The 28 episodes of the Saturday morning sci-fi series "Jason of Star Command" were originally broadcast on CBS from 1978-1980. The first season's 16 episodes (15 minutes each) were the live action portion of "Tarzan and the Super 7". The 12 episodes from Season Two had their own thirty-minute time-slot.
The series was a "Space Academy" spin-off with a number of "Star Wars" features. It may remind contemporary viewers of the "Buck Rogers" series, or at least a low budget version targeted at pre-teen boys. Craig Littler plays the title character, a space pilot assigned to defend Star Command (a Division of Space Academy) from a "Ming the Merciless" type, the evil "Master of the Cosmos" Dragos (nicely overplayed by Sid Haig). Dragos commands a legion of mumbling creatures with moth heads, mostly they just sit around a table and listen to him rant about Jason. Littler is pretty much devoid of any real acting talent but at least knows enough to not look directly into the camera when speaking his lines.
Littler and Haig are about all that links the two seasons as the show was recast when it was renewed. You are unlikely to find a more extreme example of producers shooting themselves in the foot between seasons than what happened with this series. The show's original draws were James "Scotty" Doohan (who attracted to "Star Trek" fans) and Susan O'Hanlon (who filled out her costume so well that male viewers kept tuning in).
For Season Two Doohan was replaced by John "The Lawman" Russell, a decent actor who must have needed work very badly because he let them paint his face blue; although this make-up arrangement had no vital link to the storyline. O'Hanlon was replaced by Tamora "Cleopatra Jones" Dobson, who might actually have been a worse actor than Littler; which might account for the perception that his acting improved during the course of the series.
Also of note during Season Two was the three-episode appearance of an aging Francine York as Queen Medusa (a character probably based on her guest role as Queen Niolani ten years earlier on "Lost in Space"). Queen Medusa looked like my cub-scout den mother, but dressed in purple spandex and wearing way too much make-up.
Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.
The series was a "Space Academy" spin-off with a number of "Star Wars" features. It may remind contemporary viewers of the "Buck Rogers" series, or at least a low budget version targeted at pre-teen boys. Craig Littler plays the title character, a space pilot assigned to defend Star Command (a Division of Space Academy) from a "Ming the Merciless" type, the evil "Master of the Cosmos" Dragos (nicely overplayed by Sid Haig). Dragos commands a legion of mumbling creatures with moth heads, mostly they just sit around a table and listen to him rant about Jason. Littler is pretty much devoid of any real acting talent but at least knows enough to not look directly into the camera when speaking his lines.
Littler and Haig are about all that links the two seasons as the show was recast when it was renewed. You are unlikely to find a more extreme example of producers shooting themselves in the foot between seasons than what happened with this series. The show's original draws were James "Scotty" Doohan (who attracted to "Star Trek" fans) and Susan O'Hanlon (who filled out her costume so well that male viewers kept tuning in).
For Season Two Doohan was replaced by John "The Lawman" Russell, a decent actor who must have needed work very badly because he let them paint his face blue; although this make-up arrangement had no vital link to the storyline. O'Hanlon was replaced by Tamora "Cleopatra Jones" Dobson, who might actually have been a worse actor than Littler; which might account for the perception that his acting improved during the course of the series.
Also of note during Season Two was the three-episode appearance of an aging Francine York as Queen Medusa (a character probably based on her guest role as Queen Niolani ten years earlier on "Lost in Space"). Queen Medusa looked like my cub-scout den mother, but dressed in purple spandex and wearing way too much make-up.
Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.