VINTAGE

SCI-FI

FOR

KIDS

TheYesterdw People
Acruer,lv,
NTcKELoDEoN's
Th,e Tomoryo,tD

people is the stuff of yes-

terday. Although the channel calls the show the first science-fiction miniseries for kids, the idea of sci-fi aimed at kids is really a return to those futur.e days of yesteryear, when all TY sci-fi was for youngsters. In the rabbit-ears '50s, science fiction was all over the airwaves, usually benign adventures encouraging kids to learn science-CommanderBuzz Corey of Space Patt"ol always hacl time to give young Cadet Happy a lesson about light-years or weightlessness. Then, in the late l950s-ironically just as real-life manned space

travel became possible-the genre vanished. Now, though, videos of a few futuristic favorites can help nostalgic gl.ownups or curious kids travel back in sci-fi time. Space patrol (ABC, 19b0-bb) is

it

one of the few examples of the geme on home video;like most'50s kids'shows, r,l'as aired live, and few kinescopes exist. Even if more clicl, they might not

see the light of video: The stories are merely quaint, the costumes more carhop than star-hop, ancl kids today see better special effects in school hygiene films. Still, for fortysomething adults, the three volumes of Patrol on Rhino Home Video and the one on Video Yesteryear have such an innocent, eager appeal, you just want to hug them. Same with Video Yesteryear's one episode of Tom Corbett, Space Cadet (various networks, 1g50-19bb), in which a small-statured junior cadet, made fun of by his peers, turns out to be the only one who can rescue them. The same label has four volumes of Rocku Jottes, Space Ranger (syndicated, 1954),

which is less after-school special than

space opera: Spaceship commander Jones

worked under the auspices of the United Worlds, an organization devoted to protecting all civilized planets in the solar system. Still lost in space, however; are half a dozen more intergalactic adventures, including ftod Bt"owtt of tlrc Rocket Rcnryers (CBS, 1953-54), which starred Cliff Robertson (and was produced by William Dozie4

etJq,

later responsible for the

1960s Batm,an ser.ies), and

erq

Bztck Rogers (ABC, 1950-51) ancl Flash Gor"dott (synclicated, 1953-54), TV adaptations of radio and film serials that in 1979 ancl 1980 were re-reincarnated into yet, another TV show ancl movie r.espectively. Alas, these series have disappeared into a black hole, but hey, maybe those Tomot t"ozu People kids.can figure out how to bring television shows back from the dead too. Louece

-/

. I .iii

l-,

-Frank

DISTANT STARS: Rockf s Richard Grane, Sally Mansfield