by G. Jack Urso
Welcome to Man's most magnificent
achievement in the conquest of space, the man-made planetoid SPACE ACADEMY,
founded in the Star Year 3732. Here we have gathered young people from the
farthest reaches of all the known worlds. They have been chosen for their
unique abilities, and are being trained to cope with the mysterious, the
unknown, the unpredictable dangers lurking in the vast darkness of space! —
Opening Narration to Space Academy
Space Academy is a Saturday morning live-action sci-fi series that
aired on CBS in the Fall of 1977. Produced by Filmation with executive
producers Norm Prescott and Lou Scheimer, the show is a transitional series that
branches out between the pre- and post- Star
Wars era. As a children’s show, there were thrills, but no real violence.
Most scenarios involved threats to individuals or Space Academy itself that
were usually resolved through cooperation and understanding. The complete
series, including episode descriptions and links to individual episodes, is
available below on an Aeolus 13 Umbra YouTube channel.
The show presented different
genders and ethnicities, so the Space Academy students include young men and
women with ethnically diverse backgrounds including Asian, African, and
European. This was reflective of the era, but it also made good business sense
in that it gave a broad spectrum of the audience something to identify with on
the show.
The series featured Jonathan
Harris (the scene-stealing Dr. Zachery Smith on Lost in Space) as the three-century old Commander Gampu, and noted
child actors Pameyln Ferdin as Laura Gentry and Brian Tochi as Tee Gar. Both
Ferdin and Tochi both appeared in Star
Trek: The Original Series’ episode “And the Children Shall Lead,” and were
fairly familiar faces on TV in the 1960s and 1970s. Also of note, Ric Carrott,
who originated the role of Chuck Cunningham on Happy Days, plays Laura’s brother Chris. Eric Greene plays the
blue-haired alien child Loki, and of course there’s Peepo, the show’s resident
R2D2 clone. Other students include Paul (Ty Henderson) and Adrian (Maggie
Cooper). Some of the team members have special abilities: Chris and Laura have
psychic powers, Tee Gar has "near superhuman strength," Paul has a high IQ, and Loki can teleport.
Background
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Space Academy Tagline: Study hard, meet aliens, take tests, fly starships . . .
Class was never this much fun at YOUR school!
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Producer Lou Scheimer, in the
2007 documentary Back to School
with Space Academy included with the series’ DVD release,
reports that the idea for the show originated with Allen Ducovny, a former CBS
executive who worked with Filmation on its 1960s The New Adventures of Superman cartoon series and previously
produced the original Superman radio show (both featuring voice actor Bud
Collyer in the title role). Ducovny had wanted to do a Space Academy-themed
radio show centered around young people and proposed to Scheimer that Filmation
produce it for television. Pre-production on the series took place in the months prior to the release of Star Wars in May 1977,
while production of all fifteen episodes occurred over the course of eight
weeks during the summer of the same year.
The show originally aired on CBS in the Fall 1977 TV season at 10:30
a.m. Saturday mornings. Its competition included I am the Greatest: The
Adventures of Muhammad Ali on NBC and Scooby's
All-Star Laff-A-Lympics on ABC. Space
Academy was moved to the 12:30 p.m. slot mid-season, which proved to be a
bit problematic for the show since network affiliates could switch to local
programming at noon and our local CBS affiliate at the time, WAST (later WNYT) Channel 13,
often did. By mid-season, however, the show had burned off all the first-run episodes and
went into repeats. Still, it could not have been good for ratings. If it wasn’t
getting preempted by local programming, by noon most kids had been stuck in
front of the television for four to five straight hours and were getting
summarily kicked out of the house by frustrated parents.
Special Effects
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| The Space Academy asteroid. |
One aspect of the show that made
an immediate impression was the relative high quality of the special effects
given the limitations of technology of the era and the small budget. Scheimer
hired two of the model makers from the U.S.-based team that had been working on
Star Wars. While visiting their
studio, Scheimer saw R2D2 and C3PO, as well as various ship models, and one
wonders if this where he got the idea for the self-aware, smart-aleck,
half-meter tall robot named Peepo (originally Loki’s name).
