What Was Really Cool Back Then

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There were a few times in a week when just about anyone knew where I could be found.

They all involved a 19″ television.

 

 

But the absolute coolest was FIREBALL XL5 !!!

 

 

XL5 was all we talked about on the playground. That was before I had to start the first grade.

I remember having a model of the XL5 spaceship which I prized as much as the little bendable model of the robot on the ship. I looked forward to the day that I could have a real robot just like that one.

All these SCIFI puppet shows were the creation of Jerry Anderson in England and syndicated here in the US. Very innovative for the time, they seemed more real than the adult shows on TV in the evening to me.

Then around the time I was in the 5th grade, the same guy who did all these puppet shows was able to move up to live action. But they still had that same exciting edge that FIREBALL XL5, Stingray and Thunderbirds had for me.

This new show was UFO – Set in the far future year of 1980 …

 

 

I always enjoyed the babes “swishing by” in the background all the time throughout the show. I just didn’t get the purple hair chicks on the moonbase. Maybe it was something in the food synthesizer?

Today we may have better special effects and larger screens. But the stories, settings, plots and dialogue were much more exciting back then. Actors knew “the craft” very well.

There is also a realism that even today’s computer rendered effects can’t duplicate.

This realism can be seen in this following montage of the television show UFO which is all done in miniature model sets. Set to the music of Joe Satriani:

Pretty good for 1970, huh?

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Category: Tony Rollo Blog