Julia - Swing Low, Sweet Charity (1971)

   Julia was an American TV sitcom that aired from September 17, 1968, to March 23, 1971. It starred actress and singer Diahann Carroll, and ran for 86 episodes on NBC.  These images are from series 3, episode 23 called “Swing Low, Sweet Charity” and feature the original Lost In Space spacesuits, complete and unaltered as best as I can tell.

   I have to confess that I knew nothing about this episode, or even this show until I was directed to it by long time blog fan Tim Armstrong. Although weirdly, the theme music is very familiar so whether it did air in the UK for a period remains to be discovered.  Either way it is a very cool, obscure find of the kind that we like here.

   And now I’ve posted this, I’ll see if I can keep the momentum going and post some more. It’s not like those spacesuits have gone away!

Steve

Airfix Astronauts (1971)

A classic set of 1:76 scale figures originally released in 1971 and still available to this day.  Its nice to see the box art remains almost the same.  As a kid I spent as long staring at that picture as I did painting and playing with the figures.

 

 I'll admit I'm tempted....

Steve

The Bob Hope Show (1971)

Bob Hope in the "Planet of the Shapes" skit from The Bob Hope Show Season 22, Episode  1, Aired September 1971

And of course that is the Way.. Way Out space suit


Steve

Brian Lewis - A Gallery

I blogged some of Brian Lewis' work back in December 2010 without even realising it.

This cover illustration was from 1976 and was artist unknown by me until this weekend when I stumbled across another piece of Brian Lewis' work; Googled the man and realised his talents had haunted my childhood with out my being aware.

This image is from deep within the pages of the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (Octopus Books 1978) a Christmas present from back then that I still treasure and look at to this day.

And then there's this little lot.....

1957

1951

1957

1958

1958

 

All a bit before my time but it shows how long Brian was at it and the very high standards he maintained throughout.

And then there was his on going Jet Ace Logan comic strip work.  Jet-Ace Logan was a space pilot with the RAF, 100 years in the future.

And other one off comic stuff like...

Space Tug was featured Countdown Comic somewhere around 1971.

 

We've barely scratched the surface of Brian's work but there's only so much of it I can show you on this site so go look the fellow up on the internet; Enjoy the art and feed the dreams.

Steve

All this and Christmas Too! (1971)

"Sid's daughter may be pregnant, but he is more interested in catching a pesky mouse. Things are further complicated by visits from an assortment of strange neighbours and relatives. A one-off festive situation comedy starring Sid James" 

This is an exciting find for me.  I grew up watching Sid James on TV and in the Carry On films. A comedy legend and here he is an a previously unknown one-off bit of Christmas nonsense and for reasons I'm not entirely sure of he's in a Doppelganger/UFO space suit.  Sid in a spacesuit at Christmas time is like Pigs in Blankets but for the eyes!  (not entirely sure that will translate outside of Blighty but suffice to say it's a very good thing)


Steve

Planet of the Apes - Unseen moments

One of my first great loves as a youngster was the Planet of the Apes movies, and the comics, and bubble-gum cards and the TV series and even the cartoon show.  Sci-fi and monkeys and across multimedia and at a time before we even called it that - What's not to like?

One of the great joys and fascinations of the Apes movies for me was the way that the five stories all circled round and joined back up with themselves.

And what I want to share in the this post is a little bit of that story arc with the inclusion of some stunning artwork that reveal a deleted scene or two.  I'll justify its inclusion in this blog simply by it being full of spacemen, a spacewomen and spaceapes but really its just about enjoying the artwork.

The Planet of the Apes (1968)

 

 

A crew of four reduced to three.

A ship crashed with barely time to mourn

Taking on water and beginning to sink

Evacuation, abandon the ship

The Icarus slides beneath the waters, lost forever or so it seems.

How could things get any worse.

 

Oh!  OK

 

Beneath The planet of the Apes (1970)

Oh no!  But as bad as this seems it can't end any worse than Taylor's day

 

No don't press that!

 

And here endeth the franchise, not with a whimper but with a great big bloody bang.  Everybody dies and the world blows up.  Not much chance of another sequel here, and yet....

 

At some point between the end of The Planet of the Apes and the end of Beneath the Planet of the Apes this must happen...

The illustration is by Erik Marcus Gist and is simply called: Ape Diver.  It's a truly provocative and stunning piece of work and you should go and check out it's creator online in order to appreciate and support his great talent.

 

There's a whole other film's worth of story in regard to the hows whys and wherefores of three chimps, finding, raising and fixing that ship.  Maybe they found and used parts from Brent's ship as well.  We'll most probably never know in any official cinematic and canonical way but  in the version I imagination this would be the closing shot..

 

 

This is the clean artwork used on the cover of Planet of the Apes #12 in the US and #50 of the UK weekly reprint back in October 1975.

 

The artist was Ken Barr and its the view from the commandeered, bailed-out and repaired ship as the future Earth is destroyed by the last spaceman standing.  Such a clever composition this and for me it must rank as one of my all time favourite comic covers.

 

All of which gets you to this iconic moment...

 

Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)

The end of the journey for our lost astronauts, finally returned home?

 Or simply the beginning of the end ?

 

 

I'm off to watch a DVD but can you guess which one.

 

Steve

The Andromeda Strain (1971)

The Andromeda Strain is the 1971 American science-fiction film based on the novel by Michael Crichton.

The film is about a team of scientists who investigate a deadly organism of extraterrestrial origin that causes rapid, fatal blood clotting.  It's also very good.

There's not any actual spacesuits in the movie, however these two hasmat suits are quite interesting and have every possibility of having cropping up elsewhere in the capacity of spacesuits

Of course it would be an oversight not to point out that the actor there is James Olson, he who has worn a spacesuit or two in the always popular with me; Moon Zero Two.

Steve

Bewitched - A Plague On Maurice And Samantha (1971)

From season 8 of the long running comedy show Bewitched comes this guest appearance of the Lost in Space spacesuit.

Here it is worn by Doctor Bombay, played by Bernard Fox.  Bombay was a warlock doctor by trade rather than a spaceman.

Lost In Space

Bewitched

I'm not quite sure where the helmet is from.  Anyone know?

Steve

Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) - Gallery

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just love that last 'behind the scenes' image.

 

Steve