in memoriam
Argh. Just when you thought 2025 couldn't get any worse ...
Folks ... NBC's Buck Rogers In The 25th Century wasn't any groundbreaking Science Fiction and Fantasy series. What it was -- to be perfectly honest -- was that it was a fun television series. It was never smartly written (with a few exceptions, as often happens in entertainment programming); and I think it's likely safe to say that it never raised the bar on what could be accomplished with storytelling in the realms of the Fantastic. Hell, it even tried re-inventing itself from the transition from Season 1 to Season 2 -- though many of us who were there never quite understood why -- so it's safe to suggest that -- as broadcast fodder goes -- it didn't break any barriers in pop culture, certainly not in the way Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek did a decade or so earlier. It was just a meat-and-potatoes show. A little action. A little adventure. A bit of comedy. Some of those special effects to wow the kiddies. A good-looking lead. A great looking female counterpart. Voila! Make it so!
Still, when you have an actor as charismatic as was Gil Gerard who sold the sizzlel in and out over the course of one telefilm and thirty-one episodes, then at the very least you've got a solid cult property, of which I'm proud to say Buck Rogers became. Yes, its stories were largely forgettable; and, yes, much like the aforementioned Star Trek, the hours created a lot of buzz amongst the male viewers by casting some downright fetching co-stars with which to whip up some chemistry with the lead. But the truth is that Buck Rogers was -- for the most part -- about the best kind of escapism that television used to produce regularly back in the day. There were no big cultural messages even though the villains still learned their lessons; and, yet, a great time was had by all.
Sadly, none of us lives forever; and word reached the World Wide Web just this morning of actor Gil Gerard's passing from a rare type of cancer. I hate hate hate hate hate 2025 already, and now I've got only one more reason to hate hate hate hate hate it ever more.
Our warmest prayers are extended to the family, friends, and fans of Mr. Gerard.
May he rest in peace.
-- EZ
Folks ... NBC's Buck Rogers In The 25th Century wasn't any groundbreaking Science Fiction and Fantasy series. What it was -- to be perfectly honest -- was that it was a fun television series. It was never smartly written (with a few exceptions, as often happens in entertainment programming); and I think it's likely safe to say that it never raised the bar on what could be accomplished with storytelling in the realms of the Fantastic. Hell, it even tried re-inventing itself from the transition from Season 1 to Season 2 -- though many of us who were there never quite understood why -- so it's safe to suggest that -- as broadcast fodder goes -- it didn't break any barriers in pop culture, certainly not in the way Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek did a decade or so earlier. It was just a meat-and-potatoes show. A little action. A little adventure. A bit of comedy. Some of those special effects to wow the kiddies. A good-looking lead. A great looking female counterpart. Voila! Make it so!
Still, when you have an actor as charismatic as was Gil Gerard who sold the sizzlel in and out over the course of one telefilm and thirty-one episodes, then at the very least you've got a solid cult property, of which I'm proud to say Buck Rogers became. Yes, its stories were largely forgettable; and, yes, much like the aforementioned Star Trek, the hours created a lot of buzz amongst the male viewers by casting some downright fetching co-stars with which to whip up some chemistry with the lead. But the truth is that Buck Rogers was -- for the most part -- about the best kind of escapism that television used to produce regularly back in the day. There were no big cultural messages even though the villains still learned their lessons; and, yet, a great time was had by all.
Sadly, none of us lives forever; and word reached the World Wide Web just this morning of actor Gil Gerard's passing from a rare type of cancer. I hate hate hate hate hate 2025 already, and now I've got only one more reason to hate hate hate hate hate it ever more.
Our warmest prayers are extended to the family, friends, and fans of Mr. Gerard.
May he rest in peace.
-- EZ
RSS Feed