Science Fiction

[buster]

[I'm writing today out of a sense of duty because everyone else has apparently lost the ability to use a keyboard.]

The Way Home also touches on the paradoxical idea that someone could go back in time to prevent an event and find that their intervention is the actual cause of the event.

Unfortunately Marilyn and I have only the final episode left. Should see that Monday evening.

[ssfc72]

Thanks Buster for the recommendation about the series, The Way Home.

[Jason]

[I'm writing today out of a sense of duty because everyone else has apparently lost the ability to use a keyboard.]

Oh, I see how it is! Chopped liver, am I?

I thought you'd find the tidbit about Buster Crabbe interesting. Apparently, it wasn't just a cameo either.

[buster]

"Oh, I see how it is! Chopped liver, am I? "

I sometimes don't acknowledge some posts. That's mostly because I'm bone lazy. Sorry. And I'm old so can't really be blamed for anything anymore. That would be senior something or other.

Did find this. Buster Crabbe in a 1930 movie, Tarzan the Fearless. Would suggest you might skim through a bit of the movie that was made almost a century ago. And this was right at the beginning of the Great Depression.

When I was eight, we got a TV, and they needed to fill time. I got to see this movie. Seemed really good at the time. Our whole family watched together.

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=buster+crabbe+tarzan+the+fearless#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:16d68caa,vid:XyPjIiJyGfs

[buster]

Disclaimer: Although Buster Crabbe and I share the same name, we are not related.

[buster]

I'm also not related to Buster Keaton.

[Jason]

What about "Listen Buster"? He was a nice guy, a little brash, though.

I don't know if you saw that I mentioned Buster Crabbe becoming a semi-regular on the "new" Buck Rogers (from the late 70s). I thought it might pique your interest to check it out. But honestly, I find that many of the shows I loved back then I probably only loved because I was a kid. The real wonder is that adults watched it, too, and not just because of their kids. Such were many of the shows in the 80s and 90s, I suppose. Once we started getting dozens of channels instead of the 10-12 we had, people realized just how bad they were. It's kind of like how you don't know how bad a McDonald's hamburger is until you've had one on the BBQ made from fresh ingredients.

[buster]

" Once we started getting dozens of channels instead of the 10-12 we had, people realized just how bad they were. "

They weren't necessarily bad so much as the genres weren't well developed and practised as much. One of the problems today is that with all the knowledge and skills of today, so much really bad stuff can be produced. Most of it in fact.

[Jason]

I suppose that's true. But I think it's also because when you're a kid, sci-fi was wondrous, bad or good, but I suppose that might lend to your theory of the genre not being well developed. However, there was quite a bit more sci-fi than most people think. Star Wars: A New Hope, Star Trek the Motion Picture, Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers all came out in the late 70s to early 80s.

Star Wars isn't really sci-fi though. George Lucas drew on a lot of myths and concepts having nothing to do with sci-fi and was inspired by movies he liked as a child. For example, the starfighter dogfights that took place used movements drawn almost directly from movies about WWI dogfights. You can put them side-by-side and the only change is the replacement of the actual craft. I know you'll probably tell me that it's quite common but I don't believe it was in 1977.

But I digress. There were a lot of lame shows that we watched because we were limited in choice and networks didn't have to compete as much. There are still lots of lame shows but at least better thought-out levels of lameness. Of course, there's still reality tv, which has no comparison to anything back then, other than celebrity news.

As far as Buck Rogers goes, I guess it doesn't matter if I piqued your interest as I can't find any full episodes online, just snippets. I hadn't realized until I did some searches that there was a movie before the TV series. The show was cancelled after only 1 or 2 seasons, unfortunately. Strangely, when it first ran it was tied with Laverne & Sherley and Benson, the most popular other shows (so the Buck Rogers star says), but then after the first few episodes, they decided to stop the series to upgrade special effects and lost their audience because they figured the series was already cancelled.

[buster]

  " there's still reality TV"

Which is not real. An odd use of the word isn't it? And apparently it's one of the cheapest formats to produce, which makes it very popular for the networks.

I know they are very popular. But this is totally beyond my ken. Just another thing to add to the long list of things I can't comprehend.