For geeks of a certain age...

[Grieve]

...how many of these 70s TV shows can you name?



(I know most of them, but there's at least 2 or 3 new to me)

[Arsilon]

At least one of those shows didn't first air until 1981

[Breand]

At least one of those shows didn't first air until 1981

which would be The Greatest American Hero.

I regret being too young to not fully appreciate the hotness that was Erin Gray as Wilma Deering in the Buck Rogers show. Luckily I have the whole series on DVD now =)

[Vllad]

The problem with it being a cartoon is you can't tell what is what. Is that the Bionic women to the left of the Bionic Man?

Where is Blake 7? Logans Run? Survivors and quite frankly the Invisible man? Maybe he is there and we just can't see him?

Isn't Fantasy Island the most popular Sci Fi show of the 70's and I know I don't see Ricardo Montebon.

Vllad

[Grieve]

Vllad, I was going to bring up Blake's 7 myself, my all-time favourite sci-fi series (despite the not-existant budget and cheesy effects). Avon was a truly great character.

I agree there's a few things missing, but it's cool seeing some shows I probably having seen since I was a pre-teen in the 70s. Space 1999...Man from Atlantis...Bionic Man...Tom Baker's Dr Who...very nostalgic.

[Grieve]

Since I love lists, here's a good one of the top 100 sci fi shows of all time.

http://home.austarnet.com.au/petersykes/...ts_tv.html

My (sentimental) top 20 is...

40 40 Blake's 7 1978-1981 52 60 BBC
4 4 The X-Files 1993-2002 202 60 Fox
2 2 Battlestar Galactica (new) 2003-10 84 60 SciFi/Sky
8 9 Firefly 2002 15 60 Fox
71 72 Logan's Run 1977-1978 13 60 CBS
5 5 Star Trek (Original Series) 1966-1969 79 60 NBC
16 16 Doctor Who 1963-1989 694 30* BBC
33 33 V 1984-1985 24 60* NBC
18 18 Lost 2004-X 120+ 60 ABC
45 45 Buck Rogers in the 25th Century 1979-1981 33 60* NBC
95 98 Sapphire and Steel 1979-1982 34 30 ATV
42 43 Space 1999 1975-1977 48 60 ITV
93 95 The Day of the Triffids 1981 6 30 BBC
21 23 Red Dwarf 1988-1999 52 30 BBC
29 30 Battlestar Galactica (original) 1978-1980 34 60* ABC
34 34 Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy 1981 6 35 BBC
38 39 The Prisoner 1967-1968 17 60 ITV
87 89 The Incredible Hulk 1977-1982 79 60 CBS
58 59 The Six Million Dollar Man 1973-1978 100 60* ABC
100 100 The Bionic Woman

[Breand]

The guy to the right of Steve Rogers is from Logan's Run....

[Vllad]

Since I love lists, here's a good one of the top 100 sci fi shows of all time.

http://home.austarnet.com.au/petersykes/...ts_tv.html

My (sentimental) top 20 is...

40 40 Blake's 7 1978-1981 52 60 BBC
4 4 The X-Files 1993-2002 202 60 Fox
2 2 Battlestar Galactica (new) 2003-10 84 60 SciFi/Sky
8 9 Firefly 2002 15 60 Fox
71 72 Logan's Run 1977-1978 13 60 CBS
5 5 Star Trek (Original Series) 1966-1969 79 60 NBC
16 16 Doctor Who 1963-1989 694 30* BBC
33 33 V 1984-1985 24 60* NBC
18 18 Lost 2004-X 120+ 60 ABC
45 45 Buck Rogers in the 25th Century 1979-1981 33 60* NBC
95 98 Sapphire and Steel 1979-1982 34 30 ATV
42 43 Space 1999 1975-1977 48 60 ITV
93 95 The Day of the Triffids 1981 6 30 BBC
21 23 Red Dwarf 1988-1999 52 30 BBC
29 30 Battlestar Galactica (original) 1978-1980 34 60* ABC
34 34 Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy 1981 6 35 BBC
38 39 The Prisoner 1967-1968 17 60 ITV
87 89 The Incredible Hulk 1977-1982 79 60 CBS
58 59 The Six Million Dollar Man 1973-1978 100 60* ABC
100 100 The Bionic Woman

That list is pretty comprehensive but Star Trek Next Gen number 1? Ouch. I thought it was the worst of all of the Star Trek series. Dry and boring.

Crying in paint number 2? Another ouch. Who the hell comes up with this stuff?

