Action/Adventure Aficionados discussion

Are their any TV shows or movies that have fallen off of the popular Radar that you remember fondly but seem to have been erased like an Episode of Fringe with those freaky Bald Dudes running around?

What are some of the forgotten flicks and shows you remember fondly but nobody else seems to? Time to remember better times. If your trying to find a name for an old show, ask about it here, maybe somebody remembers it?

I seem to remember all sorts of shows that I liked, but got canceled before they caught on. I'll lead off with:

Dark Skies, The show ran on NBC. It was set in the sixties and had Jamie Ryan as a smokin' hot Assassin (her first major role after Star Trek the Next Generation...7 of 9). The show dealt with aliens that were trying to infiltrate and take over, with the super-secret Government Agency known as "Magestic." It was part Fringe, part Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Skies

I liked that show.

I think a lot have forgotten the "spy-fi" shows of the '60s. I loved the Man From U.N.C.L.E. (I think the only way to see it is to buy the DVDs) and I Spy, it's found its way back to TV recently, but there was also Danger Man which was Secret Agent in America. It was just in the midst of a sort of plot change when it was canceled.

The Avengers was good. There are some (black and white)episodes before Mrs. Peel that are more straight forward. There were others that died a death when the TV networks tried to add "Batman camp" to the action series. It's what killed The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and why the Girl From U.N.C.L.E. only made one season....that "camp crap" killed a lot of good programs. TV executives should not be allowed to decide what gets on TV. The cancel almost every good series that hits the screen.

I like the Man from U.N.C.L.E. Your right mike that one did drop off the radar and for that matter, who would remember Culp and Cosby in I Spy...that's right Bill Cosby. Avengers and Emma Peal, now there's an action icon (sigh). The Prisoner comes to mind "...Infor-mation!"

I'd also add to this list one of the early FOX shows, when X-files was still going with "monster of the week." Chuck Connors as a werewolf. His last role, I think. Hardcastle and McKormick for the crime story fans (Brian Keith and....uh..okay now I see what happened to it). Going back a little farther "Time Tunnel" was fun and "Lucas." Which I never really understood, but it had Stockard Channing in it... not that that's an advantage.

And of course Kolchak, the Night Stalker. Some people didn't like it, but the first made for TV Movie is actually very good (for a 70s era made for TV movie) and it was sort of a ground breaker for a lot of shows that people like now.

My wife was like the world's biggest fan of Kolchak. It went into syndication for a while (on the old SciFi channel??? don't recall) and she watched it religiously.

Another she loved was Dark Shadows...Johnny Deep is releasing a spoof of that in a movie. At the time it was a straight "horror soap opera" and EVERYBODY watched it. It did become unintentionally humorous because it was made so...inexpensively (didn't want to say cheaply). Walls would shake when doors were slammed in the "mansion", you'd see mikes hanging down into the shot that sort of thing.

I mentioned Danger Man/Secret Agent, the mentioned The Prisoner. It was "widely rumored" that the #6 character was supposed to be the same character as John Drake from Secret Agent but that Patrick McGoohan didn't own the rights to that character, so he became #6.

Yes, I remember Time Tunnel. Do you remember Land of the Giants? Terrible show LOL.

Do you remember a program called Tight Rope? Mike Connors played an undercover agent infiltrating organized crime. The show made a big deal or gimmick of him carrying a backup gun in the small of his back.

I don't remember tight rope, but I do remember Land of the Giants. I liked that show! Okay, I wasn't a sophisticated adult at the time but hey, the show was fine.

I have concerns about how the Johnny Dep Dark Shadows will work. It seems to rely on slapstick too much for me. I think its mocking the original not copying it.

How about Space 1999 with Martin Landau? The old one or two season comedy Quark with Richard Benjamin and the Wriggly's Double-mint twins. That was a funny show.

There was also one, and I need help with the name, that was sort of a play on the "Swiss Family Robinson" theme. It involved a ship (much like the SS Minnow) getting shipwrecked in the Bermuda Triangle. The island was a lot like the one on "Lost." There were invisible divisions of time and space between sections of the island and as the walked they passed from one setting which might have been medieval knights to another which could be space aliens and their lost colonies. That was cool.

They tried a remake that didn't make it out of the pilot on TV staring Kathy Ireland and Peter Cushing? (not sure about him.)

Yeah...I remember the Triangle series. Like you the name gets away. I'll try to track it down. Loved Space 1999 but I didn't get to see it often. We only got like 2 channels at the time and it was on the one we didn't get.

I know about Quark, but never saw it. I've seen things on it.

There was a British TV spy-fi series in, I think '68 and '69 called The Champions I've been looking at. I'd like to see it, but so far I'm not willing to buy the DVDs to do it, LOL.

