“Quark is
a 1977 American science
fiction sitcom starring Richard
Benjamin. Broadcast on Friday nights at 8:00–8:30 p.m. on NBC, the pilot
aired on May 7, 1977, and the series followed as a mid-season replacement in
February 1978. The series was cancelled in April 1978. Quark was
created by Buck Henry, co-creator of the spy spoof Get Smart.”
– Wikipedia.
It was the late Seventies,
and we kids were eager for anything Star Trek or Star Wars related, even a TV parody.
The one joke I remember from the pilot was when Dr. O. B. Mudd (who didn’t
appear in the later series), a crotchety old man with an eyepatch, peered into
a monitor, panicked that he saw only an endless black void, and declared they
were doomed. Quark calmly replied, “Other eye, doctor.”
When the series started up
in 1978 we decided to record it with our tape recorder. The cast now consisted of
Quark, captain of a garbage collection spaceship, the Bettys, identical girls
who always argue over which one is the clone, Gene/Jean, a transmute who
switches between extreme stereotypical male/female behavior, Ficus Pondarata,
an emotionless Spock-like Vegeton, and the home-made robot Andy, a boxy
neurotic primitive automaton. They get their orders from ‘The Head’, a big
giant head floating against a black screen, and his lacky Bob Palindrome,
located at the space station Perma One.
This is the episode we
recorded:
“Perma One is in a state of
emergency, as the Gorgons have created the ultimate weapon to defeat the United
Galaxy. Palindrome gives Quark the secret weapon, "The Source"
(voiced by Hans Conreid). Quark must believe completely in the
Source in order to defeat the Gorgons. The episode parodies elements from Star Wars and
1930's sci-fi serials Flash
Gordon and Buck
Rogers. The episode title parodies the phrase "May the Force Be
with You" from Star Wars.” – Wikipedia.
It only lasted 8 episodes
including the pilot, and we never recorded another. It was rather ‘meh’, okay
but not compelling. It reminds me, in fact, of “When Things Were Rotten,” Mel
Brooks 1975 Robin Hood spoof TV series. We did continue listening to the tape
for quite a while. The complete series was released on DVD in 2008, and only
recently did I find episodes on YouTube (almost accidentally) which brought it
once more to mind.
“The galaxy, ad infinitum!”
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