I Said "LUNCH", Not "LAUNCH"

Last November saw the death of legendary kids TV producer Marty Krofft at age 86. Marty along with his brother Sid, were to praise (or blame) for some of the most outrageous, crazy, and subversive children’s television of the 1970s and 1980s. Before Pee Wee’s Playhouse and before SpongeBob SquarePants, there was H.R Pufnstuf, Land of The Lost, Electra Woman & Dyno Girl, The Lost Saucer (with Jim Nabors) D.C. Follies, and much more. The Krofft brothers were probably the only people in the 1980s who imagined that Richard Pryor could headline a Saturday morning kids show (Pryor’s Place) in the style of Sesame Street.

Unfortunately, the brothers were also, arguably, the only people who thought that a star-studded variety show could be produced starring none other than The Brady Bunch (1977’s ill-advised The Brady Bunch Hour.)

Of all the Krofft productions that graced TV screens in the 1970s, and which survived in 1990s reruns on The Family Channel and other networks, there is one show I consider my favorite even though I was born long after it aired, and the show only lasted 16 weeks on TV when it aired almost 50 years ago.

I have my childhood love for TV Land reruns of Gilligan’s Island and the joy of home video to thank for leading me to the joyful and crazy stew of Far Out Space Nuts, which landed on CBS Saturday Mornings in the summer of 1975.

The Gilligan’s Island connection comes from, of course, the show’s star, Bob Denver himself, in what was his last regular TV series. After breaking through with one hit series, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (as Shaggy-inspired Maynard G. Krebs), followed by sailing out on that infamous “three-hour tour” with the Skipper and the rest, Denver’s post-Gilligan follow-ups, The Good Guys (2 Seasons, 1968–1970), and the western Gilligan-rip-off Dusty’s Trail (only 26 weeks, 1973) were never able to catch on with audiences.

(Incidentally, all one needs to do is look up the story of Dusty’s Trail to see how shamefully the producers were determined to create a carbon copy of Gilligan’s Island, just trading western dirt roads for tropical islands.)

Apart from The Good Guys, which was an attempt to shift Denver into more of a straight-man role, separate from the bumbling yet lovable type that he had mastered with Gilligan, his other series attempts were blatantly Gilligan in all but name. Part of this could have been because, like his castaway co-stars, Denver began facing the pressures of typecasting as Gilligan’s Island quickly began a second, more vibrant, life in syndication reruns. Far Out Space Nuts, is just “Gilligan in Space”, just minus other castaways (or wagon train passengers, in the case of Dusty’s Trail.) Space Nuts does have a Skipper-type character in the form of Denver’s co-star, and the show’s co-creator, Chuck McCann.

The show's silly and dumb premise involves two NASA employees, gruff Barney (McCann) and comic book-loving Junior (Denver), tasked with stocking the food supplies on a Saturn-type rocket headed for an unknown space mission. As Barney finishes stocking the astronaut’s lunch supply and asks Junior to push the button to close the “LUNCH” storage, located next to the “LAUNCH” button…well, you can guess what happens.

BARNEY: "I said LUNCH, not LAUNCH!”

(Well, no one can say the plot is complicated.)

Blasted far off into deep space, each week’s episode saw Barney and Junior, flying in their capsule, modeled after the Apollo lunar module. They are joined on their adventures by a furry little alien named Honk who they found on one of the first planets they landed on. The episodes didn’t have much in the plot, even Barney and Junior’s main goal of returning to Earth is sometimes forgotten. The overall goal in most episodes is to have our heroes face some strange alien who wants to help or harm them.

And by “harm”, I mean real harm. One episode has the villain of the week planning to capture Barney and Junior and, upon capture, threatening to “molecularly nuclearize” our heroes, as well as "gyrodiscilibrate" them (not a word), and do various other things that cannot be described (only because they are too weird and hilarious to explain.)

If you’ve seen one episode of Gilligan’s Island, and if you’ve also managed to see one episode of Dusty’s Trail (which will help hammer home the repetition) you already know the dynamic between hulky McCann as blustery Barney and Denver’s Junior, which seems to be the perfect name for a “little buddy.” McCann and Denver’s chemistry is clear, and the cheap effects and settings of each week’s alien planet destination recall the legendary grade-Z director Ed Wood. I don’t mean Ed Wood in the sense of legendarily bad movies but in creating magic while working with massive budgets and special effects. The atmosphere is not far removed from a cheesy matinee puppet show for kids, with adults mixed among the puppets.

Apart from the “clip-show” final episode of FOSN, which almost anticipates the full-circle ending of Rescue from Gilligan’s Island three years later, every episode of the show followed the same template of strange planets, strange aliens, and our heroes one step further from getting back to Earth.

The strange thing about how obscure FOSN is these days is that, if the stories are true, this show had a crucial influence on one of the most iconic pieces of pop culture.

It was rumored that George Lucas used to visit the set of FOSN and ended up “borrowing” some of the show’s elements for Star Wars. The crazy aliens of Space Nuts certainly resemble the strange creatures of Lucas’ imagination. In one episode of FOSN, “Tower of Tagot”, Junior ends up in a laser-sword battle with that week’s antagonist. The swords, as well as the sound effects of each sword, probably played a part in influencing the iconic lightsabers.

Who knows how much more this short-lived show, destined to be forgotten, may have contributed to the multiverse that emerged from Star Wars.

For that and more, we owe Far Out Space Nuts a debt. It’s certainly one of many debts all lovers of quirky and subversive kids’ humor owe to Sid and Marty Krofft.

Also, you will find it impossible to get the show’s catchy theme song out of your head. I know that I haven’t since I was 12.

Sincerely: Random Access Moods