Saturday Night Showcase: Space Academy

Filmation’s 3rd logo from 1975 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I was hoping to have the tabling interviews from ConnectiCon done. However, things didn’t work out due to stuff going on. (For once it was my Dad and not me. Luckily it was a minor issue and he’s fine now. The heat in the studio–a problem with attics in the summer–didn’t help much.) So I’m shooting for next week. So what to do this week?

In a previous SNS I looked at Jason Of Star Command, which I would link to but Hulu has lost most of their Filmation licenses. As of this writing you wouldn’t see anything but my writings. So I had to go to unofficial postings on YouTube (this will change if Hulu gets the official license back) to go to that show’s predecessor…Space Academy!

First airing in 1977, Space Academy focuses on a group of young people with different abilities who work together to solve problems. I don’t remember this show, so I don’t know if this first episode is typical, since none of them are shown being trained in anything but just another exploration team. However, Jonathan Harris, better known as Dr. Smith on Lost In Space, takes a command role here just as James Doohan later would for Jason Of Star Command, part of a unit stationed at the academy planetoid.

This is not Filmation’s first live-action sci-fi show. It was predated by Ark II, a show about a post-apocalyptic world where the heroes travel in a mobile laboratory trying to reclaim life or something. I haven’t seen that one either but I’ll try in the future. All three shows are (last I checked) available on DVD, and they might be worth checking out.