Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Far Out Space Nuts: "Galaxy's Greatest Athlete" (December 11,1975

Two beautiful space aliens -- who are really alien hags -- want to recruit Barney (Chuck McCann) and Junior (Bob Denver) as the galaxy’s greatest athletes in a kind of cosmic Olympic Games.

These space sirens determine that only Honk is actually intelligent, and attempt to seduce Junior, the dumbest of the trio, to their cause.

He participates and wins in different events such as “laser leap,” (a long jump), “astro arm wrestling” and more.

Junior proves victorious, and must battle the “space fuzzy” as the final contest.

The final episode of Sid and Marty Krofft’s Far Out Space Nuts (1975) doesn’t chart much new territory in terms of theme or plot, but remains enjoyable in the campy manner of much Saturday morning TV from the era (think: The Ghost Busters [1975].) 

As always, the humor remains juvenile, but pleasantly juvenile.

Once more, in “Galaxy’s Greatest Athlete,” we get female characters who appear to be beautiful, but are really hideous aliens, a story idea we have seen before in the series.

Once more, Junior is singled out as the stupidest man in the universe, and recruited to some cause (space piracy, scientific experimentation, or Olympic Games) that he has no desire to be involved with.

Once more, the “space nuts” out-maneuver the “superior” aliens they contend with.

This episode, intriguingly, does rely more heavily on chroma-key technology than most installments of the series do, with Junior (Bob Denver) visually inserted into miniature arenas and sets.  These shots are not visually-accomplished by today’s standards, yet remain inventive for a low-budget 1975 series.

The focus on crazy “futuristic” games at the galactic Olympics here also forecasts similar imaginings in the Buck Rogers in the 25^th Century (1979-1981) episode “Olympiad.”

As this is the final episode of the series, I should offer a summation of the program as a whole.  I’m as surprised as anyone to note this, but I actually enjoyed Far Out Space Nuts more than the previous two Krofft series I covered: Lidsville and the Bugaloos.  

Perhaps it’s all the crazy aliens, or the outer space milieu, or perhaps just the fact that the series arises from an era I am nostalgic about (the immediate pre-Star Wars era; the epoch of Space: 1999), but I’m sad to have reached the end of a program I watched when I was five years old.

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: The Far Out Space Nuts: "Barney Begonia" (November 27, 1975)

In “Barney Begonia,” the space capsule lands on a new planet, and a nefarious alien botanist transforms Barney (Chuck McCann) into a living, breathing plant man.

The scientist promises to give Barney the cure for his new condition, but secretly plans to breed hundreds of plant men just like him. The botanist has been experimenting for decades without success, and now he believes he has made the perfect hybrid.

“Barney Begonia” is packed, wall-to-wall with goofy plant jokes, as the title may indicate. There’s a joke about a banana plant, another one about Barney falling in love with a female plant, and other silly touches too. “I’m growing faster than crab grass,” Barney notes at one point. Junior (Bob Denver) replies: “You’re just in season.”

As you might guess, these jokes are generally cringe-worthy, but notable as relics from another, more innocent age of comedy. Today, they don’t exactly feel in season.

In general, The Far Out Space Nuts (1975) has proven to be a generally likable series, despite the antique humor and poor production values.  It isn’t one of the better-remembered of the Sid and Marty Krofft canon and yet it is probably superior to some other efforts (namely Lidsville, or Dr. Shrinker).  I think the series is often mistaken for being idiotic when, in fact, it is about two idiots…in space.

Next week: “Destination: Earth.”

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Far Out Space Nuts: "Vanishing Aliens Mystery" (November 20, 1975)

In “Vanishing Aliens Mystery,” the Space Nuts (Chuck McCann, Bob Denver, and Patty Maloney) seek shelter from a space storm aboard a haunted space platform or station.

There, assembled aliens, including Lantana, are waiting for the reading of a dead man’s will. They all hope he will leave his estate, including the space station, to them. Unfortunately, a glowing creature is also guarding the station, and kidnapping the guests, one at a time.