The most impressive model was
that of the Space Academy asteroid — a colony in space densely populated by
various structures and domes that would be at home in any Star Trek or Space: 1999 episode.
The Seeker shuttlecraft, Space Academy’s small scout ship, shows the level of
detail the special effects team put into the models. In fact, on both the
exterior and interior, the vessel is an improvement on Star Trek: The Original Series’ Galileo 7 shuttle. The Seeker has a
layered design with access hatches, umbilical connections, and a richly
appointed interior whereas the Galileo 7 had few surface details and a rather
Spartan interior (the nose of the Seeker comes from the vehicle in Ark II, another Norm Prescott and Lou
Scheimer production from the Fall 1976 season).
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| The Seeker, left, and Ark II, right. |
It took ingenuity to compensate
for the penny-pinching budget Filmation provided. For example, rather than film
the models against a blue screen and superimpose a star field using chroma key,
they bought white Christmas tree lights, attached them to a background, and
spray-painted everything black. Then, by scratching away bits of paint off the
bulbs, they created the illusion of stars of different magnitude, sped up the
production process, and created an impressive effect. The effects, except for
the budget, are about on par with Battlestar
Galactica and Buck Rogers in the 25th
Century, two other notable 70s sci-fi series. Chuck Comisky, special effects
supervisor for Space Academy, went on
to work on several James Cameron
projects, including Avatar, Battle Beyond the Stars, and Ghosts of the Abyss, as well as other
productions such as The Crow and Jaws 3-D.
Conclusion
When Filmation folded in 1989,
rights to Space Academy went to
“Sleepy Kids,” a media company established in 1989 specializing in children’s
shows, later renamed Entertainment Rights. The DVD release of the Space Academy series was issued in 2007
by BCI Eclipse which licensed the series from Entertainment Rights. BCI Eclipse
went out of business in 2008, followed by Entertainment Rights in 2009. As a
result, the rights to the show are in something of a gray area right now.
Despite getting cancelled after
only one season, Space Academy was
popular enough to warrant a spin-off, Jason
of Star Command, which ran for two seasons and recycled the models, props,
and sets from its parent show. In content, design, and scripting, Space Academy is a quintessential 70s
sci-fi show. The series , and in particular the special effects, bridges the
gap between Star Trek and Star Wars and represents one of the most
notable achievements by Filmation.
Space Academy: The Complete Series
Descriptions
by G. Jack Urso. Click on the links to view the episodes on the Aeolus 13
Umbra YouTube channel!
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Space
Academy Cast (left to right): Top: Commander Gampu, Laura, Chris, and
Loki.
Bottom: Paul, Adrian, Tee Gar, and Peepo. |
Episode 1: "The Survivors of Zalon” |Original
Airdate: September 10, 1977
The Space Academy team encounters
an alien boy (Loki) on a planet due to explode. This episode echoes certain
plot points of Star Trek: The Original
series’ first episode “Charlie X” about a boy with unique powers left to lead
a lonely existence among intangible aliens.
Episode 2: "Castaways in Time and Space" |Original
Airdate: September 17, 1977
While on a mission in space,
Gampu and Laura get caught in a black hole. Chris attempts to mind-link with
Laura to effect a rescue.
Episode 3: "Hide and Seek" |Original
Airdate: September 24, 1977
When an asteroid heading for
Space Academy is destroyed, academy personnel disappear. Unlike the other
episodes in the series, rather than a cold opening, this episode begins with a
teaser before the title credits.
Episode 4: "Countdown" |Original Airdate: October 1, 1977
While cleaning up space debris
left over from the Vegan Wars, a mine attaches itself to Blue Team’s Seeker
shuttlecraft. When a Vegan warrior is revived from cryogenic stasis, he
continues the war with the Blue Team as his targets.
