Sci Fi TV Obscurities: Salvage 1 (1979)

Sci Fi TV Obscurities: A look at sci fi and fantasy TV shows that made it to the air only briefly before getting cast to the television wasteland.

[Updated]

What Is It? Salvage and scrap expert Harry Broderick has a dream: to go to the Moon and salvage the equipment that NASA left behind after the Apollo missions. So he hires an astronaut and fuel expert and they build a space ship from spare parts to accomplish that dream. Afterwards, they travel around the world finding even more adventures as high-profile scrap dealers.

Aired: ABC, 1979-81, 2 Seasons Totaling 20 Episodes

Starring: Andy Griffith, Joel Higgins, Trish Stewart, Richard Jaeckel

Created By: Mike Lloyd Ross

Is It Must Watch Sci Fi? No, but it’s a fun little show that’s worth of look for those who enjoy retro-70’s sci fi TV.

The Skinny: This quirky show landed on the schedule midyear during the 1978-79 season, and actually got off to a good start with the pilot episode pulling in decent ratings. The basic premise of the series is rather ridiculous, but casting Andy Griffith in the lead role was a brilliant move because his down home charm helped viewers ignore some of the leaps in logic and gaps in the show’s science (though they did have Isaac Asimov onboard as science adviser). In fact, the main cast, which also included Joel Higgins and Trish Stewart, gelled quite well and their chemistry helped keep the momentum moving forward. It didn’t really seem like the basic premise could carry a weekly show, but they actually came up with some decent episodes and this one could be quite fun when it was hitting on all cylinders. Consider it sort of proto MacGyver with a team of experts who have a talent of making something from nothing.

Sadly, the show was a bit too quirky for ’70s Prime Time and disappeared shortly after its truncated second season began (more on that below). Interestingly, Salvage 1 was executive produced by Harve Bennett who had previously worked on The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, and The Invisible Man (another Sci Fi TV Obscurity) and who would go on to work on the Star Trek movies starting with The Wrath of Kahn. But his credentials were not enough to keep this one going and it quickly faded into the TV wasteland with few remembering that the series ever existed. But for those who want to seek it out, this show had its moments and it was definitely fun to see Andy Griffith enjoying himself in a role very different from his Mayberry years as well as his later Matlock stint.

Cancelled Too Soon? Yes. This show did okay in the ratings in its first season, and it received a second-season renewal, despite stiff competition from WKRP in Cincinnati and Little House on the Prairie in the same hour on Mondays. But the network apparently lost faith in the show before its second year debuted and cut the episode order short. The Season 2 premiere was shifted to Sundays at 7 PM EST and was then yanked from the schedule after that two-part episode wrapped up the next week, leaving the remaining four episodes unaired. Since then Salvage 1 has been mostly forgotten.

Should It Be Rebooted? Probably not. It was a pretty ridiculous idea to begin with and what made it rise above its limitations was the cast. If an equally good group of actors could be brought onboard, maybe a reboot would work. But since this show was so obscure (and Andy Griffith as the lead was its main highlight), it’s highly unlikely any network would have an interest in bringing it back.

Interesting Facts: Andy Griffith originally turned down the role because he thought this was a Saturday morning show. When he learned that it was a Prime Time series, he decided to take a chance with it.

The two-part episodes “Golden Orbit” and “Hard Water” were release as movies in late night on CBS in the late ’80s.  Those are the versions that are available on DVD.

Where Can You Watch It? The second season debut “Hard Water” and the first season two-part episode “Golden Orbit” have been released separately on DVD (though the latter is now out of print).  Those two have also been collected together on a budget DVD, but the complete series has never been fully released on physical media. An AI-enhanced and upscaled version of the complete series is currently available to stream or download on the Internet Archive.

Read More About the Show: Wikipedia | IMDb.com

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