Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. - Gomer and the Little Men from Outer Space (1966)

   Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from September 25, 1964, to May 2, 1969. Spinning out of the The Andy Griffith Show, the series ran for five seasons, with a total of 150 half-hour episodes.  It stared Jim Nabors as the sweet-but-naive private Gomer Pyle and in this third season episode he stumbles across a movie film crew shooting an alien invasion and thinks it’s the real thing!

   Again, another one I know nothing about which makes it another obscure find for the blog. Enjoy the pictures.

Steve

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

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

Lost In Space - Propstore Auction 2022

Want to buy a second hand spacesuit?

Or any number of other items from the Lost In Space remake series. If so then head on over to the Propstore before the 16th of February 2022 

Lost in Space Auction (propstoreauction.com)

By way of a taste of whats on offer, here are some of the best images we will ever get of Will Robinson's spacesuit, courtesy of the above site.  Enjoy the skills of the costume designers and fabricators.

I've still got the final few episodes of series 3 left to watch so will be back round this way, looking at the show again, once that's done.

 

Steve

Another Life (2019)

An unknown object shaped like a large Möbius strip lands on Earth and grows a crystalline tower above it. Erik Wallace, a scientist employed by the United States Interstellar Command,  attempts to communicate with the alien structure.  Wallace's wife, astronaut Niko Breckenridge, and her crew embark on a high-risk mission to explore the genesis of an alien artifact.... and then dramatic stuff happens I imagine.

And that's about as much as I know.  The trailer looks good though.  I've watched it a couple of times and saved the series to the planner but I haven't actually pressed play yet because I'm still working through Lost In Space S3, to be followed by The Expanse. S6... if I don't get side tracked by other shows.  There's so much genre TV about now. Its hard to imagine I used to trawl the new weeks listings in The Radio Time and TV Times, looking for anything remotely sci-fi to watch and quite often coming back with nothing at all.  We live in bountiful times.

I'll maybe revisit with another post once I've watched it.

Steve

For All Mankind - season 2 (2021)

Season two of For All Mankind is every bit as brilliant a continuation of the ongoing alternative reality TV show where the space race just kept on going.

Here are some more lovely images of the spacesuits and tech as seen on the lunar landscape but there are also some wonderful human stories told throughout the 10 episodes as characters struggle to make it to the moon against all sorts of issues and prejudices.  Masterful storytelling.

Steve

For All Mankind - Season 1 (2019)

For All Mankind is an Apple TV original series that sets up the premise of an alternate reality from the point where the Soviet Union are the first to land a man on the Moon.  Rather than faltering at this unexpected setback,  NASA double down and the Space-race picks up a notch or two as the two superpowers compete for dominance.

Its a brilliantly written show and very well made.   Its also amazingly tense and when you think you have the measure of it, it will throw in a curve ball that will catch you off guard.  Its also very respectful of the true history of NASA and the very many real life people that feature in the progression of the story.  In a single word, it's: Quality.

If you are the kind of person that hangs about on blogs about Spacesuits, its probably very much your cup of tea. So h

ere are some images from the first season to get a quick feel for it  but I suspect I will be revisiting this show a number of times through the coming year.

Steve

...sitting here impatiently waiting for season 3.