My list is better. My Top Ten of Sci Fi worst to first series would be:

10. Star Gate Atlantis
9. Star Trek Voyager
8. Angel
7. Firefly
6. Babylon 5
5. Millenium
4. Star Gate SG1
3. Star Trek DS9
2. Twilight Zone
1. X-Files



"Fringe" could turn out to be a top 10 show but like all of his shows JJ Abrams always finds a way to screw them up. They all start out great and end in a ball of flames. "Supernatural" could have been a great show but they keep it tuned to teenagers to much.

After looking at my list I noticed something for the first time.

I have two Chris Carter shows, two Josh Wedon shows, two Rick Berman shows, two Brad Wright Shows with a little Rod Serling and Michael Straczynski thrown in for spice.

I guess it is clear who I like.





Vllad

[Jakensama]

No love for farscape?

At least you have DS9 in its rightful place of the best of the Star Trek series and realize that the 70 kitsch shows all suck

[Zirak]

Ahh, Star Trek. My personal ranking just for the Star Trek Series would be

1) Original Series
2) DS9
3) Next Gen
4) Voyager
Eleventy Million) Enterprise

[Riz]

Actually, space 1999 wasn't too bad for the 70s set. Dr. Who with Mr Baker was just fantastic (and I'm a fan of the current and previous Dr).

I agree that Farscape should be on any list. It was great. Where is the Red Dwarf love though?

Then again, I still have a warm spot in my heart for Ice Pirates, so my taste is suspect.

[Vllad]

Ahh, Star Trek. My personal ranking just for the Star Trek Series would be

1) Original Series
2) DS9
3) Next Gen
4) Voyager
Eleventy Million) Enterprise

I think people are to harsh on Enterprise. If I were to rank Star Trek seasons the third season of Enterprise is the best single season of any Star Trek series ever. The entire season is one single episode and a pretty damn good one. Granted they followed it up with the worst season ever in Star Trek but...

Farscape;

Good show but not better then the others in my top ten. It would be in my top 20 though. I just thought SG Atlantis was better. I could see people picking that over Voyager because Voyager's first three seasons were questionable. I think Voyager corrected itself on the last 4 seasons after they got Ryan on the show.

It is certainly easier to judge series now that you can watch them in there entirety.


Vllad

[Jakensama]

Agree about Enterprise.. IMO for those of us too young for TOS nostalgia (other than the movies), TOS is clearly the worst.

[Grieve]

Actually, space 1999 wasn't too bad for the 70s set. Dr. Who with Mr Baker was just fantastic (and I'm a fan of the current and previous Dr).

I agree that Farscape should be on any list. It was great. Where is the Red Dwarf love though?

I loved early Red Dwarf, although later seasons (or series, as we call them in England) got kinda ropey.

Tom Baker was the best Doctor, bar none (although I haven't watched any of the last few). Plus he had Leela and K9, it doesn't get any better than that.

[Grieve]

Agree about Enterprise.. IMO for those of us too young for TOS nostalgia (other than the movies), TOS is clearly the worst.

Nope, I'm too young for TOS, and I think it's the best by a huge margin (granted I I've only seen about one episode each of Enterprise and DS9, and probably none of Voyager, although I saw most of TNG).

[Slamz]

Agree about Enterprise.. IMO for those of us too young for TOS nostalgia (other than the movies), TOS is clearly the worst.

Only if you are a child of the modern era, corrupted in sensibility and demanding million dollar Hollywood special effects before you can obtain any enjoyment out of a show.


For those of us with taste and refinement, TOS is a great show.


What I think made TOS a great show were the character interactions and the bold character types you just don't see today. Captain Picard was largely an intellectual pussy, with an ineffective first officer whose primary ability seemed to be growing a beard and posing. TNG did have some fantastic episodes with great plots but I always felt that underlying sense of "space soap opera" with it, which TOS never had.

Kirk-McCoy-Spock was a classic grouping of hero class sci-fi characters. Captain Kirk never cried and puked and painted the interior of the Enterprise. He would have slapped Admiral Adama upside the head and told him to get ahold of himself. He wasn't an over liberalized interpretation of what a military man should be; he was Captain Fucking Kirk. He was William Wallace in a spaceship with strong supporting characters.


I may concede that TOS was not the best Star Trek show ever, but I will make the claim that it had the best characters -- the best crew.

Part of why I never really got into Voyager was that I just couldn't stand the crew. I just didn't find the characters or their interactions to be that interesting to watch.

DS9 had some good characters and (eventually) a good plot on top of that, but when I think of "Star Trek" I still think of the Kirk-McCoy-Spock trio. I also liked the new movie, for that same reason. For all the annoying lense flares they did and silly sword fighting, they did manage to bring back the core concept that made TOS good, which was Kirk-McCoy-Spock.