Barney and Junior are accused of being behind the disappearances, and they get one hour to prove the theory wrong.

Bad title. Good episode.

In fact, “Vanishing Aliens Mystery” is one of the most enjoyable episodes of The Far Out Space Nuts. It is a lot of fun, and very silly. The whole episode plays like a live-action, future-based version of a Scooby Doo cartoon. There’s the haunted setting, the reading of the will, the colorful suspects, and then the hackneyed, prehistoric gags like a painting with moving eyes, and a secret door that rotates around.  The space station even has cob-webs, making it, in Barney’s words “a computerized home for space spiders.”

Intriguingly, “Vanishing Aliens Mystery” even devises a version of Alien’s (1979’s) famous tag-line four years early. At one point, a character notes “If you get very afraid and scream, no one can hear you.”  It’s an awkward precursor to “in space, no one can hear you scream,” but it transmits the same idea.

Also fun is the fact that “Vanishing Aliens Mystery” brings back the costumes and aliens from previous episodes, including Crystallites and Pippets. Sure, it’s just a re-use of what the series  already had in its wardrobe closet, but the return of these various aliens suggests a larger, consistent universe.

Next week: "Barney Begonia."

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Far Out Space Nuts: "Captain Torque, Space Pirate" (November 13, 1975 )

Captain Torque, notorious and tyrannical space pirate wants to recruit the two stupidest volunteers in the galaxy to serve on his crew, and settles on the space nuts: Barney (Chuck McCann), Junior (Bob Denver) and Honk (Patty Maloney).

Once on the pirate’s spaceship crew, the space nuts must “walk the space beam” (a plank made of light) and endure other indignities, until contacted by space authorities for a secret mission.

Now they must double cross the captain, and procure an important treasure protected by “zapatron” rays, so it doesn’t fall into Torque’s hands.

The set-up for this week’s episode of Far Out Space Nuts (1975) is familiar indeed: a villain seeks nincompoops for henchmen and settles on the series protagonists. 

Why villains should require idiots (instead of smart, competent assistants) is a peculiarity of this particular Saturday morning universe.  The Space Nuts are constantly being chosen for jobs on their basis of their stupidity. They guard alien eggs, because they are dumb. They are made space pirates, because they are dumb.

The problem, which villains rarely see, is that not only are the starring characters stupid, but they are cowards as well.

Here, the old cult-TV “space pirate” trope gets trotted out for a heist episode in which a “cosmic treasure” aboard an intergalactic museum ship is the quarry.  That treasure, the “Quasar” is captured by our heroes, but they almost contend with another sci-fi trope: space foam! 

Here, a device called “the vaculator” can douse people in slimy, sticky foam. Such foam has appeared as a menace to space adventurers on Doctor Who (“Seeds of Death”), Space: 1999 (“Space Brain”), and Blake’s 7 (“Space Fall”) to name just a few classic series, but it isn’t much of a menace here. It looks like shaving cream is sprayed in characters’ faces, straight from the (off-camera) can.

Next week: “Vanishing Aliens Mystery.”

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Far Out Space Nuts: "Secrets of the Hexagon" (November 6, 1975)

In “Secrets of the Hexagon,” the space nuts’ lander is broken once more, and Junior (Bob Denver) feels useless because he can’t do anything to help. The lander is out of fuel.

A strange alien named Flam, however, soon appears near Junior, and makes a trade: a useless hexagon device for the lander. Junior accidentally agrees, and must explain to Barney (Chuck McCann) how he has traded away their only ticket back home, to Earth.

Soon, however, the space nuts learn how to operate the Hexagon. It is actually a talking key that leads them to a mysterious lost city, and the strange duplication device housed there.  If Barney and Junior can just reclaim their lander, they can duplicate all the fuel they need to return home.

Unfortunately, Flam stole the hexagon device from two hostile aliens, who wish to reacquire it.

