UFO

[Ikarus]

You gotta love a show set in the future where there's a moonbase populated with women wearing purple wigs and miniskirts.

[Ikarus]

uFO was about as "high concept" as a show could get.

It was set in the near future, where the governments of the world have concluded that UFO's are spacecraft from another hostile planet.  To protect the world, an organization called SHADO is set up.  Hidden beneath a movie studio (how better to cover the strange goings on than setting up shop in a film studio).  They had various devisions, including a moon base.

[Ikarus]

Another off beat series, Automan

[Ikarus]

The was good, too. "Voyagers"



Jon Erik Hexum starred as Pheneas Bogg (the inspiration for Phineas Fogg).  Bogg was a "Voyager", one of a numer of people plucked from history by a group which policed the time stream.  Their time travel device was called an "Omni".  When the Omni light was red history was wrong, and the agent had to fix it.  Bogg (who was obviously a pirate from his outfit) was equiped with a book which contained the way history was supposed to go.

Unfortunately, Bogg knew little of actual history and was dependant on the book.  His Omni malfunctioned and he accidentally traveled too far into his future (Voyagers weren't allowed to go too far into the future), and he ended up accidentally taking a young boy named Jeffrey Jones with him.  Jeff's parents were killed in an accident and he was living with relatives..relatives who didn't want him with them and were looking for a way to get rid of the child.  Also unfortunately, Bogg left his history book behind.  The Omni was unable to take the boy back to his time (our present day).  And Bogg was reluctant to go to his superiors and tell them that he messed up and lost his book.  So the boy, who was an expert on history, traveled with Bogg and helped him on his missions.  Bogg became a father figure to Jeff.

As the series developed, eventually Bogg's superiors found out that he was taking a child with him and recalled him.  Boggs was put on trial for violating the Voyager's code and one of Bogg's fellow Voyagers was appointed to act as prosecutor.  The Prosecutor claimed that Bogg committed a serious error because Jeffrey had an "important role in the future".  It looked like Bogg was going to be found guilty, but he and Jeffrey were able to prove that the evidence against him (making serious mistakes and botching missions) were faked by the prosecutor.  It turned out that the prosecutor was actually using his own Omni to mess up history in order to change it to enpower himself. 

Bogg was aquitted and the evil Voyager escaped.  Bogg was asked to find him and bring him in.  But what about Jeff?  It turned out that the prosecutor did at least tell one truth.  Jeffrey did have an important part in history..the ruling council of the Voyagers checked and Jeffrey was destined to travel with Bogg and become one of the most important and successful Voyagers in his own stead.  His travels with Bogg were "training" for his future career.  Rather than returning Jeffrey to his own time he continued to travel with Bogg until the end of the series.

Unfortunately, Jon Erik Hexum died tragically while filming his second series, "Cover Up".  Playing an undercover spy, Hexum was fooling around with a gun loaded with blanks.  Pretending to play Russian Roulette, Hexum placed the prop gun up against his temple and pulled the trigger.  Hexum didn't realize that the blank still packed a powerful kick to it.  It shattered his skull and drove a piece of bone deep into his brain.  Hexum died about a week later, never recovering from the brain damage done to him.  His character in Cover Up was killed off camera, as the story explained that he went on a special mission and died while on it.  Actor Antony Hamilton replaced him.

[Ikarus]

The actor from this series should look familiar to some people

[Ikarus]

The star of "Stingray" never actually had a name for his character.  His character was a mystery man who helped people in trouble.  The series derived it's name from the Stingray car he drove

[blueyes]

One of those people looked like Father Patrick Mulcahy from mash...
Is that who you mean? No one else looked familiar.I don`t even remember that show.

[Ikarus]

One of those people looked like Father Patrick Mulcahy from mash...
Is that who you mean? No one else looked familiar.I don`t even remember that show.

Actually that was "Tales of the Gold Monkey".  The star was Stephen Collins.  Collins appeared in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" as Commander Will Decker.  He also starred for many years in Seventh Heaven.