Thursday 4 April 2013

1980: BUCK ROGERS DEBUTS IN LOOK-IN (ITV Publications)

Campy space fare BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25th CENTURY finally arrived on ITV a year after its debut on NBC.  And the broadcaster's in-house weekly comic LOOK-IN celebrated with this cover and pull-out centre spread.

Buck arrived almost the same time as (the even more delayed) BATTLESTAR GALACTICA although Buck was given a coveted network slot on Saturday evenings as powerhouse competition to DOCTOR WHO (the first time ITV had attempted a coherent scheduling strategy against the time traveller after years of leaving each regional company to counter-programme however they saw fit.  The impact on WHO's ratings were significant) whilst the rag-tag fleet were left to drift around the regions.

Universal's decision to release the pilot episode as a feature film meant ITV couldn't air it immediately, although they did run it later (the same rights problem struck again when the BBC acquired the series in the eighties).

The Buck Rogers comic strip debuted a few weeks later, and I covered the strip's history in the UK (running all the way to 1984) in this post. 







No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...