20th century astronaut Buck Rogers emerges out of 500 years of suspended animation into the 25th century to become Earth's greatest hero and to explore the unknown reaches of deep space.20th century astronaut Buck Rogers emerges out of 500 years of suspended animation into the 25th century to become Earth's greatest hero and to explore the unknown reaches of deep space.20th century astronaut Buck Rogers emerges out of 500 years of suspended animation into the 25th century to become Earth's greatest hero and to explore the unknown reaches of deep space.
- Won 1 Primetime Emmy
- 1 win & 5 nominations total
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaProps, costumes, special effects shots, and sets from Battlestar Galactica (1978) were used in this series.
- GoofsThrough the series, there are many sequences when Buck Rogers and/or Wilma Deering would take off in one configuration of a starfighter and then different cuts would have them sitting side by side and then a moment later one before the other. There would also be different ships (sky sled) where they would take off in one type of ship, exterior shots show them as they fly through space in a totally different looking ship, and then either land in the same ship they took off in, or in another different looking ship.
- Quotes
Narrator: [voiceover during narrative] The year is 1987, and NASA launches the last of America's deep space probes. In a freak mishap, Ranger 3 and its pilot, Captain William "Buck" Rogers, are blown out of their trajectory into an orbit which freezes his life support systems, and returns Buck Rogers to Earth... 500 years later.
- Crazy creditsThe opening credits for the first season finale "Flight of the War Witch" differ from the credit sequences for the rest of the season's episodes (except the pilot). After the series title appears, there follows a succession of short scenes from this episode as well as from the television version of the pilot (including the episode). After about 20 seconds, the credits resume as normal.
- Alternate versionsThe opening episode "Awakening" was originally released as the theatrical movie Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979). For television, the movie's sensual opening credits were removed, a scene showing Tigerman being killed was omitted, some dialogue was toned down, and several scenes were added including an epilogue setting up the television series. The movie was also re-edited into a two-parter for syndication.
- ConnectionsEdited into The Adventures of Taura: Prison Ship Star Slammer (1986)
With an opening credit sequence intro(narrated by none other than "Voice of God"-like basso profundo William Conrad)that is priceless and memorable,this show was able to both incorporate a cool,"Star Wars"/"Battlestar Galactica" element into what seemed to be little more than a sort of Disco era sensibility. The Out-of-his-element title character(played by soap opera stud Gil Gerard,fantastic hair)helps future Earth,now reconfigured from devastating nuclear damage,against hostile aliens and various other rogues. He's paired with comely Col.Wilma Dearing(comely Erin Gray)and a cute,utterly one-dimensional robot named Twiki(voiced by the greatest animated voice talent ever IMHO,the late Mel Blanc)and supervised by a kindly professor(Tim Ryan)who is in charge of some sector of New Earth's security.
To be sure,this show was the extension of the very popular comic strip,comic book, radio serials and movies from the 1930s and 1940s,and while I have absolutely no running familiarity with those shows,I'd probably be right in guessing that those "buck Rogers" as much reflected those eras as this one. My critique(actually,more of a loving,back-handed soft slap)of this show comes from the fact that when I reflect back on it,it seems like it had the ambition and production values of a big budget Sci-fi,but lacked the imagination to be anything more than a futuristic discotechque,full of all the right images(i.e. spaceships,deep space,laser guns,laser blasts,force fields,unitards,costumed humans as aliens,etc.),but flavored too heavily by the era its really from(i.e. male-female attitudes,hairstyles,"future music"that sounds suspiciously like Brian Eno/Devo,dated,potentially anachronistic slang and lingo,etc.). Its first season was a hoot and a lot of fun to watch.When they tried to extend this to a next season and add new characters,the show faltered greatly. To me,a cheesy show really needs their characters to stay kind of static or it loses something.
Here's wondering how and why this show hasn't gotten a bigger push to become a motion picture. Off the air for over twenty-five years,I feel like this could make for a reasonably good(or at least not TOO cheesy)movie for a whole new generation of people not familiar with the famous future man from the "present".
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Buck Rogers
- Filming locations
- Trona Pinnacles - 300 S. Richmond Road, Ridgecrest, California, USA(Featured in fly over during opening credits/titles for the show)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1