New StumbleUpon link: 1970s KidVid

[thatcrazycajun]

Anybody remember Jason of Star Command (or its progenitor, Space Academy)? How about Ark II? The Krofft SuperShow? The Shazam/Isis Hour? Now you can relive your childhood memories of parking yourself in front of the TV on Saturday mornings with a bowl of your favorite overly-sugared cereal in milk (part of that nutritious, balanced breakfast!) and gleefully wasting half your weekend. (Interestingly enough, DC Comics has revived Isis as a current comic-book character, this time as the alter-ego of a mideastern Muslim woman who falls in love with Captain Marvel's nemesis, Black Adam; see 52thecomic.com for more.)
Ye gods and little fishes, but we watched some hideously bad TV back then...

Comments

[gorgeousgary]

I have the vaguest of memories of Jason of Star Command and Star Academy. Unfortunately, my memories of The Krofft SuperShow are much too distinct...

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

I remember SA/JOSC mainly because of the two favorite stars of mine they featured, Jonathan "Dr. Smith" Harris and James "Scotty" Doohan (and for the crush I had on a young ingenue named Pamelyn Ferdin who appeared on one show). And the bastardized version of SHAZAM! that CBS aired as a live-action show is best forgotten.

[darrenzieger.livejournal.com]

I remember Ark II pretty vividly. I've always gone for a good post-apocalyptic story. Another fave was Land of the Lost - which might be interesting to see again, in retrospect - there were some real science fiction writers working on that show. In fact I think that David Gerrold was story editor.

On the whole, though, it was a pretty pathetic pantheon of pre-teen programs presented to us by those purveyors of pablum.

Incidentally, Pamelyn Ferdin (who was indeed a cute kid, and a very prolific child actor) has an official Web site (http://www.pamelynferdin.com/) which lists her credits and has a good selection of photos. She's not in the biz anymore (though she was doing voiceover work as recently as 1999); she became a registered nurse, married a doctor, and now concentrates on animal activism.

Ah, I fucking love the Web. It's so easy to research topics you never had an interest in until the previous moment, and will cease to have an interest in the moment after you finish, and still feel a sense of SMOF-like satisfaction at having tracked down the information anyway.