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THIS USED TO BE THE FUTURE: "Men Into Space" (1959)

Submitted by Republibot 3.0 on Wed, 02/10/2010 - 01:00

The purpose of this column is to show us cool crap that people thought the future would be like, which, alas, never happened. "Men Into Space" more than qualifies. While there had been SF shows on TV almost since its inception, and not all of them were bad, it was definitely a low-budget affair aimed at kids. "Men Into Space" was the first such show that attempted to make space interesting and entertaining for adults, and to be mildly educational as well.

Not surprisingly, it was a huge bomb. It lasted only one season, and it had a structure similar to UFO (1970) with a large revolving cast and only one central character who shows up in every episode. I've seen two episodes, and rather liked it. I'm trying to scare up a copy of the series to review it for Retrospeculative TV, but in the meantime, content yourself with this first episode, and yet another picture of what the not-too-distant future was expected to be like.


part 2

part 3

and, yes, that *IS* a young Angie Dickinson!

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Submitted by Republibot 3.0 on Sat, 02/13/2010 - 20:21.
#1
Republibot 3.0's picture
Member since:
27 December 2008
Last activity:
1 hour 46 min

I really need to re-string my guitar so I can set some music to that...

Submitted by Jake Was Here on Sat, 02/13/2010 - 18:14.
#2
Jake Was Here's picture
Member since:
24 July 2009
Last activity:
1 day 12 hours

First we’d walk upon the Moon,
Then we’d land on Mars,
The asteroids, the planets,
And finally the Stars.
That beautiful Tomorrow,
Waiting on today...
To screw in the mud at Woodstock
We threw it all away.

We preferred to gorge on slogans
And masturbate with angst;
Instead of firing rockets
We wound up shooting blanks;
We scorned the triumphs of science
And raised superstition high --
On our filthy altar at Woodstock
We sacrificed the sky.

What's the use of spaceflight
To end poverty or strife?
And what's the point of science
If it won't extend MY life?
We reject the claims of history,
With its tears and sweat and blood:
We think Mankind's finest hour
Was an orgy in the mud.

We abandoned our ambitions
For short-term pleasure schemes
And arrested our development
With counterfeited dreams;
We demanded dope and circuses,
Enough for you and me --
We screwed in the mud at Woodstock,
Then went home and watched TV.

-- HeadlessUnicornGuy and JakeWasHere

Submitted by Republibot 3.0 on Fri, 02/12/2010 - 09:22.
#3
Republibot 3.0's picture
Member since:
27 December 2008
Last activity:
1 hour 46 min

Yeah. Not my favorite generation by a longshot. What bugs me most about them is that they take credit for stuff they didn't actually do. "We put a man on the moon!"  No, Sparky, you didn't. Your *Parents* put a man on the moon with a little help from some ex-Nazis. All you did was get crabs at Woodstock.

Submitted by neorandomizer on Fri, 02/12/2010 - 01:13.
#4
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Member since:
27 June 2009
Last activity:
1 hour 59 min

The late 50’s and the early 60’s when we as Americans still dreamed big dreams. Then the baby boomers started to take over and they dreamed of endless sex and good times, the idea of self sacrifice for a better tomorrow never entered there heads unless it’s someone else doing the sacrificing. Now that they are coming to the end of there days they are bound and determined to make sure no one can dream big again so they can pretend they have an endless youth.

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