Friday, September 17, 2010

DESTINATION SPACE / Paramount TV - 1959

Tonight we have a sci-fi TV pilot that failed to score a series. Although fairly ambitious in scope, it was just plain old boring. Plus, it relied heavily on stock footage from another movie from 1955 for it's space scenes and hardware!

The space music was composed by Van Cleave. Although Van worked mainly for TV, he also composed music for these movies: WHITE CHRISTMAS, CONQUEST OF SPACE, THE SPACE CHILDREN, THE COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK, ROBINSON CRUSOE ON MARS and William Castle's PROJECT X!

Rightee-O then, here's that lil' 4-eyed hunchback freak Dungeon pet, Ralphie The Tarantula, to push that big red 'GO' button wonst again to start the show!! Here's tonight's Eariffic Earclip to... DESTINATION SPACE!

Rocket ship... spinning wheel, seeming nothingness, yadda yadda, 500 miles... BB...

If the scene looks familiar, that's because it's from George Pal's CONQUEST OF SPACE!

Hey look, it's the same guys working in front and in back of John Agar and Harry Townes!

They're talking to these bozos back on Earth. There's Cecil Kellaway on the left, you'll remember him as Prof. Thurgood Elson in THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS.

Holy crap, look at the size of that blip!.. And, it's coming right at us!!!

Whoa!! Dude's got three legs!.. No, but seriously, I bet he's really glad he wasn't a girl in a short skirt in that shot!

Dealer, put all my chips on... hiccup!.. 23 red...

Sadly, this role is completely wasted on John. Exactly 10 days later, INVISIBLE INVADERS was released. Check out the hair cut, exactly the same as Major Jay's!!

Aww, ratz!

It'd be funnier if they had put... 'BENEDICT'S BILLIONS BLASTED, BATTERED & BELTED BY BIG BURNING BOULDER'

What do you mean, there's a picture stuck to the top of my head?

Here, Benedict tries to pitch his 'awesome' new sci-fi TV pilot... DESTINATION SPACE!

The problem was that CBS wasn't sure if it would be a good idea to have a series about the US space program where everything was always blowing up!

So, for punishment, it's back to space for Benedict!

Son of a bitch!!.. I cannot for the life of me, figure out what the hell time it is!.. ARRRGGH!!!

Four nice stills from CONQUEST OF SPACE.

In the future, Mini-Men will have their own charging units and can even go potty in privacy!

Babbitt...

Oh... BABBIIIIITT!!

Hmmm, I'll just chip away the ice on the dilithium modulator box here, and we'll be on our merry way!.. Hey, I know, I'll tell 'em I had to fight off a monster!!

Dude, it's official, like, we're cancelled!..

Benedict gives the bad news to Edward Platt, Ed's probably best known for his role as 'Chief' in GET SMART.

Ghoulnight Everbloody!..

3 comments:

Prof. Grewbeard said...

"Invisible Invaders", now that's Invadainment!...

speaking of prime Agar, can't wait 'til you guys get around to "Journey To The Seventh Planet"!

Eegah!! and Tabonga! said...

Actually we did "Jouney To The 7th Planet" the first month we did this blog back in 2007, and it's one of many titles, like "Atomic Submarine" that we're going to have to bring back one of these days for a more extensive replay!

Prof. Grewbeard said...

7th, not Seventh! tripped up again!

Monster Music

Monster Music
AAARRGGHHH!!!! Ya'll Come On Back Now, Y'Hear??