Another week, another ridiculous episode of Sid and Marty Krofft’s 1975 live-action romp, Far Out Space Nuts. “Secrets of the Hexagon” features alien beings who look like humanoid moles, a lost city, and a blooper that reveals just how low-budget the production must have been.

In that blooper, we see Barney and Junior driving their rover vehicle in a circle over the landscape. The camera moves just a little to one side, and the capsule, or lunar lander, is visible behind them. At this point in the story, however, Flam has taken the lander -- it has de-materialized -- and they are going off to the lost city in an effort to recover it. The lunar lander mock-up is moved from its normal position…by about three feet, and just by moving the camera a tiny bit, it is still visible. The sound-stage where the episode was shot must have been tiny!

As usual, the strangeness of the series is evident in this episode. In the lost city, Barney and Junior happen across a cosmic barbershop and pretend to be barbers, so they can put on patches of hair, and masquerade as the space mole people. Miraculously, the gambit works.  But a barbershop on an alien planet? Why do the mole people even stop to get their hair cut in the first place, in a city they know to be abandoned? When they are looking for their missing technology!  ("Oh let's stop here, I need a trim.")

The alien villain of the week is named “Flam” (as in the word “flim flam,), but forget that term, which means confidence game, or swindle.

These old episodes aren’t “flim flam,” but they sure seem to have been made on a wing and a prayer.  

Next week: “Captain Torque, Space Pirate.”

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Far Out Space Nuts: "Dangerous Game" (October 30, 1975)

In “Dangerous Game” a furry alien and an alien female, Solanna, embark on a new hunt, seeking fresh prey. They come upon Barney (Chuck McCann) and Junior (Bob Denver’s) in their lunar lander, and settle on the duo.

The lander sets down in a spaceship grave yard, and the duo learns they have been trapped there “for the games.”

If victorious in this deadly context, they can be returned to Earth.

The duo attempts to escape from the games, and the hunters never waged on prey as stupid as the far out space nuts…

“Dangerous Game” is another sci-fi TV variation of the famous cult-TV standard: The Most Dangerous Game. In stories of this type (or trope) -- seen on Space:1999, The Incredible Hulk, Logan’s Run, Deep Space Nine and other programs -- the series’ protagonists must escape from deadly, technologically advanced hunters.

Here, the alien hunters are particularly distinctive, at least in terms of their visualization. The female, Solanna, possesses a face of glitter, and long, pointed side-burns, much like Space: 1999’s Maya (Catherine Schell). And the male, Lycos, looks very much like a silver-haired Wookie, from the Star Wars universe.

Another trope, the space-graveyard, or “Sargasso Sea,” also gets a work-out in this episode of the Sid and Marty Krofft live-action series. Long-abandoned space-ships (miniatures) are seen on an alien surface.

Some other weird touches: When being threatened by the hunters, the space nuts encounter a weird space distortion, a vortex of some type. To determine what it is Junior and Barney consult their Encyclopedia of Space Disasters. This isn’t likely a tome that America’s space program could have developed, given its knowledge at the time of the space nuts’ accident.

That said, the lander’s passage through the space vortex allows for a ridiculous scene of (chroma-key) weightlessness with the two main actors.

The episode culminates with pie-throwing and other shtick, and then Barney teaching the alien “Space wolves” about poker, though the rules sound more like Star Trek’s Fizzbin.

Next week: “Secrets of the Hexagon.”

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Far Out Space Nuts: "Birds of a Feather" (October 30, 1975)

In “Birds of a Feather,” alien bird men -- the Vultrons -- require a lower species as slaves. They want two of the dumbest "lowest species” they have ever seen to guard their ruler, Falco’s, sovereign egg, which is due to hatch.

The Bird men settle quickly on Junior (Bob Denver) and Barney (Chuck McCann) as their choice for slaves, and take them back to their mountain kingdom.  There, Junior and Barney must sit on the giant incubating egg, and they end up playing tic-tac-toe on its shell.  They are also told to guard the eggs with their lives.

