Tomorrow,
November 8th, 2016 we elect a President to lead this great nation for the
next four years.
In cult television history, as in life, we’ve had some really great United States Presidents and some bad ones.
In cult television history, as in life, we’ve had some really great United States Presidents and some bad ones.
Of
all the real-life Presidents to be featured in this medium, Abraham Lincoln
seems to be the hands-down favorite.
Lincoln (as played by Barry Atwater) appeared in an early episode of the
paranormal anthology called One Step Beyond, in the episode titled
“The Day The World Wept: The Lincoln Story.”
This
tale aired on February 9, 1960 and involved a survey of all the psychic
phenomena surrounding Lincoln’s assassination, including Lincoln’s own
portentous dreams of his demise, and the strange case of a printer in East
Pennsylvania who hammered out a headline ours before the assassination
occurred: “Lincoln murdered – NATIONAL
TRAGEDY.”
The
Twilight Zone also
featured a strange tale involving President Lincoln, “The Passersby.” This tale by Rod Serling aired on October 6,
1961, and concerned a Confederate widow, Lavinia Godwin (Joanne Linville)
watching a parade of the Civil War dead march by her Southern home. In the last scene, Abraham Lincoln (Austin
Green) himself came walking down that road as “the last casualty” of the war
that pit brother against brother.
On Star Trek, the third season episode “The Savage Curtain,” broadcast on March 7, 1969, saw the U.S.S. Enterprise encounter the image of President Abraham Lincoln (Lee Bergere) above the volcanic planet Excalbia. Although sent by the planet’s inhabitants to determine the nature of good and evil, this image of Lincoln looked and acted like President Lincoln, a hero of Captain Kirk’s.
In
terms of fictional presidents, cult-television has featured some memorable
personalities.
A riveting and terrifying early episode of The Outer Limits, “The Hundred Days of the Dragon” features President William Lyons Selby (Sidney Blackmer), a candidate who is secretly replaced by a Chinese imposter before his election. Only Selby’s daughter and vice-president, Theodore Pearson (Phillip Pine) begin to suspect that that something is wrong with the new Commander-in-Chief. Incidentally, this creepy episode aired only weeks before the assassination of President Kennedy, on September 23, 1963.
A riveting and terrifying early episode of The Outer Limits, “The Hundred Days of the Dragon” features President William Lyons Selby (Sidney Blackmer), a candidate who is secretly replaced by a Chinese imposter before his election. Only Selby’s daughter and vice-president, Theodore Pearson (Phillip Pine) begin to suspect that that something is wrong with the new Commander-in-Chief. Incidentally, this creepy episode aired only weeks before the assassination of President Kennedy, on September 23, 1963.
In
the year 2001, the action series 24 introduced the world to
democratic Senator David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) from Maryland. A terrorist attempted to assassinate Palmer on
the day of the California primary, and CTU agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland)
was assigned to protect him.
By 24’s second year, Palmer had ascended to the Presidency, and had become (in this timeline/universe) America’s first African-American President. President Palmer retained the presidency in season two, but dropped out of his re-election bid in season three.
By 24’s second year, Palmer had ascended to the Presidency, and had become (in this timeline/universe) America’s first African-American President. President Palmer retained the presidency in season two, but dropped out of his re-election bid in season three.
Later
in the same series, a dark figure, Charles Logan (Gregory Itzin) ascended to
the presidency when President John Keeler was injured. Logan is a weak man,
psychologically-speaking, and makes several terrible decisions during the
course of his accidental presidency in seasons four and five.
Seasons
7 and 8 of 24 brought a new Chief Executive, President Allison Taylor, to the
White House. Jones has described the
character as part Lyndon Johnson, part Eleanor Roosevelt, part Golda Meir and
part John Wayne.
In
the Battlestar
Galactica universe, we’ve seen two very memorable and different
Presidents. In the original 1978 series,
President Adar (Lew Ayres) was a foolish pacifist who delivered destruction and
death upon the human race after trusting the Cylons during a detente.
In
the remake of the mid-20002, Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell) ascended to the
President after the death of Adar and shepherded the rag-tag fleet through a
time of cataclysm and chaos. She did so,
incidentally, while suffering from cancer.
One
final example: the valedictory season of Smallville (2001 – 2011) gave the
world one of its most terrifying and downright evil U.S. Presidents: Lex Luthor
(Michael Rosenbaum).
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