Friday, June 19, 2009

1978 Quark TV show articles

(Click on images to view large sized scans.)

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Although few seem to remember it, the short-lived TV series "Quark" was a favorite of mine. It ran only three months, from February to March of 1978. Like "Star Trek" on laughing gas, it parodied not only that show but sci-fi movies as well. (Visit the Quark wiki page for more info.)
Below, a still from the pilot, which featured a character dropped for the regular series; Dr. O. B. Mudd was a crusty, eccentric scientist that was replaced by the Mr. Spock-like Ficus, to much better effect.

Below is an article I clipped from the Macon (GA) Herald TV guide supplement, on February 24, 1978.



The characters were a lot of fun to watch and interacted humorously with each other: the put-upon and unappreciated Adam Quark, commanding the garbage ship; his genius and emotionless first officer Ficus, who is a humanoid plant from Vegeton; the identical Bettys (one is a clone, but it is unknown which) who navigate the ship and are hopelessly in love with Quark; Gene/Jean the engineer, a transmute who is constantly switching back and forth between male and female personalities; and Andy, the cowardly swearing robot.


Ficus enjoyed listening to "Classicial Music To Make Your Plants Grow" in his off-duty time.

The scanned crew photo at the top of this post was one I acquired at a movie/TV show collectables store in Florida in 1979, and put it in my scrapbook. The article below is from Famous Monsters #144 from June 1978. Sadly, the show had been cancelled by the time the article was published!

Something I hoped for, but I never expected to see, was the recent DVD release, which I snapped up immediately and have enjoyed since. One thing that hampered the show was a near-nonexistent effects budget, so this would be a nice one to see remastered with updated effects! Maybe some fan could take this on and make available online? Anyone? (Crickets chirp.) I guess not.

I have a number of other magazine articles and clippings which I'll post in the future, so keep an eye out (like O.B. Mudd) for more Quark!

5 comments:

  1. Recently watched the DVD and boy did this bring back memories enjoying this with my brother and sister! Great stuff, wish they could have did a full season. Richard Benjamin was always great, as well as in Love at First Bite. Thought the Spock-like character "the Vegiton" was a hilarious addition, and well played by the actor. Even the robot was funny despite looking more like a reject from a 1940's serial!

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  2. Never knew the series and never heard of the guys playing in it, being a 'dutchy' and all (although the captain looked slightly familiar), but I was sold right away after the first episode and the next were even better.

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  3. Oh, boy... I watched this thing when I was a kid and loved it, and now I found it in YouTube. I thought: "What the heck, I probably thought it was funny as a little kid, now it will look terrible, being both the series and myself old, but I will give it a shot for the old times". I was so wrong: it's way, way better than I remembered. Calling it hilarious is an understatement. I didn't know it was created by Buck Henry, which explains its lasting quality.

    Another thing I didn't enjoy as a kid, but recognize now as a grown up... the Bettys: super-extremely-hot ladies. Sorry, I'm a male, can't avoid it.

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  4. "...would be a nice one to see remastered with updated effects! Maybe some fan could take this on and make available online? Anyone? (Crickets chirp.) I guess not."

    Well... looks like a fan took on the challenge and did a bit of a "special edition" on Quark. The Remastered-ish versions. Pilot and eps on youtube.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM9_9dWJNq4

    If link doesn't work, user is "battlestar1999"

    youtube.com/battlestar1999

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  5. Yes, I was surprised to see that Quark holds up better than I thought it would. Not that it wasn't without its faults, but it certainly had something good going for it, and had a lot of potential that was never completely fulfilled.

    Of course, the best part of the dvd release is that I finally got to watch ALL the episodes, and not just the few I managed to catch on TV back when it was originally shown.

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