Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: BraveStarr: "Jeremiah and the Prairie People"

In “Jeremiah and the Prairie People,” a prospector with a map of a legendary lost mine is pursued by bandits who desire it.

The band prepare a decoy so they can take the elfin prospector’s “map crystal,” but Jeremiah refuses to share any details with BraveStarr about the Kerium mine he hopes to find.

Soon, the Prairie People befriend Jeremiah, and he realizes that as owner of the mine, he will be a rich man.

However, Jeremiah would rather have companionship and family, and decides to share his new-found wealth with the kindly Prairie People to thank them for their generosity and friendship.

“Jeremiah and the Prairie People” concerns an alien who looks like an elf, lives a solitary life, and speaks with a British accent. This is Jeremiah, and in the course of the episode he befriends the Prairie People, especially a little blind tyke named -- I kid you not -- Munchie. He learns that “having friends is more important than being rich.”

That’s a message that certainly bears repeating in this day and age, but, as usual, I appreciate BraveStarr more for its unusual technology designs than its heavy-handed messages.  In this case, I especially like the portable hologram projector or “map crystal” that Jeremiah uses to find the lost mine.  It’s a good design, and looks plausible

Also dramatized with flair are the “sand crabs” which cause a lot of trouble for BraveStarr and his cohorts. There's even a fun Jaws (1975) shot here in which the crab comes up out of the sand behind the heroic and unsuspecting marshal.

I’ve blogged about twenty-six episodes of BraveStarr thus far, and this seems like an appropriate time to take a break, as we’re moving into a new year.  

Although I found a lot to write about in early episodes of the Filmation series, many of the recent episodes have felt remarkably content-free. More and more, the Prairie People -- sorta lame sidekicks -- seem to be taking center stage.  So...moving on. All together, there are sixty-five episodes of BraveStarr, and one day, I hope to return to it feeling a little re-invigorated. (Maybe if I take the series in three chunks...).

Next week, I begin a retrospective of the first season of Secrets of Isis (1975 – 1976), a live-action Filmation superhero series starring Joanna Cameron. So stay tuned.