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? Adam Quark is the commander of United Galaxy Sanitation Patrol Cruiser which boldly travels around the galaxy with its crew of misfits . . . collecting trash. And from time to time they save humanity from imminent threats.
Aired: NBC, 1977-78, 1 Season Totaling 8 Episodes
Starring: Richard Benjamin, Tim Thomerson, Richard Kelton, Tricia Barnstable, Cyb Barnstable, Conrad Janis
Created By: Buck Henry
Is It Must Watch Sci Fi? No, but it’s a fun little sci fi romp, especially for lovers of genre television and movies from the 60’s and 70’s.
The Skinny: The pilot for this series aired in May of 1977–just a little over two weeks prior to the debut of Star Wars in the theaters–and offered a fun sci fi comedy that drew heavily on Star Trek as its source of parody. A year later, NBC decided to bring it back as a series when the networks scrambled to get sci fi entries on their schedules to capitalize on Star Wars-mania. The show was created by Buck Henry who had previously co-created the spy spoof Get Smart with Mel Brooks back in the 1960’s. Those familiar with the humor from that show will know what to expect from Quark, just blasted off into outer space.
The series had its moments, and could be spot-on with its parody at times. But it had as many misses as hits and Buck Henry did not appear to be closely involved with the show after the pilot phase. This one has also not stood the test of time very well and could likely fall flat with modern-day viewers. But it had promise and a great cast and could have developed into a decent series if given some time and if the characters were allowed to be more than just caricatures. It’s worth a look, especially for fans of sci fi from that era. Don’t expect to find a hidden gem, and give it some leeway for dated jokes, but there are some laughs to be found from this one.
Cancelled Too Soon? Yes. I can’t find any information for ratings from the pilot, but as mentioned above, I’m guessing the series was given the greenlight mostly as an attempt to ride on the wave of the Star Wars phenomena. When it made it to the schedule as a weekly series in Spring of 1978, it did not find much of an audience on Friday nights and was quickly cancelled after only seven episodes were produced past the the pilot.
Should It Be Rebooted? Not necessarily. This does not count as a classic and it never had much of a following to begin with, so there is little in the way of name recognition. But it did have a good premise to work from and current sfx technology could give them more to work with. I don’t see this getting a high priority in the reboot queue at this point, but a similar sort of sci fi spoof might be fun.
Interesting Facts: Richard Benjamin discovered that the show was in development with Buck Henry attached after reading an issue of Variety and requested an audition. He took a pay cut for the part because he wanted to work with Henry that much. Many of the sound effects used in the show were borrowed from Star Trek: The Original Series.
Where Can You Watch It? The entire series has been released on DVD, but that has since gone out of print and fetches a pretty high price from third-party sellers. It is not currently available for streaming on any of the major services, but you can find episodes on YouTube from time to time.
Read More About the Show: Wikipedia | IMDb.com
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