Redd Foxx made sure that the executives for the show Sanford and Son allowed him to name his character so that he could honor the memory of his brother, Fred, who’d died before the show premiered.
Diamond’s n’ Dust is the “re”watching selection for this afternoon. Growing up I remember watching every episode of this series. I know sometimes it seems campy, but back in the day this was golden… and still is. To this day I still love Murdoch the most and the way he would antagonize B.A. and the others. This episode was the first one in season two of the series and aired on 9/20/1983. Yes there are other episodes that outshine this one, but it was a little bit of a step up in the filming and story ark from season one as they progressed to develop the series while still holding to some of the common series cores.
In this episode I love how they get B.A. on the airline flight as a medical patient on a gurney. The scene where the build up a armored coal cart reminds me of the scene from the first Ironman movie when Tony builds his first suit to escape in. This is also one of those few episodes where the infamous A-Team black and red van is not in the picture… kind of hard to take it down under with you.
The synopsis of this episode is… Retired Australia soldier Griffin, who devoted his old age to setting up a diamond mine in a crackpot Southern African state, was murdered before it became profitable. His daughter Toby hires the A-team to get it running and warns they’ll be attacked too by local tycoon Jonathan Fletcher’s henchmen and just about everybody has been bought by Fletcher, resulting in an effective embargo. Face and Murdock masquerade as officials to scam supplies. They are all terribly exposed carrying a cargo of explosives to the mine, even after overpowering a pair of goons
Odyssey was a Canadian series produced in 1992, part of the “huge burst” of scifi shows made that year along with X-Files and Babylon 5. Of all of them, it was the one that is the least remembered. In a sign of how rare scifi was in the greater culture, four scifi shows produced at one time was seen as a strange trend.
“When a young boy goes into a coma, he enters a world populated only by kids, while his friends and family continue on in the real world.”
First episode date: March 9, 1992 (Canada)
Final episode date: December 26, 1994
Original network: CBC Television
This Canadian gem of a find stars Ryan Reynolds and is a classic.
Coincidence?
Debuting on June 9, 1979 the TV Pilot for the series entitled “Starstruck” aired only once on CBS. A Sci-Fi comedy focusing on the McCallister family and the Hotel/Restaurant they run in space. The humor coming from the robotic staff as well as the clientele that the family come in contact with. The shows creators seem to have been inspired by the cantina scene from the original Star Wars.
This was considered to be a lost pilot but thankfully Chuck Cirino who happened to be an effects technician on the show saved his copy on a VHS tape and has uploaded it on his YouTube channel.
“Starstruck (Pilot; Comedy; CBS; June 9, 1979). Ben McCallister, a widower, and his children, Kate, Masrk and Rupert operate McCallisters Midway Inn, a hotel-restaurant-saloon on an orbiting space station ‘somewhere between Earth and Pluto.’ It is the 22nd century and the proposal was to relate the problems encountered by the family. Ezra and Abigail are Ben’s parents; Amber is the lounge singer; Delight is the waitress.”
Fun little fact about this lost pilot episode is that “B Flick” sci-fi and horror great Forrest A. Ackerman has a uncredited role as an Alien Astronaut in it.
For all it’s campyness, (yes I used that word) It is worth a watch for a look into the vision of some of the ideas that came out of the time when Star Wars was just becoming a big thing and starting to inspire new movies and television shows.
Watch the full episode here.
Rob's Desk WV 