On the subject of Sci Fi comedies
3rd Rock From the Sun. 4 aliens trying to understand Earth. One of them is Joseph Gordon-Levitt, one of them is John Lithgow
Sometimes William Shatner is in it
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I didn’t see Space: Above and Beyond anywhere, and it deserves a mention. Another one of FOX’s cancelled too soon cadre, this was a pretty straightforward military action show that started to develop some amazing arcs regarding prejudice, PTSD, and the demands of war. The first few eps are rough, then the show runners (X-Files team of Glen Morgan and James Wong) figured out where the show’s strength lay and they were off to the races.
The “Angriest Angel” arc was some of the best sci-fi I’ve ever seen from a character standpoint (and features one of the strongest actors/characters in James Morrison’s McQueen). Utter shame we lost this show after one season.
Shuffle up the Wildcards…and deal.
(Side note: Absolute YES to The Prisoner and Brisco County Jr. Love ‘em both.)
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Can’t believe I’d never heard of “Other Space”! There are a handful of full episodes on YouTube if anybody else missed out. Joel’s character is pretty funny [Edit looks like they’re all on Vimeo]
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Here’s one for you: Steven Universe. It even has Joel doing a voice.
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Here are a few that I enjoyed that weren’t mentioned above.
Earth 2
Terra Nova
Earth 2 and Terra Nova both involve colonizing a “new” world.
But if that’s not your thing, the Original 1978 Battlestar Galactica was a good series. The newer Battlestar Galactica made me constantly depressed (so much angst)
I may even add Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979 version), but Season 2 sucked. If you watch, only watch Season 1.
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XFILES is something everyone should watch from beginning to the end of Mulders run in the show at least. It hits so close to home it is pretty eerie.
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I had only heard about this show but never encountered it. I will add it to my watch list, thank you!!
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Buck Rogers season one is brilliant and yes the show lost a lot of its appeal about half way through season 1 for me.
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This is an amazing post and I appreciate all the suggestions here. They are all added to my personal list.
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“ Commuting takes on a whole new meaning for San Francisco newspaper reporter Dan Vasser, who unexpectedly finds himself traveling through time to change people’s lives. That’s the good news. The bad news is he has to explain these sudden and unpredictable disappearances to his family (including his young son, who thinks his father’s disappearances are related to magic) and colleagues – and finding himself reunited on his journeys with a long-lost fiancee who was presumed dead cannot be good for his marriage. Or can it?”
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Also Warehouse 13, a little bit Sci fi, a little bit fantasy - hunting artifacts imbued with powers due to being used by or at historic events. The Librarians is similar too, although that is far more fantasy
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Two more that deserve mention, both of which eschew straight narrative and require quite a lot from the audience.
Wild Palms
Hot on the heels of Twin Peaks blowing apart what television narrative used to be, and capitalising on the rising interest in cyberpunk, this miniseries adapts a graphic novel into a complex sci-fi soap opera. It’s quite intense and has a cast from all over the board.
Aeon Flux
This is like the magazine Metal Hurlant come to life, with incredible art and unguessable storylines. There is nothing conventional in this series from beginning to end. If all you know of Aeon Flux is the live action movie, please go back and watch the animations.
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In the list of amazing cancelled FOX shows, you forgot to include Strange Luck, which had the best premise for a TV show ever, in that all the “coincidentally in the wrong place at the right time” plot convenience nonsense that drives most action series is actually a super power.
D. B. Sweeney played the lead as ‘Chance Harper’ who was essentially a “crap magnet” where every improbable thing that could possibly happen, always happened to him. If he walked into a convenience store, it would be robbed. If he got in an elevator, it would get stuck and he’d have to deliver a baby. If he went out in a boat on a lake in the middle of nowhere, miles away from any other living soul, at that exact moment, a guy would jump out of a hijacked plane D. B. Cooper style with 1,000,000 in a duffle bag and crash into the lake a few feet from his boat because his parachute failed.
It was clever and funny, and they were even building up to a crossover with The X-Files, (you might remember The X-Files did an episode a year or two later about an entirely different guy with similar powers) so of course Fox cancelled it after only half a season.
Most of the TV series I loved have eventually been released on DVD, but sadly, this is one of them that’s never been given a commercial release, so the only way to watch it is via poor quality off-air VHS captures uploaded to YouTube.
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Not strictly sci-fi but sci-fi adjacent, I have been watching Forever Knight. A 90s Canadian police procedural…but the cop is a vampire! With the help of his comic relief partner and the smart, sexy medical examiner who knows his secret. It’s free with ads on Tubi (they also have the Alien Nation series and a bunch of old shows like Xena).
Another old favorite that does not appear to be streaming anywhere is Friday the 13th: The Series. Two young cousins and their mentor try to get back cursed objects before anyone gets hurt by them (spoiler! Lots of people get hurt by them but it makes for fun adventures for the viewer).
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I loved F13 The Series! It was kind of like the Twilight Zone mixed with “The Monkey’s Paw” in every episode!
I didn’t include it on my list because it was syndicated and not Fox.
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It was a great list! I particularly liked Brimstone.
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Is audio fair game as well? If so, I have to lead off with:
Big Finish
Most famous for keeping Doctor Who adventures coming out in the interim between the original series and the relaunch, they have a lot of great sci-fi properties living extended lives - The Prisoner, Blake’s 7, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Space: 1999, and others. For a personal recommendation I suggest the Doctor Who spin-off Jago & Lightfoot (photo above), an unlikely pair of Victorian supernatural investigators.
Dark Adventure Radio Theatre
A product of the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society, these are full-cast adaptations of HPL classics and related works. Most come with a packet of prop documents and ephemera related to the story.
Nightfall
Originally airing in the early 1980s, this Canadian horror anthology broadcast is probably the best in the field still. The BBC radio website rebroadcasts some episodes, and you can find many on the web. The Porch Light and The Book Of Hell are two of the very best episodes.
Lights Out Everybody
Captained by the great radio playwright Arch Oboler, this was one of the most popular anthologies of the unusual in radio’s heyday. Happily can be found still in a number of formats and high-quality recordings.
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I seriously appreciate this I’m going to have to add this stuff to my research file.
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Lights Out is the bomb. They crossed genres like crazy and always had great voice talent and sound effects. I lucked out that Chicago had stations playing Old Time Radio when I was a kid and got turned onto all those great shows. The last remnant of that is a friend of MST3K: Steve Darnell hosting Those Were The Days every Saturday for 12 years
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And for classic Old Time Radio, the Internet Archive has many episodes of Dimension X and X Minus One.
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