Two bird-man insurrectionists, including Eaglon, however, plan to mislay the egg in the communal incubator, so that Falco has no rightful heir, and they can rule the kingdom in his place.

Junior and Barney outwit them, however, and watch in joy as their egg ward is born safely. After donning bird wings, they fly home to their lander, and with Honk (Patty Mahoney) launch into space to the next adventure.

This week on Sid and Marty Krofft’s Far Out Space Nuts (1975), Junior and Barney are again captured by malevolent aliens who, by crazy circumstances, need them for some important job.  In this case, they are to witness “the birth of royalty,” and care for a bird-man’s giant egg.

Naturally, things go awry, though in this case the space nuts are actually underestimated. By playing tic-tac-toe on the egg’s shell, Junior and Barney have marked it for later recovery, foiling the plan of the insurrectionists.

The bird man costumes used in this week's installment are pretty cheap-jack and terrible, and some questions of believability also crop up. For instance, where and how do Junior and Barney end up with bird wings to escape their life of slavery?

Since the Bird Men actually have biological wings, why would they have spare bird wings stored in their headquarters for easy access? Perhaps so their slaves can fly?   

But of course, if the slaves can fly, they can get away; they can fly the coop, so-to-speak, and leave the mountain.

Also, most episodes of Far Out Space Nuts so far do a great job of keeping Honk in the loop. Sometimes, the diminutive creature even comes to the rescue, since the alien is undoubtedly the smarted individual in the trio of “space nuts.”  

Here, however, he witnesses the kidnapping of Junior and Barney, but doesn’t do anything to attempt to find, follow, or rescue them. He just shows up at the end of the episode, relieved to see them.

Next week: "Dangerous Game."

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Far Out Space Nuts: "Flight of the Pippets" (October 18, 1975)

In this episode of Sid and Marty Krofft’s Far Out Space Nuts (1975), miniature alien beings called “Pippets” capture and then shrink Junior (Bob Denver) down to miniature proportions so they can store him in a jar and bring him back to their intergalactic museum.

Honk (Patty Mahoney) rescues Junior from this fate, bu Junior is trapped in tiny form, no bigger than a matchbox.

Now Honk and Barney (Chuck McCann) must restore Junior to his normal size, and outwit the Pippets.

To do so, Junior uses the lunar lander’s jet pack, which in turn gets miniaturized.

“Flight of the Pippets” makes extensive use of chroma-key technology, the innovation that was so crucial to Sid and Marty Krofft series including Land of the Lost (1974-1977) and Dr. Shrinker (1976-1977).

Here, chroma-key allows the miniature Pippet flying saucer miniature to be composited over live-action footage of Denver, and McCann. Later, it is utilized to composite the tiny Junior into live-action scenes with Barney.  The technique was cheap and easy to do, but the drawbacks can be noted today. Chroma-key effects (which I love, and used extensively in my web series, The House Between), sometimes look very cheap in color.

Some of the shots work better than others. For instance, there is a shot here of a miniature Junior encountering a normal-sized, but giant-seeming Honk. The shot stands up remarkably well.

Far Out Space Nuts seems to possess two major plot formulas. The first involves Barney being sought by nefarious alien purposes, and captured. The second involves the Space Nuts helping to restore (a female) alien ruler to her rightful throne. “Flight of the Pippets” sees a return, after some weeks, to the first plot line.

The silliest aspect of the story involves all the “tiny” jokes the comedic duo make about Junior’s situation. “I’m so hungry, I could eat an ant,” Junior notes. Or “Let’s talk some small-talk.”  It’s goofy, but not un-amusing.

Finally, the aliens this week are another homage to classic movie monsters. Last week, the aliens resembled the famous Gill Man. This week, the Pippets are modeled after the Metalana mutant from This Island Earth (1951).

Next Week: “Birds of a Feather.”

