BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY

   1. US COMIC strip conceived by John Flint Dille for the National Newspaper Syndicate Inc., written by Philip Francis NOWLAN, based on his novel Armageddon 2419 AD (1928-29 AMZ: fixup 1962). BR appeared first in 1929 in daily newspapers, illustrated by Dick CALKINS, and in March 1930 the Sunday version began, signed by Calkins although the actual illustrator was Russell Keaton (to 1933) and then Rick Yager (who also took over the daily strip in 1951). Calkins - whose illustration was embarrassingly inferior to that of his colleagues - was removed from the strip in 1947; Murphy Anderson drew the daily strip 1947-9, followed by Leonard Dworkins 1949-59, Yager 1951-8, and George Tuska, who took over both strips in 1958 when Yager resigned. After Nowlan's death in 1940 various writers worked on continuity, including Calkins, Bob Barton and Yager, with contributions after 1958 by Fritz LEIBER and Judith MERRIL. The Sunday strip ended in June 1965, the daily in June 1967.BR was the first US sf comic strip with a moderately adult and sophisticated storyline, though both dialogue and artwork were crude and naive by comparison with such imitators as BRICK BRADFORD and FLASH GORDON. Nonetheless, it remained extremely popular for many years. Its scenario is archetypal SPACE OPERA. Buck, a lieutenant in the USAF, is inadvertently transported 500 years into the future, where he finds the USA overrun by hordes of "Red Mongols". Accompanied by his perennial girl-friend, Wilma Deering, Buck is constantly engaged in battle, on land and sea and in space, with his mortal enemy Killer Kane. (The Sunday version, which was much better drawn, also featured Wilma's younger brother Buddy and Princess Alura of Mars.) All the standard accoutrements of space opera are used: ANTIGRAVITY belts, DEATH RAYS, DISINTEGRATORS, domed cities and space rockets. The strip became more sophisticated after 1958, with some real sf writers brought in to spice things up.Although BR contributed little to the artistic evolution of the comic strip, its storyline was very influential. It was successfully translated into other media: in addition to those discussed below, it appeared as a popular RADIO serial, beginning 1932, and as a Big Little Book (JUVENILE SERIES). Some of Buck Rogers's adventures have been reissued in book form, including The Collected Works of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1969; rev 1977) ed Robert C. Dille, which is in fact only a selection.

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   2. Serial film (1939), titled simply Buck Rogers. Universal. Dir Ford Beebe, Saul A Goodkind, starring Larry ("Buster") Crabbe, Constance Moore, C. Montague Shaw, Jack Moran, Anthony Warde. Screenplay Norman S. Hall, Ray Trampe, based on the comic strip. 12 episodes. B/w.

   After their success with FLASH GORDON, also played by Crabbe, in two serials (1936 and 1938), Universal cast him as Buck Rogers, the other famous SPACE-OPERA hero of the newspaper comic strips. This serial, not as lavish or baroque as the first Flash Gordon serial, concerns Buck's waking after a 500-year sleep (in the Arctic) to discover that the Zuggs from Saturn have invaded Earth aided by the villainous Killer Kane (Warde). He teams up with Wilma (Moore) and Dr Huer (Shaw). The remaining episodes deal with their travels to Saturn to face the Zuggs on their home ground, and their efforts to avoid the usual hazards of crashing spaceships, ray-guns, robots and mind-control devices. Edited episodes were later cobbled together as a feature film, Planet Outlaws (1953), re-edited as Destination Saturn (1965).

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   3. US tv serial (1950-51), titled simply Buck Rogers. ABC TV. Prod and dir Babette Henry, starring Ken Dibbs (replaced after several months by Robert Pastene) as Buck, Lou Prentis as Wilma, Harry Sothern as Dr Huer. Written by Gene Wyckoff, based on the comic strip. One season. 25 mins per episode. B/w.

   BR was one of the earliest of many space-opera juvenile tv serials in the early 1950s. Its style was that of the Saturday matinee cinema serials, but restrictions imposed by tv production necessitated its being shot live on a cramped interior set, with the result that the cinema serials seemed visually extravagant by comparison. Buck and his pals fight against evil and tyranny from a base hidden behind Niagara Falls.

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   4) US tv series (1979-81). Glen A. Larson/Universal/NBC. Developed for tv by Glen A. LARSON and Leslie Stevens. Prod Larson (season 1), John MANTLEY (season 2). Dirs included Daniel Haller, Sig Neufeld, Larry Stewart, Jack ARNOLD, Vincent McEveety. Writers included Alan BRENNERT, Anne Collins. Starring Gil Gerard as Buck, Erin Gray as Wilma, Tim O'Connor as Dr Huer, Felix Silla as Twiki, Thom Christopher as Hawk, Wilfred Hyde-White as Dr Goodfellow. Two seasons. 100min pilot, 1 100min episode, 33 50min episodes. Colour.

   In the year of his 50th anniversary a second Buck Rogers tv series began, the brainchild of Glen A. Larson, whose BATTLESTAR GALACTICA had aired the previous year. Buck is now a US astronaut who has been frozen in a space-probe for 500 years. After the success of Batman (1966-8), film and tv producers persisted for many years in believing, against all evidence, that sf and fantastic genre material did best when spoofed. BR was played rather too much for laughs, and the irritating STAR WARS-derived robot Twiki was no help. The stories were very weak and nobody much cared for Buck as a cocky, wise-cracking lout. The show improved in the second season, with better scripts and a new alien character called Hawk, but it was too late.

   5) Film (1979). Dir Daniel Haller, screenplay Glen A. Larson, Leslie Stevens. Other credits as for tv series above, plus Pamela Hensley. 89 mins. Colour.

   This is simply the pilot episode of the tv series, edited down and given theatrical release. It is not too bad in a frothy way. Buck returns to a post- HOLOCAUST Earth where a semi-military sanctuary, once Chicago, exists in the MUTANT-haunted wreckage of his old homeland. He is wooed by wicked princess Ardala (pretty dresses; Pamela Hensley) and by Wilma (white jumpsuit and lipgloss; Erin Gray), and is suspected of being a spy. Many conventions of the genre are parodied.

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   See also: AUSTRIA; CINEMA; GAMES AND TOYS.