I agree on the Depp Dark Shadows. It's going to tick off the fans I think. I said it was a spoof, you can tell from the trailers.

Sorry about the Land of the Giants comment. I only remember things like the characters hiding in tin cans and such. It probably was a good show for it's day. It was Irwin Allen wasn't it? He also had Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Lost in Space (Danger, Danger Will Robinson!!!)

Found it! The Fantastic Journey, wasn't that it?

Also I remember one about a family or maybe a couple that end up somewhere there's a totalitarian government that has wiped out all history before they took over. The people are trying to books or anything about what went before... Can't recall the title or how they got "there".

Yes, Fantastic Journey.

And I'm not sure about that one. There was one, where a modern family some how got whisked to the future or an alternate universe where there was a totalitarian government and they all had to try and hide and go to school without getting caught while the gestapo like PTB searched hi and low for them.

I'll mention "V" the first one, though it's not really that forgotten just overshadowed by the recent one that was better in some respect but some how seemed to have the best parts edited out of it.

Great idea for a thread. There are so many for me. I watched way too much tv growing up!

I watched too much re-run TV on cable growing up. I still remember Bat Masterson staring Hugh O'Brien.

There's something about that name I like. (Have gun will travel.)

That Famous Sci-Fi, Dystopian Movie is on "Logan's Run" staring Michael York with a cameo by Farah Fawcett is on TMC... which brings up another show that was fun, but...what happened to it?

Logan's Run.

Okay..here I go again, don't hit me. Bat Masterson stared Gene Barry (also stared in a program called Burk's Law. It was on the same night as The Man From U.N.C.L.E. so I remember it). Hugh O'Brien was Wyatt Earp. I'm a big fan of Have Gun will travel to, with Richard Boone.

Remember The Invaders with Roy Thinnes? Every week he'd try to expose that the Invaders were here and just barely get away.

Yeah... I'm starting to suck at names and faces. I'll take your word or it.

I remember a show about space invaders. It was written by a guy from Texas.

Sea Quest! That was a fun one, while it lasted. A little Dystopian near-future thing.

How about "West World" the Movie? followed up by "Future World." that was a pretty cool one.

I remember Sea Quest I think. That was the one with the talking dolphin right?

I don't know if they're still around but when I was a kid they ran the old (like 1930s old) movie serials as TV programs. I watched Buster Crab as Buck Rogers and as Flash Gordan (he played both). I don't know if kids today could enjoy them as you can imagine how the "special effects" would look to them, but we loved them.

There was a movie once where Robert Culp played an expert in the Occult tryin' to chase down a demon or something like that.

and they were re-runs, but I did get to see the Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon Movies with Buster Crab.

We can't forget Project Blue Book. (This had to be one of the inspirations for X-files.)

Mike (the Paladin) wrote: "I remember Sea Quest I think. That was the one with the talking dolphin right?

I don't know if they're still around but when I was a kid they ran the old (like 1930s old) movie serials as TV progr..."

Yes, Sea Quest was with the dolphin. Did that one have the genetically engineered humans or am I getting myself mixed up again?

I don't recall. I remember a few episodes but not a lot of plot development.

I remember the Culp TV movie. I think that was a pilot that no network picked up. Culp was an occult investigator.

How about the TV show Flipper. I was young but I do remember watching that show.

Yes, and wasn't there a show with Jeff Bridges as some aquatic based guy and his sons?

Flipper reminded me of that show because of the boat. Yes, I grew up on flipper too. That started they guy that played officer Kent from 1-Adam-12 right?

It was Lloyd Bridges (the father of Jeff and his brothers). It was in the '50s. It was Sea Hunt. He played a SCUBA diver.

YES, Mike your memory is like a steel trap. So is mine, but, mine's more like the steel trap that has been left out in the rain for too long.

There's always "Star Blazers" ....Japanese Anime... yes, I still remember most of the theme song.

When I really want to nerd out, I actually sing it.

You just reminded me of some programs that were popular when I was a kid. I only remember the name of one. It was Fireball XL-5. The characters were martinets. You could see the strings sometimes. They had adventures in space using a model space ship and so on. There was at least one other program like this.

And I've been told I have a mind like a steel trap before...almost impossible to get something out of and very hard to open. I'm not sure it was a compliment.

I can understand that. I'm at the point where something has to fall out before anything fits in.

....my problem more and more seems to be retrieving what I've stored there.

Yea. I know what you mean. Isn't there something poetic about the fact my mind and kindle have the same problem?

It's all those $.99 self published down loads.

Excuse me, I'm trying to place you, have we met? And I can't recall why I came in here just now????

And where did I put my glasses?

Worse than the 99 cent books are the freebies. I can resist anything but temptation.