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Far Out Space Nuts: "The Three Spacekateers" (October 9, 1975)

In “The Three Spacekateers,” two alien beings arrive on the planet surface where Barney (Chuck McCann), Junior (Bob Denver) and Honk (Patty Mahoney) are repairing their lunar lander. After meticulously cleaning a faulty Electric Guidance System, Junior manages to get dust in it and damage all Barney's work.

Angry, Barney calls Junior “useless” and Junior runs away, feeling sorry for himself. The next morning, he sees the landing of the alien saucer. These aliens (called Sporians) mistake him from their mission leader, “Junio.”

Junio is supposed to help them capture their female ruler from evil aliens call the Troyax.  Now, they are stuck with Junior, who arranges to invade the Troyax fortress, and distract the evil aliens with a magic show. Barney and Honk help out.

But the real Junio has also arrived on the planet…

It’s a case of comedic mistaken identity this week on Sid and Marty Krofft’s Far Out Space Nuts (1975), as the bumbling Junior is mistaken for an elite trainer of soldiers, the gold-skinned alien Junio. 

Much of the humor in the episode arises from the fact that Junior keeps getting things right, though always completely by accident. For instance, he accidentally leads the aliens to the mountain that houses the enemy fortress. Then, when he arrives there, here accidentally discovers the “ant-gravity” rocks that can carry the team to the summit of the same mountain. He’s a bumbling idiot, but this week, a lucky bumbling idiot.

The evil Troyax this week look like the Gill Man from the classic movie, The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), though with some of the fish-elements lessened a bit. They may have been commercial masks from the time, only modified for use here.

In terms of special effects, this episode features many shots of the alien flying saucer flying over the land-scape, and some chroma-key shots to integrate the two Klingon-like aliens into the shot with them. At one point, the footage doesn’t quite match up, as the two humanoids seem to grow inordinately in size.

Finally, the mistaken identity concept breathes new life into an episode with a familiar plot line: Junior and Barney restoring a (female) royal to her throne. One wonders why so many female leaders are being dethroned in this universe, and why only the galaxy’s two worst bumblers can help them get their power  back.

Next week: Flight of the Pippets”

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Far Out Space Nuts: "The Tower of Tagot" (October 2, 1975)

In “The Tower of Tagot,” the evil alien named Tagot (Paul Wexler) utilizes his “future machine” to determine that he will, within 24 hours, clash with alien visitors: Barney (Chuck McCann) and Junior (Bob Denver). Tagot then sends an alien ship that resembles a giant spider to prevent this encounter from occurring.

Meanwhile, in space, Junior is reading a comic book that seems to predict their next adventure, while Barney pilots the lunar lander between planets.

The space nuts soon run afoul of the spider space ship and crash on a planet. There, they learn from the alien Zarlam (Robert Quarry) that the beautiful Princess Pulma (Barbara Rhoades) has been captured in the tower of Tagot and must be freed so she can reclaim her throne.

Junior uses a space sword (which can erase any flesh or object it strikes…) to battle Tagot, and Pulma soon falls in love with him.

“The Tower of Tagot” is the weirdest, most stream-of-consciousness episode -- so far -- of Sid and Marty Krofft’s live-action series Far Out Space Nuts (1975).

Do I write that sentence every Saturday? It certainly seems like it.

Basically, a villain, Tagot, can see the future using an alien machine. But this miraculous device is countered by Junior’s comic-book, which can also see the future of the space nuts.  So good guys and bad guys are evenly matched, I suppose.

The big news here is the guest appearance by Robert Quarry -- Count Yorga himself -- as an alien who resembles Brain Guy from Mystery Science Theater 3000 (1988-1999). 

Otherwise, the story about Barney, Honk, and Junior returning a female ruler to her rightful throne is a repeat of an earlier story, one involving Queen Lantana (“The Robots of Pod.”) 

The difference here is that Junior falls in love with Pulma, and wants to remain with her on the planet. This is how he feels, until the future machine shows him how hideous the queen looks when she isn’t wearing make-up on her face.