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| A Seeker on patrol! |
Episode 5: "There's No Place Like Home"|
Original Airdate: October 8, 1977
A shapeshifter who says he’s from
Loki’s planet tries to convince Loki to help him steal information from Space
Academy.
Episode 6: "The Rocks of Janus" |Original
Airdate: October 15, 1977
Blue Team investigates two comets
on course to collide with Space Academy and discovers they are living beings.
One comet is bent on destruction — can the other living comet help Blue Team
save Space Academy?
Episode 7: "Monkey Business" |Original Airdate: October 22, 1977
When the Alturos space mirror stops
rotating and sends the planet into a deep freeze, Chris, along with stowaways
Loki and a trained chimpanzee named Jake, investigate, but they soon end up in
trouble as well.
Episode 8: "The Phantom Planet" |Original
Airdate: October 29, 1977
A “phantom planet” appears around
Proteus IX-B, a former asteroid mining colony about to be destroyed, Blue Team
investigates by having Chris and Laura use their telepathic powers to conduct a
séance. They speak with a ghost and discover they need to conduct a risky
rescue.
A Seeker coming in for a landing to Space
Academy.
Episode 9: "Planet of Fire"| Original
Airdate: November 5, 1977
Tee Gar takes his new invention,
an instant freezing device called a “cryotron,” to test it on the planet
Delius. Unbeknownst to Tee Gar, the cryotron causes the items it freezes to
explode. When a Delian giant named Dramon gains possession of the cryotron and
freezes Peepo, Blue Team must ask fast to save the robot. Special guest star
Don Pedro Colley (THX-1138).
Episode 10: "Life Begins at 300"|
Original Airdate: November 12, 1977
During a Zollium-extraction
mission, Gampu makes a mistake that puts Paul in danger and shuts down Peepo. Is
it time for the 300 year old commander of Space Academy to retire? One cadet
thinks so, but it’s up to Gampu to save her when she gets in trouble.
Episode 11: "The Cheat"| Original
Airdate: November 19, 1977
Space Academy cadet Matt Prentis
is allowed to lead a mission to Asteroid BX-3 and shut down its leaking nuclear
reactor even though he is being investigated for breaking safety regulations.
Nevertheless, the team soon finds itself in danger under Prentis’ command.
Episode 12: "My Favorite Marcia"|
Original Airdate: November 26, 1977
A star about to go nova, a robot
war machine, and Gampu’s ex-girlfriend keep the action moving in this episode.
Guest stars Dena Dietrich (Mother Nature in the 1970s Chiffon margarine
commercials) and a redress of Robby the Robot from Forbidden Planet (1956).
A Seeker gets ready to launch. Stand by for Star
Speed!
Episode 13: "Space Hooky"| Original
Airdate: December 3, 1977
Loki skipping class and going on
a joyride with Peepo give two adolescent energy beings the opportunity to wreak
havoc at Space Academy.
Episode 14: "Star Legend"| Original
Airdate: December 10, 1977
In the Alderan Triangle (Space
Academy’s version of the Bermuda Triangle), Paul and Chris, members of Blue
Team, encounter the thousand year-old Starship Hope, which resembles the Space
Academy asteroid. When Gampu and others investigate, they find Starship Hope’s
commander, Captain Rampo, the Flying Dutchman of Outer Space. Guest star Howard
Morris (Ernest T. Bass on The Andy Griffith
Show). Written by Samuel A Peeples, who also wrote episodes for Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Animated Series.
Episode 15: "Johnny Sunseed" | Original
Airdate: December 17, 1977
Just as Gampu's eccentric,
technophobic “back-to-nature” brother Professor Johnny Sunseed arrives, an
outbreak of hallucinations and euphoria caused by genetically-modified “space
lettuce” spreads throughout Space Academy. The Sunseed character is set up to
return in a supporting role at the end of this episode, but the series was cancelled.
Special Feature: Back to School with Space Academy (2007)
A behind-the-scenes look at the 1970s Saturday morning
children's sci-fi series featuring interviews with cast and crew.
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Seekers using presser beams try to save Space Academy from certain disaster!
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