| Premiered: Sep. 20, 1979 | Status: Ended April 16, 1981 |
Network
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Genre
– adventure
– sci-fi |
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century OVERVIEW
The character Buck Rogers was actually created in 1928 by Philip Francis Nowlan and was featured in the comics and a feature film. In 1979 a for TV movie was made but it was released in theaters as a test. It did remarkably well so the producers made it into a weekly series.
Buck Rogers is a 1980s astronaut who is accidental frozen and returned to Earth 500 years later in the year 2491. Earth has recovered from a devastating nuclear war and Rogers unique twentieth century skills are utilized by the Earth Defense Directorate. Teamed up with Col. Wilma Deering and Twiki a 25th century mini robot they fight off attacks by the Draconian Empire. They got their orders from Dr. Elias Huer and were aided by Dr. Theopolis or “Theo” who was a computer shaped liked a disk and carried around by Twiki. The chief antagonist was Princess Ardala who was the leader of the Draconians. She also had the hots for Rogers and was always trying to coerce him into marrying her.
In the second season the studio scrapped the whole evil Draconians thing and sent our fearless hero and troupe out in space to explore the cosmos. The character Hawk was added as the last survivor of a proud bird like race.
CAST
Capt. William “Buck” Rogers
played by Gil Gerard
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Col. Wilma Deering
played by Erin Gray
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Dr. Elias Huer
played by Tim O’Connor
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Princess Ardala
played by Pamela Hensley
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Dr. Goodfellow
played by Wilfrid Hyde-White
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Hawk
played by Thom Christopher
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Lt. Devlin
played by Paul Carr
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Twiki
played by Felix Silla
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Dr. Theopolis
played by Eric Server
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Admiral Asimov
played by Jay Garner
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Crichton
played by Jeff David
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Opening Narrative
The year is 1987, and NASA launches the last of America’s deep space probes. In a freak mishap, Ranger 3 and its pilot, Captain William “Buck” Rogers, are blown out of their trajectory into an orbit which freezes his life support systems, and returns Buck Rogers to Earth, 500 years later.
Theme Music
Composed by: Stu Phillips