The highlight of the episode is the sprawling, ridiculous pre-Star Wars (1977) light-saber duel between Junior and Tagot.  Ambitious use is made of chroma-key effects as Barney and Junior dangle from a tower during the final battle.  The battle ends when Junior accidentally hits a switch that collapses the tower.

Next week: “The Three Spacekateers.”

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Far Out Space Nuts: "Fantastic Journey" (September 27, 1975)

In “Fantastic Journey,” the fourth episode of Far Out Space Nuts (1975), Barney (Chuck McCann) is still working hard to repair the lunar lander, but a one-eyed giant cyclops -- Big Fuzzy -- approaches the ship and pries off an antenna…which it proceeds to lick like a lollipop.

Barney realizes they can’t return to Earth without the antenna, and in the space buggy he, Junior (Bob Denver) and Honk (Patty Mahoney) pursue.  On that pursuit, however, they stumble upon a trap by laid by a mad scientist, Kayla (Kay E. Kuter).

He has materialized in their path a “Molecutron” that only the greatest minds in the universe can determine how to operate. Barney and Junior -- the universe’s biggest morons – figure it out quickly, and are beamed to Kayla’s lab.  

He wants them to decipher the rest of his machinery, which was actually stolen from two other scientists, the mad Dr. Drone (Stanley Ralph Ross) and Dr. Rundspock (Whitney Rydbeck).

The space nuts help Dr. Drone overcome Kayla, but must travel through time and space to recover Rundspock.  Unfortunately, Kayla is not out of the game, either, and materializes a cyclops -- Little Fuzzy -- to chase down his nemeses.

The Far Out Space Nuts’ descent into slapstick continues with the fourth episode, “Fantastic Journey” a scattershot show that employs Keystone Cops-styled fast-motion chase scenes, and the most over-the-top guest performance of the series.

In terms of the former element, the climactic chase through the alien laboratory is edited into a fast-motion, breakneck chase. It plays like a live-action version of a Scooby Doo denouement, with the pursued becoming the pursuers, the prey pretending to be statues, and other cartoon gimmicks.

In terms of the former, Stanley Ralph Ross plays Dr. Drone. He portrayed Dr. Frankenstein in an episode of The Lost Saucer (1975) too, but here he not only goes over the top, he launches over the top at escape velocity and soars to the heights of camp humor; the likes of which is rarely seen.  Not that he is bad.  Actually, his nutty deliver and bizarre performance is fully acknowledged in-story, and that actually makes it funny. After a while, Barney and Junior just accept Dr. “Daffy’s” behavior, and his over-the-top demeanor becomes comedy fodder, especially in the coda.

It is funny to note that in a span of four episodes, the series has descended from creepy comedy to outright slapstick madhouse. As the series started, Barney and Junior were inept, but they faced serious threats.  By “Fantastic Journey” -- no relation to the 1977 series, The Fantastic Journey by the way -- even the bad guys are being treated as a joke.

I liked the original take better. I was always delighted when Saturday morning television of the 1970’s took on a creepier, more adult air.  Think about, for a minute, how many people remember Land of the Lost (1974-1977), and what they remember from it.  Primarily, of course, it’s the creepy, hissing Sleestak.  I suppose I would have preferred for Far Out Space Nuts to maintain that balance between dopey slapstick heroes and a legitimate, frightening threat.

Next week: “Tower of Tagot.”

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Far Out Space Nuts (1975): "The Robots of Pod" (September 20, 1975)

In “The Robots of Pod, the third episode of Sid and Marty Krofft’s The Far Out Space Nuts (1975), Barney (Chuck McCann), Junior (Bob Denver) and Honk (Patty Mahoney) are ready to escape from the planet where they have been marooned. They take off, but the lunar lander cannot achieve escape velocity.

