Finally there’s a local cable TV station that is playing all of the old eighties primetime shows as well as other classics from previous decades. I gave up on TV Land a long time ago when I downgraded my cable package because they kept regurgitating what they showed on Nick At Nite.

Right now I’m watching an old episode of Buck Rogers. I love the special effects. When I watched BR as a kid I never realized how hokey they were.

Oddly enough this episode has guest star Tina Grey from the original Nightmare On Elm Street–the girl who gets dragged across the ceiling. She appears as a girl who does not know who she is and is wandering on an unknown planet.

You might also recognize the voice of Twiki because it was played by Mel Blanc, the master of cartoon voices who did nearly every Looney Tunes character created. I have to say Twiki has got to be the corniest robot ever put on screen besides the one from Disney’s The Black Hole–you know, the floating trash can.

I’m sure it’s easily recognized that the handful of space dramas that came out in the early eighties were inspired by the success of Star Wars and the growing cult following of Star Trek. Both Buck Rogers and Battlestar Galactica are good examples.

The character “Hawk” from Buck Rogers had to be an inspired knock off of Spock. Hawk is one of the last of a race of bird men. He looks half human and I guess he has feathers growing neatly out of his head, but no wings. His eyebrows are drawn at an upward angle, almost exactly how Spock’s are.

We’ve already seen that Battlestar Galactica has been reinterpreted with great success amongst sci-fi fans. I wonder if the same is possible with Buck Rogers? Kevin Sorbo would make a good replacement for pretty boy Gil Gerard. It could be rewritten with a little humor, a tribute to the previous series but with smarter dialogue and storylines.

Unfortunately, the recent crop of remakes of older series have been so serious that no one seems to want to take a chance on doing an intentionally humorous or lighthearted version of a sci-fi classic. The Flash Gordon TV remake could have been helped by someone noting that it should have been designed like a thirties comic strip instead of the straightforward ho-hum drama they laid out.

Buck Rogers is a good prospect for a mini-series if done right. Even now as I watch the ending to this episode, Buck is kicking butt with some karate kicks and judo moves. Kevin Sorbo would be perfect, he’s already been trained in the mixed martial arts that seemingly have no relationship to Greek mythology.

UPDATE: Before I finished this draft I checked to see if anyone might have news that a Buck Rogers remake would be considered. Yep. Check out the rumors here.

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