ALL SCI-FI

[Pow]

Pamelyn Ferdin said in an interview that they would shoot a single episode in 3 days; 3 months to film the entire series.

Man, even for a show with a half-hour format, three days had to be a brutal shooting schedule.

[Pow]

Courtesy of STARLOG Magazine:

The mile-long heavy metal asteroid that houses the Space Academy was created for pragmatic reasons. It's dense enough to generate its own gravity, neatly eliminating the problem of weightlessness in space for the cadets.

Executive producer Norm Prescott said that this was Filmation's first high-budget SF TV series that was made to capture a daytime audience.

"Our budget was high to begin with, and we found it wasn't enough. CBS is paying us almost two times as much as a normal half-hour Saturday morning TV show. They wanted to do the best SF series we possibly could. At one point, CBS spoke to us about doing a two-hour movie for nighttime television of Space Academy." Norm Prescott.

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STARLOG Magazine:

The team for Space Academy is multi-racial, expressing our conviction that our future will offer unbiased cooperation among all people. Inspired by Star Trek: The Original Series.

Peepo is the "Manudroid" of Space Academy. It is the first robot perfected that essentially has human feelings. Designed by Dan Poznick. It is radio-controlled and has servo-mechanisms inside it and was operated by Roger Broggie, Dick Brown.

Normally, Saturday morning television shows have a grainy and cheap quality to them because they are shot on 16 millimeter film. Space Academy was shot on 35 millimeter film which costs 6-to-8 thousand dollars more per episode.

Space Academy has the largest running cast ever assembled for a Saturday morning drama. Up to 40 extras have been used in a single episode.

The idea for Space Academy was by Alan Ducovny.
The concept for the series was that young people at the academy trained to be astronauts, diplomats, and sociologists. They're not military, more like a Peace Corps of the future.

We're not trying to do the typical science fiction stories. It's so easy to have the bad guys coming in with their force rays, or do a monster-of-the-week. We don't want to do that.

We want to do something thought-provoking in terms of human relations. At the same time, we aren't aiming for the level of social messages we did on SHAZAM & ISIS.

Filmations Studio headquarters was located in Reseda, California. Space was at a premium for Space Academy and the stages were packed very tight.

[Bud Brewster]

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I've watched a few more episodes of Space Academy (largely because your fine posts have peaked my interest), and I continue to be impressed.

So far, I admire the way they balanced the need to be "kid friendly" with the need to keep the stories intelligent. And I can see how they avoided having "the bad guys coming in with their force rays, or do a monster-of-the-week".

Bravo!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

I agree, Bruce, SA ain't too shabby considering it's a 45 year old SF TV series! Certainly there are aspects to it in the production values departments that are now quite dated, but again, the darn thing is over four decades old. Some of the stuff wasn't all that hot even at that time, so that stuff has aged even worse.

I do admire the producers attempt to do a more thought provoking series and not fall victim to SF cliches.

Ironically, the sequel to SA was Jason of Star Command, which did exactly those cornball tropes we see too often in TV SF. They did monsters, they had a running villain who wanted to conquer the universe and chew scenery at the same time. Looks like the producers sold out on that score.

Jason still did manage to produce some splendid visual effects. They did some episodes with stop-motion animation in 'em that were most impressive looking. From the design of the alien creatures to the smooth looking animation, it remains awesome looking. If only the stories matched the visuals. We can say that about so many SF TV shows, can't we?

[Pow]

Pamelyn Ferdin who played Laura Gentry on SA will have her autobiography coming out in 2023.

I'd like to read it because she has amassed a lot of credits as an actress over her career. And of course, I'm curious as to what she'll have to say about her time on SA.

[Pow]

Starlog Magazine, issue # 10. Samuel Peeples who wrote Star Trek's excellent second pilot "Where No Man Has Gone Before," scripted five episodes for SA.

How faithful to science will the series remain? Well, not surprisingly, story and budget considerations come first.

To circumvent weightlessness problems, for instance, Space Academy was placed on a heavy asteroid. Instead of cumbersome and expensive space suits we've come to expect in science-fiction, a life-support force field envelopes the SA astronauts --- allowing them to wander around in poisonous atmospheres and vacuums without visible protection.

In other cases, cost has been considered practically no object. Stop-motion animation will be used for a number of alien forms. And miniature explosions abound.

[Bud Brewster]

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Here's all 15 fun-filled episodes of this imaginative series from YouTube. The picture quality is only fair, but it's watchable.

Enjoy, Space Cadets!_

Space Academy Episode 1 The Survivors of Zalon


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Space Academy Episode 2 Castaways in Time & Space


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Space Academy Episode 3 Hide and Seek


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Space Academy Episode 4 Countdown


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Space Academy Episode 5 There's No Place Like Home


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Space Academy Episode 6 The Rocks of Janus


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Space Academy Episode 7 Monkey Business


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Space Academy Episode 8 The Phantom Planet


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Space Academy Episode 9 Planet of Fire


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Space Academy Episode 10 Life Begins at 300


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Space Academy Episode 11 The Cheat


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Space Academy Episode 12 My Favorite Marcia


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Space Academy Episode 13 Space Hookey


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Space Academy Episode 14 Star Legend


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Space Academy Episode 15 Johnny Sunseed


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

DYK? Pamelyn Ferdin & Brian Tochi appeared years earlier together on Star Trek. "And the Children Shall Lead" October 11, 1968, was the episode and Pamelyn & Brian were child actors in it. It is viewed by many fans, me included, as the worst episode ever produced for the series. Worse than "Spock's Brain."

[Bud Brewster]

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For several years, I mistakenly thought that Pamelyn Ferdin was the actress who played Ursula, Ann Margaret's friend, in Bye Bye Birdie.

Ursula was actually played by Miss Trudi Ames, who eventually gave up acting and worked as a teacher for 20 years in Los Angles schools.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

TV Guide article on Space Academy.

They've Got A Whole World In Their Hands.

The celestial city isn't exactly Heaven, but for the woolgathering young space freaks it may come close enough.

It's the intergalactic setting for CBS's Space Academy, a new half-hour science-fiction adventure on Saturday mornings.

Floating somewhere out there among the black holes and white dwarfs, the Space Academy --- which trains intrepid young cadets for missions in space --- has set up on a small asteroid.

Small is right: the "stars" are Christmas tree lights and the futuristic city is a four-foot long plastic model.

Executive producers Norm Prescott and Lou Scheimer claim that the program's special effects are indeed stellar. That's fitting for a show with an astronomical budget --- at some $150,000 per episode, it's said to be the highest in Saturday morning history.

[Pow]

Pamelyn Ferdin's autobiography being published by Bear Manor Media did not end up being released in 2023 as was announced.

I emailed BMM about it and the response was I'll be notified when her book is published. No answers as to what has caused the delay.

[Bud Brewster]

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I remember watching a few episodes of this enjoyable series back when it ran.

When you consider the work that had to be done to produces a show like this back in the age when science fiction in general was not held in high regard, I think they did a fine job.

And the "kid friendly" premise was handled beautifully.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)