Jason of Star Command

I remember watching this Saturday morning kids show and being impressed with the special effects. Being a science fiction fan, any show about space, & stuff like, that I'd watch. This show had quite a large budget for being a Saturday morning "kids" show. I loved the asteroid that was "Star Command" and all the space ships. I was in my late 20's when this show aired, not really a kid, but I was when I watched. Wish I could find it again!!

Jason of Star Command is one of my favorite shows. As a young teenager, I had already enjoyed earlier related Filmation shows, Tarzan, and Space Academy both of which were great stuff. When Jason came out as part of the whole Tarzan and the Super 7 package, the whole 90 minutes worth of action just about blew me out of the water, and Jason was one of my favorite segments.

Jason was packed to the gills with great special effects produced on a shoestring budget. The whole production moved along at a brisk, sledgehammer pace, with solid stories, and reasonably good performances, in particular those of Charlie Dell (as Professor E.J. Parsafoot) and Sid Haig (Dragos), both of whom obviously had a great time filling their roles.

The whole thing was reminiscent of the old science fiction movie serials of the 40s, such as Undersea Kingdom and the Phantom Empire, as well as its contemporary serial like films Flesh Gordon and Starcrash.

The show (deservedly) earned its own half-hour time slot, but faded all to quickly, for my money.

Filmation did two other fine science fiction serials, both animated, in 1979, following Jason: Mighty Mouse: The Great Space Chase (as part of the New Adventures of Mighty Mouse, and later repackaged inaccurately for home video as Mighty Mouse's first "feature legnth movie") which was camped up to the hilt, and the beautifully animated (New Adventures of) Flash Gordon.

In the tradition of the old 1930's serials CBS hot on the heels of SPACE ACADEMY and ARK 2 and SHAZAM released this program which was similar to BUCK ROGERS and FLASH GORDON. The series featured special effects, daring do all on a tv budget. This show was different from BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and STAR WARS yet capitalized off the craze. The program was the last of a wave of live action shows for CBS that started with KOOKLA FRAN AND OLIE etc. The show ran in a half hour format and was constantly running re runs when fresh episodes were not available. A saturday moring staple for many years..escapist fun for kids. Don't call the JASON the "grey poupon guy" as a kid I liked him like many kids in the 1930's or 1970's reveared ADAM WEST or BUSTER CRABBE.

This show was a great kids show. Sure it maybe wasn't the most original serial type show, but look at how well the classic movie 'Star Wars' did by copying the standard serial action adventure theme. Buck Rogers in the 25th Century continued the concept and even used names like 'Twiki' for a robot, where JOSC had already used the name WIKKI as a flying mini robot gadget. Like most posts this show was a fun show, Dragos was one of the greatest bad guys in any kids show.

I love cartoons. There, I admit it. Except for one thing. JOSC wasn't a cartoon. It was a spinoff of SA. According to the opening voice

over, Jason, last name unknown, worked out of a secret section of Space Academy. His superiors were Professor E.J. Parsafoot, and Space Academy's last two commanders. His enemy was

Dragos, a brutal dictator, who was the emperor of some unnamed empire. Jason of Star Command aired two years after Star Wars and was in the same vein. It was set some time in the far, distant future, when, exactly, we don't know. Watch both this, and Space Academy, they both do justice to each other.