“UFO” In Print
I’m not sure if it ever made it across the Atlantic to the USA, but at the turn of the 1970s, there existed on British TV a show called UFO.
Basically, it was a sci-fi series based around the bad guys (hostile aliens, who else?) invading the Earth and the attempts by the good guys (us, of course!) to defeat them.
I was probably 4 or 5 when the series first aired and, frankly, I don’t remember it the first time around; however, I do recall seeing it repeated a few years later, in the late 1970s.
It was okay; the special-effects were pretty good for the time; and the girls in the show all had shiny purple hair (in bangs), pouted a lot, and wore hot-looking, silver ”space babe” suits of a type that would have made any Contactee of the ’50s both proud and pleased. And for an 11 year old Nick Redfern, purple-haired space babes who looked like they had just stepped off the set of Barbarella were required viewing (they still are).
Well, a couple of days ago a friend loaned me a copy of a book devoted to the series. And I have to say that for someone who had pretty much relegated the show to the remotest corner of my mind, it brought back some fun memories of having watched the series as a kid.
If you remember it - or want to learn more about UFO and the dastardly alien mission on Earth; albeit in a fictional fashion - check out this link where you can buy the book in question.
Oh, yes, I almost forgot: in one of the episodes an autopsy is undertaken on one of the aliens by the secret government group that is tasked with defeating them. At one point during the autopsy, the medical team removes a “contact lens” from the alien’s eye that eerily parallels the similar scene in the infamous Alien Autopsy film that Ray Santilli thrust upon an unsuspecting world in the mid-1990s. Hmmm….
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Feb 06 2008 
February 6th, 2008 at 6:47 am
If that’s the same series called UFO, with a character called Straker in it, then it’s being shown on Freeview Digital TV here in the UK. It’s listed on ITV4 at 7:00 pm on a Sunday night. Unfortunately I remember it from the first time around
February 6th, 2008 at 10:53 am
So you’re planning to give the wife a Purple wig for Valentine’s this year, eh Nick?
February 6th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
UFO did air in the States in the early 70s. I recall that it was on one of the local indie LA stations or the PBS affiliate KCET. It wasn’t a show I easily forgot (for obvious reasons).
I loved the idea that SHADO (the secret org) had disguised itself as a movie production studio.
February 6th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
UFO was a lot of fun.It did run in the states, Nick. I remember the excitement
I felt seeing the notice in the newspaper when I was twelve. Smiles
Lewis showed me a ‘compilation film’
(basicly the first two episodes edited
into a single film ) not long ago, and
he has a couple of the novelizations
from the series as well. Loopy in a lot
of ways, it was still one of Gerry Anderson’s better efforts.
February 6th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Hello All, UFO is currently playing on the Voom network’s Family Channel in High Definition. It is usually shown once or twice a day on channel 9486 Dish network HD. Tonight its coming on at 10pm eastern. They sure do a lot of smoking and drinking on the show (must have been allowed in GB in the sixties) and when I see the 66 Olds Toronado that was modified to make it look futuristic, I cringe. I personally love the show and have watched every episode that has been shown. This network also shows Thunderbirds and Flipper.
February 6th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
RPJ:
LOL, yes I may just buy her that wig!
Chris:
Yeah the Tv studio angle was a good one.
Nightflight/Kithra:
Many thanks for the info re where it has been playing.
Craig:
Yeah it was one of Anderson’s better ones. Frankly, I always thought those puppet shows he made we kind of odd. The “Angels” on “Captain Scarlet” were quite appealing though…
Nightflight:
Your comment re UK TV and smoking and drinking etc is interesting. In 2006, my wife and I moved back to the UK and she was quite amused to see how open UK TV is compared with the US - nudity, the F word on mainstream channels, “Page 3″ girls in the national daily newspapers (you’ll have to Google it if you aren’t conversant with this).
Much of UK TV is VERY different to US TV.
February 8th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
It was quite popular in Texas when I saw it as a teenager. I even had the glow in the dark alien mothership model.