As it turns out, this is because Junior has brought his rock collection aboard. Barney throws the rock collection overboard, but also ends up tossing out all the ship’s spare fuel.

An alien woman, Princess Lantana (Eve Bruce) appears and suggests a trade. She will have her minions collect the lost fuel, if the Earthling and Honk retrieve her robot minion control belt.  

That item has fallen into the hands of the evil Mercurial (Earle Doud), in the “forbidden territory of Pod.”

The space nuts agree to those terms and infiltrate a giant subterranean city to steal the control belt.  Doing so will depend on robot disguises…and magnetic boots.

Audiences actually get a new plot this week on this Sid and Marty Krofft program from 1975. For once, an alien villain doesn’t want to take control of Junior. Instead, the Space Nuts team up with an ally to restore a rightful ruler, the princess, to her throne.  

The episode also features some new gags, and an increased focus on slapstick humor. In a shocking turn of events, there are even more than the standard three robot minions on screen at a time, for one scene!

The silliest jokes this week arise, strangely, in a robot cafeteria in Mercurial’s underground city. Disguised as robots, Barney and Junior go through a lunch line, and are served a meal (a crankshaft, some springs, and some ball bearings.)  Naturally, Barney finds the meal unpalatable, but Junior likes the crankshaft (which sounds crunchy).

“The Robots of Pod” is also the first episode in which the interior of the lunar lander is featured, though it appears in the opening credits each week.  The set is good, if cramped, but as I noted last week, really doesn’t compare favorably to the primary set of its Sid and Krofft contemporary, The Lost Saucer (1975).

Next week: “Fantastic Journey.”

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Far Out Space Nuts: "The Crystallites" (September 13, 1975)

Barney (Chuck McCann), Junior (Bob Denver), and Honk (Patty Mahoney) run out of water on an alien planet.  Junior and Honk go out in a rover to find some of the much-needed liquid, but find colored alien coconuts instead. The milk inside tastes like chocolate.

Though Barney refuses to taste the milk until it is tasted, Junior shows no such restraint. After drinking the liquid, he transforms into a hairy green monster every time he sneezes.

Meanwhile, Trentor -- the leader of the Crystallites (John Carradine) -- spies on the stranded Earthlings and decides that they could be useful. In particular, he wants to transform Junior into a Crystallite, after making him king.  

The only downside is that Junior will be made of glass. And, well, that his role as monarch lasts only a day.

Honk and Barney escape from the Crystallites, and make Junior sneeze so that he can stop the attack of the Crystallites.

The second episode of the Sid and Marty Krofft live-action Saturday morning series The Far Out Space Nuts (1975) follows very closely the format of the first episode, “It’s All in Your Mind.”

Last week, it was a computer, G.A.L. that wanted to capture and absorb Junior. This week, it is an alien Crystallite, played by the legendary John Carradine, who has a malevolent plan for the clumsy Junior.  

In both cases, the alien leader has exactly three followers, who fly around on a hover device, and chase our heroic “space nuts.”

In this case, the Crystallites are also armed with transparent glass rods that can crystallize all living matter.  And the aforementioned hovercraft resembles giant salt and pepper shakers.

This episode also establishes that the space nuts have no weapons. When tasked with defending themselves, they resort to a tennis racquet, a beach ball, and a fly swatter.  Not very effective.  But these items create a secondary problem (and one that was frequently seen on Lost in Space [1965-1968]). 

What exactly are these items doing on a spaceship where there are weight limits, and space is at a premium? What’s the function, after all, of one tennis racquet, and a beach ball?

John Carradine is our villain of the week, and he acquits himself well, especially considering his silver costume and glitter make-up. Carradine makes for an effective bad guy, but it is sad to see an actor of his stature and reputation relegated to a cheap Saturday morning series, and a guest part like this one.

Finally, this episode is not as creepy as last week's installment, because the villainous minions "ham" up their act, slipping, and sliding, and exaggerating their zombie-like stomp to comic proportions.

Next week: “The Robots of Pod.”