This
week, our Saturday morning cult-TV blogging takes us back again to the Kroffts,
and the year 1975. Although Land of the Lost (1974-1977) and The
Lost Saucer (1975) were both airing on NBC at the time, another genre
production from the duo found a berth on CBS: Far Out Space Nuts
(1975).
This
live-action series ran for 15 episodes in 1975, and starred Bob Denver of Gilligan’s
Island as Junior, a hapless maintenance man thrust into space on a U.S.
rocket alongside his equally hapless buddy, Barney (Chuck McCann).
After
their unfortunate take-off, the duo tries to return home to Earth in their
lunar lander, meeting up with a cute, if diminutive alien, Honk (Patty
Mahoney), on the journey.
The
whole show is basically an even more slapstick version of The Lost Saucer, though
without androids and the time travel angle.
The
first episode of Far Out Space Nuts is “It’s All In Your Mind.” On a distant
planet, Barney and Junior attempt to repair their ship’s engine, a “space combustion system.” Barney tries
to teach Junior how to complete the repairs, and he shows a bizarre knack for
it.
Meanwhile,
the denizens of the planet -- minions of an intelligent computer called G.A.L.
36-24-36 -- seek to capture Junior. These mindless drones serve the machine,
which in turn demands complete control over the will of everyone on the planet.
“All thoughts on this planet must be mine,”
G.A.L. reports, showing an obsessive interest in Junior.
The
Drones captures Junior, and attempt to transfer his mind into the machine’s
storage banks. Meanwhile, Barney and Honk are held captive behind a magnetic
wall. Fortunately, Junior’s extreme illogic causes G.A.L. to malfunction, and
the drones are freed after an imprisonment of 132 eons.
As
you can tell from the preceding synopsis, “It’s All in Your Mind” sounds very
much in keeping with the other Saturday morning programs I’ve covered here on
the blog over the years. We have our hapless heroes (acting firmly in the
tradition of Abbott and Costello), the cute costumed side-kicked, and a moral
or didactic lesson about the importance of thinking for yourself.
What
the synopsis does not capture, however, is the truly creepy nature of this
episode. The drones march, Cyberman-style, in lock-stop, after their prey,
throughout the tale. And their attacks are accompanied by unsettling sound
effects and music.
Sure,
the story isn’t scary in a conventional sense, but the elements add up to a
presentation that actually feels a bit less kiddie-friendly than one might
expect. The Kroffts, to their everlasting credit, went this way occasionally in
their entertainment, with the Sleestak on Land of the Lost, for example.
The
result is that for all its budgetary restraint and dopey comedy, “It’s All in
Your Mind” is actually a pretty compelling little tale, which is a claim I can’t
necessarily make for many episodes of either Lidsville (1971) or The
Bugaloos (1970), which I’ve covered here recently.
Far
Out Space Nuts
also seems lower-budgeted than even The Lost Saucer. That series had a
great standing set (the saucer interior) and elaborate costumes for its stars,
Ruth Buzzi and Jim Nabors.
Here, we
never see the inside of the lunar lander craft, only its landing site, for example. And the enemy minions, though fearsome, number under half-a-dozen.
Finally, here's our series intro:
I so loved the vast majority of the Krofft shows. This is one.
ReplyDeleteI loved the G.A.L. which is a fun tribute H.A.L. 9000 from 2001(1968). Also, enjoyed this series with their exaggerated version of NASA LEM. This campsite set with the full-scale LEM is reminiscent of the Land Of The Giants Spindrift campsite or Lost In Space Jupiter 2 campsite. John you are right that the interior set of the LEM must be separate and not inside the exterior full-scale LEM prop.
ReplyDeleteSGB