[Breand]

I think based solely on storytelling, TOS will hold up over generations a lot better than the other incarnations. Just very solid scripts, many of them written by great sci-fi writers of the time.

Having said that I still love TNG the best, but probably for nostalgia over anything else. I literally went from being a kid to an adult during it's run and I hardly ever missed an episode. I do love the Picard character, and out of all those shows probably represented how a real Captain would handle himself.

Vllad, you still like X-Files the best after what they did to the mythos? I think maybe the first 5 seasons are awesome and then it turned into a "Cris Carter needs to milk as much money as possible out of his one success before he dissapears" series. The latest movie was dreadful. I really loved the series tho. I attended the first fan convention for it.

[Riz]

well shit, if we are going to talk about BSG (the remake) then let's just all end this argument and agree that Firefly was, bar none, the best Sci-Fi had to offer.

[Breand]

I dont think it's fair to compare Firefly to any other successful sci-fi series. Firefly was like a crack nugget, a quick blast of awesomeness that didnt get to expand beyond 8 epiodes (or was it 10?). Who knows where it would have gone...

[Grieve]

Vllad, you still like X-Files the best after what they did to the mythos? I think maybe the first 5 seasons are awesome and then it turned into a "Cris Carter needs to milk as much money as possible out of his one success before he dissapears" series. The latest movie was dreadful. I really loved the series tho. I attended the first fan convention for it.

TV shows are a bit like people after they die - it's better to remember them at their best rather than the way they went out. Most shows peak in the first or second season and then go downhill, but that doesn't mean you can't love them for what they were.

I loved the first few seasons of X-Files, but didn't even watch the last one. Twin Peaks, Blake's 7, Red Dwarf...all shows that sputtered out instead of going out on a high. Although it sucks at the time, I guess sometimes it can be a good thing when there;s only ever a single season (Firefly, Faulty Towers, etc).

Better to burn out than fade away...

[Grieve]

I dont think it's fair to compare Firefly to any other successful sci-fi series. Firefly was like a crack nugget, a quick blast of awesomeness that didnt get to expand beyond 8 epiodes (or was it 10?). Who knows where it would have gone...

14, but they were shown all out of order, and it was cancelled after the first 10 or 11 (the others were shown a few months later).

[Jakensama]

I don't give a shit about effects, I like plenty of old stuff. I mean, if I cared only about special effects I would think that TNG is the pinnacle of TV, I mean don't you remember the detail in the BP mistake that killed Tasha Yar?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4Sb9BHmaxU&feature=related[/youtube]



I won't get into the appeal of cowboy stereotypes vs actual human beings since we had this discussion ad nauseum, but I found the main failing of TOS the complete and utter lack of continuity. I find episodic TV fairly week and always inferior to shows that actually have plot arcs. Its why Firefly doesn't make it's way to the top of my list even though it was otherwise a great show.

Star Trek at it's best was doing Arcs, the third season of Enterprise or the Dominion war. Voyager did a bit too, but as Slamz said I utterly despised almost every character on that show other than Jeri Ryan's breasts.

TOS was novel for it's time but does not stand out other than a handful of it's episodes. It's biggest accomplishment was the time it was broadcast and the diversity of the crew. I would probably dislike TNG more than TOS but nostalgia kicked in for that as it was on constant syndication as I was a kid growing up.

Actually in theory I should like the Mccoy-Spock-Kirk matchup because it was entertaining in the new film, I think it just comes from the fact that I absolutely can't stand Shatner and his 'acting' drives me up the wall moreso than any of the other poorly acted characters in science fiction.

[Zirak]

I find episodic TV fairly week and always inferior to shows that actually have plot arcs. Its why Firefly doesn't make it's way to the top of my list even though it was otherwise a great show.

Firefly was not just episodic television. It contained not just a single underlying story arc but multiple underlying story arcs some of which were meant to span multiple seasons of the show and some of which resolved over the course of the first season. Firefly rocked.

So did Farscape.

[Jakensama]

True they did go back and forth with whats his name who tortured him and I am sure the plotline from the movie would have been tied into a longer arc as well.. Gotta love it when these shows are cancelled but we are on American Idol year what now?

[Diggles]

I dont see how you can say ST TOS had interesting characters. They were campy as shit and it sure aint timeless. The only interesting character parts of TOS was the interaction/hate between Bones & Spock. TNG's Data and Worf are far better characters than anything in TOS.