE 1000: 25th CENTURY GUY! 'BUCK ROGERS' REMEMBERED...

GOODBYE, LANCE LeGAULT...

The late Lance LeGault. Image via STARTREK.COM website.

Sorry to hear today of the sad passing of Lance LeGault, one of the great guest stars and character actors of modern American television over the last forty years, who's appeared in everything, including cult favourites like from THE A-TEAM, to BUCK ROGERS, to numerous STAR TREK series and BABYLON 5 spin-off, CRUSADE. I'll always remember him best, though, for his several episodes in classic BATTLESTAR GALACTICA as Maga, the scary leader of the fearsome Borellian Nomen triad, on a blood hunt for "Captain Dimitri", as played by Fred Astaire, in the classic episode The Man with Nine Lives, as well as a further guest appearance in the equally fine Baltar's Escape. Earlier in the series run, LeGault had also appeared without the heavy make-up to play a separate character, the doomed farmer Bootes killed by the Red Eye Cylon, in the episode The Lost Warrior.

LeGault as in Classic GALACTICA, as Maga.

Our deepest condolences go out to his wife and family in this very sad time.