Dennis the Menace - Junior Astronaut (1963)

   Another one from an American sitcom.  These images are from Dennis the Menace which ran on CBS from October 4, 1959 to July 7, 1963 and stared Jay North as the titular star.

   This is another series I didn’t know anything about even though, from what I can gather, some episode did actually air in the UK – renamed Just Dennis - in the early to mid 60s.  A few years before my time!

   These images are from episode 15 of series 4 and the plot is as below:

   Mr. Wilson is named chairman of a saving-stamps campaign for the Junior Astronauts. As chairman, he arranges a contest at Dennis' school in which the student who collects the most stamps wins a trip to Cape Canaveral to meet an astronaut. Dennis and Johnny Brady are leading the contest, but then Dennis comes down with Chicken Pox and can't continue. But, Dennis does get a special message that makes him feel better. Guest appearance by Project Mercury spokesman "Shorty" Powers as himself.

   Which might leave you to correctly guess that Dennis the astronaut is all just a dream sequence from the start of the episode, but a nicely done one all the same.

Steve

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

Black Mirror: Beyond the Sea (2023)

   Beyond the Sea is the third episode of the sixth series of the anthology series Black Mirror. It was written by series creator Charlie Brooker. 

   A fascinating episode in what has been a great series.  I'm not going to tell you anything else about it because you should go watch all of them knowing nothing.

Steve

The Morecambe & Wise Show (1970)

Well I always knew there were more appearances of this space suit and helmet out there, I just wasn't expecting one of them to be in something as high profile as The Morecambe and Wise Show

This is from a sketch in the first episode of the BBC's run which aired on 1st of July 1970.

I've also found yet another appearance of this spacesuit and helmet which I'll be posting next and then I'm probably going to have to do an index of all the known  appearances, dates  and colour changes.

If you are new here and dont recognise them, these were the suits first used in Doppelgänger, a 1969 British science fiction film written by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson.  They then became even more prolific in the Anderson's TV series UFO, as well as being loaned out to make lots more appearances in other TV shows, adverts, book and record covers.

Steve

Harpers Bazaar (1965)

Paul McCartney and Jean Shrimpton in Harpers Bazaar April 1965
Photos by Richard Avedon Mercury suit by NASA

Doctor Who - The Ambassadors of Death (1970) Behind the scenes

Behind the scenes images from the 7 part 1970 Doctor Who story:The Ambassadors of Death. 

These seem to be the actors gathered in the makeup room prior to filming and of course features a reuse of the Moon Zero Two space helmets.  The suits I believe are original BBC made costumes for this show

Steve

Man on the Moon - A Daily Mail Special (1969)

Took myself on a little day trip to London today and stumbled across this down Brick Lane for a bargain £5.  And, given that we are very nearly the same age as each other, its actually in amazing condition!

This is a souvenirs magazine to celebrate the, as was then, impending moon landing.  I've only read a fraction of it so far but its fascinating to read about it before it had actually happened and also of note is the fact that it very nearly all paintings and drawing inside because obviously at this point there were no  photographs of the event.

Its also a bit of a double win for me because I'm a big fan of Neil Ardley from his children's futurology book series, World of Tomorrow.  If I haven't yet blogged the Out into Space edition  then I'll correct that as soon as is possible because that also has some very nice art inside

Steve